|
Aleister
Crowley |
Preface:
The Law
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
In righteousness of hear come
hither, and listen: for it is I, TO MEGA THERION, who gave this Law unto everyone that
holdeth himself holy. It is I, not another, that willeth your whole Freedom, and the
arising within you of full Knowledge and Power.
Behold! the Kingdom of God is within you, even as the Sun standeth eternal in the heavens,
equal at midnight and at noon. He riseth not: he setteth not: it is but the shadow of the
earth which concealeth him, or the clouds upon her face.
Let me then declare unto you this Mystery of the Law, as it hath been made known unto me
in divers places, upon the mountains and in the deserts, but also in great cities, which
thing I speak for your comfort and good courage. And so be it unto all of you.
Know first, that from the Law spring four Rays or Emanations: so that if the Law be the
centre of your own being, they must needs fill you with their secret goodness. And these
four are Light, Life, Love, and Liberty.
By Light shall ye look upon yourselves, and behold All Things that are in Truth One Thing
only, whose name hath been called No Thing for a cause which later shall be declared unto
you. But the substance of Light is Life, since without Existence and Energy it were
naught. By Life therefore are you made yourselves, eternal and incorruptible, flaming
forth as suns, self-created and self-supported, each the sole centre of the Universe.
Now by the Light ye beheld, by Love ye feel. There is an ecstacy of pure Knowledge, and
another of pure Love. And this Love is the force that uniteth things diverse, for the
contemplation in Light of their Oneness. Know that the Universe is not at rest, but in
extreme motion whose sum is Rest. And this understanding that Stability is Change, and
Change Stability, that Being is Becoming, and Becoming Being, is the Key to the Golden
Palace of this Law.
Lastly, by Liberty is the power to direct your course according to your Will. For the
extent of the Universe is without bounds, and ye are free to make your pleasure as ye
will, seeing that the diversity of being is infinite also. For this also is the Joy of the
Law, that no two stars are alike, and ye must understand also that this Multiplicity is
itself Unity, and without it Unity could not be. And this is an hard saying against
Reason: ye shall comprehend, when, rising above Reason, which is but a manipulation of the
Mind, ye come to pure Knowledge by direct perception of the Truth.
Know also that these four Emanations of the Law flame forth upon all paths: ye shall use
them not only in these Highways of the Universe whereof I have written, but in every
By-path of your daily life.
Love is the law, love under will.
I. Of Liberty
It is of Liberty that I would first write unto you, for except ye be free
to act, ye cannot act. Yet all four gifts of the Law must in some degree be exercised,
seeing that these four are one. But for the Aspirant that cometh unto the Master, the
first need is freedom.
The great bond of all bonds is ignorance. How shall a man be free to act if he know not
his own purpose? You must therefore first of all discover which star of all the stars you
are, your relation to the other stars about you, and your relation to, and identity with,
the Whole.
In our Holy Books are given sundry means of making this discovery, and each must make it
for himself, attaining absolute conviction by direct experience, not merely reasoning and
calculating what is probable. And to each will come the knowledge of his finite will,
whereby one is a poet, one prophet, one worker in steel, another in jade. But also to each
be the knowledge of his infinite Will, his destiny to perform the Great Work, the
realization of his True Self. Of this Will let me therefore speak clearly unto all, since
it pertaineth unto all.
Understand now that in yourselves is a certain discontent. Analyse well its nature: at the
end is in every case one conclusion. The ill springs from the belief in two things, the
Self and the Not-Self, and the conflict between them. This also is a restriction of the
Will. He who is sick is in conflict with his own body: he who is poor is at odds with
society: and so for the rest. Ultimately, therefore, the problem is how to destroy this
perception of duality, to attain to the apprehension of unity.
Now then let us suppose that you have come to the Master, and that He has declared to you
the Way of this attainment. What hindereth you? Alas! there is yet much Freedom afar off.
Understand clearly this: that if you are sure of your Will, and sure of your means, then
any thoughts or actions which are contrary to those means are contrary also to that Will.
If therefore the Master should enjoin upon you a Vow of Holy Obedience, compliance is not
a surrender of the Will, but a fulfilment thereof.
For see, what hindereth you? It is either from without or from within, or both. It may be
easy or the strong-minded seeker to put his heel upon public opinion, or to tear from his
heart the objects which he loves, in a sense: but there will always remain in himself many
discordant affections, as also the bond of habit, and these also must he conquer.
In our holiest Book it is written: "Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that,
and no other shall say nay." Write it also in your heart and in your brain: for this
is the key of the whole matter.
Here Nature herself be your preacher: for in every phenomenon of force and motion doth she
proclaim aloud this truth. Even in so small a matter as driving a nail into a plank, hear
this same sermon. Your nail must be hard, smooth, fine-pointed, or it will not move
swiftly in the direction willed. Imagine then a nail of tinder-wood with twenty points--it
is verily no longer a nail. Yet nigh all mankind are like unto this. They wish a dozen
different careers; and the force which might have been sufficient to attain eminence in
one is wasted on the others: they are null.
Here then let me make open confession, and say thus: though I pledged myself almost in
boyhood to the Great Work, though to my aid came the most puissant forces in the whole
Universe to hold me to it, though habit itself now constraineth me in the right direction,
yet I have not fulfilled my Will: I turn aside daily from the appointed task. I waver. I
falter. I lag.
Let this then be of great comfort to you all, that if I be so imperfect - and for very
shame I have not emphasized that imperfection - if I, the chosen one, still fail, then how
easy for yourselves to surpass me! Or, should you only equal me, then even so how great
attainment should be yours!
Be of good cheer, therefore, since both my failure and my success are arguments of courage
for yourselves.
Search yourselves cunningly, I pray you, analysing your inmost thoughts. And first you
shall discard all those gross obvious hindrances to your Will: idleness, foolish
friendships, waste employments or enjoyments, I will not enumerate the conspirators
against the welfare of your State.
Next, find the minimum of daily time which is in good sooth necessary to your natural
life. The rest you shall devote to the True Means of your Attainment. And even these
necessary hours you shall consecrate to the Great Work, saying consciously always while at
these Tasks that you perform them only in order to preserve your body and mind in health
for the right application to that sublime and single Object.
It shall not be very long before you come to understand that such a life is the true
Liberty. You will feel distractions from your Will as being what they are. They will no
longer appear pleasant and attractive, but as bonds, as shames. And when you have attained
this point, know that you have passed the Middle Gate of this Path. For you will have
unified your Will.
Even thus, were a man sitting in a theatre where the play wearies him, he would welcome
every distraction, and find amusement in any accident: but if he were intent upon the
play, every such incident would annoy him. His attitude to these is then an indication of
his attitude towards the play itself.
At first the habit of attention is hard to acquire. Persevere, and you will have spasms of
revulsion periodically. Reason itself will attack you, saying: how can so strict a bondage
be the Path of Freedom?
Persevere. You have never yet known Liberty. When the temptations are overcome, the voice
of Reason silenced, then will your soul bound forward unhampered upon its chosen course,
and for the first time will you experience the extreme delight of being Master of
Yourself, and therefore of the Universe.
When this is fully attained, when you sit securely in the saddle, then you may enjoy also
all those distractions which first pleased you and then angered you. Now then will do
neither any more: for they are your slaves and toys.
Until you have reached this point, you are not wholly free. You must kill out desire, and
kill out fear. The end of all is the power to live according to your own nature, without
danger that one part may develop to the detriment of the whole, or concern lest that
danger should arise.
The sot drinks, and is drunken: the coward drinks not, and shivers: the wise man, brave
and free, drinks, and gives glory to the Most High God.
This then is the Law of Liberty: you possess all Liberty in your own right, but you must
buttress Right with Might: you must win Freedom for yourself in many a war. Woe unto the
children who sleep in the Freedom that their forefathers won for them!
"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt:" but it is only the greatest of the
race who have the strength and courage to obey it. O man! behold thyself! With what pains
wast thou fashioned! What ages have gone to thy shaping! The history of the planet is
woven into the very substance of thy brain! Was all this for naught? Is there no purpose
in thee? Wast thou made thus that thou shouldst eat, and breed, and die? Think it not so!
Thou dost incorporate so many elements, thou art the fruit of so many aeons of labour,
thou art fashioned thus as thou art, and not otherwise, for some colossal End.
Nerve thyself, then, to seek it and to do it. Naught can satisfy thee but the fulfilment
of thy transcendent Will, that is hidden within thee. For this, then, up to arms! Win
thine own Freedom for thyself!
Strike hard!
II. Of Love
It is written that "Love is the law, love under will." Herein is
an Arcanum concealed, for in the Greek Language AGAPE, Love, is of the same numerical
value as THELEMA, Will. By this we understand that the Universal Will is of the nature of
Love.
Now Love is the enkindling in ecstacy of Two that will to become One. It is thus an
Universal formula of High Magick. For see now how all things, being in sorrow caused by
dividuality, must of necessity will Oneness as their medicine.
Here also is Nature monitor to them that seek Wisdom at her breast: for in the uniting of
elements of opposite polarities is there a glory of heat, of light, and of electricity.
Thus also in mankind do we behold the spiritual fruit of poetry and all genius, arising
from the seed of what is but an animal gesture, in the estimation of such as are schooled
in Philosophy. And it is to be noted strongly that the most violent and divine passions
are those between people of utterly unharmonious natures.
But now I would have you to know that in the mind are no such limitations in respect of
species as prevent a man falling in love with an inanimate object, or an idea. For to him
that is in any wise advanced upon the Way of Meditation it appears that all objects save
the One Object are distasteful, even as appeared formerly in respect of his chance wishes
to the Will. So therefore all objects must be grasped by the mind, and heated in the
sevenfold furnace of Love, until with explosion of ecstacy they unite, and disappear, for
they, being imperfect, are destroyed utterly in the creation of the Perfection of Union,
even as the persons of the Lover and the Beloved are fused into the spiritual gold of
Love, which knoweth no person, but comprehendeth all.
Yet since each star is but one star, and the coming together of any two is but one partial
rapture, so must the aspirant to our holy Science and Art increase constantly by this
method of assimilating ideas, that in the end, become capable of apprehending the Universe
in one thought, he may leap forth upon It with the massed violence of his Self, and
destroying both these, become that Unity whose name is No Thing. Seek ye all therefore
constantly to unite yourselves in rapture with each and every thing that is, and that by
utmost passion and lust of Union. To this end take chiefly all such things as are
naturally repulsive. For what is pleasant is assimilated easily and without ecstacy: it is
in the transfiguration of the loathsome and abhorred into The Beloved that the Self is
shaken to the root in Love.
Thus in human love also we see that mediocrities among men mate with null women: but
History teacheth us that the supreme masters of the world seek ever the vilest and most
horrible creatures for their concubines, overstepping even the limiting laws of sex and
species in their necessity to transcend normality. It is not enough in such natures to
excite lust or passion: the imagination itself must be enflamed by every means.
For us, then, emancipated from all base law, what shall we do to satisfy our Will to
Unity? No less a mistress than the Universe: no lupanar more cramped than Infinite Space:
no night of rape that is not co-eval with Eternity!
Consider that as Love is mighty to bring forth all Ecstacy, so absence of Love is the
greatest craving. Whoso is balked in Love suffereth indeed, but he that hath not actively
that passion in his heart towards some object is weary with the ache of craving. And this
state is called mystically "Dryness." For this there is, as I believe, no cure
but patient persistence in a Rule of life.
But this Dryness hath its virtue, in that thereby the soul is purged of those things that
impeach the Will: for when the drouth is altogether perfect, then is it certain that by no
means can the Soul be satisfied, save by the Accomplishment of the Great Work. And this is
in strong souls a stimulus to the Will. It is the Furnace of Thirst that burneth up all
dross within us.
But to each act of Will is a particular Dryness corresponding: and as Love increaseth
within you, so doth the torment of His absence. Be this also unto you for a consolation in
the ordeal! Moreover, the more
fierce the plague of impotence, the more swiftly and suddenly is it wont to abate.
Here is the method of Love in Meditation. Let the Aspirant first practice and then
discipline himself in the Art of fixing the attention upon any thing whatsoever at will,
without permitting the least imaginable distraction.
Let him also practice the art of the Analysis of Ideas, and that of refusing to allow the
mind its natural reaction to them, pleasant or unpleasant, thus fixing himself in
Simplicity and Indifference. These things being achieved in their ripe season, be it known
to you that all ideas will have become equal to your apprehension, since each is simple
and each indifferent: any one of them remaining in the mind at Will without stirring or
striving, or tending to pass on to any other. But each idea will possess one special
quality common to all: this, that no one of any of them is The Self, inasmuch as it is
perceived by The Self as Something Opposite.
When this is thorough and profound in the impact of its realization, then is the moment
for the aspirant to direct his Will to Love upon it, so that his whole consciousness
findeth focus upon that One Idea. And at the first it may be fixed and dead, or lightly
held. This may then pass into dryness, or into repulsion. Then at last by pure persistence
in that Act of Will to Love, shall Love himself arise, as a bird, as a flame, as a song,
and the whole Soul shall wing a fiery path of music unto the Ultimate Heaven of
Possession.
Now in this method there are many roads and ways, some simple and direct, some hidden and
mysterious, even as it is with human love whereof no man hath made so much as the first
sketches for a Map: for Love is infinite in diversity even as are the Stars. For this
cause do I leave Love himself master in the heart of every one of you: for he shall teach
you rightly if you but serve him with diligence and devotion even to abandonment.
Nor shall you take umbrage or surprise at the strange pranks that he shall play: for He is
a wayward boy and wanton, wise in the Wiles of Aphrodite Our Lady His sweet Mother: and
all His jests and cruelties are spices in a confection cunning as no art may match.
Rejoice therefore in all His play, not remitting in any wise your own ardour, but glowing
with the sting of His whips, and making of Laughter itself a sacrament adjuvant to Love,
even as in the Wine of Rheims is sparkle and bite, like as they were ministers to the High
Priest of its Intoxication.
It is also fit that I write to you of the importance of Purity in Love. Now this matter
concerneth not in any wise the object or the method of the practice: the one thing
essential is that no alien element should intrude. And this is of most particular
pertinence to the aspirant in that primary and mundane aspect of his work wherein he
establisheth himself in the method through his natural affections.
For know, that all things are masks or symbols of the One Truth, and nature serveth alway
to point out the higher perfection under the veil of the lower perfection. So then all the
Art and Craft of human love shall serve you as an hieroglyphic: for it is written that
That which is above is like that which is below: and That which is below is like that
which is above.
Therefore also doth it behoove you to take well heed lest in any manner you fail in this
business of purity. For though each act is to be complete on its own plane, and no
influence of any other plane is to be brought in for interference or admixture, for that
such is all impurity, yet each act should in itself be so complete and perfect that it is
a mirror of the perfection of every other plane, and thereby becometh partaker of the pure
Light of the highest. Also, since all acts are to be acts of Will in Freedom on every
plane, all planes are in reality but one: and thus the lowest expression of any function
of that Will is to be at the same time an expression of the highest Will, or only true
Will, which is that already implied in the acceptance of the Law.
Be it also well understood of you that it is not necessary or right to shut off natural
activity of any kind, as certain false folk, eunuchs of the spirit, most foully teach, to
the destruction of many. For in every thing soever inhereth its own perfection proper to
it, and to neglect the full operation and function of any one part bringeth distortion and
degeneration to the whole. Act therefore in all ways, but transforming the effect of all
these ways to the One Way of the Will. And this is possible, because all ways are in
actual Truth One Way, the Universe being itself One and One Only, and its appearance as
Multiplicity that cardinal illusion which it is the very object of Love to dissipate.
In the achievement of Love are two principles, that of mastering and that of yielding. But
the nature of these is hard to explain, for they are subtle, and are best taught by Love
Himself in the course of the Operations. But it is to be said generally that the choice of
one formula or the other is automatic, being the work of that inmost Will which is alive
within you. Seek not then to determine consciously this decision, for herein true instinct
is not liable to err.
But now I end, without further words: for in our Holy Books are written many details of
the actual practices of Love. And those are the best and truest which are most subtly
written in symbol and image, especially in Tragedy and Comedy, for the whole nature of
these things is in this kind, Life itself being but the fruit of the flower of Love.
It is then of Life that I must needs now write to you, seeing that by every act of Will in
Love you are creating it, a quintessence more mysterious and joyous than you deem, for
this which men call life is but a shadow of that true Life, your birthright, and the gift
of the Law of Thelema.
III. Of Life
Systole and Diastole: these are the
phases of all component things. Of such also is the life of man. Its curve arises from the
latency of the fertilized ovum, say you, to a zenith whence it declines to the nullity of
death? Rightly considered, this is not wholly truth. The life of man is but one segment of
a serpentine curve which reaches out to infinity, and its zeros but mark the changes from
the plus to minus, and minus to plus, coefficients of its equation. It is for this cause,
among many others, that wise men in old time chose the Serpent as the Hieroglyph of Life.
Life then is indestructible as all else is. All destruction and construction are changes
in the nature of Love, as I have written to you in the former chapter proximate. Yet even
as the blood in one pulse-throb of the wrist is not the same blood as that in the next, so
individuality is in part destroyed as each life passeth; nay, even with each thought.
What then maketh man, if he dieth and is reborn a changeling with each breath? This: the
consciousness of continuity given by memory, the conception of his Self as something whose
existence, far from being threatened by these changes, is in verity assured by them. Let
then the aspirant to the sacred Wisdom consider his Self no more as one segment of the
Serpent, but as the whole. Let him extend his consciousness to regard both birth and death
as incidents trivial as systole and diastole of the heart itself, and necessary as they to
its function.
To fix the mind in this apprehension of Life, two modes are preferred, as preliminary to
the greater realizations to be discussed in their proper order, experiences which
transcend even those attainments of Liberty and Love of which I have hitherto written, and
this of Life which I now inscribe in this my little book which I am making for you so that
you may come unto the Great Fulfilment.
The first mode is the acquisition of the Magical Memory so-called, and the means is
described with accuracy and clearness in certain of our Holy Books. But for nearly all men
this is found to be a practice of exceeding difficulty. Let then the aspirant follow the
impulse of his own Will in the decision to choose this or no.
The second mode is easy, agreeable, not tedious, and in the end as certain as the other.
But as the way of error in the former lieth in Discouragement, so in the latter are you to
be ware of False Paths. I may say indeed generally of all Works, that there are two
dangers, the obstacle of Failure, and the snare of Success.
Now this second mode is to dissociate the beings which make up your life. Firstly, because
it is easiest, you should segregate that Form which is called the Body of Light (and also
by many other names) and set yourself to travel in this Form, making systematic
exploration of those worlds which are to other material things what your own Body of Light
is to your own material form.
Now it will occur to you in these travels that you come to many Gates which you are not
able to pass. This is because your Body of Light is itself as yet not strong enough, or
subtle enough, or pure enough: and you must then learn to dissociate the elements of that
Body by a process similar to the first, your consciousness remaining in the higher and
leaving the lower. In this practice do you continue, bending your Will like a great Bow to
drive the Arrow of your consciousness through heavens ever higher and holier. But the
continuance in this Way is itself of vital value: for it shall be that presently habit
herself shall persuade you that the body which is born and dieth within so little a space
as one cycle of Neptune in the Zodiac is no essential of your Self, that the Life of which
you are become partaker, while itself subject to the Law of action and reaction, ebb and
flow, systole and diastole, is yet insensible to the afflictions of that life which you
formerly held to be your sole bond with Existence.
And here must you resolve your Self to make the mightiest endeavours: for so flowered are
the meadows of this Eden, and so sweet the fruit of its orchards, that you will love to
linger among them, and to take delight in sloth and dalliance therein. Therefore I write
to you with energy that you should not do thus to the hindrance of your true progress,
because all these enjoyments are dependent upon duality, so that their true name is Sorrow
of Illusion, like that of the normal life of man, which you have set out to transcend.
Be it according to your Will, but learn this, that (as it is written) they only are happy
who have desired the unattainable. It is then best, ultimately, if it be your Will to find
alway your chiefest pleasure in Love, that is, in Conquest, and in Death, that is, in
Surrender, as I have written to you already. Thus then you shall delight in these delights
aforesaid, but only as toys, holding your manhood firm and keen to pierce to deeper and
holier ecstacies without arrest of Will. Furthermore, I would have you to know that in
this practice, pursued with ardour unquenchable, is this especial grace, that you will
come as it were by fortune into states which transcend the practice itself, being of the
nature of those Works of Pure Light of which I will to write to you in the chapter
following after this. For there be certain Gates which no being who is still conscious of
dividuality, that is, of the Self and not-Self as opposites, may pass through: and in the
storming of those Gates by fiery assault of lust celestial, your flame will burn
vehemently against your gross Self, though it be already divine beyond your present
imagining, and devour it in a mystical death, so that in the Passing of the Gate all is
dissolved in formless Light of Unity.
Now then, returning from these states of being, and in the return also there is a Mystery
of Joy, you will be weaned from the Milk of Darkness of the Moon, and made partaker of the
Sacrament of Wine that is the blood of the Sun. Yet at the first there may be shock and
conflict, for the old thought persists by force of its habit: it is for you to create by
repeated act the true right habit of this consciousness of the Life which abideth in
Light. And this is easy, if your will be strong: for the true Life is so much more vivid
and quintessential than the false that (as I rudely estimate) one hour of the former makes
an impression on the memory equal to one year of the latter. One single experience, in
duration it may be but a few seconds of terrestrial time, is sufficient to destroy the
belief in the reality of our vain life on earth: but this wears gradually away if the
consciousness, through shock or fear, adhere not to it, and the Will strive not
continually to repetition of that bliss, more beautiful and terrible than death, which it
hath won by virtue of Love.
There be moreover many other modes of attaining the apprehension of true Life, and these
two following are of much value in breaking up the ice of your mortal error in the vision
of your being. And of these the first is the constant contemplation of the Identity of
Love and Death, and the understanding of the dissolution of the body as an Act of Love
done upon the Body of the Universe, as also it is written at length in our Holy Books. And
with this goeth, as it were sister with twin brother, the practice of mortal love as a
sacrament symbolical of that great Death: as it is written "Kill thyself": and
again "Die daily."
And the second of these lesser modes is the practice of the mental apprehension and
analysis of ideas, mainly as I have already taught you, but with especial emphasis in
choice of things naturally repulsive, in particular, death itself, and its phenomena
ancillary. Thus the Buddha bade his disciples to meditate upon Ten Impurities, that is,
upon ten cases of death of decomposition, so that the Aspirant, identifying himself with
his own corpse in all these imagined forms, might lose the natural horror, loathing, fear
or disgust which he might have had for them. Know this, that every idea of every sort
becomes unreal, phantastic, and most manifest illusion, if it be subjected to persistent
investigation, with concentration. And this is particularly easy to attain in the case of
all bodily impressions, because all material things, and especially those of which we are
first conscious, namely, our own bodies, are the grossest and most unnatural of all
falsities. For there is in us all, latent, that Light wherein no error may endure, and It
already teaches our instinct to reject first of all those veils which are most closely
wrapt about It. Thus also in meditation it is (for many men) most profitable to
concentrate the Will to Love upon the sacred centres of nervous force: for they, like all
things, are apt images or true reflexions of their semblables in finer spheres: so that,
their gross natures being dissipated by the dissolving acid of the Meditation, their finer
souls appear (so to speak) naked, and display their force and glory in the consciousness
of the aspirant.
Yea, verily, let your Will to Love burn eagerly toward this creation in yourselves of the
true Life that rolls its waves across the shoreless sea of Time! Live not your petty lives
in fear of the hours! The Moon and Sun and Stars by which ye measure Time are themselves
but servants of that Life which pulses in you, joyous drum-beat as you march triumphant
through the Avenue of the Ages. Then, when each birth and death of yours are recognized in
this perception as mere milestones on your ever-living Road, what of the foolish incidents
of your mean lives? Are they not grains of sand blown by the desert wind, or pebbles that
you spurn with your winged feet, or grassy hollows were you press the yielding and elastic
turf and moss with lyrical dances? To him who lives in Life naught matters: his is eternal
motion, energy, delight of never-failing Change: unwearied, you pass on from aeon to aeon,
from star to star, the Universe your playground, its infinite variety of sport ever old
and ever new. All those ideas which bred sorrow and fear are known in their truth, and
thus become the seed of joy: for you are certain beyond all proof that you can never die;
that, though you change, change is part of your own nature: the Great Enemy is become the
Great Ally.
And now, rooted in this perfection, your Self become the very Tree of Life, you have a
fulcrum for your lever: you are ready to understand that this pulsation of Unity is itself
Duality, and therefore, in the highest and most sacred sense, still Sorrow and Illusion;
which having comprehended, aspire yet again, even unto the Fourth of the Gifts of the Law,
unto the End of the Path, even unto Light.
IV. Of Light
I pray you, be patient with me
in that which I shall write concerning Light: for here is a difficulty, ever increasing,
in the use of words. Moreover, I am myself carried away constantly and overwhelmed by the
sublimity of this matter, so that plain speech may whirl into lyric, when I would plod
peaceably with didactic, expression. My best hope is that you may understand by virtue of
the sympathy of your intuition, even as two lovers may converse in language as
unintelligible to others as it seemeth silly, wanton, and dull, or as in that other
intoxication given by Ether the partakers commune with infinite wit, or wisdom, as the
mood taketh them, by means of a word or a gesture, being initiated to apprehension by the
subtlety of the drug. So may I that am inflamed with love of this Light, and drunken on
the wine Ethereal of this Light, communicate not so much with your reason and
intelligence, but with that principle hidden in yourself which is ready to partake with
me. Even so may man and woman become mad with love, no word being spoken between them,
because of the induction (as it were) of their souls. And your understanding will depend
upon your ripeness for perception of my Truth. Moreover, if so be that Light in you be
ready to break forth, then Light will interpret to you these dark words in the language of
Light, even as a string inanimate, duly adjusted, will vibrate to its peculiar tone,
struck on another cord. Read, therefore, not only with the eye and brain, but with the
rhythm of the Life which you have attained by your Will to Love quickened to dancing
measure by these words, which are the movements of the wand of my Will to Love, and so to
enkindle your Life to Light.
In this mood did I interrupt myself in the writing of this my little book, and for two
days and nights sleeplessly have I made consideration, wrestling vehemently with my
spirit, lest by haste or carelessness I might fail toward you.
In exercise of Will and of Love are implied motion and change, but in Life is gained an
Unity which moveth and changeth only in pulse or in phase, and is even as music. Yet in
the attainment of this Life you will already have experienced that the Quintessence
thereof is pure Light, an ecstacy formless, and without bound or mark. In this Light
naught exists, for It is homogeneous: and therefore have men called it Silence, and
Darkness, and Nothing. But in this, as in all other effort to name it, is the root of
every falsity and misapprehension, since all words imply some duality. Therefore, though I
call it Light, it is not Light, nor absence of Light. Many also have sought to describe it
by contradictions, since through transcendent negation of all speech it may by some
natures be attained. Also by images and symbols have men striven to express it: but always
in vain. Yet those that were ready to apprehend the nature of this Light have understood
by sympathy: and so shall it be with you who read this little book, loving it. However, be
it known unto you that the best of all instruction on this matter, and the Word best
suited to the Aeon of Horus, is written in The Book of the
Law. Yet also the Book Ararita is right worthy in the Work of the Light,
as Trigrammaton in that of Will, Cordis Cincti Serpente in the Way of
Love, and Liberi in that of Life. All these Books also concern all these Four
Gifts, for in the end you will see that every one is inseparable from every other.
I wish to write to you with regard to the number 93, the number of THELEMA. For it is not
only the number of its interpretation AGAPE, but also that of a Word unknown to you unless
you be Neophyte of our Holy Order of the A.'.A.'. which word representeth in itself the
arising of the Speech from the Silence, and the return thereunto in the End. Now this
number 93 is thrice 31, which is in Hebrew LA, that is to say NOT, and so it denieth
extension in the three dimensions of Space. Also I would have you to meditate most closely
upon the name NU that is 56, which we are told to divide, add, multiply, and understand.
By division cometh forth 0.12, as if it were written Nuith! Hadith! Ra- Hoor-Khuith!
before the Dyad. By addition ariseth Eleven, the number of True Magick: and by
multiplication Three Hundred, the Number of the Holy Spirit or Fire, the letter Shin,
wherein all things are consumed utterly. With these considerations, and a full
understanding of the mysteries of the Numbers 666 and 418, you will be armed mightily in
this Way of far flight. But you should also consider all numbers in their scales. For
there is no means of resolution better than this of pure mathematics, since already
therein are gross ideas made fine, and all is ordered and ready for the Alchemy of the
Great Work.
I have already written to you of how, in the Will of Love, Light ariseth as the secret
part of Life. And in the first, the little, Loves, the attained Life is still personal:
later, it becometh impersonal and universal. Now then is Will arrived, may I say so, at
its magnetic pole, whence the lines of force point alike every way and no way: and Love
also is no more a work, but a state. These qualities are become part of the Universal
Life, which proceedeth infinitely with the enjoyment of the Will, and of Love as inherent
therein. These things therefore, in their perfection, have lost their names, and their
natures. Yet these were the Substance of Life, its Father and Mother: and without their
operation and impact Life itself will gradually cease its pulsations. But since the
infinite energy of the whole Universe is therein, what then is possible but that it return
to its own First Intention, dissolving itself little by little into that Light which is
its most secret and most subtle Nature?
For this Universe is in Truth Zero, being an equation whereof Zero is the sum. Whereof
this is the proof, that if not, it would be unbalanced, and something would have come from
Nothing, which is absurd. This Light or Nothing is then the Resultant or Totality thereof
in pure Perfection; and all other states, positive or negative, are imperfect, since they
omit their opposites. Yet, I would have you consider that this equality or identity of
equation between all things and No thing is most absolute, so that you will remain no more
in the one than you did in the other. And you will understand this greatest Mystery very
easily in the light of those other experiences which you will have enjoyed, wherein motion
and rest, change and stability, and many other subtle opposites, have been redeemed to
identity by the force of your holy meditation.
The greatest gift of the Law, then, cometh forth by the most perfect practice of the Three
Lesser Gifts. And so thoroughly must you travail in this Work that you are able to pass
from one side of the equation to the other at will: nay, to comprehend the whole at once,
and for ever. This then your time-and-space-bound soul shall travel according to its
nature in its orbit, revealing the Law to them that walk in chains, for that this is your
particular function.
Now here is the Mystery of the Origin of Evil. Firstly, by Evil we mean that which is in
opposition to our own wills: it is therefore a relative, and not an absolute, term. For
everything which is the greatest evil of some one is the greatest good of some other, just
as the hardness of the wood which wearieth the axeman is the safety of him that ventureth
himself upon the sea in a ship built of that wood. And this is a truth easy to apprehend,
being superficial, and intelligible to the common mind.
All evil is thus relative, or apparent, or illusory: but, returning to philosophy, I will
repeat that its root is always in duality. Therefore the escape from this apparent evil is
to seek the Unity, which you shall do as I have already shewn you. But I will now make
mention of that which is written concerning this in The
Book of the Law.
The first step being Will, Evil appears as by this definition, "all that hinders the
execution of the Will." Therefore is it written: "The word of Sin is
Restriction." It should also be noted that in The Book of the Thirty Aethyrs
Evil appears as Choronzon whose number is 333, which in Greek importeth Impotence and
Idleness: and the nature of Choronzon is Dispersion and Incoherence. Then in the Way of
Love Evil appears as "all that which tends to prevent the Union of any two
things." Thus The Book of the Law sayeth,
under the figure of the Voice of Nuit: "take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me." For every act of Love must be
"under will," that is, in accordance with the True Will, which is not to rest
content with things partial and transitory, but to proceed firmly to the End. So also, in The
Book of the Thirty Aethyrs, the Black Brothers are those who shut themselves up,
unwilling to destroy themselves by Love.
Thirdly, in the Way of Life Evil appears under a subtler form as "all that which is
not impersonal and universal." Here The Book of the
Law, by the Voice of Hadit, informeth us: "In the sphere I am everywhere the
centre". And again: "I am Life and the giver of Life" [...]
"'Come unto me' is a foolish word: for it is I that go." "For I am perfect,
being Not". For this Life is in every place and time at once, so that in It these
limitations no longer exist. And you will have seen this for yourself, that in every act
of Love time and space disappear with the creation of the Life by its virtue, as also doth
personality itself. For the third time, then, in even subtler sense, "The word of Sin
is Restriction."
Lastly, in the Way of Light this same versicle is the key to the conception of Evil. But
here Restriction is in the failure to solve the Great Equation, and, later, to prefer one
expression or phase of the Universe to the other. Against this we are warned in The Book of the Law by the Word of Nuit, saying:
"None" [...] "and two. For I am divided for love's sake, for the
chance of union", and therefore, "If this be not aright: if ye confound the
space marks, saying: They are one: or saying, They are many;" [...] "then expect
the direful judgments" [...]
Now therefore by the favour of Thoth am I come to the end of this my book: and do you arm
yourselves accordingly with the Four Weapons: the Wand for Liberty, the Cup for Love, the
Sword for Life, the Disk for Light: and with these work all wonders by the Art of High
Magick under the Law of the New Aeon, whose Word is THELEMA.
 [Top]
|
. . . Return