CHAPTER III




This chapter is attributed to Water; it deals with the preliminary reflections of Truth as apprehended by intuition, beyond any intellectual apprehension; and with the nature of the Understanding and the sexual instinct.



1 - 2




The sea is the Sensorium of the Soul, and the currents his tendencies -- those activities in which he finds pleasure. Until one has passed through the totality of possible experience (as divined by estimation of the actualities available in one's own case) one cannot reach the state in which all Desire is recognized as futile. Only when this is fixed can one perceive the Unicorn -- de Astris -- the single pure Purpose (it is white) whose name is written in the way now to be explained.

The collar represents completeness -- the ``infinity'' or ``eternity'' symbolized by a ring. It is round the neck, i.e., the seat of knowledge (Death -- the Visuddhi cakkra) and made of silver -- the metal of the Virgin Isis-Urania, who informs Pure Aspirations.

The name of this Unicorn (whose horn signifies the creative power) is ``The Green Line winds about the Universe.'' Note the etymology of Viridis, connected with vir and vis; also the idea of gyrat, reminding one of the aphorism ``God is He with the Head of the Hawk, having a spiral force.''

The Green Line, here chosen to connote the Limit of the Universe, suggests the Girdle of Venus. The boundary of Existence is thus not a fixed idea, but an ever-growing Vegetable Principle of Life, of the nature of Love. Summing up the doctrine, one may say that the intelligible expression of the pure creative Idea is the omniform principle of Growth.



3




The Angel then speaks to the human consciousness of the Adept through the medium of his Initiated Self -- otherwise he could not understand so exalted a message. He bids the man as a man (the heart, Tiphereth, the seat of the conscious Ego) acquire the point of view of the Initiate. The old serpent represents the natural Desire, which is the ``cause of Sorrow,'' binds man to grovel in the dust, and unites him with base animal life.



4




Than, Theli, and Lilith are three serpentine forms described in the Qabalah. Than is really Tanha -- no pun is suggested, but Th is the letter of Matter, and N represents the reptilian or piscian idea of Life. It is connected with the ``Gluten in the blood'' which von Eckharthausen calls ``the body of sin.''

Theli: li means secret satisfaction -- an idea connected with shame.

Lilith: li reduplicated and so become tedious ending in material darkness.



5 - 12




The Adept analyses this Demon-Queen of his Nephesch. He recalls her sensory appeal, and notes that, the dissolution of all things being inevitable, the love of them leads to sorrow and destruction. In verses 11 - 12, furthermore, he shows that apart from all considerations of time, the nature of this Desire, properly apprehended, is corruption.



13 - 14




It is useless to ask the Angel to free the Adept from such coercion; his magical force, which is necessary for this Work, is prevented by Desire from so much as beginning.



15




The Adept invokes Ganesha, who represents the power of breaking down obstructions. The elephant, ``the half-reasoner with the hand,'' is the moral force in man, partly intelligent and docile to the control of its Spiritual Master.



16




This moral force brought into action, the Angel also becomes an efficient assistant, and the constraint of Desire disappears altogether.



17




The Adept now realizes himself as bounded only by the Green Line of verse 2.



18




This Line is recognized as equivalent to the Negative -- to Nuith Herself.



19 - 20




This idea of Pure Love is free from all bonds; it gives the true utmost gratification; its perfume (spiritual significance) is not mingled with any imperfect conception. (Ambergris is the perfume of Kether; musk refers to Love in a somewhat animal sense.)



20




The Angel also is identified with this Green Line, and thereby the consciousness of the Adept expands to include the Universe.



21 - 26




The idea of the Ego must not be used to unite the experience of the Adept. The music of life ceases (in such a case) whenever doubt darkens, trouble disturbs, or time wearies the consciousness. The Adept must lose himself wholly in the consciousness of his Angel, which is beyond all such limitations and immune to all attachments -- for He is not to be expressed by any fixed Image, such as might be destroyed.



27 - 30




The Adept learns to control all varieties of image with present themselves, and to create any he may wish, but his Angel represents the Ideal which is his limit in this matter. All ideas of which he may be capable are comprised in the nature of his Angel.



28 - 29




These verses are especially obscure, and must to a certain extent so remain. For they contain an allusion to the most secret and critical issue of the Magical career of ;gkTO MEGA OHPION. ``The red three-angled heart'' is the peculiar symbol of Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and the Prophet objected to accepting the Book of the Law, which proclaims Him, as being incompatible with his Oath to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel. Not until nineteen years later did he fully realize that the Holy Guardian Angel was concealed in this symbol R.H.K. but with ostensibly hostile glyphs. He is to be found in all phenomena soever.



31 - 32




In whatever direction the Adept chooses to move, he must come eventually to his Angel. All that he sees is but a veil upon His Face.



33 - 36




This passage, purely lyrical, requires no special comment. It asserts the ultimate identity of all Ideas with the Angel, including himself, whom he recognizes as united with Him in the triune relation of Father, Ruler, and Bride-groom, the source of his Being, the determinant of his Will, and the inspiration of his Joy and his Fertility.



37




The dog is the base animal nature -- ``red'' the symbol of its energy, sensibility, and power to love. It is helpless (on the knees of) the surrounding Mystery of Existence (the Unknown) but it remains still and trusts.



38




The Angel replaces this attitude by full satisfaction and nourishment. It is in Him that the Adept lives, and His life that intoxicates him.



39




The enemy Time has been devoured, and the limited Ego dissolved in Infinity.



40 - 48



40




The reference is to the Marquise de Brinvilliers; she represents the Nephesch or animal Soul. This Soul has tried to satisfy its passions in various strange ways.



41




Hatred for other souls -- pain of receiving truths.



42




This ends in her unity being destroyed by Change. She has been bound to the cycle of Samsara by the Minister of Justice.



43




Her solidity can no longer resist the action of Purity; her complexes are invaded by the Universal Solvent. Her resistance is extreme torment.



44




Finally it breaks up her coherence, and her sense of self crumbles and dissolves in the boundless Ocean of Love.



45 - 46




The text confirms this interpretation of Initiation as equivalent to extended psychoanalysis.



47




The life of the Ego is dispersed over all salient ideas. The ravens are the birds of Netzach the sphere of Venus, i.e., the life of the Adept is carried away aloft by Universal Love.



48




This process leads to the full crossing of the Abyss -- for which see Liber 418 and Liber VII.



49 - 50




The above ideas are here repeated in another symbol. The ``fount'' is Salmacis. The positive Individuality becomes the Universal and perfect Virgin of the World. See again Liber 418.



51 - 52




A lyrical outburst on this theme. Note Nuit, and the new True Self born of Her, not the old False Ego which is annihilated.



53

The reference is to Atu XVII. The butterfly is the Neschamah (pure ;gk[...]). Its nature is that of a being separated momentarily and painlessly from Nuit.



54




The stream of souls (stars) flows ever toward Nuit; i.e., each man and woman has the same True Will -- to regain its original Mother.



55




The above is declared to be a Mystery of the Atu XII. The ``drowning'' of the Adept transforms the Trance of Sorrow into that of Love. The Angel is seen as a positive symbol of this ``Great Sea.''



56




By His Knowledge and Conversation this transmutation is accomplished.



57 - 59




The ``foolish man'' is the natural man, the uninitiate. ``Foolish'' is empty, vain full of wind (A = ;heA = the Fool). He is contrasted with ``The Great Fool'' Atu 0, ;heA who is the first path from Kether. (Explain and give references).



57




This man cannot be brought to perfection, for he is composed of Qliphoth or excrement. His emancipation is from just such parts of his being; they are not of his essence.



58




The Adept identifies himself with this Pure Fool. He is indifferent to the Illusion of Phenomenal existence caused by the Magician (Pekht, Extension, Atu I, ;heB, 2, ;pl;ME Mayan).

The woman of the Mysteries (Isis, Atu II, ;heG, 3, ;plMO) does not spoil his purity with her phantastic reflections of Truth.

He is no more at the mercy of the Empress Atu III, The Emperor Atu IV, ;heT, 90, ;zoA and the Hierophant Atu V, ;heV, 6, ;zoT.

That is, neither the subtle distinctions (I, II) of Truth nor their gross images (III, IV, V) injure his perfection of Zero.



59




It follows that the symbols of Royalty and Spirituality are now equivalent to those of plastic life (;zoA and ;zoS) and vibratory manifestation.

The gallows is found in Atu XII, ;heM, 40, ;atW (Cf verse 55) and on it is suspended, free from earth, the joyously moving (''dance'') form of the extended or manifested man (Atu VIII, ;pl;SU, 30, ;zoL the positive or expressed form of Atu 0, ;heA Aleph and Lamed the Key of CCXX).



60 - 61




(These verses might be read as Strophe and Antistrophe; but before when the Angel speaks, we are told so.)

The ``black shining waters'' are those of the Akasa, the menstruum of manifestation: the ``pearl'' is the rounded perfection of the Angel, who is thus a tangible symbol of the Formlessness of Nuit. (For ``black,'' again, see I:18 - 20.)



62




Although thus ultimate, the Angel is also in close tough with the Man. This explains the policy of 666, as outlined below. (Quote China Record, my G.W.)



63




The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel represents the supreme need, and its attainment coincides with the final destruction of Desire (in the Buddhist sense).



64 - 65




The chapter ends with an outburst of lyrical exaltation. ``Every number is infinite; there is no difference.'' ``Now therefore I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing and any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.'' (Liber CCXX I:4 and 22.)

The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel resolves all thought into the identity of insignificance. He exists equally in the Unity of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and in every detail of phenomenal manifestation.