The Three Feminine Principles in the Mass

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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.

Liber V vel Reguli and the Formula of AHIHVH

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I spent some time recently looking closely at Liber V vel Reguli along with the commentary and the early draft notes, and feel like I have come to a few insights which could be of use to others.

As I’ve shown before, one of the main themes of Crowley’s spirituality is the movement from speech to silence and back again. This could also be viewed as the expression of nullity (Ain of Kabbalah) into manifestation (the Tree of Life itself) and the individual’s path of return back to nullity. The first part of this equation expresses Thelemic cosmology, the latter Thelemic soteriology.

In Reguli these movements are dramatized and expressed in the formula LAShTAL. LA means “not,” while AL means “God”. LA and AL represent nullity in concealment and manifestation respectively, while ShT is the process that mediates between them.

In order for ShT to mediate between LA and AL, they have to conjointly share something in common between LA and AL while also adding new information.

LAShTAL represented as three interlocking circles. The overlapping portions are labeled "31".

LA and AL both add to 31 by gematria. ShT also adds to 31 by way of the tarot cards these letters are attributed to. Sh or Shin is the Hebrew letter assigned to The Aeon, Atu XX, and T or Teth is assigned to Lust, Atu XI.

As someone recently pointed out to me, there is a tradition in the Golden Dawn, recorded in the Z1 document, of ST denoting an influence from Kether. ST is the Coptic letter ⲋ (“ⲥⲟⲟⲩ” or “soou”). Crowley continues this tradition by assigning this letter to Kether in 777, Column LI.

So by means of its association with 31 and Kether, ShT is identical with the (N)One at the foundation of Thelemic ontology and theology.

But ShT has an additional function. It also indicates the Beast and Babalon conjoined. It is a sexual formula. This sexual formula is indicated by how it is represented in Reguli on the human body and on the Tree of Life.

In the ritual, Aiwass, Therion, and Babalon are attributed to the cross paths of the Tree of Life: Daleth, Teth, and Pe respectively. The cross paths are important as they mediate between the Pillar of Severity and the Pillar of Mercy.

Tree of Life emphasizing the cross paths of Daleth (Aiwass), Teth (Therion), and Peh (Babalon), and how they add up to 93.

As taught in the Golden Dawn 4°=7□ ritual, the left pillar, the Pillar of Severity, is associated with the letter Shin, which is assigned to elemental fire, while the right pillar, the Pillar of Mercy, is Mem or elemental water. The Middle Pillar is then Aleph, which is elemental air. Fire is archetypally masculine, water feminine, and air androgyne.

Diagram of the three pillars of the Tree of Life, assigned to Shin/Fire, Aleph/Air, and Mem/Water respectively.

However, these sexual characteristics are not assigned to the pillars in a straightforward way. While the Pillar of Severity is fiery and masculine, the topmost sephira, Binah, is archetypally feminine. She is the supernal Mother. And opposite her, on the Pillar of Mercy, we find Chokmah, which is archetypally masculine, the supernal Father. They are “reflected” in Netzach (masculine-feminine) and Hod (feminine-masculine) respectively, as Kether is reflected in Tiphareth. This reflection occurs both horizontally across the Tree (Binah and Netzach and Chokmah and Hod are opposite each other across the Middle Pillar) and vertically down the Tree (they are opposite Tiphareth). The vertical and horizontal “components” of Liber V vel Reguli work with this double-reflection of sexual energy.

One can view this double-reflection of magical sexual polarity taking place on the Tree as a movement of energy down the Tree of Life from Kether into the subsequent Sephiroth along the paths. One androgyne current emerging from Kether, represented by the path of Aleph, becomes masculine upon reaching Chokmah. There it progresses down the tree along the archetypally masculine paths of Vau, Yod, Ayin, and Resh, into Yesod. In Yesod it is met by a complementary feminine path, originating with Beth’s entry into Binah, and progressing down the Tree along the paths of Cheth, Lamed, Nun, and Tzaddi.

Tree of Life emphasizing the paths of A-V-Y-O-R and B-Ch-L-N-Tz as they descend from Kether into Yesod.

This exchange and “mixing in Yesod” is represented on the Art card, Atu XIV. Art is a hieroglyph of the path of Samekh, which links Yesod with Tiphareth. Here we see the Lion and the Eagle which have exchanged their colors as represented earlier on the Lovers card, Atu VI. If the paths on the Tree represent these essences or potencies, then they were exchanged at Tiphareth, a sphere which, among other things, is the site in which the Rose (Kteis) and Cross (phallus) are conjoined. The caldron is Yesod, which is linked with the sexual organs and the Muladhara cakra. We see spiritual air—presumably the Medicine of Metals—rising out of the caldron, represented by the arrow, as the Caput Mortuum (skull) drops to the bottom.

The cross paths are important to this process, because they are mediating the exchange of energies down the Tree. They are in a sense guiding and determining the separation and mixing of these sexual polarities. That these paths add up to 93 is significant. It tells us that the 93 magical current has something essential to do with the production of sexual polarity from out of androgyny and back again. It has to do with the movement of 0 to 2 (magick) and from 2 to 0 (mysticism), both as a personal spiritual journey and as a cosmological process. Aiwass, Therion, and Babalon are personages representing these governing principles.

For me personally, this is not simply theory. When I’m serving as Priest in the Gnostic Mass, I picture this exchange of energy occurring—moving down and wrapping around and joining mine and the Priestess’s hearts—at the consummation of the eucharist. We are linked energetically at the levels of mind (Daleth and Kether), heart (Teth and Tiphareth), and body (Peh and Yesod). The Tree of Life with the cross-paths can also be used as scaffolding for visualizations during sex magick workings.

If the horizontal component is governed by Aiwass, Therion, and Babalon, the vertical component is governed by Nuit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and Hadit. Nuit is associated with the Sahasrara cakra/Kether/the Three Negative Veils; Ra-Hoor-Khuit is linked specifically with the Anahata cakra and the paths of Teth, Yod, and Lamed (which add to 49), but also arguably with the entirety of the Tree in manifestation (hence Microprosopus); and Hadit is linked with the Muladhara cakra and Yesod and/or Malkuth (Crowley refers to this as the “seed” in his commentary).

The conjunction of Nuit and Hadit produces the godhead, Ra-Hoor-Khuit (or Heru-Ra-Ha, so as to include Hoor-paar-kraat). Hadit, as the consciousness or point of view of the individual, is implanted in Malkuth as a seed represented by Heh-final, the Virgin Daughter whose destiny is to be seated upon the Throne of the Mother (Binah). Crowley consistently related the three deities of the Book of the Law to the Tree of Life this way.

So one thing to take note of when attempting to understand LAShTAL is that it shares the same form or structure taken by these three personages in relation to the Tree of Life. You have two simple extremes mediated by a complex third thing sharing characteristics with both of the extremes. Indeed, the entire Tree of Life itself—or Ra-Hoor-Khuit—could be seen as a means of mediating between these oppositions.

LA and AL shown as two extremes with the Tree of Life (ShT/Ra-Hoor-Khuit) shown mediating them.

But how does the introduction of the horizontal component modify or inform this cosmological and theological process of the implantation, germination, and return of Hadit to the source?

The cross-paths enter into this as they are involved in the drawing of the Hexagram of Nature on the Tree of Life. Generally speaking, the hexagram is the symbol of the union of the individual with the divine, with the mirroring in the microcosm of the structure of the macrocosm. As such it is symbolic of the individual who has become divine. The cross-paths of Teth and Pe are involved in this hexagram—in fact are the only actual paths involved—as they form bases of the two interlocking triangles.

Tree of Life emphasizing how the path of Teth forms the base of a triangle linking Chesed and Geburah with Yesod, and how Peh forms the base of a triangle linking Hod and Netzach with Daath.

Typically the upward-pointing triangle represents fire and is therefore masculine, while the downward-pointing triangle is water and feminine. But a different connotation is suggested in Reguli where the base of the upward-pointing triangle is assigned to Babalon, and the base of the downward-pointing triangle is Therion. The polarities are reversed.

Same as the previous diagram, only now the downward pointing triangle is red, and the upward pointing triangle is blue. This is the Holy Hexagram projected on to the Tree of Life.

This suggests not so much the familiar Hexagram of Nature but rather the Magical Hexagram as described by Crowley in the Book of Lies, where fire points down and water up.

In the ordinary Hexagram, the Hexagram of nature, the red triangle is upwards, like fire, and the blue triangle downwards, like water. In the magical hexagram this is reversed; the descending red triangle is that of Horus, a sign specially revealed by him personally, at the Equinox of the Gods. (It is the flame desending upon the altar, and licking up the burnt offering.) The blue triangle represents the aspiration, since blue is the colour of devotion, and the triangle, kinetically considered, is the symbol of directed force.

Book of Lies, Chapter 69

Crowley explicitly associates force with the path of Teth in Reguli, as he associates fire with Shin. Hence ShT represents “force and fire”. In the context of the ritual, these triangles would interlock and interpenetrate around Tiphareth, representative of the Anahata cakra, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and, as we saw earlier, Kteis-Phallus or the Rose-Cross.

As the upward-pointing blue triangle represents Babalon, the Mother, we could attribute the three Mother Letters (Aleph, Mem, and Shin) to its three points, as we might attribute the masculine trinity, IAO, to the three points of the downward-pointing red triangle. Their conjunction gives us the word AShIAVM, which has the same value as MShICh (Messiah) and NChSh (Nechesh, Serpent).

The Messiah or Anointed One affects the union between the individual and the divine. The Serpent in the Garden of Eden is the initiator of mankind into knowledge or gnosis. In Thelemic soteriology, this saving, initiating power is not one individual but rather the conjoining of two individuals, Therion (666) and Babalon (156). And the way in which this union between the divine and the individual is affected is sexual in nature.

The Holy Hexagram, now with 666/IAO and 156/HHH attributed to the red and blue triangles respectively.

In this formula AShIAVM, the three mother letters are concealed by the letter Heh, giving us AHIHVH, the Great Name which is the conjunction of AHIH and IHVH.

AHIH is the godname of Kether. It represents existence in is most abstract quality or Macroprosopus. In the context of Reguli, it is LA, Nuit and Hadit conjoined.

IHVH represents god in manifestation or Microprosopus. It enumerates to 26 by gematria, which is 13 x 2. 13 is the enumeration of AChD or unity. IHVH therefore expresses unity (AL) by means of duality (ShT or Beast and Babalon conjoined). It is the way in which nullity expresses itself in manifestation or as the Tree of Life or 0=2.

Antonio Lau has come to a similar conclusion in his analysis of how the formula of AHIHVH relates to the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram:

The conclusion would be that all the points of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram (32) on the whole create another Hexagram that symbolizes the Qabalistic Zero, radiating from the center of the Column and flooding the whole Circle with the Limitless Light of Ain Soph Aur. And the Hexagram is the formula of unifying opposites (positive and negative, active and passive, male and female), by the 0=2 Equation.

This sheds light on what it means that Reguli is meant to “invoke the energies of the Aeon of Horus.” The “first gesture” of the ritual—the drawing of the Elevenfold Seal—is depicting the unfolding process leading to the creation of the cosmos. It is also establishing the scaffolding—the cross-paths—that allow for the process of return. The “second gesture”—in which the Son raises the Daughter to the Throne of the Mother—is the familiar process of Tetragrammaton which, by means of sexual interaction between Son and Daughter, the process of return takes place. What Reguli adds to this conception is the idea that Nuit and Hadit (Daughter and Son) must become “sexually mature” as Babalon and Therion on their way of return.

AHIHVH is important for other aspects of Crowley’s spirituality. He relates it to the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. By means of the LRP it is indirectly connected with the production of the Medicine of Metals. The connection with the Medicine of Metals is made explicit through Crowley’s discussion of the production of the Eucharist of Six Elements in Magick in Theory and Practice Chapter 20. The production of this medicine is a secret guarded by the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of O.T.O. This formula is also the guiding structure behind Liber HHH, which describes some of the work of the Outer College of A∴A∴. At least one Thelemic author, J. Daniel Gunther, has made an extensive case for the AHIHVH formula being essential to a comprehension of Thelemic initiation in general. (See Initiation in the Aeon of the Child and The Angel and the Abyss.)

Frontispiece of Initiation in the Aeon of the Child depicting the AHIHVH hexagram with various occult symbolism projected over it.

As I said in my recent talk on art and magick, when a magical formula is involved in so many disparate aspects of Crowley’s magick—especially when it illuminates mysteries of both A∴A∴ and O.T.O.—you can bet it is essential to an understanding of Thelemic spirituality generally. I hope to deal with this formula in greater depth in subsequent writings, exploring more fully its importance for Thelemic magick generally.

As for Reguli, my treatment of it here is not exhaustive. I have hardly dealt with the function of the cross-path of Daleth or how Aiwass figures into all of this. (There’s another hexagram that uses the path of Daleth as the base of a triangle.) I didn’t even touch on the elemental attributions of the deities/quarters, and I barely dealt with the significance of the cakras. But hopefully this shows the way in which Reguli is expressive of the underlying ontology and theology of Thelema and how the sex magick implicit in it relates to Crowley’s broader spiritual concern as expressed in the AHIHVH formula.