"The Path in Eternity" against a starry background in which is situation a black number 8.

Reflections on the Path in Eternity (Part 1)

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"The Path in Eternity" against a starry background in which is situation a black number 8.

I was recently inspired to create an animated movie based upon my understanding of the Path in Eternity and its relation to certain magical formulae.

The phrase Path in Eternity comes from a passage in Magick Without Tears where Aleister Crowley is describing the initiation rituals of the Man of Earth degree of Ordo Templi Orientis.

Let us begin at the beginning. What is a Dramatic Ritual? It is a celebration of the Adventures of the God whom it is intended to invoke. (The Bacchae of Euripides is a perfect example of this.) Now, in the O.T.O., the object of the ceremonies being the Initiation of the Candidate, it is he whose Path in Eternity is displayed in dramatic form.

Magick Without Tears, Chapter 13, The System of the O.T.O.

He then describes this Path in Eternity in relation to the six sub-degrees of the Man of Earth in the following way:

  1. O° – Minerval – The Ego is attracted to the Solar System.
  2. I° – Initiation – The Child experiences Birth.
  3. II° – Consecration – The Man experiences Life.
  4. III° – Devotion – He experiences Death.
  5. IV° – Perfection, or Exaltation – He experiences the World beyond Death.
  6. P.I. – Perfect Initiate – This entire cycle of Point-Events is withdrawn into Annihilation.

There are three important conclusions to draw here.

First, as in the mystery schools of the ancient world, the purpose of O.T.O. initiation—in particular, this series of six sub-degrees that comprises the Man of Earth—is to introduce a single individual or candidate to a single god. The main difference between the O.T.O. initiations and those predecessor schools is that in O.T.O., the god the candidate is being introduced to is none other than themselves. In Thelema, the term for this god—the divine part of each individual—is the Secret Self or Hadit.

Second, the purpose of the Man of Earth initiations is to dramatize the “path” taken by this god: a complete cycle in which the soul is drawn into incarnation, dies, and is withdrawn back into nothingness. The initiations are conducted in service to and with reverence toward that way of going which is characteristic of the Hadit which all of us truly is. The Path in Eternity is that toward which the entire series of rituals is oriented. The rituals derive their meanings from that Path.

Third, that path has a characteristic shape. It’s cyclical. It’s a passage from silence to speech and back to silence again. This is the exact same path as that taken by the Holy Guardian Angel which Crowley describes in Liber DCLXXI vel Pyramidos and which I quote at the beginning of the video:

For from the Silence of the Wand
Unto the Speaking of the Sword,
And back again to the Beyond,
This is the toil & the Reward.
This is the Path of HVA—Ho!
This is the Path of IAO.

So one of the first points I’m making in the video is that the Man of Earth series of initiations connects at a deep level with one of the core concepts of Thelema, namely, the idea of the Secret Self aka Hadit aka the Holy Guardian Angel.

The particular way in which it connects with that core concept is to show the characteristic going of that god, and to show how that way of going makes contact with an individual human life. In other words the conditions we find ourselves subject to—birth, aging, and death—are not incidental or exterior to our divinity. In fact they are necessary components of the way our divinity expresses itself.

This helps us begin to make sense of another one of the claims Crowley makes about these rituals:

The main objects of the instruction were two.  It was first necessary to explain the universe and the relations of human life therewith.  Second, to instruct every man how best to adapt his life to the cosmos and to develop his faculties to the utmost advantage.  I accordingly constructed a series of rituals, Minerval, Man, Magician, Master-Magician, Perfect Magician and Perfect Initiate, which should illustrate the course of human life in its largest philosophical aspect.  I begin by showing the object of the pure soul, “One, individual and eternal”, in determining to formulate itself consciously, or, as I may say, to understand itself.

Aleister Crowley, Confessions

This larger, universal context in which Crowley wishes to situate or orient the individual human life is the aforementioned Path in Eternity, which in turn is the characteristic way of going of Hadit.

Image of Apep and Atum

Erotic destruction and IAO

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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.