CHAPTER IV This Chapter is attributed to Fire. It deals with the salient rays of Positive Idea, beyond any intuition to apprehend, and with the nature of the Will and the sexual energy, the dynamic shape of the Self. Being thus actually beyond Understanding, being the Utterance of the Unconscious, it becomes naturally impossible for even the Initiate to apprehend the chapter as it stands. It deals with the Original Unities; and it is for the Master of the Temple (the Adept in Tiphereth cannot understand the Chapter at all) to receive, interpret, bring to birth and conscious expression Their sublime gesture. 1 - 10 This section is the address of the Angel. He explains His Knowledge and Conversation from His own standpoint. The aspiration towards Him is masculine. At the moment of achievement it is replaced by passivity as explained in previous chapters. The aspiration has its parallel in the will of the Angel to communicate. But this will is superficially of a different character. Its nature is now explained. 1 He calls the Adept ``Crystal heart'' implying that he is a concentration of light, energy, love, lucidity, and purity. It is these qualities in the Adept with which he communicates. This is the object of the preparation. The Adept must present this image perfectly before the Knowledge and Conversation can operate. That is, purification and consecration must precede invocation. It is extremely difficult even for a Master of the Temple even after years of contemplation to get it firmly into his consciousness that his material part is not he at all any more than any other collection of phenomena. The Angel describes Himself as the serpent. The serpent is, of course the symbol of wisdom, immortality, royalty, and other similar qualities. The Angel not only winds himself about the heart of the Adept but drives His head into the centre. He addresses the Adept as ``God my beloved'' obviously any member of so high an order of being has long assimilated the truth of Pantheism. 2 The reference is to Sappho who was in love with the Sun, and threw herself into the sea to attain him. She is here the symbol of the Angel as represented by the Path of Gimel where is ``The High Priestess.'' This Path connects Macroprosopus (Kether) and Microprospus (Tiphereth), the supreme divinity and its human manifestation. The Sun is attributed to Tiphereth and so symbolizes the Adept. The Angel thinks of Himself as ``plunging into the wet heart of the Creation,'' i.e., the reflection in matter of the True Self of the Adept whom He loves. 3 The Angel finds beauty in ``this heart of corruption'' by which he means the life of mutability. ``The flowers are aflame.'' Phenomena blossom and enkindle, i.e., touch. 4 The intensity of the passion of the Angel is so great that He cannot express it even in music. The boat is here the symbol of consciousness, as in II:7 - 16. The tongue is the Logos of the Angel, and the unknown rivers new spheres of thought. The everlasting salt is the sorrow which tinctures the great sea of Binah, and the hopes by the above method to transcend the Trance of Sorrow in reference to all these possibilities. 6 He is reminded of the parallel but contrary custom of men to seek satisfaction in the object of desire. Water is a symbol of pleasure, and desire is impregnated with sorrow. To act in this way maddens the deluded race of men. He bids them ``Come up through the creeks,'' i.e., the narrow passages of thought, the concentrated currents of thought which lead to pure pleasure -- ``the fresh water.'' When men succeed in travelling by means of controlled will to true pure pleasure they find him waiting to administer the Sacrament. 7 - 8 The bezoar-stone is a ball composed chiefly of hairs which represent closely-woven [...]. He compares the Adept to this stone seeing him as a complex of diverse energies. The limbs of the Adept are the instruments of his activity. The Angel invites him to repose with Him in the orchard, i.e., in the place where natural processes have culminated in fructifying. The cool grass seems to be a symbol of vegetative life, and the Angel proposes to use this evergreen freshness of Nature as the field for rejoicing and nourishment. He calls to the slaves, that is, to the instruments of action, controlled any put to use to bring wine, i.e., to furnish the means of ecstasy, for He wishes the Adept to be enkindled with rapture and manifest its glow in his face, i.e., his outer consciousness. 9 A garden usually symbolizes a place of cultivated beauty; Oriental poets use it to express a collection of poems or wise sayings. The immortal kisses are the tokens of the operation of ``love under will'' which is perpetual. The Angel calls upon the Adept to display his brilliance as if the Knowledge and Conversation were a transcendental sacrament beyond that implied in all acts. The opium poppy is a symbol of peace, exaltation, and delight, the giver of sleep, by which is meant the silencing of all possible distractions. The mouth of the Adept, the organ by which he is nourished, expresses his thoughts, and symbolizes his passions; by the kiss of this mouth is meant its surrender to the Angel, the act of marriage, and this is the key to the infinite sleep and lucid. Sleep has been explained above. It is infinite, being freed from the limitations of condition, and lucid as being characterized by pure vision. Shi-loh-am: the word means peace. 10 The Angel explains that (in the reposeful ecstasy of love, I might even say in the orgasm of love, the reference is to the particular Samadhi of the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel) in his ``sleep'' he obtained the vision of the Universe as a continuous and immaculate phenomenon. This is contrasted implicitly with the effect of the same act on the Adept, to whom it simply means union with Godhead. The Angel has found perfection in his own Adept: this completes Perfection. 11 - 14 The Adept now speaks, or rather, the Master of the Temple speaks. 11 The tavern is the temple of spiritual intoxication. Without it are the Black Brothers boasting of their own attainments. 12 They are purse-proud, i.e., mean and selfish, yet penniless, i.e., their attainments are worthless. They also revile those who have attained the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: the Black Brother for all his arrogance is aware like Klingsor of his real condition, and he therefore blasphemes the White Lodge. 13 The conches symbolize repose. The mother-of-pearl the opalescence of phenomena, when observed by the Initiate. (Compare the symbolism of the Rainbow.) Note that they are in the garden, not the tavern. This may mean that they have passed beyond the stage where the act is unique with one such as described in vv. 8-9. The foolish man: see II:37. Noise is a symbol of distraction and lack of harmony. It is ``hidden from them'' -- a stronger phrase than ``unheard by them.'' 14 The innkeeper is the Guardian of the Mysteries, and the king the Authority by which men's lives are governed. It is his business to protect the guests from the arrogance of the Black Brothers, but also to prevent their malice from making the sacrament unlawful. (Levi has a passage on this point. He says that when the arcanum was divulged in the time of the French Revolution it became impossible to put it into practice. The adepts consequently quarreled among themselves and chaos resulted. We must not suppose that this is a mere matter of the vow of secrecy. Nor does it imply that the publication of the means of attainment may lead to disaster. It is the fourth power of the Sphinx which was somehow lost.) It seems strange that the Magister in the midst of his rapture with the allocution of his Angel yet ringing in his ears should find nothing less incongruous in reply. The difficulty is easily explained. For one thing his ecstasy is ineffable. For another, it is perfect, so that he cannot possibly speak about it. Thirdly, he is aware that part of the price of his attainment is his responsibility as Guardian of the Mysteries. He therefore calls the attention of his Angel to what I may describe as the political situation. 15 - 21 The above peculiarity of the previous dialogue is the subject of part of this passage. Generally it discusses the question of the relations between certain powers of Nature. 15 The circumstances of the dialogue are carefully explained. He is the Master of the Temple, V.V.V.V.V., not merely the Adept, who has simply attained union. The Angel is moreover identified specifically with the symbol of Adonai. They are playing together, i.e., in conscious communion; in the starlight, i.e., in the presence of Nuit; and the place of their meeting is the ``deep black pool'' symbolic of Binah, the sphere of the sorrow of Motherhood, the place of conception and the abode of Understanding. The holy place is the three first Sephiroth, i.e., above the Abyss. The holy house is the Tree of Life. And the Altar of the holiest one is Kether. 16 The Adept replies to the passage verses 11 - 14 by simply changing the rhythm of his music to a more languid measure. In this way he implies that there is no need for haste or anxiety. 17 The scribe who is the conscious human being charged to report these matters understands by this that all is well. The Magician is Atu I, Mayan (see II:58) and the references in Liber 418. The Angel has no fear that the forces of illusion can ever interfere with the Great Work. He is himself Macroprosopus. This phrase needs explanation. Just as a man aspires to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and attains it, so too does the Angel aspire to the ``unity uttermost showed'' for his position is the Path of Gimel. In his attainment he has therefore reached Kether, from which spring not only his own Path Gimel (leading to Tiphereth) but that of Beth (leading to Binah). To understand properly the full nature of Binah we must remember this point. The sorrow connected with the idea of this Sephira is due to the fact that she is the recipient of the original illusion. There is no sorrow in the other current, the Path of Daleth through which her lord communicates his essence. 18 The Magister whose abode is Binah now uses illusion itself as a means of enjoyment. He behaves naturally like a child without fear that there may be some sinister significance in the operations of Nature. 19 To test him the Angel suggests that his enjoyment of illusion is identical with that of the profane. 20 The Magister replies that although apparently enjoying the good things of life (so to speak) he has never for one instant forgotten that he is enjoying the love of his Angel. Neither by action of the fingers which grasp the curls or spiral energies of the Angel, nor by loss of concentration upon the eye (symbol of sight, creative energy, unity, etc. See also ``Eye of Horus'') of his lover did he fall from the summit of his Samadhi. The Magister is therefore shown as perfectly initiated: he deliberately embraced the terrible illusion which is the source of all sorrow, and made it part integrally of the Great Work. There being no other direction from which misfortune might touch him, since he is protected by the Guardians of the Abyss from the interference of the Paths of Zayin and Cheth, he is henceforth immune. 22 The Bennu bird refers to the currents and sub-currents set in motion by the AA, every 600 years approximately, that is, twice in the course of each Aeon. ;tab3rll 1900 Aiwass ;GREEK. 15-1600 Dee and Kelly, Christian Rosencreutz, Luther, Paracelsus 1490 - 1541. 1300 Jacobus Burgundus Molensis. 9-1000 6-700 Mohammed. 3-400 0 Apollonius of Tyana. BX 300 Gautama Buddha. ;endtab NOTE. Scale of Time -- resolved images dilated presentation. Racehorse legs. In a series of m events, none of which suggest n. Cf. glyphs of A. spelling of words, etc. Therefore no gauge of reality. (LXV I:32 seq.) Philae is an island in the Nile, now submerged by industrialism famous for its Temple of Ahathoor. In Liber VII VII:27, the Bennu Bird is identified definitely with the Phoenix -- or Set the Wild Ass -- through the symbolism of the Wand of the Second Adept in the Ritual of Adeptus Minor of R.R. et A.C. The reminder of this chapter concerns in great part the relation of this scribe with the Adept and the Angel who complete and crown his personality. The following verses describe the Equinox of the Gods, and the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. They indicate the effect thereof upon the individual; for this chapter refers to Fire, the God of Tetragrammaton, that is, to the essence of the personality of the man concerned as a man. The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel represents the descent of the element Spirit into the midst of his being, according to the regular formula of the formation of the Pentagram ;heIHShVH from ;heIHVH. The chief difficulty of interpretation lies in the complication introduced by the Equinox of the Gods. ;tab2ll 22-27 describes this Event. 28-29 describes the state of the scribe. 30-32 describes the preparation of the scribe for his Attainment. 33-37 describes the Threshold of his Initiation. 38-41 describes the Initiation itself. 42-44 describes the Understanding thereby given of the necessary relations of Spirit and Matter. 45-53 describes the results of Initiation. 54-56 brings together the Attainment and the Equinox of the Gods. 57-60 answers the question thus propounded. 61-65 a prophecy concerning the future of the individual scribe, the circumstances in which he shall come to the Perfection of his Attainment. ;endtab 23 The scribe recalls his incarnation as a priestess of Ahathoor, goddess of Love and Beauty. He calls upon the forces of the Nile and of Sebek the crocodile that is dweller thereof. They are to put an end to the regimen of the Mother (Aeon of Isis). 24 Apophis replaces Isis. 25 AIWASS (identified with the Holy Guardian Angel of Aleister Crowley) is to destroy the formulae of Isis and Osiris (Aeon of the Dying God). There is here a reference to the Legend of Shiva who drank up the poison caused by the churning of the ``Milk of the Stars'' or manifestation of Phenomenal Existence. His throat became black (or indigo blue) as a result. AIWAZ has thus turned Apophis against himself, to make way for the Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child. Apophis loved; i.e., vanishes in ecstasy at the caress of AIWAZ the ``mighty serpent'' of verse 26 (the throat is the seat of the element of Spirit -- Akasha dwells in the Visuddhi Cakkram). The meaning is that the formula given by AIWAZ destroys the idea of Destruction as such. What was until now called ``Death.'' the means of resurrection in the Formula of Osiris IAO, is to be understood henceforth as ``love under will.'' 26 This Day of Vengeance is the Aeon of Horus -- beginning with the Spring Equinox of 1904 E.V. (Note CCXX III:3 and the Avenger.) The ``little secret bone'' is found in the Phallus of the Bear. (Heb 6). This is an anatomical fact. The Bear is symbolic of part of ;GREEK 666 according to the description given of Him in the Apocalypse: I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his hands the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth: and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and all which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Rev: Cap: XIII.) This bone is consequently the Quintessential Individuality of the Unconscious of Aleister Crowley; he having retained his human personality in order to serve as the Instrument of the Logos of this Aeon. He now demands that the ``fang'' (tooth Spirit) of his Angel shall penetrate to his inmost self. Khephra, the Scarabaeus Beetle, is the Sun at midnight. He appears in Atu XVIII (The Moon, referred to Pisces in the Zodiac) at the bottom of the hieroglyph, in a pool (the firmament of the Nadir). Above this is a path leading between two mountains crowned by towers. Beneath the Moon symbolic of glamour and illusion as opposed to the Moon of the Path of Gimel symbolic of Purity, Aspiration, etc., where goes the Holy Guardian Angel. This Path is guarded by two dogs or jackals symbolic of Anubis, guarder of the Threshold (see verse 34). The meaning of the verse is thus that AIWAZ (revealed ``as a mighty serpent'' -- see above) has destroyed the principle of illusion. In particular, the belief of man that he is mortal (Osiris) must yield to the consciousness that he is the Crowned Child (Horus). My ``heart'' -- i.e. the human will and consciousness of Aleister Crowley is identified with the essence of the life of AIWAZ (the blood of His body is used by Him as the physical basis of His manifestation in CCXX). 27 Aleister Crowley has abandoned all his personal ambitions to ``die'' at the caress of AIWAZ in His function as his Holy Guardian Angel. (The little Microcosmic ``little asp'' as opposed to the ``mighty serpent'' who is responsible for the Macrocosmic Event the Equinox of the Gods). The images of the love-sick courtesan and of Cleopatra show the implication of the Nephesch or ``animal soul'' of Aleister Crowley in this matter. 28 The scribe confesses the utter weariness of his human consciousness so far as it is divorced from communion with the rapture of the Adept (''my master'') who controls him. 29 The ``soul'' means Nephesch. The scribe is supported, even in his conscious weariness, by the certainty of his ``Unconscious'' that he has come to his Attainment, despite his human conscious forgetfulness of the fact. He appeals to the Angel to flood the human consciousness with the ``Bliss of the Beloved,'' as heretofore expressed in this Book. 30 This is granted: the human consciousness enters into the pleasure-house of Adeptship. The wine of spiritual rapture which intoxicates him is likened to ``fire that flieth'' with green wings (love) ``through the world of waters.'' Previous passages should enable the aspirant to understand this symbolism quite thoroughly. [...] is in the Qabalah ``The Name'' and ``Heaven'' means ``Almighty Power,'' and means ``Blood.'' These symbols thus explain the text in detail. 31 Nature and perfection are Isis and Nephthys, who prepare Osiris (see Papyrus of Ani and The Book of the Dead generally) for Initiation. The Candidate is here represented as their brother (Aleister Crowley is Vau of ;heIHVH, ``the stone,'' the human consciousness in Tiphereth -- male) but decked out as a bride (for he is symbolically feminine towards his Holy Guardian Angel, the Heart about to meet the Embrace of the Serpent. See, too, III:49 - 50). 32 The Ego is deprived of its attributes before it can receive the impact of the Holy Guardian Angel. It must be the pure Human Self as an Individual independent of its manifestations as such, the phenomena of its relation with its environment. 33 The Ego realizes that the Holy Guardian Angel will annihilate it. It trembles, and this shaking of its identity is the token of its surrender (Compare the ecstasy of fear of Amfortas at the onset of his Healing; and see II:60 and 62 with several similar passages elsewhere. The doctrine is everywhere implicit; but compare also Liber 418, 14th Aethyr, etc.) Also, the first appearance of the Angel is necessarily misunderstood; for while the human Ego exists, it is bound by the conditions of its being; and this implies a certain falsity of apprehension, the root of which is in the very illusion of Separateness which makes the Idea of an Ego possible. 34 The ``threshold'' is before the ``door'' or ``pylon'' of Daleth. (Daleth means a door; its attribution is Venus, pure Love, and its Path is from Chokmah to Binah, the base of the Triangle of the Supernals. This ``door'' is thus in all ways a fit symbol of the entrance to Initiation). The ``threshold'' is then below the Path of Daleth on the Tree of Life; i.e., it is in the Abyss. The above symbolism refers strictly to the Attainment of Master of the Temple; but its Truth is reflected into the technically correct account of the Initiation of the Dominus Liminis to Adeptus Minor. Here the ``door'' is the third Reciprocal or Transverse Path (Daleth is the first) Pe which means a mount -- the door of the vital organs. Pe is the letter of Atu XVI the ``House of God'' or ``Blasted Tower.'' The Hieroglyph represents a Tower -- symbolic of the Ego in its Phallic Aspect, yet shut up, i.e., separate. This Tower is smitten by the Lightning Flash of Illumination, the impact of the Holy Guardian Angel and the Flaming Sword of the Energy that proceeds from Kether to Malkuth. Thence are cast forth two figures forming by their [...] attitude the letter [...]: [...] these are the twins (Horus and Harpocrates) born at the breaking-open of the Womb of the Mother (the second aspect of the Tower as a ``spring shut up, a fountain sealed''). The represent in respect of the male aspect of the [...] Tower the spermatozoa ([...] is [...] the sign in which is the Sun at the Winter Solstice, when the New Year begins) emitted when the Phallus is smitten by the ecstasy of the Orgasm (Lightning Flash) and ``blasted'' by losing its erection. On the ``threshold'' the Dominus Liminis is menanced by the Paths [...] of [...] and [...] the Atus XIII, XIV, XV. (Temperance or Restriction, Death, and the Devil, which issue from Tiphereth the abode of His Angel to ward off the profane of the Outer Order of GD. The main difference (in essence) between the formulae of the two Initiations, into the R.R. et A.C. and the AA, respectively, are that the Adeptus Exemptus is below Daleth altogether, though he has crossed the Second Reciprocal Path Teth on his way to become an Adeptus Exemptus, and has no Path by which he may travel (save Gimel, which leads from Tiphereth to Kether, not from Chesed, to Binah, whither he is bound. This is to ward off the profane of the Inner Order of R.R. et A.C.) while the Dominus Liminis has already traversed the Path of Pe to attain the Grade of Philosophus, and the threshold is within, instead of without, the Pylon.