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Ra-Hoor-Khuit Network's Magickal Library |
Magick in Theory and Practice
1989 e.v. key entry and proof reading with re-format and ASCII conversion 9/18/90 e.v. done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. (further proof reading desirable) LIMITED LICENSE Except for notations added to the history of modification, the text on this diskette down to the next row of asterisks must accompany all copies made of this file. In particular, this paragraph and the copyright notice are not to be deleted or changed on any copies or print-outs of this file. With these provisos, anyone may copy this file for personal use or research. Copies may be made for others at reasonable cost of copying and mailing only, no additional charges may be added. Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number} Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc. footnotes have been moved up to the point of citation in the text and set off by <<... >> just before and after the note.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE by
HYMN TO PAN epsilon-phi-rho-iota-xi epsilon-rho-omega-tau-iota pi-epsilon-rho-iota-alpha-rho-chi-eta-sigma delta alpha-nu-epsilon-pi-tau-omicron-mu-alpha-nu
omega -pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu alpha-lambda-iota-pi-lambda-alpha-gamma-chi-tau-epsilon, chi-upsilon-lambda-lambda-alpha-nu-iota-alpha-sigma chi-iota-omicron-nu-omicron-chi-tau-upsilon-pi-omicron-iota pi-epsilon-tau-rho-alpha-iota-alpha-sigma alpha-pi-omicron delta-epsilon-iota-rho-alpha-delta-omicron-sigma phi-alpha-nu-eta-theta, omega theta-epsilon-omega-nu chi-omicron-rho-omicron-pi-omicron-iota alpha-nu-alpha-xi SOPH. AJ.
I am a man:
The gods withdraw:
{Illustration on page VIII described: This is the set of photos originally published facing page 12 in EQUINOX I, 2 and titled there: "The Signs of the Grades." These are arranged as ten panels: * * * * * * * * * * In this re-publication, the original half-tones have been redone as line copy. Each panel consists of an illustration of a single human in a black Tau robe, barefoot with hood completely closed over the face. The hood displays a six-pointed figure on the forehead --- presumably the radiant eye of Horus of the A.’. A.’., but the rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant over the heart. The ten panels are numbered in black in the lower left corner. The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the left and 7 to 10 to the right. The description is bottom to top and left to right: "1. Earth: the god Set fighting." Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and angled slightly outward with weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel almost touching Rt. heel and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right above head and in line with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fingers outstretched and together. Head erect. "2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky." Frontal. Heels together and slightly angled apart to the front, flat on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on either side of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked as if supporting a ceiling just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of the hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight and together. "3. Water: the goddess Auramoth." Same body and foot position as #2, but head erect. Arms are brought down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The fingers meet below the heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water. "4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith." Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arms are angled so that the thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer side facing. Fingers meet above head, forming between thumbs and fingers the ascending triangle of fire. "5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil." Head erect in both. #5 has the same body posture as #1, except that the left and right feet are countercharged and flat on the floor with the heels in contact. Arms and hands are crooked forward at shoulder level such that the hands appear to be clawing open a split veil --- hands have progressed to a point that the forearms are invisible, being directly pointed at the front. Lower arms are flat and horizontal in the plain of the image. #6. has the same body posture as #1, feet in same position as #5. The arms are elbow down against abdomen, with hands forward over heart in claws such that the knuckles are touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is done by motion of shoulders and rotation of wrists. This is different from the other sign of opening the veil, the Sign of the Enterer, which is done with hands flat palm to palm and then spread without rotation of wrists. "7-10. The L V X signs." "7. + Osiris slain --- the cross." Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms directly horizontal from the shoulders in the plane of the image. Hands with fingers together, thumbs to side of palm and palmer side forward. The tau shape of the robe dominates the image. "8. L Isis mourning --- the Svastica." The body is in semi-profile, head down slightly and facing right of photograph. The arms, hands, legs and feet are positioned to define a swastika. Left foot flat, carrying weight and angled toward the right of the photo. Right foot toe down behind the figure to the left in the photo. Right upper arm due left in photo and forearm vertical with fingers closed and pointing upward. Left arm smoothly canted down to the right of the panel, with fingers closed and pointed down. "9. V Typhon --- the Trident." Figure frontal and standing on tip toe, toes forward and heels not touching. Head back. Arms angled in a "V" with the body to the top and outward in the plain of the photo. Fingers and thumbs as #7, but continuing the lines of the arms. "10. X Osiris risen --- the Pentagram." Body and feet as in #7. Head directly frontal and level. Arms crossed over heart, right over left with hands extended, fingers closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposite shoulders.}
INTRODUCTION "Epsilon-sigma-sigma-epsilon-alpha-iota alpha-theta-alpha-nu-alpha-tau-omicron-sigma theta-epsilon-omicron-sigma, alpha-mu-beta-rho-omicron-tau-omicron-sigma, omicron-upsilon-chi epsilon-tau-iota theta-nu-eta-tau-omicron-sigma Pythagoras. "Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle."
"Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form, it is assumed that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency. Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desired results, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by the more potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher power: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself before no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no means arbitrary and unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by {IX} him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskilful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage. Thus the analogy between the magical and the scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the succession of events is perfectly regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the world. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to he top of an exceeding high mountain and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams." Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough"." "So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the roads by which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small service rendered to humanity. And when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to admit that if the black art has done much evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has yet been the mother of freedom and truth."
St. Paul. "Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach." "He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals." "The word of the Law is Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha."
This book is for ALL: for every man, woman, and child. My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and practical minds, such as I most designed to influence.
MAGICK is for
I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, the Biologist, the Poet, the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, the Mathematician, the Stenographer, the Golfer, the Wife, the Consul --- and all the rest --- to fulfil themselves perfectly, each in his or her own proper function.
MAGICK upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life. Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was THE BEAST whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least {XI} what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity. In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence. I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blavatsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritualism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all involved undesirable connotations.
"MAGICK" as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms.
MAGICK to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word.
MAGICK the essential factor in the life of
In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a definition of MAGICK and setting forth its main principles in such a way that ALL may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon MAGICK and the right comprehension and right application thereof. I. "DEFINITION."
MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will. {XII} (Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" --- these sentences --- in the "magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of MAGICK by which I cause changes to take place in conformity with my Will<>) II. "POSTULATE." ANY required Change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and degree of force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper object. (Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, in such a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions. In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by the above postulate.) III. "THEOREMS."
(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)
(Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that the individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to his environment.)
(Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet is determined by the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter. We may then say that our consciousness is causally connected with the remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from --- or with --- the molecular changes in the brain.)
(Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. A {XVIII} true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature is dumb to the hypocrite; for in her there is nothing false.<>)
(Illustration: To insist that any one else shall comply with one’s own standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties are equally born of necessity.)
(Illustration: A function imperfectly preformed injures, not {XX} only itself, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid to beat for fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.)
(Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of his existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profession. He should understand banking as a necessary factor in the economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business whose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should learn to distinguish false values from real, and to act not on accidental fluctuations but on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker will prove himself superior to others; because he will not be an individual limited by transitory things, but a force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation, as patient and irresistible as the tides. His system will not be subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares is disturbed by Elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs because they will not be his; and for that reason he will be able to direct them with the calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker, with intelligence unclouded by self-interest and power unimpaired by passion.)
(Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed by destiny to control Europe, he should not be blamed for exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Any one so doing would have made a mistake as to his own destiny, except in so far as it might be necessary for him to learn to lessons of defeat. The sun moves in space without interference. The order of Nature provides an orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the other has strayed from his course. But as to each man that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the less likely are others to get in his way. His example will help {XXI} them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every man that becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly and surely men move, and the more such action is accepted as the standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper humanity.)
I hope that the above principles will demonstrate to ALL that their welfare, their very existence, is bound up in
I trust that they will understand, not only the reasonableness, but the necessity of the fundamental truth which I was the means of giving to mankind:
I trust that they will assert themselves as individually absolute, that they will grasp the fact that it is their right to assert themselves, and to accomplish the task for which their nature fits them. Yea, more, that this is their duty, and that not only to themselves but to others, a duty founded upon universal necessity, and not to be shirked on account of any casual circumstances of the moment which may seem to put such conduct in the light of inconvenience or even of cruelty. I hope that the principles outlined above will help them to understand this book, and prevent them from being deterred from its study by the more or less technical language in which it is written.
MAGICK is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art of government. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is tangled, and the practice beset with briars.
MAGICK is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick is the verb; and it is part of the Training to use the passive voice. This is, however, a matter of Initiation rather than of Magick in {XXII} its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and doing desperate! Yet, once the above principles are firmly fixed in the mind, it is easy enough to sum up the situation very shortly. One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, "who" one is, "what" one is, "why" one is. This done, one may put the will which is implicit in the "Why" into words, or rather into One Word. Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its own character before it can be said to exist. From that knowledge it must divine its destiny. It must then consider the political conditions of the world; how other countries may help it or hinder it. It must then destroy it itself any elements discordant with its destiny. Lastly, it must develop in itself those qualities which will enable it to combat successfully the external conditions which threaten to oppose is purpose. We have had a recent example in the case of the young German Empire, which, knowing itself and its will, disciplined and trained itself so that it conquered the neighbours which had oppressed it for so many centuries. But after 1866 and 1870, 1914! It mistook itself for superhuman, it willed a thing impossible, it failed to eliminate its own internal jealousies, it failed to understand the conditions of victory,<> it did not train itself to hold the sea, and thus, having violated every principle of MAGICK, it was pulled down and broken into pieces by provincialism and democracy, so that neither individual excellence nor civic virtue has yet availed to raise it again to that majestic unity which made so bold a bid for the mastery of the race of man. The sincere student will discover, behind the symbolic technicalities of his book, a practical method of making himself a {XXIII} Magician. The processes described will enable him to discriminate between what he actually is, and what he has fondly imagined himself to be<>. He must behold his soul in all its awful nakedness, he must not fear to look on that appalling actuality. He must discard the gaudy garments with which his shame has screened him; he must accept the fact that nothing can make him anything but what he is. He may lie to himself, drug himself, hide himself; but he is always there. Magick will teach him that his mind is playing him traitor. It is as if a man were told that tailors’ fashion-plates were the canon of human beauty, so that he tried to make himself formless and featureless like them, and shuddered with horror at the idea of Holbein making a portrait of him. Magick will show him the beauty and majesty of the self which he has tried to suppress and disguise. Having discovered his identity, he will soon perceive his purpose. Another process will show him how to make that purpose pure and powerful. He may then learn how to estimate his environment, learn how to make allies, how to make himself prevail against all powers whose error has caused them to wander across his path. In the course of this Training, he will learn to explore the Hidden Mysteries of Nature, and to develop new senses and faculties in himself, whereby he may communicate with, and control, Beings and Forces pertaining to orders of existence which {XXIV} have been hitherto inaccessible to profane research, and available only to that unscientific and empirical MAGICK (of tradition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulfil. I send this book into the world that every man and woman may take hold of life in the proper manner. It does not matter of one’s present house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue of my MAGICK he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a sculptor, he shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin.
Tau-Omicron Mu-Epsilon-Gamma-Alpha Theta-Eta-Rho-Iota-Omicron-Nu (Taw-Resh-Yod-Vau-Nunfinal ): The Beast 666; MAGUS 9 Degree = 2Square A.’. A.’. who is The Word of the Aeon THELEMA; whose name is called V.V.V.V.V. 8 Degree = 3Square A.’. A.’. in the City of the Pyramids; OU MH 7 Degree = 4Square A.’. A.’.; OL SONUF VAORESAGI 6 Degree = 5Square, and ... ... 5 Degree = 6Square A.’. A.’. in the Mountain of Abiegnus: but FRATER PERDURABO in the Outer Order or the A.’. A.’. and in the World of men upon the Earth, Aleister Crowley of Trinity College, Cambridge.
CONTENTS
(This portion of the Book should be studied in connection with its Parts I. and II.) 0 The Magical Theory of the Universe. I The Principles of Ritual. II The Formulae of the Elemental Weapons. III The Formula of Tetragrammaton. IV The Formula of Alhim: also that of Alim. V The Formula of I. A. O. VI The Formula of the Neophyte. VII The Formula of the Holy Graal, of Abrahadabra, and of Certain Other Words; with some remarks on the Magical Memory. VIII Of Equilibrium: and of the General and Particular Method of Preparation of the Furniture of the Temple and the Instruments of Art. IX Of Silence and Secrecy: and of the Barbarous names of Evocation. X Of the Gestures. XI Of Our Lady BABALON and of The Beast whereon she rideth: also concerning Transformations. XII Of the Bloody Sacrifice and Matters Cognate. XIII Of the Banishings, and of the Purifications. XIV Of the Consecrations: with an Account of the Nature and Nurture of the Magical Link. XVI (1) Of the Oath. XV Of the Invocation. XVI (2) Of the Charge to the Spirit: with some Account of the Constrains and Curses occasionally necessary. XVII Of the License to Depart. XVIII Of Clairvoyance: and of the Body of Light, its Powers and its Development. Also concerning Divinations. XIX Of Dramatic Rituals. XX Of the Eucharist: and of the Art of Alchemy. XXI Of Black Magick: of the Main Types of the Operations of Magick Art: and of the Powers of the Sphinx.
CHAPTER 0 THE MAGICAL THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE There are three main theories of the Universe; Dualism, Monism and Nihilism. It is impossible to enter into a discussion of their relative merits in a popular manual of this sort. They may be studied in Erdmann’s "History of Philosophy" and similar treatises. All are reconciled and unified in the theory which we shall now set forth. The basis of this Harmony is given in Crowley’s "Berashith" --- to which reference should be made. Infinite space is called the goddess NUIT, while the infinitely small and atomic yet omnipresent point is called HADIT.<> These are unmanifest. One conjunction of these infinites is called RA-HOOR-KHUIT,<> a unity which includes and heads all things.<> (There is also a particular Nature of Him, in certain conditions, such as have obtained since the Spring of 1904, e.v.) This profoundly mystical conception {1} is based upon actual spiritual experience, but the trained reason<> can reach a reflection of this idea by the method of logical contradiction which ends in reason transcending itself. The reader should consult "The Soldier and the Hunchback" in Equinox I, I, and Konx Om Pax. "Unity" transcends "consciousness". It is above all division. The Father of thought --- the Word --- is called Chaos --- the dyad. The number Three, the Mother, is called Babalon. In connection with this the reader should study "The Temple of Solomon the King" in Equinox I, V, and Liber 418. This first triad is essentially unity, in a manner transcending reason. The comprehension of this Trinity is a matter of spiritual experience. All true gods are attributed to this Trinity.<> An immeasurable abyss divides it from all manifestations of Reason or the lower qualities of man. In the ultimate analysis of Reason, we find all reason identified with this abyss. Yet this abyss is the crown of the mind. Purely intellectual faculties all obtain here. This abyss has no number, for in it all is confusion. Below this abyss we find the moral qualities of Man, of which there are six. The highest is symbolised by the number Four. Its nature is fatherly<>; Mercy and Authority are the attributes of its dignity. The number Five is balanced against it. The attributes of Five are Energy and Justice. Four and Five are again combined and harmonized in the number Six, whose nature is beauty and harmony, mortality and immortality. In the number Seven the feminine nature is again predominant, {2} but it is the masculine type of female, the Amazon, who is balanced in the number Eight by the feminine type of male.
Pendant to this sixfold system is the number Ten<<
Kether (1) "Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether, but after another manner." Chokmah (2) is Yod of Tetragrammaton, and therefore also Unity. Binah (3) is He of Tetragrammaton, and therefore "The Emperor." Chesed (4) is Daleth, Venus the female. Geburah (5) is the Sephira of Mars, the Male. Tiphereth (6) is the Hexagram, harmonizing, and mediating between Kether and Malkuth. Also it reflects Kether. "That which is above, is like that which is below, and that which is below, is like that which is above." Netzach (7) and Hod (8) balanced as in text. Jesod (9) see text. Malkuth (10) contains all the numbers.>> which includes the whole of Matter as we know it by the senses. It is impossible here to explain thoroughly the complete conception; for it cannot be too clearly understood that this is a "classification" of the Universe, that there is nothing which is not comprehended therein. The Article on the Qabalah in Vol. I, No. V of the Equinox is the best which has been written on the subject. It should be deeply studied, in connection with the Qabalistic Diagrams in Nos. II and III: "The Temple of Solomon the King".
The Number Two represents Yod, the Divine or Archetypal World, and the Number One is only attained by the destruction of the God and the Magician in Samadhi. The world of Angels is under the numbers Four to Nine, and that of spirits under the {3} number Ten.<> All these numbers are of course parts of the magician himself considered as the microcosm. The microcosm is an exact image of the Macrocosm; the Great Work is the raising of the whole man in perfect balance to the power of Infinity. The reader will remark that all criticism directed against the Magical Hierarchy is futile. One cannot call it incorrect --- the only line to take might be that it was inconvenient. In the same way one cannot say that the Roman alphabet is better or worse than the Greek, since all required sounds can be more or less satisfactorily represented by either; yet both these alphabets were found so little satisfactory when it came to an attempt at phonetic printing of Oriental languages, that the alphabet had to be expanded by the use of italics and other diacritical marks. In the same way our magical alphabet of the Sephiroth and the Paths (thirty-two letters as it were) has been expanded into the four worlds corresponding to the four letters of the name Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh; and each Sephira is supposed to contain a Tree of Life of its own. Thus we obtain four hundred Sephiroth instead of the original ten, and the Paths being capable of similar multiplications, or rather of subdivision, the number is still further extended. Of course this process might be indefinitely continued without destroying the original system. The Apologia for this System is that our purest conceptions {4} are symbolized in Mathematics. "God is the Great Arithmetician." "God is the Grand Geometer." It is best therefore to prepare to apprehend Him by formulating our minds according to these measures.<> To return, each letter of this alphabet may have its special magical sigil. The student must not expect to be given a cut-and-dried definition of what exactly is meant by any of all this. On the contrary, he must work backwards, putting the whole of his mental and moral outfit into these pigeon-holes. You would not expect to be able to buy a filing cabinet with the names of all your past, present and future correspondents ready indexed: your cabinet has a system of letters and numbers meaningless in themselves, but ready to take on a meaning to you, as you fill up the files. As your business increased, each letter and number would receive fresh accessions of meaning for you; and by adopting this orderly arrangement you would be able to have a much more comprehensive grasp of your affairs than would otherwise be the case. By the use of this system the magician is able ultimately to unify the whole of his knowledge --- to transmute, even on the Intellectual Plane, the Many into the One. The Reader can now understand that the sketch given above of the magical Hierarchy is hardly even an outline of the real theory of the Universe. This theory may indeed be studied in the article already referred to in No. V of the Equinox, and, more deeply in the Book of the Law and the Commentaries thereon: but the true understanding depends entirely upon the work of the Magician himself. Without magical experience it will be meaningless. In this there is nothing peculiar. It is so with all scientific knowledge. A blind man might cram up astronomy for the purpose of passing examinations, but his knowledge would be {5} almost entirely unrelated to his experience, and it would certainly not give him sight. A similar phenomenon is observed when a gentleman who has taken an "honours degree" in modern languages at Cambridge arrives in Paris, and is unable to order his dinner. To exclaim against the Master Therion is to act like a person who, observing this, should attack both the professors of French and the inhabitants of Paris, and perhaps go on to deny the existence of France. Let us say, once again, that the magical language is nothing but a convenient system of classification to enable the magician to docket his experiences as he obtains them. Yet this is true also, that, once the language is mastered, one can divine the unknown by study of the known, just as one’s knowledge of Latin and Greek enables one to understand some unfamiliar English word derived from those sources. Also, there is the similar case of the Periodic Law in Chemistry, which enables Science to prophesy, and so in the end to discover, the existence of certain previously unsuspected elements in nature. All discussions upon philosophy are necessarily sterile, since truth is beyond language. They are, however, useful if carried far enough --- if carried to the point when it become apparent that all arguments are arguments in a circle.<> But discussions of the details of purely imaginary qualities are frivolous and may be deadly. For the great danger of this magical theory is that the student may mistake the alphabet for the things which the words represent. An excellent man of great intelligence, a learned Qabalist, once amazed the Master Therion by stating that the Tree of Life was the framework of the Universe. It was as if some one had seriously maintained that a cat was a creature constructed by placing the letters C. A. T. in that order. It is no wonder that Magick has excited the ridicule of the unintelligent, since even its {6} educated students can be guilty of so gross a violation of the first principles of common sense.<> A synopsis of the grades of the A.’. A.’. as illustrative of the Magical Hierarchy in Man is given in Appendix 2 "One Star in Sight." This should be read before proceeding with the chapter. The subject is very difficult. To deal with it in full is entirely beyond the limits of this small treatise. "FURTHER CONCERNING THE MAGICAL UNIVERSE" All these letters of the magical alphabet --- referred to above --- are like so many names on a map. Man himself is a complete microcosm. Few other beings have this balanced perfection. Of course every sun, every planet, may have beings similarly constituted.<> But when we speak of dealing with the planets in Magick, {7} the reference is usually not to the actual planets, but to parts of the earth which are of the nature attributed to these planets. Thus, when we say that Nakhiel is the "Intelligence" of the Sun, we do not mean that he lives in the Sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although we can invoke him, we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same sense of the word in which our butcher exists. When we "conjure Nakhiel to visible appearance," it may be that our process resembles creation --- or, rather imagination --- more nearly than it does calling-forth. The aura of a man is called the "magical mirror of the universe"; and, so far as any one can tell, nothing exists outside of this mirror. It is at least convenient to represent the whole as if it were subjective. It leads to less confusion. And, as a man is a perfect microcosm,<> it is perfectly easy to re-model one’s conception at any moment. Now there is a traditional correspondence, which modern experiment has shown to be fairly reliable. There is a certain natural connexion between certain letters, words, numbers, gestures, shapes, perfumes and so on, so that any idea or (as we might call it) "spirit", may be composed or called forth by the use of those things which are harmonious with it, and express particular parts of its nature. These correspondences have been elaborately mapped in the Book 777 in a very convenient and compendious form. It will be necessary for the student to make a careful study of this book in connexion with some actual rituals of Magick, for example, {8} that of the evocation of Taphtatharath printed in Equinox I, III, pages 170-190, where he will see exactly why these things are to be used. Of course, as the student advances in knowledge by experience he will find a progressive subtlety in the magical universe corresponding to his own; for let it be said yet again! not only is his aura a magical mirror of the universe, but the universe is a magical mirror of his aura. In this chapter we are only able to give a very thin outline of magical theory --- faint pencilling by weak and wavering fingers --- for this subject may almost be said to be co-extensive with one’s whole knowledge. The knowledge of exoteric science is comically limited by the fact that we have no access, except in the most indirect way, to any other celestial body than our own. In the last few years, the semi-educated have got an idea that they know a great deal about the universe, and the principal ground for their fine opinion of themselves is usually the telephone or the airship. It is pitiful to read the bombastic twaddle about progress, which journalists and others, who wish to prevent men from thinking, put out for consumption. We know infinitesimally little of the material universe. Our detailed knowledge is so contemptibly minute, that it is hardly worth reference, save that our shame may spur us to increased endeavour. Such knowledge<> as we have got is of a very general and abstruse, of a philosophical and almost magical character. This consists principally of the conceptions of pure mathematics. It is, therefore, almost legitimate to say that pure mathematics is our link with the rest of the universe and with "God". Now the conceptions of Magick are themselves profoundly mathematical. The whole basis of our theory is the Qabalah, which corresponds to mathematics and geometry. The method of operation in Magick is based on this, in very much the same way as the laws of mechanics are based on mathematics. So far, therefore as we can be said to possess a magical theory of the universe, it must be a matter solely of fundamental law, with a {9} few simple and comprehensive propositions stated in very general terms. I might expend a life-time in exploring the details of one plane, just as an explorer might give his life to one corner of Africa, or a chemist to one subgroup of compounds. Each such detailed piece of work may be very valuable, but it does not as a rule throw light on the main principles of the universe. Its truth is the truth of one angle. It might even lead to error, if some inferior person were to generalize from too few facts. Imagine an inhabitant of Mars who wished to philosophise about the earth, and had nothing to go by but the diary of some man at the North Pole! But the work of every explorer, on whatever branch of the Tree of Life the caterpillar he is after may happen to be crawling, is immensely helped by a grasp of general principles. Every magician, therefore, should study the Holy Qabalah. Once he has mastered the main principles, he will find his work grow easy.
CHAPTER I
There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel;<> or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.<> All other magical Rituals are particular cases of this general principle, and the only excuse for doing them is that it sometimes occurs that one particular portion of the microcosm is so weak that its imperfection of impurity would vitiate the Macrocosm of which it is the image, Eidolon, or Reflexion. For example, God is above sex; and therefore neither man nor woman as such can be said fully to understand, much less to represent, God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is deficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his virility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify himself with her; if he fail to do this, his apprehension of the Universe when he attains Samadhi will lack the conception of maternity. The result will be a metaphysical and --- by corollary --- ethical limitation in the Religion which he founds. Judaism and Islam are striking example of this failure. To take another example, the ascetic life which devotion to {11} magick so often involves argues a poverty of nature, a narrowness, a lack of generosity. Nature is infinitely prodigal --- not one in a million seeds ever comes to fruition. Whoso fails to recognise this, let him invoke Jupiter.<> The danger of ceremonial magick --- the sublest and deepest danger --- is this: that the magician will naturally tend to invoke that partial being which most strongly appeals to him, so that his natural excess in that direction will be still further exaggerated. Let him, before beginning his Work, endeavour to map out his own being, and arrange his invocations in such a way as to redress the balance.<> This, of course, should have been done in a preliminary fashion during the preparation of the weapons and furniture of the Temple. To consider in a more particular manner this question of the Nature of Ritual, we may suppose that he finds himself lacking in that perception of the value of Life and Death, alike of individuals and of races, which is characteristic of Nature. He has perhaps a tendency to perceive the "first noble truth" uttered by Buddha, that Everything is sorrow. Nature, it seems, is a tragedy. He has perhaps even experienced the great trance called Sorrow. He should then consider whether there is not some Deity who expresses this Cycle, and yet whose nature is joy. He will find what he requires in Dionysus.
The "First Method" consists of devotion to that Deity, and, being mainly mystical in character, need not be dealt with in this place, especially as a perfect instruction exists in Liber 175 ("See" Appendix). The "Second method"is the straight forward ceremonial invocation. It is the method which was usually employed in the Middle Ages. Its advantage is its directness, its disadvantage its {12} crudity. The "Goetia" gives clear instruction in this method, and so do many other rituals, white and black. We shall presently devote some space to a clear exposition of this Art. In the case of Bacchus, however, we may roughly outline the procedure. We find that the symbolism of Tiphareth expresses the nature of Bacchus. It is then necessary to construct a Ritual of Tiphareth. Let us open the Book 777; we shall find in line 6 of each column the various parts of our required apparatus. Having ordered everything duly, we shall exalt the mind by repeated prayers or conjurations to the highest conception of the God, until, in one sense or another of the word, He appears to us and floods our consciousness with the light of His divinity. The "Third Method is the Dramatic," perhaps the most attractive of all; certainly it is so to the artist’s temperament, for it appeals to his imagination through his aesthetic sense. Its disadvantage lies principally in the difficulty of its performance by a single person. But it has the sanction of the highest antiquity, and is probably the most useful for the foundation of a religion. It is the method of Catholic Christianity, and consists in the dramatization of the legend of the God. The Bacchae of Euripides is a magnificent example of such a Ritual; so also, through in a less degree, is the Mass. We may also mention many of the degrees in Freemasonry, particularly the third. The 5 Degree = 6Square Ritual published in No. III of the Equinox is another example. In the case of Bacchus, one commemorates firstly his birth of a mortal mother who has yielded her treasure-house to the Father of All, of the jealousy and rage excited by this incarnation, and of the heavenly protection afforded to the infant. Next should be commemorated the journeying westward upon an ass. Now comes the great scene of the drama: the gentle, exquisite youth with his following (chiefly composed of women) seems to threaten the established order of things, and that Established Order takes steps to put an end to the upstart. We find Dionysus confronting the angry King, not with defiance, but with meekness; yet with a subtle confidence, an underlying laughter. His forehead is wreathed with vine tendrils. He is an effeminate figure with those broad leaves clustered upon his brow? But those leaves hide {13} horns. King Pentheus, representative of respectability,<> is destroyed by his pride. He goes out into the mountains to attack the women who have followed Bacchus, the youth whom he has mocked, scourged, and put in chains, yet who has only smiled; and by those women, in their divine madness, he is torn to pieces. It has already seemed impertinent to say so much when Walter Pater has told the story with such sympathy and insight. We will not further transgress by dwelling upon the identity of this legend with the course of Nature, its madness, its prodigality, its intoxication, its joy, and above all its sublime persistence through the cycles of Life and Death. The pagan reader must labour to understand this in Pater’s "Greek Studies", and the Christian reader will recognise it, incident for incident, in the story of Christ. This legend is but the dramatization of Spring. The magician who wishes to invoke Bacchus by this method must therefore arrange a ceremony in which he takes the part of Bacchus, undergoes all His trials, and emerges triumphant from beyond death. He must, however, be warned against mistaking the symbolism. In this case, for example, the doctrine of individual immortality has been dragged in, to the destruction of truth. It is not that utterly worthless part of man, his individual consciousness as John Smith, which defies death --- that consciousness which dies and is reborn in every thought. That which persists (if anything persist) is his real John Smithiness, a quality of which he was probably never conscious in his life.<> Even that does not persist unchanged. It is always growing. The Cross is a barren stick, and the petals of the Rose fall and decay; but in the union of the Cross and the Rose is a constant {14} succession of new lives.<> Without this union, and without this death of the individual, the cycle would be broken. A chapter will be consecrated to removing the practical difficulties of this method of Invocation. It will doubtless have been noted by the acumen of the reader that in the great essentials these three methods are one. In each case the magician identifies himself with the Deity invoked. To "invoke" is to "call in", just as to "evoke" is to "call forth". This is the essential difference between the two branches of Magick. In invocation, the macrocosm floods the consciousness. In evocation, the magician, having become the macrocosm, creates a microcosm. You "in"voke a God into the Circle. You "e"voke a Spirit into the Triangle. In the first method identity with the God is attained by love and by surrender, by giving up or suppressing all irrelevant (and illusionary) parts of yourself. It is the weeding of a garden. In the second method identity is attained by paying special attention to the desired part of yourself: positive, as the first method is negative. It is the potting-out and watering of a particular flower in the garden, and the exposure of it to the sun. In the third, identity is attained by sympathy. It is very difficult for the ordinary man to lose himself completely in the subject of a play or of a novel; but for those who can do so, this method is unquestionably the best. Observe: each element in this cycle is of equal value. It is wrong to say triumphantly "Mors janua vitae", unless you add, with equal triumph, "Vita janua mortis". To one who understands this chain of the Aeons from the point of view alike of the sorrowing Isis and of the triumphant Osiris, not forgetting their link in the destroyer Apophis, there remains no secret veiled in Nature. He cries that name of God which throughout History has been echoed by one religion to another, the infinite swelling paean I.A.O.!<> {15}
CHAPTER II
Before discussing magical formulae in detail, one may observe that most rituals are composite, and contain many formulae which must be harmonized into one. The first formula is that of the Wand. In the sphere of the principle which the magician wishes to invoke, he rises from point to point in a perpendicular line, and then descends; or else, beginning at the top, he comes directly down, "invoking" first the god of that sphere by "devout supplication"<> that He may deign to send the appropriate Archangel. He then "beseeches" the Archangel to send the Angel or Angels of that sphere to his aid; he "conjures" this Angel or Angels to send the intelligence in question, and this intelligence he will "conjure with authority" to compel the obedience of the spirit and his manifestation. To this spirit he "issues commands". It will be seen that this is a formula rather of evocation than of invocation, and for the latter the procedure, though apparently the same, should be conceived of in a different manner, which brings it under another formula, that of Tetragrammaton. The essence of the force invoked is one, but the "God" represents the germ or beginning of the force, the "Archangel" its development; and so on, until, with the "Spirit", we have the completion and perfection of that force. {16} The formula of the Cup is not so well suited for Evocations, and the magical Hierarchy is not involved in the same way; for the Cup being passive rather than active, it is not fitting for the magician to use it in respect of anything but the Highest. In practical working it consequently means little but prayer, and that prayer the "prayer of silence".<> The formula of the dagger is again unsuitable for either purpose, since the nature of the dagger is to criticise, to destroy, to disperse; and all true magical ceremonies tend to concentration. The dagger will therefore appear principally in the banishings, preliminary to the ceremony proper. The formula of the pantacle is again of no particular use; for the pantacle is inert. In fine, the formula of the wand is the only one with which we need more particularly concern ourselves.<> Now in order to invoke any being, it is said by Hermes Trismegistus that the magi employ three methods. The first, for the vulgar, is that of supplication. In this the crude objective theory is assumed as true. There is a god named A, whom you, B, proceed to petition, in exactly the same sense as a boy might ask his father for pocket-money. The second method involves a little more subtlety, inasmuch as the magician endeavours to harmonize himself with the nature of the god, and to a certain extent exalts himself, in the course of the ceremony; but the third method is the only one worthy of our consideration. This consists of a real identification of the magician and the god. Note that to do this in perfection involves the attainment of a species of Samadhi: and this fact alone suffices to link irrefragably magick with mysticism. Let us describe the magical method of identification. The symbolic form of the god is first studied with as much care as an artist would bestow upon his model, so that a perfectly clear and {17} unshakeable mental picture of the god is presented to the mind. Similarly, the attributes of the god are enshrined in speech, and such speeches are committed perfectly to memory. The invocation will then begin with a prayer to the god, commemorating his physical attributes, always with profound understanding of their real meaning. In the "second part" of the invocation, the voice of the god is heard, and His characteristic utterance is recited. In the "third portion" of the invocation the magician asserts the identity of himself with the god. In the "fourth portion" the god is again invoked, but as if by Himself, as if it were the utterance of the will of the god that He should manifest in the magician. At the conclusion of this, the original object of the invocation is stated. Thus, in the invocation of Thoth which is to be found in the rite of Mercury (Equinox I, VI) and in Liber LXIV, the first part begins with the words "Majesty of Godhead, wisdom-crowned TAHUTI, Thee, Thee I invoke. Oh Thou of the Ibis head, Thee, Thee I invoke"; and so on. At the conclusion of this a mental image of the God, infinitely vast and infinitely splendid, should be perceived, in just the same sense as a man might see the Sun.
The magician should imagine that he is hearing this voice, and at the same time that he is echoing it, that it is true also of himself. This thought should so exalt him that he is able at its conclusion to utter the sublime words which open the third part: "Behold! he is in me, and I am in him." At this moment, he loses consciousness of his mortal being; he is that mental image which he previously but saw. This consciousness is only complete as he goes on: "Mine is the radiance wherein Ptah floateth over his firmament. I travel upon high. I tread upon the firmament of Nu. I raise a flashing flame with the lightnings of mine eye: ever rushing on in the splendour of the daily glorified Ra --- giving my life to the treaders of Earth!" This thought gives the relation of God and Man from the divine point of view. The magician is only recalled to himself at the conclusion of the {18} third part; in which occur, almost as if by accident, the words: "Therefore do all things obey my word." Yet in the fourth part, which begins: "Therefore do thou come forth unto me", it is not really the magician who is addressing the God; it is the God who hears the far-off utterance of the magician. If this invocation has been correctly performed, the words of the fourth part will sound distant and strange. It is surprising that a dummy (so the magus now appears to Himself) should be able to speak! The Egyptian Gods are so complete in their nature, so perfectly spiritual and yet so perfectly material, that this one invocation is sufficient. The God bethinks him that the spirit of Mercury should now appear to the magician; and it is so. This Egyptian formula is therefore to be preferred to the Hierarchical formula of the Hebrews with its tedious prayers, conjurations, and curses. It will be noted, however, that in this invocation of Thoth which we have summarized, there is another formula contained, the Reverberating or Reciprocating formula, which may be called the formula of Horus and Harpocrates. The magician addresses the God with an active projection of his will, and then becomes passive while the God addresses the Universe. In the fourth part he remains silent, listening, to the prayer which arises therefrom. The formula of this invocation of Thoth may also be classed under Tetragrammaton. The first part is fire, the eager prayer of the magician, the second water, in which the magician listens to, or catches the reflection of, the god. The third part is air, the marriage of fire and water; the god and the man have become one; while the fourth part corresponds to earth, the condensation or materialization of those three higher principles. With regard to the Hebrew formulae, it is doubtful whether most magicians who use them have ever properly grasped the principles underlying the method of identity. No passage which implies it occurs to mind, and the extant rituals certainly give no hint of such a conception, or of any but the most personal and material views of the nature of things. They seem to have thought that there was an Archangel named Ratziel in exactly the same sense as there was a statesman named Richelieu, an individual being living in a definite place. He had possibly certain powers of a somewhat metaphysical order --- he might be {19} in two places at once,<> for example, though even the possibility of so simple a feat (in the case of spirits) seems to be denied by certain passages in extant conjurations which tell the spirit that if he happens to be in chains in a particular place in Hell, or if some other magician is conjuring him so that he cannot come, then let him send a spirit of similar nature, or otherwise avoid the difficultly. But of course so vulgar a conception would not occur to the student of the Qabalah. It is just possible that the magi wrote their conjurations on this crude hypothesis in order to avoid the clouding of the mind by doubt and metaphysical speculation. He who became the Master Therion was once confronted by this very difficulty. Being determined to instruct mankind, He sought a simple statement of his object. His will was sufficiently informed by common sense to decide him to teach man "The Next Step", the thing which was immediately above him. He might have called this "God", or "The Higher Self", or "The Augoeides", or "Adi-Buddha", or 61 other things --- but He had discovered that these were all one, yet that each one represented some theory of the Universe which would ultimately be shattered by criticism --- for He had already passed through the realm of Reason, and knew that every statement contained an absurdity. He therefore said: "Let me declare this Work under this title: ‘The obtaining of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel’", because the theory implied in these words is so patently absurd that only simpletons would waste much time in analysing it. It would be accepted as a convention, and no one would incur the grave danger of building a philosophical system upon it. With this understanding, we may rehabilitate the Hebrew system of invocations. The mind is the great enemy; so, by invoking enthusiastically a person whom we know not to exist, we are rebuking that mind. Yet we should not refrain altogether from philosophising in the light of the Holy Qabalah. We should accept the Magical Hierarchy as a more or less convenient classification of the facts of the Universe as they are {20} known to us; and as our knowledge and understanding of those facts increase, so should we endeavour to adjust our idea of what we mean by any symbol. At the same time let us reflect that there is a certain definite consensus of experience as to the correlation of the various beings of the hierarchy with the observed facts of Magick. In the simple matter of astral vision, for example, one striking case may be quoted. Without telling him what it was, the Master Therion once recited as an invocation Sappho’s "Ode to Venus" before a Probationer of the A.’. A.’. who was ignorant of Greek, the language of the Ode. The disciple then went on an "astral journey," and everything seen by him was without exception harmonious with Venus. This was true down to the smallest detail. He even obtained all the four colour-scales of Venus with absolute correctness. Considering that he saw something like one hundred symbols in all, the odds against coincidence are incalculably great. Such an experience (and the records of the A.’. A.’. contain dozens of similar cases) affords proof as absolute as any proof can be in this world of Illusion that the correspondences in Liber 777 really represent facts in Nature. It suggests itself that this "straightforward" system of magick was perhaps never really employed at all. One might maintain that the invocations which have come down to us are but the ruins of the Temple of Magick. The exorcisms might have been committed to writing for the purpose of memorising them, while it was forbidden to make any record of the really important parts of the ceremony. Such details of Ritual as we possess are meagre and unconvincing, and though much success has been attained in the quite conventional exoteric way both by FRATER PERDURABO and by many of his colleagues, yet ceremonies of this character have always remained tedious and difficult. It has seemed as if the success were obtained almost in spite of the ceremony. In any case, they are the more mysterious parts of the Ritual which have evoked the divine force. Such conjurations as those of the "Goetia" leave one cold, although, notably in the second conjuration, there is a crude attempt to use that formula of Commemoration of which we spoke in the preceding Chapter. {21}
CHAPTER III THE FORMULA OF TETRAGRAMMATON.<> This formula is of most universal aspect, as all things are necessarily comprehended in it; but its use in a magical ceremony is little understood. The climax of the formula is in one sense before even the formulation of the Yod. For the Yod is the most divine aspect of the Force --- the remaining letters are but a solidification of the same thing. It must be understood that we are here speaking of the whole ceremony considered as a unity, not merely of that formula in which "Yod" is the god invoked, "He" the Archangel, and so on. In order to understand the ceremony under this formula, we must take a more extended view of the functions of the four weapons than we have hitherto done. The formation of the "Yod" is the formulation of the first creative force, of that father who is called "self-begotten", and unto whom it is said: "Thou has formulated thy Father, and made fertile thy Mother". The adding of the "He" to the "Yod" is the marriage of that Father to the great co-equal Mother, who is a reflection of Nuit as He is of Hadit. Their union brings forth the son "Vau" who is the heir. Finally the daughter "He" is produced. She is both the twin sister and the daughter of "Vau".<> His mission is to redeem her by making her his bride; the result of this is to set her upon the throne of her mother, and it is only she whose youthful embrace can reawaken the eld of the {22} All-Father. In this complex family relationship<> is symbolised the whole course of the Universe. It will be seen that (after all) the Climax is at the end. It is the second half of the formula which symbolises the Great Work which we are pledged to accomplish. The first step of this is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, which constitutes the Adept of the Inner Order. The re-entry of these twin spouses into the womb of the mother is that initiation described in Liber 418, which gives admission to the Inmost Order of the A.’. A.’. Of the last step we cannot speak. It will now be recognised that to devise a practical magical ceremony to correspond to Tetragrammaton in this exalted sense might be difficult if not impossible. In such a ceremony the Rituals of purification alone might occupy many incarnations. It will be necessary, therefore, to revert to the simpler view of Tetragrammaton, remembering only that the "He" final is the Throne of the Spirit, of the Shin of Pentagrammaton. The Yod will represent a swift and violent creative energy; following this will be a calmer and more reflective but even more powerful flow of will, the irresistible force of a mighty river. This state of mind will be followed by an expansion of the consciousness; it will penetrate all space, and this will finally undergo a crystallization resplendent with interior light. Such modifications of the original Will may be observed in the course of the invocations when they are properly performed. The peculiar dangers of each are obvious --- that of the first is a flash in the pan --- a misfire; that of the second, a falling into dreaminess or reverie; that of the third, loss of concentration. A mistake in any of these points will prevent, or injure the proper formation of, the fourth. In the expression which will be used in Chapter XV: "Enflame thyself", etc., only the first stage is specified; but if that is properly done the other stages will follow as if by necessity. So far is it written concerning the formula of Tetragrammaton. {23}
CHAPTER IV.
"ALHIM", (Elohim) is the exoteric word for Gods.<<"Gods" are the Forces of Nature; their "Names" are the Laws of Nature. Thus They are eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent and so on; and thus their "Wills" are immutable and absolute.>> It is the masculine plural of a feminine noun, but its nature is principally feminine.<> It is a perfect hieroglyph of the number 5. This should be studied in "A Note on Genesis" (Equinox I, II). The Elements are all represented, as in Tetragrammaton, but there is no development from one into the others. They are, as it were, thrown together --- untamed, only sympathising by virtue of their wild and stormy but elastically resistless energy. The Central letter is "He" --- the letter of breath --- and represents Spirit. The first letter "Aleph" is the natural letter of Air, and the Final "Mem" is the natural letter of Water. Together, "Aleph" and "Mem" make "Am" --- the mother within whose womb the Cosmos is conceived. But "Yod" is not the natural letter of Fire. Its juxtaposition with "He" sanctifies that fire to the "Yod" of Tetragrammaton. Similarly we find "Lamed" for Earth, where we should expect Tau --- in order to emphasize the influence of Venus, who rules Libra. "ALHIM", therefore, represents rather the formula of Consecration than that of a complete ceremony. It is the breath of benediction, yet so potent that it can give life to clay and light to darkness. In consecrating a weapon, "Aleph" is the whirling force of the thunderbolt, the lightning which flameth out of the East even {24} into the West. This is the gift of the wielding of the thunderbolt of Zeus or Indra, the god of Air. "Lamed" is the Ox-goad, the driving force; and it is also the Balance, representing the truth and love of the Magician. It is the loving care which he bestows upon perfecting his instruments, and the equilibration of that fierce force which initiates the ceremony.<> "Yod" is the creative energy—the procreative power: and yet "Yod" is the solitude and silence of the hermitage into which the Magician has shut himself. "Mem" is the letter of water, and it is the Mem final, whose long flat lines suggest the Sea at Peace HB:Mem-final ; not the ordinary (initial and medial) Mem whose hieroglyph is a wave HB:Mem.<> And then, in the Centre of all, broods Spirit, which combines the mildness of the Lamb with the horns of the Ram, and is the letter of Bacchus or "Christ".<> After the magician has created his instrument, and balanced it truly, and filled it with the lightnings of his Will, then is the weapon laid away to rest; and in this Silence, a true Consecration comes. THE FORMULA OF ALIM It is extremely interesting to contrast with the above the formula of the elemental Gods deprived of the creative spirit. One {25} might suppose that as ALIM, is the masculine plural of the masculine noun AL, its formula would be more virile than that of ALHIM, which is the masculine plural of the feminine noun ALH. A moment’s investigation is sufficient to dissipate the illusion. The word masculine has no meaning except in relation to some feminine correlative. The word ALIM may in fact be considered as neuter. By a rather absurd convention, neuter objects are treated as feminine on account of their superficial resemblance in passivity and inertness with the unfertilized female. But the female produces life by the intervention of the male, while the neuter does so only when impregnated by Spirit. Thus we find the feminine AMA, becoming AIMA<>, through the operation of the phallic Yod, while ALIM, the congress of dead elements, only fructifies by the brooding of Spirit. This being so, how can we describe ALIM as containing a Magical Formula? Inquiry discloses the fact that this formula is of a very special kind. The word adds up to 81, which is a number of the moon. It is thus the formula of witchcraft, which is under Hecate.<> It is only the romantic mediaeval perversion of science that represents young women as partaking in witchcraft, which is, properly speaking, restricted to the use of such women as are no longer women in the Magical sense of the word, because thy are no longer capable of corresponding to the formula of the male, and are therefore neuter rather than feminine. It is for this reason that their method has always been referred to the moon, in that sense of the term in which she appears, not as the feminine correlative of the sun, but as the burnt-out, dead, airless satellite of earth. No true Magical operation can be performed by the formula of ALIM. All the works of witchcraft are illusory; and their apparent effects depend on the idea that it is possible to alter things by the mere rearrangement of them. One {26} must not rely upon the false analogy of the Xylenes to rebut this argument. It is quite true that geometrical isomers act in different manners towards the substance to which they are brought into relation. And it is of course necessary sometimes to rearrange the elements of a molecule before that molecule can form either the masculine or the feminine element in a true Magical combination with some other molecule. It is therefore occasionally inevitable for a Magician to reorganize the structure of certain elements before proceeding to his operation proper. Although such work is technically witchcraft, it must not be regarded as undesirable on that ground, for all operations which do not transmute matter fall strictly speaking under this heading. The real objection to this formula is not inherent in its own nature. Witchcraft consists in treating it as the exclusive preoccupation of Magick, and especially in denying to the Holy Spirit his right to indwell His Temple.<> {27}
CHAPTER V
This formula is the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the Redemption of Mankind. "I" is Isis, Nature, ruined by "A", Apophis the Destroyer, and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris.<> The same idea is expressed by the Rosicrucian formula of the Trinity:
This is also identical with the Word Lux, L.V.X., which is formed by the arms of a cross. It is this formula which is implied in those ancient and modern monuments in which the phallus is worshipped as the Saviour of the World. The doctrine of resurrection as vulgarly understood is false and absurd. It is not even "Scriptural". St. Paul does not identify the glorified body which rises with the mortal body which dies. On the contrary, he repeatedly insists on the distinction. The same is true of a magical ceremony. The magician who is destroyed by absorption in the Godhead is really destroyed. The {28} miserable mortal automaton remains in the Circle. It is of no more consequence to Him that the dust of the floor.<> But before entering into the details of "I.A.O." as a magick formula it should be remarked that it is essentially the formula of Yoga or meditation; in fact, of elementary mysticism in all its branches. In beginning a meditation practice, there is always<> a quiet pleasure, a gentle natural growth; one takes a lively interest in the work; it seems easy; one is quite pleased to have started. This stage represents Isis. Sooner or later it is succeeded by depression --- the Dark Night of the Soul, an infinite weariness and detestation of the work. The simplest and easiest acts become almost impossible to perform. Such impotence fills the mind with apprehension and despair. The intensity of this loathing can hardly be understood by any person who has not experienced it. This is the period of Apophis. It is followed by the arising not of Isis, but of Osiris. The ancient condition is not restored, but a new and superior condition is created, a condition only rendered possible by the process of death. The Alchemists themselves taught this same truth. The first matter of the work was base and primitive, though "natural". After passing through various stages the "black dragon" appeared; but from this arose the pure and perfect gold. Even in the legend of Prometheus we find an identical formula concealed; and a similar remark applies to those of Jesus Christ, and of many other mythical god-men worshipped in different countries.<> A magical ceremony constructed on this formula is thus in close essential harmony with the natural mystic process. We find it the {29} basis of many important initiations, notably the Third Degree in Masonry, and the 5 Degree = 6Square ceremony of the G.’. D.’. described in Equinox I, III. A ceremonial self-initiation may be constructed with advantage on this formula. The essence of it consists in robing yourself as a king, then stripping and slaying yourself, and rising from that death to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel<>. There is an etymological identity between Tetragrammaton and "I A O", but the magical formulae are entirely different, as the descriptions here given have schewn. Professor William James, in his "Varieties of Religious Experience," has well classified religion as the "once-born" and the "twice-born"; but the religion now proclaimed in Liber Legis harmonizes these by transcending them. There is no attempt to get rid of death by denying it, as among the once-born; nor to accept death as the gate of a new life, as among the twice-born. With the A.’. A.’. life and death are equally incidents in a career, very much like day and night in the history of a planet. But, to pursue the simile, we regard this planet from afar. A Brother of A.’. A.’. looks at (what another person would call) "himself", as one --- or, rather, some --- among a group of phenomena. He is that "nothing" whose consciousness is in one sense the universe considered as a single phenomenon in time and space, and in another sense is the negation of that consciousness. The body and mind of the man are only important (if at all) as the telescope of the astronomer to him. If the telescope were destroyed it would make no appreciable difference to the Universe which that telescope reveals. It will now be understood that this formula of I A O is a formula of Tiphareth. The magician who employs it is conscious of himself as a man liable to suffering, and anxious to transcend that state by becoming one with god. It will appear to him as the Supreme Ritual, as the final step; but, as has already been {30} pointed out, it is but a preliminary. For the normal man today, however, it represents considerable attainment; and there is a much earlier formula whose investigation will occupy Chapter VI. THE MASTER THERION, in the Seventeenth year of the Aeon, has reconstructed the Word I A O to satisfy the new conditions of Magick imposed by progress. The Word of the Law being Thelema, whose number is 93, this number should be the canon of a corresponding Mass. Accordingly, he has expanded I A O by treating the O as an Ayin, and then adding Vau as prefix and affix. The full word is then Vau Yod Aleph Ayin Vau whose number is 93. We may analyse this new Word in detail and demonstrate that it is a proper hieroglyph of the Ritual of Self-Initiation in this Aeon of Horus. For the correspondence in the following note, see Liber 777. The principal points are these: {31}
--------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------ : : : : : Atu :No.: Hebrew :No.:Correspondence: Other :of : :of : : (Tarot Trump) :Atu: letters :let: in Nature : Correspondences : : :ter: : --------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------ : : : : : : : : : : The Hiero- : V :Vau (a nail) : 6 :Taurus (An :The Sun. The son in Te- phant. (Osi-: : English V, : : earthy sign : tragrammaton. (See Cap. ris throned : : W, or vo- : : ruled by : III). The Pentagram & crowned, : : wel between : : Venus; the : which shows Spirit with Wand. : : O and U- : : Moon exalt- : master & reconciler of : : ma’ajab and : : ed therein. : the Four Elements. : : ma’aruf. : : but male.) : Four Wor- : : : : Liberty,i.e.:The Hexagram which un- shippers;the: : : : free will. : God and Man. The cons- four ele- : : : : : sciousness or Ruach. ments. : : : : : : : : : :Parzival as the Child in : : : : : his widowed mother’s : : : : : care: Horus, son of : : : : : Isis and the slain : : : : : Osiris. : : : : : : : : : :Parzival as King & : : : : : Priest in Montsalvat : : : : : performing the mir- : : : : : acle of redemption; : : : : : Horus crowned and : : : : : conquering, taking the : : : : : place of his father. : : : : : : : : : :Christ-Bacchus in Hea- : : : : : ven-Olympus saving the : : : : : world. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : The Hermit :IX :Yod (a hand) : 10:Virgo (an :The root of the Alphabet (Hermes : : English I : : earthy sign : The Spermatozoon. The with Lamp, : : or Y. : : ruled by : youth setting out on Wings, : : : : Mercury : his adventures after Wand, : : : : exalted : receiving the Wand. Cloak, and : : : : therein; : Parzival in the desert Serpent). : : : : sexually : Christ taking refuge : : : : ambivalent) : in Egypt, and on : : : : Light, i.e. : the Mount tempted by : : : : of Wisdom, : the Devil. The uncon- : : : : the Inmost. : scious Will, or Word. {32}
--------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------ : : : : : Atu :No.: Hebrew :No.:Correspondence: Other :of : : of: : (Tarot Trump) :Atu: letters :let: in Nature : Correspondences : : :ter: : --------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------ : : : : : : : : : : The Fool : O :Aleph (an ox): 1 :Air (The con- :The free breath. The (The Babe : : English A, : : dition of : Svastika. The Holy in the Egg : : more or : : all Life, : Ghost. The Virgin’s on the Lo- : : less : : the impar- : Womb. Parzial as "der tus, Bacchus: : : : tial vehicle: reine Thor" who knows Diphues, : : : : Sexually : nothing. Horus. etc. : : : : undevelop- : Christ-Bacchus as the : : : : ed). Life; : innocent babe, pursued : : : : i.e. the : by Herod-Here. : : : : organ of : Hercules strangling : : : : possible : the serpents. The : : : : expression. : Unconscious Self not : : : : : yet determined in any : : : : : direction. : : : : : : : : : : The Devil :XV :Ayin (an : 70:Capricornus :Parzival in Black Armour, (Baphomet : : eye) En- : : (an earthy : ready to return to throned & : : glish A, or: : sign ruled : Montsalvat as Redeemer- adored by : : O more or : : by Saturn; : King: Horus come to Male & Fe- : : less: the : : Mars exalt- : full growth. Christ- male. See : : bleat of a : : ed therein. : Bacchus with Calvary- Eliphas : : goat, A’a. : : Sexually : Cross Kithairon --- Levi’s de- : : : : male) : Thyrsus. sign.) : : : : love: i.e. : : : : : the instinct: : : : : to satisfy : : : : : Godhead by : : : : : uniting it : : : : : with the : : : : : Universe. : : : : : : Iota-Alpha-Digamma varies in significance with successive Aeons.
We find the theory reflected in the customs of Matriarchy. Parthenogenesis is supposed to be true. The Virgin (Yod-Virgo) contains in herself the Principle of Growth --- the epicene Hermetic seed. It becomes the Babe in the Egg (A --- Harpocrates) by virtue of the Spirit (A = Air, impregnating the Mother---Vulture) and this becomes the Sun or Son ( Digamma = the letter of Tiphareth, 6, even when spelt as Omega, in Coptic. See 777). "Aeon of Osiris." Patriarchal age. Two sexes. I conceived as the Father-Wand. (Yod in Tetragrammaton). A the Babe is pursued by the Dragon, who casts a flood from his mouth to swallow it. See "Rev." VII. The Dragon is also the Mother --- the "Evil Mother" of Freud. It is Harpocrates, threatened by the crocodile in the Nile. We find the symbolism of the Ark, the Coffin of Osiris, etc. The Lotus is the Yoni; the Water the Amniotic Fluid. In order to live his own life, the child must leave the Mother, and overcome the temptation to return to her for refuge. Kundry, Armida, Jocasta, Circe, etc., are symbols of this force which tempts the Hero. He may take her as his servant<> when he has mastered her, so as to heal his father (Amfortas), avenge him (Osiris), or pacify him (Jehovah). But in order to grow to manhood, he must cease to depend on her, earning the Lance (Parzival), claiming his arms (Achilles), or making his club (Hercules)<>, and wander in the waterless wilderness like Krishna, Jesus, Oedipus, chi. tau. lambda. --- until the hour when, as the "King’s Son" or knight-errant, he must win the Princess, and set himself upon a strange throne. Almost all the legends of heroes imply this formula in strikingly similar symbols. Digamma. Vau the Sun --- Son. He is supposed to be mortal; but how is this shewn? It seems an absolute perversion of truth: the sacred symbols have no hint of it. This lie is the essence of the Great Sorcery. Osirian religion is a Freudian phantasy fashioned of man’s dread of death and ignorance of nature. The parthenogenesis-idea {34} persists, but is now the formula for incarnating demi-gods, or divine kings; these must be slain and raised from the dead in one way or another.<> "Aeon of Horus." Two sexes in one person. Digamma Iota Alpha Omicron Digamma: 93, the full formula, recognizing the Sun as the Son (Star), as the pre-existent manifested Unit from which all springs and to which all returns. The Great Work is to make the initial Digamma Digamma of Assiah (The world of material illusion) into the final Digamma Iota Digamma of Atziluth,<> the world of pure reality. Spelling the Name in full, Digamma Digamma + Iota Digamma Delta + Alpha Lambda Pi + Omicron Iota Nu + Digamma Iota = 309 = Sh T = XX + XI = 31 the secret Key of the Law.
--- Light ............. Lamp --- Love .............. Wand --- Liberty ........... Wings --- Silence ........... Cloak
Alpha is the Babe "who has formulated his Father, and made fertile
Omicron The exalted "Devil" (also the "other" secret Eye) by the
detail. This "Devil" is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with horror by people who are ignorant of his formula, and, imagining themselves to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal crime. Satan is Saturn, Set, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam, Adonai, etc. The most serious charge against him is that he is the Sun in the South. The Ancient Initiates, {35} dwelling as they did in lands whose blood was the water of the Nile or the Euphrates, connected the South with life-withering heat, and cursed that quarter where the solar darts were deadliest. Even in the legend of Hiram, it is at high noon that he is stricken down and slain. Capricornus is moreover the sign which the sun enterers when he reaches his extreme Southern declination at the Winter Solstice, the season of the death of vegetation, for the folk of the Northern hemisphere. This gave them a second cause for cursing the south. A third; the tyranny of hot, dry, poisonous winds; the menace of deserts or oceans dreadful because mysterious and impassable; these also were connected in their minds with the South. But to us, aware of astronomical facts, this antagonism to the South is a silly superstition which the accidents of their local conditions suggested to our animistic ancestors. We see no enmity between Right and Left, Up and Down, and similar pairs of opposites. These antitheses are real only as a statement of relation; they are the conventions of an arbitrary device for representing our ideas in a pluralistic symbolism based on duality. "Good" must be defined in terms of human ideals and instincts. "East" has no meaning except with reference to the earth’s internal affairs; as an absolute direction in space it changes a degree every four minutes. "Up" is the same for no two men, unless one chance to be in the line joining the other with the centre of the earth. "Hard" is the private opinion of our muscles. "True" is an utterly unintelligible epithet which has proved refractory to the analysis of our ablest philosophers. We have therefore no scruple in restoring the "devil-worship" of such ideas as those which the laws of sound, and the phenomena of speech and hearing, compel us to connect with the group of "Gods" whose names are based upon Sht, or D, vocalized by the free breath A. For these Names imply the qualities of courage, frankness, energy, pride, power and triumph; they are the words which express the creative and paternal will. Thus "the Devil" is Capricornus, the Goat who leaps upon the loftiest mountains, the Godhead which, if it become manifest in man, makes him Aegipan, the All. The Sun enters this sign when he turns to renew the year in the North. He is also the vowel O, proper to roar, to boom, and {36} to command, being a forcible breath controlled by the firm circle of the mouth. He is the Open Eye of the exalted Sun, before whom all shadows flee away: also that Secret Eye which makes an image of its God, the Light, and gives it power to utter oracles, enlightening the mind. Thus, he is Man made God, exalted, eager; he has come consciously to his full stature, and so is ready to set out on his journey to redeem the world. But he may not appear in this true form; the Vision of Pan would drive men mad with fear. He must conceal Himself in his original guise. He therefore becomes apparently the man that he was at the beginning; he lives the life of a man; indeed, he is wholly man. But his initiation has made him master of the Event by giving him the understanding that whatever happens to him is the execution of this true will. Thus the last stage of his initiation is expressed in our formula as the final: Digamma --- The series of transformations has not affected his identity; but it has explained him to himself. Similarly, Copper is still Copper after Cu+O = CuO:+H SO =CuS O(H O):+K S=CuS(K SO ):
It is the same copper, but we have learnt some of its properties. We observe especially that it is indestructible, inviolably itself throughout all its adventures, and in all its disguises. We see moreover that it can only make use of its powers, fulfill the possibilities of its nature, and satisfy its equations, by thus combining with its counterparts. Its existence as a separate substance is evidence of its subjection to stress; and this is felt as the ache of an incomprehensible yearning until it realises that every experience is a relief, an expression of itself; and that it cannot be injured by aught that may befall it. In the Aeon of Osiris it was indeed realised that Man must die in order to live. But now in the Aeon of Horus we know that every event is a death; subject and object slay each other in "love under will"; each such death is itself life, the means by which one realises oneself in a series of episodes. The second main point is the completion of the A babe Bacchus by the O Pan (Parzival wins the Lance, etc.). {37} The first process is to find the I in the V --- initiation, purification, finding the Secret Root of oneself, the epicene Virgin who is 10 (Malkuth) but spelt in full 20 (Jupiter). This Yod in the "Virgin" expands to the Babe in the Egg by formulating the Secret Wisdom of Truth of Hermes in the Silence of the Fool. He acquires the Eye-Wand, beholding the acting and being adored. The Inverted Pentagram --- Baphomet --- the Hermaphrodite fully grown --- begets himself on himself as V again. Note that there are now two sexes in one person throughout, so that each individual is self-procreative sexually, whereas Isis knew only one sex, and Osiris thought the two sexes opposed. Also the formula is now Love in all cases; and the end is the beginning, on a higher plane. The I is formed from the V by removing its tail, the A by balancing 4 Yods, the O by making an inverted triangle of Yods, which suggests the formula of Nuit --- Hadit --- Ra-Hoor-Khuit. A is the elements whirling as a Svastika --- the creative Energy in equilibrated action.<> {38}
CHAPTER VI
This formula has for its "first matter" the ordinary man entirely ignorant of everything and incapable of anything. He is therefore represented as blindfolded and bound. His only aid is his aspiration, represented by the officer who is to lead him into the Temple. Before entering, he must be purified and consecrated. Once within the Temple, he is required to bind himself by an oath. His aspiration is now formulated as Will. He makes the mystic circumambulation of the Temple for the reasons to be described in the Chapter on "Gesture". After further purification and consecration, he is allowed for one moment to see the Lord of the West, and gains courage<> to persist. For the third time he is purified and consecrated, and he sees the Lord of the East, who holds the balance, keeping him in a straight line. In the West he gains energy. In the East he is prevented from dissipating the same. So fortified, he may be received into the Order as a neophyte by the three principal officers, thus uniting the Cross with the Triangle. He may then be placed between the pillars of the Temple, to receive the fourth and final consecration. In this position the secrets of the grade are communicated to him, and the last of his fetters is removed. All this is sealed by the sacrament of the Four Elements. It will be seen that the effect of this whole ceremony is to endow a thing inert and impotent with balanced motion in a given direction. Numerous example of this formula are given {39} in Equinox I, Nos. II and III. It is the formula of the Neophyte Ceremony of G.’. D.’. It should be employed in the consecration of the actual weapons used by the magician, and may also be used as the first formula of initiation. In the book called Z 2<> (Equinox I, III) are given full details of this formula, which cannot be too carefully studied and practised. It is unfortunately, the most complex of all of them. But this is the fault of the first matter of the work, which is so muddled that many operations are required to unify it.
{40}
CHAPTER VII
OF
The Hieroglyph shewn in the Seventh Key of the Tarot (described in the 12th Aethyr, Liber 418, Equinox I, V) is the Charioteer of OUR LADY BABALON, whose Cup or Graal he hears. Now this is an important formula. It is the First of the Formulae, in a sense, for it is the formula of Renunciation.<> It is also the Last! This Cup is said to be full of the Blood of the Saints; that is, every "saint" or magician must give the last drop of his life’s blood to that cup. It is the original price paid for magick power. And if by magick power we mean the true power, the assimilation of all force with the Ultimate Light, the true Bridal of the Rosy Cross, then is that blood the offering of Virginity, the sole sacrifice well-pleasing to the Master, the sacrifice whose only reward is the pain of child-bearing unto him. But "to sell one’s soul to the devil", to renounce no matter what for an equivalent in personal gain<<"Supposed" personal gain. There is really no person to gain; so the whole transaction is a swindle on both sides.>>, is black magic. You are no longer a noble giver of your all, but a mean huckster. {41} This formula is, however, a little different in symbolism, since it is a Woman whose Cup must be filled. It is rather the sacrifice of the Man, who transfers life to his descendants. For a woman does not carry in herself the principle of new life, except temporarily, when it is given her. But here the formula implies much more even than this. For it is his whole life that the Magus offers to OUR LADY. The Cross is both Death and Generation, and it is on the Cross that the Rose blooms. The full significance of these symbols is so lofty that it is hardly fitted for an elementary treatise of this type. One must be an Exempt Adept, and have become ready to pass on, before one can see the symbols even from the lower plane. Only a Master of the Temple can fully understand them. (However, the reader may study Liber CLVI, in Equinox I, VI, the 12th and 2nd Aethyrs in Liber 418 in Equinox I, V, and the Symbolism of the V Degree and VI Degree in O.T.O.) Of the preservation of this blood which OUR LADY offers to the ANCIENT ONE, CHAOS<> the All-Father, to revive him, and of how his divine Essence fills the Daughter (the soul of Man) and places her upon the Throne of the Mother, fulfilling the Economy of the Universe, and thus ultimately rewarding the Magician (the Son) ten thousandfold, it would be still more improper to speak in this place. So holy a mystery is the Arcanum of the Masters of the Temple, that it is here hinted at in order to blind the presumptuous who may, unworthy, seek to lift the veil, and at the same time to lighten the darkness of such as may be requiring only one ray of the Sun in order to spring into life and light. II ABRAHADABRA is a word to be studied in Equinox I, V., "The Temple of Solomon the King". It represents the Great Work complete, and it is therefore an archetype of all lesser magical operations. It is in a way too perfect to be applied in {42} advance to any of them. But an example of such an operation may be studied in Equinox I, VII, "The Temple of Solomon the King", where an invocation of Horus on this formula is given in full. Note the reverberation of the ideas one against another. The formula of Horus has not yet been so fully worked out in details as to justify a treatise upon its exoteric theory and practice; but one may say that it is, to the formula of Osiris, what the turbine is to the reciprocating engine. III
For example, V.I.T.R.I.O.L. gives a certain Regimen of the Planets useful in Alchemical work. Ararita is a formula of the macrocosm potent in certain very lofty Operations of the Magick of the Inmost Light. (See Liber 813.) The formula of Thelema may be summarized thus: Theta "Babalon and the Beast conjoined" --- epsilon unto Nuith (CCXX, I, 51) --- lambda The Work accomplished in Justice --- eta The Holy Graal --- mu The Water therein --- alpha The Babe in the Egg (Harpocrates on the Lotus.)
Dionysus (Capital Alpha) --- The Virgin Earth gamma --- The Babe in the Egg (small alpha --- the image of the Father) --- The Massacre of the Innocents, pi (winepress) --- The Draught of Ecstasy, eta. The student will find it well worth his while to seek out these ideas in detail, and develop the technique of their application. There is also the Gnostic Name of the Seven Vowels, which gives a musical formula most puissant in evocations of the Soul of Nature. There is moreover ABRAXAS; there is XNOUBIS; there is MEITHRAS; and indeed it may briefly be stated that every true name of God gives the formula of the invocation of that God.<> It would therefore be impossible, even were it desirable, to analyse all such names. The general method of doing so has been {43} given, and the magician must himself work out his own formula for particular cases.<> IV. It should also be remarked that every grade has its peculiar magical formula. Thus, the formula of Abrahadabra concerns us, as men, principally because each of us represents the pentagram or microcosm; and our equilibration must therefore be with the hexagram or macrocosm. In other words, 5 Degree = 6Square is the formula of the Solar operation; but then 6 Degree = 5Square is the formula of the |