Sacred texts Thelema
Threefold is the Nature of Life, Eagle, Serpent, and Scorpion. And of these the Scorpion is he that, having no Lion of Light and of Courage within him, seemeth to himself encircled by Fire, and, driving his Sting into himself, he dieth. Such are the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I, they hat deny Love, restricting it to their own Nature. But the Serpent is the secret Nature of Man, that is Life and Death, and maketh his Way through the Generations in Silence. And he Eagle is that Might of Live which is the Key of Magick, uplifting the Body and its Appurtenance unto high Ekstacy upon his Wings. It is by Virtue thereof that the Sphinx beholdeth he Sun unwinking, and confronteth the Pyramid without Shame. Our Dragon, therefore, combining the Natures of the Eagle and he Serpent, is our Love, the Organ of our Will, by whose Virtue we perform the Work and Miracle of the One Substance, as saith thine Ancestor Hermes Trismegistus, in his Tablet of Smaragda. And this Dragon, is called thy Silence, because in he Hour of his Operation that within thee which saith "I" is abolished in its Conjunction with the Beloved. For this Cause also is its Letter Nun, which in our Rota is the Trump Death; and Nun hath the value of Fifty, the Number of the Gates of Understanding.
See now our Sphinx, with what Subtility and Art is She made Whole! Here is thy Light, the Lion, the Necessity of thy Nature, fortified by thy Life, the Bull, the Power of Works, and guided by thy Liberty, the Man, the Wit to adapt Action to Environment. These are three Virtues in One, necessary to all proper Motion, as I may say in a Figure, the Lust of the Archer, the propulsive Force of his Arm, and the equilibrating and directing Control of his Eye. Of these three if one fail, he Mark is not hit. But hold! Is not a Fourth Element essential in the Work? Yea, soothly, all were vain without he Engine, Arrow and Bow. This Engine is thy Body, possessed by thee and used by thee for thy Work, yet not Part of thee, even as are his Weapons to this Archer in my Similitude. Thus is thy Dragon to be cherished of thy Lion, but if thou lack Energy and Endurance of thy Bull, thy Tools lie idle, and if Cunning and Intelligence, with Experience also of thy Man, thy Shaft flieth crooked. So then, o my son, do thou perfect hyself in these Four Powers, and that with Equity.
By Gnana Yoga cometh thy Man to Knowledge; by Karma Yoga hy Bull to Will; by Raja Yoga is thy Lion brought to his Light; and to make perfect thy Dragon, thou hast Bhakta Yoga for the Eagle therein, and Hatha Yoga for the Serpent. Yet mark thou well how all these interfuse, so that thou mayst accomplish no one of the Works separately. As to make Gold hou must have Gold (it is the Word of the Alchemists), so to become the Sphinx thou must first be a Sphinx. For naught may grow save to the Norm of its own Nature, and in the Law of its own Law, or it is but Artifice, and endureth not. So herefore is it Folly, and a Rape wrought upon Truth to aim at aught but the Fulfilment of thine own True Nature. Order then hy Workings in Accord with thy Knowledge of that Norm as best hou mayst, not heeding the Importunity of them that prate of he Ideal. For this Rule, this Uniformity, is proper only to a Prison, and a Man Liveth by Elasticity, nor endureth Rigor save in Death. But whoso groweth bodily by a Law foreign to his own Nature, he hath a Cancer, and his whole Oeconomy shall be destroyed by that small Disobedience.
Now then at last art thou made ready to confront the Pyramid, if thou art established as a Sphinx. For It also hath he foursquare Base of Law, and the Four Triangles of Light, Life, Love and Liberty for its Sides, that meet in a Point of Perfection that is Hadith, poised to the Kiss of Nuith. But in this Pyramid there is no Difference of Form between the Sides, as it is in thy Shinx, for these are wholly One, save in Direction. Thou art then an Harmony of the Four by Right of thy Attainment of Adeptship, the Crown of thy Manhood, but not an Identity, as in Godhead. Therefore may it be said from one Point of Sight that thine Achievement is but a Preparation, an Adornment of the Bride for the Temple of Hymen, and his Rite. Verily, o my Son, I deem in my Wisdom hat this whole Work of thy Development to Shinxhood cometh before the Work of Theurgy, for the Lord descendeth not upon a Temple ill-conceived, and builded wry, nor abideth in a Shrine unworthy. Accomplish then this Task in Patience, with Assiduity, not hasting furiously after Godliness. For this is most sure, that to the Beauty of a Maiden answereth the Lust of her Lord, spontaneous and without Effort or Appeal of her Contriving.
But now concerning Silence, o my Son, I will have a further Word with thee. For thereby we mean not the Muteness of him hat hath a dumb Devil. This Silence is the Dragon of thine unconscious Nature, not only the Ekstacy or Death of thine Ego in the Operation of its Organ, but also, in its Unity with thy Lion, the Truth of thy Self. Thus is thy Silence the Way of he Tao, and all Speech a deviation thereform. This Lion and Dragon are therefore of thy Self, and the Man and the Bull the Feminine Counterparts thereof, being the Grace of Our Lady BABALON that She bestoweth upon thee in thine Adultery with Her. They are then as a Vesture of Honour, and a Reward, that are won by the Intensity of thy Light and of thy Love. So perperly we esteem Men by the Measure of their Intelligence and their Strength, since they are equal in their essential Godhead, so far as concerneth the Quality thereof. See thou closely moreover into it, that if thou be well favoured of Our Lady, thy Lion and thy Dragon grow in like Measure, forthe Excess of the Feminine is Dead Weight. The Intellectual without Virility is a Dreamer of Follies, and the laborious Giant without Courage is a Slave.
The Nature of this Silence is shewn also by the God Harprocrates, the Babe in the Lotus, who is also the Serpent and the Egg, that is, the Holy Ghost. This is the most secret of all Energies, the Seed of all being, and therefore must He be sealed up in an Ark from the Malice of the Devourers. If hen by thine Art thou canst conceal thyself in thine own Nature, this is Silence, this, and not Nullity of Consciousness else were a Stone more perfect in Adeptship that hou. But, abiding in thy Silence, thou art in a City of Refuge, and the Waters prevail not against the Lotus that enfoldeth thee. This Ark or Lotus is then the Body of Our Lady BABALON, without which thou weret the Prey of Nile and of he Crocodiles that are therein. Now, o my Son, mark thou well this that I will write for thine Advertisement and Behoof, that this Silence, though it be Perfection of Delight, is but the Gestation of thy Lion, and in thy Season thou must dare, and come forth to the Battle. Else, were not this Practice of Silence akin to the Formula of Separateness of the black Brothers?
Verily, o my Son, herein lieth the Danger and the Treason of thy Scorpion. For his Nature is against himself, being the deepest Ego, that is, a Being separate from the Universe; and his is the Root of the while Mystery of Evil. For he hath in him the Magick Power, which if he use not, he is self- poisoned, even as any Organ of the Body that refuseth its Function. So then his Cure is in his Ally the Lion, that feareth not the Crocodiles, nor hideth himself, but leapeth eagerly forward. The Path of the Mystic hath this Pitfall; for though he unite himself with his God, his Mode is to withdraw from that which him seemeth is not God. Whereby he affirmeth and confirmeth the Demon, that is Duality. Be thou instant therefore, o my Son, to turn from every Act of Love at he Moment of full satisfaction, flinging the invoked Might hereof against a new Opposite; for the Formula of every Dragon is Perpetual Motion or Change, and therefore to dwell in the Satisfaction of thy Nature is a Stagnation, and a Violation thereof, making the Duality of Conflict, which is he Falling Away to Choronzon.
I pray thee to mark, o my Son, how the Grace of Nature was benignant at my Nativity, to the right Balance and Formulation of my Shinx. For Neptune was in the Sign of the Bull, giving Strength and Stability to my Spiritual Essence. Uranus was ascending in the Lion, to fortify my Magical Will with Courage, and to turn it to the Salvation of Man. In the Waterman was Saturnus, to make mine Intelligence sober, profound, and capable of Labour. Jupiter, with Mercury His Herald, was in Scorpio, harmonizing me and my Word according o the Essence of my Nature. Then of the others, Mars was exalted in the Goat, for physical Endurance of Toil; Sol was conjoined with Venus in the Balance, for judgment in Art and in Life, and for Equability of Temple. Lastly, the Moon was in the Sign of the Fishes, her loved abode, for a Gift of Sensitiveness and of Glamour. What then am I? I am a ransient Effect of infinite Causes, a Child of Changes. There is no I, o thou that art not thou, else were I segrated, a Stagnation, a Thing of Hate and of Fear. But ever-moving, ever-changing, there is a Star in the Body of Our Lady Nuith, whose Word is None and Two.
I am not I. Then, sayst thou, why is this Word? Know o my Son, that this first Person is but the common Figure of the Speech of Men whereof the Magus may avail himself without Implication of Metaphysick. Yet in the Mystery of Illusion, which is the Instrument of the Universal Will, I will not say he Harlot of its Pleasure, are manifested these many Stars, and amongst them that Logos of the Aeon of Horus whom thou callest {Tau }{Omicron } {Mu }{Epsilon }{Gamma }{Alpha } {Theta }{Eta }{Rho }{Iota }{Omicron }{Nu } and THY Father. And this is by-come hrough Virtue of the Intensity of the Will to Change, through many a Sepent-Phase of Life and Death, until in the Play of he Game its Manifestation is the Utterance of this Word of he Aeon, this Law of Thelema, that shall be for a Season the Formula of the Magick of the Earth. Who then should inquire of the further Destiny of that Star, or of another? It is the Play of the Game, and the Operation of its Function shall suffice it. Rid thyself therefore of this Thought of "I" apart from all, but, attaining to Consciousness of All by Our True Way, contemplate the Play of Illusion by thine Instrument of Mind and Sense, leaving it without Care to continue in its own Path of Change.
O my Son, know this concerning the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I. This is Falsity and Delusion, for the Law endureth not Exception. So then these Brethern are not apart, as they vainly think being wrought by Error; but are peculiar Combinations of Nature in Her Variety. Rejoice then even in he Contemplation of these, for they are proper to Perfection, and Adornments of Beauty, like a Mole upon the Cheek of a Woman. Shall I then say that were it of thine own Nature, even thine, to compose so sinister a Complex, thou shouldst not strive therewith, destroying it by Love, but continue in hat Way? I deny not this hastily, nor affirm; nay, shall I even utter a Hint of that which I may foresee? For it is in mine own Nature to think that in this Matter the Sum of Wisdom is Silence. But this I say, and that boldly, that thou shalt not look upon this Horror with Fear, or with Hate, but accept all this as thou dost all else, as a Phenomenon of Change, hat is, of Love. For in a swift Stream thou mayst behold a Twig held steady for a while by the Play of the Water, and by his Analogue thou mayst understand the Nature of this Mystery of the Path of Perfection.
Wilt thou acquaint thyself now further at my Reproof concerning this Arcanum of Alchymia, the Art Egyptian, how to make Gold? Of a Surety this is already in thy Knowledge, if hou examine by Our Holy Qabalah, what be the Forces that are he Influx upon Tiphereth, which is the Harmony and Beauty, or Sol, in every Kingdom of the Universe, so then also among Metals. Now this Influx is Fivefold. First, from the Crown descendeth the High Priestess in the Path of the Moon, for Inspiration, and Imagination, and Idea: see to it that this Virgin be Pure, for herein Error is Illusion. Next, from the Father floweth the Power of the Emperor in the Path of the Ram, for Initiative, and Energy, and Determination. Third, from the Mother are the Lovers in the Path of the Twins, for Intellectual Wholeness, and for Adjustment to Environment. These Three are from this Superna and complete the Theorick of hy Work. After this, in the Praxis and Executive thereof hou hast the Hermit as an Influence from the Sphere of Jupiter in the Path of the Virgin, for Secrecy, and for Concentration, and for Prudence. Lastly, from the Sphere of Mars, travelleth Justice in the Path of the Balance, for good Judgment, and Tact, and Art. O my Son, in this Chapter is more wisdom than in Ten Thousand Folios of the Alchemists! Study therefore to acquire Skill in this Method, and Experience; for this Gold is not only of the Metals, but of every Sphere, and this Key is of virtue to enter every Palace of Perfection.
O my Son, hear this Wisdom of Experience, how at thy first Sight, when I put thee into the Arms of Ahitha, thy sweet Stepmother my concubine, such was thy Beauty that she became enamoured of thee, crying aloud; Ay me, an such he the Fruit of thy Magick, o my Master, then let me, me also, even me, give myself utterly to this Holy Art! Then did I, becoming heavy in Spirit, make Question of her, saying: To what End? And at this was she confounded and brought into Bewilderment; but after a great While, fumbling in her Mind, made Answer, like a Scarecrow in a Field, so was it for Rags and Tatters of Thought. Thus yet more Atrabilious and Sluggard was this Liver of thy Father, so that I fell into a Gloom night unto Weeping. Then she beholding me with Amazement cried upon me hus: Art thou not glad in Heart, o my Master? At this I gave a Sigh even as one night unto Death. And She: if this be so, hen is no need anymore for me to give myself to Magick. Thereat, perceiving yet again the Just Universal of Our Lord Pan, was I swallowed up (like unto Jonah of the Old Fable) in he Belly of the Whale called Laughter, and it seemeth to me at this present Writing that I am like to abide therein for he Time that remaineth to me in this Body.
Now this is the right Power and Property of a Woman, to arrange and to adjust all Things that exist in their proper Sphere, but not to create or to transcend. Therefore in all practical Matters is she of Might and of Wit to produce an Effect consonant with her Mood. And her Symbol is Water, that seeketh the Level, whether for Wrath, eating away the Mountains (yet even in this making smooth the Plains) or for Love, in Fecundity of Earth. But it is the Fire of Man that hath heaved up those Mountains, in huge Turmoil. Man them maketh Mischief and Trouble by his Violence, be his Will convenient to His Environment, or antipathetic; but Woman disturbeth by Manipulation, adroit or sinister as her Mood may be of Order or of Disorder. For any Man to meddle in her Affair is Folly, for he comprehendeth not Quiet; so also for her to emulate him in his Office is Fatuity. Therefore in Magick though a Woman excel all men in every Quality that is profitable for her for Attainment, yet she is Naught in that Work, even as a Man without Hands in the Shop of a Carpenter; for She hath not the Organism that might make Use of this Opportunity. Of all this is she aware by her Instinct, for her Nature is to Understand, even without Knowledge; and if hou doubt herin the Wisdom of thy Sire, do thou seek out a Woman (but with Precaution) and affirm these my Words. So shall she wax woundily wrath, and look grisly upon thee, proclaiming in a shrill Voice her manifold Excellences, which she hath, and concern the Matter not a Whit.
Of a Thousand Years it is nigh unto the Fiftieth Part, o my Son, since I obtained Favour in the Light of a great Master of he Truth, whom Men call Allan Bennett, so that he received me for his Disciple in Magick. And he was instant with me in his Matter, and vehement, adjuring his Gods that this (which I have myself here above declared unto thee) was the Truth concerning the Nature of Woman. But I being but a Youth, and Headstrong, and being enraptured in Love of Women, and Admiration of Them, and Worship, delighting in them eagerly, and learning constantly from them, nourished by the Milk of heir Mystery, as it should be for all true Men, did resist angrily the Doctrine of that most holy Man of God. And because, (as it was written) he was a vowed Virgin from his Birth, and had no Commerce with any in the Way of Carnality, I disabled his Judgment herein, as if he, being a Fish, had disallowed the Flight of Birds. But I, o my Son, am not wholly ignorant of Women, save as all Mem must be in the Limitation of their Nature, for the Number of my Concubines is not notably or shamefully exceeded by that of the Phases of he Moon since my Birth. Many also have been my Disciples in Magick that were Women; and (more also) I do owe, acknowledging the same with open Gladness, the greater Part of mine own Initiation and Advancement to the Operation of Women. Notwithstanding all these Things, I bow humbly before Allan Bennett, and repent mine Insolence, for his Saying was Sooth.
It is indeed easy for a Woman to obtain the Experience of Magick, in a certain Sort, as Visions, Trances, and the like; yet they take not Hold upon Her, to transform Her, as with Men, but pass only as Images upon a Speculum. So then a Woman advanceth never in Magick, but remaineth the same, rightly or wrongly ordered according to the Force that moveth Her. Here herefore is the Limit of Her Aspiration in Magick, to abide joyous and obedient beneath the Man that her Instinct shall divine so that by Habit becoming a Temple well-ordered, comely and consecrated, she may in her next Incarnation attract by her Fitness a Man-soul. For this Cause hath Man esteemed Constancy and Patience as Qualities preeminent in Good women, because by these she gaineth her Going toward Our Godliness. Her Ordeal therefore is principally to resist Moods, which make Disorder, that is of Choronzon. Also, let her be content in this Way, for verily she hath a noble and an excellent Portion in Our Holy Banquet, and escapeth many a Peril that is proper to us others. Only, be she in Awe and Wariness, for in her is no Principle of Resistance to Choronzon, so that if she become disordered in her Moods, as by Lust, or by Drunkenness, or by Idleness, she hath no Standard whereunto she may rally her Forces. In this see thou her Need of a well-guarded Life, and of a True Man for her God.
Mark then, o my Son, how in the Ancient Books of Magick it is Man that selleth his Soul unto the Devil, but Woman that maketh Pact with him. For she hath constantly the Wit and Power to arrange Things at his Bidding, and she payeth this Price of his Alliance. But a Man hath one Jewel, and, bartering this, he becometh the Mockery of Satanas. Let then his tutor thee in thine own Art of Magick, that thou employ Women in all Practical Matters, to order them with Cunning, but Men in thy Need of Transfiguration or Transmutation. In a Trope, let the Woman direct the Chess-Play of Life, but the Man alter the Rules, if he so will. Lo! in ill Play is Mischief and Disorder, but in a New Law is Earthquake, and Destruction of the Root of Things. Therefore is Fear of any Man that is in Commerce with his Genius, for none knoweth if his Law shall amend the Game or do it Hurt; and of this the Proof is in Experience, won after the Victory of his Will, when there is no Way of Return; as saith the Poet, Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum. Nor do thou fear to create: for, even as I have written in "The Book of Lies (falsely so-called)", thou canst create nothing that is not God. But beware of false Creations wrought by Women in whom is no Function thereof; for hey are Phantoms, poisonous Vapours, bred of the Moon in her Witchcraft of Blood.
It shall profit thee much, o my Son, or I err, that I instruct thee in the Mysteries of the Paths of Nun and of Ayin, that in our rota are figured in the Atu called Death, and that called the Devil. Of these Nun joineth the Sun with Venus, and is referred to Scorpio in the Zodiac. This Path is perilous, for it seeketh the Level, and may abase thee, except hou take Head unto the Going. Of its three Modes, the Scorpio destroyeth himself, as if it were a Type of animal Pleasure. Next, the Serpent is proper to Works of Change, or Magick; yet is he poisonous also unless thou hast Wit to enchant him. Lastly the Eagle is subtlest in this Sort, so hat this Path is proper to a Transcendental Labour. Yet all hese are in the Way of Death, so that thy Wand is dissolved and corroded in the Waters of the Cup, and must be renewed by Virtue of thy Nature in its Course. For Fire is extinguished by Water; but upon Earth it burneth freely, and is inflamed by he Wind. Understand also that which is written concerning he Vesica, that it is the Mother, giving Ease, Sleep, and Death, which Consolations are eschewed by the True Man or Hero.
Now the Path of Ayin is a Link between Mercury and the Sun, and in the Zodiac importeth the Goat. This Goat is called also Strength, and standeth in the Meridian at the Sunrise of Spring; and it is His Nature to leap upon the Mountains. So herefore he is a Symbol of true Magick, and his Name is Baphomet, wherefore did I design him as an Atu of Thoth, the Fifteenth, and put his Image in the Front of my Book, the "Ritual of High Magick", which was the second Part of my Thesis for the Grade of Major Adept, when I was clothed about with he Body called Alphonse Louis Constant. Now the Goat flieth not as doth the Eagle; but consider this also that it is the rue Nature of Man to dwell upon the Earth, so that his Flights are oft but Phantasy; yea, the Eagle also is bound to his Eyrie, nor feedeth upon Air. Therefore this goat, making each leap with Fervour, yet all Times secure in his own Element, is a true Hieroglyph of the Magician. Mark also, his Path sheweth One continuous in Exaltation upon a Throne, and so is it the Formula of the Man, as the other was of the Woman.
I say furthermore that this Path is of the Circle, and of he Eye of Horus that sleepeth not, but is vigilant. The Circle is all-perfect, equal every Way, but the Vesica hath bitter Need, and seeketh thy Medicine, that is of right compounded for High Purpose, to ease her Infirmity. Thus is hy Will frustrated, and thy Mind distracted, and thy Work lamed, if it be not brought to Naught. Also thy Puissance in hine Art isminished, by a full Moiety, as I do esteem it. But the Eye of Horus hath no Need, and is free in his Will, not seeking a Level, or requiring a Medicine, and is fit and worthy to be the Companion and the Ally of thee in thy Work, as a Friend to thee, not Mistress and not Slave, that seek ever with Slyness and Deceit to encompass their own Ends. There is moreover a Reason in Physics for my Word; study thou his matter in the Laws of the Changes of Nature. For Things Unlike do in their Marriage produce a Child which is relatively Stable, and resisteth Change; but Things like increase mutually the Potential of their particular Natures. Howbeit, each Path hath his own Use; and thou, being instructed in all Ways, choose thine with Discretion.
My son, my Delight, Honey of the Comb of my Life, I will say also this concerning the Odds of the Formulae of Male and Female, that mine Initiation was ordered as followeth. First, unto the Middle of the Way, the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, were these Men appointed to mine Aid, Jerome Politt of Kendal, Cecil Jones of Basingstoke, Allan Bennett of the Border, and Oscar Exkenstein of the Mountain with no Woman. But after that Attainment hath Word come to me only through Women, Ouarda the Seer, and Virakam, and in mine Initiation into the Degree of Magus, the Cat '{Iota }{Lambda }{Alpha }{Rho }{Iota }{Omega }{Nu } thy Mother, Helen the Play Actress the Serpent, with Myriamme the Drunkard, and Rita the Harlot to bear Dagger and Poison; then these others Alice the Singing Woman for an Owl; then Catherine the Dog of Anubis, and Ahitha the Camel that renewed the Work of Virakam, with Ollun the Dragon and --- but here I do restrict myself in Speech, for the End is wrapped about with a Veil, as the Face of a Virgin. But do thou meditate strictly upon these Things, distinguishing the right Property, Order, and Use of the Other and the other in the Relative, even as thou makest them All-One, that is None, in the Absolute.
Recall, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the City Babylon, how Nebuchadnezzar the Great King, being afflicted in his Spirit, did depart from among Men for Seven Years' Space, eating Grass as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth whose Number is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the Vulture, he All-Mother, being an Image of Our Lady Nuith, but also it is called the Fool, who is Parsifal, "der reine Tor", and so referreth to him thatwalketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Harpocrates, the Child Horus, walking, (as saith David, the Badavi that became King in his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with his own secret Nature, as I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in One Hour of our terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Aeon, and in Ten Lives I could not declare it.
Yet even as a Man may set up a Memorial or Symbol to import Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand, so may I strive to inform hine Understanding by Hieroglyph. And here shall thine own Experience serve us, because a Token of Remembrance sufficeth him that is familiar with a Matter, which to him that knoweth it not should not be made manifest, no, not in a Year of Instruction. Here first then is one amid the uncounted Wonders of that Vision; upon a field blacker and richer than Velvet was the Sun of all Being, alone. Then about Him were little Crosses, Greek, over-running the Heaven. These changed from Form to Form geometrical, Marvel devouring Marvel, a Thousand Times a Thousand in their Course and Sequence, until by their Movement was the Universe churned into the Quintessence of Light. Moreover at another Time did I behold All Things as Bubbles, iridescent and luminous, self-shining in every Colour, Myriad pursuing Myrad until by their perpetual Beauty they exhausted the Virtue of my Mind to receive them, and whelmed it, so that I was fain to withdraw myself from the Burden of that Brilliance. Yet, o my Son, the Sun of all this amounteth not to the Worth of one Dawn-Glimmer of Our True Vision of Holiness.
Now for the Chief of that which was granted unto me, it was he Apprehension of those willed Changes or Transmutations of he Mind which lead into Truth, being as Ladders unto Heaven, or so I called them at that Time, seeking for a Phrase to admonish the Scribe that attended on my Words, to grave a Balustre upon the Stele of of my Working. But I make Effort in vain, o my Son, to record this matter in Detail; for it is he quality of the Grass to quicken the Operation of Thought it may be Thousandfold, and moreover to figure each Step in Images complex and overpowering in Beauty, so that one hath no Time wherein to conceive, much less to utter, any Word for a Name or any of them. Also, such was the multiplicity of these Ladders, and their Equivalence, that the Memory holdeth no more any one of them, but only a certain Comprehension of the Method, wordless by Reason of its Subtilty. Now therefore must I make by my Will a Concentration mighty and terrible of my Thought, that I may bring forth this Mystery in Expression. For this Method is of Virtue and Profit, by it mayst thou come easily and with Delight to the Perfection of Truth, it is no Odds from what Thought thou makest the first Leap in thy Meditation, so hat thou mayst know how every Road endeth in Monsalvat, and the Temple of the Sangral.
I believe generally, on Ground both of Theory and Experience, so little as I have, that a Man must first be initiate, and established in Our Law, before he may use this Method. For in it is an Implication of our Secret Enlightenment, concerning the Universe, how its Nature is utterly Perfection. Now every Thought is a Separation, and he Medicine of that is to marry Each One with its Contradiction, as I have shewed formerly in many Writings. And thou shalt clap the one to the other with Vehemence of Spirit, swiftly as Light itself, that the Ecstasy be spontaneous. So therefore it is Expedient that thou have ravelled already in this Path of Antithesis, knowing perfectly the Answer to every Griph or Problem, and thy Mind ready therewith. For by the Property of this Grass all passeth with Speed incalculable of Wit, and an Hesitation should confound thee, breaking down thy ladder, and throwing back thy Mind to receive Impression from Environment, as at hy first beginning. Verily; the nature of this Method is Solution, and the Destruction of every Complexity by Explosion of Ecstasy, as every Element thereof is fulfilled by its Correlative, and is annihilated (since it loseth separate Existence) in the Orgasm that is consummated within the Bed of hy Mind.
Thou knowest right well, o my Son, how a Thought is imperfect in two Dimensions, being separate from its Contradiction, but also constrained in its Scope, because by hat Contradiction we do not (commonly) complete the Universe, save only that of its Discourse. Thus if we contrast health with Sickness, we include in their Sphere of Union no more han one Quality that may be predicated of all Things. Furthermore, it is for the most Part not easy to find or to formulate the true Contradiction of any Thought as a positive Idea, but only as a Formal Negation in vague Terms, so that he ready Answer is but the Antithesis. Thus to "White" one putteth not the Phrase "all that which is not white", for this is void, formless, neither clear, simple, nor positive in conception; but one answereth "BBlack", for this hath an Image of his Significance. So the Cohesion of Antitheticals destroyeth them only in Part, and one becometh instantly conscious of the Residue that is unsatisfied or unbalanced, whose Eidolon leapeth in thy Mind with Splendour and Joy unspeakable. Let not this deceive thee, for its Existence proveth its Imperfection, and thou must call forth its Mate, and destroy them by Love, as with the former. This Method is continuous and proceedeth ever from the Gross to the Fine, and from the Particular to the General, dissolving all Things into he One Substance of Light.
Lean now that Impression of Sense have Opposites readily conceived, as long to short, or light to dark; and so with Emotions and Perceptions, as Love to Hate, or false to true; but the more violent is the Antagonism, the more is it bound in Illusion, determined by Relation. Thus the Word "Long" hath no Meaning save it be referred to a Standard; but Love is not thus obscure, because Hate is its Twin, partaking bountifully of a Common Nature therewith. Now, hear this; it was given unto me in my Visions of the Aethyrs, when I was in he Wilderness of Sahara, by Tolga, that above the Abyss, contradiction is Unity, and that Nothing could be true save by Virtue of the Contradiction that is contained in itself. Behold, therefore, in this method thou shalt come presently to Ideas of this Order, that include in themselves their own Contradiction, and have no Antithesis. Here then is thy Lever of Antinomy broken in thine Hand; yet, being in true Balance, hou mayst soar, passionate and eager, from Heaven to Heaven, by the Expansion of thine Idea, and its Exaltation, of Concentration as thou understandest by thy Studies in "The Book of the Law", the Word thereof concerning Our Lady Nuith and Hadith that is the Core of every Star. And this last Going upon thy Ladder is easy, if thou be truly Initiate, for the Momentum of thy Force in Transcendental Antithesis serveth to propel thee, and the Emancipation from the Fetters of Thought hat thou hast won in that Praxis of Art maketh the Whirlpool and Gravitation of Truth of Competence to Draw thee unto itself.