THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS
        
                                 Copyright 1985
                           
                                       by
        
                              Ordo Templi Orientis
        
                                  P.O. Box 2303
        
                              Berkeley, California
        
                                      94702
        
        
                               PRIVATELY PUBLISHED
        
                                       for
        
                              ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS
              
                                       by
        
                                Fr. A.U.D.C.A.L.
        
                                  SAN FRANCISCO
        
                             (typed by Soror Alice)
        
                                   ANNUM Lxxx
        
                                 SOL IN AQUARIUS
        
                                  LUNA IN VIRGO


        A PARAPHRASE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS UPON 
        THE OBVERSE OF THE STELE OF REVELLING
        
        Above, the gemmed azure is
           The naked splendour of Nuit;
        She bends in ecstasy to kiss
           The secret ardours of Hadit.
        The winged globe, the starry blue
        Are mine, o Ankh-f-n-Khonsu.
                                        
        I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
           The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
        For me unveils the veiled sky,
          The self-slain Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
        Whose words are truth.  I invoke, I greet
        Thy presence, o Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
        
        Unity uttermost showed!
         I adore the might of Thy breath,
        Supreme and terrible God,
          Who makest the gods and death
           To tremble before Thee:--
          I,I adore thee!
        
        Appear on the throne of Ra!
          Open the ways of the Khu!
        Lighten the ways of the Ka!
          The ways of the Khabs run through
            To stir me or still me!
           Aum! let it kill me!
        
        The Light is mine; its rays consume
          Me: I have made a secret door
        Into the House of Ra and Tum,
          Of Khephra, and of Ahathoor.
        I am thy Theban, o Mentu,
        The prophet Ankh-f-n-Khonsu!
        
        By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
          By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
        Show thy star-splendour, O Nuith!
          Bid me within thine House to dwell,
        O winged snake of light, Hadith!
        Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
        
        (next two pages are front and back of Stele)


        A PARAPHRASE OF THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE
        II LINES UPON THE REVERSE OF THE STELE
        
        Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother
        Who was master of Thebes from his birth:
         O heart of me, heart of my mother!
        O heart which I had upon earth!
        Stand not thou up against me a witness!
        Oppose me not, judge, in my quest!
        Accuse me not now of unfitness
        Before the Great God, the dread Lord of the West!
        For I fastened the one to the other
        With a spell for their mystical girth,
        The earth and the wonderful West, 
        When I flourished, o earth, on the breast!
        
        The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
        Saith with his voice of truth and calm:
        O thou that hast a single arm!
        O thou that glitterest in the moon!
        I weave thee in the spinning charm;
        I lure thee with the billowy tune.
        
        The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
        Hath parted from the darkling crowds,
        Hath joined the dwellers of the light,
        Opening Duant, the star-abodes,
        Their keys receiving.
        The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
        Hath made his passage into night,
        His pleasure on the earth to do
        Among the living.

                                   
                            THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS.
        
                          The Official Organ of the A A 
                                        
                            (pic of eye in triangle)
        
                Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
                        Love is the law, love under will.
                             The word of the law is
                               THELEMA (in Greek)
                        The Official Organ of the O.T.O. 
        
        
                         Deus est Homo (lamen in middle)
        
                               Vol. III   No. III
        
               An I x                                 Sol in Libra
        
                             SEPTEMBER MCMXXXVI E.V.
                              Issued by the O.T.O.

                        A.'. A.'. Publication in Class E.

                                (A.'. A.'. SIGIL)
        
                                 (O.T.O. LAMEN)
        
                             (BAPHOMET'S SIGNATURE)


                 (FOLLOWING ARE PICTURES OF ASTROLOGICAL CHARTS)
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            THE NATIVITY OF FRA. P.     |THE FIRST INITIATION OF FRA. P.
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                        OF THE GODS     |  THE ANNIHILATION OF FRA. P.  
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                                    CONTENTS
                             
                                                                    Page
        
        The Summons  ..............................................  I
        
        A Summary    ..............................................  3
        
        LIBER AL vel LEGIS
        
           Sub Figura CCXX as Delivered by XCIII==
        
           4I8 to DCLXVI ............................................I3
        
        GENESIS LIBRI AL ............................................39
        
        
        
                                  ILLUSTRATIONS
        
        The Stele of Revealing  ........................... Frontispiece
        
        Four Horoscopes  ................................ Facing Summons
          
        First sketch of a Qabalistic Key to Liber AL ................I38
          
        
                                     POCKET  
        THE COMMENT
        Facsimile of the MS. of Liber AL

                                  THE SUMMONS.
        
             On  April 8, 9 and I0, I904, e.v. this book was dictated  to 
        666  (Aleister Crowley) by Aiwass, a Being whose nature  he  does 
        not fully understand, but who described Himself as "the  Minister 
        of Hoor-Paar-Kraat" (the Lord of Silence).
        
             The  contents of the book prove to strict scientific  demon-
        stration  that  He  possesses knowledge and  power  quite  beyond 
        anything that has been hitherto associated with human faculties.
        
             The  circumstances  of the dictation are  described  in  the 
        Equinox, Vol. I, No. vii:  but a fuller account, with an  outline 
        of  the  proof  of the character of the book is now  here  to  be 
        issued.
        
             The book announces a New Law for mankind.
        
             It  replaces the moral and religious sanctions of the  past, 
        which have everywhere broken down, by a principle valid for  each 
        man and woman in the world, and self-evidently indefeasible.
        
             The  spiritual Revolution announced by the book has  already 
        taken place:  hardly a country where it is not openly manifest.
        
             Ignorance  of  the true meaning of this new Law has  led  to 
        gross anarchy.  Its conscious adoption in its proper sense is the 
        sole cure for the political, social and racial unrest which
        have  brought about the World War, the catastrophe of Europe  and 
        America, and the threatening attitude of China, India and Islam.
        
             Its solution of the fundamental problems of mathematics  and 
        philosophy will establish a new epoch in history.
        
             But it must not be supposed that so potent an instrument  of 
        energy can be used without danger.
        
             I summon, therefore, by the power and authority entrusted to 
        me,  every great spirit and mind now on this planed incarnate  to 
        take  effective hold of this transcendent force, and apply it  to 
        the advancement of the welfare of the human race.
        
             For  as  the experience of these two and  thirty  years  has 
        shown too terribly, the book cannot be ignored.  It has  leavened 
        Mankind  unaware:  and Man must make thereof the Bread  of  Life.  
        Its ferment has begun to work on the grape of thought:  Man  must 
        obtain therefrom the Wine of Ecstasy.
        
             Come then, all ye, in the Name of the Lord of the Aeon,  the 
        Crowned  and Conquering Child, Heru-Ra-Ha:  I call ye to  partake 
        this sacrament.
        
            Know-will-dare-and be silent!
        
                          The Priest of the Princes,
        
                                        ANKH-AF-NA-KHONSU.

                                A SUMMARY
        
        
        MARSYAS.       I bear a message.  Heaven hath sent
          (As for The  The knowledge of a new sweet way
        
          Beast 666).  Into the Secret Element.   
        
        OLYMPAS.       Master, while yet the glory clings 
        (Any Aspirant) Declare this mystery magical!
        
        
        MARSYAS.       I am yet borne on these blue wings
                       Into the Essence of the All.
                       Now, now I stand on earth again,
                       Though, blazing through each nerve and vein,
                       The light yet holds its choral course,
                       Filling my frame with fiery force
                       Like God's.  Now hear the Apocalypse!
                       New-fledged on these reluctant lips!
        
        
        OLYMPAS.       I tremble like an aspen, quiver
                       Like light upon a rainy river !
        
        
        MARSYAS.       Do what thou wilt !  is the sole word
                       Of law that my attainment heard.
                       Arise, and lay thine hand on God !
                       Arise, and set a period
                       Unto Restriction !  That is sin :

                         To hold thine holy spirit in !
                         O thou that chafest at thy bars,
                         Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
                         With a pure heart (Her incense burned
                         Of gums and woods, in gold inurned)
                         And let the serpent flame therein
                         A little, and thy soul shall win
                         To lie within her bosom.  Lo !
                         Thou wouldst give all------and she cries :  No !
                         Take all, and take me !  Gather spice
                         And virgins and great pearls of price !
                         Worship me in a single robe,
                         Crowned Richly !  Girdle of the globe,
                         I love thee.  I am drunkenness
                         Of the inmost sense, my soul's caress
                         Is toward thee !  Let my priestess stand
                         Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
                         By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon
                         Mine iridescent altar-stone,
                         And in her love-chaunt swooningly
                         Say evermore :  To me !  To me !
                         I am the azure-lidded daughter
                         Of sunset; the all-girdling water;
                         The naked brilliance of the sky
                         In the voluptuous night am I !
                         With song, with jewel, with perfume,
                         Wake all my rose's blush and bloom !
                         Drink to me !  Love me !  I love thee,
                         My love, my lord--to me !  to me !

        OLYMPAS.     There is no harshness in the breath
                     Of this--is life surpassed, and death ?
        
        
        MARSYAS.     There is the Snake that gives delight
                     And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright
                     With drunkenness.  Strange drugs are thine,
                     Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine !
                     These do no hurt.  Thine hermits dwell
                     Not in the cold secretive cell,
                     But under purple canopies
                     With mighty-breasted mistresses
                     Magnificent as lionesses--
                     Tender and terrible caresses !
                     Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes;
                     And massed huge hair about them lies.
                     They lead their hosts to victory :
                     In every joy they are kings ; then see
                     That secret serpent coiled to spring
                     And win the world !  O priest and king,
                     Let there be feasting, foining, fighting,
                     A revel of lusting, singing, smiting !
                     Work ; be the bed of work !  Hold !  Hold !
                     The stars' kiss is as molten gold.
                     Harden !  Hold thyself up !  now die--
                     Ah !  Ah !  Exceed !  Exceed !
        
        OLYMPAS.                                        And I ?
        
        
        MARSYAS.     My stature shall surpass the stars :
                     He hath said it !  Men shall worship me
                     In hidden woods, on barren scaurs,
                     Henceforth to all eternity.
        
        OLYMPAS.     Hail !  I adore thee !  Let us feast.
        
        
        MARSYAS.     I am the consecrated Beast.
                     I build the Abominable House.
                     The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse---
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     What is this word ?
        
        
        MARSYAS.                            Thou canst not know
                     Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     I worship thee.  The moon-rays flow
                     Masterfully rich and real
                     From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns
                     Chanting before the Holy Ones
                     Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons !
        
        
        MARSYAS.     The last spell !  The availing word !
                     The two completed by the third !
                     The Lord of War, of Vengeance
                     That slayeth with a single glance !
                     This light is in me of my Lord.
                     His Name is this far-whirling sword.
                     I push His order.  Keen and swift
                     My Hawk's eye flames ; these arms uplift
                     The Banner of Silence and of Strength---
                     Hail !  Hail !  thou are here, my Lord, at length !
                     Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I :
                     My nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
                     Hail !  ye twin warriors that guard
                     The pillars of the world !  Your time
                     Is nigh at hand.  The snake that marred
                     Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
                     Is slain ; I bear the Wand of power,
                     The Wand that waxes and that wanes ;
                     I crush the Universe this hour
                     In my left hand ; and naught remains !
                     Ho ! for the splendour in my name
                     Hidden and glorious, a flame
                     Secretly shooting from the sun.
                     Aum !  Ha !--my destiny is done.
                     The Word is spoken and concealed.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     I am stunned.  What wonder was revealed ?
        
        
        MARSYAS.     The rite is secret.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     Profits it ?
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Only to wisdom and to wit.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     The other did no less.
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Then prove
                     Both by the master-key of Love.
                     The lock turns stiffly ?  Shalt thou shirk
                     To use the sacred oil of work ?
                     Not from the valley shalt thou wrest
                     The eggs that line the eagle's nest !
                     Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice,
                     The sheer wall of the precipice !
                     Master the cornice, gain the breach,
                     And learn what next the ridge can teach !
                     Yet--not the ridge itself may speak
                     The secret of the final peak.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     All ridges join at last.
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Admitted,
                     O thou astute and subtle-witted !
                     Yet one--loose, jagged, clad in mist !
                     Another--firm, smooth, loved and kissed
                     By the soft sun !  Our order hath
                     This secret of the solar path,
                     Even as our Lord the Beast hath won
                     The mystic Number of the Sun.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     These secrets are too high for me.
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Nay, little brother !  Come and see !
                     Neither by faith nor fear not awe
                     Approach the doctrine of the Law !
                     Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout,
                     And those three others be cast out.
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     Lead me, Master, by the hand d
                     Gently to this gracious land !
                     Let me drink the doctrine in,
                     An all-healing medicine !
                     Let me rise, correct and firm,
                     Steady striding to the term,
                     Master of my fate, to rise
                     To imperial destinies ;
                     With the sun's ensanguine dart
                     Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
                     And my being's basil-plant
                     Bright and hard as adamant !
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Yonder, faintly luminous, 
                     The yellow desert waits for us.
                     Lithe and eager, hand in hand,
                     We travel to the lonely land.
                     There, beneath the stars, the smoke
                     Of our incense shall invoke
                     The Queen of Space ; and subtly She
                     Shall bend from Her Infinity
                     Like a lambent flame of blue,
                     Touching us, and piercing through
                     All the sense-webs that we are
                     As the aethyr penetrates a star !
                     Her hands caressing the black earth,
                     Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
                     Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers,
                     She calls my name--she gives the sign
                     That she is mine, supremely mine,
                     And clinging to the infinite girth
                     My soul gets perfect joy thereof
                     Beyond the abysses and the hours ;
                     So that--I kiss her lovely brows ;
                     She bathes my body in perfume
                     Of sweat....O thou my secret spouse,
                     Continuous One of Heaven !  illume
                     My soul with this arcane delight,
                     Voluptuous Daughter of the Night !
                     Eat me up wholly with the glance
                     Of thy luxurious brilliance !
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     The desert calls.
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Then let us go !
                     Or seek the sacramental snow,
                     Where like an high-priest I may stand
                     With acolytes on every hand,
                     The lesser peaks--my will withdrawn
                     To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
                     Changing that rosy smoke of light
                     To a pure crystalline white ;
                     Though the mist of mind, as draws
                     A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
                     Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun
                     A lemon-pale medallion !
                     Thence leap we leashless to the goal,
                     Stainless star-rapture of the soul.
                     So the altar-fires fade
                     As the Godhead is displayed.
                     Nay, we stir not.  Everywhere
                     Is our temple right appointed.
                     All the earth is faery fair
                     For us.  Am I not anointed ?
                     The Sigil burns upon the brow
                     At the adjuration--here and now.

        OLYMPAS.     The air is laden with perfumes.
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Behold ! it beams--it burns--it blooms.
                      .         .         .       .       .
        
        OLYMPAS.     Master, how subtly hast thou drawn
                     The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
                     Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold
                     Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold ; 
                     Until I saw, flashed from afar,
                     The Hawk's Eye in the Silver Star !
        
        
        MARSYAS.     Peace to all beings.  Peace to thee,
                     Co-heir of mine eternity !
                     Peace to the greatest and the least,
                     To nebula and nenuphar !
                     Light in abundance be increased 
                     On them that dream that shadows are !
        
        
        OLYMPAS.     Blessing and worship to The Beast,
                     The prophet of the lovely Star !


                                      LIBER 
        
                                   AL     VEL
        
                                      LEGIS
        
                                   SUB FIGURA
        
                                   C  C  X  X
        
                                 AS DELIVERED BY
        
                                  XCIII == 418
        
                                       TO 
           
                                     DCLXVI

                                   A' A' sigil


                         Liber 220:  THE BOOK OF THE LAW
        
        
          1.  Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
          2.  The  unveiling  of  the  company  of  heaven.
          3.  Every  man  and every  woman  is a star.
          4.  Every   number  is  infinite;   there  is  no 
              difference.
          5.  Help   me,   o warrior lord of Thebes,  in my 
              unveiling  before  the  Children  of  men!
          6.  Be   thou   Hadit,   my  secret  centre,   my 
              heart   &   my   tongue!
          7.  Behold!  it  is  revealed  by Aiwass the min-
              ister  of  Hoor-paar-kraat.
          8.  The  Khabs  is  in  the Khu,  not  the Khu in 
              the  Khabs.
          9.  Worship   then  the  Khabs,   and  behold  my 
              light  shed  over  you!
          10. Let  my   servants  be  few  &  secret:  they 
              shall  rule  the  many & the  known.
          11. These   are   fools   that  men  adore;  both
              their  Gods  &  their  men  are  fools.
          12. Come   forth,  o  children,  under the stars, 
              & take  your  fill  of  love!
          13. I  am  above  you  and  in  you.   My ecstasy 
              is  in  yours.   My  joy  is  to  see  your  joy.
          14. Above, the gemmed azure is
              The naked splendour of Nuit;
              She bends in ecstasy to kiss
              The secret ardours of Hadit.
              The winged globe, the starry blue,
              Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
          15. Now  ye  shall know  that the  chosen  priest 
              & apostle  of infinite space  is the  prince-priest 
              the  Beast;   and in his  woman called the  Scarlet 
              Woman  is  all  power  given.   They  shall  gather 
              my  children  into  their  fold:  they  shall bring 
              the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.
          16. For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. 
              But  to him is the  winged secret flame, and to her 
              the  stooping  starlight.
          17. But ye are not so chosen.
          18. Burn   upon   their   brows,  o   splendrous 
              serpent!
          19. O  azure-lidded   woman,    bend  upon  them!
          20. The  key  of  the  rituals is in  the  secret 
              word which I have given unto him.
          21. With   the  God  &  the  Adorer I am nothing: 
              they  do  not  see  me.    They  are  as  upon  the 
              earth;  I am Heaven,   and  there  is no  other God 
              than me, and my lord Hadit.
          22. 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  &  any other  thing;  for 
              thereby there cometh hurt.
          23. But   whoso   availeth  in  this,  let him be 
              the chief of all!
          24. I  am  Nuit, and  my  word is six  and fifty.
          25. Divide, add, multiply, and understand.
          26. Then   saith  the  prophet  and  slave of the 
              beauteous   one:   Who   am  I,  and   what   shall 
              be  the  sign?   So  she  answered   him,   bending
              down,  a lambent flame of blue,  all-touching,  all 
              penetrant,   her  lovely  hands   upon   the  black 
              earth,  &  her lithe  body arched for love, and her 
              soft feet  not  hurting the  little  flowers:  Thou 
              knowest!   And  the   sign  shall  be  my  ecstasy, 
              the  consciousness  of  the  continuity  of  exist-
              ence, the omnipresence of my body.
          27. Then   the  priest   answered  &  said   unto 
              the  Queen  of  Space, kissing  her  lovely  brows, 
              and  the  dew  of  her  light  bathing   his  whole 
              body  in  a  sweet-smelling  perfume  of  sweat:  O 
              Nuit,  continuous  one of Heaven,  let  it be  ever 
              thus;  that  men  speak  not  of  Thee as  One  but 
              as  None;  and  let  them  speak  not  of  thee  at 
              all, since thou art continuous!
          28. None,   breathed  the  light, faint  & faery, 
              of the stars, and two.
          29. For   I  am divided for love's sake,  for the 
              chance of union.
          30. This  is  the  creation  of  the  world, that 
              the  pain of  division  is as nothing,  and the joy 
              of dissolution all.
          31. For   these  fools  of  men  and  their  woes 
              care not  thou  at  all!  They  feel  little;  what 
              is,  is  balanced by  weak  joys;  but  ye  are  my 
              chosen ones.
          32. Obey  my   prophet!  follow  out  the ordeals 
              of  my   knowledge!    seek  me  only!    Then  the 
              joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. 
              This  is  so:  I swear  it by the vault of my body; 
              by  my  sacred  heart  and  tongue;  by  all  I can 
              give, by all I desire of ye all.
          33. Then  the  priest  fell  into  a  deep trance 
              or  swoon,   &  said  unto  the  Queen  of  Heaven; 
              Write  unto  us  the ordeals;  write  unto  us  the 
              rituals;  write unto us the law!
          34. But   she  said:  the  ordeals  I  write not: 
              the rituals shall  be  half  known  and  half  con-
              cealed: the Law is for all.
          35. This  that  thou  writest  is  the  threefold 
              book of Law.
          36. My   scribe    Ankh-af-na-khonsu,  the priest 
              of  the  princes,  shall  not  in one letter change 
              this  book;  but lest there be folly, he shall com-
              ment   thereupon   by   the   wisdom  of   Ra-Hoor-
              Khu-it.
          37. Also    the  mantras   and spells;  the obeah 
              and  the  wanga;   the  work of  the wand  and  the 
              work  of  the  sword;  these  he  shall  learn  and 
              teach.
          38. He   must  teach;  but  he  may  make  severe 
              the ordeals.
          39. The word of the Law is >THELEMA.<
          40. Who    calls   us   Thelemites   will  do  no 
              wrong,  if  he  look but  close into the word.  For 
              there  are  therein   Three   Grades,   the Hermit, 
              and   the  Lover,   and  the   man  of  Earth.   Do 
              what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
          41. The   word of  Sin  is  Restriction.  O  man! 
              refuse  not  thy wife,  if she will!   O lover,  if 
              thou  wilt,  depart!    There  is no bond  that can 
              unite the divided but love:  all  else is a  curse. 
              Accursed!   Accursed be  it to  the  aeons!   Hell.
          42. Let   it  be  that  state  of manyhood  bound 
              and  loathing.  So  with  thy  all;  thou  hast  no 
              right but to do thy will.
          43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.
          44. For   pure   will,  unassuaged  of  purpose, 
              delivered  from  the lust of result,   is every way 
              perfect.
          45. The    Perfect  and the Perfect are  one Per-
              fect and not two; nay, are none!
          46. Nothing  is a secret key of this law.  Sixty-
              one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four 
              hundred & eighteen.
          47. But   they  have  the  half:  unite  by thine 
              art so that all disappear.
          48. My   prophet  is a  fool  with  his one, one, 
              one;  are  not  they  the  Ox,   and  none  by  the 
              Book?
          49. Abrogate   are  all rituals, all ordeals, all  
              words   and   signs.    Ra-Hoor-Khuit   hath  taken 
              his seat in the East at the Equinox  of  the  Gods; 
              and let  Asar  be  with  Isa,  who  also  are  one. 
              But  they  are  not  of  me.   Let  Asar   be   the 
              adorant,  Isa the  sufferer;  Hoor  in  his  secret 
              name and splendour is the Lord initiating.
          50. There  is a  word to  say  about  the  Hiero-
              phantic  task.  Behold!  there  are  three  ordeals 
              in one, and it may be  given  in  three  ways.  The 
              gross  must  pass  through  fire; let  the  fine be 
              tried  in  intellect,  and  the  lofty  chosen ones 
              in the highest.  Thus ye have  star  &  star,  sys-
              tem  &  system;  let  not  one know well the other!
          51. There   are  four  gates  to  one palace; the 
              floor of that palace is of  silver and  gold; lapis 
              lazuli  &  jasper  are  there; and all rare scents; 
              jasmine   &   rose,   and  the  emblems  of  death. 
              Let  him  enter  in turn or at once the four gates; 
              let him stand on the  floor  of  the  palace.  Will 
              he  not  sink?   Amn.  Ho!  warrior,  if  thy  ser-
              vant  sink?   But   there  are  means  and   means. 
              Be  goodly  therefore:  dress  ye  all  in fine ap-
              parel;   eat  rich  foods  and  drink  sweet  wines 
              and  wines  that  foam!   Also,  take your fill and 
              will of love as  ye  will,  when,  where  and  with 
              whom ye will! But always unto me.
          52. If  this   be  not aright; if ye confound the 
              space-marks,  saying:  They  are  one;  or  saying, 
              They are many; if  the  ritual  be  not  ever  unto 
              me:   then  expect  the  direful  judgments  of  Ra  
              Hoor Khuit!
          53. This   shall regenerate the world, the little 
              world  my  sister,  my  heart  &  my  tongue,  unto 
              whom  I  send  this  kiss.  Also,   o   scribe  and 
              prophet, though thou be of the  princes,  it  shall 
              not  assuage  thee  nor  absolve  thee. But ecstasy 
              be thine and joy of  earth:  ever  To  me!  To  me!
          54. Change  not   as  much  as  the  style  of  a 
              letter; for behold! thou,  o  prophet,   shalt  not 
              behold  all  these  mysteries  hidden  therein.
          55. The   child  of  thy bowels,  he shall behold 
              them.
          56. Expect   him  not  from  the  East,  nor from 
              the  West;   for  from  no  expected  house  cometh 
              that   child.   Aum!   All  words  are  sacred  and 
              all prophets true;   save  only  that  they  under-
              stand  a  little; solve the first half of the equa-
              tion,  leave  the  second  unattacked.    But  thou 
              hast all in  the  clear  light,  and  some,  though 
              not  all,  in  the  dark.
          57. Invoke  me   under  my  stars!  Love  is  the 
              law, love under will.  Nor let  the  fools  mistake 
              love;  for  there  are  love  and  love.  There  is 
              the dove, and there  is  the  serpent.   Choose  ye 
              well!   He,  my  prophet,   hath  chosen,   knowing 
              the  law  of  the  fortress,  and the great mystery 
              of  the  House  of  God. 
              All  these  old  letters  of  my Book are aright;
              but TS is not the Star.   This also is secret:  my 
              prophet  shall  reveal  it  to  the  wise.
          58. I  give   unimaginable  joys  on  earth: cer-
              tainty, not  faith,  while  in  life,  upon  death; 
              peace  unutterable,  rest,  ecstasy;  nor  do I de-
              mand  aught  in  sacrifice.
          59. My   incense  is  of  resinous woods  & gums; 
              and there  is  no  blood  therein:  because  of  my 
              hair  the  trees  of  Eternity.
          60. My   number  is  11,  as  all  their  numbers 
              who  are  of  us.  The  Five  Pointed  Star, with a 
              Circle  in  the  Middle,  &  the  circle is Red. My 
              colour is  black to  the  blind,  but  the  blue  & 
              gold  are  seen  of  the  seeing.  Also  I  have  a
              secret glory for them that love me.
          61. But   to  love  me is better than all things: 
              if under the night-stars in the desert  thou  pres-
              ently  burnest  mine  incense  before  me, invoking 
              me  with  a  pure  heart,  and  the  Serpent  flame 
              therein, thou shalt come a  little  to  lie  in  my 
              bosom.  For  one  kiss  wilt  thou  then be willing 
              to give all; but whoso gives one particle  of  dust 
              shall lose  all  in  that  hour.  Ye  shall  gather 
              goods  and  store  of  women  and  spices; ye shall 
              wear rich  jewels;  ye  shall  exceed  the  nations 
              of  the  earth  in  spendour  &  pride;  but always 
              in the love of me, and  so  shall  ye  come  to  my 
              joy.  I  charge  you  earnestly   to   come  before 
              me  in  a  single  robe,  and  covered  with a rich 
              headdress.  I  love  you!  I  yearn  to  you!  Pale 
              or purple, veiled  or  voluptuous,  I  who  am  all 
              pleasure  and  purple,  and   drunkenness   of  the 
              innermost  sense,  desire  you.  Put  on the wings, 
              and   arouse   the  coiled  splendour  within  you: 
              come unto me!
          62. At   all   my   meetings   with   you   shall 
              the  priestess  say -- and her eyes shall burn with 
              desire  as  she  stands  bare  and  rejoicing in my 
              secret  temple -- To  me!   To  me!  calling  forth 
              the flame of the hearts of all in  her  love-chant.
          63. Sing   the    rapturous  love-song  unto  me! 
              Burn   to   me   perfumes!   Wear  to   me  jewels! 
              Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!
          64. I  am  the blue-lidded  daughter  of  Sunset; 
              I  am   the  naked  brilliance  of  the  voluptuous  
              night-sky.
          65. To me!  To me!
          66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
        
                                       ***
        
          1.  Nu! the hiding of Hadit.
          2.  Come!  all ye,  and  learn  the  secret  that 
              hath  not  yet  been  revealed.  I,  Hadit,  am the 
              complement   of   Nu,  my  bride.   I  am  not  ex-
              tended,  and  Khabs is the name  of my House.
          3.  In  the  sphere  I  am  everywhere  the  cen-
              tre,   as  she,   the  circumference,   is  nowhere 
              found.
          4.  Yet  she  shall  be  known  &  I  never.
          5.  Behold!  the rituals  of  the  old  time  are 
              black. Let the evil ones  be  cast  away;  let  the 
              good  ones  be  purged   by   the   prophet!   Then 
              shall  this  Knowledge  go  aright.
          6.  I  am  the  flame  that  burns in every heart 
              of  man,  and  in  the  core of  every star.  I  am 
              Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore  is  the
              knowledge  of  me  the  knowledge  of  death.
          7.  I  am  the  Magician  and  the   Exorcist.  I 
              am the axle of  the wheel,  and  the  cube  in  the 
              circle.  "Come unto me"  is  a  foolish  word:  for 
              it  is  I  that  go.
          8.  Who    worshipped     Heru-pa-kraath     have 
              worshipped me;  ill,  for  I  am  the  worshipper.
          9.  Remember  all  ye  that  existence   is  pure 
              joy; that all  the  sorrows  are  but  as  shadows; 
              they pass & are  done;  but  there  is  that  which 
              remains.
          10. O   prophet!  thou  hast  ill  will  to learn 
              this   writing.
          11. I   see  thee  hate  the  hand & the pen; but 
              I  am  stronger.
          12. Because  of  me  in  Thee  which  thou  knew-
              est  not.
          13. for  why?    Because  thou  wast  the   know-
              er, and me.
          14. Now   let  there be a veiling of this shrine: 
              now let the  light  devour  men  and  eat  them  up 
              with  blindness!
          15. For   I  am  perfect,   being  Not;   and  my 
              number is nine by the fools;   but  with  the  just 
              I  am  eight,  and  one  in eight:  Which is vital, 
              for  I  am  none   indeed.   The  Empress  and  the 
              King are not of me; for there is a further  secret.
          16. I  am   The  Empress   &   the  Hierophant. 
              Thus eleven,  as my bride  is  eleven.
          17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
                  The sorrows of pain and regret
                Are left to the dead and the dying,
                  The folk that not know me as yet.
          18. These  are  dead,  these fellows; they feel 
              not. We are not for the poor  and  sad:  the  lords 
              of the earth are our kinsfolk.
          19. Is  a  God  to  live  in a dog? No! but the 
              highest are of us.  They shall rejoice,  our  chos- 
              en: who sorroweth is not of us.
          20. Beauty   and  strength,   leaping   laughter 
              and delicious languor, force and fire, are  of  us.
          21. We   have   nothing  with  the  outcast  and 
              the  unfit:  let  them  die  in  their misery.  For 
              they feel not.  Compassion is the  vice  of  kings: 
              stamp   down   the   wretched  &  the   weak:  this 
              is  the  law  of  the  strong:  this is our law and 
              the  joy  of  the  world.  Think not, o king,  upon 
              that lie:  That Thou Must Die:  verily  thou  shalt 
              not die,  but live.   Now let it be understood:  If 
              the body of the  King  dissolve,  he  shall  remain 
              in  pure   ecstasy  for  ever.   Nuit!  Hadit!  Ra-
              Hoor-Khuit!  The  Sun,  Strength  &  Sight,  Light; 
              these  are  for  the  servants  of  the  Star & the 
              Snake.
          22. I  am  the   Snake   that   giveth   Knowledge 
              & Delight and bright glory,  and  stir  the  hearts 
              of  men  with  drunkenness.   To  worship  me  take 
              wine  and  strange  drugs  whereof  I  will tell my 
              prophet,  &  be  drunk  thereof!   They  shall  not 
              harm  ye  at  all.  It is a lie, this folly against 
              self.  The  exposure  of  innocence  is a  lie.  Be 
              strong, o man! lust,  enjoy  all  things  of  sense 
              and  rapture:  fear  not  that any  God  shall deny 
              thee  for  this.
          23. I  am  alone:  there is no God where  I am.
          24. Behold!   these  be  grave  mysteries;  for 
              there are  also  of  my  friends  who  be  hermits. 
              Now  think  not  to  find  them in the forest or on 
              the  mountain;  but  in  beds  of purple,  caressed 
              by   magnificent   beasts   of   women  with  large 
              limbs,  and  fire  and  light  in  their eyes,  and 
              masses of flaming  hair  about  them;  there  shall 
              ye  find  them.  Ye  shall  see  them  at  rule, at 
              victorious armies, at all the joy;  and there shall 
              be in them a  joy  a  million  times  greater  than 
              this.   Beware  lest   any   force   another,  King 
              against   King!   Love  one  another  with  burning 
              hearts; on  the  low  men  trample  in  the  fierce 
              lust  of  your  pride, in the day of your wrath.  
          25. Ye   are  against  the  people, O my chosen!
          26. I  am  the  secret  Serpent coiled about to 
              spring: in my coiling there is joy.  If I  lift  up 
              my head,  I  and  my  Nuit  are  one.  If  I  droop 
              down  mine  head,  and  shoot   forth  venom,  then 
              is  rapture  of  the  earth,  and  I  and the earth 
              are  one.
          27. There  is  great  danger  in  me;  for  who 
              doth  not  understand  these  runes  shall  make  a 
              great  miss.  He  shall  fall  down  into  the  pit 
              called Because, and  there  he  shall  perish  with 
              the  dogs  of  Reason.
          28. Now  a curse  upon  Because  and  his  kin!
          29. May  Because  be  accursed  for  ever!
          30. If  Will  stops  and  cries  Why,  invoking 
              Because,  then  Will  stops  &  does  nought.
          31. If  Power  asks  why,  then  is Power weak-
              ness.
          32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor 
              infinite   &   unknown;   &  all  their  words  are  
              skew-wise. 
          33. Enough   of   Because!     Be   he   damned 
              for  a  dog!
          34. But ye,  o my people,  rise  up  &  awake!
          35. Let  the  rituals be rightly performed with 
              joy  &  beauty!
          36. There  are  rituals  of  the  elements  and 
              feasts  of  the  times.
          37. A  feast for the first night of the Prophet 
              and  his  Bride!
          38. A feasy for the three days of the writing
              of the Book of the Law.   
          39. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the 
              Prophet--secret, O Prophet!
          40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a 
              feast for the Equinox of the Gods.
          41. A feast for fire and a feast for water; 
              a feast for life and a greater feast for death!
          42. A feast every day in your hearts in the 
              joy of my rapture!
          43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the 
              pleasure of uttermost delight!
          44. Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread 
              hereafter.  There is the dissolution, and eter-
              nal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.
          45. There is death for the dogs.
          46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear 
              in thine heart?
          47. Where I am these are not.
          48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. 
              I am not for them. I console not: I hate the 
              consoled & the consoler.
          49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of 
              the slaves that perish.  Be they damned & 
              dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth 
              who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe 
              in an egg.)
          50. Blue am I and gold in the light of my 
              bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my 
              spangles are purple & green.
          51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light 
              higher than eyesight.
          52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is 
              the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of 
              sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me.
              Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: 
              veil not your vices in virtuous words: these 
              vices are my service; ye do well, & I will re-
              ward you here and hereafter.
          53. Fear not, o prophet, when these words 
              are said, thou shalt not be sorry. Thou art 
              emphatically my chosen; and blessed are the 
              eyes that thoushalt look upon with gladness. 
              But I will hide thee in a mask of sorrow:  they 
              that see thee shall fear thou art fallen: but I 
              lift thee up.
          54. Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly 
              that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall re-
              veal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of
              because:  They are not of me. The stops as 
              thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style 
              or value!
          55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of 
              the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new sym-
              bols to attribute them unto.
          56. Begone! ye mockers; even though ye 
              laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: 
              then when ye are sad know that I have for-
              saken you.
          57. He that is righteous shall be righteous 
              still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.
          58. Yea!   deem not of change: ye shall be as ye  are,  &  not 
              other.  Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for 
              ever:  the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall  be 
              cast  down or lifted up: all is ever as it was.  Yet  there 
              are  masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder  beggar 
              is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will:  there 
              is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.
          59. Beware   therefore!  Love all, lest  perchance  is  a  King 
              concealed!  Say you so? Fool! If he be a King,  thou  canst 
              not hurt him.
          60. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!
          61. There  is  a light before thine eyes, o  prophet,  a  light 
              undesired, most desirable.
          62. I  am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the  stars 
              rain hard upon thy body.
          63. Thou   art  exhaust  in  the  voluptuous  fullness  of  the 
              inspiration;  the  expiration is sweeter than  death,  more 
              rapid and laughterful than a caress of Hell's own worm.
          64. Oh! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all 
              over  thee:  hail!  hail: prophet of Nu!  prophet  of  Had! 
              prophet  of  Ra-Hoor-Khu!  Now rejoice!  now  come  in  our 
              splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, &  write 
              sweet words for the Kings.
          65. I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.
          66. Write,  & find  ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our  bed  in 
              working!   Thrill  with the joy of life &  death!  Ah!  thy 
              death  shall  be lovely: whososeeth it shall be  glad.  Thy 
              death  shall  be the seal of the promise of  our  age  long 
              love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice!  We are one;  we 
              are none.
          67. Hold!  Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in  swoon  of 
              the excellent kisses!
          68. Harder!  Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe  not  so 
              deep-- die!
          69. Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?
          70. There  is  help & hope  in other spells.  Wisdom  says:  be 
              strong!   Then  canst thou bear more joy.  Be  not  animal; 
              refine  thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight  and 
              ninety  rules of art: if thou love exceed by delicacy;  and 
              if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!
          71. But exceed! exceed!
          72. Strive  ever  to more! and if thou art truly  mine  --  and 
              doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous!  -- death is  the 
              crown of all.
          73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death  is 
              forbidden, o man, unto thee.
          74. The  length  of thy longing shall be the  strength  of  its 
              glory.  He that lives long & desires death much is ever the  
              King among the Kings.
          75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:
          76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A  L. 
              What  meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor  shalt 
              thou  know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he  shall 
              expound it. But remember, o chose none, to be me; to follow 
              the  love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth  upon 
              men, to tell them this glad word.
          77. O be thou proud and mighty among men!
          78. Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men 
              or  among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy  stature 
              shall  surpass  the  stars. They shall  worship  thy  name, 
              foursquare,  mystic, wonderful, the number of the man;  and 
              the name of thy house 418.
          79. The  end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship  to 
              the prophet of the lovely Star!

                                          ***

          1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.
          2. There  is  division  hither homeward; there is  a  word  not 
             known.  Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! 
             Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
          3. Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and  of 
             Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them.
          4. Choose ye an island!
          5. Fortify it!
          6. Dung it about with enginery of war!
          7. I will give you a war-engine.
          8. With  it  ye shall smite the peoples; and none  shall  stand      
             before you.
          9. Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle  of 
             Conquest: thus shall my worship be about my secret house.
         10. Get  the  stele of revealing itself; set it  in  thy  secret 
             temple -- and that temple is already aright disposed -- & it 
             shall  be  your  Kiblah for ever. It  shall  not  fade,  but 
             miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close 
             it in locked glass for a proof to the world.
         11. This  shall be your only proof. I forbid argument.  Conquer! 
             That is enough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from 
             the  ill-ordered  house in the Victorious City.  Thou  shalt 
             thyself  convey  it  with worship, o  prophet,  though  thou 
             likest  it not.  Thou shalt have danger & trouble.  Ra-Hoor-
             Khu  is with thee. Worship me with fire & blood; worship  me 
             with  swords  & with spears. Let the woman be  girt  with  a 
             sword before me: let blood flow to my name. Trample down the 
             Heathen;  be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of  their 
             flesh to eat!
         12. Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child.
         13. But not now.
         14. Ye  shall  see that  hour, o blessed  Beast,  and  thou  the 
             Scarlet Concubine of his desire!
         15. Ye shall be sad thereof.
         16. Deem  not  too eagerly to catch the promises;  fear  not  to 
             undergo the curses. Ye, even ye, know not this meaning all.
         17. Fear  not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods,  nor 
             anything.  Money fear not, nor laughter of the  folk  folly, 
             nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth or under the 
             earth.  Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am  the 
             strength, force, vigour, of your arms.
         18. Mercy  let be off;  damn them who pity!  Kill  and  torture; 
             spare not; be upon them!
         19. That stele  they shall call the Abomination  of  Desolation; 
             count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718.
         20. Why?  Because of the fall of Because, that he is  not  there 
             again.
         21. Set up my image in the  East: thou shalt buy thee  an  image 
             which  I will show thee, especial, not unlike the  one  thou 
             knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this.
         22. The other images group around me to support me: let  all  be 
             worshipped,  for  they shall cluster to exalt me. I  am  the 
             visible  object of worship; the others are secret;  for  the 
             Beast  &  his  Bride are they: and for the  winners  of  the 
             Ordeal x. What is this? Thou shalt know.
         23. For  perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red  wine: 
             then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften  & 
             smooth down with rich fresh blood.
         24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood 
             of  a  child, or dropping from the host of heaven:  then  of 
             enemies;  then of the priest or of the worshippers: last  of 
             some beast, no matter what.
         25. This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath  also 
             another  use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick  with 
             perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of beetles  as 
             it were and creeping things sacred unto me.
         26. These slay,  naming your enemies; & they shall  fall  before 
             you.
         27. Also these  shall breed lust & power of lust in you  at  the 
             eating thereof.
         28. Also ye shall be strong in war.
         29. Moreover,  be they long kept, it is better; for  they  swell 
             with my force. All before me.
         30. My altar is of open brass work:  burn thereon in  silver  or 
             gold!
         31. There  cometh a  rich man from the West who shall  pour  his 
             gold upon thee.
         32. From gold forge steel!
         33. Be ready to fly or to smite!
         34. But  your  holy  place shall  be  untouched  throughout  the 
             centuries:  though  with fire and sword it be burnt  down  & 
             shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and  shall 
             stand  until the fall of the Great Equinox;  when  Hrumachis 
             shall  arise and the double-wanded one assume my throne  and 
             place.  Another prophet shall arise, and bring  fresh  fever 
             from the skies; another woman shall awakethe lust &  worship 
             of the Snake; another soul of God and beast shall mingle  in 
             the  globed priest; another sacrifice shall stain the  tomb; 
             another  king shall reign; and blessing no longer be  poured 
             To the Hawk-headed mystical Lord!
         35. The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and 
             Ra-Hoor-Khut.
         36. Then said the prophet unto the God:
         37. I adore thee in the song --
                    I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
                    The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
                    For me unveils the veiled sky,
                    The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu
                    Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
                    Thy presence, O Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
                    Unity uttermost showed!
                    I adore the might of Thy breath,
                    Supreme and terrible God,
                    Who makest the gods and death
                    To tremble before Thee: --
                    I, I adore thee!
                    Appear on the throne of Ra!
                    Open the ways of the Khu!
                    Lighten the ways of the Ka!
                    The ways of the Khabs run through
                    To stir me or still me!
                    Aum! let it fill me!
         38. So that thy light is in me; & its red flame is as a sword in 
             my  hand  to push thy order. There is a secret door  that  I 
             shall make to establish thy way in all the quarters,  (these 
             are the adorations, as thou hast written), as it is said:
        
        The light is mine; its rays consume
                Me: I have made a secret door
        Into the House of Ra and Tum,
                Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.
        I am thy Theban, O Mentu,
                The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
        
        By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
                By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
        Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!
                Bid me within thine House to dwell,
        O winged snake of light, Hadit!
                Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
        
         39. All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and  a 
             reproduction of this ink and paper for ever -- for in it  is 
             the word secret & not only in the English -- and thy comment 
             upon  this the Book of the Law shall be printed  beautifully 
             in red ink and black upon beautiful paper made by hand;  and 
             to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine 
             or to drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they  shall 
             chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do  this 
             quickly!
         40. But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning 
             in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen.
         41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done  well 
             and with business way.
         42. The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the  blind 
             ones.    Refuse  none,  but thou shalt know  &  destroy  the 
             traitors.  I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to  protect 
             my  servant. Success is thy proof: argue not;  convert  not; 
             talk  not  over  much! Them that seek  to  entrap  thee,  to 
             overthrow  thee,  them  attack without pity  or  quarter;  & 
             destroy  them utterly. Swift as a trodden serpent  turn  and 
             strike! Be thou yet deadlier than he! Drag down their  souls 
             to awful torment: laugh at their fear: spit upon them!
         43. Let  the  Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and  compassion  and 
             tenderness visit her heart; if she leave my work to toy with 
             old  sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be known.  I  will 
             slay  me her child: I will alienate her heart: I  will  cast 
             her  out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot  shall 
             she  crawl  through dusk wet streets, and die cold  and  an-
             hungered.
         44. But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in  my 
             way!  Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill  her 
             heart!  Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her  be  covered 
             with  jewels,  and rich garments, and let her  be  shameless 
             before all men!
         45. Then  will I  lift her to pinnacles of power:  then  will  I 
             breed  from her a child mightier than all the kings  of  the 
             earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see 
             & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit.
         46. I  am the  warrior Lord of the Forties: the  Eighties  cower 
             before me, & are abased. I will bring you to victory &  joy: 
             I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. 
             Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on, 
             in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any!
         47. This book shall be translated into all tongues:  but  always 
             with  the original in the writing of the Beast; for  in  the 
             chance  shape  of  the letters and  their  position  to  one 
             another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall  divine. 
             Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence  I 
             say  not,  who shall discover the Key of it all.  Then  this 
             line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure 
             is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that 
             strangely.  Let him not seek after this; for  thereby  alone 
             can he fall from it.
         48. Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on 
             to the holier place.
         49. I  am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy  against  all 
             gods of men.
         50. Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!
         51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he  hangs 
             upon the cross.
         52. I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.
         53. With  my claws I tear out the flesh of the  Indian  and  the 
             Buddhist, Mongol and Din.
         54. Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds.
         55. Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all 
             chaste women be utterly despised among you!
         56. Also for beauty's sake and love's!
         57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not 
             fight, but play; all fools despise!
         58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye  are 
             brothers!
         59. As brothers fight ye!
         60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
         61. There  is an end of the word of the  God enthroned  in  Ra's 
             seat, lightening the girders of the soul.
         62. To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation  of 
             ordeal, which is bliss.
         63. The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he 
             understandeth it not.
         64. Let him come  through the first ordeal, & it will be to  him 
             as silver.
         65. Through the second, gold.
         66. Through the third, stones of precious water.
         67. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
         68. Yet to all  it shall seem beautiful. Its enemies who say not      
             so, are mere liars.
         69. There is success.
         70. I  am  the  Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence &  of  Strength;  my 
             nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
         71. Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the  world!  for 
             your time is nigh at hand.
         72. I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power;  the wand of  the 
             Force  of Coph Nia-- but my left hand is empty, for  I  have 
             crushed an Universe; & nought remains.
         73. Paste  the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom: 
             then behold!
         74. There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as  the 
             sun of midnight is ever the son.
         75. The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
        
                The Book of the Law is Written
        
                and Concealed.
        
                Aum. Ha.
        
                                  THE COMMENT.
        
                Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
        
        The  study of this Book is forbidden. It is wise to destroy  this 
        copy after the first reading.
        
        Whosoever  disregards  this does so at his own  risk  and  peril. 
        These are most dire.
        
        Those who discuss the contents of this Book are to be shunned  by 
        all, as centres of pestilence.
        
        All  questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to  my 
        writings, each for himself.
        
        There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
        
                        Love is the law, love under will.
        
                           The priest of the princes,
        
                                 ANKH-F-N-KHONSU
        
                                GENESIS LIBRI AL
        
                                  CHAPTER I.*1*
        
                        The Boyhood of Aleister Crowley.
        
        At  36  Clarendon Square, Leamington, Warwickshire,  England,  at 
        I0.50 p.m. on the twelfth day of October, in the Eighteen Hundred 
        and  Seventy-Fifth  Year of the vulgar era, was born  the  person 
        whose history is to be recounted.
        
        His  father was named Edward Crowley;  his mother, Emily  Bertha, 
        her  maiden name being Bishop.  Edward Crowley was  an  Exclusive 
        Plymouth Brother, the most considered leader in that sect.   This 
        branch of the family of Crowley has been settled in England since 
        Tudor  times,  but is Celtic in origin, Crowley being a  clan  in 
        Kerry  and  other counties in the South-West of Ireland,  of  the 
        same  stock as the Breton `de Querouaille' or `de  Kerval'  which 
        gave a Duchess of Portsmouth to England.  It is supposed that the 
        English   branch---the  direct  ancestry  of   Edward   Alexander 
        Crowley---came  to  England with the Duke of Richmond,  and  took 
        root at Bosworth.
        
        In  I88Ihe went to live at The Grange, Redhill, Surrey.  In  I884 
        the  boy,  who  had till then been educated  by  governesses  and 
        tutors,  was  sent  to a school at St.  Leonards,  kept  by  some 
        extreme  Evangelicals  named  Habershon.  A  year  later  he  was 
        transferred  to a school at Cambridge kept by a Plymouth  Brother 
        of  the  name  of Champney.  (The dates  in  this  paragraph  are 
        possibly  inaccurate.   Documentary evidence is  at  the  present 
        moment unavailable.  Ed.)
        
        On  March 5, I887, Edward Crowley died.  Two years later the  boy 
        was  removed  from  the school.  Those two years  were  years  of 
        unheard-of  torture.   He has written details in the  Preface  to 
        "The  World's  Tragedy."  This torture seriously  undermined  his 
        health.   For  two  years  he travelled,  mostly  in   Wales  and 
        Scotland,  with  tutors.  In I890 he went for a short time  to  a 
        school  at  Streatham,  kept by a man named  Yarrow,  his  mother 
        having moved there in order to be near her brother, an  extremely 
        narrow  Evangelical named Tom Bond Bishop. This prepared him  for 
        Malvern,  which he entered at the summer term of I89I.   He  only 
        remained there a year, as his health was still very delicate.  In 
        the autumn he entered for a term at Tonbridge, but fell seriously 
        ill, and had to be removed.  The year I893 was spent with tutors, 
        principally in Wales, the north of Scotland, and Eastbourne.   In 
        I895  he  completed his studies in chemistry at  King's  College, 
        London,  and  in October of that year  entered  Trinity  College, 
        Cambridge.
        
        With  this  ends  the  first period of  his  life.   It  is  only 
        necessary  to state briefly that his brain developed  early.   At 
        four  years old he could read the Bible aloud, showing  a  marked 
        predilection  for the lists of long names, the only part  of  the 
        Bible   which has not been tampered with by  theologians.*1*   He 
        could  also play chess well enough to beat the  average  amateur, 
        and though constantly playing never lost a game till I895.*2*  He 
        was taught by a tailor who had been summoned to make clothes  for 
        his father, and was treated as a guest on account of his being  a 
        fellow  "Plymouth Brother".  He beat his teacher uniformly  after 
        the first game.  He must have been six or seven years old at this 
        time.
        
        He  began  to  write  poetry  in  I886,  if  not  earlier.   Vide 
        "Oracles".
        
        After  the  death of his father, who was a man of  strong  common 
        sense,  and never allowed his religion to interfere with  natural 
        affection, he was in the hands of people of an entirely  contrary 
        disposition.  His mental attitude was soon concentrated in hatred 
        of  the religion which they taught, and his will concentrated  in 
        revolt  against its oppressions.  His main method of  relief  was 
        mountaineering,  which left him alone with nature, away from  the 
        tyrants.
        
        The  years  from  March, I887, until  entering  Trinity  College, 
        Cambridge,  in  October, I895, represented a  continual  struggle 
        towards  freedom.   At Cambridge he felt himself to  be  his  own 
        master,  refused  to  attend Chapel, Lectures or  Hall,  and  was 
        wisely left alone to work out his won salvation by his tutor, the 
        late Dr. A. W. Verrall.
        
        It must be stated that he possessed natural intellectual  ability 
        to  an  altogether extraordinary degree.  He had the  faculty  of 
        memory, especially verbal memory, in astonishing perfection.
        
        As a  boy he could find almost any verse in the Bible after a few 
        minutes  search.   In  I900  he  was  tested  in  the  works   of 
        Shakespeare,   Shelley,  Swinburne  (Ist  series  of  Poems   and 
        Ballads),  Browning  and  The Moonstone.  He was  able  to  place 
        exactly  any phrase from any of these books, and in nearly  every 
        case to continue with the passage.
        
        He showed remarkable facility in acquiring the elements of Latin, 
        Greek,  French,  Mathematics  and  Science.   He  learnt  "little 
        Roscoe"  almost  by heart, on his won initiative.   When  in  the 
        Lower  Fifth at Malvern, he came out sixth in the school  in  the 
        annual Shakespeare examination, though he had given only two days 
        to preparing for it.  Once, when the Mathematical Master, wishing 
        to devote the hour to cramming advanced pupils, told th class  to 
        work out a set of examples of Quadratic Equations, he retorted by 
        asking  at the end of forty minutes what he should do  next,  and 
        handed up the whole series of 63 equations, correct.
        
        He passed all his examinations both at school and university
        with honours, though refusing uniformly to work for them.
        
        On  the other hand, he could not be persuaded or  constrained  to 
        apply  himself  to any subject which did not appeal to  him.   He 
        showed  intense  repugnance to history,  geography,  and  botany, 
        among  others.   He could never learn to write  Greek  and  Latin 
        verses,  this  probably  because the  rules  of  scansion  seemed 
        arbitrary and formal.
        
        Again, it was impossible to him to take interest in anything from 
        the moment that he had grasped the principles of "how it was,  or 
        might  be  done."   This trait prevented  him  from  putting  the 
        finishing touches to anything he attempted.
        
        For  instance, he refused to present himself for the second  part 
        of his final examination for his B.A. degree, simply because
        he knew himself thoroughly master of the subject!*1*
        
        This  characteristic extended to his physical pleasures.  He  was 
        abjectly  incompetent  at  easy practice  climbing  on  boulders, 
        because  he knew he could do them.  It seemed incredible  to  the 
        other  men  that this lazy duffer should be the most  daring  and 
        dexterous  cragsman  of  his generation,  as  he  proved  himself 
        whenever  he  tackled a precipice which had baffled  every  other 
        climber in the world.*2*  Similarly, once he had worked out theo-
        retically  a method of climbing a mountain, he was quite  content 
        to tell the secret to others, and let them appropriate the glory.  
        (The  first ascent of the Dent du Geant from the Montanvers is  a 
        case  in  point.)  It mattered everything to him  that  something 
        should be done, nothing that he should be the one to do it.
        
        This  almost  inhuman  unselfishness was  not  incompatible  with 
        consuming  and  insatiable  personal ambition.  The  key  to  the 
        puzzle  is probably this ; he wanted to be something that  nobody 
        else  had ever been, or could be.  He lost interest in  chess  as 
        soon as he had proved to himself (at the age of 22) that he was a 
        master of the game, having beaten some of the strongest  amateurs 
        in  England,  and  even one or two  professional  "masters."   He 
        turned from poetry to painting, more or less, when he had made it 
        quite certain that he was the greatest poet of his time.  Even in 
        Magick,  having become The Word of the Aeon, and thus  taken  his 
        place with the other Seven Magi known to history, out of reach of 
        all possible competition, he began to neglect the subject.  He is 
        only  able  to  devote himself to it as he does  because  he  has 
        eliminated  all personal ideas from his Work ; it has  become  as 
        automatic as respiration.
        
        We   must also put on record his extraordinary powers in  certain 
        unusual spheres.  He can remember the minutest details of a rock-
        climb, after years of absence.  He can retrace his steps over any 
        path  once  traversed,  in the wildest weathee  or  the  blackest 
        night.   He can divine the one possible passagr through the  most 
        complex and dangerous ice-fall.  (E.g. the Vuibez seraes in I897, 
        the Mer de Glace, right centre, in I899.)
        
        He  possesses  a "sense of direction" independent  of  any  known 
        physical methods of taking one's bearings ; and this is as effec-
        tive in strange cities as on mountains or deserts.  He can  smell 
        the  presence of water, of snow, and other  supposedly  scentless 
        substances.  His endurance is exceptional.  He has been known  to 
        write  for  67  consecutive hours :  his  "Tannhauser"  was  thus 
        written in I900.  He has walked over I00 miles in 2 I/2 days,  in 
        the  desert :  as in the winter of I9I0.  He has frequently  made 
        expeditions  lasting  over 36 hours, on mountains,  in  the  most 
        adverse connditions.  He holds the World's record for the  great-
        est number of days spent on a glacier--65 days on the Baltoro  in 
        I902;  also  that  for  the  greatest  pace  uphill  over  I6,000 
        feet--4,000  feet in I hour 23 minutes on Iztaccihuatl  in  I900; 
        that   for  the  highest  peak   (first  ascent  by  a   solitary 
        climber)--the Nevado de Toluca in I90I; and numerous others.*1*
        
        Yet he is utterly fagged-out by the mere idea of a walk of a  few 
        hundred  yards,  if  it does not interest  him,  and  excite  his 
        imagination, to take it ; and it is only with the greatest effort 
        that he can summon the energy to write a few lines if, instead of 
        his wanting  to do them, he merely knows that they must be done.
        
        This account has been deemed necessary to explain how it is  that 
        a  man of such unimaginable commanding qualities as to have  made 
        him  world-famous  in so many diverse spheres of  action,  should 
        have been so grotesquely unable to make use of his faculties,  or 
        even  of  his achievements, in any of the  ordinary  channels  of 
        human activity; to consolidate his personal pre-eminence, or even 
        to secure his position from a social or economic standpoint.
        
        
                                   CHAPTER II.
        
        
                      Adolescence :  Beginnings of Magick.
        
                                  The Birth of
                                FRATER PERDURABO.
                                        
                                  0 =0  to 4 =7
        
        Having  won  freedom, he had the sense not to waste any  time  in 
        enjoying it.  He had been deprived of all English literature  but 
        the  Bible during the whole of his youth, and he spent his  three 
        years at Cambridge in repairing the defect.  He was also  working 
        for the Diplomatic Service, the late Lord Salisbury and the  late 
        Lord  Ritchie having taken an interest in his career,  and  given 
        him  nominations.  In October, I897, he was suddenly recalled  to 
        his   understanding  of  the  evils  of  the  alleged   'existing 
        religion,'  and experienced a trance, in which he  perceived  the 
        utter  folly  of all human ambition.  The fame of  an  ambassador 
        rarely  outlives  a  century.   That  of  a  poet  is  almost  as 
        ephemeral.  The earth must one day perish.  He must build in some 
        material more lasting.  This conception drove him to the study of 
        Alchemy and Magick.  He wrote to the author of "The Book of Black 
        Magic  and  of  Pacts," a pompous American  named  Arthur  Waite, 
        notorious for the affectations and obscurities of his style,  and 
        the  mealy-mouthed  muddle  of  his  mysticism.   This   nebulous 
        impresario,  presentin  an  asthmatic Isis in  the  Opera  "Bull-
        Frogs,"  had  hinted in his preface that he knew  certain  occult 
        sanctuaries wherein Truth and Wisdom were jealously guarded by  a 
        body  of Initiates, to be despensed to the postulant  who  proved 
        himself  worthy  to  partake  of  their  privileges.   Mr.  Waite 
        recommended  him  to  read  a  book  called  "The  Cloud  on  the 
        Sanctuary."
        
        His  taste for mountaineering had become a powerful passion,  and 
        he  was  climbing  in Cumberland when he  met  Oscar  Eckenstein, 
        perhaps the greatest of all the mountaineers of his period,  with 
        whom he was destined to climb thenceforward until I902.
        
        In the summer a party was fromed to camp on the Schonbuhl Glacier 
        at the foot of the Dent Blanche, with a view to an expedition  ot 
        the  Himalayas later on.  During his weeks on the Glacier,  where 
        the  bad  weather  was  continous,  he  studied  assiduously  the 
        translation  by S. L. Mathers of three books which form  part  of 
        von  Rosenroth's "Kabbalah Unveiled."  On one of his  decents  to 
        Zermatt, he met a distinguished chemist, Julian L. Bater, who had 
        studied  Alchemy.   He hunted this clue through the  valley,  and 
        made  Baker promise to meet him in London at the end of the  sea-
        son,  and introduce him to others who were interested  in  Occult 
        science.   This  happened in September ; through  Baker,  he  met 
        another  chemist named George Cecil Jones, who introduced him  to 
        the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.  He made rapid progress in 
        this  Order, and in the spring of I900 was its chief in  England.  
        The  details  of this period must be studied in  "The  Temple  of 
        Solomon  the King," where a full account of the Order  is  given.  
        In the Order he met one, Allan Bennett, Frater Iehi Aour.   Jones 
        and  Bennett were both Adepts of high standing.  The latter  came 
        to live with him in his flat, and together they carried out  many 
        operations  of  ceremonial magick.  Allan  Bennett  was  constant 
        illhealth, and went to Ceylon at the end of I899.  It was on  his 
        entry  into this Order that the subject of this history took  the 
        motto of "Perdurabo"--'I will endure to the end.'
        
        In  July, I900, he went to Mexico, and devoted his whole time  to 
        the   continued  practice  of  Magick,  in  which   he   obtained 
        extraordinary  success.   (See  Equinox Vol. I,  No.  III  for  a 
        condensed  account  of  some of these.  It  may  be  here  stated 
        summarily that he invoked certain Gods, Goddesses, and Spirits to 
        visible  appearance,  learnt  how  to  heal  physical  and  moral 
        diseases,   how  to  make  himself  invisible,  how   to   obtain 
        communications  from  spiritual  sources, how  to  control  other 
        minds, etc., etc.)  And then....
        
        
                                  CHAPTER III.
        
        
                            Beginnings of Mysticism.
                                        
                                  The Birth of 
                                  FRATER OU MH.
        
                                       7=4
        
        Oscar Eckenstein, on his arrival in Mexico, where he was to climb 
        mountains  with the subject of our essay, found him in  a  rather 
        despondent mood.  He had attained the most satisfactory  results.  
        He  was  able  to  communicate  with  thed  divine  forces,   and 
        operations  such as those of invisibility and evocation had  been 
        mastered.  Yet with all this there was a certain dissatisfaction.  
        Success  had not given him all that he had hoped for.  He  placed 
        the situration before his companion, rather to clear his own mind 
        than  hoping  for any help, for he supposed him  to  be  entirely 
        ignorant of all these subjects, which he habitually treated  with 
        dislike and contempt.  Judge of his surprise, then, when he found 
        in  this  unpromising quarter a messenger form  the  Great  White 
        Brotherhood !  His companion told him to abandon all magick.

        "The  Task," said Eckenstein, "involves the control of the  mind.  
        Yours  is  a wandering mind."  The  proposition  was  indignantly 
        denied.
             
        "Test  it," said the Master.  A short experiment was  conclusive.  
        It  was  impossible  for the boy to keep his mind  fixed  upon  a 
        single  object  for  even a few seconds at  a  time.   The  mind, 
        thougfh perfectly stable in motion, was unable to rest, just as a 
        gyroscope  falls when the flywheel slows down.  An  entirely  new 
        course of experiments was consequently undertaken.   Half-an-hour 
        every  morning  and half-an-hour every evening  were  devoted  to 
        attempts to control the mind, by the simple process of  imagining 
        a  familiar  object, and endeavouring to keep  concentrated  upon 
        it.*1*
        
        He  soon became sufficiently expert in this initial  practice  to 
        proceed  to concentration on regularly moving objects such  as  a 
        pendulum,  and, ultimately, on living objects.  A further  series 
        of experiments dealt with the other senses.  He tried to  imagine 
        and  retain  the taste of chocolate or of quinine, the  smell  of 
        various familiar perfumes, the sound of bells, waterfalls, and so 
        on, or the feeling excited by such objects as velvet, silk,  fur, 
        sand and steel.
        
        In  the  spring of I90I, he left Mexico, went to  San  Francisco, 
        Honolulu,  Japan,  China  and  Ceylon,  always  continuing  these 
        experiments.   His  Master had not told him to  what  they  would 
        ultimately lead.  In Ceylon he found Frater I.A. (Allan Bennett), 
        with  whom  he went to Kandy, where they took  a  bungalow  named 
        Marlboroigh, overlooking the lake.
        
        
        I.A.  had  himself  been developing on  similar  lines  under  P. 
        Ramanathan, the Solicitor-General of Ceylon, known to  occultists 
        under the name of Shri Parananda.*2*  I.A. told him that in order 
        to  concentrate he must first see that no  interruptions  reached 
        him  from  the  body, and counselled the  adoption  of  Asana,  a 
        settled  position  in  which  all  bodily  movement  was  to   be 
        suppressed.  Further, he was to practice Pranayama, or control of 
        the  breathing,  which has a similar effect in  reducing  to  the 
        lowest possible point the internal movements of the body.*1*
        
        During  the  months of this stay at Kandy,  he  practised  these, 
        obtained  success  in Asana, the intense pain  of  the  practices 
        being  overcome,  and  changed into  an  indescribable  sense  of 
        physical well-being and comfort.
        
        While  in Pranayama he passed through the first stage,  which  is 
        marked  by profuse perspiration of a peculiar kind ; the  second, 
        which is accompanied by rigidity of the body ; and the third,  in 
        which the body unconsciously hops about the floor, without in any 
        way disturbing the Asana.
        
        During the latter part of August and the whole of September,  his 
        practices became continous by day and night, in order to create a 
        rhythm  in the mind similar to that which Pranayama  produces  in 
        the  body.   He  adopted a Mantra, or  sacred  sentence,  by  the 
        constant repetition of which it became automatic in his brain, so 
        that  it  would  continue through sleep, and  he  would  wake  up 
        actually  repeating the words.  Sleep itself, too, was broken  up 
        into  short  periods of very light sleep of a peculiar  kind,  in 
        which  consciousness is hardly lost, althougfh the  body  obtains 
        perdect  rest.   These practices continued into October,  at  the 
        beginning  of which he reached the state of Dhyana, a  tremendous 
        spiritual  experience,  in  which  the  subject  and  object   of 
        meditation  unite with excessive violence in blinding  brilliance 
        and  music  of  a  kind  to  which  earthly  harmony  affords  no 
        parallel.*1*
        
        The result of this however was to cause so intense a satisfaction 
        with  his  progress,  that  he gave up  work.   He  then  visited 
        Anuradhapura  and  others  of the buried cities  of  Ceylon.   In 
        November  he went to India, and in January visited I.A. at  Akyab 
        in  Burma,where  that Adept was living in a monastery,  with  the 
        intention  of  preparing himself to take the Yellow Robe  of  the 
        Buddhist Sangha.  The whole of the summer of I902 was spent in an 
        expedition  to  Chogo Ri (K2) in the  Himalayas.*2*   During  the 
        whole of this period he did very little occult work.
        
        November, I902, him in Paris, where he stayed off and on till the 
        spring of I903, when he returned to his house in Scotland.
        
        We  must now go backwards in time, to take up a thread which  had 
        run  through his whole work, so umportant as to demand a  chapter 
        to itself:--
        
                                   CHAPTER IV.
        
        
                     The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
        
                                  The Birth of
                         FRATER----------*1* 5=6  A. A.
        
        In  the  autumn  of  I898 George Cecil  Jones  had  directed  the 
        attention of Frater Perdurabo to a book entitled "The Book of the 
        Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage."  The essence of this book is 
        as follows :
        
        The  aspirant  must  have a house  secure  from  observation  and 
        interference.   In  this house there must be an  oratory  with  a 
        window  to  the  East, and a door to the  North  opening  upon  a 
        terrace,  at  the end of which must be a lodge.  He must  have  a 
        Robe,  Crown, Wand, Altar, Incense, Anointing Oil, and  a  Silver 
        Lamen.  The terrace and lodge must be strewn with fine sand.   He 
        withdraws  himself  gradually from human  intercourse  to  devote 
        himself more and more to prayer for the space of four months.  He 
        must then occupy two months in almost continuous prayer, speaking 
        as  little as possible to anybody.  At the end of this period  he 
        invokes a being described as the Holy Guardian Angle, who appears 
        to him (or to a child employed by him), and who will write in dew 
        upon  the Lamen, which is placed upon the Altar.  The Oratory  is 
        filled d with Divine Perfume not of the aspirant's kindling.
        
        After  a period of communion with the Angel, he summons the  Four 
        Great  Princes  of the Daemonic World, and forces them  to  swear 
        obedience.
        
        On the following day he calls forward and subdues the Eight  Sub-
        Princes ; and the day after that, the many Spirits serving these.  
        These  inferior  Daemons, of whom four act as  familiar  spirits, 
        then  operate  a collection of talismans  for  various  purposes.  
        Such is a brief account of the Operation described in the book.
        
        This Operation strongly appealed to our student.  He  immediately 
        set about to procure a suitable house, and to prepare  everything 
        that might be necessary for the operation.  All was ready for the 
        beginning  in  Easter  of  I900, and it must  be  said  that  the 
        preliminary  work alone is so tremendous that a long story  might 
        be written of the events of these I8 months of preparation.   The 
        Operation  itself  was however never begun.  A  fortnight  or  so 
        before the time appointed, he received an urgent appeal from  his 
        Master  to save him and the Order from destruction.  He  gave  up 
        his own prospects of personal advancement without hesitation, and 
        hastened to Paris.*1*
        
        That  the Master proved to be no Master, and the Order no  Order, 
        but  the  incarnation of Disorder, had no effect  upon  the  good 
        Karma  created by this renunciation of a project on which he  had 
        set his heart for so long.
        
        In  Mexico, he kept vigil during several nights in the Temple  of 
        the Order of the Lamp of the Invisible Light, an Order whose High 
        Priest is pledged to maintain a Secret and Eternal Lamp.  In this 
        shrine he received some shadowing forth of the Vision of the Holy 
        Guardian  Angel, and that of the Four Great Princes :  here  also 
        he renewed the Oath of the Operation.
        
        (The  whole  of  his magical career is best  interpreted  as  the 
        performance  of  this  Operation.   One  must  not  suppose  that 
        Initiation  is a formality, observing the "unities,"  like  being 
        made a Mason.  All life pertains to the process, and it  pervades 
        the whole personality ; the official recognition of attainment is 
        merely a token of what had taken place.)
        
        On his return to Scotland in I903, he found ample evidence of the 
        presence  of  the  forces of the Operation, but  by  now,  having 
        conceived  that Work in a subtler manner and having  prepared  to 
        carry  it out in the Temple of his own body, having seen  Magick, 
        in short, more of less in the manner in which it is seen in Parts 
        II  and  III  of the Book 4, he was able  to  dispense  with  the 
        exterior physical appurtenances of this Operation.
        
        We  must now pass over a few years, and deal with the  completion 
        of  this Operation, although it is in a sense irrelevant  to  the 
        purpose of this book.
        
        During  the winter of I905-6, he was traveling across China.   He 
        had  come  to the point of conquering his mind.   That  mind  had 
        broken  up.   He saw that the human mind is by  its  very  nature 
        evanescent,  because  of the fact that nature is  not  unity  but 
        duality.  Truth is relative.  All things end in mystery.  In such 
        sentences  have  the  philosophers of the  past  formulated  this 
        proposition, as announcing the intellectual bankruptcy which  he, 
        with greater frankness, describes as insanity.
        
        Passing  from this, he became as a little child, and on  reaching 
        the  Unity  behind  the  mind, found  the  purpose  of  his  life 
        formulated  in  these words, The Obtaining of the  Knowledge  and 
        Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
        
        He  then  found  himself,  having  destroyed  all  other   Karma, 
        perfectly free to pursue this one work.  He then accomplished the 
        six months of Invocation, as prescribed in the Book of the Sacred 
        Magic, and was rewarded in October, I906, by complete success.*1*
        
        He then proceeded to the evocation and conquest of the Four Great 
        Princes and their Inferiors, a work whose results must be studied 
        in the light of his subsequent career.
        
        We have now finished all that is necessary to say concerning him, 
        for the account of some of his further Attainment is given  fully 
        in  Liber  CDXVIII, "The Vision and the Voice," also  in  Equinox 
        Vol.  I  No.  X  "The Temple of  Solomon  the  King,"  where  the 
        unexpected result of the Communion of the Holy Guardian Angel  is 
        shown  in  a  symbolism which can hardly  be  understood  without 
        reference  to the events of I904, which are now wholly  pertinent 
        to this Essay.
        
                                   CHAPTER V.
        
                            The Results of Recession.
        
        The wisest of the Popes, on being shown some miracles, refused to 
        be  impressed, remarking that he did not believe in them, he  had 
        seen too many.  The result of the Meditation practices and  their 
        results,  following  those of Magick, was to give our  student  a 
        conception  of the Universe which was purely mental.   Everything 
        was  a  phenomenon  in mind.  He did not as  yet  see  that  this 
        conception  is self-destructive ; but it made him skeptical,  and 
        indifferent to whatever happened.  You cannot really be impressed 
        by  anything which you know to be nothing more than one  of  your 
        own thoughts.  Any occurrence can be interpreted as a thought, or 
        as  a relation between two thoughts.  In practice this  leads  to 
        profound indifferentism, miracles having become commonplace.  But 
        what  would be the amazement of the priest who, placing the  Host 
        upon his tongue, found his mouth full of bleeding flesh !  At the 
        period of writing, it is evident for what purpose our student was 
        led  into  this state.  I t was not to the Magician, not  to  the 
        mystic,  it  was to a militant member of  the  Rationalist  Press 
        Association  that  the great Revelation was to be made.   It  was 
        necessary  to  prove  to him that there was  in  actual  truth  a 
        Sanctuary, that there was in sober earnest a body of Adepts.   It 
        matters   nothing   whether  these  Adepts  are   incarnated   or 
        discarnated,  human or divine.  The only point at issue  is  that 
        there  should  be conscious Beings in possession of  the  deepest 
        secrets  of Nature, pledged to the uplifting of humanity,  filled 
        with  Truth, Wisdom and Understanding.  It is practical to  prove 
        the existence of individuals whose knowledge and power,  although 
        not complete--for the nature of Knowledge and Power is such  that 
        they  can never be complete, since the ideas  themselves  contain 
        imperfections--are yet enormously greater than aught known to the 
        rest of humanity.
        
        It  was of such a body that our student had heard in  the  "Cloud 
        upon the Sanctuary" ; admission to its adyta had been the guiding 
        hope  of  his life.  His early attainments had tended  rather  to 
        shake  his belief in the existence of such an  organization.   He 
        had  not yet reckoned up the events of his life ; he had not  yet 
        divined  the  direction  and  the  set  purpose  informing  their 
        apparently  vagrant  course.  It might have been by  chance  that 
        whenever  he  had been confronted with any difficulty  the  right 
        person  had  instantly come forward to solve it, whether  in  the 
        valleys  of Switzerland, the mountains of Mexico, or the  jungles 
        of the East.
        
        At  this  period of his life he would have scouted  the  idea  as 
        fantastic.  He had yet to learn that the story of Balaam and  his 
        prophetic  ass  might be literally true.  For the  great  Message 
        that  came to him came, not through the mouth of any person  with 
        any  pretensions to any knowledge of this or any other sort,  but 
        through  an  empty-headed woman of society.  The plain  facts  of 
        this revelation must be succinctly stated in a new chapter.
        
                                        
                                   CHAPTER VI.
                                                                        
                              The Great Revelation.
        
                                 The Arising of
                                 THE BEAST 666.
        
                                       9=2
        
        It  has been judged best to reprint as it stands the  account  of 
        these matters originally compiled for "The Temple of Solomon  the 
        King."  (Equinox Vol. I, No. VII, pp 357-386.)*1*
        
        
                                   THE PRIEST
        
        In opening this the most important section of Frater P.'s career, 
        we may be met by the unthinking with the criticism that since  it 
        deals  rather with his relation to others than with his  personal 
        attainment, it has no place in this volume.*2*

        Such  criticism is indeed shallow.  True, the incidents which  we 
        are  about to record took place on planes material or  contiguous 
        thereto  ;  true, so obscure is the light by which we  walk  that 
        much must be left in doubt ; true, we have not as yet the supreme 
        mystical  attainment to record ; but on the other hand it is  our 
        view  that the Seal set upon Attainment may be  itself  fittingly 
        recorded  in  the story of that Attainment, and that no  step  in 
        progress  is  more  important than that when it is  said  to  the 
        aspirant:   "Now that you are able to walk alone, let it be  your 
        first  care  to use that strength to help others!"  And  so  this 
        great  event which we are about to describe, an event which  will 
        lead, as time will show, to the establishment of a New Heaven and 
        New Earth for all men, wore the simplest and humblest guise.   So 
        often the gods come clad as peasants or as children ; nay, I have 
        listened to their voices in stones and trees.
        
        However,  we must not forget that there are persons so  sensitive 
        and  so credulous that they are convinced by anything, I  suppose 
        that there are nearly as many beds in the world as there are  men 
        ; yet for the Evangelical every bed conceals its Jesuit.
        
        We  get  "Milton composing baby rhymes" and "Locke  reasoning  in 
        gibberish," divine revelations which would shock the intelligence 
        of  a  sheep or a Saxon ; and we find these upheld  and  defended 
        with skill and courage.
        
        Therefore, since we are to announce the divine revelation made to 
        Fra.  P., it is of the last importance that we should  study  his 
        mind as is was at the time of the Unveiling.  If we find it to be 
        the mind of a neurotic, of a mystic, of a person predisposed,  we 
        shall slight the revelation ; if it be that of a sane man of  the 
        world, we shall attach more importance to it.
        
        If  some  dingy  Alchemist  emerges  from  his  laboratory,   and 
        proclaims  to all Tooting that he has made gold, men doubt ;  but 
        the conversion to spiritualism of Professor Lombroso made a great 
        deal  of  impression  on those who did not  understand  that  his 
        criminology was but the heaped delusion of a diseased brain.
        
        So  we shall find that the A.A. subtly prepared Fra. P.  by  over 
        two  years' training in rationalism and indifferentism for  Their 
        message.   And we shall find that so well did They do Their  work 
        that he refused the message for five years more, in spite of many 
        strange proofs of its truth.  We shall find even that Fra. P. had 
        to  be  stripped  naked of himself before  he  could  effectively 
        deliver the message.
        
        The battle was between all that mighty will of his and the  Voice 
        of a Brother who spoke once, and entered again into His silence ; 
        and it was not Fra. P. who had the victory.
        
        We  left Fra. P. in the autumn of I90I having  made  considerable 
        progress in Yoga.  We noted that in I902 he did little or nothing 
        either  in Magic or Mysticism.  The interpretation of the  occult 
        phenomena which he had observed occupied him exclusively, and his 
        mind was more and more attracted to materialism.
        
        What  are phenomena ? he asked.  Of noumena I know and  can  know 
        nothing.  All I know is, as far as I know, a mere modification of 
        the  mind, a phase of consciousness.  And thought is a  secretion 
        of the brain.  Consciousness is a function of the brain.
        
        If this thought was contradicted by the obvious, "And what is the 
        brain  ?  A phenomenon in mind !", it weighed less with him.   It 
        seemed to his mind as yet unbalanced (for all men are  unbalanced 
        until they have crossed the Abyss), that it was more important to 
        insist on matter than on mind.  Idealism wrought such misery, was 
        the father of all illusion, never led to research.  And yet, what 
        odds  ?   Every act or thought is determined by  an  infinity  of 
        causes,  is the resultant of an infinity of forces.  He  analysed 
        God,  saw that every man had made God in his own image,  saw  the 
        savage  and cannibal Jews devoted to a savage and  cannibal  God, 
        who  commanded  the  rape of virgins and  the  murder  of  little 
        children.    He  saw  the  timid  inhabitants  of  India,   races 
        continually  the  prey  of  every  robber  tribe,  inventing  the 
        effeminate  Vishnu; while, under the same name, their  conquerors 
        worshiped  a warrior, the conqueror of Demon Swans.  He  saw  the 
        flower  of earth throughout all time, the gracious  Greeks,  what 
        gracious  gods they had invented.  He saw Rome, in  its  strength 
        devoted  to Mars, Jupiter and Hercules, in its decay  turning  to 
        emasculate  Attis,  slain  Adonis,  murdered  Osiris,   crucified 
        Christ.   He could even trace in his own life  every  aspiration, 
        every devotion, as a reflection of his physical and  intellectual 
        needs.   He saw, too, the folly of all this supernaturalism.   He 
        heard the Boers and the British pray to the same Protestant  God, 
        and it occurred to him that the early success of the former might 
        be due rather to superior valour than to superior praying  power, 
        and  their  eventual defeat to the circumstance that  they  could 
        only  bring 60,000 men against a quarter of a million.   He  saw, 
        too,  the  face of humanity mired in its own blood  that  dripped 
        from the leeches of religion fastened to its temples.
        
        In  all this he saw man as the only thing worth holding to ;  the 
        one thing that needed to be  "saved," but also the one thing that 
        could save it.
        
        All that he had attained, then, he abandoned.  The intuitions  of 
        the  Qabalah  were cast behind him with a smile at  his  youthful 
        folly ; magic, if true, led nowhere ; Yoga had become psychology.  
        For  the  solution of his original problems of  the  universe  he 
        looked  to metaphysics ; he devoted his intellect to the cult  of 
        absolute reason.  He took up once more with Kant, Hume,  Spencer, 
        Huxley, Tyndall, Maudsley, Mansel, Fitche, Schelling, Hegel,  and 
        many another ; while as for his life, was he not a man ?  He  had 
        a  wife  ; he knew his duty to the race, and to his  own  ancient 
        graft  thereof.  He was a traveller and a sportsman ; very  well, 
        then,  live it !  So we find that from November, I9OI he  did  no 
        practices of any kind until the Spring Equinox of I904, with  the 
        exception  of  a  casual  week in the  summer  of  I903,  and  an 
        exhibition  game  of magick in the King's Chamber  of  the  Great 

        Pyramid in November, I903, when by his invocations he filled that 
        chamber  with  a brightness as of full moonlight.  (This  was  no 
        subjective  illusion.  The light was sufficient for him  to  read 
        the  ritual by.)  Only to conclude, "There, you see it ?   What's 
        the good of it ?"
        
        We  find  him climbing mountains, skating, fishing,  hunting  big 
        game,  fulfilling the duties of a husband ; we find him with  the 
        antipathy to all forms of spiritual thought and work which  marks 
        disappointment.
        
        If  one goes up the wrong mountain by mistake, as may happen,  no 
        beauties of that mountain can compensate for the  disillusionment 
        when the error is laid bare.  Leah may have been a very nice girl 
        indeed,  but  Jacob  never  cared for  her  after  that  terrible 
        awakening to find her face on the pillow when, after seven years' 
        toil, he wanted the expected Rachel.
        
        So Fra. P., after five years barking up the wrong tree, had  lost 
        interest  in  trees  altogether  as  far  as  climbing  them  was 
        concerned.   He  might indulge in a little human pride  :   "See, 
        Jack,  that's the branch I cut my name on when I was a boy";  but 
        even the golden fruit of Eternity in its branches, he would  have 
        done no more than lift his gun and shoot the pigeon that  flitted 
        through its foliage.
        
        Of  this  "withdrawal from the vision" the proof  is  not  merely 
        deducible  from  the  absence  of all  occult  documents  in  his 
        dossier, and from the full occupation of his life in external and 
        mundane  duties  and  pleasures, but  is  made  irrefragible  and 
        emphatic  by the positive evidence of his writings.  Of these  we 
        have   several  examples.   Two  are  dramatisations   of   Greek 
        mythology, a subject offering every opportunity to the occultist.  
        Both  are markedly free from any such allusions.  We have also  a 
        slim booklet, `Rosa Mundi,' in which the joys of pure human  love 
        are  pictured  without  the faintest  tinge  of  mystic  emotion.  
        Further, we have a play, `The God Eater,' in which the Origin  of 
        Religion,  as  conceived by Spencer or  Frazer,  is  dramatically 
        shown  forth  ; and lastly we have a satire,  `Why  Jesus  Wept,' 
        hard,  cynical,  and  brutal  in its  estimate  of  society,  but 
        careless of any remedy for its ills.
        
        It is as if the whole past of the man with all its aspiration and 
        attainment  was  blotted out.  He saw life (for the  first  time, 
        perhaps)   with  commonplace  human  eyes.   Cynicism  he   could 
        understand,  romance he could understand ; all beyond  was  dark.  
        Happiness was the bedfellow of contempt.
        
        We learn that, late in I903, he was proposing to visit China on a 
        sporting   expedition,   when   a   certain   very    commonplace 
        communication made to him by his wife caused him to postpone  it.  
        "Let's  go and kill something for a month or two," said he,  "and 
        if you're right, we'll get back to nurses and doctors."
        
        So  we  find them in Hambantota, the  south-eastern  province  of 
        Ceylon, occupied solely with buffalo, elephant, leopard, sambhur, 
        and the hundred other objects of the chase.
        
        We  here  insert  extracts  from  the  diary,  indeed  a   meagre 
        production--after  what  we have seen of his previous  record  in 
        Ceylon.
        
        Whole  weeks  pass  without a word ; the great  man  was  playing 
        bridge, poker, or golf!
        
        The  entry  of  February I9th reads as if it  were  going  to  be 
        interesting, but it is followed by that of February 20th.  It  is 
        however  certain that about the I4th of March he took  possession 
        of a flat in Cairo--in the Season !
        
             Can bathos go further ?
             So that the entry of March I6th is dated from Cairo.
             (Our notes are given in round brackets.)
        
                                Frater P.'s Diary
        
        (This  diary  is  extremely  incomplete  and  fragmentary.   Many 
        entries, too, are evidently irrelevant or "blinds."  We omit much 
        of the latter two types.)
        
        "This  eventful  year  I903 finds me at a nameless  camp  in  the 
        jungle of a Southern Province of Ceylon ; my thoughts,  otherwise 
        divided  between  Yoga and sport, are diverted by the fact  of  a 
        wife..."
        
        (This  reference to Yoga is the subconscious Magical Will of  the 
        Vowed Initiate.  He was not doing anything ; but, on  questioning 
        himself, as was his custom at certain seasons, he felt obliged to 
        affirm his Aspiration.)
        
        Jan.  I     ...(Much blotted out)...missed deer and hare.
                    So annoyed.  Yet the omen is that the year is well
                    for works of Love and Union ; ill for those of
                    Hate.  Be mine of Love !  (Note that he does not
                    add "and Union.")*1*
        Jan. 28     Embark for Suez.
        Feb.  7     Suez.
        Feb.  8     Landed at Port Said.
        Feb.  9     To Cairo.
        Feb. II     Saw b.f.g.
                        b.f.b.
                    (This entry is quite unintelligible to us.)
        Feb. I9     To Helwan as Oriental Despot.
                    (Apparently P. had assumed some disguise, pro-
                    bably with the intention of trying to study Islam
                    from within as he had done with Hinduism.)
        Feb. 20     Began golf.
        March I6    Began INV.  (invocation) IAO*2*
        March I7    THOTH [in Greek] appeared.*3*
        March  I8     Told to INV. (invoke) HORUS*4* [in  Greek]  as  the 
        sun*5* [drawn] by new way.
        March I9    Did this badly at noon 30.
        March 20    At I0 p.m. did well--Equinox of Gods--Nov--(? new)
                    C.R.C. (Christian Rosy Cross, we conjecture.) 
                    Hoori now Hpnt  (obviously  "Hierophant").
        March 2I    in . I.A.M. (? one o'clock)
        March 22    X.P.B.
                    (May this and the entry March 24, refer to the
                  brother of the A.A. who found him ?)
                  E.P.D. in 84 m.
                  (Unintelligible to us ; probably a blind.)
        March 23  Y.K. done.  (?His work on the Yi King.)*1*
        March 24  Met [sanskrit] again.
        March 25  823     Thus
                  46I       =p f l y 2 b z
                  2I8   "    "
        (Blot)    wch trouble with ds.
        (Blot)    P.B.  (All unintelligible ; possibly a blind.)
        April  6  Go off again to H, taking A's p.
                  (This is probably a blind.)
        
        Before  we  go further into the history of this  period  we  must 
        premise as follows.
        
        Fra. P. never made a thorough record of this period.  He seems to 
        have  wavered  between absolute scepticism in the  bad  sense,  a 
        dislike  of the revelation, on the one hand, and real  enthusiasm 
        on  the other.  And the first of these moods would induce him  to 
        do  thins to spoil the effect of the latter.  Hence the  "blinds" 
        and stupid meaningless cyphers which deface the diary.
        
        And,  as  if the Gods themselves wished to darken the  Pylon,  we 
        find  later, when P.'s proud will had been broken, and he  wished 
        to make straight the way of the historian, his memory (one of the 
        finest  memories  in the world) was utterly incompetent  to  make 
        everything certain.
        
        However,  nothing of which he was not certain will be entered  in 
        this place.
        
        We have one quite unspoiled and authoritative document:
        
        "The  Book  of  Results," written in one of  the  small  Japanese 
        vellum  note-books  which he used to  carry.   Unfortunately,  it 
        seems  to  have been abandoned after five  days.   What  happened 
        between March 23rd and April 8th ?
        
        
                               THE BOOK OF RESULTS
        
        March I6th Die [mercury]*1* I invoke IAO.
              (Fra. P. tells us that this was done by the ritual of the       
              "Bornless One," identical with the "Preliminary In-
               vocation"*2* in the "Goetia," merely to amuse his wife
               by showing her the sylphs.  She refused or was unable 
               th see any sylphs, but became "inspired," and kept on
               saying :  "They're waiting for you !")
                   (Note.  The maiden name of his wife was Rose
                   Edith Kelly.  He called her Ouarda, the Arabic for   
                   for  "Rose."  She is hereafter signified by
                   "Ouarda the Seer" or "W." for short.  Ed.)
               W. says "they" are "waiting for me."
        
        I7. [Jupiter]*3* It is "all about the child."  Also "all Osiris."  
        (Note the cynic and sceptic tone of this entry.  How different it 
        appears  in the light of Liber 4I8 !)  Thoth, invoked with  great 
        success, indwells us.  (Yes ; but what happened ?  Fra. P. has no 
        sort of idea.)
        
        I8.[Venus]*4*    Revealed that the waiter was Horus, whom  I  had 
        offended  and ought to invoke.  The ritual revealed in  skeleton.  
        Promise of success [Saturn]*5* or [Sun]*6* and of Samadhi.            
        (Is this "waiter" another sneer ?  We are uncertain.)
        
                The revealing of the ritual (by W. the seer) consisted
                chiefly in a prohibition of all formulae hitherto used,
                as will be seen from the text printed below.
        
        It  was  probable  on this day that P.  cross-examined  W.  about 
        Horus.  Only the striking character of her identification of  the 
        God,  surely,  would  have  made him trouble  to  obey  her.   He 
        remembers  that he only agreed to obey her in order to  show  her 
        how silly she was, and he taunted her that "nothing could  happen 
        of you broke all the rules."
        
        Here  therefore  we insert a short note by Fra. P.  how  W.  knew 
        R.H.K. (Ra Hoor Khuit)
        
        I.    Force  and  Fire  (I  asked  her  to  describe  his   moral 
        qualities.)
        
        2.     Deep blue light.  (I asked her to describe the  conditions 
        caused by him.  This light is quite unmistakable and unique ; but 
        of  course  her  words, though a fair description  of  it,  might 
        equally apply to some other.)
        
        3.     Horus.  (I asked her to pick out his name from a  list  of 
        ten dashed off at haphazard.)
        
        4.     Recognized  his figure when shown.  (This  refers  to  the 
        striking scene in the Boulak Museum, which will be dealt with  in 
        detail.)
        
        5.   Knew my past relations with the God.  (This means, I  think, 
        that she knew I had taken his place in temple,*1* etc., and  that 
        I had never once invoked him.)
        
        6.    Knew  his enemy.  (I asked, "Who is his  enemy  ?"   Reply, 
        "Forces  of the waters--of the Nile."  W. knew no  Egyptology--or 
        anything else.)

        7.   Knew his lineal figure and its colour.  (A I/84 chance.)

        8.   Knew his place in temple.  (A I/4 chance, at the least.)

        9.   Knew his weapon (from a list of 6.)

        I0.  Knew his planetary nature (from a list of 7 planets.)

        II.  Knew his number (from a list of I0 units.)

        I2.   Picked  him  out of (a)Five,  (b)Three}  indifferent,  i,e, 
        arbitrary  symbols.   (This means that I settled in my  own  mind 
        that  say D of A,B,C,D, and E should represent him and  that  she 
        then said D.)
        
        We  cannot too strongly insist on the extraordinary character  of 
        this identification.
        
        We had made no pretension to clairvoyance ; nor had P. ever tried 
        to train her.
        
        P.  had great experience with clairvoyants, and it was  always  a 
        point  of  honour  with him to bowl them out.   And  here  was  a 
        novice,  a  woman who should never have been  allowed  outside  a 
        ballroom,  speaking with the authority of God, and proving it  by 
        unhesitating correctness.
        
        One slip, and Fra. P. would have sent her to the devil.  And that 
        slip  was  not  made.  Calculate the odds !   We  cannot  find  a 
        mathematical expression for tests I,2,3,4,5, or 6, but the  other 
        7 tests give us
        
             I/I0 x I/84 x I/4 x I/6 x I/7 x I/I0 x I/I5 = I/21,I68,000
        
        Twenty-one  million to one against her getting through  half  the 
        ordeal !
        
        Even   if  we  suppose  what  is  absurd,  that  she   knew   the 
        correspondences of the Qabalah as well as Fra. P., and had know-
        ledge of his own secret relations with the Unseen, we must strain 
        telepathy to explain test I2.
        
        (Note.   We may add, too, that Fra. P. thinks, but is  not  quite 
        certain, that he also tested her with the Hebrew Alphabet and the 
        Tarot  trumps, in which case the long odds must be still  further 
        multiplied by 484, bringing them over the billion mark!
        
        But  we  know  that  she was perfectly  ignorant  of  the  subtle 
        correspondences,  which were only existing at that time  in  Fra. 
        P.'s own brain.
        
        And even if it were so, how are we to explain what  followed--the 
        discovery of the Stele of Revealing ?
        
        To  apply test 4, Fra.P. took her to the museum at Boulak,  which 
        they had not previously visited.  She passed by (as P. noted with 
        silent  glee)  several images of Horus.  They went  upstairs.   A 
        glass case stood in the distance, too far off for its contents to 
        be  recognized.   But  W. recognized it !   "There,"  she  cried, 
        "There he is !"

        Fra.  P. advanced to the case.  There was the image of  Horus  in 
        the form of Ra Hoor Khuit painted upon a wooden stele of the 26th 
        dynasty--and the exhibit bore the number 666 !*1*
        
        (And  after  that it was five years before Fra. P. was  force  to 
        obedience !)
        
        This incident must have occurred before the 23rd of March, as the 
        entry on that date refers to Ankh-f-n-khonsu.
        
        Here is P.'s description of the Stele.  "In the museum at  Cairo, 
        No. 666 is the stele of the Priest Ankh-f-n-khonsu.
        
        Horus had a red Disk and green Uraeus.
        
        His face is green, his skin indigo.
        His necklace, anklets, and bracelets are gold.
        His nemyss nearly black from blue.
        His tunic is the Leopard's skin, and his apron green and gold.
        Green is the wand of double Power ; his r.h. is empty.
        His throne is indigo the gnomon, red the square.
        The light is gamboge.
        Above  him  are  the  Winged Globe and the  bent  figure  of  the 
        heavenly Isis, her hands and feet touching earth.
        
        (We  print the most recent translation of the Stele,  by  Messrs.  
        Alan  Gardiner,  Litt.  D., and  Battiscombe  Gunn.   It  differs 
        slightly  from  that  used  by Fra. P.,  which  was  due  to  the 
        assistant-curator of the Museum at Boulak.)
        
                           STELE OF ANKH-F-NA-KHONSU.
        
                                   Obverse
        
        Topmost Register (under Winged Disk)
             Behdet (? Hadit ?), the Great God, the Lord of Heaven.
        Middle Register.  Two vertical lines to left :---
             Ra-Harakhti, Master of the Gods.
                              Five vertical lines to right :---
             Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes, Opener of the
             doors of Nut in Karnak, Ankh-f-n-Khonsu, the Justified.
        Below Altar :---
             Oxen, Geese, Wine (?), Bread.
        Behind the god is the hieroglyph of Amenti.
        Lowest Register.
        
        (I)   Saith  Osiris,  the Priest of Montu, Lord  of  Thebes,  the 
        opener  of the Doors of Nut in Karnak, Ankh-f-n-Khonsu,  (2)  the 
        Justified  :--"Hail,  Thou  whose  praise  is  high  (the  highly 
        praised),  thou  great-willed.   O Soul  (ba)  very  awful  (lit. 
        mighty, of awe) that giveth the terror of him (3) among the Gods, 
        shining in glory upon his great throne, making ways for the  Soul 
        (ba)  for  the Spirit (yekh) and for the Shadow (khabt) :   I  am 
        prepared and I shine forth as one that is prepared.  (4) I   have 
        made  way to the place in which are Ra, Tom, Khepri and  Hathor."  

        Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes (5) Ankh-f-na-Khonsu, 
        the Justified ; son of MNBSNMT*1* ; born of the Sistrum-bearer of 
        Amon, the Lady Atne-sher.
        
                                 Reverse.
        
        Eleven lines of writing.
        
        (I)   Saith Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes,  Ankh-f-
        (2)na-Khonsu, the Justified :--"My heart from my mother, my heart 
        (different  word, apparently synonymous, but probably not  so  at 
        all)  of my existence (3) upon earth, stand not forth against  me 
        as  witness,  drive me not back (4) among  the  Sovereign  Judges 
        (quite  an  arbitrary conventional translation  of  the  original 
        word),  neither incline against me in the presence of  the  Great 
        God, the Lord of the West (Osiris of course) ;  (5) Now that I am 
        united  with Earth in the Great West, and endure no  longer  upon 
        Earth.
        
        (6).   Saith Osiris, he who is in Thebes,  Ankh-f-na-Khonsu,  the 
        Justified  :   "O Only (7) One, shining like (or  in)  the  Moon; 
        Osiris  Ankh-f-(8)na_Khonsu has come froth upon high among  these 
        thy  multitudes.  (9)  He that gathereth together those that  are 
        in the Light, the Underworld (duat) is (also) (10) opened to  him 
        ; lo Osiris Ankh-f-na-Khonsu, cometh forth (II) by day to do  all 
        that he wisheth upon earth among the living."
        
        There  is one other object to complete the secret of  Wisdom--(P. 
        notes "perhaps a Thoth") or it is in the hieroglyphs.
        (This last paragraph is, we suppose, dictated by W.)
        
             We now return to the "Book of Results."
        
             I9   The ritual written out and the invocation done--
                  little success.
             20   Revealed (We cannot make out if this revelation
                  comes from W. or is a result of the ritual.  But
                  almost certainly the former, as it precedes the "Great
                  Success" entry) that the Equinox of the Gods is come,
                  Horus taking the Throne of the East and all rituals, 
                  etc., being abrogated.
                  (To explain this*1* we append to this chapter the G.D.
                  ritual of the Equinox, which was celebrated in the
                  spring and autumn within 48 hours of the actual
                  dates of Sol entering Aries and Libra.)
             20   (contd.) Great success in midnight invocation.
                  (The  other diary says I0 P.M. "Midnight" is perhaps  a 
                  loose  phrase,  or  perhaps marks  the  climax  of  the 
                  ritual.)
                  I am to formulate a new link of an Order with the
                  Solar Force.
             
        (It  is  not clear what happened in this invocation ; but  it  is 
        evident  from another note of certainly later date,  that  "great 
        success" does not mean "Samadhi."  For P. writes:  "I make it  an 
        absolute condition that I should attain Samadhi in the god's  won 
        interest."   His  memory  concurs in this.  It  was  the  Samadhi 
        attained  in  October, I906, that set him again in  the  path  of 
        obedience to this revelation.
        
        But that "great success" means something very important is  clear 
        enough.  The sneering sceptic of the I7th of March must have  had 
        a shock before he wrote those words.)
        
        2I.   [moon].  [sun] enters [aries].*1*
        22.    [mars]*2*  The day of rest, on which nothing  whatever  of 
        magic  is  to  be  done  at  all.   [mercury]*3*  is  to  be  the           
        great day of invocation.
        
        (This  note is due to W.'s prompting or to his own  rationalizing 
        imagination.)
        
        23.   The Secret of Wisdom.
        (We omit the record of a long and futile Tarot divination.)
        At this point we may insert the Ritual which was so successful on 
        the 20th.
        
        
                               INVOCATION OF HORUS
                    ACCORDING TO THE DIVINE VISION OF W., THE
                                      SEER.
        
        To  be  performed before a window open to the E.  or  N.  without 
        incense.  The room to be filled with jewels, but only diamonds to 
        be  worn.   A sword, unconsecrated, 44 pearl beads  to  be  told.  
        Stand.  Bright daylight at I2.30 noon.  Lock doors.  White robes.  
        Bare feet.  Be very loud.  Saturday.  Use the Sign of Apophis and 
        Typhon.
        
        The above is W.'s answer to various questions posed by P. 
        
        Preliminary.   Banish.   L.B.R.   Pentagram.   L.B.R.   Hexagram.  
        Flaming sword.  Abrahadabra, Invoke.  As before.
        (These are P.'s ideas for the ritual.  W. replied, "Omit.")
        
        The MS. of this Ritual bears and left unrevised, save perhaps for 
        one glance.  There are mistakes in grammar and spelling unique in 
        all  MSS. of Fra. P. ; the use of capitals is irregular, and  the 
        punctuation almost wanting.)
        
        
                                   CONFESSION
        
        Unprepared  and uninvoking Thee, I, OY MH, Fra R.R. et  A.C.,  am 
        here in Thy Presence--for Thou art Everywhere, O Lord Horus !--to 
        confess humbly before Thee my neglect and scorn of Thee.
        
        How  shall  I humble myself enough before Thee ?   Thou  art  the 
        mighty  and unconquered Lord of the Universe :  I am a  spark  of 
        Thine unutterable Radiance.

        How should I approach Thee ?  but Thou art Everywhere.
        
        But  Thou hast graciously deigned to call me unto Thee,  to  this 
        Exorcism of Art, that I may be Thy Servant, Thine Adept, O Bright 
        One,  O  Sun of Glory !  Thou hast called me--should I  not  then 
        hasten to Thy Presence ?
        
        With  unwashen hands therefore I come unto Thee, and I lament  my 
        wandering from Thee--but Thou knowest !
        
             Yea, I have evil !
        
        If  one (doubtless a reference to S.R.M.D. who was much  obsessed 
        by Mars, P. saw Horus at first as Geburah ; later as an aspect of 
        Tiphereth,   including  Chesed  and  Geburah--the  red   Triangle 
        inverted--an  aspect  opposite to Osiris.) blasphemed  Thee,  why 
        should I therefore forsake Thee ?  But Thou art the Avenger ; all 
        is with Thee.
        
        I  bow  my neck before Thee ; and as once Thy sword was  upon  it 
        (see  G.D. Ceremony of Neophyte, the Obligation), so am I in  Thy 
        hands.   Strike if Thou wilt :  spare if Thou wilt :  but  accept 
        me as I am.
        
        My trust is in Thee : shall I be confounded ?  This Ritual of Art 
        ;  this  Forty  and  Fourfold  Invocation  ;  this  Sacrifice  of 
        Blood--(Merely,  we suppose, that 44=DM, blood.  Possibly a  bowl 
        of  blood was used.  P. thinks it was in some of the workings  at 
        this  time, but is not sure if it was this one.)--these I do  not 
        comprehend.
        
        It is enough if I obey Thy decree ; did Thy fiat go forth for  my 
        eternal  misery,  were it not my joy to execute Thy  Sentence  on 
        myself ?
        
        For why ?  For that All is in Thee and of Thee ; it is enough  if 
        I burn up in the intolerable glory of Thy presence.
        
        Enough !  I turn toward Thy Promise.
        
        Doubtful  are the Words :  Dark are the Ways :  but in Thy  Words 
        and  Ways is Light.  Thus then now as ever, I enter the  Path  of 
        Darkness, if haply so I may attain the Light.
        
        Hail !
        
                                 a I [aleph]
        
                      Strike, strike the master chord !
                      Draw, draw the Flaming Sword !
                      Crowned Child and Conquering Lord, 
                         Horus, avenger !
        
        I.   O Thou of the Head of the Hawk !  Thee, Thee, I invoke!
        (At every "Thee I invoke," throughout whole ritual, give the 
        sign of Apophis.)
        
        A.   Thou only-begotten-child of Osiris Thy Father, and Isis  Thy 
        Mother.   He  that  was slain ; She that bore Thee  in  Her  womb 
        flying from the Terror of the Water.  Thee, Thee I invoke !
        
        2.   O Thou whose Apron is of flashing white, whiter than 
                  the Forehead of the Morning !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
             B.   O Thou who hast formulated Thy Father and made fertile
                  Thy Mother !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
             3.   O Thou whose garment is of golden glory with the azure
                  bars of sky !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
             C.   Thou, who didst avenge the Horror of Death ; Thou the
                  slayer of Typhon !  Thou who didst lift Thine arms, and
                  the Dragons of Death were as dust : Thou who didst 
                  raise Thine Head, and the Crocodile of Nile was abased 
                  before Thee !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
             4.   O Thou whose Nemyss hideth the Universe with night, the 
                  impermeable Blue !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
             D.   Thou who travellest in the Boat of Ra, abiding at the
                  Helm of the Aftet boat and of the Sektet boat !  Thee,
                  Thee, I invoke !
             5.   Thou who bearest the Wand of Double Power !  Thee, 
                  Thee, I invoke !
             E.   Thou about whose presence is shed the darkness of Blue
                  Light, the unfathomable glory of the outmost Ether, the
                  untravelled, the unthinkable immensity of
                  Space.  Thou who concentrest all the Thirty Ethers in 
                  one darkling sphere of Fire !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
             6.   O Thou who bearest the Rose and Cross of Life and 
                  Light !  Thee, Thee, I invoke !
                              The Voice of the Five.
                              The Voice of the Six.
                              Eleven are the Voices.
                                   Abrahadabra !
        
        
                               [beta] II [beth]
        
                       Strike, strike the master chord !
                       Draw, draw the Flaming Sword !
                       Crowned Child and Conquering Lord, 
                          Horus, Avenger !
        
             I.   By thy name of Ra, I invoke Thee, Hawk of the Sun, the
                  glorious one !
             2.   By thy name Harmachis, youth of the Brilliant Morning,
                  I invoke Thee !
             3.   By thy name, Mau, I invoke Thee, Lion of the Midday 
                  Sun !
             4.   By thy name Tum, Hawk of the Even, crimson splendour of
                  the Sunset, I invoke Thee !
             5.   By thy name Khep-Ra I invoke Thee, O Beetle of the 
                  hidden Mastery of Midnight !
             A.   By thy name Heru-pa-Kraat, Lord of Silence, Beautiful 
                  Child that standest on the Dragons of the Deep, I 
                  invoke Thee !
             B.   By thy name Apollo, I invoke Thee, O man of Strength
                  and splendour, O poet, O father !
             C.   By thy name of Phoebus, that drivest thy chariot 
                  through the Heaven of Zeus, I invoke Thee !
             D.   By thy name of Odin I invoke Thee, O warrior of the 
                  North, O Renown of the Sagas !
             E.   By thy name of Jeheshua, O child of the Flaming Star,
                  I invoke Thee !
             F.   By Thine own, Thy secret name Hoori, Thee I invoke !
        
                              The Names are Five.
                              The Names are Six.
                              Eleven are the Names !
                                  Abrahadabra !
        
        Behold ! I stand in the midst.  Mine is the symbol of Osiris;  to 
        Thee  are mine eyes ever turned.  Unto the splendour of  Geburah, 
        the Magnificence of Chesed, the mystery of Daath, thither I  lift 
        up mine eyes.  This have I sought, and I have sought the Unity  : 
        hear Thou me !
        
        
                         [GAMMA] III [GIMEL]
        
             I.   Mine is the Head of the Man, and my insight is keen as
                  the Hawk's.  By my head I invoke Thee !
             A.   I am the only-begotten child of my Father and Mother.
                  By my body I invoke Thee !
             2.   About me shine the Diamonds of Radiance white and pure.
                  By their brightness I invoke Thee !
             B.   Mine is the Red Triangle Reversed, the Sign given of 
                  none, save it be of Thee, O Lord !  (This sign had been
                  previously communicated by W.  It was entirely new to
                  P.)  By the Lamen I invoke Thee !
             3.   Mine is the garment of white sewn with gold, the 
                  flashing abbai that I wear.  By my robe I invoke Thee !
             C.   Mine is the sign of Apophis and Typhon !  By the sign
                  I invoke Thee !
             4.   Mine is the turban of white and gold, and mine the blue
                  vigour of the intimate air !  By my crown I invoke
                  Thee !
             D.   My fingers travel on the Beads of Pearl ; so run I 
                  after Thee in thy car of glory.  By my fingers I invoke 
                  Thee !  (On Saturday the string of pearls broke :  so
                  I changed the invocation to "My mystic sigils travel in
                  the Bark of the Akasa, etc.  By the spells I invoke 
                  Thee !--P.)  
             5.   I bear the Wand of Double Power in the Voice of the 
                  Master--Abrahadabra !  By the word I invoke Thee !
             E.   Mine are the dark-blue waves of music in the song that
                  I made of old to invoke Thee---
                         Strike, strike the master chord !
                         Draw, draw the Flaming Sword !
                         Crowned Child and Conquering Lord,
                           Horus, avenger !
        
                  By the Song I invoke Thee !
              6.   In my hand is thy Sword of Revenge ; let it strike at
                  Thy Bidding !  By the Sword I invoke Thee !
        
                          The Voice of the Five.
                          The Voice of the Six.
                          Eleven are the Voices.
                             Abrahadabra !
        
        
                         {help] IV [resh]
        
        (This section merely repeats section I in the first person.  Thus 
        it  begins :  I. "Mine is the Head of the Hawk  !   Abrahadabra!" 
        and  ends  :  6. "I bear the Rose and Cross of  Life  and  Light!  
        Abrahadabra !" giving the Sign at each Abrahadabra.  Remaining in 
        the Sign, the invocation concludes:)
        
                Therefore I say unto thee :  Come forth and dwell in me;
                so that every my Spirit, whether of the Firmament, or of
                the Ether, or of the Earth or under the Earth ; on dry 
                land or in the Water, or Whirling Air or of Rushing Fire;
                and every spell and scourge of God the Vast One may be
                THOU.  Abrahadabra !
        
             The Adoration--impromptu.
        
             Close  by  banishing.   (I think this was  omitted  at  W.'s 
        order.---P.)
        
        
        During  the period March 23rd--April 8th, whatever else may  have 
        happened, it is at least certain that work was continued to  some 
        extent,  that the inscriptions of the stele were  translated  for 
        Fra.  P.,  and that he paraphrased the latter in verse.   For  we 
        find him using, or prepared to use, the same in the text of Liber 
        Legis.
        
        Perhaps then, perhaps later, he made out the "namecoincidences of 
        the Qabalah," to which we must now direct the reader's attention.
        
        The MS. is a mere fragmentary sketch.
        Ch=8=ChlTh=4I8 Abrahadabra=RA-HVVR (Ra-Hoor).
        
             Also 8 is the great symbol I adore.
             (This  may be because of its likeness to [?] or  because  of 
        its   [old  G.D.]  attributions  to  Daath,  P.  being   then   a 
        rationalist; or for some other reason.)
             So is O.
             O=A in the Book of Thoth (The Tarot).
             A=III with all its great meanings, [sun]=6
             Now 666=My name, the number of the stele, the number of  The 
        Beast (See Apocalypse), the number of the Man.
             The  Beast  AChIHA=666  in full.   (The  usual  spelling  is 
        ChIVA.)
             (A=III, Ch=4I8, I=20, H=6, A=III.)
             HRV-RA-HA.  2II + 201 + 6=4I8.
             This  name  occurs only in L. Legis, and is a test  of  that 
        book rather than of the stele.)
             ANKH-P-N-KHONShU-T=666
             (We  trust the addition of the termination T will  be  found 
        justifies.)
            {Bes-n-maut, B I Sh N A - M A V T }=888
            {Ta-Nich,      Th A - N I Ch      }=Ch x A.
             Nuteru  NVTh IRV=666
             Montu  MVNTV=III.
             Aiwass  AIVAS=78, the influence or messenger, or the Book T.  
        (P.S. Note this error ! Ed.)
             Ta-Nich TA-NICh = 78.  Alternatively, Sh for Ch gives 370, O 
        Sh, Creation.
             So much we extract from volumes filled with minute  calcula-
        tions,  of which the bulk is no longer intelligible even to  Fra. 
        P.
        
        His  memory, however, assures us that the coincidences were  much 
        more  numerous  and  striking than those we  have  been  able  to 
        reproduce  here ; but his attitude is, we understand  that  after 
        all "It's all in Liber Legis.  `Success is thy proof:  argue not; 
        convert not ; talk not overmuch !'"  And indeed in the Commentary 
        to  that  Book  will be found sufficient for  the  most  wary  of 
        inquirers.
        
        Now  who, it may be asked, was Aiwass ?  It is the name given  by 
        W. to P. as that of her informant.  Also it is the name given  as 
        that  of  the revealer of Liber Legis.  But whether Aiwass  is  a 
        spiritual  being, or a man known to Fra. P., is a matter  of  the 
        merest  conjecture.   His  number is 78*1*, that  of  Mezla,  the 
        Channel  through  which  Macroprosopus  reveals  Himself  to,  or 
        showers His influence upon, Microposopus.*2*  So we find Fra.  P. 
        speaking of him at one time as of another, but more advanced  man 
        ;  at another time as if it were the name of his own superior  in 
        the  Spiritual Hierarchy.  And to all questions Fra. P.  finds  a 
        reply,  either pointing out "the subtle metaphysical  distinction 
        between  curiosity and hard work," or indicating that  among  the 
        Brethren  "names are only lies," or in some other  way  defeating 
        the very plain purpose of the historian.
        
        The   same  remark  applies  to  all  queries  with   regard   to 
        V.V.V.V.V.;*3*   with  this  addition,  that  in  this  case   he 
        condescends  to argue and to instruct.  "If I tell you," he  once 
        said  to the present writer, "that V.V.V.V.V. is a Mr. Smith  and 
        lives  at Clapham, you will at once go round and  tell  everybody 
        that  V.V.V.V.V.  is a Mr. Smith of Clapham, which is  not  true.  
        V.V.V.V.V.  is the Light of the World itself, the  sole  Mediator 
        between God and Man ; and in your present frame of mind (that  of 
        a  poopstick)  you  cannot see that the  two  statements  may  be 
        identical  for  the  Brothers  of  the  A.A.  !   Did  not   your 
        greatgrandfather  argue  that  no good thing could  come  out  of 
        Nazareth ?  `Is not this the carpenter's son ?  is not his mother 
        called  Mary?  and his brethren, James and Joses, and Simon,  and 
        Judas ?  And his sisters, are they not all with us ?  Whence then 
        hath  this  man  all these things ?  And they  were  offended  in 
        him.'"
        
        Similarly with regard to the writing of Liber Legis, Fr. P.  will 
        only say that it is in no way "automatic writing,"  that he heard 
        clearly  and  distinctly the human articulate accents of  a  man.  
        Once,  on  page 6, he is told to edit a sentence ; and  once,  on 
        page 19, W. supplies a sentence which he had failed to hear.
        
        To this writing we now turn.
        
        It must have been on the first of April that W. commanded P. (now 
        somewhat cowed) to enter the "temple" exactly at 12 o'clock  noon 
        on three successive days, and to write down what he should  hear, 
        rising exactly at 1 o'clock.
        
        This he did.  Immediately on his taking his seat the Voice  began 
        its Utterance, and ended exactly at the expiration of the hour. 
        
        These are the three chapters of Liber Legis, and we have  nothing 
        to add.
        
             The full title of the book is, as P. first chose to name it,
        
                                LIBER L vel LEGIS
                                 sub figura CCXX
                        as delivered by LXXVIII to DCLXVI
        
        and it is the First and Greatest of those Class A publications of 
        A.A.  of  which is not to be altered so much as the  style  of  a 
        letter.
             This was the original title devised by 666 to appear in  the 
        1909  publication.  The "Key of it all" and the true spelling  of 
        Aiwass had not then been discovered.
        
                             FESTIVAL OF 
        
                     (Temple arranged as for 0degree = 0 [?].)
           Ht.  (knocks) Fratres and Sorores of all grades of the Golden
                Dawn in the Outer, let us celebrate the Festival of the
                (Vernal) Autumnal Equinox !
                All rise.
           Ht.  Frater Kerux, proclaim the fact, and announce the abro-
                gation of the present Pass Word.
           K.   (Going to Ht.'s right, saluting, and facing West).
                In the Name of the Lord of the Universe, and by
                                                          { Vernal }
                command of the V.H.Ht., I proclaim the   { Autumnal  }
                Equinox, and declare that the Pass Word. . . . . . .
                is abrogated.
           Ht.  Let us, according to ancient custom, consecrate the 
                return of the {Vernal/Autumnal} Equinox.
        
                   Light.
             Hs.   Darkness.
             Ht.   East.
             Hs.   West.
             Ht.   Air.
             Hs.   Water.
             Hg.   (knocks) I am the Reconciler between them.
                   All give signs.
             D.    Heat.
             S.    Cold.
             D.    South.
             S.    North.
             D.    Fire.
             S.    Earth.
             Hg.   (knocks) I am the Reconciler between them.
                   All give signs.
             Ht.   (knocks) One Creator.
             D.    One Preserver.
             Hs.   (knocks) One Destroyer.
             S.    One Redeemer.
             Hg.   (knocks) One Reconciler between them.
                   All give signs.
        
        Each retiring officer in turn, beginning with Ht. quits his  post 
        by  the  left  hand and goes to the foot  of  Throne.   He  there 
        disrobes,  placing robe and lamen at foot of Throne or Dais.   He 
        then  proceeds  with  the Sun's course to  the  Altar,  and  lays 
        thereon  his special insignia, viz : Ht., Sceptre : Hs., Sword  : 
        Hg.,  Sceptre  :  K.,  Lamp and Wand : S., Cup  :  D.,  Censer  : 
        repeating out-going Password as he does so.
        
             Ht.   taking from the Altar the Rose, returns with the Sun 
                   to his post :
             Hs.   takes Cup of Wine :
             Hf.   waits for the Kerux and takes his Red Lamp from him.
             K.    takes nothing.
             S.    takes platter of salt.
             D.    takes emblem of Elemental Fire.
        
                   Returning each to his place.
        
        The  remaining  members form a column in the North  and,  led  by 
        Kerux,  proceed to the East ; when all are in column  along  East 
        side each turns to the left and faces Hierophant.
        
             Ht.   Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
                   Holy art Thou, Lord of the Air, who has created the
                   Firmament.  (Making with the Rose the sign of the 
                   Cross in the Air towards the East.)
             All  give signs.  Procession moves on to the  South,  halts, 
        and all face South.
        
             D.    (facing South) Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
                   Holy art Thou, Lord of the Fire, wherein Thou hast 
                   shown forth the Throne of Thy Glory.  (Making with the
                   Fire the sign of the Cross towards the South.)
             All give signs.  Procession moves on to the West, halts, and 
             faces West.
             
             Hs.   (facing West) Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
                   Holy art Thou, Lord of the Waters, whereon Thy Spirit
                   moved at the beginning.  (Making with the Cup the sign
                   of the Cross in the Air before him.)
             All give sign.  Procession passes on to the North.  All halt 
             and face North.
        
             S.   (facing North)Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
                  Holy art Thou, Lord of the Earth, which Thou hast made
                  Thy footstool.  (Making with the platter of Salt the 
                  sign of the Cross toward the North.)
             All give signs.  All resume their places and face the  usual 
             way.
        
             Hg.   Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
                   Holy art Thou, Who art in all things, in Whom are all
                   things ;
                   If I climb up into Heaven, Thou art there ;
                   If I go down into Hell, Thou art there also ;
                   If I take the Wings of the Morning and remain in the 
                   uttermost parts of the Sea, even there shall Thy hand 
                   lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me.
                   If I say "Peradventure the Darkness shall cover me,"
                   even the Night shall be Light unto Thee.
                   Thine is the Air with its Movement.
                   Thine is the Fire with its flashing Flame.
                   Thine is the Water with its Flux and Reflux.
                   Thine is the Earth with its Eternal Stability.
                     (Makes the sign of the Cross with Red Lamp.)
        
             All  give  signs.   Ht. goes to  Altar  and  deposits  Rose.  
             Imperator meanwhile assumes the Throne.
        
             Ht.  returns to a seat on the immediate left as Past  Hiero-
        phant.  Each old Officer now proceeds in turn to Altar and places 
        upon it the ensign he had taken therefrom, returning to places of 
        their  grade,  not their Thrones, with nothing in their  hands  : 
        they sit as common members, leaving all offices vacant.
        
             Imperator.  By the Power and Authority in me vested, I
                   confer upon you the new Pass Word.  It is..........
                   The Officers of this Temple for the ensuing half-year
                   are as follows :--
             (Reads list of New Officers.)
             New Officers come up in turn and are robed by the Imperator.  
        Each  new  Officer  in turn passes to the  Altar  and  takes  his 
        insignia therefrom, repeating aloud :
                   By the Pass Word.......I claim my....................
             S.,  after  claiming  his Cup, purifies  the  Hall  and  the 
        Members  by  Water, without a word spoken by the  Ht.  unless  he 
        fails in this duty.
             D., after claiming his Censer, consecrates the Hall and  the 
        Members by Fire, without unnecessary word from Ht.
        
                        THE MYSTIC CIRCUMAMBULATION.
        
             This  should  take place in Silence, but if the  Members  be 
        unprovided  with Rituals, the Ht. may order it as  follows:   All 
        form in North, K., Hg., Members, Hs., S., D.
             Each  Member as he passes the Throne repeats the  Pass  Word 
        aloud.
             Ht.   Let us invoke the Lord of the Universe.
                   Lord of the Universe, Blessed be Thy Name unto the 
                   Eternal Ages.
                   Look with favour upon this Order, and grant that its
                   members may at length attain to the true Summum Bonum,
                   the Stone of the Wise, the Perfect Wisdom and the 
                   Eternal Light.
                   To the Glory of Thine Ineffable Name.  AMEN.  
             All salute.
        
             Ht.   Frater Kerux, in the Name of the Lord of the Universe,
                   I command you to declare that the {Vernal/Autumnal}
                   Equinox has returned, and that...............is the
                   Pass Word for the next six months.
             K.    In the Name of the Lord of the Universe and by com-
                   mand of the V.H.Ht. I declare that the Sun has enter-
                   ed {Aries/Libra}, the Sign of the {Vernal/Autumnal}
                   Equinox, and that the Pass Word for the ensuing half-
                   year will be............
             Ht.   Khabs.           Pax.                     In.
             Hs.   Am.              Konx.                    Extension.
             Hg.   Pekht.           Om.                      Light.
        
        
                                  CHAPTER VII.
        
                    Remarks on the method of receiving Liber Legis, on 
                    the Conditions prevailing at the time of the writing,
                    and on certain technical difficulties connected with 
                    the Literary form of the Book.*1*
        
                                        I
        
             Certain  very serious questions have arisen with  regard  to 
        the  method by which this Book was obtained.  I do not  refer  to 
        those  doubts--real or pretended--which hostility engenders,  for 
        all  such  are dispelled by study of the text ; no  forger  could 
        have  prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal  puzzles 
        as to leave himself (a) devoted to the solution for years  after, 
        (b)  baffled  by  a simplicity which when  desclosed  leaves  one 
        gasping  at its profundity, (c) enlightened only  by  progressive 
        initiation,  or  by "accidental" events  apparently  disconnected 
        with  the  Book, which occurred long after its  publication,  (d) 
        hostile, bewildered, and careless even in the face of independent 
        testimony  as  to the power and clarity of the Book, and  of  the 
        fact  that  by  Its light other men have  attained  the  loftiest 
        summits  of initiation in a tithe of the time which  history  and 
        experience would lead one to expect, and (e) angrily unwilling to 
        proceed  with  that part of the Work appointed for him  which  is 
        detailed  in Chapter III, even when the course of events  on  the 
        planet,  war,  revolution,  and the collapse of  the  social  and 
        religious  systems  of civilization, proved plainly to  him  that 
        whether  he liked it or no, Ra Hoor Khuit was indeed Lord of  the 
        Aeon,  the Crowned and Conquering Child whose innocence meant  no 
        more than inhuman cruelty and wantonly senseless  destructiveness 
        as  he avenged Isis our mother the Earth and the Heaven  for  the 
        murder and mutilation of Osiris, Man, her son.  The War of  1914-
        18  and  its sequels have proved even to the  dullest  statesmen, 
        beyond  wit  of even the most subtly sophistical  theologians  to 
        gloze,  that  death  is  not an unmixed  benefit  either  to  the 
        individual  or  the community :  that force and fire  of  leaping 
        manhood are more useful to a nation than cringing  respectability 
        and emasculate servility; that genius goes with courage, and  the 
        sense of shame and guilt with "Defeatism."
        
        For these reasons and many more I am certain, I the Beast,  whose 
        number  is Six Hundred and Sixty Six, that this Third Chapter  of 
        the Book of the Law is nothing less than the authentic Word,  the 
        Word of the Aeon, the Truth about Nature at this time and on this 
        planet.  I wrote it, hating it and sneering at it, secretly  glad 
        that  I  could use it to revolt against this Task  most  terrible 
        that the Gods have thrust remorselessly upon my shoulders,  their 
        Cross of burning steel that I must carry even to my Calvary,  the 
        place of a skull, there to be eased of its weight only that I  be 
        crucified  thereon.  But, being lifted up, I will draw the  whole 
        world  unto me ; and men shall worship me the Beast, Six  Hundred 
        and  Three-score and Six, celebrating to Me their  Midnight  Mass 
        every time soever when they do that they will, and on Mine  altar 
        slaying to Me that victim I most relish, their Selves ; when Love 
        designs  and Will executes the Rite whereby (an they know  it  or 
        not) their God in man is offered to me The Beast, their God,  the 
        Rite  whose  virtue,  making their God of  their  throned  Beast, 
        leaves nothing, howso bestial, undivine.
        
        On  such lines my own "conversion" to my own "religion" may  take 
        place,  though  as I write these words all but  twelve  weeks  of 
        Sixteen years are well nigh past.*1*
        
        
                                II
        
        This long digression is but to explain that I, myself, who  issue 
        Liber Legis, am no fanatic partisan.  I will obey my orders (III, 
        42)  "Argue not, convert not ;" even though I shirk some  others.  
        I shall not deign to answer sceptical enquiries as to the  origin 
        of  the  Book.  "Success is your proof."  I, of all men  on  this 
        Earth  reputed mightiest in Magick, by mine enemies more than  by 
        my  friends, have striven to lose this Book, to forget  it,  defy 
        it,  criticise it, escape it, these nigh sixteen years ;  and  It 
        holds me to the course It sets, even as the Mountain of Lodestone 
        holds  the  ship,  or  Helios by  invisible  bonds  controls  his 
        planets;  yea, or as BABALON grips between her thighs  the  Great 
        Wild Beast she straddles !
        
        So  much for the sceptics ; put your heads in the Lion's mouth  ; 
        so may you come to certainty, whether I be stuffed with straw !
        
        But, in the text of the Book itself, are thorns for the flesh  of 
        the most ardent swain as he buries his face in the roses; some of 
        the  ivy that clings about the Thyrse of this Dionysus is  Poison 
        Ivy.   The question arises, especially on examining the  original 
        manuscript in My handwriting:  "Who wrote these words ?"
        
        Of course I wrote them, ink on paper, in the material sense;  but 
        they  are not My words, unless Aiwaz be taken to be no more  than 
        my  subconscious  self, or some part of it :  in  that  case,  my 
        conscious  self  being  ignorant of the Truth  in  the  Book  and 
        hostile  to most of the ethics and philosophy of the Book,  Aiwaz 
        is a severely suppressed part of me.*1*  If so, the theorist must 
        suggest  a reason for this explosive yet ceremonially  controlled 
        manifestation, and furnish and explanation of the dovetailing  of 
        Events  in subsequent years with His word written and  published.  
        In  any  case, whatever "Aiwaz" is, "Aiwaz"  is  an  Intelligence 
        possessed   of  power  and  knowledge  absolutely  beyond   human 
        experience  ;  and  therefore Aiwaz is a  Being  worthy,  as  the 
        current use of the word allows, of the title of a God, yea verily 
        and  amen,  of a God.  Man has no such fact  recorded,  by  proof 
        established  in surety beyond cavil of critic, as this  Book,  to 
        witness  the  existence  of  and  Intelligence  praeterhuman  and 
        articulate, purposefully interfering in the philosophy, religion, 
        ethics, economics and politics of the Planet.
        
        The  proof of His praeterhuman Nature--call Him a Devil or a  God 
        or  even an Elemental as you will--is partly external,  depending 
        on events and persons without the sphere of Its influence, partly 
        internal,  depending  on the concealment of (a)  certain  Truths, 
        some  previously  known, some not known, but for  the  most  part 
        beyond  the  scope of my mind at the time of writing, (b)  of  an 
        harmony  of letters and numbers subtle, delicate and  exact,  and 
        (c)  of  Keys to all life's mysteries, both pertinent  to  occult 
        science  and  otherwise, and to all the Locks of  Thought  ;  the 
        concealment of these three galaxies of glory, I say, in a  cipher 
        simple  and luminous, but yet illegible for over Fourteen  years, 
        and  translated even then not by me, but by my  mysterious  Child 
        according  to  the Foreknowledge written in the Book  itself,  in 
        terms  so complex that the exact fulfilment of the conditions  of 
        His  birth,  which  occurred with  incredible  precision,  seemed 
        beyond  all possibility, a cipher involving  higher  mathematics, 
        and a knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek and Arabic Qabalahs as  well 
        as the True Lost Word of the Freemason, is yet veiled within  the 
        casual  silk-stuff  of ordinary English words, nay, even  in  the 
        apparently  accidental  circumstance  of the  characters  of  the 
        haste-harried scrawl of My pen.

        Many  such cases of double entendre, paranomasia in one  language 
        or  another,  sometimes two at once,  numerical-literal  puzzles, 
        and  even (on one occasion) an illuminating connexion of  letters 
        in  various  lines by a slashing scratch, will be  found  in  the 
        Qabalistic section of the Commentary.*1*
        
        
                                  III
        
        As an example of the first method above mentioned, we have,  Cap. 
        III,  "The fool readeth this Book--and he understandeth it  not."  
        This has a secret reverse-sense, meaning :  
        
        The fool (Parzival = Fra. O.I.V.V.I.O.) understandeth it (being a 
        Magister Templi, the Grade attributed to Understanding) not (i.e. 
        to be `not').
        
        This Parzival, adding to 418, is (in the legend of the Graal) the 
        son  of Kamuret, adding to 666, being the son of me The Beast  by 
        the  Scarlet Woman Hilarion.  This was a Name chosen by her  when 
        half  drunk, as a theft from Theosophical legend, but  containing 
        many  of our letter-number Keys to the Mysteries ; the number  of 
        the petals in the most sacred lotus.  It adds to 1001, which also 
        is  Seven times Eleven times Thirteen, a series of factors  which 
        may  be  read  as The Scarlet Woman's Love  by  Magick  producing 
        Unity,  in Hebrew Achad.  For 7 is the number of Venus,  and  the 
        secret  seven-lettered  Name  of my concubine B A B A L  O  N  is 
        written with Seven Sevens, thus: 
        
          77 + _7_ + 7 + 77 = 156, the number of BABALON.
                   7
        
        418  is  the number of the Word of the Magical  Formula  of  this 
        Aeon.  (666 is I, The Beast.)
        
        Parzival  had also the name Achad as a Neophyte of A.A.,  and  it 
        was  Achad whom Hilarion bare to Me.  And Achad means Unity,  and 
        the  letter  of  Unity is Aleph, the letter of The  Fool  in  the 
        Tarot.  Now this Fool invoked the Magical Formula of the Aeon  by 
        taking as his Magick, or True, Name one which added also to 418.
        
        He  took  it  for  his  Name on  Entering  the  Gnosis  where  is 
        Understanding, and he understood it--this Book--not.  That is, he 
        understood  that  this Book was, so to speak, a vesture  or  veil 
        upon  the  idea of "not."  In Hebrew "not" is LA, 31, and  AL  is 
        God,  31, while there is a third 31 still deeplier hidden in  the 
        double  letter ST, which is a graphic glyph of the sun  and  moon 
        conjoined  to  look  like  a  foreshortened  Phallus,  thus--when 
        written  in Greek capitals.  This S or Sigma is like  a  phallus, 
        thus,[  Greec]  ,  when  writ  small ;  and  like  a  serpent  or 
        spermatozoon when writ final, thus, [Greec].  This T or Theta  is 
        the  point in the circle, or phallus in the kteis, and  also  the 
        Sun just as C is the Moon, male and female.
        
        But  Sigma in Hebrew is Shin, 300, the letter of Fire and of  the 
        "Spirit  of the Gods" which broods upon the Formless Void in  the 
        Beginning,  being  by  shape a triple tongue  of  flame,  and  by 
        meaning  a tooth, which is the only part of the secret and  solid 
        foundation  of Man that is manifested normally.  Teeth serve  him 
        to fight, to crush, to cut, to rend, to bite and grip his prey  ; 
        they  witness  that he is a fierce,  dangerous,  and  carnivorous 
        animal.   But  they are also the best witness to the  mastery  of 
        Spirit over Matter, the extreme hardness of their substance being 
        chiselled and polished and covered with a glistening film by Lefe 
        no  less easily and beautifully than is does with more  naturally 
        plastic types of substance.
        
        Teeth  are displayed when our Secret Self--our Subconscious  Ego, 
        whose Magical Image is our individuality expressed in mental  and 
        bodily  form--our Holy Guardian Angel--comes forth  and  declares 
        our  True Will to our fellows, whether to snarl or to  sneer,  to 
        smile or to laugh.
        
        Teeth  serve  us to pronounce the dental letters which  in  their 
        deepest  nature express decision, fortitude, endurance,  just  as 
        gutturals  suggest  the breath of Life itself  free-flowing,  and 
        labials the duplex vibrations of action and reaction.   Pronounce 
        T,D,S  or  N, and you will find them  all  continuously  forcible 
        exhalations whose difference is determined solely by the position 
        of  the tongue, the teeth being bared as when a wild beast  turns 
        to  bay.  The sibilant sound of S or Sh is our English word,  and 
        also the Hebrew word, Hush, a strongly aspirated S, and  suggests 
        the  hiss  of  a  snake.  Now this hiss is  the  common  sign  of 
        recognition  between  men  when  one  wants  to  call   another's 
        attention  without  disturbing the silence more  than  necessary.  
        (Also  we  have  Hist, our Double letter.)   This  hiss  means  : 
        "Attention  !  A  man  !"  For in  all  Semitic  and  some  Aryan 
        languages, ISh or a closely similar word means "a man."  Say  it: 
        you  must  bare your clenched teeth as in defiance,  and  breathe 
        harshly out as in excitement.
        
        Hiss ! Sh ! means "Keep silent ! there's danger if you are heard.  
        Attention !  There's a man somewhere, deadly as a snake.  Breathe 
        hard ; there's a fight coming."
        
        This  Sh  is then the forcible subtle creative  Spirit  of  Life, 
        fiery  and  triplex, continous, Silence of pure  Breath  modified 
        into  sound  by two and thirty obstacles, as the  Zero  of  Empty 
        Space, though it contain all Life, only takes form according  (as 
        the  Qabalists say) to the two  and thirty "Paths" of Number  and 
        Letter which obstruct it.
        
        Now the other letter, Theta or Teth, has the value of Nine, which 
        is  that of AVB, the Secret Magick of Obeah, and of  the  Sephira 
        Yesod,  which is the seat in man of the sexual function by  whose 
        Magick  he overcomes even Death, and that in more ways than  one, 
        ways  that  are known to none but the loftiest and  most  upright 
        Initiates, baptised by the Baptism of Wisdom, and communicants at 
        that  Eucharist  where the Fragment of the Host  in  the  Chalice 
        becomes whole.*1*

        This T is the letter of Leo, the Lion, the house of heaven sacred 
        to the Sun.  (Thus also we find in it the number 6, whence  666).  
        And  Teth means a Serpent, the symbol of the magical Life of  the 
        Soul,  lord of "the double wand" of life and death.  The  serpent 
        is  royal, hooded, wise, silent save for an hiss when need is  to 
        disclose his Will ; he devours his tail---the glyph of  Eternity, 
        of  Nothingness and of Space ; he moves wavelike, one  immaterial 
        essence  travelling  through crest and trough, as  a  man's  soul 
        through  lives  and deaths.  He straightens out ; he is  the  Rod 
        that strikes, the Light-radiance of the Sun or the Life  radiance 
        of the Phallus.
        
        The  sound  of  T is tenuous and sharply final ;  it  suggests  a 
        spontaneous  act sudden and irrevocable, like the  snake's  bite, 
        the loin's snap, the Sun's stroke, and the Lingam's.
        
        Now  in the Tarot the Trump illustrating this letter Sh   is  and 
        old  form of the Stele of Revealing, Nuith with Shu and Seb,  the 
        pantacle  or magical picture of the old Aeon, as Nuit with  Hadit 
        and Ra Hoor Khuit is of the new.  The number of this Trump is XX.  
        It  is  called the Angel, the messenger from Heaven  of  the  new 
        Word.  The Trump giving the picture of T is called Strength.   It 
        shows  the Scarlet Woman, BABALON, riding (or conjoined with)  me 
        The Beast ; and this card is my special card, for I am  Baphomet, 
        "the  Lion  and the Serpent," and 666, the "full number"  of  the 
        Sun.*1*
        
        So then, as Sh, XX, shows the Gods of the Book of the Law and  T, 
        XI, shows the human beings in that Book, me and my concubine, the 
        two cards illustrate the whole Book in pictorial form.
        
        Now  XX + XI = XXXI, 31, which we needed to put with LA,  31  and 
        AL,  31,  that we might have 31 x 3 = 93, the Word  of  the  Law, 
        THELEMA  [in greek], Will, and hhelp, Love which under  Will,  is 
        the Law.  It is also the number of Aiwaz, the Author of the Book, 
        of the Lost Word whose formula does in sober truth "raise Hiram," 
        and of many another close-woven Word of Truth.
        
        Now then this Two-in-One letter [sun, moon], is the third Key  to 
        this  Law  ; and on the discovery of that fact,  after  years  of 
        constant  seeking,  what sudden splendours of  Truth,  sacred  as 
        secret, blazed in the midnight of my mind.!  Observe now :  "this 
        circle squared in its failure is a key also."  Now I knew that in 
        the  value  of  the letters of ALHIM, "the Gods,"  the  Jews  had 
        concealed  a  not  quite correct value of [pi], the  ratio  of  a 
        circle's circumference to its diameter, to 4 places of decimals : 
        3.1415  ;  nearer  would be 3.1416.  If I  prefix  our  Key,  31, 
        putting  [sun,  moon], Set or Satan, before the old Gods,  I  get 
        3.141593, [pi] correct to Six places, Six being my own number and 
        that of Horus the Sun.  And the whole number of this new Name  is 
        395,*1*  which  on  analysis yields  and  astounding  cluster  of 
        numerical "mysteries."
        
        Now  for  an example of the `paronomasia' or pun.   Chapter  III, 
        17---"Ye,  even  ye, know not this meaning all."  (Note  how  the 
        peculiar grammar suggests a hidden meaning.)  Now YE is in Hebrew 
        Yod  He, the man and the woman ; The Beast and BABALON, whom  the 
        God was addressing in his verse.  Know suggests `no' which  gives 
        LA,  31 ; `not' is LA, 31, again, by actual meaning ;  and  `all' 
        refers to AL, 31, again.  (Again, ALL is 61, AIN, "nothing.")
        
        
                                     V
        
        Then  we  have  numerical problems like this.   "Six  and  fifty.  
        Divide,  add, multiply and understand."  6 [divided by] 50  gives 
        0.12, a perfect glyph-statement of the metaphysics of the Book.
        
        The  external evidence for the Book is accumulating yearly :  the 
        incidents  connected with the discovery of the true  spelling  of 
        Aiwaz are alone sufficient to place it beyond all quaver of doubt 
        that I am really in touch with a Being of intelligence and  power 
        immensely subtler and greater than aught we can call human.
        
        This has been the One Fundamental Question of Religion.  We  know 
        of   invisible  powers,  and  to  spare  !   But  is  there   any 
        Intelligence or Individuality (of the same general type as  ours) 
        independent of our human brain-structure ?  For the first time in 
        history,  yes  !  Aiwaz has guven us proof : the  most  important 
        gate toward Knowledge suings wide.
        
        I, Aleister Crowley, declare upon my honour as a gentleman that I 
        hold  this  revelation a million times more  important  than  the 
        discovery  of  the  Wheel,  or even of the  Laws  of  Physics  or 
        Mathematics.   Fire  and Tools made Man master of  his  planet  :  
        Writing  developed his mind ; but his Soul was a guess until  the 
        Book of the Law proved this.
        
        I,  a  master of English, was made to take down in  three  hours, 
        from  dictation,  sixty-five  8" x I0" pages of  words  not  only 
        strange,  but often displeasing to me in themselves ;  concealing 
        in  cipher  propositions unknown to me, majestic and  profound  ; 
        foretelling events public and private beyond my control, or  that 
        of any man.
        
        This  Book  proves : there is a Person thinking and acting  in  a 
        praeterhuman manner, either without a body of flesh, or with  the 
        power  of communicating telepathically with men  and  inscrutably 
        directing their actions.
        
        
                               VI
        
        I  write this therefore with a sense of responsibility  so  acute 
        that  for the first time in my life I regret my sense  of  humour 
        and  the  literary  practical jokes which it  has  caused  me  to 
        perpetrate.   I am glad, though, that care was taken of  the  MS. 
        itself  and  of diaries and letters of the period,  so  that  the 
        physical facts are as plain as can be desired.

        MY  sincerity  and  seriousness are proved by my  life.   I  have 
        fought  this  Book  and fled it ; I have defiled it  and  I  have 
        suffered for its sake.  Present or absent to my mind, it has been 
        my Invisible Ruler.  It has overcome me ; year after year extends 
        its  invasion of my being.  I am the captive of the  Crowned  and 
        Conquering Child.
        
        The  point then arises : How did the Book of the Law come  to  be 
        written ?  The description in The Equinox, I, VII, might well  be 
        more  detailed  ; and I might also elucidate the problem  of  the 
        apparent  changes  of  speaker, and the  occasional  lapses  from 
        straightforward scribecraft in the MS.
        
        I  may observe that I should not have left such  obvious  grounds 
        for indictment as these had I prepared the MS. to look pretty  to 
        a critical eye ; nor should I have left such curious  deformities 
        of  grammar  and syntax, defects of rhythm,  and  awkwardness  of 
        phrase.   I should not have printed passages, some  rambling  and 
        unintelligible,  some  repugnant to reason  by  their  absurdity, 
        others  again by their barbaric ferocity abhorrent to  heart.   I 
        should not have allowed such jumbles of matter, such abrupt jerks 
        from   subject   to  subject,  disorder  ravaging   reason   with 
        disconnected  sluttishness.   I  should not  have  tolerated  the 
        discords,  jarred  and  jagged,  of manner,  as  when  a  sublime 
        panegyric  of Death is followed first by a cipher and then  by  a 
        prophecy, before, without taking breath, the author leaps to  the 
        utmost  magnificence of thought both mystical and  practical,  in 
        language  so concise, simple, and lyrical as to bemuse  our  very 
        amazement.  I should not have spelt "Ay" "Aye," or acquiesced  in 
        the horror "abstruction."
        
        Compare  with this Book my "jokes," where I pretend to  edit  the 
        MS.  of  another:  "Alice," "Amphora,"  "Clouds  without  Water."  
        Observe in each case the technical perfection of the "discovered" 
        or  "translated" MS., smooth skilled elaborte art and craft of  a 
        Past  Master  Workman ; observe the carefully detailed  tone  and 
        style  of  the  prefaces,  and  the  sedulous  creation  of   the 
        personalities of the imaginary author and the imaginary editor.
        
        Note,  moreover, with what greedy vanity I claim authorship  even 
        of  all  the  other A.A. Books in Class A, though  I  wrote  them 
        inspired  beyond  all  I know to be I.  Yet in  these  Books  did 
        Aleister  Crowley,  the master of English both in  prose  and  in 
        verse, partake insofar as he was That.  Compare those Books  with 
        the  Book  of the Law !  They style is simple and sublime  ;  the 
        imagery  is  gorgeous and faultless ; the rhythm  is  subtle  and 
        intoxicating  ; the theme is interpreted in  faultless  symphony.  
        There are no errors of grammar, no infelicities of phrase.   Each 
        Book is perfect in its kind.
        
        I, daring to snatch credit for these, in that brutal Index to The 
        Equinox Volume One, dared nowise to lay claim to have touched the 
        Book of the Law, not with my littlest finger-tip.
        
        I, boasting of my many Books ; I, swearing each a masterpiece;  I 
        attach the Book of the Law at a dozen points of literature.  Even 
        so, with the dame breath, I testify, as a Master of English, that 
        I am utterly incapable, even when most inspired, fo such  English 
        as I find in that Book again and again.
        
        Terse,  yet sublime, are these verses of this Book ;  subtle  yet 
        simple  ;  matchless for rhythm, direct as a ray of  light.   Its 
        imagery  is  gorgeous without decadence.  It deals  with  primary 
        ideas.  It announces revolutions in philosophy, religion, ethics, 
        yea, in the whole nature of Man.  For this it needs no more  than 
        to  roll sea-billows solemnly forht, eight words, as  `Every  man 
        and every woman is a star," or it bursts in a mountain torrent of 
        monosyllables  as  "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole  of  the 
        Law."
        
        Nuith cries : "I love you," like a lover ; when even John reached 
        only to the cold impersonal proposition "God is love."  She  woos 
        like  a msitress ; whispers "To me !" in every ear ; Jesus,  with 
        needless  verb, appeals vehemently to them "that labour  and  are 
        heavy  laden."  Yet he can promise in the present, says: "I  give 
        unimaginable   joys  on  earth,"  making  life  worth   while   ; 
        "certainty,  not faith, while in life, upon death," the  electric 
        light  Knowledge  for the churchyard corpsecandle  Faith,  making 
        life   fear-free,   and  death  itself   worth   while:    "peach 
        unutterable,  rest, ecstasy," making mind and body at  ease  that 
        soul may be free to transcend them when It will.
        
        I have never written such English ; nor could I ever, that well I 
        know.   Shakespeare could not have written it:  still less  could 
        Keats,  Shelley, Swift, Sterne or even Wordsworth.  Only  in  the 
        Books of Job and Ecclesiastes, in the work of Blake, or  possibly 
        in  that of Poe, is there any approach to such succinct depth  of 
        thought in such musical simplicity of form, unless it be in Greek 
        and  Latin poets.  Nor Poe nor Blake could have  sustained  their 
        effort  as does this our Book of the Law ; and the  Hebrews  used 
        tricks of verse, mechanical props to support them.
        
        How then---back once more to the Path !---how then did it come to 
        be written ?
        
        
                                 VIII
        
        I shall make what I may call an inventory of the furniture of the 
        Temple,  the  circumstances of the case.  I  shall  describe  the 
        conditions of the phenomenon as if it were any other  unexplained 
        event in Nature.
        
             I.   The time.
                     Chapter 1 was written between Noon and 1 p.m. on 
                      April 8, 1904.
                     Chapter II between Noon and I p.m. on April 9,
                       I904.
                     Chapter III between Noon and I p.m. on April I0,
                       I904.

        The  writing began exactly on the stroke of the hour,  and  ended 
        exactly an hour later ; it was hurried throughour, with no pauses 
        of any kind.
        
             2.   The place.
                     The city was Cairo.
        The  street,  or rather streets, I do not remember.  There  is  a 
        `Place'  where  four or five streets intersect ; it is  near  the 
        Boulak  Museum,  but  a fairly long  way  from  Shepherd's.   The 
        quarter is fashionable European.  The house occupied a corner.  I 
        do  not  remember  its orientation ; but,  as  appears  from  the 
        instructions for invoking Horus, one window of the temple  opened 
        to  the East or Norht.  The apatment was of several rooms on  the 
        ground floor, well furnished in the Anglo-Egyptian style.  It was 
        let by a firm named Congdon & Co. 
        
        The room was a drawing-room cleared of fragile obstacles, but not 
        otherwise  prepared to serve as a temple.  It had  double  doors, 
        poening  on to the corridor to the North and a door to  the  East 
        leading  to another room, the dining-room, I think.  It  had  two 
        windows  opening on the Place, to the South, and a writing  table 
        against the wall between them.
        
             3.   The people.
             A.    Myself, age 28 1/2.  In good health, fond of  out-door 
        sports,  especially  mountaineering and  big-game  shooting.   An 
        Adept Major of the A.A. but weary of mysticism and
        dissatisfied  with  Magick.  A rationalist,  Buddhist,  agnostic, 
        anti-clerical,  anti-moral, Tory and Jacobite.   A  chess-player, 
        first-class  amateur,  able to play  three  games  simultaneously 
        blindfold.   A reading and writing addict.  Education  :  private 
        governess  and  tutors,  preliminary school  Habershon's  at  St. 
        Leonards, Sussex, private tutors, private school 5I Bateman  St., 
        Cambridge,  private  tutors,  Yarrow's  School,  Streatham,  near 
        London.   Malvern  College,  Tonbridge  School,  private  tutors, 
        Eastbourne  College,  King's College,  London,  Trinity  College, 
        Cambridge.
        
        Morality---Sexually  powerful and passionate.  Strongly  male  to 
        women  ;  free from any similar impulse toward my  own  sex.   My 
        passion  for women very unselfish ; the main motive to give  them 
        pleasure.   Hence,  intense ambition to understand  the  feminine 
        nature  ;  for  this  purpose,  to  identify  myself  with  their 
        feelings, and to use all means appropriate.  Imaginative, subtle, 
        insatiable  ; the whole business a mere clumsy attempt to  quench 
        the  thirst  of  the soul.  This thirst has indeed  been  my  one 
        paramout  Lord, directing all my acts without allowing any  other 
        considerations soever to affect it in the least.
        
        Strictly  temperate  as to drink, had never once been  even  near 
        intoxication.  Light wine my only form of alcohol.

        Sense  of  justice  and equity so  sensitive,  well-balanced  and 
        compelling as to be almost an obsession.
        
        Generous,  unless suspicious that I was being fleeced  :   "penny 
        wise  and pound foolish."  Spendthrift, careless, not  a  gambler 
        because  I valued winning at games of skill, which  flattered  my 
        vanity.
        
        Kind,  gentle,  affectionate, selfish,  conceited,  reckless  and 
        cautious by turns.
        
        Incapable  of bearing a grudge, even for the gravest insults  and 
        injuries  ; yet enjoying to inflict pain for its own  sake.   Can 
        attack  an  unsuspecting stranger, and torture  him  cruelly  for 
        years, without feeling the slightest animosity toward him.   Fond 
        of  animals  and  children, who return my  love,  almost  always.  
        Consider  abortion the most shameful form of murder,  and  loathe 
        the social codes which encourage it.
        
        Hated and despised my mother and her family ; loved and respected 
        my father and his.
             Critical events in my life.
             First travelled outside England, I883.
             Father died March 5, I887.
             Albuminuria stopped my schooling, I890-92.
             First sexual act, probably I889.
             Ditto with a woman March, I89I (Torquay--a theatre girl).
             First  serious  mountain-climbing,  in  Skye,  I892.    (The 
        "Pinnacle Ridge" of Sgurr-nan-Gillean.)
             First Alpine climb, I894.
             Admitted  to  the  Military Order of  the  Temple  midnight, 
        December 3I, I896.
             Admitted  to  permanent  office  in  the  Temple   midnight, 
        December 3I, I897.
             Bought Boleskine, I899.
             First Mexican climb, I900.
             First Big game, I90I.
             First   Himalayan   climb,  I902.   (Chogo   Ri,   or   "K2" 
        expedition.)
             Married at Dingwall, Scotland, August I2, I903.
             Honeymoon  at  Boleskine, thence to London,  Paris,  Naples, 
        Egypt, Ceylon, and back to Egypt, Helwan and then Cairo early  in 
        I904.
        
        My "occult" career.
        
             Parents Plymouth Brethren, exclusive.
             Father a real P.B. and therefore tolerant to his son.
             Mother only became P.B. to please him, perhaps to catch him, 
        and so pedantically fanatical.
             After  his death I was tortured with insensate  persistency, 
        till  I  said : Evil, be thou my good !  I  practised  wickedness 
        furtively  as a magical formula, even when it was  distasteful  ; 
        e.g. I would sneak into a church*1*---a place my mother would not 
        enter at the funeral service of her best-loved sister.

             Revolted openly when puberty gave me a moral sense.
             Hunted new "Sins" till October, '97, when one of them turned 
        to  bay,  and  helped me to experience the  "Trance  of  Sorrow."  
        (Perception  of  the  Impermanence fo  even  the  greatest  human 
        endeavour.)  I invoked assistance, Easter, '98.
             Initiated in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, November 
        I8, '98.
             Began to perform the Abramelin Operation, I899.
             Initiated in the Order R.R. et A.C., January, I909.
             Made a 33 Freemason, I900. 
             Began Yoga practices, I900.
             Obtained first Dhyana, October I, I90I.
             Abandoned all serious occult work of every sort, October  3, 
        I90I,  and  continued in this course of action till  July,  I903, 
        when  I tried vainly to force myself to become a Buddhist  Hermit 
        Highland Laird.
        
        Marriage  was an uninterrupted sexual debauch up to the  time  of 
        the writing of the Book of the Law.
        
             B. Rose Edith Kelly.
             Born I874 (July 23).  About '95 married one Major  Skerrett, 
        R.A.M.C., and lived with him some two years in South Africa.   He 
        died in '97.
        
        She  indulged in a few feeble-executed intrigues till August  I2, 
        I903, when she became my wife, becoming pregnant with a girl born 
        July  28, I904.  Health, admirable robust at all points; she  was 
        both  active  and enduring, as our travels in Ceylon  and  across 
        China prove.  Figure perfect, neither big nor little, face pretty 
        without being petty ; she only missed Beauty by lacking  Goethe's 
        "touch  of  the  bizarre."  Personality  intensely  powerful  and 
        magnevit,  intellect  absent but mind adaptable to  that  of  any 
        companion, so that she could always say the right nothing.
        
        Charm,   grace,   vitality,   vivacity,   tact,   manners,    all 
        inexpressible fascinating.
        
        From  her  mother  she inherited dipsomania, as bad  a  case  for 
        stealth,  cunning,  falsehood, treachery, and  hypocrisy  as  the 
        specialist I consulted had ever known.  This was, however, latent 
        during the satisfacion of sexuality,*1* which ousted all else  in 
        her life, as it did in mine.
        
        Education  strictly social and domestic ; she did not  even  know 
        schoolgirl French.  She had read nothing, not so much as  novels.  
        She was a miracle of perfection as Poetic Ideal, Mistress,  Wife, 
        Mother, House-president, Nurse Pal and Comrade.
        
             C.  Our head servant, Hassan or Hamid, I forget which.
             A tall, dignified, hansome athlete of about 30.  Spoke  good 
        English  and ran the household well ; always there and  never  in 
        the way.
        
        I suppose I hardly ever saw the servants under his authority:   I 
        do not even know how many there were.
        
             D.   Lieut.-Col.  Somebody, beginning, I think,  with  a  B, 
        married, middle-aged, with manners like the Rules of a Prison.  I 
        cannot  remember  that  I ever saw him ; but  the  apartment  was 
        sublet to me by him.
        
             E.   Brugsch Bey of the Boulak Museum dined with us once  to 
        discuss  the  Stele  in  his  charge,  and  to  arrage  for   its 
        "abstruction."  His French assistant curator, who translated  the 
        hieroglyphs on the Stele for us.
        
        A  Mr.  Bach, owner of the "Egyptian News," an hotel, a  hunk  of 
        railway, &c., &c., dined once.
        
        Otherwise  we knew nobody in Cairo except  natives,  occasionally 
        hobnobbed with a General Dickson, who had accepted Islam,  carpet 
        merchant,  pimps, jewellers, and such small deer.   Contradictory 
        hints in one of my diaries were inserted deliberately to mislead, 
        for some sill no-reason unconnected with Magick.*1*
        
        4.   The  events  leading  up to the  Writing  of  the  Book.   I 
        summarize them from Eqx. I, VII.
        
        March  I6.   Tried to shew the Sylphs to Rose.*1*  She was  in  a 
        dazed  state, stupid, possible drunk ; possibly  hysterical  from 
        pregnancy.   She  could  see nothing, but could  hear.   She  was 
        fiercely excited at the messages, and passionately insistent that 
        I should take them seriously.
        
        I was annoyed at her irrelevance, and her infliction of  nonsense 
        upon me.
        
        She  had never been in any state even remotely  resembling  this, 
        though  I  ahd made the same invocation (in full) in  the  King's 
        chamber  fo  the Great Pyramid during the night  which  we  spent 
        there in the previous autumn.
        
        March  I7.   More  apparently  nonsensical  messages,  this  time 
        spontaneous.   I  invoke Thoth, probably as in  Liber  LXIV,  and 
        presumably to clear up the muddle.
        
        March  I8.   Thoth evidently got clear through to her ;  for  she 
        discovers   that  Horus  is  addressing  me  through   her,   and 
        indentifies   Him  by  a  method  utterly  excluding  chance   or 
        coincidence, and involving knowledge which only I possessed, some 
        of it arbitrary, so that she or her informant must have been able 
        to read my mind as well as if I had spolen it.
        
        Then she, challenged to point out His image, passes by many  such 
        to fix on the one in the Stele.  The cross-examination must  hace 
        taken place between March 20 and 23.
        
        March  20.  Success in my invocation of Horus, by  "breaking  all 
        the rules" at her command.  This success convinced me  magically, 
        and  encouraged  me  to test her as above  mentioned.   I  should 
        certainly  have referred to the Stlel in my ritual had I seen  it 
        before  this date.  I should fix Monday, March 2I, for the  Visit 
        ot Boulak.
        
        Between  March 23 and April 8 the Hieroglyphs on the  Stele  were 
        evidently  translated  by the assistant-curator at  Boulak,  into 
        either  French  or English--I am almost sure it  was  French--and 
        versified (as now printed) by me.
        
        Between  these  dates, too, my wife must have told  me  that  her 
        informant  was not Horus, or Ra Hoor Khuit, but a messenger  from 
        Him, named Aiwass.
        
        I  thought  that she might have faked this name  from  constantly 
        hearing "Aiwa," the word for "Yes" in Arabic.  She could not have 
        invented a name of this kind, though ; her next best was to  find 
        a phrase like "balmy puppy" ofr a friend, or corrupt a name  like 
        Neuberg into an obscene insult.
        
        The silence of my diaries seems to prove that she gave me nothing 
        more  of  importance.   I was working  out  the  Magical  problem 
        presented to me by the events of March I6-2I.  Any questions that 
        I asked her were either unanswered, or answered by a Being  whose 
        mind was so different from mine that we failed to converse.   All 
        my  wife  obtained  from  Him was to  command  me  to  do  things 
        magically absurd.  He would not play my game : I must play His.
        
        April  7.   Not later than this date was I ordered to  enter  the 
        "tmeple"  exactly at noon on the three days following, and  write 
        down what I heard during one hour, nor more nor less.  I  imagine 
        that  some  preparations were made, possilby  some  bull's  blood 
        burned for incense, or order taken about details of dress ro diet 
        ; I remember nothing at all, one way or the other.  Bull's  blood 
        was  burnt some time in this sojourn in Cairo ; but I forget  why 
        or when.  I think it was used at the "Invocation of the Sylphs."
        
             5.  The actual writing.
        
        The three days were precisely similar, save that on the last  day 
        I became nervous lest I should fail to hear the Voice of  Aiwass.  
        They may then be described together.
        
        I  went into the "temple" a minute early, so as to shut the  door 
        and sit down on the stroke of Noon.
        
        On my table were my pen--a Swan Fountain--and supplies of  Quarto 
        typewriting paper, 8" x I0".
        
        I never looked round in the room at any time.
        
        The  Voice of Aiwass came apparently from over my left  shoulder, 
        from  the furthest corner of the room.  It seemed to echo  itself 
        in my physical heart in a very strange manner, hard to  describe.  
        I have noticed a similar phenomenon when I have been waiting  for 
        a  message  fraught  with great hope or  dread.   The  voice  was 
        passionately  poured,  as if Aiwass were alert  about  the  time-
        limit.  I wrote 65 pages of this present essay (at about my usual 
        rate of composition) in about I0 1/2 hours as against the 3 hours 
        of  the  65 pages of the Book of the Law.  I was pushed  hard  to 
        keep the pace ; the MS. shows it clearly enough.
        
        The  voice was of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its  tones 
        solemn,  voluptuous, tender, fierce or aught else as  suited  the 
        moods  of  the  message.   Not  bass--perhaps  a  rich  tneor  or 
        baritone.
        
        The  English  was  free  of  either  native  or  foreign  accent, 
        perfectly  pure of local or caste mannerisma, thus startling  and 
        even uncanny at first hearing.*1*
        
        I had a strong impression*1* that the speaker was actually in the 
        corner  where  he  seemed  to be, in a  body  of  "fine  matter," 
        transparent as a veil of gauze, or a cloud of incense-smoke.   He 
        seemed to be a tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit,  active 
        and strong, with the face of a savage king, and eyes veiled  lest 
        their gaze should destroy what they saw.  The dress was not Arab; 
        it suggested Assyria or Persia, but very vaguely.  I took  little 
        note of it, for to me at that time Aiwass and an"angel" such as I 
        had often seen in visions, a being purely astral.
        
        I now incline to believe that Aiwass is not only the God or Demon 
        or  Devil once held holy in Sumer, and mine own  Guradian  Angel, 
        but  also a man as I am, insofar as He uses a human body to  make 
        His magical link with Mankind, whom He loves, and that He is thus 
        and  Ipsissimus, the Head of the A.A.  Even I can do, in  a  much 
        feebler way, this Work of being a God and a Beast, &c., &c.,  all 
        at the same time, with equal fullness of life.*2*
        
             6.  The Editing of the Book.
        
        "Change  not so much as the style of a letter" in the text  saved 
        me from Crowley-fying the wholde Book, and spoiling everything.
        
        The MS. shows what has been done, and why, as follows:
        
             A.  On page 6 Aiwaz instructs me to "write this (what he had
                 just said) in whiter words," for my mind revelled at His
                 phrase.  He added at once "But go forth on," i.e., with
                 His utterance, leaving the emendation until later.
        
             B.  On page I9 I failed to hear a sentence, and (later on) 
                 the Scarlet Woman, invoking Aiwass, wrote in the missing
                 words.  (How ?  She was not in the room at the time, and
                 heard nothing.)
        
             C.  Page 20 of Cap. III, I got a phrase indistinctly, and 
                 she put it in, as for "B."
        
             D.  The versified paraphrase of the hieroglyphs on the Stele
                 being ready, Aiwaz allowed me to insert these later, so 
                 as to save time.
        
        These  four apart, the MS. is exactly as it was written on  those 
        three days.  The Critical Recension will explain theses points as 
        they occur.
        
        The  problem of the literary form of this Book  is  astonishingly 
        complex;  but  the  internal evidence of  the  sense  is  usually 
        sufficient of make it clear, on inspection, as to who is speaking 
        and who is being addressed.
        
        There  was, however, no actual voice audible save that of  Aiwaz.  
        Even  my  own  remarks made silently  were  incorporated  by  him 
        audibly, wherever such occur.
        
                          Chapter I
        
        Verse  I.  Nuit is the speaker.  She invokes her lover  and  then 
        begins to give a title to her speech in the end of verse I--20.
        
             In  verses  3 and 4, she begins her discourse.  So  far  her 
        remarks have been addressed to no one in particular.
        
             Verse 4 startled my intelligence into revolt.
        
             In verse 5 she explains that she is speaking, and appeals to 
        me personally to help her to unveil by taking down her message.
        
             In verse 6 she claims me for her chosen, and I think that  I 
        then became afraid lest I should be expected to do too much.  She 
        answers  this fear in verse 7 by introducing Aiwaz as the  actual 
        speaker in articulate human accents on her behalf.
        
             In verse 8 the oration continues, and we now see that it  is 
        addressed to mankind in general.  This continues till verse I3.
        
             Verse  I4 is from the Stele.  It seems to have been  written 
        in by me as a kind of appreciation of what she had just said.
        
             Verse  I5 emphasizes that it is mankind in general  that  is 
        addressed; for the Beast is spoken of in the third person, though 
        his was the only human ear to hear the words.
        
             Verses I8--I9 seem to be almost in the nature of a quotation 
        from  some  hymn.   It is not quite natural for  her  to  address 
        herself as she appears to do in verse I9.
        
             Verse  26.   The question "Who am I and what  shall  be  the 
        sign?"  is  my own conscious thought.  In the previous  verses  I 
        have  been  called to an exalted mission, and  I  naturally  feel 
        nervous.  This thought is then entered in the record by Aiwaz  as 
        if  it  were a story that he was telling ; and he  develops  this 
        story after her answer, in order to bring bvack the thread of the 
        chapter  to the numerical mysteries of Nuith begun in verses  24-

        25, and now continued in verse 28.
             Another doubt must have arisen in my mind at verse 30 ;  and 
        this doubt is interpreted and explained ot me personally in verse 
        3I.
        
             The  address  to mankind is resumed in verse 32,  and  Nuith 
        emphasizes  the point of verse 30 which has caused me  to  doubt.  
        She  confirms this with an oath, and I was convinced.  I  thought 
        ot myself, " in this case let us hace written instructions as  to 
        the  technique," and Aiwaz again makes a story out of my  request 
        as in verse 26.
        
             In  verse 35 it seems that she is addressing me  personally, 
        but in verse 36 she speaks of me in the third person.
        
             Verse  40.  The word "us" is very puzzling.   It  apparently 
        means  "All  those  who  have accepted  the  Law  whose  word  is 
        Thelema."  Among these she includes herself.
        
             There  is  nwo  no difficulty for a long  while.   It  is  a 
        general  address  dealing with varoious subjects, to the  end  of 
        verse 52.
        
             From verses 53-56 we have a strictly personal address to me.
        
             In verse 57 Nuith resumes her general exhortation.  And I am 
        spoken of once more in the third person.
        
             Verse  6I.  The word "Thou" is not a personal  address.   It 
        means  any single person, as pooosed to a company.  The  "Ye"  in 
        the third sentence indeicates the proper conduct for  worshippers 
        as  a  body.  The "you," in sentence 4, of course  applies  to  a 
        single person ; but the plural form suggests that it is a  matter 
        of  public worship as opposed to the invocation in the desert  of 
        the first sentence of this verse.
        
             There is no further difficulty in this chapter.
        
             Verse  66 is the statement of Aiwaz that the words of  verse 
        65,  which were spoken diminuendo down to  pianissimo,  indicated 
        the withdrawl of the goddess.
        
                             CHAPTER II
        
             Hadith himself is evidently the speaker from the srart.  The 
        remarks  are  general.  In verse 5 I am spoken of  in  the  third 
        person.
        
             After  verse 9 he notices my vehement objections to  writing 
        statements to which my conscious self was obstinately opposed.
        
             Verse I0, addressed to me notes that fact ; and in verse  II 
        he declares that he is my master, and that the reason for this is 
        that he is my secret self, as explained in verses I2-I3.

             The  interruption  seems  to have added  excitement  to  the 
        discousre, for verse I4 is violent.
        
             Verses  I5 & I6 offer a riddle, while verse I7 is a sort  of 
        parody of poetry.
        
             Verse  I8  continues his attack on my  conscious  mind.   In 
        verses  I5-I8  the  style is complicated,  brutal,  sneering  and 
        jeering.  I feel the whole passage as a contemptuous beating down 
        of the resistance of my mind.
        
             In  verse I9 he returns to the exalted style with  which  he 
        began until I interfered.
        
             The  passage seems addressed to what he calls his chosen  or 
        his  people, though it is not explained exactly what he means  by 
        the words.
        
             This  passage from verse I9 to verse 52 is of sustained  and 
        matchless eloquence.
        
             I must have objected to something in verse 52, for verse  53 
        is  directed to encourage me personally as to having  transmitted 
        this message.
        
             Verse 54 deals with another point as to the  intelligibility 
        of the message.
        
             Verse  55 instructed me to obtain the English Qabalah  ;  it 
        made  me incredulous, as the task seemed an impossible  one,  and 
        probably  his  perception of this criticism  inspired  verse  56, 
        though "ye mockers" applies evidently to my enemies, referred  to 
        in verse 54.
        
             Verse 57 brings us back to the suject begun in verse 2I.  It 
        is  a  quotation from the Apocalypse verbatim,  and  is  probably 
        suggested by the matter of verse 56.
        
             There is no real change in the essence of anything,  however 
        its combinations vary.
        
             Verses 58-60 conclude the passage.
        
             Verse 6I.  The address is now strictly personal.  During all 
        this  time Hadith had been breaking down my resistance  with  his 
        violently  expresses and varied phrases.  As a result of this,  I 
        attained to the trance described in these verses from 6I-68.
        
             Verse 69 is the return to consciousness of myself.  It was a 
        sort  of gasping question as a man coming out of Ether might  ask 
        "Where am I ?"  I think that this is the one passage in the whole 
        book  which  was not spoken by Aiwaz ; and I ought  to  say  that 
        these verses 63-68 were writeen without conscious hearing at all.
        
             Verse 70 does not deign to reply to my questions, but points 
        out  the way to manage life.  This continues until verse 74,  and 
        seems  to  be  addressed not to me persoanllly but  to  any  man, 
        despite the use of the word "Thou."
        
             Verse  75  abruptly changes the subject,  interpolating  the 
        riddle of verse 76 with its prophecy.  This verse is addressed to 
        me  personally,  and continues to the end of verse 78  to  mingle 
        lyrical eloquence with literal and numerical puzzles.
        
        Verse  79 is the statement of Aiwaz that the end of  the  chapter 
        has come.  To this he adds his personal compliment to myself.
        
        
                                   Chapter III
        
             Verse I appears to complete the triangle begun by the  first 
        verses  of the two previous chapters.  It is a  simple  statement 
        involving no particular speaker or hearer.  The ommission of  the 
        "i" in the name of God appears to have alarmed me, and in verse 2 
        Aiwaz offers a hurried explanation in a somewhat excited  manner, 
        and invokes Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
        
        Verse  3 is spoken by Ra-Hoor-Khuit.  "Them" evidently refers  to 
        some  undescribed  enemies,  and "ye" to  those  who  accept  his 
        formula.  This passage ends with verse 9.  Verse 10 and verse  11 
        are addressed to me personally and the Scarlet Woman, as shown in 
        the continuation of his passage which seems to end with verse 33, 
        though it is left rather vague at times as to whether the  Beast, 
        or  the  Beast  and his concubine, or  the  adherents  of  Horus, 
        generally, are exhorted.
        
             Verse  34  is  a kind of poetical  peroration,  and  is  not 
        addressed in particular to anybody.  It is a statement of  events 
        to come.
        
             Verse  35 states simply that section one of this chapter  is 
        completed.
        
             I  seem to have become enthusiastic, for there is a kind  of 
        interlude  reported by Aiwaz of my song of  adoration  translated 
        form the Stele;  the incident parallels that of chapter I,  verse 
        26, &c.
        
             It  is to be noted that the translations from the  Stele  in 
        verses  37-38  were  no more than instantanious  thoughts  to  be 
        inserted afterwards.
        
             Verse  38  begins with my address to the God  in  the  first 
        sentence, while in the second is his reply to me.  He then refers 
        to   the  hieroglyphs  of  the  Stele,  and  bids  me  quote   my 
        praraphrases.   This  order was given by a  species  of  wordless 
        gesture,  not  visible or audible, but sensible  in  some  occult 
        manner.
        
             Verses 39-42 are instructions for me personally.
        
             Verses  43-45 indicate the proper course of conduct for  the 
        Scarlet Woman.
        
             Verse  46  is  again  more general--a  sort  of  address  to 
        soldiers before battle.
        
             Verse 47 is again mostly personal instruction, mixed up with 
        prophecies,  proof  of the praeterhuman origin of the  Book,  and 
        other matters.
        
             I  observe that this instruction, taken with with those  not 
        to  change "so much as a style of a letter," etc., imply that  my 
        pen  was under the physical control of Aiwaz; for this  dictation 
        did  not  include directions as to the use of capitals,  and  the 
        occasional mis-spellings are most assuredly not mine!
        
             Verse  48 impatiently dismisses such practical matters as  a 
        nuisance.
        
             Verses  49-59 contain a series of declerations of  war;  and 
        there is no further difficulty as to the speaker or hearer to the 
        end of the chapter, although the subject changes repeatedly in an 
        incomprehensible manner.  Only verse 75 do we find a   perroation 
        on the whole book, presumably by Aiwaz, ending by his formula  of 
        withdrawal.
        
                         ______________________
        
             I  conclude  by laying down the principles  of  Exegesis  on 
        which I have based my comment.*1*
        
             I.   It is "my scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu" (CCXX, I,  36)  who 
        "shall comment" on "this book" "by the wisdom of  Ra-Hoor-Khuit"; 
        that is, Aleister Crowley shall write the Comment from the  point 
        of  view  of the manifested positive Lord of the Aeon,  in  plain 
        terms of the finite, and not those of the infinite.
        
             2.  "Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and  secure 
        thy  pen"  (CCXX, III, 40).  My own inspiration,  not  any  alien 
        advice  or  intellectual consideration, is to be  the  energizing 
        froce of this work.
        
             3.   Where  the text is simple  straightforward  English,  I 
        shall not seek, or allow, and interpretation at variance with it.
        
             I may admit a Qabalistic or cryptographic secondary  meaning 
        when such confirms, amplifies, deepens, intensifies, or  clarifes 
        the obvious common-sense significance ; but only if it be part of 
        the  general  plan  of the "latent  light,"  and  self-proven  by 
        abundatnt witness.
        
             For example:  "To me !" (I, 65) is to be taken primarily  in 
        its obvious sense as the Call of Nuith to us Her stars.

             The   transliteration  "TO  MH"  may  be  admitted  as   the 
        "signature"  of  Nuith, identifying Her as the  speaker;  because 
        these Greek Words mean "The Not," which is Her Name.
        
             This   Gematria  of  TO  MH  may  be  admitted  as   further 
        confirmation, because their number 4I8 is elsewhere manifested as 
        that of the Aeon.
        
             But  TO  MH  is not to be taken  as  negating  the  previous 
        verses,  or  4I8 as indicating the fromula of  approach  to  Her, 
        although  in  point of fact it is so, being the  Rubrick  of  the 
        Great  Work.   I  refuse  to  consider  mere  appropriateness  as 
        conferring  title  to  authority, and to  read  my  own  personal 
        theories  into the Book.  I insist that all interpretation  shall 
        be  incontestably authentic, neither less, more, nor  other  than 
        was meant is the Mind of Aiwaz.
        
             4.  I lay claim to be the sole authority competent to decide 
        disputed  points with regard to the Book of the Law, seeing  that 
        its  Author,  Aiwaz, is none other than mine  own  Holy  Guardian 
        Angel,  to Whose Knowledge and Conversation I hace  attained,  so 
        that I have exclusive access to Him.  I have duly referred  every 
        difficulty to Him directly, and received His answer; my award  is 
        therefore absolute without appeal.
        
             5.   The verse, II, 47, "one cometh after him, whence I  say 
        not, who shall discover the key of it all," has been fulfilled by 
        "one"  Achad  is not said to extend beyond this  single  exploit; 
        Achad  is nowhere indeicated as appointed or even  authorized  to 
        relieve  The Beast of His task of the Comment.  Achad has  proved 
        himself,*1* and proved the Book, by his on achievement; and  this 
        shall suffice.
        
             6.  Wherever
                 a.  The words of the Text are obscure in themselves;
                       where
                 b.  The expression is strained ; where
                 c.  The Syntax,
                 d.  Grammar,
                 e.  Spelling, or
                 f.  The use of capital letters present peculiarities ;
                       where
                 g.  Non-English words occur ; where the style suggests
                 h.  Paronomasia,
                 i.  Ambiguity, or
                 j.  Obliquity ; or where
                 k.  A problem is explicitly declared to exist; in all 
                     such cases I shall seek for a meaning hidden by 
                     means of Qabalistic correspondences, cryptography, 
                     or literary subtleties.  I shall admit no solution 
                     which is not at once simple, striking, consonant 
                     with the general plan of the Book ; and not only 
                     adequate but necessary.
        
        Examples:

                  i  I, 4.  Here teh obvious sense of the text is non-
                     sense ; it therefore needs intimate analysis.
                 ii  II, I7, line 4.  The  natural order of the words is
                     distorted by placing "not" before "know me"; it is
                     proper to ask what object is attained by this 
                     peculiarity of phrasing.
                iii  I, I3.  The text as it stands is unintelligible; it
                     calls attention to itself ; a meaning must be found
                     which will not only justify the apparent error, but
                     prove the necessity of employing that and no other
                     expression.
                 iv  II, 76.  "to be me" for "to be I."  The unusual 
                     grammar invites enquiry ; it suggests that "me" is
                     a concealed name, perhaps MH,  "Not," Nuith, since
                     to be Nuith is the satisfaction of the formula of 
                     the Speaker, Hadith.
                 v   III, I.  The omission of the "i" in "Khuit" is in-
                     dicative that some concealed doctrine is based upon
                     the variant.
                 vi  II, 27.  The spelling of "Because" with a capital B
                     suggests that it may be a proper name, and possibly
                     that its Greek or Hebrew equivalent may identify the
                     idea Qabalistically with some enemy of our Hier-
                     archy ; also that such word may demand a capital 
                     value for its initial.
               vii   III, II.  "Abstruction" suggests that an idea other-
                     wise inexpressible is conveyed in this manner.  
                     Paraphrase is here inadmissible as a sufficient in-
                     terpretation; there must be a correspondence in the
                     actual structure of the word with its etymologically
                     -deduced meaning.
              viii   III, 74.  The words "sun" and "son" are evidently
                     chosen for the identity of their sound-value; the
                     inelegance of the phrase therefroe insists on some 
                     such adequate justification as the existence of a
                     hidden treasure of meaning.
                 ix  III, 73.  The ambiguity of the instruction warrants 
                     the supposition that the wrods must somehow contain
                     a cryptographic formula for so arranging the sheets 
                     of the MS. that an Arcanum becomes manifest.
                 x   I, 26.  The apparent evasion of a direct reply in
                     "Thou knowest !" suggests that the words conceal a
                     precise answer more convincing in cipher than their
                     openly-expressed equvialent could be.
                 xi  II, I5.  The text explicity invites Qabalistic ana-
                     lysis.
        
             7.   The  Comment  must be consistent  with  itself  at  all 
        points;  it  must  exhibit ther Book of the Law  as  of  absolute 
        authority  on  all  possible  questions  proper  to  Mankind,  as 
        offering  the perfect solution of all problems philosophical  and 
        practical without exception.
        
             8.  The Comment must prove beyond possibility of error  that 
        the Book of the Law,
        
                 a.  Bears witness in itself to the quthorship of Aiwaz,
                      an Intelligence independent of incarnation ; and
                 b.  Is warranted wrothy of its claim to credence by the
                      evidence of external events.
        
             For  example,  the  first  proposition  is  proved  by   the 
        cryptography connected with 3I, 93, 4I8, 666,[pi], etc.; and  the 
        second by the concurrence of circumstance with various statements 
        in the text such that the categories of time and causality forbid 
        all explanations which exclued its own postulates, while the  law 
        of probabilities makes coincidence inconceivavle as an evasion of 
        the issue.
        
        
             9.   The Comment must be expressed in terms intelligible  to 
        the  minds  of  men  of average  education,  and  independent  of 
        abstruse technicalities.
        
            I0.  The Comment must be pertinent to the problems of our own 
        tiems,  and  present  the  principles of  the  Law  in  a  manner 
        susceptible  of present practical application.  It  must  satisfy 
        all  types  of  intelligence,  neither  revolting  to   rational, 
        scientific,   mathematical,  and  philosophical   thinkers,   nor 
        repugnant to religious and romantic temperaments.
        
            II.   The  Comment must appeal on behalf of the  Law  to  the 
        authority  of Experience.  It must make Success the proof of  the 
        Truth  of  the  Book of the Law at every point  of  contact  with 
        Reality.
        
             The  Word fo Aiwaz must put forth a perfect presentation  of 
        the  Universe  as Necessary,  Intelligible,  Self-subsistent,  as 
        Integral,   Absolute,   and  Immanent.   It  must   satisfy   all 
        intuitions,  explain all enigmas, and compse all  conflicts.   It 
        must  reveal  Reality,  reconcile Reason  with  Relativity;  and, 
        resolving  not  only  all antinomies in  the  Absolute,  but  all 
        antipathies   in   the  appreciation  of  Aptness,   assure   the 
        acquiescence of every faculty of manking in the perfection of its 
        plenary propriety.
        
             Releasing  us from every restrition upon Right, the Word  of 
        Aiwaz must extend its empire by enlisting the allegiance of every 
        man and every woman that puts its truth to the test.
        
             On  these principles, to the pitch of my power, will  I  the 
        Beast  666,  who received the Book of the Law from the  Mouth  of 
        mine Angel Aiwaz, make my comment thereon ; being armed with  the 
        word :  "But the work of the comment ?
        
        That is easy ; and Hadit in thy heart shall make swift and secure 
        thy pen."
        
                            ____________________


        Editorial Note to this Chapter.
        
        
             The reader is now in full possession of the account of  "how 
        thou  didst  come  hither".   The  student  who  wishes  to   act 
        intelligently  will  be  at  pains  to  make  himself  thoroughly 
        acquainted  at  teh  outset  with  the  whole  of  the   external 
        circumstances  connected  with the Writing of the  Book,  whether 
        they are of biographical or other importance.  He should thus  be 
        able to approach the Book with his mind prepared to apprehend the 
        unique  character  of  their  contents  in  repect  of  its  true 
        Authorship,  the  peculiarities of Its methods  of  communicating 
        Thought,  and the nature of Its claim to be the Canon  of  Truth, 
        the Key of Progress, and the Arbiter of Conduct.  He will be able 
        to form his own judgment upon It, only insofar as he is fixed  in 
        the proper Point-of-View; the sole question for him is to  decide 
        whether  It is or is not that which It claims to be, the New  Law 
        in the same sense as the Vedas, the Pentateuch, the Tao Teh King, 
        and  Qu'ran  are Laws, but with the added  Authority  of  Verbal, 
        Literal, and Graphic inspiration established and  counter-checked 
        by   internal  evidence  with  the  impeccable  precision  of   a 
        mathematical  demonstration.   If  It be that, It  is  an  unique 
        document, valid absolutely within the terms of its self-contained 
        thesis, incomparabley more valuable than any other Transcript  of 
        Thought which we possess.
        
             If  It  be not wholly that, it is a worthless  curiosity  of 
        literature;  worse,  it is and appalling proof that  no  kind  or 
        degree of evidence soever is sufficient to establish any possible 
        proposition, since the closest concatenation of circumstances may 
        be no more than the jetsam of chance, and the most  comprehensive 
        plans of purpose a puerile pantomime.  To reject this Book is  to 
        make  Reason  itself ridiculous and the Law  of  Probabilities  a 
        caprice.   In Its fall it shatters the structure of Science,  and 
        buries the whole hope of man's heart in the rubble, throwing upon 
        its  heaps  the sceptic, blinded, crippled, and  gone  melancholy 
        mad.
        
             The  reader  must face the problem  squarely;  half-measures 
        will not avail.  If there be qught he recognize as transcendental 
        Truth,  he cannot admit the possibility that the Speaker,  taking 
        such pains to prove Himself and His Word, should yet  incorporate 
        Falsehood  in the same elaborate engines.  If the Book be  but  a 
        monument  of a mortal's madness, he must tremble that such  power 
        and  cunning  may  be  the accomplices  of  insane  and  criminal 
        archanarchs.
        
             But if he know the Book to be justified of Itself, It  shall 
        be justified also of Its children; and he will glow with gladness 
        in  his  heart as he reads the sixty-third to  the  sixty-seventh 
        verses  of  Its  chapter, and gain his first glimpse  of  Who  he 
        himself  is in truth, and to what fulfilment of Himself It is  of 
        virtue to bring Him.
        ------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  CHAPTER VIII
        
                              Summary of the Case.
        
             In this revelation is the basis of the future Aeon.   Within 
        the  memory of man we have had the Pagan period, the  worship  of 
        Nature,  of  Isis,  of the Mother, of  the  Past;  the  Christian 
        period, the worship of Man, of Osiris, of the Present.  The first 
        period is simple, quiet, easy, and pleasant; the material ignores 
        the  spiritual;  the  second  is  of  suffering  and  death:  the 
        spiritual  strives to ignore the material.  Christianity and  all 
        cognate   religions  worship  death,  glorify  suffering,   deify 
        corpses.   The new Aeon is the worship of the spiritual made  one 
        with the material, of Horus, of the Child, of the Future.
        
             Isis was Liberty ; Osiris, bondage ; but the new Liberty  is 
        that  of  Horus.   Osiris  conquered  her  because  she  did  not 
        understand  him.  Horuse avenges both his Father and his  Mother.  
        This  child Horus is a twin, two in one.  Horus  and  Harpocrates 
        are one, and they are also one with Set or Apophis, the destroyer 
        of  Osiris.  It is by the destruction of the principle  of  death 
        that they are born.  The establishment of this new Aeon, this new 
        fundamental  principle, is the great work now to be  accomplished 
        in the world.
        
             FRATER  PERDURABO, to whom this revelation was made with  so 
        many  signs and wonders, was himself unconvinced.   He  struggled 
        against  it  for  years.  Not until the  completion  of  His  own 
        initiation at the end of I909 did he understand how perfectly  he 
        was  bound to carry out this work.*1*  Again and again He  turned 
        away  from it, took it up for a few days or hours, then  laid  it 
        aside.   He even attempted to destroy its value, to  nullify  the 
        result.   Again  and again the unsleeping might of  the  Watchers 
        drove Him back to the work; and it was at the very moment when He 
        thought  Himself to have escaped that He found Himself fixed  for 
        ever with no possibility of again turning asede for the  fraction 
        of second from the Path.
        
             The  history  of this must one day be told by a  more  vivid 
        voice.   Properly  considered,  it is  a  history  of  continuous 
        miracle.   Enough  if it is now said that in this  Law  lies  the 
        whole  future: it is the Law of Liberty, and those who refuse  it 
        proclaim  themselves slaves, and as slaves shall they be  chained 
        and  flogged.   It is the Law of Love, and those  who  refuse  it 
        declare  themselves  to be the children of hate, and  their  hate 
        shall  return  upon  them  and consume  them  with  its  unending 
        tortures.   It is the Law of Life, and those who refuse it  shall 
        be  subject to death; and death shall catch them unawares.   Even 
        their life shall be a living death.  It is the Law of Light,  and 
        those who refuse it thereby make themselves dark for ever.
        
             Do  what  thou wilt shall be the whole of the  Law!   Refuse 
        this,  and fall under the curse of destiny.  Divide will  against 
        itself, the result is impotence and strife, strife-in-vain.   The 
        Law  condemns no man.  Accept the Law, and everything is  lawful.  

        Refuse the Law, you put yourself beyond its pale.  It is the  Law 
        that  Jesus Christ, or rather the Gnostic tradition of which  the 
        Christ-legend  is a degradation, attempted to teach;  but  nearly 
        every  word  he*1*  said was mininterpreted and  garbled  by  his 
        enemies,   particularly  by  those  who  called  themselves   his 
        disciples.   In  any  case the Aeon was not ready for  a  Law  of 
        Freedom.  Of all his followers only St. Augustine appears to have 
        got even a glimmer of what he meant.
        
        A  further attempt to teach this law was made through Sir  Edward 
        Kelly  at  the  end of the sixteenth  century.   The  bondage  of 
        orthodoxy  prevented his words from being heard,  or  understood.  
        In many ohter ways has the spirit of truth striven with man,  and 
        partial  shadows of this truth have been the greatest  allies  of 
        science  and philosophy.  Only now has success been attained.   A 
        perfect  vehicle  was  found,  and the  message  enshrined  in  a 
        jewelled  casket; that is to say, in a book with  the  injunction 
        "Change  not  as much as the style of a letter."   This  book  is 
        reproduced  in  facsimile,  in  order  that  there  shall  be  no 
        possibility of corrupting it.  Here, then, we have an  absolutely 
        fixed and definite standpoint for the foundation of an  universal 
        religion.
        
             We  have  the Key to the resolution of all  human  problems, 
        both philosophical and practical.  If we have seemed to labour
        at proof, our love must be the excuse for our infirmity ; for  we 
        know well that which is written in the Book:
        
                        "Success is your proof."
        
             We  ask no more than one witness ; and we call upon Time  to 
        take the Oath, and testify to the Truth of our plea.
        
        
        
                             FOOTNOTES
        
        PAGE 41
        1)   In  the Book of the Law we find in the 3rd chapter  and  the 
        39th to the 41st verse an instruction to issue a book to say  how 
        this Revelation was obtained, with certain details with regard to 
        the style in which it is to done.
             It has hitherto been impossible to comply with this  injunc-
        tion, although an attempt was made in "The Temple of Solomon  the 
        King".  We now proceed to do so; the subject divides itself  into 
        Eight Chapters.----[Ed.]
        
        PAGE 43
        1)   This curious trait may perhaps be evidence of  his  poetical 
        feeling,  his passion for the bizarre and mysterious, or even  of 
        his aptitude for the Hebrew Qabalah.  It may also be  interpreted 
        as a clue to his magical ancestry.
        2)    The first man to beat him was H. E. Atkins,  British  Chess 
        Champion (Amateur) for many years. 
        
        PAGE 45
        1)   Swinburne  similarly refused to be examined in  Classics  at 
        Oxford on the ground that he knew more than the examiners.
        2)   In Chess also he has beaten many International Masters,  and 
        ranks on the Continent as a Minor Master himself.  But he  cannot 
        be  relied  upon to win against a second-rate player  in  a  Club 
        Match.
        
        PAGE 47
        1)  Written in I920 e.v.: these records may no longer stand.
        
        PAGE 52
        1)  See Part I of Book 4 for a description of this, and an expla-
        nation  of  the difficulty of the task, even in the case  of  one 
        whose powers of concentrated attention, in the ordinary sense  of 
        the phrase, are highly developed.
        2)   He is the author of commentaries on the Gospels  of  Matthew 
        and  John, which he explains as containing many of the  aphorisms 
        of Yoga.
        
        PAGE 53
        1)  See Part I of Book 4 for full descriptions, and  Equinox  for 
        some of FRATER PERDURABO'S records of these practices.
        
        PAGE 54
        1)  See Part I of Book 4, and Equinox Vol. I, No. IV.
        2)  An account of this journey is given by Dr.  Jacot-Guillarmod: 
        "Six  mois dans l'Himalaya."  His own story is in "The Spirit  of 
        Solitude" (The Confessions of Aleister Crowley) Vol. II.
        
        PAGE 55
        1)   The  Mystic  Name of an Adept of this degree is  not  to  be 
        divulged without special reasons for so doing.
        
        PAGE 56
        1)  See the Equinox "The Temple of Solomon the King" for a fairly 
        full account of these various matters.  The "Master" was the late 
        S.L. Mathers.
        
        PAGE 58
        1)  An account of these matters, in part, is to be found  in  the 
        Equinox, Vol. I, No. VIII, and in his own poem "Aha !"
        
        PAGE 6I
        1)   The notes for this article were worked out in  collaboration 
        with  Captain (now Major-General) J.F.C. Fuller.  Every means  of 
        cross-examination was pressed to the utmost.
        2)  Projected by Fuller as no more than a record of the  personal 
        attainment of Aleister Crowley.
        
        PAGE 68
        1)  As a devotee of Yoga, "Union," would have done.
        2)  Given in Liber Samekh: see "Magick."
        3)  Thoth, the Egytian God of Wisdom and Magick.
        4)  Horus.
        5)  The Sun.
        
        PAGE 69
        1)  More probably a blind.
        
        PAGE 70
        1)  I.e. Wednesday.
        2)  See "Magick" Appendix Liber CXX.
        3)  Thursday.
        4)  Friday.
        5)  Saturday.
        6)  Sunday.
        
        PAGE 7I
        1)  See Equinox Vol. I, No. II, the Neophyte Ritual of the G.D.
        
        PAGE 73
        1)   666 had been taken by Fra. P. as the number of His own  Name 
        (The Beast) long years before, in His childhood.  There could  be 
        no physical causal connection here ; and coincidence,  sufficient 
        to explain this one isolated fact, becomes inadequate in view  of 
        the other evidence.
        
        PAGE 75
        1)  (The father's name.  The method of spelling shows that he was 
        a foreigner.  There is no clue to the vocalisation).
        
        PAGE 76
        1)  The analogy is between the "new formula" given by the  "Word" 
        every  six  months in the Order, and that given every  couple  of 
        thousand years (more or less) by the Word of a Magus to the whole 
        or part of Mankind.
        
        PAGE 77
        1)  "Monday.  The Sun enters Aries."  i.e. Springs begins.
        2)  Tuesday.
        3)  Wednesday.
        
        PAGE 86
        1)  But see the miraculous events connected with "The Revival  of 
        Magick" described in Magick pp. 257-260, where he is shewn as 93.
        2)  I.e. the messenger of God to Man.
        3)   The motto of Fra. P. as a Magister Templi 8[degree] =  3[?]; 
        He  used  it in His office of giving out the "Official  Books  of 
        A.A." to the word in the Equinox.
        4)  J.F.C. Fuller.
        
        PAGE 94
        1)   This  paper was written, independently of any  idea  of  its 
        present  place  in this Book, by The Beast 666  Himself,  in  the 
        Abbey  of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily.  No further apology  is  of-
        fered  for any repetitious of statements made in  previous  chap-
        ters.

        PAGE 96
        1)  Written in I920, e.v.
        
        PAGE 97
        1)   Such  a  theory would further imply that I  am,  unknown  to 
        myself,  possessed of all sorts of praeternatural  knowledge  and 
        power.  The law of Parsimony of Thought (Sir W. Hamilton) appears 
        in  rebuttal.   Aiwaz calls Himself "the minister  of  Hoor-parr-
        Kraat," the twin of Heru-Ra-Ha.  This is the dual form of  Horus, 
        child of Isis and Osiris.
        
        PAGE 98
        1)  In preparation.
        
        PAGE I0I
        1)  The Chalice is not presented to laymen.  Those who understand 
        the reason for this and other details of the Mass, will wonder at 
        the  perfection with which the Roman Communion has preserved  the 
        form,  and lost the substance, of the Supreme Magical  Ritual  of 
        the True Gnosis.
        
        PAGE I02
        1)  The "magical numbers" of the Sun are, according to tradition, 
        6, (6 x 6) 36, (666 [divided by] III, and [epsilon] (I-36) 666.
        
        PAGE I03
        1)   Shin 300 Teht 9 Aleph I Lamed 30 He 5 Yod I0 Mem  40.   Note 
        that  395 being the corrections required !  Note also the 3I  and 
        the 93 in this value of [pi].
        
        PAGE I07
        1)  See Liber LXV, I, Equinox III, and Liber VII Equinox III, II, 
        especially.
        
        PAGE II2
        1)   Church of England.  I confidently supposed that  Anglicansim 
        was  a peculiarly violent form of Devil-Worship, and was  in  de-
        spair at being unable to discover where the Abomination came in.
        
        PAGE II3
        1)  It broke out during my absence (I906), and made it impossible 
        to resume the previous relations.
        
        PAGE II4
        1)  See previous chapter.
        
        PAGE II5
        1)   I invoked them by the Air section of Liber Samekh,  and  the 
        appropriate God-names, Pentagrams, & c.
        
        PAGE II7
        1)   The  effect was thus as if the  language  were  "English-in-
        itself,"  without any background, such as exists when  one  hears 
        any  one human speak it, and enables one to assign all  sorts  of 
        attributes to the speaker.
        
        PAGE II8
        1)  This impression seems to have been a sort of visualization in 
        the  imagination.  It is not uncommon for me to  receive  intima-
        tions in this manner.
        2)  I do not necessarily mean that he is a member of human socie-
        ty in quite the normal way.  He might rather be able to form  for 
        Himself  a human body as circumstances indicate, from the  appro-
        priate Elements, and dissolve it when the occasion for its use is 
        past.   I  say this because I have been permitted to see  Him  in 
        recent  years in a variety of physical appearances,  all  equally 
        "material" in the sense in which my own body is so.
        
        PAGE I26
        1)   The following passage, to the end of the chapter, refers  to 
        the  Commentary ; whereas the Comment itself is  printed,  above, 
        with  the  text.  This Comment is the  really  inspired  message, 
        cutting  as  it  does all the difficulties  with  a  single  keen 
        stroke.  We have deciede, however, to retain the passage for  its 
        essential interest and as a preliminary to the publication of the 
        Commentary---Ed.
        
        PAGE I27
        1)   I note that A Ch D is "his child" without reference  to  The 
        Scarlet Woman ; whereas the Child who is to be "mightier than all 
        the kings of the earth" is to be bred from Her, without reference 
        to the Beast.  There is no indication that these two children are 
        not identical ; but there is none that they are.  Hans "Carter" ( 
        or Hirsig) might perfectly well be the latter of these children.
        
        PAGE I35
        1)   Indeed, it was not until his Word became  conterminous  with 
        Himself and His Universe that all alien ideas lost their  meaning 
        for Him.
        
        PAGE I36
        1)  Consult Equinox III 2 "Jesus," a study of the New Testment by 
        The  Beast  666, where it is proven that "Jesus" is  a  composite 
        figure  of several incompatible elements.  There is therefore  no 
        "he" in the case.  The Gospels are a crude compilation of Gnosti-
        cism, Judaism, Essenism, Hinduism, Buddhism, with the watch-words 
        of  various sacerdotal-political cults, thrown at random  into  a 
        hotch-potch of the distroted legends of the persons of the  Pagan 
        Pantheon, all glued with a semblance of unity in the interests of 
        sustaining the shaken fabric of lacal faiths against the  assults 
        of the consolidation of civilization, and of applying the cooper-
        ative  principle  to businesses whose throats were being  cut  by 
        competition.