THE WORKS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY Vol. II, part 3 of 3 ASCII VERSION October 8, 1993 e.v. key entry by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. January 23, 1994 e.v. proofed and conformed to the "Essay Competition Copy" edition of 1906 e.v. by Bill Heidrick T.G. of O.T.O. File 3 of 3. Copyright (c) O.T.O. O.T.O. P.O.Box 430 Fairfax, CA 94978 USA (415) 454-5176 ---- Messages only. This work was originally published in two parallel columns. Where such columns are found in the original, they have been rendered as a single text with "A" or "B" added to the page number at the end of each column: A = end page left column. B = end page right column. On many pages a prefatory paragraph or a concluding group of sentences is full across the page. These instances are noted in curly brackets. Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number} or {page number A} and {page number B}. Comments and descriptions are also set off by curly brackets {} Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the source: e.g. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc. Descriptions of illustrations are not so identified, but are simply in curly brackets. Text Footnotes have been expanded at or near the point of citation within double angle brackets, e.g. <>. For poems, most longer footnotes are cited in the text to expanded form below the stanzas. 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 other individuals at reasonable cost of copying and mailing only, no additional charges may be added. Not for "share-ware" distribution or inclusion in any commercial enterprise. ************************************************************************ 618. "Each life bound ever to the wheel."{#72} -- Cf. Whately, "Revelation of a Future State." {201A} 652. "This, that, the other atheist's death."{#73} -- Their stories are usually untrue; but let us follow our plan, and grant them all they ask. 709. "A cannibal."{#74} -- This word is inept, as it predicates humanity of Christian-hate-Christian. J'accuse the English language: "anthropophagous" must always remain a comic word. 731. "The Flaming Star."{#75} -- Or Pentagram, mystically referred to Jeheshua. 732. "Zohar."{#76} -- "Splendour," the three Central Books of the Dogmatic Qabalah. 733. "Pigeon."{#77} -- Says an old writer, whom I translate roughly: "Thou to thy Lamb and Dove devoutly bow, But leave me, prithee, yet my Hawk and Cow: And I approve thy Greybeard dotard's smile, If thou wilt that of Egypt's crocodile." 746. "Lost! Lost! Lost!"{#78} -- See "The Lay of the Last Minstrel." 759. "Ain Elohim."{#79} -- "There is no God!" so our Bible. But this is really the most sublime affirmation of the Qabalist. "Ain is God." For the meaning of Ain, and of this idea, see "Berashith," "infra." The "fool" is He of the Tarot, to whom the number O is attached, to make the meaning patent to a child. "I insult your idol," quoth the good missionary; "he is but of dead stone. He does not avenge himself. He does not punish me." "I insult your god," replied the Hindu; "he is invisible. He does not avenge himself, nor punish me." "My God will punish you when you die!" "So, when you die, will my idol punish you!" No earnest student of religion or draw poker should fail to commit this anecdote to memory. 767. "Mr. Chesterton."{#80} -- I must take this opportunity to protest against the charge brought by Mr. Chesterton against the Englishmen "who write philosophical essay on the splendour of Eastern thought." If he confines his strictures to the translators of that well-known Eastern work the "Old Testament" I am with him; any modern Biblical critic will tell him what I mean. It took a long time, too, for the missionaries (and Tommy Atkins) to discover that "Budd" was not a "great Gawd." But then they did not want to, and in any case sympathy and intelligence are not precisely the most salient qualities in either soldiers or missionaries. But nothing is more absurd than to compare men like Sir W. Jones, Sir R. Burton, Von Hammer- Purgstall, Sir E. Arnold, Prof. Max Muller, Me, Prof. Rhys Davids, Lane, and the rest of our illustrious Orientalists to the poor {201B} and ignorant Hindus whose letters occasionally delight the readers of the "Sporting Times," such letters being usually written by public scribes for a few pice in the native bazaar. As to "Babus" (Babu, I may mention, is the equivalent to our "Mister," and not the name of a savage tribe), Mr. Chesterton, from his Brixton Brahmaloka, may look forth and see that the "Babu" cannot understand Western ideas; but a distinguished civil servant in the Madras Presidency, second wrangler in a very good year, assured me that he had met a native whose mathematical knowledge was superior to that of the average senior wrangler, and that he had met several others who approached that standard. His specific attack on Madame Blavatsky is equally unjust, as many natives, not theosophists, have spoken to me of her in the highest terms. "Honest Hindus" cannot be expected to think as Mr. Chrsterton deems likely, as he is unfortunately himself a Western, and in the same quagmire of misapprehension as Prof. Max. Muller and the rest. Madame Blavatsky's work was to remind the Hindus of the excellence of their own shastras,<> to show that some Westerns held identical ideas, and thus to countermine the dishonest representations of the missionaries. I am sufficiently well known as a bitter opponent of "Theosophy" to risk nothing in making these remarks. I trust that the sense of public duty which inspires these strictures will not be taken as incompatible with the gratitude I owe to him for his exceedingly sympathetic and dispassionate review of my "Soul of Osiris." I would counsel him, however, to leave alone the Brixton Chapel, and to "work up from his appreciation of the 'Soul of Osiris' to that loftier and wider work of the human imagination, the appreciation of the 'Sporting Times!'" ----- Mr. Chesterton thinks it funny that I should call upon "Shu." Has he forgotten that the Christian God may be most suitably invoked by the name "Yah"? I should be sorry if God were to mistake his religious enthusiasms for the derisive ribaldry of the London "gamin." Similar remarks apply to "El" and other Hebrai-christian deities. This note is hardly intelligible without the review referred to. I therefore reprint the {202A} portion thereof which is germane to my matter from the "Daily News," June 18, 1901: -- To the side of a mind concerned with idle merriment ("sic!") there is certainly something a little funny in Mr. Crowley's passionate devotion to deities who bear such names as Mout and Nuit, and Ra and Shu, and Hormakhou. They do not seem to the English mind to lend themselves to pious exhilaration. Mr. Crowley says in the same poem: The burden is too hard to bear, I took too adamant a cross; This sackcloth rends my soul to wear, My self-denial is as dross. O, Shu, that holdest up the sky, Hold up thy servant, lest he die! We have all possible respect for Mr. Crowley's religious symbols, and we do not object to his calling upon Shu at any hour of the night. Only it would be unreasonable of him to complain if his religious exercises were generally mistaken for an effort to drive away cats. ----- Moreover, the poets of Mr. Crowley's school have, among all their merits, some genuine intellectual dangers from this tendency to import religious, this free trade in gods. That all creeds are significant and all gods divine we willingly agree. But this is rather a reason for being content with our own than for attempting to steal other people's. The affectation in many modern mystics of adopting an Oriental civilisation and mode of thought must cause much harmless merriment among the actual Orientals. The notion that a turban and a few vows will make an Englishman a Hindu is quite on a par with the idea that a black hat and an Oxford degree will make a Hindu an Englishman. We wonder whether our Buddhistic philosophers have ever read a florid letter in Baboo English. We suspect that the said type of document is in reality exceedingly like the philosophic essays written by Englishmen about the splendour of Eastern thought. Sometimes European mystics deserve something worse than mere laughter at the hands ("sic!") of Orientals. If ever was one person whom honest Hindus would have been justified in tearing to pieces it was Madame Blavatsky. ----- That our world-worn men of art should believe for a moment that moral salvation is possible and supremely important is an unmixed benefit. But to believe for a moment that it is to be found by going to particular places or reading particular books or joining particular societies is to make for the thousandth time the mistake that is at once materialism and superstition. If Mr. Crowley and the new mystics think for one moment that an Egyptian desert is more mystic than an English meadow, that a palm tree is more peetic than a Sussex beech, that a broken temple of Osiris is more supernatural than a Baptist chapel in Brixton, then they {202B} are sectarians, and only sectarians of no more value to humanity that those who think that the English soil is the only soil worth defending, and the Baptist chapel the only chapel worthy of worship ("sic"). But Mr. Crowley is a strong and genuine poet, and we have little doubt that he will work up from his appreciation of the Temple of Osiris to that loftier and wider work of the human imagination, the appreciation of the Brixton chapel. G. K. CHESTERTON ----- 778, 797. "The rest of life, for self-control," "For liberation of the soul."{#81} Who said Rats? Thanks for your advice, Tony Veller, but it came in vain. As the ex-monk<> (that shook the bookstall) wrote in confidence to the publisher: "Existence is mis'ry I' th' month Tisri {203B upper column ends} At th' fu' o' th' moon I were shot wi' a goon. [Goon is no Scots, But Greek, Meester Watts.] We'ra awa' tae Burma, Whaur th' groond be firmer Tae speer th' Mekong. Chin Chin! Sae long. [Long sald be lang: She'll no care a whang.] Ye're Rautional babe, Aundra McAbe." Note the curious confusion of personality. This shows Absence of Ego, in Pali Anatta, and will seem to my poor spiritually-minded friends an excuse for a course of action they do not understand, and whose nature is beyond them. 782. "Christ ascends."{#82} -- And I tell you frankly that if he does not come back by the time I have finished reading these proofs, I shall give him up. 783. "Bell."{#83} -- The folios have "bun." {203B upper column breaks out to full page for one line.} NOTES TO PENTECOST {Columns resume} 22. "With sacred thirst."{#1} -- "He, soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst." A Grammarian's Funeral. 23. "Levi."{#2} -- Ceremonial magic is not quite so silly as it sounds. Witness the following masterly elucidation of its inner quintessence: -- THE INITIATED INTERPRETATION OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC.<<1>> <<1. This essay forms the introduction to an edition of the "Goetia" of King Solomon.>> It is loftily amusing to the student of magical literature who is not quite a fool -- and rare is such a combination! -- to note the criticism directed by the Philistine against the citadel of his science. Truly, since our childhood has ingrained into us not only literal belief in the Bible, but also substantial belief in Alf Laylah wa Laylah,<<"A Thousand and One Nights, commonly called "Arabian Nights.">> and only adolescence can cure us, we are only too liable, in the rush and energy of dawning manhood, to overturn roughly and rashly both these classics, to regard them both on the same level, as interesting documents from the standpoint of folk-lore and anthropology, and as nothing more. Even when we learn that the Bible, by a {203A} profound and minute study of the text, may be forced to yield up Qabalistic arcana of cosmic scope and importance, we are too often slow to apply a similar restorative to the companion volume, even if we are the lucky holders of Burton's veritable edition. To me, then, it remains to raise the Alf Laylah wa Laylah into its proper place once more. I am not concerned to deny the objective reality of all "magical" phenomena; if they are illusions, they are at least as real as many unquestioned facts of daily life; and, if we follow Herbert Spencer, they are at least evidence of "some" cause.<> Now, this fact is our base. What is the cause of my illusion of seeing a spirit in the triangle of Art? Every smatterer, ever expert in psychology, will answer: "That cause lies in your brain." English children are taught ("pace" the Education Act) that the Universe lies in infinite Space; Hindu children, in the Akasa, which is the same thing. Those Europeans who go a little deeper learn from Fichte, that the phenomenal Universe is the creation of the Ego; Hindus, or Europeans studying under Hindu Gurus, are {203B} told, that by Akasa is meant the Chitakasa. The Chitakasa is situated in the "Third Eye," "i.e.," in the brain. By assuming higher dimensions of space, we can assimilate this fact to Realism; but we have no need to take so much trouble. This being true for the ordinary Universe, that all sense-impressions are dependent on changes in the brain,<> we must include illusions, which are after all sense-impressions as much as "realities" are, in the class of "phenomena dependent on brain-changes." Magical phenomena, however, come under a special sub-class, since they are willed, and their cause is the series of "real" phenomena called the operations of ceremonial Magic. These consist of (1) Sight. The circle, square, triangle, vessels, lamps, robes, implements, etc. (2) Sound. The invocations. (3) Smell. The perfumes. (4) Taste. The Sacraments. (5) Touch. As under (1). (6) Mind. The combination of all these and reflection on their significance. These unusual impressions (1-5) produce unusual brain-changes; hence their summary (6) is of unusual kind. Its projection back into the apparently phenomenal world is therefore unusual. Herein then consists the reality of the operations and effects of ceremonial magic,<> and I conceive that the apology is ample, so far as the "effects" refer only to those phenomena which appear to the magician himself, the appearance of the spirit, his conversation, possible shocks from imprudence, and so on, even to ecstasy on the one hand, and death or madness on the other. But can any of the effects described in this our book Goetia be obtained, and if so, can you give a rational explanation of the circumstances? Say you so? I can, and will. The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain. Their seals therefore represent (Mr. Spencer's {204A} projected cube) methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (through the eye). The names of God are vibrations calculated to establish: ("a") General control of the brain. (Establishment of functions relative to the subtle world.) ("b") Control over the brain in detail. (Rank or type of the Spirit.) ("c") Control of one special portion. (Name of the Spirit.) The perfumes aid this through smell. Usually the perfume will only tend to control a large area; but there is an attribution of perfumes to letters of the alphabet enabling one, by a Qabalistic formula, to spell out the Spirit's name. I need not enter into more particular discussion of these points; the intelligent reader can easily fill in what is lacking. If, then, I say, with Solomon: "The Spirit Cimieries teaches logic," what I mean is: "Those portions of my brain which subserve the logical faculty may be stimulated and developed by following out the processes called 'The invocation of Cimieries.'" And this is a purely materialistic rational statement; it is independent of any objective hierarchy at all. Philosophy has nothing to say; and Science can only suspend judgment, pending a proper and methodical investigation of the facts alleged. Unfortunately, we cannot stop there. Solomon promises us that we can (1) obtain information; (2) destroy our enemies; (3) understand the voices of nature; (4) obtain treasure; (5) heal diseases, etc. I have taken these five powers at random; considerations of space forbid me to explain all. (1) Brings up facts from sub-consciousness. (2) Here we come to an interesting fact. It is curious to note the contrast between the noble means and the apparently vile ends of magical rituals. The latter are disguises for sublime truths. "To destroy our enemies" is to realise the illusion of duality, to excite compassion. (Ah! Mr. Waite,<> the world of Magic is a mirror, wherein who sees muck is muck.) (3) A careful naturalist will understand much from the voices of the animals he has studied long. Even a child knows the difference of a cat's miauling and purring. The faculty may be greatly developed. (4) Business capacity may be stimulated. (5) Abnormal states of the body may be {204B} corrected, and the involved tissues brought back to tone, in obedience to currents started from the brain. So for all other phenomena. There is no effect which is truly and necessarily miraculous. Our Ceremonial Magic fines down, then, to a series of minute, though of course empirical, physiological experiments, and whoso will carry them through intelligently need not fear the result. I have all the health, and treasure, and logic I need; I have no time to waste. "There is a lion in the way." For me these practices are useless; but for the benefit of others less fortunate I give them to the world, together with this explanation of, and apology for, them. I trust that the explanation will enable many students who have hitherto, by a puerile objectivity in their view of the question, obtained no results, to succeed; that the apology may impress upon our scornful men of science that the study of the bacillus should give place to that of the baculum, the little to the great -- how great one only realises when one identifies the wand with the Mahalingam,<> up which Brahma flew at the rate of 84,000 yojanas a second for 84,000 mahakalpas, down which Visnu flew at the rate of 84,000 crores of yojanas a second for 84,000 crores of mahakalpas -- yet neither reached an end. But I reach an end. 23. "The criptic Coptic."{#3} -- Vide the Papyrus of Bruce.<> 24. "ANET' AER-k, etc."{#4},-- Invocation of Ra. From the Papyrus of Harris. 26. "MacGregor."{#5} -- The Mage. 29. "Abramelin."{#6} -- The Mage. 32. "Ancient rituals."{#7} -- From the Papyrus of MRS. Harris.<> 33. "Golden Dawn."{#8} -- These rituals were later annexed by Madame Horos,<<"Vide" the daily papers of June-July 1901.>> that superior Swami. The earnest seeker is liable to some pretty severe shocks. To see one's "Obligation" printed in the "Daily Mail!!!" Luckily, I have no nerves. 49. {Two words in Devanagari type with an end of sentence mark in the same} ... ... etc."{#9} -- "Thou, as I, art God ('for this is the esoteric meaning of the common Hindu salutation'). A long road and a heavy price! To know is always a difficult work ... Hullo! Bravo! Thy name (I have seen) is written in the stars. Come with me, pupil! I will give thee medicine for the mind." {205A} Cf. Macbeth: "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?" 58. {One word and end sentence in Devanagari type} "...."{#10} -- Enough. 60. {One word and end sentence in Devanagari type} "...."{#11} -- Why? 60. {Two words and end sentence in Devanagari type} "...."{#12} -- What will be? 61 "Strange and painful attitude."{#13} -- Siddhasana. 62. "He was very rude."{#14} -- The following is a sample: -- "O Devatas! behold this yogi! O Chela! Accursed abode of Tamas art thou! Eater of Beef, guzzling as an Heard of Swine! Sleeper of a thousand sleeps, as an Harlot heavy with Wine! Void of Will! Sensualist! Enraged Sheep! Blasphemer of the Names of Shiva and of Devi! Christian in disguise! Thou shalt be reborn in the lowest Avitchi! Fast! Walk! Wake! these are the keys of the Kingdom! Peace by with thy Beard! Aum!" This sort of talk did me good: I hope it may do as much for you. 63. "With eyes well fixed on my proboscis."{#15} -- See Bhagavad-Gita, Atmasamyamyog. 67. "Brahma-charya."{#16) -- Right conduct, and in particular, chastity in the highest sense. 72. "Baccy."{#17} -- A poisonous plant used by nicotomaniacs in their orgies and debauches. "The filthy tobacco habit," says "Elijah the Restorer" of Zion, late of Sydney and Chicago. That colossal genius-donkey, Shaw, is another of them. But see Calverley. 78. "His hat."{#18} -- It may be objected that Western, but never Eastern, magicians turn their headgear into a cornucopia or Pandora's box. But I must submit that the Hat Question is still "sub judice." Here's a health to Lord Ronald Gower! 86. "Swinburne."{#19} -- "But this thing is God, To be man with thy might To grow straight in the strength of thy spirit, and live out thy life as the light." -- "Hertha." 104. "My big beauty"{#20} -- Pink on Spot; Player, Green, in Hand. But I have "starred" since I went down in "that" pocket. 120. "My Balti coolies."{#21} -- See my "The Higher the Fewer."<> 125. "Eton."{#22) -- A school, noted for its breed of cads. The battle of Waterloo (1815) was won on its playing-fields. 128-30. "I've seen them."{#23} -- Sir J. Maundeville, "Voiage and Travill," ch. xvi., recounts a similar incident, and, Christian as he is, puts a similar poser. 135. "A -- What?"{#24} -- I beg your pardon. It was a slip. 146. "Tahuti."{#25} -- In Coptic, Thoth. {205B} 149. "Ra."{#26} -- The Sun-god. 149. "Nuit."{#27} -- The Star-Goddess. 152. "Campbell."{#28} -- "The waters wild went o'er his child, And he was left lamenting." 152. "The Ibis Head."{#29} -- Characteristic of Tahuti. 157. "Roland's crest."{#30} -- See "Two Poets of Croisic," xci. 159. "A jest."{#31} -- See above: Ascension Day. 162. "A mysterious way."{#32} -- "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm." Intentional species? 171. "The old hymn."{#33} -- This hymn, quoted I fear with some failure of memory -- I have not the documents at hand -- is attributed to the late Baship of Natal, though I doubt this, as the consistent and trustful piety of its sentiment is ill-suited to the author of those disastrous criticisms of the Pentateuch. The hymn is still popular in Durban. Its extraordinary beauty, for a fragment, is only surpassed by Sappho's matchless: -- . -- . -- .. -- . -- . -- . -- .. -- . -- . -- . -- . ' GR:epsilon-nu-nu-epsilon-alpha kappa' epsilon-xi-epsilon . kappa-omicron-nu-tau-alpha . -- -- 185. "How very hard,"{#34} -- "How very hard it is to be A Christian!" -- "Easter Day," I. i. 2. 195. "Scrotapatti."{#35} -- One who has "entered the stream" of Nirvana. For the advantages of so doing, see the appended Jataka story, which I have just translated from a Cingalese Palm-leaf MS. See Appendix I. 228. "You know for me, etc."{#36} -- See Huxley, Hume, 199, 200. 239. "Spirit and matter are the same."{#37} -- See Huxley's reply to Lilly. 273. "I am not what I see."{#38} -- "In Memoriam." But see H. Spencer, "Principles of Psychology," General Analysis, ch. vi. 281. "'Tis lotused Buddha."{#39} -- "Hark! that sad groan! Proceed no further! 'Tis Laurelled Martial roaring murther." -- BURNS, "Epigram." But Buddha cannot really roar, since he has passed away by that kind of passing away which leaves nothing whatever behind. 322. "A mere law without a will."{#40} -- I must not be supposed to take any absurd view of the meaning of the word "law." This passage denies any knowledge of ultimate causes, not asserts it. But it tends to deny benevolent foresight, and "a fortiori" benevolent omnipotence. Cf. Zoroaster, "Oracles:" "Look not upon the {206A} visible image of the Soul of Nature, for her name is Fatality." Ambrosius is very clear on this point. I append his famous MS. complete in its English Translation, as it is so rare. How rare will be appreciated when I say that no copy either of original or translation occurs in the British Museum; the only known copy, that in the Bodleian, is concealed by the pre-Adamite system of cataloguing in vogue at that hoary but unvenerable institution. For convenience the English has been modernised. See Appendix II. 329. "Maya fashioned it."{#41} -- Sir E. Arnold, "Light of Asia." 335. "Why should the Paramatma cease."{#42} -- The Universe is represented by orthodox Hindus as alternating between Evolution and Involution. But apparently, in either state, it is the other which appears desirable, since the change is operated by Will, not by Necessity. 341. "Blavatsky's Himalayan Balm."{#43} -- See the corkscrew theories of A. P. Sinnett in that masterpiece of confusion of thought -- and nomenclature! -- "Esoteric Buddhism." Also see the "Voice of the Silence, or, The Butler's Revenge." Not Bp. Butler. 366. "Ekam Advaita."{#44} -- Of course I now reject this utterly. But it is, I believe, a stage of thought necessary for many or most of us. The bulk of these poems was written when I was an Advaitist, incredible as the retrospect now appears. My revision has borne Buddhist fruits, but some of the Advaita blossom is left. Look, for example, at the dreadfully Papistical tendency of my celebrated essay: AFTER AGNOSTICISM. Allow me to introduce myself as the original Irishman whose first question on landing at New York was, "Is there a Government in this country?" and on being told "Yes," instantly replied, "Them I'm agin it." For after some years of consistent Agnosticism, being at last asked to contribute to an Agnostic organ, for the life of me I can think of nothing better than to attack my hosts! Insidious cuckoo! Ungrateful Banyan! My shame drives me to Semitic analogy, and I sadly reflect that if I had been Balaam, I should not have needed an ass other than myself to tell me to do the precise contrary of what is expected of me. For this is my position; while the postulates of Agnosticism are in one sense eternal, I believe that the conclusions of Agnosticism are daily to be pushed back. We know our ignorance; with that fact we are twitted by those who do not know enough to understand {206B} even what we mean when we say so; but the limits of knowledge, slowly receding, yet never so far as to permit us to unveil the awful and impenetrable adytum of consciousness, or that of matter, must one day be suddenly widened by the forging of a new weapon. Huxley and Tyndall have prophesied this before I was born; sometimes in vague language, once or twice clearly enough; to me it is a source of the utmost concern that their successors should not always see eye to eye with them in this respect. Professor Ray Lankester, in crushing the unhappy theists of the recent "Times" controversy, does not hesitate to say that Science "can never" throw any light on certain mysteries. Even the theist is justified in retorting that Science, if this be so, may as well be discarded; for these are problems which must ever intrude upon the human mind -- upon the mind of the scientist most of all. To dismiss them by an act of will is at once heroic and puerile: courage is as necessary to progress as any quality that we possess; and as courage is in either case required, the courage of ignorance (necessarily sterile, though wanted badly enough while our garden was choked by theological weeds) is less desirable than the courage which embarks on the always desperate philosophical problem. Time and again, in the history of Science, a period has arrived when, gorged with facts, she has sunk into a lethargy of reflection accompanied by appalling nightmares in the shape of impossible theories. Such a nightmare now rides us; once again philosophy has said its last word, and arrived at a deadlock. Aristotle, in reducing to the fundamental contradictions-in-terms which they involved the figments of the Pythagoreans, the Eleatics, the Platonists, the Pyrrhonists; Kant, in his "reductio at absurdum" of the Thomists, the Scotists, the Wolffians, -- all the warring brood, alike only in the inability to reconcile the ultimate antinomies of a cosmogony only grosser for its pinchbeck spirituality; have, I take it, found their modern parallel in the ghastly laughter of Herbert Spencer, as fleshed upon the corpses of Berkeley and the Idealists from Fichte and Hartmann to Lotze and Trendelenburg he drives the reeking fangs of his imagination into the palpitating vitals of his own grim masterpiece of reconcilement, self-deluded and yet self-conscious of its own delusion. History affirms that such a deadlock is invariably the prelude to a new englightenment: by such steps we have advanced, by such we shall advance. The "horror of great darkness" which is scepticism must ever by broken by some heroic master-soul, intolerant of the cosmic agony. {207A} We than await his dawn. May I go one step further, and lift up my voice and prophesy? I would indicate the direction in which this darkness must break. Evolutionists will remember that nature cannot rest. Nor can society. Still less the brain of man. "Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas."<<Horace, "Odes," I. 3.>> We have destroyed the meaning of vetitum nefas and are in no fear of an imaginary cohort of ills and terrors. Having perfected one weapon, reason, and found it destructive to all falsehood, we have been (some of us) a little apt to go out to fight with no other weapon. "FitzJames's blade was sword and shield,"<<Scott, "The Lady of the Lake.">> and that served him against the murderous bludgeon-sword of the ruffianly Highlander he happened to meet; but he would have fared ill had he called a Western Sheriff a liar, or gone off Boer-sticking on Spion Kop. Reason has done its utmost; theory has glutted us, and the motion of the ship is a little trying; mixed metaphor -- excellent in a short essay like this -- is no panacea for all mental infirmities; we must seek another guide. All the facts science has so busily collected, varied as they seem to be, are in reality all of the same kind. If we are to have one salient fact, a fact for a real advance, it must be a fact of a different "order." Have we such a fact to hand? We have. First, what do we mean by a fact of a different order? Let me take an example; the most impossible being the best for our purpose. The Spiritualists, let us suppose, go mad and begin to talk sense. (I can only imagine that such would be the result.) All their "facts" are proved. We prove a world of spirits, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, etc. But, with all that, we are not really one step advanced into the heart of the inquiry which lies at the heart of philosophy, "What 'is' anything?" I see a cat. Dr. Johnson says it is a cat. Berkeley says it is a group of sensations. Cankaracharya says it is an illusion, an incarnation, or God, according to the hat he has got on, and is talking through. Spencer says it is a mode of the unknowable. But none of them seriously doubt the fact that I exist; that a cat exists; that one sees the other. All -- bar Johnson -- hint -- but oh! how dimly! -- at what I now know to be -- "true!" -- no, not necessarily true, but "nearer the truth." Huxley goes deeper in his demolition of Descartes. With him, "I see a cat," proves "something {207B} called consciousness exists." He denies the assertion of duality; he has no datum to assert the denial of duality. I have. Consciousness, as we know it, has one essential quality: the opposition of subject and object. Reason has attacked this and secured that complete and and barren victory of convincing without producing conviction.<<Hume, and Kant in the "Prolegomena," discuss this phenomenon unsatisfactorily. -- A.C.>> It has one quality apparently not essential, that of exceeding impermanence. If we examine what we call steady thought, we shall find that its rate of change is in reality inconceivably swift. To consider it, to watch it, is bewildering, and to some people becomes intensely terrifying. It is as if the solid earth were suddenly swept away from under one, and there were some dread awakening in outer space amid the rush of incessant meteors -- lost in the void. All this is old knowledge; but who has taken steps to alter it? The answer is forbidding: truth compels me to say, the mystics of all lands. Their endeavour has been to slow the rate of change; their methods perfect quietude of body and mind, produced in varied and too often vicious ways. Regularisation of the breathing is the best known formula. Their results are contemptible, we must admit; but only so because empirical. An unwarranted reverence has overlaid the watchfulness which science would have enjoined, and the result is muck and misery, the wreck of a noble study. But what is the one fact on which all agree? The one fact whose knowledge has been since religion began the all-sufficient passport to their doubtfully-desirable company? This: that "I see a cat" is not only an unwarrantable assumption but a lie; that the duality of consciousness ceases suddenly, once the rate of change has been sufficiently slowed down, so that, even for a few seconds, the relation of subject and object remains impregnable. It is a circumstance of little interest to the present essayist that this annihilation of duality is associated with intense and passionless peace and delight; the fact has been a bribe to the unwary, a bait for the charlatan, a hindrance to the philosopher; let us discard it.<<It is this rapture which has ever been the bond between mystics of all shades; and the obstacle to any accurate observation of the phenomenon, its true causes, and so on. This must always be a stumbling-block to more impressionable minds; but there is no doubt as to the fact -- it "is" a fact -- and its present isolation is to be utterly deplored. May I entreat men of Science to conquer the prejudices natural to them when the justly despised ideas of mysticism are mentioned, and to attack the problem "ab initio" on the severely critical and austerely arduous lines which have distinguished their labours in other fields? -- A. C.>> {208A} More, though the establishment of this new estate of consciousness seems to open the door to a new world, a world where the axioms of Euclid may be absurd, and the propositions of Keynes<<Author of a text-book on "Formal Logic.">> untenable, let us not fall into the error of the mystics, by supposing that in this world is necessarily a final truth, or even a certain and definite gain of knowledge. But that a field for research is opened up no sane man may doubt. Nor may one question that the very first fact is of a nature disruptive of difficulty philosophical and reasonable; since the phenomenon does not invoke the assent of the reasoning faculty. The arguments which reason may bring to bear against it are self-destructive; reason has given consciousness the lie, but consciousness survives and smiles. Reason is a part of consciousness and can never be greater than its whole; this Spencer sees; but reason is not even any part of this new consciousness (which I, and many others, have too rarely achieved) and therefore can never touch it: this I see, and this will I hope be patent to those ardent and spiritually-minded agnostics of whom Huxley and Tyndall are for all history-time the prototypes. Know or doubt! is the alternative of highwayman Huxley! "Believe" is not to be admitted; this is fundamental; in this agnosticism can never change; this must ever command our moral as our intellectual assent. But I assert my strong conviction that ere long we shall have done enough of what is after all the schoolmaster work of correcting the inky and ill- spent exercises of the theological dunces in that great class-room, the world; and found a little peace -- while they play -- in the intimate solitude of the laboratory and the passionless rapture of research -- research into those very mysteries which our dunces have solved by rule of thumb; determining the nature of a bee by stamping on it, and shouting "bee"; while we patiently set to work with microscopes, and say nothing till we know, nor more than need be when we do. But I am myself found guilty of this role of schoolmaster: I will now therefore shut the doors and retire again into the laboratory where my true life lies. 403, 405. "Reason and concentration."{#45} -- The results of reasoning are always assailable: those of concentration are vivid and certain, since they are directly presented to consciousness. And they are more certain than consciousness itself, since one who has experienced them may, with consciousness, doubt consciousness, but can in no state doubt them. 412. "Ganesh."{#46} -- The elephant-headed God, son of Shiva and Bhavani. He presides over obstacles. {208B} The prosodist will note the "false quantity" of this word. But this is as it should be, for Ganesha pertains to Shiva, and with Shiva all quantity is false, since, as Parameshvara, he is without quantity or quality. 485. "Carroll."{#47} -- See "Alice in Wonderland," Cap. Ult. 508. "Kusha-grass."{#48} -- The sacred grass of the Hindus. 509. "Mantra."{#49} -- A sacred verse, suitable for constant repetition, with a view to quieting the thought. Any one can see how simple and effective a means this is. 519. "Gayatri."{#50} -- This is the translation of the most holy verse of the Hindus. The gender of Savitri has been the subject of much discussion, and I believe grammatically it is masculine. But for mystical reasons I have made it otherwise. Fool! 557. "Prayer."{#51} -- This fish-story is literally true. The condition was that the Almighty should have the odds of an unusually long line, -- the place was really a swift stream, just debouching into a lake -- and of an unusual slowness of drawing in the cast. But what does any miracle prove? If the Affaire Cana were proved to me, I should merely record the facts: Water may under certain unknown conditions become wine. It is a pity that the owner of the secret remains silent, and entirely lamentable that he should attempt to deduce from his scientific knowledge cosmic theories which have nothing whatever to do with it. Suppose Edison, having perfected the phonograph, had said, "I alone can make dumb things speak; argal, I am God." What would the world have said if telegraphy had been exploited for miracle-mongering purposes? Are these miracles less or greater than those of the Gospels? Before we accept Mrs. Piper,<<A twentieth century medium.>> we want to know most exactly the conditions of the experiment, and to have some guarantee of the reliability of the witnesses. At Cana of Galilee the conditions of the transformation are not stated -- save that they give loopholes innumerable for chicanery -- and the witnesses are all drunk! (thou has kept the good wine "till now: i.e." till men have well drunk -- Greek, mu-epsilon-theta-upsilon-sigma-theta-omega-sigma-iota, "are" well drunk). And I am to believe this, and a glaring "non sequitour" as to Christ's deity, on the evidence, not even of the inebriated eye-witnesses, but of MSS. of doubtful authorship and date, bearing all the ear-marks of dishonesty. For we must not forget that the absurdities of to-day were most cunning proofs for the poor folk of seventeen centuries ago. Talking of fish-stories, read John xxi. 1-6, {209A} or Luke V. 1-7 (comparisons are odious). But once I met a man by a lake and told him that I had toiled all the morning and had caught nothing, and he advised me to try the other side of the lake; and I caught many fish. But I knew not that it was the Lord. In Australia they were praying for rain in the churches. The "Sydney Bulletin" very sensibly pointed out how much more reverent and practical it would be, if, instead of constantly worrying the Almighty about trifles, they would pray once and for all for a big range of mountains in Central Australia, which would of course supply rain automatically. No new act of creation would be necessary; faith, we are expressly told, can remove mountains, and there is ice and snow and especially moraine on and about the Baltoro Glacier to build a very fine range; we could well have spared it this last summer. 579. "So much for this absurd affair."{#52} -- "About Lieutenant-Colonel Flare." -- Gilbert, "Bab Ballads." 636. "Auto-hypnosis.{#53} -- The scientific adversary has more sense than to talk of autohypnosis. He bases his objection upon the general danger of the practice, considered as a habit of long standing. In fact, "Lyre and Lancet." "Recipe for Curried Eggs." The physiologist reproaches Poor Mr. Crowley. "This encroaches Upon your frail cerebral cortex, And turns its fairway to a vortex. Your cerebellium with cockroaches Is crammed; your lobes that thought they caught "X" Are like mere eggs a person poaches. But soon from yoga, business worries, And (frankly I suspect the rubble Is riddled by specific trouble!) Will grow like eggs a person curries." This line, no doubt, requires an answer. "The Last Ditch." First. "Here's a Johnny with a cancer; An operation may be useless, May ever harm his constitution, Or cause his instant dissolution: Let the worm die, 'tis but a goose less!" Not you! You up and take by storm him. You tie him down and chloroform him. You do not pray to Thoth or Horus, But make one dash for his pylorus: -- And if ten years elapse, and he Complains, "O doctor, pity me! Your cruel 'ands, for goodness sakes Gave me such 'orrid stomach-aches. {209B} You write him, with a face of flint, An order for some soda-mint. So Yoga. Life's a carcinoma, Its cause uncertain, not to check. In vain you cry to Isis: "O ma! I've got it fairly in the neck." The surgeon Crowley, with this trocar, Says you a poor but silly bloke are, Advises concentration's knife Quick to the horny growth called life. "Yoga? There's danger in the biz! But, it's the only chance there is!" (For life, if left alone, is sorrow, And only fools hope God's to-morrow.) "Up, Guards, and at 'em!" Second, your facts are neatly put; -- Stay! In that mouth there lurks a foot! One surgeon saw so many claps He thought: "One-third per cent., perhaps, Of mortals 'scape its woes that knock us, And bilk the wily gonococcus." So he is but a simple cynic Who takes the world to match his clinic; And he assuredly may err Who, keeping cats, thinks birds have fur. You say: "There's Berridge, Felkin, Mathers, Hysterics, epileptoids, blathers, Guttersnipe, psychopath, and mattoid, With ceremonial magic that toyed." Granted. Astronomy's no myth, But it produced Piazzi Smyth. What crazes actors? Why do surgeons Go mad and cut up men like sturgeons? (These questions are the late Chas. Spurgeon's.) Of yogi I could quote you hundreds In science, law, art, commerce noted. They fear no lunacy: their one dread's Not for their noddles doom-devoted. They are not like black bulls (that shunned reds In vain) that madly charge the goathead Of rural Pan, because some gay puss Had smeared with blood his stone Priapus. They are as sane as politicians And people who subscribe to missions. This says but little; a long way are Yogi more sane than such as they are. You have conceived your dreadful bogey, From seeing many a raving Yogi. These haunt your clinic; but the sound Lurk in an unsuspected ground, Dine with you, lecture in your schools, Share your intolerance of fools, And, while the Yogi you condemn, Listen, say nothing, barely smile. O if you but suspected them Your silence would match theirs awhile! {210A} "A Classical Research. [Protectionists may serve if the supply of Hottentots gives out.]" I took three hottentots alive. Their scale was one, two, three, four, five, Infinity. To think of men so I could not bear: a new Colenso I bought them to assuage their plight, Also a book by Hall and Knight On Algebra. I hired wise men To teach them six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One of the Hottentots succeeded. Few schoolboys know as much as he did! The others sank beneath the strain: It broke, not fortified, the brain. "The Bard a Brainy Beggar." Now (higher on the Human Ladder) Lodge is called mad, and Crowley madder. (The shafts of Science who may dodge? I've not a word to say for Lodge.) Yet may not Crowley be the one Who safely does what most should shun? "Alpine Analogy." Take Oscar Eckenstein -- he climbs Alone, unroped, a thousand times. He scales his peak, he makes his pass; He does not fall in a crevasse! But if the Alpine Club should seek To follow him on pass or peak -- (Their cowardice, their mental rot, Are balanced nicely -- they will not.) -- I see the Alpine Journal's border Of black grow broader, broader, broader, Until the Editor himself Falls from some broad and easy shelf, And in his death the Journal dies. Ah! bombast, footle, simple lies! Where would you then appear in type? The Poet "retires up." His attitude undignified, his pleasure momentary, the after result quite disproportionate. He contemplates his end." Therefore poor Crowley lights his pipe, Maintains: "The small-shot kills the snipe, But spares the tiger;" goes on joking, And goes on smirking, on invoking, On climbing, meditating, -- failing to think of a suitable rhyme at a critical juncture, Ah! -- goes on working, goes on smoking, Until he goes right on to Woking. 637. "No one suppose me a Saint."{#54} -- On inquiry, however, I find that some do. 638. "Amrita."{#55} -- The Elixir of Life: the Dew of Immortality. {210B} 688. "Christ."{#56} -- See Shri Parananda, "Commentaries on Matthew and John." 695. "Direction x."{#57} -- "Vide supra," "Ascension Day." 710. "Steel-tired."{#58} -- For Dunlop<<WEHNOTE: Maker of automobile rubber tires and inner-tubes.>> people did not know Those nineteen hundred years ago. 723. "Super-consciousness."{#59} -- The Christians also claim an ecstasy. But they all admit, and indeed boast, that it is the result of long periods of worry and anxiety about the safety of their precious souls: therefore their ecstasy is clearly a diseased process. The Yogic ecstasy requires absolute calm and health of mind and body. It is useless and dangerous under other conditions even to begin the most elementary practices. 742. "My Eastern friend."{#69} -- Abdul Hamid, of the Fort, Colombo, on whom be peace. {211A} 755. "Heart."{#61} -- Heart is a trifling misquotation: This poem is for publication. 810. "Mind the dark doorway there!"{#62} -- This, like so many other (perhaps all) lines in these poems, is pregnant with a host of hidden meanings. Not only is it physical, of saying good-bye to a friend: but mental, of the darkness of metaphysics; occult, of the mystical darkness of the Threshold of Initiation; and physiological, containing allusions to a whole group of phenomena, which those who have begun meditation will rocognise. Similarly, a single word may be a mnemonic key to an entire line of philosophical argument. If the reader chooses, in short, he will find the entire mass of Initiated Wisdom between the covers of this unpretending volume. {211B} {Column format is abandoned for the next full page section; resumed after as noted. Marginal notes alternate for even and odd pages, left to right, but these have been kept in even page format in this transcription.} 1902 AMBROSII MAGI HORTUS ROSARUM<<1>> <<1. It would require many pages to give even a sketch of this remarkable document. The Qabalistic knowledge is as authentic as it is profound, but there are also allusions to contemporary occult students, and a certain very small amount of mere absence of meaning. The main satire is of course on the "Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz." A few only of the serious problems are elucidated in footnotes.>> Translated into English by Christeos Luciftias. Printed by W. Black, at the Wheatsheaf in Newgate, and sold at the Three Keys in Nags-head Court, Gracechurch St. Opus. It is fitting that I, Ambrose, called I. A. O., should set down the life of our great Father (who now is not, yet whose name must never be spoken among men), in order that the Brethren may know what journeys he undertook in pursuit of that knowledge whose attainment is their constant study. Prima Materia. It was at his 119th year,<<1>> the Star Suaconch<<2>> A.O. being in the sign of the Lion, that our Father set out from his Castle of Ug<<3>> to attain the Quintessence or Philosophical Tincture. The way being dark and the Custodes.<<4>> Golden Dawn at hand, he did call forth four servants to keep him in the midst of the way, and the Lion roared before him to bid the opposers beware of his coming. On the Bull he rode, and on his left hand and his right marched the Eagle and the Man. But his back was uncovered, seeing that he would not turn. <<1. "I.e." when 118 = change, a ferment, strength. Also = before he was 120, the mystic age of a Rosicrucian.>> <<2. Her-shell= Herschell, or Uranus, the planet which was ascending(in Leo) at Crowley's birth.>> <<3.Vau and Gimel, the Hierophant and High-Priestess in the Tarot. Hence "from his Castle of Ug" means "from his initiation." We cannot in future do more than indicate the allusions.>> <<4. The Kerubim.>> Sapiens dom- And the Spirit of the Path met him. It was a young inabitur astris. girl of two and twenty years, and she warned him fairly that without the Serpent<<See Table of Correspondences.>> his ways were but as wool cast into the dyer's vat. Two-and- twenty scales had the Serpent, and every scale was a path, S. S. D. D. and every path was alike an enemy and a friend. So he set out, and the darkness grew upon him. Yet could he well perceive a young maiden<<The 22nd Key of the Tarot. The other Tarot symbols can be traced by any one who possesses, and to some degree understands, a pack of the cards. The occult views of the nature of these symbols are in some cases Crowley's own.>> having a necklace of two-and- seventy {212} pearls, big and round like the breasts of a sea-nymph; and they gleamed round her like moons. She held in leash the four Beasts, but he strode boldly to her, and kissed her full on her full lips. Wherefore she sighed and fell back a space, and he pressed on. Now at the end of the darkness a fire Intellectus. glowed: she would have hindered him: clung she to his neck and wept. But the fire grew and the light dazzled her; so that with a shriek she fell. But the beasts flung themselves against the burning gateway of iron, and it gave way. Our Father passed into the fire. Some say that it consumed him utterly and that he Deus. died; howbeit, it is certain that he rose from a sarcophagus, and in the skies stood an angel with a trumpet, and on that trumpet he blew so mighty a blast that the dead rose all from their tombs, and our Father among them. "Now away!" he cried. "I would look upon the sun!" And with that the fire hissed like a myriad of serpents and went out suddenly. It was a green sward golden with buttercups; and in his way lay H. et S. V. A. a high wall. Before it were two children, and with obscene gestures they embraced, and laughed aloud, with filthy words and acts unspeakable. Over all of which stood the sun calm and radiant, and was glad to be. Now, think ye well, was our Father perplexed; and he knew not what he would do. For the children left their foulness and came soliciting with shameless words his acquiescence in their sport; and he, knowing the law of courtesy and of pity, rebuked them not. But master ever of himself he abode alone, about and above. So saw he his virginity deflowered, and his thoughts were otherwhere. Now loosed they his body; he bade it leap the wall. The giant flower of ocean bloomed above him! He had fallen headlong into the great deep. As the green and crimson gloom disparted somewhat before his eyes, he was aware of a Beetle that Luna. steadily and earnestly moved across the floor of that Sea unutterable. Him he followed; "for I wit well," thought the Adept, "that he goeth not back to the gross sun of earth. And if the sun hath become a beetle, may the beetle transform into a Quid Umbra- bird." Wherewith he came to land. Night shone by lamp tur in Mari of waning moon upon a misty landscape. Two paths led him to two towers; and jackals howled on either. Now the jackal he knew; and the tower he knew not yet. Not two would he conquer -- that were easy: to victory over one did he aspire. Made he therefore toward the moon. Rough was the hillside and the shadows deep and treacherous; as he advanced the towers seemed to approach one another closer and closer yet. He drew his sword: with a crash they came together; and he fell with wrath upon a single fortress. Three windows had the tower; Deo Duce and against it ten cannons thundered. Eleven bricks Comite Ferro. had fallen dislodged by lightnings: it was no house wherein our Father might abide. But there he must abide. "To destroy it I am come," he said. And though he passed out therewithal, yet 'twas his home Vestigia Nulla until he had attained. So he came to a river, and Retrorsum. sailing to its source he found a fair woman all naked, and she filled the river from two vessels of pure water. "She-devil," he cried, "have I gone back one step?" For the Star Venus burned above. And with his sword he clave her from the head to the feet, that she fell clean asunder. Cried the echo: "Ah! thou hast slain hope now!" Our Father gladdened at {213} that word, and wiping his blade he kissed it and went on, knowing that his luck should now be ill. And ill it was, for a temple was set up in his way, and there he Adest Rosa saw the grisly Goat enthroned. But he knew better than Secreta Eros. to judge a goat from a goat's head and hoofs. And he abode in that temple awhile therefore, and worshipped ten weeks. And the first week he sacrificed to that goat<<The sacrifices are the ten Sephiroth.>> a crown every day. The second a phallus. The third a silver vase of blood. The fourth a royal sceptre. The fifth a sword. The sixth a heart. The seventh a garland of flowers. The eighth a grass-snake. The ninth a sickle. And the tenth week did he daily offer up his own body. Said the goat: "Though I be not an ox, yet am I a sword." "Masked, O God!" cried the Adept. "Verily, an thou hadst not sacrificed --" There was silence. And under the Goat's throne was a rainbow<<See Table.>> of seven colours: Hemaphroditus. our Father fitted himself as an arrow to the string (and the string was waxed well, dipped in a leaden pot wherein boiled amber and wine) and shot through stormy heavens. And they that saw him saw a woman wondrous fair<<Ancient form of the key of HB:Samekh.>> robed in flames of hair, moon- sandalled, sun-belted, with torch and vase of fire and water. And he trailed comet-clouds of glory upward. Thus came our Father (Blessed be his name!) to Death,<<Considered as the agent of resurrection.>> who stood, scythe in hand opposed. And ever and anon he swept round, and men fell before him. "Look," said Death, "my sickle hath a cross-handle. See how they grow like flowers!" "Give me salt!" Mors Janua quoth our Father. And with sulphur (that the Goat had Vitae. given him) and with salt did he bestrew the ground. "I see we shall have ado together," says Death, "Aye!" and with that he lops off Death's cross-handle. Now Death was wroth indeed, for he saw that our Father had wit of his designs (and they were right foul!), but he bade him pass forthwith from his dominion. And our Father could not at that time stay him: though for himself had he cut off the grip, yet for others -- well, let each man take his sword! The way went through a forest. Adeptus. Now between two trees hung a man by one heel (Love was that tree).<<In the true Key of HB:Mem the tree is shaped like the letter HB:Dalet = Venus or love. The figure of the man forms a cross above a triangle, with apex upwards, the sign of redemption.>> Crossed were his legs, and his arms behind his head, that hung ever downwards, the fingers locked. "Who art thou?" quoth our Father. "He that came before thee." "who am I?" "He that cometh after me." With that worshipped our Father, and took a present of a great jewel from him, and went his ways. And he was bitterly a-cold, for that was the great Water he had passed. But our Father's paps glittered with cold, black light, and likewise his navel. Wherefore he was comforted. Now came Terrae Ultor the sudden twittering of heart lest the firmament Anima Terrae. beneath him were not stable, and lo! he danceth up and down as a very cork on waters of wailing. "Woman," he bade sternly, "be still. Cleave that with thy sword: or that must I well work?" But she cleft the cords, bitter-faced, smiling goddess as she was: {214} and he went on. "Leave thine ox-goad,"<<Lamed means ox-goad; Aleph, an ox. Lamed Aleph means No, the denial of Aleph Lamed, El, God,.>> quoth he, "till I come back an ox!" And she laughed and let him pass. Now is our Father come to the Unstable Lands, 'Od wot, for the Wheel whereon he poised was ever turning. Sworded was the Sphinx, but he out-dared her in riddling: deeper pierced his sword: he cut her into twain: her place was his. But that would he not, my Sapientiae Lux Brethren; to the centre he clomb ever: and having won Viris Baculum. thither, he vanished. As an hermit ever he travelled and the lamp and wand were his. In his path a lion roared, but to it ran a maiden, strong as a young elephant, and held its cruel jaws. By force he ran to her: he freed the lion -- one buffet of his hand dashed her back six paces! -- and with another blow smote its head from its body. And he ran to her and by force embraced her. Struggled she and fought him: Femina Rapota savagely she bit, but it was of no avail: she lay Inspirat ravished and exhausted on the Lybian plain. Across the Gaudium. mouth he smote her for a kiss, while she cried: "O! thou has begotten on me twins. And mine also is the Serpent, and thou shalt conquer it and it shall serve thee: and they, they also for a guide!" She ceased; and he, having come to the world's end, prepared his chariot. Foresquare he builded it, and that double: he harnessed the two sphinxes that he had made from one, and sailed, crab-fashion, backwards, through the amber skies of even. Wherefore he attained to see his children. Lovers they were and lovely, those twins of rape. One was above them, joining their hands. "That is well," said our Father, and for seven nights he slept Pleiades. in seven starry palaces, and a sword to guard him. Note well also that these children, and those others, are two, being four. And on the sixth day (for the seven days were past) he rose and came into his ancient temple, a temple of our Holy Order, O my Brethren, wherein sat the Hierophant who had initiated him of old. Now read he well the riddle of the Goat (Blessed be his name among us for ever! Nay, not for ever!), and therewith the Teacher Dignitates. made him a Master of the Sixfold Chamber, and an ardent Sufferer toward the Blazing Star. For the Sword, said the Teacher, is but the Star unfurled.<<Read reverse, the Star [=the Will and the Great Work] is to fold up the Sephiroth; "i.e." to attain Nirvana.>> And our Father being cunning to place Aleph over Tau read this reverse, and so beheld Eden, even now in the flesh. Amicitia. Whence he sojourned far, and came to a great Emperor, by whom the was well received, and from whom he gat great gifts. And the Emperor (who is Solomon) told him of Sheba's Land and of one fairest of women there enthroned. So he journeyed thither, and for four years and seven months abode with her as paramour and light- of-love, for she was gracious to him and Amor. showed him those things that the Emperor had hidden; even the cubical stone and the cross beneath the triangle that were his and unrevealed. And on the third day he left her and came to Her who had Sophia. initiated him before he was initiated; and with her he abode eight days and twenty days:<<The houses of the Moon. All the gifts are lunar symbols.>> and she gave him gifts. {215} The first day, a camel; The second day, a kiss; The third day, a star-glass; The fourth day, a beetle's wing; The fifth day, a crab; The sixth day, a bow; The seventh day, a quiver; The eighth day, a stag; The ninth day, an horn; The tenth day, a sandal of silver; Dona Virginis. The eleventh day, a silver box of white sandal wood; The twelfth day, a whisper; The thirteenth day, a black cat; The fourteenth day, a phial of white gold; The fifteenth day, an egg-shell cut in two; The sixteenth day, a glance; The seventeenth day, an honeycomb; The eighteenth day, a dream; The nineteenth day, a nightmare; The twentieth day, a wolf, black-mussled; The twenty-first day, a sorrow; The twenty-second day, a bundle of herbs; The twenty-third day, a piece of camphor; The twenty-fourth day, a moonstone; The twenty-fifth day, a sigh; The twenty-sixth day, a refusal; Puella Urget The twenty-seventh day, a consent; and the last night Sophiam Sod- she gave him all herself, so that the moon was eclipsed alibus. and earth was utterly darkened. And the marriage of that virgin was on this wise: She had three arrows, yet but two flanks, and the wise men said that who knew two was three,<<3, the number of HB:Gemel. 2, the number of the card HB:Gemel.>> should know three was eight,<<The equality of three and eight is attributed to Binah, a high grade of Theurgic attainment.>> if the circle were but squared; and this also one day shall ye know, my Brethren! And she gave him the great and perfect gift of magic, so that he fared forth right comely and well-provided. Now at that great wedding was The Sophic a Suggler,<<"Scil." Juggler, the 1st Key. The magical Suggler. weapons correspond to the Kerubim.>> a riddler: for he said, "Thou hast beasts: I will give thee weapons one for one." For the lion did our Father win a little fiery wand like a flame, and for his Eagle a cup of ever flowing water: for his Man the Suggler gave him a golden-hilted dagger (yet this was the worst of all his bargains, for it could not strike other, but himself only), while for a curious coin he bartered his good Bull. Alas for our Father! Now the Suggler mocks him and cries: "Four fool's bargains hast thou made, and thou art fit to go forth and meet a fool<<The Key marked 0 and applied to Aleph, 1.>> for thy mate." But our Father counted thrice seven and cried: "One for the fool," seeing {216} the Serpent should be his at last. "None for the fool," they laughed back -- nay, even his maiden queen. For she would not any should know thereof. Yet were all right, both he and they. But truth ran quickly about; for that was the House of Truth; and Mercury Hammer of stood far from the Sun. Yet the Suggler was ever Thor. in the Sign of Sorrow, and the Fig Tree was not far. So went our Father to the Fool's Paradise of Air. But it is not lawful that I should write to you, brethren, of what there came to him at that place and time; nor indeed is it true, if it were written. For alway doth Aracnum. this Arcanum differ from itself on this wise, that the Not and the Amen,<<This is obscure.>> passing, are void either on the one side or the other, and Who shall tell their ways? So our Father, having won the Serpent Crown, the Uraeus of Antient Khem, did bind it upon his head, and rejoiced in that Kingdom for the space of two hundred and thirty and one days<<0 + 1 + 2 + ... + 21 = 231.>> and nights, and turned him toward the Flaming Sword. <<The Sephiroth.>> Now the Sword governeth ten mighty Kingdoms, and evil, and above them is the ninefold lotus, and a virgin came forth unto him in the hour of his rejoicing and propounded her riddle. Griphus I. The first riddle:<<The maiden (Malkuth) is blind (unredeemed). Answer: She shall be what she doth not, "i.e." see. She shall be the sea, "i.e.""exalted to the throne of Binah" (the great sea), the Qabalistic phrase to express her redemption. We leave it to the reader's ingenuity to solve the rest. Each refers to the Sephira indicated by the number, but going upward.>> The maiden is blind. Our Father: She shall be what she doth not. And a second virgin came forth to him and said: Griphus II. The second riddle: Detegitur Yod. Quoth our Fater: The moon is full. Griphus III. So also a third virgin the third riddle: Man and woman: O fountain of the balance! To whom our Father answered with a swift flash of his sword, so swift she saw it not. Griphus IV. Came out a fourth virgin, having a fourth riddle: What egg hath no shell? And our Father pondered a while and then said: On a wave of the sea: on a shell of the wave: blessed be her name! Griphus V. The fifth Virgin issued suddenly and said: I have four arms and six sides: red am I, and gold. To whom our Father: Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani! (For wit ye well, there be two Arcana therein.) Griphus VI. Then said the sixth virgin openly: Power lieth in the river of fire. And our Father laughed aloud and answered: I am come from the waterfall. Griphus VII. So at that the seventh virgin came forth: and her countenance was troubled. The seventh riddle: The oldest said to the most beautiful: What doest thou here? {217} Our Father: And she answered him: I am in the place of the bridge. Go thou up higher: go thou where these are not. Griphus VIII. Thereat was commotion and bitter wailing, and the eighth virgin came forth with rent attire and cried the eighth riddle: The sea hath conceived. Our Father raised his head, and there was a great darkness. Griphus IX. The ninth virgin, sobbing at his feet, the ninth riddle: By wisdom. Then our Father touched his crown and they all rejoiced: but laughing he put them aside and he said: Nay! By six hundred and twenty<<Kether adds up to 620.>> do ye exceed! Griphus X. Whereat they wept, and the tenth virgin came forth, bearing a royal crown having twelve jewels; and she had but one eye, and from that the eyelid had been torn. A prodigious beard had she, and all of white: and they wist he would have smitten her with his sword. But he would not, and she propounded unto him the tenth riddle: Countenance beheld not countenance. So thereto he answered: Our Father, blessed be thou! -- Countenance? Then they brought him the Sword and bade him smite withal: but he said. Culpa Urbium If countenance behold not countenance, then let the Nota Terrae. ten be five. And they wist that he but mocked them; for he did bend the sword fivefold and fashioned therefrom a Star, and they all vanished in that light; yet the lotus abode nine-petalled and he cried, "Before the wheel, the axle." So he chained the Sun,<<These are the letters of Ain Soph Aur, the last two of which he destroys, so as to leave only Ain, Not, or Nothing.>> and slew the Bull, and exhausted the Air, breathing it deep into his lungs: then he broke down the ancient tower, that which he had made his home, will he nill he, for so long, and he slew the other Bull, and he broke the arrow in twain; after that he was silent, for they grew again in sixfold order, so that this latter work was double: but unto the first three he laid not his hand, neither for the first time, nor for the second time, nor for the third time. So to them he added<<To (1+10+50) 3x2 he adds 300, Shin, the flame of the Spirit=666.>> that spiritual flame (for they were one, and ten, and fifty, thrice, and again) and that was the Beast, the Living One that is Lifan. Let us be silent, therefore, my brethren, worshipping the holy sixfold Ox<<666=6x111. 111=Aleph, the Ox.>> that was our Father in his peace that he had won into, and that so hardly. For of this shall no man speak. Now therefore let it be spoken of our Father's journeyings in the land of Vo<<His journeys as Initiator.>> and of his suffering therein, and of the founding of our holy and illustrious Order. Nechesh. Our Father, Brethren, having attained the mature age of three hundred {218} and fifty and eight years,<<Nechesh the Serpent and Messiach the Redeemer.>> set forth upon a journey into the mystic Mountain of the Abiegnus. Caves. He took with him his Son,<<Abigenos, Abiagnus, Bigenos, Abiegnus, metathesis of the name of the Mystic Mountain of Initiation. The next paragraph has been explained in the Appendix to Vol. I.>> a Lamb, Life, and Strength, for these four were the Keys of that Mountain. So by ten days and fifty days and two hundred days and yet ten days he went forth. After ten days fell a thunderbolt, whirling through black clouds of rain: Mysterium after sixty the road split in two, but he travelled on I.N.R.I. both at once: after two hundred and sixty, the sun drove away the rain, and the Star shone in the day-time, making it night. After the last day came his Mother, his Redeemer, and Himself; and joining together they were even as I am who write unto you. Seventeen they were, the three Fathers: with the three Mothers they were thirty-two, and sixfold therein, being as countenance and countenance. Yet, being seventeen, they were but one, and that one none, as before hath been showed. And this enumeration is a great Mysterium of Mysterium our art. Whence a light hidden in a Cross. Now LVX. therefore having brooded upon the ocean, and smitten with the Sword, and the Pyramid being builded in its just proportion, was that Light fixed even in the Vault of the Caverns. With one stroke he rent asunder the Veil; with one stroke he closed the same. And entering Pastos. the Sarcophagus of that royal Tomb he laid him down to sleep. Four guarded him, and One in the four; Seven enwalled him, and One in the seven, yet were the seven ten, and One in the ten. Now therefore his disciples came unto the Vault of that Mystic Mountain, and with the Keys they opened the Portal and came to him and woke him. But during his long sleep the roses had grown over him, crimson and flaming with interior fire, so that he could not escape. Yet they withered at his glance; withat he knew what fearful task was before him. But slaying his disciples with long Nails, he interred them there, so that they were right sorrowful in their hearts. May all we die so! And what further befell him ye shall also know, but not at this time. Going forth of that Mountain he met also the Fool. Trinitas. Then the discourse of that Fool, my Brethren; it shall repay your pains. They think they are a triangle,<<The belief in a Trinity -- ignorance of Daath.>> he said, they think as the Picture-Folk. Base they are, and little infinitely. Ain Elohim. They think, being many, they are one.<<Belief in Monism, or rather Advaitism. Crowley was a Monist only in the modern scientific sense of that word.>> They think as Unitas. the Rhine-folk think. Many and none. Ain Elohim. They think the erect<<Confusion of the various mystic serpents. The Big-Nose-Folk = the Jews. We leave the rest to the insight of the reader.>> is the twined, and Serpentes. the twinedis the coiled, and the coiled is the twin, and the twins are the stoopers. They think as the Big-Nose-Folk. Save us, O Lord! {219} Ain Elohim. Abracadabra. The Chariot. Four hundred and eighteen. Five are one, and six are diverse, five in the midst and three on each side. The Word of Power, double in the Voice of the Master. Ain Elohim. Amethsh. Four sounds of four forces. O the snake hath a long tail! Amen Ain Elohim. Sudden death: thick darkness: ho! the ox! Ye Fylfat One, and one, and one: Creator, Preserver, Destroyer, {symb.: cross}. ho! the Redeemer! Thunder-stone: whirlpool: lotus- flower: ho! for the gold of the sages! Ain Elohim. And he was silent for a great while, and so departed our Father from him. Mysterium Forth he went along the dusty desert and met an Matris. antient woman bearing a bright crown of gold, studded <<This is all with gems, one on each knee. Dressed in rags she was, obscure>> and squatted clumsily on the sand. A horn grew from her forehead; and she spat black foam and froth. Foul was the hag and evil, yet our Father bowed down flat on his face to the earth. "Holy Virgin of God," said he, "what dost thou here? What wilt thou with thy servant?" At that she stank so that the air gasped about her, like a fish brought out of the sea. So she told him she was gathering simples for her daughter that had died to bury Evocatio. her withal. Now no simples grew in the desert. Therefore our Father drew with his sword lines of power in the sand, so that a black and terrible demon appeared squeezing up in thin flat plates of flesh along the sword-lines. So our Father cried: "Simples, O Axcaxrabortharax, for my mother!" Then the demon was wroth and shrieked: "Thy mother to black hell! She is mine! So the old hag confessed straight that she had given her body for love to that fiend of the pit. But our Father paid no heed thereto and bade the demon to do Lucus. his will, so that he brought him herbs many, and good, with which our Father planted a great grove that grew about him (for the sun was now waxen bitter hot) wherein he worshipped, offering in vessels of clay these seven offerings:<<Refer to the planets.>> The first offering, dust; The second offering, ashes; The third offering, sand; The fourth offering, bay-leaves; The fifth offering, gold; The sixth offering, dung; The seventh offering, poison. With the dust he gave also a sickle to gather the harvest of that dust. With the ashes he gave a sceptre, that one might rule them aright. With the sand he gave a sword, to cut that sand withal. With the bay-leaves he gave a sun, to wither them. With the gold he gave also a garland of sores, and that was for luck. With the dung he gave a Rod of Life to quicken it. {220} With the poison he gave also in offering a stag and a maiden. Somnium Auri But about the noon came one shining unto our Father Potabilis. and gave him to drink from a dull and heavy bowl. And this was a liquor potent and heavy, by'r lady! So that our Father sank into deep sleep and dreamed a dream, and in that mirific dream it seemed unto him that the walls of all things slid into and across each other, so that he feared greatly, for the stability of the universe is the great enemy; the unstable being the everlasting, saith Adhou Bin Aram, the Arab. O Elmen Zata, our Sophic Pilaster! Further in the dream there was let down from heaven a mighty tessaract, bounded by eight cubes, whereon sat a mighty dolphin having eight senses. Further, he beheld a cavern full of most ancient bones of men, and therein a lion with a voice of a dog. Then Tredecim came a voice: "Thirteen<<Achad, unity, adds to thirteen. Voces. There follow attributions of the "thirteen times table.">> are they, who are one. Once is a oneness: twice is the Name: thrice let us say not: by four is the Son: by five is the Sword: by six is the Holy Oil of the most Excellent Beard, and the leaves of the Book are by six: by seven is that great Amen." Then our Father saw one hundred and four horses that drove an ivory car over a sea of pearl, and they received him therein and bade him be comforted. With that he awoke and saw that he would have all his desire. In the morning therefore he arose and went his way into the desert. There he clomb an high rock and called forth Ordinis In- the eagles, that their shadow floating over the desert ceptio. should be as a book that men might read it. The shadows wrote and the sun recorded; and on this wise commeth it to pass, O my brethren, that by darkness and by sunlight ye will still learn ever these the Arcana of our Science. Lo! who learneth by moonlight, he is the lucky one! So our Father, having thus founded the Order, and our sacred Book being opened, rested awhile and beheld many wonders, the like of which were never yet told. But ever chiefly his study was to reduce unto eight things his many. And thus, O Brethren of our Venerable Order, he at last succeeded. Those who know not will learn little herein: yet that they may be shamed all shall be put forth at this time clearly before them all, with no obscurity nor obfuscation in the exposition thereof. Writing this, saith our Father to me, the humblest and oldest of all his disciples, write as the story of my Quintessential Quest, my Sagyric Wandering, my Philosophical Going. Write plainly unto the brethren, quoth he, for many be little and weak; and thy hard words and much learning may confound them. Therefore I write thus plainly to you. Mark well that ye read me aright! Vitae. Our Father (blessed be his name!) entered the Path on this wise. He cut off three from ten:<<These are the Buddhist "paths of enlightenment.">> thus he left seven. He cut and left three: he cut and left one: he cut and became. Thus fourfold. Eightfold.<<The eightfold path. The rest is very obscure.>> He opened Viae. his eyes: he cleansed his heart: he chained his tongue: he fixed {221} his flesh: he turned to his trade: he put forth his strength: he drew all to a point: he delighted. Therefore he is not, having become that which he was not. Mark ye all: it is declared. Now of the last adventure of our Father and of his going into the land of Apes, that is, England, and of what he did there, it is not fitting that I, the poor old fool who loved him, shall now discourse. But it is most necessary that I should speak of his holy death and of his funeral and of the bruit thereof, for that is gone into divers lands as a false and lying report, whereby much harm and ill-luck come to the Brethren. In this place, therefore, will I set down the exact truth of all that happened. Mirabilia. In the year of the Great Passing Over were signs and wonders seen of all men, O my Brethren, as it is written, and well known unto this day. And the first sign was of dancing: for every woman that was under the I. Signum. moon began to dance and was mad, so that headlong and hot-mouthed she flung herself down, desirous. Whence II. Signum. the second sign, that of musical inventions; for in that year, and of Rosewomen, came A and U and M,<<Aum! The sacred word.>> the mighty musicians! And the third sign likewise, namely of animals: for in that year III. Signum. every sheep had lambs thirteen, and every cart<<Qy. HB:Chet (the car) becomes O (a wheel). The commentators who have suspected the horrid blasphemy implied by the explanation "becomes HB:Koph , the Wheel of Fortune," are certainly in error.>> was delivered of a wheel! And other wonders Alia Signa. innumerable: they are well known, insomuch that that year is yet held notable. Now our Father, being very old, came unto the venerable Grove of our August Fraternity and abode there. And so old was he and feeble that he could scarce lift his hands in benediction upon us. And all we waited about him, both by day and night; lest one word should fall, and we not hear the same. But he spake never unto us, though his lips moved and his eyes sought ever that which we could not see. At last, on the day of D., the mother of P.,<<Demeter and Persephone.>> he straightened himself up and spake. This his final discourse was written down then by the dying lions in their own blood, traced willingly on the desert sands about the Grove of the Illustrious. Also here set down: but who will confirm the same, let him seek it on the sands. Children of my Will, said our Father, from whose grey eyes fell gentlest tears, it is about the hour. The chariot (Ch.)<<Ch=HB:Chet; H=Hades. See the Tarot cards, and classical mythology, for the symbols.>> is not, and the chariot (H.) is at hand. Yet I, who have been car-borne through the blue air by sphixes, shall never be carried away, not by the whitest horses of the world. To you I have no word to say. All is written in the sacred Book. To that look ye well! Pater Jubet: Ambrose, old friend, he said, turning to me -- and I Scientiam wept ever sore -- do thou write for the little ones, the Scribe. children of my children, for them that understand not easily our high mysteries; for in thy pen is, as it were, a river of clear water; without vagueness, without ambiguity, {222} without show of learning, without needless darkening of counsel and word, dost thou ever reveal the sacred Heights of our Mystic Mountain. For, as for him that understandeth not thy writing, and that easily and well, be ye well assured all that he is a vile man and a losel of little worth or worship; a dog, an unclean swine, a worm of filth, a festering sore in the vitals of earth: such an one is liar and murderer, debauched, drunken, sexless, and spatulate; and ape- dropping, a lousy, flat-backed knave: from such an one keep ye well away! Use hath he little: ornament maketh Sedes Profunda he nothing: let him be cast out on the dunghills beyond Paimonis. Jordan; let him pass into the S. P. P., and that utterly! With that our Father sighed deep and laid back his reverend head, and was silent. But from his heart came a subtle voice of tenderest farewell, so that we knew Oculi Nox him well dead. But for seventy days and seventy nights Secreta. we touched him not, but abode ever about him: and the smile changed not on his face, and the whole grove was filled with sweet and subtle perfumes. Now on the 71st Portae Silen- day arose there a great dispute about his body; for the tium. angels and spirits and demons did contend about it, that Partitio. they might possess it. But our eldest brother V. N. bade all be still; and thus he apportioned the sacred relics of our Father. To the Angel Agbagal, the fore part of the skull; To the demon Ozoz, the back left part of the skull; To the demon Olcot,<<Col. Olcott, the theosophist.>> the back right part of the skull; To ten thousand myriads of spirits of fire, each one hair; To ten thousand myriads of spirits of water, each one hair; To ten thousand myriads of spirits of earth, each one hair; To ten thousand myriads of spirits of air, each one hair; To the archangel Zazelazel, the brain; To the angel Usbusolat, the medulla; To the demon Ululomis, the right nostril; To the angel Opael, the left nostril; To the spirit Kuiphiah, the membrane of the nose; To the spirit Pugrah, the bridge of the nose; To eleven thousand spirits of spirit, the hairs of the nose, one each; To the archangel Tuphtuphtuphal,<<? the spirit of motor- cars.>> the right eye; To the archdevil Upsusph, the left eye; The parts thereof in trust to be divided among their servitors; as the right cornea, to Aphlek; the left, to Urnbal; -- mighty sprits are they, and bold! To the archdevil Rama,<<Vishnu, the preserver.>> the right ear and its parts; To the archangel Umumatis, the left ear and its parts; The teeth to two-and-thirty letters of the sixfold Name: one to the air, and fifteen to the rain and the ram, and ten to the virgin, and six to the Bull; The mouth to the archangels Alalal and Bikarak, lip and lip; The tongue to that devil of all devils Yehowou. <<Jehovah.>> Ho, devil! canst thou speak? {223} The pharynix to Mahabonisbash, the great angel; To seven-and-thirty myriads of legions of planetary spirits the hairs of the moustache, to each one; To ninety and one myriads of the Elohim, the hairs of the beard; to each thirteen, and the oil to ease the world; To Shalach, the arch devil, the chin. So also with the lesser relics; of which are notable only: to the Order, the heart of our Father: to the Book of the Law, his venerable lung-space to serve as a shrine thereunto: to the devil Aot, the liver, to be divided: to the angel Exarp and his followers, the great intestine: to Bitom the devil and his crew, the little intestine: to Aub, Aud, and Aur, the venerable Phallus of our Father: to Ash the little bone of the same: to our children K., C., B., C., G., T., N., H, I., and M., his illustrious finger-nails, and the toe-nails to be in trust for their children after them: and so for all the rest; is it not written in our archives? As to his magical weapons, all vanished utterly at the moment of that Passing Over. Therefore they carried away our Father's body piece by piece and that with reverence and in order, so that there was not left of all one hair, nor one nerve, nor one little pore of the skin. Thus was there no funeral pomp; they that say other are liars and blasphemers against a fame untarnished. May the red plague rot their vitals! Amen. Thus, O my Brethren, thus and not otherwise was the passing Over of that Great and Wonderful Magician, our Father and Founder. May the dew of his admirable memory moisten the grass of our minds, that we may bring forth tender shoots of energy in the Great Work of Works. So mote it be! BENEDICTVS DOMINVS DEVS NOSTER QVI NOBIS DEDIT SIGNVM R.C. {224} 1902 THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS {columns commence} "LISTEN to the Jataka!" said the Buddha. And all they gave ear. "Long ago, when King Brahmadatta reigned in Benares,<<The common formula for beginning a "Jataka," or story of a previous incarnation of Buddha. Brahmadatta reigned 120,000 years.>> it came to pass that there lived under his admirable government a weaver named Suraj Ju<<The Sun.>> and his wife Chandi.<<The Moon.>> And in the fulness of her time did she give birth to a man child, and they called him Perdu' R Abu.<<Perdurabo, Crowley's motto.>> Now the child grew, and the tears of the mother fell, and the wrath of the father waxed: for by no means would the boy strive in his trade of weaving. The loom went merrily, but to the rhythm of a mantra; and the silk slipped through his fingers, but as if one told his beads. Wherefore the work was marred, and the hearts of the parents were woe because of him. But it is written that misfortune knoweth not the hour to cease, and that the seed of sorrow is as the seed of the Banyon Tree. It groweth and is of stature as a mountain, and, ay me! it shooteth down fresh roots into the aching earth. For the boy grew and became a man; and his eyes kindled with the lust of life and love; and the desire stirred him to see the round world and its many marvels. Wherefore he went forth, taking his father's store of gold, laid up for him against that bitter day, and he took fair maidens, and was their servant. And he builded a fine house and dwelt therein. And he took no thought. But he said: Here is a change indeed! {225A} "Now it came to pass that after many years he looked upon his lover, the bride of his heart, the rose of his garden, the jewel of his rosary; and behold, the olive loveliness of smooth skin was darkened, and the flesh lay loose, and the firm breasts drooped, and the eyes had lost alike the gleam of joy and the sparkle of laughter and the soft glow of love. And he was mindful of his word, and said in sorrow, 'Here is then a change indeed!' And he turned his thought to himself, and saw that in his heart, was also a change: so that he cried, 'Who then am I?" And he saw that all this was sorrow. And he turned his thought without and saw that all things were alike in this; that nought might escape the threefold misery. 'The soul,' he said, 'the soul, the I, is as all these; it is impermanent as the ephemeral flower of beauty in the water that is born and shines and dies ere sun be risen and set again.' "And he humiliated his heart and sang the following verse: Brahma, and Vishnu, and great Shiva! Truly I see the Trinity in all things dwell, Some rightly tinged of Heaven, others duly Pitched down the steep and precipice of Hell. Nay, not your glory ye from fable borrow! These three I see in spirit and in sense, These three, O miserable seer! Sorrow, Absence of ego, and impermanence! And at the rhythm he swooned, for his old mantra surged up in the long-sealed vessels of sub-conscious memory, and he fell into the calm ocean of a great Meditation. {225B} II. "Jehjaour<<Allan MacGregor Bennett (whose motto in the "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn," was Iehi Aour, "i.e." "Let there be light"), now Ananda Mettya, to whom the volume in which this story was issued is inscribed.>> was a mighty magician; his soul was dark and evil; and his lust was of life and power and of the wreaking of hatred upon the innocent. And it came to pass that he gazed upon a ball of crystal wherein were shown him all the fears of the time unborn as yet on earth. And by his art he saw Perdu' R Abu, who had been his friend: for do what he would, the crystal showed always that sensual and frivolous youth as a Fear to him: even to him the Mighty One! But the selfish and evil are cowards; they fear shadows, and Jehjaour scorned not his art. 'Roll on in time, thou ball! he cried. 'Move down the stream of years, timeless and hideous servant of my will! Taph! Tath! Arath!'<<Taphtatharath, the spirit of Mercury.>> He sounded the triple summons, the mysterious syllables that bound the spirit to the stone. "Then suddenly the crystal grew a blank; and thereby the foiled wizard knew that which threatened his power, his very life, was so high and holy that the evil spirit could perceive it not. 'Avaunt!' he shrieked, 'false soul of darkness!' And the crystal flashed up red, the swarthy red of hate in a man's cheek, and darkened utterly. "Foaming at the mouth the wretched Jehjaour clutched at air and fell prone. III. "To what God should he appeal? His own, Hanuman, was silent. Sacrifice, prayer, all were in vain. So Jehhaour gnashed his teeth, and his whole force went out in a mighty current of hate towards his former friend. {226A} "Now hate hath power, though not the power of love. So it came about that in his despair he fell into a trance; and in the trance Mara<<The archdevil of the Buddhists.>> appeared to him. Never before had his spells availed to call so fearful a potency from the abyss of matter. 'Son,' cried the Accursed One, 'seven days of hate unmarred by passion milder, seven days without one thought of pity, these avail to call me forth.' 'Slay me my enemy!' howled the wretch. But Mara trembled. 'Enquire of Ganesha concerning him!' faltered at last the fiend. "Jehjaour awoke. IV. "'Yes!' said Ganesha gloomily, 'the young man has given me up altogether. He tells me I am as mortal as he is, and he doesn't mean to worry about me any more.' 'Alas!' sighed the deceitful Jehjaour, who cared no more for Ganesha and any indignities that might be offered him than his enemy did. 'One of my best devotees too!' muttered, or rather trumpeted, the elephantine anachronism. 'You see,' said the wily wizard, 'I saw Perdu' R Abu the other day, and he said he had become Srotapatti. Now that's pretty serious. In seven births only, if he but pursue the path, will he cease to be reborn. So you have only that time in which to win him back to your worship.' The cunning sorcerer did not mention that within that time also must his own ruin be accomplished. 'What do you advise?' asked the irritated and powerful, but unintelligent deity. 'Time is our friend,' said the enchanter. 'Let your influence be used in the Halls of Birth that each birth may be as long as possible. Now the elephant is the longest lived of all beasts --' 'Done with you!' said Ganesha in great glee, for the idea struck him as ingenious. And he lumbered off to clinch the affair at once. "And Perdu' R Aby died. {226B} V. "Now the great elephant strode with lordly footsteps in the forest, and Jehhaour shut himself up with his caldrons and things and felt quite happy, for he knew his danger was not near till the approaching of Perdu' R Abu's Arahatship. But in spite of the young gently-ambling cows which Ganesha took care to throw in his way, in spite of the tender shoots of green and the soft cocoanuts, this elephant was not as other elephants. The seasons spoke to him of change -- the forest is ever full of sorrow -- and nobody need preach to him the absence of an ego, for the brutes have had more sense than ever to imagine there was one. So the tusker was usually to be found, still as a rock, in some secluded place, meditating on the Three Characteristics. And when Ganesha appeared in all his glory, he found him to his disgust quite free from elephantomorphism. In fact, he quietly asked the God to leave him alone. "Now he was still quite a young elephant when there came into the jungle, tripping merrily along, with a light-hearted song in its nucleolus, no less than a Bacillus. "And the elephant died. He was only seventeen years old. VI. "A brief consultation; and the Srotapatti was reincarnated as a parrot. For the parrot, said the wicked Jahjaour, may live 500 years and never feel it. "So a grey wonder of wings flitted into the jungle. So joyous a bird, thought the God, could not but be influenced by the ordinary passions and yield to such majesty as his own. "But one day there came into the jungle a strange wild figure. He was a man dressed in the weird Tibetan fashion. He had red robes and hat, and thought dark things. He {227A} whirled a prayer-wheel in his hands; and ever as he went he muttered the mystic words 'Aum Mani Padme Hum.'<<"O the jewel in the Lotus! Aum!" The most famous of the Buddhist formularies.>> The parrot, who had never heard human speech, tried to mimic the old Lama, and was amazed at his success. Pride first seized the bird, but it was not long before the words had their own effect, and it was in meditation upon the conditions of existence that he eternally repeated the formula. * * * "At home at distant Inglistan. An old lady, and a grey parrot in a cage. The parrot was still muttering inaudibly the sacred mantra. Now, now, the moment of Destiny was at hand! The Four Noble Truths shone out in that parrot's mind; the Three Characteristics appeared luminous, like three spectres on a murderer's grave: unable to contain himself he recited aloud the mysterious sentence. "The old lady, whatever may have been her faults, could act promptly. She rang the bell. 'Sarah!' said she, 'take away that dreadful creature! Its language is positively awful.' 'What shall I do with it, mum?' asked the 'general.' 'Aum Mani Padme Hum,' said the parrot. The old lady stopped her ears. 'Wring its neck!' she said. "The parrot was only eight years old. VII. "'You're a muddler and an idiot!' said the infuriated God. 'Why not make him a spiritual thing? A Nat<<The Burmese name for an elemental spirit.>> lives 10,000 years.' 'Make him a Nat then!' said the magician, already beginning to fear that fate would be too strong for him, in spite of all his cunning. 'There's some one working against us on the physical plane. We must transcend it.' No sooner said than done: {227B} a family of Nats in a big tree at Anuradhapura had a little stranger, very welcome to Mamma and Papa Nat. "Blessed indeed was the family. Five-and-forty feet<<The Government, in the interests of Buddhists themselves, reserves all ground within 50 feet of a dagoba. The incident described in this section actually occurred in 1901.>> away stood a most ancient and holy dagoba: and the children of light would gather round it in the cool of the evening, or in the misty glamour of dawn, and turn forth in love and pity towards all mankind -- nay, to the smallest grain of dust tossed on the utmost storms of the Sahara! "Blessed and more blessed! For one day came a holy Bhikkhu from the land of the Peacock,<<Siam.>> and would take up his abode in the hollow of their very tree. And little Perdu' R Abu used to keep the mosquitoes away with the gossimer of his wings, so that the good man might be at peace. "Now the British Government abode in that land, and when it heard that there was a Bhikkhu living in a tree, and that the village folk brought him rice and onions and gramophones, it saw that it must not be. "And little Perdu' R Abu heard them talk; and learnt the great secret of Impermanence, and of Sorrow, and the mystery of Unsubstantiality. "And the Government evicted the Bhikkhu; and set guard, quite like the end of Genesis iii., and cut down the tree, and all the Nats perished. "Jehhaour heard and trembled. Perdu' R Abu was only three years old. VIII. "It really seemed as if fate was against him. Poor Jehjaour! In despair he cried to his partner, 'O Ganesha, in the world of Gods only shall we be safe. Let him be born as a flute-girl before Indra's throne!' 'Difficult is the task,' replied the alarmed deity, 'but I will use all my influence. I {228A} know a thing or two about Indra, for example --' "It was done. Beautiful was the young girl's face as she sprang mature from the womb of Matter, on her life-journey of an hundred thousand years. Of all Indra's flute-girls she played and sang the sweetest. Yet ever some remembrance, dim as a pallid ghost that fleets down the long avenues of deodar and moonlight, stole in her brain; and her song was ever of love and death and music from beyond. "And one day as she sang thus the deep truth stole into being and she knew the Noble Truths. So she turned her flute to the new song, when -- horror! -- there was a mosquito in the flute. 'Tootle! Tootle!' she began. 'Buzz! Buzz!' went her delicate tube. "Indra was not unprovided with a disc.<<A whirling disc is Indra's symbolic weapon.>> Alas! Jehjaour, art thou already in the toils? She had only lived eight months. IX. "'How you bungle!' growled Ganesha. 'Fortunately we are better off this time. Indra has been guillotined for his dastardly murder; so his place is vacant.' 'Eurekas!' yelled the magus, 'his very virtue will save him from his predecessor's fate.' "Behold Perdu' R Abu then as Indra! But oh, dear me! what a memory he was getting! 'It seems to me,' he mused, 'that I've been changing about a lot lately. Well, I am virtuous -- and I read in Crowley's new translation of the Dhammapada<<He abandoned this. A few fragments are reprinted, "supra.">> that virtue is the thing to keep one steady. So I think I may look forward to a tenure of my mahakalpa in almost Arcadian simplicity. Lady Bhavani, did you say, boy? Yes, I am at home. Bring the betel!' 'Jeldi!' he added, with some dim recollection of the {228B} British Government, when he was a baby Nat. "The Queen of Heaven and the Lord of The Gods chewed betel for quite a long time, conversed of the weather, the crops, the affair Humbert, and the law in relation to motor-cars, with ease and affability. But far was it from Indra's pious mind to flirt with his distinguished guest! Rather, he thought of the hollow nature of the Safe, the change of money and of position; the sorrow of the too confiding bankers, and above all the absence of an Ego in the Brothers Crawford. "While he was thus musing, Bhavani got fairly mad at him. The Spretae Injuria Formae gnawed her vitals with pangs unassuagable: so, shaking him quite roughly by the arm, she Put It To Him Straight. 'O madam!' said Indra. "This part of the story has been told before -- about Joseph; but Bhavani simply lolled her tongue out, opened her mouth, and gulped him down at a swallow. "Jehjaour simply wallowed. Indra had passed in seven days. X. "There is only one more birth,' he groaned. 'This time we must win or die.' 'Goetia<<The world of black magic.>> expects every God to do his duty,' he excitedly lunographed to Swarga.<<Heaven.>> But Ganesha was already on his way. "The elephant-headed God was in great spirits. 'Never say die!' he cried genially, on beholding the downcast appearance of his fellow-conspirator. 'This'll break the slate. There is no change in the Arupa-Brahma-Loka!'<<The highest heaven of the Hindu. "Formless place of Brahma" is its name.>> 'Rupe me no rupes!' howled the necromancer. 'Get up, fool!' roared the God. 'I have got Perdu' R Abu elected Maha Brahma.' 'Oh Lord, have you really?' said the wizard, looking a little {229A} less glum. 'Ay!' cried Ganesha impressively, 'let Aeon follow Aeon down the vaulted and echoing corridors of Eternity: pile Mahakalpa upon Mahakalpa until an Asankhya<<"Innumerable," the highest unit of the fantastic Hindu arithmetic.>> of Crores<<10,000.>> have passed away: and Maha Brahma will still sit lone and meditate upon his lotus throne.' 'Good, good!' said the magus, 'though there seems a reminiscence of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Light of Asia somewhere. Surely you don't read Edwin Arnold?' 'I do,' said the God disconsolately, 'we Hindu Gods have to. It's the only way we can get any clear idea of who we really are.' "Well, here was Perdu' R Abu, after his latest fiasco, installed as a Worthy, Respectable, Perfect, Ancient and Accepted, Just, Regular Mahabrahma. His only business was to meditate, for as long as he did this, the worlds -- the whole systems of 10,000 worlds -- would go on peaceable. Nobody had better read the lesson the the Bible -- the horrible results to mankind of ill-timed, though possibly well-intentioned, interference on the part of a deity. "Well, he curled himself up, which was rather clever for a formless abstraction, and began. There was a grave difficulty in his mind -- an obstacle right away from the word 'Jump!' Of course there was really a good deal: he didn't know where the four elements ceased, for example:<<See the witty legend in the Questions of King Milinda.>> but his own identity was the real worry. The other questions he could have stilled; but this was too near his pet Chakra.<<Meditation may be performed on any of seven "Chakra" (wheels or centres) in the body.>> 'Here I am,' he meditated, 'above all change; and yet an hour ago I was Indra; and before that his flute-girl; and then a Nat; and then a parrot; and then a Hathi --" Oh, the Hathis pilin' teak in the sludgy, squdgy creek!" sang Parameshvara. Why, it goes {229B} back and back, like a biograph out of order, and there's no sort of connection between one and the other. Hullo, what's that? Why, there's a holy man near that Bo-Tree. He'll tell me what it all means.' Poor silly old Lord of the Universe! Had he carried his memory back one more step he'd have known all about Jehjaour and the conspiracy, and that he was a Srotapatti and had only one more birth; and might well have put in the 311,040,000,000,000 myriads of aeons which would elapse before lunch in rejoicing over his imminent annihilation. "'Venerable Sir!' said Mahabrahma, who had assumed the guise of a cowherd, 'I kiss your worshipful Trilbies:<<Feet.>> I prostrate myself before your estimable respectability.' 'Sir,' said the holy man, none other than Our Lord Himself! 'thou seekest illumination!' Mahabrahma smirked and admitted it. 'From negative to positive,' explained the Thrice-Honoured One, 'though Potential Existence eternally vibrates the Divine Absolute of the Hidden Unity of processional form masked in the Eternal Abyss of the Unknowable, the synthetical hieroglyph of an illimitable, pastless, futureless PRESENT. "'To the uttermost bounds of space rushes the voice of Ages unheard of save in the concentrated unity of the thought-formulated Abstract; and eternally that voice formulates a word which is glyphed in the vast ocean of limitless life.<<This astonishing piece of bombastic drivel is verbatim from a note by S. L. Mathers to the "Kabbalah Unveiled.">> Do I make myself clear?' 'Perfectly. Who would have thought it was all so simple?' The God cleared his throat, and rather diffidently, even shamefacedly, went on: "'But what I really wished to know was about my incarnation. How is it I have so suddenly risen from change and death to the unchangeable?' "'Child!' answered Gautama, 'your facts are wrong -- you can hardly expect to make {230A} correct deductions.' 'Yes, you can, if only your logical methods are unsound. That's the Christian way of getting truth.' 'True!' replied the sage, 'but precious little they get. Learn, O Mahabrahma (for I penetrate this disguise), that all existing things, even from thee unto this grain of sand, possess Three Characteristics. These are Mutability, Sorrow, and Unsubstantiality.' "'All right for the sand, but how about Me? Why they "define" me as unchangeable.' You can define a quirk as being a two-sided triangle,' retorted the Saviour, 'but that does not prove the actual existence of any such oxymoron.<<A contradiction in terms.>> The truth is that you're a very spiritual sort of being and a prey to longevity. Men's lives are so short that yours seems eternal in comparison. But -- why, "you're" a nice one to talk! You'll be dead in a week from now.' "'I quite appreciate the force of your remarks!' said the seeming cowherd; 'that about the Characteristics is very clever; and curiously enough, my perception of this has always just preceded my death for the last six goes. "'Well, so long, old chap,' said Gautama, 'I must really be off. I have an appointment with Brother Mara at the Bo-Tree. He has promised to introduce his charming daughters --' "'Good-by, and don't do anything rash!' "Rejoice! our Lord wended unto the Tree!<<Arnold, "Light of Asia.">> As blank verse this scans but ill, but it clearly shows what happened. XI. "The 'Nineteenth Mahakalpa' brought out its April Number. There was a paper by Huxlananda Swami. "Mahabrahma had never been much more than an idea. He had only lived six days. {230B} XII. "At the hour of the great Initiation," continued the Buddha, in the midst of the Five Hundred Thousand Arahats, "the wicked Jehjaour had joined himself with Mara to prevent the discovery of the truth. And in Mara's fall he fell. At that moment all the currents of his continued and concentrated hate recoiled upon him and he fell into the Abyss of Being. And in the Halls of Birth he was cast out into the Lowest Hell -- he became a clergyman of the Church of England, further than he had ever been before from Truth and Light and Peace and Love; deeper and deeper enmeshed in the net of Circumstance, bogged in the mire of Tanha<<Thirst: "i.e." desire in its evil sense.>> and Avi"gg"a<<Ignorance.>> and all things base and vile. False Vichi-Kichi<<Doubt.>> had caught him at last! XIII. "Aye! The hour was at hand. Perdu' R Abu was reincarnated as a child of Western parents, ignorant of all his wonderful past. But a strange fate has brought him to this village." The Buddha paused, probably for effect. A young man there, sole among all them not yet an Arahat, turned pale. He alone was of Western birth in all that multitude. "Brother Abhavananda,<<"Bliss-on-non-existence." One of Crowley's eastern names.>> little friend," said the Buddha, "what can we predicate of all existing things?" "Lord!" replied the neophyte, "they are unstable, everything is sorrow, in them is no inward Principle, as some pretend, that can avoid, that can hold itself aloof from, the forces of decay." "And how do you know that, little Brother?" smiled the Thrice-Honoured One. "Lord, I perceive this Truth whenever {231A} I consider the Universe. More, its consciousness seems ingrained in my very nature, perhaps through my having known this for many incarnations. I have never thought otherwise." "Rise, Sir Abhavananda, I dub thee Arahat!" cried the Buddha, striking the neophyte gently on the back with the flat of his ear.<<The Buddha had such long ears that he could cover the whole of his face with them. Ears are referred to Spirit in Hindu symbolism, so that the legend means that he could conceal the lower elements and dwell in this alone.>> And he perceived. When the applause of praise and glory had a little faded, the Buddha, in that golden delight of sunset, explained these marvellous events. "Thou, Abhavananda," he said, "art the Perdu' R Abu of my lengthy tale. The wicked Jehhaour has got something lingering with boiling oil in it, while waiting for his clerical clothes: while, as for me, I myself was the Bacillus in the forest of Lanka: I was the old Lady: I was (he shuddered) the British Government: I was the mosquito that buzzed in the girl's flute: I was Bhavani: I was Huxlananda Swami; and at the last, at this blessed hour, I am -- that I am." "But, Lord," said the Five Hundred Thousand and One Arahats in a breath, "thou art then guilt of six violent deaths! Nay, thou hast hounded one soul from death to death through all these incarnations! What of this First Precept<<Here is the little rift within the lute which alienated Crowley from active work on Buddhist lines; the orthodox failing to see his attitude.>> of yours?" "Children," answered the Glorious One, "do not be so foolish as to think that death is necessarily an evil. I have not come to found a Hundred Years Club, and to include mosquitoes in the membership. In this case to have kept Perdu' R Abu alive was to have played into the hands of his enemies. My First Precept is merely a general rule.<<A more likely idea than the brilliantly logical nonsense of Pansil, "supra.">> In {231B} the bulk of cases one should certainly abstain from destroying life, that is, wantonly and wilfully: but I cannot drink a glass of water without killing countless myriads of living beings. If you knew as I do, the conditions of existence: struggle deadly and inevitable, every form of life the inherent and immitigable foe of every other form, with few, few exceptions, you would not only cease to talk of the wickedness of causing death, but you would perceive the First Noble Truth, that no existence can be free from sorrow; the {232A} second, that the desire for existence only leads to sorrow; that the ceasing from existence is the ceasing of sorrow (the third); and you would seek in the fourth the Way, the Noble Eightfold Path. "I know, O Arahats, that you do not need this instruction: but my words will not stay here: they will go forth and illuminate the whole system of ten thousand worlds, where Arahats do not grow on every tree. Little brothers, the night is fallen: it were well to sleep." {232B} 1902 HB:Bet-Resh-Aleph-Shin-Yod-Taw AN ESSAY IN ONTOLOGY WITH SOME REMARKS ON CEREMONIAL MAGIC {columns commence} HB:Bet-Resh-Aleph-Shin-Yod-Taw O Man, of a daring nature, thou subtle production! Thou wilt not comprehend it, as when understanding some common thing. ORACLES OF ZOROASTER. In presenting this theory of the Universe to the world, I have but one hope of making any profound impression, viz. -- that my theory has the merit of explaining the divergences between three great forms of religion now existing in the world -- Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, and of adapting them to ontological science by conclusions not mystical but mathematical. Of Mohammedanism I shall not now treat, as, in whatever light we may decide to regard it (and its esoteric schools are often orthodox), in any case it must fall under one of the three heads of Nihilism, Advaitism, and Dvaitism. Taking the ordinary hypothesis of the universe, that of its infinity, or at any rate that of the infinity of God, or of the infinity of some substance or idea actually existing, we first come to the question of the possibility of the co-existence of God and man. The Christians, in the category of the existent, enumerate among other things, whose consideration we may discard for the purposes of this argument, God, an infinite being; man; Satan and his angels; man certainly, Satan presumably, finite beings. These are not aspects of one being, but separate and even antagonistic existences. All are equally real: we cannot accept {233A} mystics of the type of Caird as being orthodox exponents of the religion of Christ. The Hindus enumerate Brahm, infinite in all dimensions and directions -- indistinguishable from the Pleroma of the Gnostics -- and Maya, illusion. This is in a sense the antethesis of noumenon and phenomenon, noumenon being negated of all predicates