The Three Feminine Principles in the Mass

Having covered the function of the three Lords in the Mass, I want to now cover the three feminine principles they’re the counterparts of.

The three feminine principles are most conspicuous in the Collects. There’s the Moon in the third Collect, the Lady in the fourth, and the Earth in the sixth.

Each feminine principle is the counterpart of a masculine principle. The Moon is the counterpart of the Sun, the Lady (ostensibly Nuit) is the counterpart of the Secret Lord (Hadit), and the Earth is the counterpart of Chaos (the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth, i.e., the microcosmic counterpart of the macrocosmic Lord in the Universe).

If we assume each of the three feminine principles can be represented by each of the three mother letters of the Hebrew alphabet, then it stands to reason that the Lady (Nuit) is א, mercury, or air; the Earth is מ or salt; and the Moon is ש, sulphur, or blood.

The function of the three feminine principles—which are also the three alchemical principles—is evinced in part III of the Mass, “The Ceremony of the Introit.” In terms of the performance of the ritual, this is actually the first part. It starts when the Deacon admits the congregants and ends with the congregants saying “So mote it be” after the Priestess consecrates the lance and declares the Lord (Chaos) to be present among us.

As I showed in the previous article, the purpose of the Ceremony of the Introit is to invest the Priest with the powers of the three Lords (Hadit, the Sun, and Chaos). In particular, its most important function is to devote the will of the Priest—as represented by his lance—exclusively to the grail of the Priestess. This perfects his will and sets it on a course, the natural terminus of which is its annihilation in the Cup of Babalon. But this process of investing the Priest with these functions and devoting him to the divine feminine is carried out entirely by the Priestess herself, aided by the two Children.

After the recitation of the Creed, the Priestess enters, flanked by the two Children. The first Child enters with the ewer and the salt. Salt is מ which is also the feminine principle of Earth. Then the Priestess (here called the Virgin) enters with the sword and the paten. The sword is א, mercury, or air; the paten is a solar symbol. Then the second Child enters with the censer and perfume, indicating ש, sulphur, or fire/blood.

Facing the congregation and Deacon, the Priestess says, “Greeting of Earth and Heaven!” and all give the Hailing Sign of a Magician, which is a symbol of the sacrament of marriage. She is in a sense declaring the purpose of the ritual, which is the union of the microcosm (earth) with the macrocosm (heaven), which will be carried out by means of the formula of IAO.

The Priestess places the paten on the altar before the graal. She is not in possession of the graal at this time, since she is not performing the function of Babalon. Her first function is mercurial as indicated by the sword (א, alchemical mercury, or air) and the serpentine circumambulations. As has been pointed out, the three and a half circumambulations indicate her identity with kundalini and her power to raise the Priest to his spiritual vocation.

To understand the next part, you need to look at Magick, Part Two, chapter IV, “The Scourge, the Dagger, and the Chain.” That chapter shows that the three alchemical principles as embodied in the three magical weapons are used to prepare the magician for a magical operation. The scourge is ש, sulfur, or fire. It’s used against the body to invigorate the Nephesh, to keep one awake and ardent. The dagger is א, alchemical mercury, or air. It symbolizes alertness and is the ability of the magician to know when he is on task (concentrated) or not. Finally the chain is מ or salt. It represents fixity of attention or mindfulness of the task at hand.

The Lustral Water! Let thy flood
Cleanse me—lymph, marrow, & blood!
The Scourge, the Dagger & the Chain
Purge body, breast & brain!
The Fire Informing! Let the Oil
Balance, assain, assoil!

Liber Pyramidos

Having struck herself with the scourge, let her blood with the dagger, and having put the chain around her neck, the magician would then anoint herself with the Holy Oil (see Magick, Part Two, chapter V). This consecrates the magician to the Great Work.

All of this happens in its own way in the Ceremony of the Introit.

First the Priestess draws her sword and pulls down the veil of the tomb. This is the only part of the ritual where the Priestess uses the sword. She’s using it to free the Priest from his natural condition, as represented by his entombment. As Crowley says in De Lege Libellum, that “which men call life is but a shadow of that true Life, [their] birthright, and the gift of the Law of Thelema.” In other words what we call life is more like death. We “feel little; what is, is balanced by weak joys” (AL I.31). Thelema is a spiritual path which leads us to live perhaps for the first time, but it requires a passage through what appears to most people as a kind of death. This spiritual death—erotic destruction—is what is dramatized in the Mass at the opposite side of the room at the altar. So the tomb and the altar spiritually and spatially balance one another. (See Magick in Theory and Practice, ch VIII, on how objects in a ritual ought to balance one another.)

But the journey begins with discernment. You have to know that there is something else besides the ordinary life in order to pursue the extraordinary one. That is in essence what the Priestess is doing on behalf of the Priest here. She is cutting away the veil of darkness around him and calling him forth to a new spiritual vocation. And of course this being a cultic rite, not a personal journey, his vocation is actually to administer on behalf of a congregation, i.e., “the breathren”.

When he asks how he shall be worthy to take up this vocation, she proceeds to purify him with water and the salt and consecrate him with fire and incense.

As Crowley says in Magick in Theory and Practice, “Purity means singleness.” It means fixing the mind upon the one task which must be accomplished in the magical ceremony. It is represented by the weight of the chain around the neck, which we have already seen is connected with מ (which is also elemental water) or alchemical salt.

As already mentioned, the scourge invigorates the Nephesh or the animal soul. It raises energy or generates ardency for the task. When the Priestess says, “Be the PRIEST fervent of body and soul!” the fire and incense are serving the same function as the scourge.

Then she adorns the Priest with the two mantles. The robe represents his function as Priest of the Sun; the crown represents his function as Priest of the (Secret) Lord Hadit.

At this point we might expect her to anoint him with the Holy Oil, thus signifying his readiness to unite the higher in himself with the lower. That’s not what she does, though. Instead she kneels and strokes the lance eleven times, thereby consecrating it to the Lord Adored (Chaos).

What I take from this is that the natural will thus perfected—i.e., devoted exclusively to Nuit—just is the higher part of the individual now ready to do the work of union or sacred marriage.

In other words, it’s not quite correct that the sex instinct is the Holy Guardian Angel. The sex instinct properly oriented and devoted to heaven is the means by which union with the divine will occur. A will thus perfected must inevitably cross the Abyss, thus annihilating itself and becoming its feminine opposite in the Mother Babalon.

In other words, the Priestess—who is “actually Virgo Intacta or specially dedicated to the service of the Great Order”—has now made the Priest like her through the Ceremony of the Introit. She has made him “virgin” or “chaste” unto the Lord. His sex instinct or natural will is now devoted exclusively to the most high and has thus been perfected.

Having accomplished that, the Ceremony of the Introit ends, and the Ceremony of the Opening of the Veil commences. Now their roles change. The Priestess is no longer the primary agent in the ritual; the Priest is. Taking her by the hand, he raises her. He now refers to her as “Virgin pure without spot”. Her function is no longer alchemical mercury. She is now ה final of the formula Tetragrammaton. He is no longer a natural man but now functions as ו of Tetragrammaton. Thus he seats her upon the altar, which we know from its crimson altar cloth is representative of Binah or the Throne of the Mother. She now represents Babalon, and the rest of the ritual is about how he will go about pouring all he is into her cup, thereby undergoing destruction in erotic union with her.

The Unity of the Three Lords

As I showed yesterday, there are three Lords mentioned in Liber XV: the one secret and ineffable Lord of the Creed (aka the Lord secret and most holy of the 2nd Collect), the Sun (the one Star in the Company of Stars of the Creed aka the Lord visible and sensible of the 1st Collect), and CHAOS (the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth of the Creed and the Lord of Life and Joy who we adore in the 5th Collect). But these aren’t three completely separate individuals. They’re actually one Lord with three aspects or faces.

I am Heaven, and there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit.

Liber AL vel Legis, I.21

The first Lord—the one secret and ineffable Lord mentioned in the Creed and the 2nd Collect—is Hadit. Hadit is the point of view or subjectivity of each individual. It is Hadit’s union with Nuit—space and matter—which gives rise to the manifest universe, the observable universe, the experiential universe, etc. This is covered in Crowley’s Introduction to the Book of the Law.

In any experience you may have, Hadit is always that to which the experienced event occurs, never the thing experienced itself. From this, two truths immediately follow. (1) Hadit has no nature of his own (since nature is always something experienced (see Djeridensis Comment on AL II.2)); and (2) one cannot even experience let alone worship Hadit. (See New Comment to AL II.8.)

From this we may infer that (3) the first 14 lines of the Anthem are directed at Hadit (ill, presumably, because Hadit is the one delivering the lines).

From the Anthem we also learn that Hadit is the “centre and secret of the Sun”. The Sun is the second Lord (the one star of the Creed and the Lord visible and sensible of the first Collect). We also learn from the Priest’s veil speech that the Sun is “our Lord in the Universe,” i.e., the macrocosmic deity. In the context of the Mass, the Sun represents both what people have in mind when they casually think of God (i.e., the Lord of the Universe) and also the literal Sun which impacts the Earth with electromagnetic energy.

What we’re being told in the Mass is that the essence of the Sun—basically the essence of God—is identical with the essence of ourselves. That elusive subjective viewpoint within yourself which you can never quite grasp or get to the bottom of—which always manages to slip away when you turn to look at it—is actually the essence of divinity.

Now the Sun also serves other purposes in the Mass. It is also a principle of unification, a principle of sacrifice, and a principle of resurrection. But all of these are tied together in the single magical act toward which the Mass aims. That magical act is apparently one of self-sacrifice. The Priest offers his life/body and joy/blood to the Sun. What he is in essence proclaiming, performing, and realizing is that these things are not Hadit. They belong to Nuit. By giving up all that he is, was, or could be to the Lord of the Universe, he is in a certain sense annihilating himself. But at the same time, he is becoming Hadit. (See AL II.6.) He is undergoing spiritual death (within this incarnation) in order to realize who he truly is. So his act of self-sacrifice is a unification (seeing everything as part of one unified whole in Nuit) which is also a spiritual resurrection (thus fulfilling the formula of IAO, which is just another name of the Sun).

This is complex, but if you grasp this, you grasp Thelema.

Now how does our third Lord, Chaos, come in to this?

The simplest way to understand this in the context of the Mass is that Chaos is the drive within each of us toward union with Nuit. It is the Hadit within us but manifested as a drive toward completion, wholeness, and annihilation through self-sacrifice.

Chaos is the drive toward erotic liberation. It’s the unity of sex and death.

This is why when the Priest offers up his body/life and blood/joy to the Sun, he says, “Let this offering be borne upon the waves of Æthyr to our Lord and Father the Sun that travelleth over the Heavens in his name ON.”

ON is ענ. Ayin and Nun are two of the paths going up the Tree of Life into Tiphareth, the House of the Sun. Ayin is the Devil, the goat, the phallus, the perfected will. It’s life and joy on Earth, in this incarnation. Nun is Death. Both paths terminate in the Sun, the principle of unification and resurrection. Ayin (70) plus Nun (50) is 120, a number associated with resurrection in the Golden Dawn Adeptus Minor ritual. But let’s translate this out of occult-ese into something real.

What we think of as God (call it the Sun or Jehovah or Allah or whatever you want) is really something within each of us which we in some sense project on to reality or on to a transcendent author of the universe. If God in the exoteric sense really exists, His essence is Hadit, the same as our own essence, which is our subjective point of view. So God is really within us.

The reason we don’t realize we are God is because we are confused about ourselves. We identify with our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our thoughts, our plans, our wishes, our desires, our personalities, our tendencies, etc. All these things we think are us, are ours, are I/me/mine are nothing of the sort. They are actually all Nuit. (Technically, they’re the Khu.) One of the most important ways in which we can realize our own divinity is by giving all those things back to her: by sacrificing all that we think we are to Nuit. (See AL I.65 and also The Wake World.)

This sounds like we’re creating a duality or an opposition between self and other. It sounds like we’re rejecting all these things we think of as self. But that’s only apparent. Just stop and think about it for second. What does it take for you to give your body back to Nuit? Isn’t your body already in space? Aren’t your thoughts already occurring in an awareness which is space-like? Can you possibly notice your body without also noticing space? Can you possibly notice your thoughts and feelings without also noticing awareness?

Now look at it from the other side. Hadit doesn’t have any nature or any being, so there is nothing to oppose to Nuit. Hadit is just (unreflective, “foolish”) going. In an experience of something seen, there is the thing seen (Nuit), and there is the act of seeing (Hadit). In an experience of something thought, there is the thing thought (Nuit), and there is the thinking (Hadit). The confusion comes with thinking that the thing seen or thought is us. We confuse ourselves with our thoughts.

There’s a Zen saying to the effect of, “In the seeing only the seen, in the hearing only the heard,” etc. That’s very apropos here.

The idea of erotic liberation is that, deep down, the Hadit in us wants nothing more than union with Nuit. It doesn’t want union with this or that part of her. It wants union with her, with everything. It doesn’t care about the particulars. Anything that arises for it is as good as anything else. (AL I.22) It wants to fuck the universe.

That innate drive to fuck the universe manifests itself as the sex principle in a religious or spiritual context. It’s the original nature worship. Those who realize this belong to the “true church of old time”. They understand that apotheosis or liberation depends upon self-transcendence. It requires self-abandonment. It requires an act of love so powerful, an ecstacy so intense, that it completely and permanently obliterates the sense of separateness from life and joy.

The Saints are those who “got it”. They destroyed themselves through erotic destruction and as a result got to really, truly live.

Let’s hit it from another angle: the phallus (Chaos) is the natural being or natural will perfected. By “natural will” I just mean your desire: what you want.

Thelemites are fond of saying “I will this” and “I will that”. That might be your natural will, but it’s not your true will. It can’t be, because it’s confused with some particular outcome, some particular aspect of Nuit. It’s not your pure or perfected will. It’s not Hadit. What’s the perfected or pure will? The Book of the Law tells us.

For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

AL I.44

At the same time, the perfected will and the natural will are not separate! It’s not like you have two wills. You can think you have two wills, but that’s where suffering comes from. You have one will, but it has to be perfected through a training, through a process. That process culminates in the destruction of the separateness of that will.

Will itself must be ready to culminate in the surrender of that Will; the aspiration’s arrow that is shot against the Holy Dove must transmute itself into the Wondering Virgin that receives in her womb the quickening fire of that same Spirit of God.

Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter VIII

Notice in this passage that the will (which is masculine), upon becoming perfect, is on a trajectory which ends with it becoming female. It’s becoming “virgin” and chaste. We’ll come back to this.

This is what’s involved in the formula of ON. The O or Ayin is the perfected will. It is the will that aims at its one, true object, and therefore it wills death (N or Nun) on to itself. It is the destruction of the sense of separateness (the sense that I am imposing my will on reality from some position that transcends the universe). True will is not free will in the sense of me getting to choose this or that path. It’s the opposite. This destruction occurs through an act of erotic union with Nuit. The person who has accomplished this becomes God. They are a deified individual, the symbol of which is—again—the Sun.

Again, pretty complex, but if you get this, you get how the Mass works.

But as I said, everything depends upon the training, the process, which is really a process of learning how to aim properly.

So was it—ever the same! I have aimed at the peeled wand of my God, and I have hit; yea, I have hit.

Liber 65, I.65

The natural will becomes perfected (becomes Chaos or God in the Flesh) when it is oriented and devoted exclusively to the proper object. This is what in Thelema is called chastity. (See Little Essays Toward Truth, “Chastity,” Energized Enthusiasm (sec VI), and Magick in Theory and Practice, chapter XX, and of course AL I.52. The doctrine of chastity—which comes from the Book of the Law—is the foundation of Crowley’s sexual mysticism.)

The Priest becoming chaste is dramatized in the Ceremony of the Introit. In that ceremony, the Priestess (who, with the Children, represents the three feminine principles which balance the three Lords spoken of here) adorns the Priest with two mantles and consecrates a third.

First she robes the Priest with the robe of scarlet and gold. This robe signifies him as the Priest of the Sun, the second Lord. It means that his work in this ritual, among other things, is one of unifying, of becoming One, of “doing the Lord’s work” so to speak.

Then she places the cap of maintenance and the Uraeus crown on his head. This represents the first Lord, the Lord secret and most holy, etc., Hadit.

Finally she kneels, runs her hands gently up and down the lance eleven times, and says “Be the LORD present among us!”

That’s the third Lord, the Lord adored upon heaths and in woods, etc., Chaos. That’s the natural will of the individual which is now perfected through devotion to Nuit. We know it’s the natural will, because the Priest comes out of the tomb with it! Unlike the robe and crown, it’s on his person. It’s a natural birthright, not something bestowed upon him.

It becomes “perfected” by being devoted solely to Nuit, which is symbolized by it being stroked 11 times. (See AL I.60.) As soon as this is accomplished, the Priestess says, “Be the LORD present among us!” All give the Hailing Sign which symbolizes marriage. Why? Because the Priest is now a committed man. That devotion of his sexual energy exclusively to the All is what makes him chaste, and it is what identifies his will or his sexual potency with Chaos, the Lord Adored. And if you had any doubt about this, the Priest is nice enough to let you know what just happened:

Thee therefore whom we adore we also invoke. By the power of the lifted Lance!

Now he’s going to take that lance—representative of his perfected will—and he’s going to put it in the only place it can ever possibly go ever again: the grail. That lance (O or Ayin) is now on a one-way trip to death (N or Nun). The Priest’s will must come to an end through an act of love which unbinds (nibbana) his sense of separateness from nature. He must inevitably undergo erotic destruction.

There’s a lot here, but that’s how the three Lords fit together, and how that doctrine fits into the Mass and into Thelema generally. The Ceremony of the Introit in particular is very important for establishing the relationship of the three Lords in the person of the Priest and setting him on his trajectory. There are also three feminine principles at play here. If you have three masculine principles, you must have three feminine principles as well.

If you do anything in the North, you must put something equal and opposite to it in the South […] It is not safe to use any thought in Magick, unless that thought has been thus equilibrated and destroyed.

Magick in Theory and Practice, chapter VIII

Maybe I can go into that in a subsequent post if anyone is interested.

lingam

The Lord of the 5th Collect

lingam

The Lord of the 5th collect of the Mass is neither the Lord of the first collect (the Sun) nor the Lord of the second collect (the Lord secret and most holy).

He can’t be the secret and most holy Lord, because he is manifested. He is “the might of man” and is adored in places in nature, in temples and houses, and in our bodies.

He can’t be the Sun, either, because while the Sun is manifested (visible and sensible), the Sun is “our Lord in the Universe,” i.e., the god of the macrocosm or the demiurge. The Lord of the fifth collect, by contrast, is clearly associated with “the surface of the Earth” or the microcosm.

So what god or principle is manifested like the Sun but instead of being in the heavens is on the surface of the Earth?

“I believe … in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name CHAOS, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth…”

The Lord of the fifth collect must be CHAOS, the viceregent or representative of the rulership of the Sun upon the Earth.

The Sun is “represented” on Earth as light, as electromagnetic radiation. It is the energy of the Sun that allows plants to make food. It’s the energy that drives the weather and the transportation of water and many other natural processes necessary to life. Because of the light of the sun, the death of the individual is not the death of life itself. Life is renewed, and therefore death is no cause for sorrow. Hence the Sun is “light [and] life,” and the Lord of the 5th collect, Chaos, is “lord of Life and Joy”.

So then who are the saints? They are described as those who “adore” or who make “manifest [the] glory” of the Lord of the 5th collect. They are men who one way or another acknowledged the divinity of manifest, microcosmic existence, right here on Earth.

The saints are of the “true church of old time,” and their knowledge is passed down “generation unto generation.” In other words, their form of worship is not one which is necessarily taught any more than their churches are standing buildings. It’s more like a phylogenic memory of nature worship that’s passed down through the blood—or at the very least is self-evident to any with eyes to see or ears to hear. Christianity has buried this memory under heaps of superstition, but it can be reactivated whenever we engage external nature spontaneously and joyously through singing, dancing, and making love in a religious context.

“Religion must represent Truth, and celebrate it. This truth is of two orders: one, concerning Nature external to Man; two, concerning Nature internal to Man. Existing religions, especially Christianity, are based on primitive ignorance of the facts, particularly of external Nature. Celebrations must conform to the custom and nature of the people. Christianity has destroyed the joyful celebrations, characterized by music, dancing, feasting, and making love; and has kept only the melancholy.”

(Equinox III:1)

“Human nature demands (in the case of most people) the satisfaction of the religious instinct, and, to very many, this may best be done by ceremonial means. I wished therefore to construct a ritual [The Mass] through which people might enter into ecstasy as they have always done under the influence of appropriate ritual … I resolved that my Ritual should celebrate the sublimity of the operation of universal forces without introducing disputable metaphysical theories. I would neither make nor imply any statement about nature which would not be endorsed by the most materialistic man of science. On the surface this may sound difficult; but in practice I found it perfectly simple to combine the most rigidly rational conceptions of phenomena with the most exalted and enthusiastic celebration of their sublimity” 

Aleister Crowley, Confessions

Such worship will awaken the innate, “essentially present” memory of the original worship. The “light” of the Sun will “crystallize in our blood”. It will come out of its dissolved, latent state and become an explicit awareness of the divinity of everything we see around us. We will come to a correct understanding of resurrection and no longer fear death. With its dramatization of the reproductive process and its celebration of all aspects of nature and life through the collects, Liber XV is such a ritual.

So the idea that the Lord of the 5th collect is CHAOS not only helps make sense of exactly who the saints are and why their church is the “true church”; it also explains exactly how the Mass fulfilled Crowley’s intention of creating a public religious ceremony that allowed people to enter into ecstasy—thus compensating for Christianity’s error—while also remaining on a purely naturalistic footing.

Toward Erotic Liberation in the Mass

Thelema can be looked at as a path of return to nature (Nuit, Babalon, or Isis), from out of death (Osiris), by means of the spirit of erotic destruction (Apophis or the HGA). It’s the IAO formula in reverse.

The spirit of erotic destruction takes the form of Baphomet in Liber XV. Baphomet is the Lion-Serpent (HGA) that destroys the destroyer (death or limitation) by means of love. Paradoxically we invoke annihilation upon ourselves so we may live for the first time.

This mystery is presented as a cultic rite in Liber XV.

Image of Apep and Atum

Erotic destruction and IAO

Image of Apep and Atum

One of the most interesting parts of Magick in Theory and Practice is chapter 20, “Of The Eucharist and the Art of Alchemy.” This chapter—particularly what Crowley says here about art production—was the subject of a talk I gave last summer for Horizon Lodge in Seattle.

In chapter 20 Crowley says that alchemy, initiation, talisman creation, art production (specifically painting, but the claim could be extended to other media), and eucharistic magick all share the same structure. There aren’t actually so many other types of magick besides those, so he’s presenting something like a unified theory of magick in general.

But even if that doesn’t cover every magical art, it still covers two areas that were of essential concern to Crowley: initiation and the production of the eucharist (which is a type of alchemy). The first is the primary subject matter of A∴A∴; the second is connected with the secret contained within the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of O.T.O.

My assumption was that if Crowley was talking about a structure essential to the essential work of both A∴A∴ and of O.T.O., he was describing something lying at the core of his spiritual project generally. What I claimed in my talk was that the magical formula which describes both of these processes is IAO.

IAO is the Golden Dawn formula of resurrection: Isis (Nature) is ruined by Apophis (the Destroyer) which is then redeemed by/as Osiris.

What I said in my talk, however, is that there is a shift in emphasis in Crowley’s version, because Apophis is no longer the ruiner of anything other than the false, initial appearance of nature. Through its destructive power, it frees or liberates what was latent, concealed, or in a sense trapped in the initial matter. It allows the “true self” latent within the first matter to transcend itself—to transcend its initial appearance—and to become part of a larger, vitalizing whole.

It doesn’t do this by discarding the matter necessarily but rather by turning it from resistance to persistence. Thus fire becomes the power of willing, water the power of daring, air the power of knowing, and earth the power of keeping silence. When they are in balance, thus arises the fifth power, going, attributed to Hadit.

In the process, change becomes expressive of will, thereby satisfying the postulate of magick. At the same time, because will is fully expressed in change—because matter no longer stands opposed to will but is its vehicle or “artistic medium”— it no longer has an existence independent of the universe. Hadit has become mystically enraptured with Nuit.

Thus there is a link between the work of Apophis in the IAO formula with love under will. Apophis represents destruction of separateness by love: the power of rebirth by voluntarily submitting to transformation.

Apophis is the spirit of erotic transcendence.

image of glowing particles

On Being Hadit

image of glowing particles

There are many ethical injunctions of a revolutionary character in the Book [of the Law], but they are all particular cases of the general precept to realize one’s own absolute God-head and to act with the nobility which springs from that knowledge. Practically all vices springs from failure to do this.

Aleister Crowley, Confessions

But remember, o chosen one, to be me…

Liber AL vel Legis, II.76

Chapter One

Every man and every woman is a star. I.3

Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue! I.6

The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you! I.8-9

Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love! I.12

Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. I.22

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. I.32

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. I.40

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. Accurséd! Accurséd be it to the aeons! Hell. I.41

Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. I.42-43

For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect. I.44

Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; 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. 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! This shall regenerate the world, the little world my sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send this kiss. I.51-53

Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. I.57

But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently 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 splendour & 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! I.61

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! I.63

To me! To me! I.65

Chapter Two

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. II.9

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. II.17

These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk. II.18

Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us. II.20

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.  II.21

Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this. II.22

If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness. II.30-31

But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty! II.34-35

Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu. II.44

Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart? Where I am these are not. II.46-47

Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler. II.48

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 reward you here and hereafter. II.52

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. II.58

Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master! II.59-60

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! II.70

But exceed! exceed! 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. II.71-72

But remember, o chosen one, 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. II.76

O be thou proud and mighty among men! 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. II.77-78

Chapter Three

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. III.17

Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them! III.18

Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but play; all fools despise! But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers! As brothers fight ye! III.57-59

There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. III.60