Highlights of what I think is relevant to the journey to the Ancient places.
AHA Sevenfold
by
Aleister Crowley
Commentary
by
Israel Regardie
1 9 8 3
F a l c o n P r e s s
P h o e n i x, A r i z o n a 8 5 0 1 2, U.S.A.
Copyright 1983 by The Israel Regardie Foundation
A H A
AHA! THE Sevenfold Mystery of THE Ineffable Love;
THE Coming of THE Lord IN THE AIR AS King AND Judge
OF THIS CORRUPTED World;
WHEREIN
UNDER THE FORM OF A DISCOURSE BETWEEN MARSYAS AN ADEPT
AND OLYMPAS HIS PUPIL THE WHOLE SECRET OF THE WAY OF
INITIATION IS LAID OPEN FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END;
FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.
WRITTEN IN THE TREMBLING AND HUMILITY FOR THE BRETHREN
OF THE A .'. A .'. BY THEIR VERY DUTIFUL SERVANT, AN
ASPIRANT TO THEIR SUBLIME ORDER,
ALEISTER CROWLEY
DEDICATED
TO
URSULA GREVILLE
loving, generous, devoted friend
of many long years who, like
Aleister Crowley, changed the
entire course of my life.
COMMENTARY
by: Israel Regardie
To have chosen so unlikely a title as AHA! for an almost
epic poem about mysticism must require a strangely
constituted mind. And this, of course, is supremely applicable
to Aleister Crowley, an English poet born in Leamington
in the year 1875. As a result of many years of concentrated
study of comparative religions, mythology, mysticism of
every variety and magical practices picked up in remote
parts of the world, his mind had developed into a highly
intricate mnemonic apparatus. One word or phrase would
immediately serve as a trigger to set into a lifelong col-
lection of fascinating ideas. For the most part they would
stagger any newcomer to his innumerable writings.
The world AHA! had come to have innumerable meanings
for him. Some were derived from the Qabalah which
he had studied through the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn. It has a gematria or numerical value of seven,
relates to the sphere of Venus on the Tree of Life,
and the element Fire. In one Tarot document of that
Order, the sevens are described as showing "a force,
transcending the material plane, and is like unto
a crown which is indeed powerful but requireth one
capable of wearing it."
Other associations had their origins in the Bible, of
which he had long been a chosen student - especially the
Revelation of ST. John. This is indicated, for example, in
the subtitle which Crowley chose for this poem, part of
which follows: "The sevenfold mystery of the ineffable
love: the coming of the Lord in the Air as King and Judge
of this corrupted world . . ." The major pitfall where he
became trapped was in the assumption that the ordinary
reader's mind would be equally informed as was his, or
that it would function similarly to his. Of course this
was hardly the case.
The historical sequence of events behind the creation
of this work is fascinating. First of all, inasmuch as the
Golden Dawn was mentioned, it should be stated that this
Order, founded in the year 1887, was an outgrowth of some
earlier English Masonic organizations. In an unknown
manner, these made contact with some European societies
having possible Rosicrucian connections. Since that time,
the Order has exerted a greater influence on the growth
and dissemination of occultism than most students realize.
It's membership was recruited from every circle, and
included physicians, clergymen, artists and humble men and
wo8men from all walks of life.
As an organization, it preferred always to shroud itself
in an impenetrable cloak of mystery. Its teaching and
methods of instructions were stringently guarded by
various penalties attached to the most awe-inspiring
obligations in order to ensure that secrecy. So well were
these obligations respected, with but a couple of
exceptions, that for years the general public knew nothing
about the Order and what it stood for. It is now common
knowledge that S. L. McGregor Mathers, William Wynn
Westcott, W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen, A. E. Waite,
Florence Farr and Dion Fortune were members, together with
a good many other writers and artists.
Crowley was initiated into this Order towards the close
of the year 1898. He made rapid strides in advancement.
But the really significant event during his membership was
meeting one of its advanced adept members named Allan
Bennett. He took the young poet under his wing, educating
him into the intricacies of Qabalah and Magic in all
phases. Allan was a good teacher, for the traces of his
instruction appear in almost everything that Crowley wrote.
A revolt broke out within the Order, splitting it wide
open. Allen Bennett went to the East, adopting the
Buddhist faith with the new name of Bhikhu Ananda Metteya.
Crowley left England to go mountain-climbing in Mexico with
Oscar Eckenstein, a famous mountain-climber of that period.
They planned an assault on one of the lofty peaks of the
Himalayas . Eckenstein was to return to England to make
all arrangements for the climb, since he was to be in
charge of the expedition.
Crowley, on his way to the Himalayas, stopped off first
in Ceylon, ostensibly to meet once more his former teacher,
Allan Bennett. However, while in Ceylon, they both settled
down to an intense practice of Yoga under the supervision
of Shri Parananda, the former Solicitor General of Ceylon.
This bout of Yoga practice culminated for Crowley in an
illumination known as Dhyana.
When he came to write AHA! this Dhyana was described at
some length. A part of that writing is:
"Again,
The adept secures his subtle fence
Against the hostile shafts of sense,
Pins for a second his mind; as you
May have seen some huge wrestler do.
Resistless as the whirling world,
He holds his foeman to the floor
For one great moment and no more.
So-then the sun-blaze. All the night
Bursts to a vivid orb of light.
There is no shadow; nothing is,
But the intensity of bliss.
Being is blasted. That exists."
This man Crowley is such a paradox. One would have
thought that having reached this stage of enlightenment,
he would have persevered further. On the contrary, he
discarded all yoga practices, resumed mountain climbing,
failed in the assault against a high Himalayan peak, and
returned to England rather disgusted and dejected.
An artist friend of his, Gerald Kelly - who later became
president of the Royal Academy - arranged to introduce
Crowley to his sister Rose. She was about to get married to
a man for whom she cared little. While discouraging her to
proceed with this marriage, Crowley impulsively proposed to
her - and forthwith they eloped.
Married life was a deliriously happy period of exultant
eroticism, wide travelling and a variety of expeditions and
hunting trips with his wife. Early in the year 1904, during
a safari in Ceylon, Rose became pregnant. At once Crowley
called off the hunt and decided to return to England, stop-
ping off on the way in Cairo, mostly to avoid the inclement
weather of England. By this time, according to his own
account, he had renounced altogether his earlier interests in
magical and yoga procedures, living for the moment the life
of an ordinary English family man.
However, it was during their stay in Cairo that a most
remarkable series of events occurred, Rose, who was a devoted
and superficial socialite when Crowley first met her,
spontaneously developed a psychic or mediumistic talent.
During this bout of psychism, she told Crowley that "They are
waiting for you." Though he was then enamoured of his wife,
he had very little respect for her intellectual abilities or
her psychic gifts.
Having given up magic and yoga, he was a confirmed sceptic and free-thinker, so he subjected her toe a battery of tests based on his own knowledge and former magical experience. The full account of this altogether remarkable episode has been narrated in full in Crowley's book The Equinox of the Gods. I have also discussed this in my biographical study of him entitled
The Eye in the Triangle (Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minn. 1969). A long story is unnecessary here. Suffice it to say that every day for three days he was instructed to sit alone in the living room of their Cairo apartment. For one full hour on each of three successive days beginning on April 7th, a Voice dictated to him what was called The Book of the Law, sometimes written as Liber Al vel Legis.
This document enunciated a series of new moral, religious, mystical and philosophical dogmas. Some of these he was already familiar with and could accept without equivocation. Many passages dealt with the teachings of the Golden Dawn whose rituals were announced as abrogate and out of touch with the dawning new age. Others were so revolutionary and distasteful to him that he responded to this extraordinary psychic experience with a classic Freudian mechanism. He buried the holograph manuscript amongst a host of miscellaneous materials stored in the attic of his house of Boleskine, Scotland, and then promptly forgot all about it. It is still unclear as to why he really rejected The Book of the Law. True, it did praise him to the skies. It called him a prophet who was a revealer of a New Aeon dawning for mankind. "Blessing and worship to the prophet of the lovely Star." A modest man might easily have been offended by this unequivocal aggrandisement of the ego. But Crowley was under no circumstances a modest, retiring sort of creature, despite the fact that theoretically he realized the fallacies of an ego-oriented philosophy as AHA! clearly shows. "......... Cease to strive! Destroy this partial I, this moan Of an hurt beast! ....... Indeed, that "I" that is not God Is but a lion in the road!" The consideration of his personal history makes it abundantly evident that his ego was considerably hypertrophied. He was ambitious, brilliant and egotistical - and had every natural ability to fulfil those ambitions.
He was intrinsically a rebel. This characteristic had its roots in the fanatical religious training that was ridiculously imposed upon him by his parents, advocates of a sect known as the Plymouth Brethren. He never fully recovered from his initial antagonism to their stupidity; it made him a vicious rebel against any and every kind of orthodox religiosity. There is hardly a piece of his voluminous writing free of this sneering hostility to Christianity, which he was never able to differentiate from mere churchianity.
He had a highly adventurous spirit, and loved taking chances, pitting himself against what appeared to be over-whelming odds.
As a boy he had been sick and weakly. At several of the English public schools to which he had been sent, he was a natural target of the bully. Smouldering resentment, aided finally by the wise instruction of a tutor in his mid-adolescence, enabled him to stand up for himself and give a good account of himself. I am certain it was this that turned him in the direction of mountain climbing and wild adventure so that he could prove to the world, but mainly to himself, that he was not a weak coward. So he climbed the Alps, the Mexican volcanoes, the Himalayas, walked across the Sahara desert, hunted big game all over the world, and carried on extensive research and complicated experiments with drugs and meditation and magic. He could hardly be called an insignificant person.
Despite this, he was a lonely man. He knew this, and exulted in the solitary aspects of his life. Later, after he found a private inner world through his mystical experiences, he considered himself Alastor, the Spirit of Solitude, the Wanderer of the Wastes.
Yet he was an egotist. He never shirked from the omnipresent urge to seek publicity, at no time caring whether it was good, bad or indifferent, so long as it was publicity. At the same time, he was a snob. Though he sneered at the British landed gentry, it is clear that he yearned to have been one of them. There are several references in his writing indicating that, though he came of upper middle-class trades people, a family of successful brewers in on section of England, he arrogated to himself the fiction of aristocracy. He was not content to consider himself a peer in the higher ranks of the aristocracy of the spirit. He played at disappearing in the heart of London, assuming nom- de-plumes that would assure secrecy or anonymity. A good sample is the Count de Swareff! Early in the century, he was involved, though distantly, in an attempted Spanish uprising, for which Don Carlos knighted him - quite meaninglessly. When I knew crowley, his calling cards bore a small coronet and "Sir Aleister Crowley."
In 1904, during his visit to Cairo, he could not register at the hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Aleister Crowley. That would have been far too prosaic. Instead, he chose Prince Chia Khan (pronounced Hiwa Khan). He was honest enough to write that he "wanted to swagger about in a turban with a diamond aigrette and sweeping silken robes or a coat of cloth-of-gold, with a jeweled talwar by my side, and two gorgeous runners to clear the way for my carriage through the streets of Cairo .
..." In defending himself, he had no hesitancy in fighting with every means at his disposal, even "playing dirty" when it suited him. This succeeded at all times, save against some of the more miserable journalists and muckrakers who delighted in distorting his every departure from the conventional norm of Victorian England. there he was beaten. Having no defenses at all against this vilification, he developed an iron-clad complacency as his character-mask to conceal his squeamishness and his outraged sense of hurt. In spite of all this, he withdrew from the world-shaking role depicted for him in 'The Book of the Law;' he would not accept it. for five years he went about his business - being a husband and father, a writer of many poetic works, a mountain climber of a second Himalayan expedition, etc. - as if he had never been the recipient of a new revelation. but slowly and as it were piecemeal, the praeter-human agencies behind the dictation of this magical document slowly wore down his stubborn resistance. One seemingly accidental phenomenon after another occurred with dreadful frequency until at last he became willing to assume the mantle of prophet that had been cast upon him. One day, while hunting on behalf of a friend for a pair of skis in the attic of his house in Scotland, he suddenly fell upon the manuscript of 'The Book of the Law'. He was overwhelmed. It was as if this unwanted discovery in the year 1909 were the last straw. In a spontaneous act of wonder as well as submission, he fell in line. He accepted the responsibilities that were spelled out in detail in this document. One of the several results ensuing from this conversion-like acceptance was the writing of AHA!
In this lengthly poem, he attempted to tie together a number of loose threads in his life, as well as to affirm the supreme fact that he was a messenger bearing a message. The poem described in great fullness and with extraordinary power and eloquence the mystical path in all its varieties that he was familiar with from a practical and experimental point of view. The eight limbs of Yoga are described in a long paragraph, which incidentally has been used by many writers without the least bit of acknowledgement This paragraph begins: "There are seven keys to the great gate, Being eight in one and one in eight ...." And ends with: "....... I leave thee here; thou art the Master. I revere Thy radiance that rolls afar, O Brother of the Silver Star!" This followed by some descriptions of the early phases of magical practice, particularly that called in the Golden Dawn "skrying in the spirit vision," which, pursued properly to its logical end, may lead to higher mystical states:
"The first
true sights. Bright images
Throng the clear mind at first, a crowd
Of Gods, lights, armies, landscapes; loud
Reververations of the Light.
but these are dreams, things in the
mind,
No rest therein. Thou shalt find
No rest therein. The former three
(Lightning, moon, sun) are royally
Liminal to the Hall of Truth.
Also there be with them in sooth,
Their brethren,
There's the
vision called
the Lion of the Light, a brand
Of ruby flame and emerald
Waved by the Hermeneutic Hand.
There is the Chalice, whence
the flood
Of God's beatitude of Blood
Flames .
O to sing
those starry tunes!
O colder than a million moons!
O vestal waters! Wine of love
Wan as the lyric soul thereof!
There is the Wind, a whirling
sword,
Rapture 15
The savage rapture of the air
tossed beyond space and time. My Lord,
My Lord, even now I see Thee there
In infinite Motion! And beyond
There is the Disk, the wheel of things;
Like a black boundless deamond
Whirring with millions of wings!"
This poem contains other descriptions of mystical states of
consciousness which are unique in the annals of religious
literature. I have in mind particularly the account of a
shattering experience which I believe occurred in 1906 or 1907
during or shortly after his walk through the southern part of
China near the present Vietnam border. this account bears
comparison with that of Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of' the
Bhagavad Gita' which is called 'The Song celestial'. In that
comparison, it may be said that Crowley's account does not come
off a poor second.
"Tell me thereof!
Oh not of this!
Of all the flowers in God's field
We name no this. Our lips are sealed
In that the Universal Key
Lieth within its mystery.
but know thou this. These visions give
A hint both faint and fugitive
Yet haunting, that behind them lurks
Some Worker, greater than His works ...
The infinite Lord of Light and Love
Breaks on the soul like dawn. See! See!
Great God of Might and Majesty!
Formless, all the worlds of flame
Atoms of that fiery frame!
The adept caught up and broken;
Slain, before His Name be spoken!
In that fire the soul burns up.
One drop from that celestial cup
Is an abyss, an infinite sea (he must of studied the Sevenfold peace sermon spoken by Jesus recorded by the Essenes.)
That sucks up immortality!
O but the Self is manifest
Through all that blaze! Memory stumbles
Like a blind man for all the rest.
Speech, like a crag of limestone, crumbles,
While this one soul of thought is sure
through all confusion to endure,
Infinite Truth in one small span:
this that is God is Man."
There is also an account, brief to be sure, but hauntingly
beautiful, of the so-called Abramelin operation. This celebrated
magical retirement has its original description in 'The Book of
the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage,' translated from the
French many decades ago by McGregor Mathers, one of the original
chiefs of the Order of the Golden Dawn.
The author of this book is supposed to have been one Abraham, to
acknowledge the receipt of his system from an Egyptian named
Abramelin. There is undoubtedly mythology here, but that is
altogether unimportant. Regardless of its origin, its date and
its authorship, this work was found to be of value to some of the
adepts of the Golden Dawn and many other students. The author
makes no impossible demands such as are found in the fraudulent
grimoires concerning the blood of bats caught at midnight, or the
fourth feather from the left wing of a completely black cock, or
the stuffed eye of a virgin basilisk, and so on.
Though perhaps some of the requirements are difficult to follow,
there is always an excellent reason for their statement. They are
not intended to be subtle tests of the skill of the operator.
Certain preliminary prescriptions and injunctions need to be
observed, but these really amount to little more than common-sense
counsel, to observe decency in the performance of so august an
operation.
For example, one should possess a house where proper precautions
against disturbance and interference can be taken. This having
been arranged, there remains but little else to do. For six
months in privacy, the sole preoccupation is to aspire with
increasing concentration and ardor towards the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy guardian Angel.
It was in the year 1899 that Crowley originally began this
particular retirement. Nothing came of it at all, because
shortly after he started, the revolt broke out in earnest among
the rank and file members of the Golden Dawn. Upon hearing of
this, Crowley immediately terminated the operation and wired
McGregor Mathers offering his services and his fortune should they
be needed. Crowley found himself in the midst of a hornet's nest,
and was blamed for a great deal for which he had no responsibility
at all.
After his first Himalayan debacle, returning to England somewhat
dejected and dismayed, he met Rose Kelly and married her on the
spur of the moment. But it had been his intention to start the
operation a second time. It had been on his mind for three or four
years, in which time he had gained so much more magical and yoga
experience as to make him realize that his first attempt in that
direction would have resulted in failure because of a lack of
proper preparation. His preoccupation with his new wife was so
complete, however, that naturally there was neither time more
interest in anything else, including Abramelin.
The third attempt was made during the walk across the southern
boundaries of China. He was accompanied by his wife and child and
a faithful servant. There were times when one or the other was
ill, or some unforeseen but serious danger threatened. Yet
throughout a period of several months, perched on a small pony,
this strange and intrepid coward-hero was performing a complex
magical ceremony with ardor and enthusiasm. In a Temple not built
with hands, he had constructed the Abramelin environment astrally
in his trained imagination, to follow the lines of instruction he
had previously received while a member of the Order.
" And at the midnight thou shalt go
To the mid-streams' smoothest flow,
And strike upon a golden bell
The spirit's call; then say the spell:
'Angel, mine angel, draw thee nigh!'
Making the Sign of Magistry
with wand of lapis lazuli.
Then, it may be, through the blind dumb
Night thou shalt see thine angel come ...
He shall inform his happy lover;
My foolish prating shall be over!"
Foolish prating or not, the poem continues this early theme with
that which results from sincere and patient discipline.
"Angel, I invoke thee now!
Bend on me the starry brow!
Spread the eagle wings above
The pavilion of our love! ...
O Thou art like an Hawk of Gold,
Miraculously manifold,
For all the sky's aflame to be
A mirror magical of Thee!
the stars seem comets, rushing down
To gem thy robes, bedew thy crown.
Like the moon-plumes of a strange bird
By a great wind sublimely stirred,
thou drawest the light of all the skies
Into thy wake. The heaven dies
In bubbling froth of light, that foams
About thine ardour. All the domes
Of all the heavens close above thee
As thou art known of me who love thee.
Excellent kiss, thou fastenest on
This soul of mine, that it is gone,
Gone from all life, and rapt away
Into the infinite starry spray
Of thine own Aeon ... Alas for me!
I faint. Thy mystic majesty
Absorbs this spark."
Some of the lovely phrases and sentences in these quotations
from AHA! have been with me for many long years.
"Lie open, a chameleon cup,
And let Him suck thine honey up!"
and again,
"Angel, mine Angel, draw Thee nigh!"
These phrases, with another from an earlier mystical prose-poem
entitle 'Liber VII vel Lapidis Lazuli," were responsible forty
years ago for one of the premonitory religious or mystical
experiences of my burgeoning spiritual life.
There are dozens more. The aspirant who has been duly prepared
by life, experience and study will find his own cues to serve as
catalysts of the inner life. Each reader is bound to discover his
own individual set of stimuli. They are there for the finding.
The act of spiritual submission and acceptance was followed immediately, not really by the writing of AHA! but by a trip to the Sahara Desert with a disciple who acted as scribe. During that solitary walk, Crowley would invoke every day, one of the Aethyrs, an intrinsic part of the Enochian system of magic. Queen Elizabeth's astrologer, Dr. John Dee, had developed this system in collaboration with a notorious alchemist, Sir Edward Kelly. But the Golden Dawn had taken over their crude and rudimentary system and, with its customary genius, had transformed it into a fantastically superb system which systematized and synthesized every single component of its teaching. After invoking the angels of the Aethyr, Crowley would then enter a semi-trance, dictating what he heard and saw to his disciple, Victor Neuburg, who would record it all. this record later became 'The Vision and The Voice,' a most remarkable spiritual document. It is important to mention it here, however, because in the course of these daily invocations and apocalyptic visions, 'The Book of the Law' was referred to again and again. They confirmed his act of submission, and directed his attention to the task confronting him.
The 5 Vees a Major conjunction in the research discovered (sevens insert 25th Oct 07) It must have been about a year or so following this desert experience that he set to work on the poetic clarification of what he finally stood for.
There are some references to the Sahara episode in this poem, since it resulted in his second crossing of the Abyss, the critical event in his spiritual life. It was then that he chose the magical motto of V.V.V.V.V., which I familiarly call five Vees.
The Dalamatia Vees vvvvv
Jesus Tomb and the 5 Vees that leads to the Mars Vees
Dalamatia City
continuing....
This critical event in the spiritual life is not the "sweet and
light" phenomenon many amateur mystics would have us believe.
Even Dr. Carl G. Jung somewhere in his writing asserts that coming
to know God may be fraught with horror and terror before man will
let go of his ego. It is accompanied by a "coming apart at the
seams" of the mind.
All mystics of every age have described in various ways this
major disintegration, purgation or submission of the soul prior to
its confrontation with God in acquisition of cosmic consciousness.
Nowhere is it described so eloquently as the species of insanity
that it is as in our present poem.
"Black snare that I was taken in!
How one may pass I hardly know.
Maybe Time never blots the track.
black, black, intolerably black!
Go, spectre of the ages, go!
Suffice it that I passed beyond.
I found the secret of the bond
Of thought to thought through countless years,
through many lives, in many spheres,
Brought to a point the dark design
Of this existence that is me. All I was
I brought into the burning-glass
And all its focussed light and heat
Charred all I am. The rune's complete
When all I shall be flashes by
Like a shadow on the sky.
then I dropped my reasoning.
Vacant and accursed thing! ...."
It is only after the delineation of this crossing that he
proceeded to instruction in basic techniques, and finally to
expound the law as laid down in 'Liber Legis.'
"Do what thou wilt! is the sole word
Of Law that my attainment heard."
Here is given the central core of the 1904 revelation and to
which he devoted, in one way or another, the remaining years of
his life.
"Arise, and set a period
Unto Restriction! That is sin:
To hold thine holy spirit in !"
The rest of the epic deals with transcriptions and descriptions
of parts of the three chapters of that devastating Book.
The format of the poem consists of a dialogue between a teacher
Marsyas and his pupil, Olympas. Crowley provides a brief
description of his intent in a preliminary survey of the poem
called "The Argumentation." He opens this by stating:
"A little before Dawn, the pupil comes to greet his Master, and
begs instruction."
In passing, I ought to make note that in 1932, when I wrote 'The
Tree of Life ( Weiser Inc., New York, 1969 ) - which expressed my
comprehension of Crowley's magic up to that time - the dedication
was "To Marsyas, with poignant memory of what might have been."
In the course of the past three or four decades, I have met no one
who had the least inkling of the meaning of the dedication, which
simply means that this lovely poetic saga of Crowley's own
odyssey, to be found in Equinox III,was known to pitifully few
people. Actually it expressed sadness and regret on my part that
Crowley had not strictly attended to the magical training that was
promised me in 1928 when I had joined him in Paris. An easing of
that disappointment came later, when I realized that he was
temporarily in a state of what could be called spiritual pralaya
and some psycho-social disorganization resulting from the stresses
and strains of the previous years which included Mussolini
expelling him from Italy, ostensibly because of Masonic
connections.
However - to return to our poem. The dialogue form of
exposition does present some minor technical difficulties. I
cannot say that this particular format is the most adequate for
the purpose he had in mind. Nonetheless, these difficulties were
dealt with and overcome; they comprise minor criticism and more
insignificant defects.
The main body of the work is superb, including some powerful and
magnificent poetry which needs to be preserved for posterity to
whom, I hope, it will be as meaningful and inspirational as it has
to me.
Israel Regardie
August 22, 1969
Studio City, Calif.
THE ARGUMENTATION
A LITTLE before Dawn, the pupil comes to greet his Master, and
begs instruction.
Inspired by his Angel, he demands the Doctrine of being rapt
away into the Knowledge and Conversation of Him.
The Master discloses the doctrine of Passive Attention or
Waiting.
This seeming hard to the Pupil, it is explained further, and the
Method of Resignation, Constancy, and Patience inculcated. The
Paradox of Equilibrium. The necessity of giving oneself wholly up
to the new element. Egoism rebuked.
The Master, to illustrate this Destruction of the Ego, describes
the Visions of Dhyana. (some other research on the Visions of Dhyana do a page search to find the myth)
He further describes the defence of the Soul against assailing
Thoughts, and shows that the duality of Consciousness is a
blasphemy against the Unity of God; so that even the thought
called God is a denial of God-as-He-is-in-Himself.
The pupil sees nothing but a blank midnight in this Emptying of
the Soul. He is shown that this is the necessary condition of
Illumination. Distinction is further made between these three
Dhyanas, and those early visions in which things appear as
objective. With these three Dhyanas, moreover, are Four other of
the Four Elements: and many more.
Above these is the Veil of Paroketh. Its guardians.
The Rosy Cross lies beyond this veil, and therewith the vision called Vishvarupadarshana. More over, there is the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The infinite number and variety of these Visions. The impossibility of revealing all these truths to the outer and uninitiated world. The Vision of the Universal Peacock-Atmadarshana. The confusion of the Mind, and the Perception of its self-contradiction. The necessity to surmount Reason, as Reason has surmounted Sense. The Second Veil-the Veil of the Abyss. The fatuity of speech. A discussion as to the means by which the vision arises in the pure Soul is useless; suffice it that in the impure Soul no vision will arise. The practical course is therefore to cleanse the Soul. The four powers of the Sphinx; even adepts hardly attain to one of them! The final Destruction of the Ego. The Master confesses that he has lured the disciple by the promise of Joy, as the only thing comprehensible by him, although pain and joy are transcended even in early visions. Ananda (bliss)-and its opposite-mark the first steps of the path. Ultimately all things are transcended; and even so, this attainment of Peace is but as a scaffolding to the Palace of the King. The sheaths of the soul. The abandonment of all is necessary; the adept recalls his own tortures, as all that he loved was torn away. The Ordeal of the Veil of the Abyss; the Unbinding of the Fabric of Mind, and its ruin. The distinction between philosophical credence and interior certitude. Sammasati-the trance wherein the adept perceives his causal connection with the Universe; past, present, and future. Mastering the Reason, he becomes as a little child, and invokes his Holy Guardian Angel, the Augoeides. Atmadarshana arising is destroyed by the Opening of the Eye of Shiva; the annihilation of the Universe. The adept is destroyed, and there arises the Master latter bids him rather unite himself with the Augoeides. Yet, following the great annihilation, the adept reappears as an Angel to instruct men in this doctrine. The Majesty of the Master described. The pupil, wonder-struck, swears to attain, and asks for further instruction. The Master describes the Eight Limbs of Yoga. The pupil lamenting the difficulty of attainment, the Master shows forth the sweetness of the hermit's life. One doubt remains: will not the world be able instantly to recognize the Saint? The Master replies that only imperfect Saints reveal themselves as such. Of these are the cranks and charlatans, and those that fear and deny Life. But let us fix our thoughts on Love, and not on the failings of others! The Master invokes the Augoeides; the pupil through sympathy is almost rapt away. The Augoeides hath given the Master a message; namely, to manifest the New Way of the Equinox of Horus, as revealed in Liber Legis. He does so, and reconciles it with the Old way by inviting the Test of Experiment. They would go therefore to the Desert or the Mountains-nay! here and now shall it be accomplished.]
Peace to all beings!
AHA
OLYMPAS. Master, ere the ruby Dawn
Gild the dew of leaf and lawn,
Bidding the petals to unclose
Of heaven's imperishable rose,
I come to greet thee. Here I bow
To earth this consecrated brow!
As a lover woos the Moon
Aching in a silver swoon,
I reach my lips towards thy shoon,
Mendicant of the mystic boon!
MARSYAS. What wilt thou?
OLYMPAS. Let mine Angel say!
"Utterly to be rapt away!"
MARSYAS. How, whence, and whither?
OLYMPAS. "By my kiss
From that abode to this - to this!"
My wings?
MARSYAS. Thou hast no wings. But see
An eagle sweeping from the Byss
Where God stands. Let him ravish thee,
And bear thee to a boundless bliss!
OLYMPAS. How should I call him? How beseech?
MARSYAS. Silence is lovelier than Speech.
Only on a windless tree
Falls the dew, Felicity!
One ripple on the water mars
The magic mirror of the Stars.
OLYMPAS. My soul bends to the athletic stress
Of God's immortal loveliness.
Tell me, what wit avails the clod
To know the nearness of its God?
MARSYAS. First, let the soul be poised, and fledge
Truth's feather on mind's razor-edge.
Next, let no memory, feeling, hope
Stain all its starless horoscope.
Last, let it be content, twice void ;
Not to be suffered or enjoyed ;
Motionless, blind and deaf and dumb-
So may it to its kingdom come!
OLYMPAS. Dear master, can this be? The wine
Embittered with dark discipline?
For the soul loves her mate, the sense.
MARSYAS. This bed is sterile. Thou must fence
Thy soul from all her foes, the creatures
That by their soft and siren natures
Lure thee to shipwreck!
OLYMPASThou hast said :
"God is in all."
MARSYAS In sooth.
OLYMPAS. Why dread
The Godhood?
MARSYAS. Only as the thought
Is God, adore it. But the soul creates
Misshapen fiends, incestuous mates.
Slay these : they are false shadows of
The never-waning moon of love.
OLYMPAS. What thought is worthy?
MARSYAS. Truly none
Save one, in that it is but one.
Keep the mind constant ; thou shalt see
Ineffable felicity.
Increase the will, and thou shalt find
It hath the strength to be resigned.
Resign the will ; and from the string
Will's arrow shall have taken wing,
And from the desolate abode
Found the immaculate heart of God!
OLYMPAS. The word is hard!
MARSYAS. All things excite
Their equal and their opposite.
Be great, and thou shalt be-how small!
Be naught, and thou shalt be the All!
Eat not ; all meat shall fill thy mouth :
Drink and thy soul shall die of drouth!
Fill thyself ; and that thou seekest
Is diluted to its weakest.
Empty thyself ; the ghosts of night
Flee before the living Light.
Who clutches straws is drowned ; but he
That hath the secret of the sea,
Lives with the whole lust of his limbs,
Takes hold of water's self, and swims.
See, the ungainly albatross
Stumbles awkwardly across
Earth-one wing - beat, and he flies
Most graceful gallant in the skies!
So do thou leave thy thoughts, intent
On thy new noble element!
Throw the earth shackles off, and cling
To what imperishable thing
Arises from the married death
Of thine own self in that whereon
Thou art fixed.
OLYMPAS. Then all life's loyal breath
Is a waste wind. All joy foregone,
I must strive ever?
MARSYAS. Cease to strive!
Destroy this partial I, this moan
Of an hurt beast! Sores keep alive
By scratching. Health is peace. Unknown
And unexpressed because at ease
Are the Most High Congruities.
OLYMPAS. Then death is thine "attainment"? I
Can do no better than to die!
MARSYAS. Indeed, that "I" that is not God
Is but a lion in the road!
Knowest thou not (even now!) how first
The fetters of Restriction burst?
In the rapture of the heart
Self hath neither lot nor part.
OLYMPAS. Tell me, dear master how the bud
First breaks to brilliance of bloom ;
What ecstasy of brain and blood
Shatters the seal upon the tomb
Of him whose gain was the world's loss,
Our father Christian Rosycross!
MARSYAS. First, one is like a gnarled old oak
On a waste heath. Shrill shrieks the wind.
Night smothers earth. Storm swirls to choke
The throat of silence! Hard behind
Gathers a blacker cloud than all.
But look! but look! it thrones a ball
Of blistering fire. It breaks. The lash
Of lightning snakes him forth. One crash
Splits the old tree. One rending roar!-
And night is darker than before.
OLYMPAS. Nay, master, master! Terror hath
So fierce an hold upon the path?
Life must lie crushed, a charred black swath,
In that red harvest's aftermath!
MARSYAS. Life lives. Storm passes. Clouds dislimn.
The night is clear. And now to him
Who hath endured is given the boon
Of an immeasurable moon.
The air about the adept congeals
To crystal ; in his heart he feels
One needle pang ; then breaks that splendour
Infinitely pure and tender . . .
-And the ice drags him down!
OLYMPAS. But may
Our trembling frame, our clumsy clay,
Endure such anguish?
MARSYAS. In the worm
Lurks an unconquerable germ
Identical. A sparrow's fall
Were the Destruction of the All!
More ; know that this surpasses skill
To express its ecstasy. The thrill
Burns in the memory like the glory
Of some far beaconed promontory
Where no light shines but on the comb
Of breakers, flickerings of the foam!
OLYMPAS. The path ends here?
MARSYAS. Ingenuous one!
The path-the true path-scarce begun.
When does the night end?
OLYMPAS. When the sun,
Crouching below the horizon,
Flings up his head, tosses his mane,
Ready to leap.
MARSYAS. Even so. Again
The adept secures his subtle fence
Against the hostile shafts of sense,
Pins for a second his mind ; as you
May have seen some huge wrestler do.
With all his gathered weight heaped, hurled,
Resistless as the whirling world,
He holds his foeman to the floor
For one great moment and no more.
So-then the sun - blaze! All the night
Bursts to a vivid orb of light.
There is no shadow ; nothing is,
But the intensity of bliss.
Being is blasted. That exists.
OLYMPAS. Ah!
MARSYAS. But the mind, that mothers mists,
Abides not there. The adept must fall
Exhausted.
OLYMPAS. There's an end of all?
MARSYAS. But not an end of this! Above
All life as is the pulse of love,
So this transcends all love.
OLYMPAS. Ah me!
Who may attain?
MARSYAS. Rare souls.
OLYMPAS. I see
Imaged a shadow of this light.
MARSYAS. Such is its sacramental might
That to recall it radiates
Its symbol. The priest elevates
The Host, and instant blessing stirs
The hushed awaiting worshippers.
OLYMPAS. Then how secure the soul's defence?
How baffle the besieger, Sense?
MARSYAS. See the beleaguered city, hurt
By hideous engines, sore begirt
And gripped by lines of death, well scored
With shell, nigh open to the sword!
Now comes the leader ; courage, run
Contagious through the garrison!
Repair the trenches! Man the wall!
Restore the ruined arsenal!
Serve the great guns! The assailants blench ;
They are driven from the foremost trench.
The deadliest batteries belch their hell
No more. So day by day fought well,
We silence gun by gun. At last
The fiercest of the fray is past ;
The circling hills are ours. The attack
Is over, save for the rare crack,
Long dropping shots from hidden forts;-
-So is it with our thoughts!
OLYMPAS. The hostile thoughts, the evil things!
They hover on majestic wings,
Like vultures waiting for a man
To drop from the slave-caravan!
MARSYAS. All thoughts are evil. Thought is two:
The seer and the seen. Eschew
That supreme blasphemy, my son,
Remembering that God is One.
OLYMPAS. God is a thought!
MARSYAS. The thought of God
Is but a shattered emerod ;
A plague, an idol, a delusion,
Blasphemy, schism, and confusion!
OLYMPAS. Banish my one high thought? The night
Indeed were starless.
MARSYAS. Very right!
But that impalpable inane
Is the condition of success ;
Even as earth lies black to gain
Spring's green and autumn's fruitfulness.
OLYMPAS. I dread this midnight of the soul.
MARSYAS. Welcome the herald!
OLYMPAS. How control
The horror of the mind? The insane
Dead melancholy?
MARSYAS. Trick is vain.
Sheer manhood must support the strife,
And the trained Will, the Root of Life,
Bear the adept triumphant.
OLYMPAS. Else?
MARSYAS. The reason, like a chime of bells
Ripped by the lightning, cracks.
OLYMPAS. And these
Are the first sights the magus sees?
MARSYAS.
"The first true sights. Bright images
Throng the clear mind at first, a crowd
Of Gods, lights, armies, landscapes; loud
Reververations of the Light.
but these are dreams, things in the mind,
No rest therein. Thou shalt find
No rest therein. The former three
(Lightning, moon, sun) are royally
Liminal to the Hall of Truth.
Also there be with them in sooth,
Their brethren,There's the vision called
the Lion of the Light, a brand
Of ruby flame and emerald
Waved by the Hermeneutic Hand.
There is the Chalice, whence the flood
Of God's beatitude of Blood
Flames .O to sing those starry tunes!
O colder than a million moons!
O vestal waters! Wine of love
Wan as the lyric soul thereof!
There is the Wind, a whirling sword,
the savage rapture of the air
Tossed beyond space and time. My Lord,
My lord, even now I see Thee there
In infinite motion! And beyond
There is the Disk, the wheel of things;
Like a black boundless diamond
Whirring with millions of wings!
OLYMPAS. Master!
MARSYAS. Know also that above
These portents hangs no veil of love;
But, guarded by unsleeping eyes
Of twice seven score severities, (again sounds similar to the Burach two parts Seven, Seven)
The Veil that only rips apart
when the spear strikes to Jesus' heart!
A mighty Guard of Fire are they
With sabres turning every way!
Their eyes are millstones greater than
The earth ; their mouths run seas of blood.
Woe be to that accursed man
Of whom they are the iniquities1
Swept in their wrath's avenging flood
To black immitigable seas!
Woe to the seeker who shall fail
To rend that vexful virgin veil!
Fashion thyself by austere craft
Into a single azure shaft
Loosed from the string of Will ; behold
The Rainbow! Thou art shot, pure flame,
Past the reverberated Name
Into the Hall of Death. Therein
The Rosy Cross is subtly seen.
OLYMPAS. Is that a vision, then? NARSYAS. It is. OLYMPAS. Tell me Thereof!
MARSYAS. O not of this1
Of all the flowers in God's field
We name not this. Our lips are sealed
In that the Universal Key
Lieth within its mystery.
But know thou this. These visions give
A hint both faint and fugitive
Yet haunting, that behind them lurks
Some Worker, greater than His works.
Yea, it is given to him who girds
His loins up, is not fooled by words,
Who takes life lightly in his hand
To throw away at Will's command,
To know that View beyond the Veil.
O petty purities and pale,
These visions I have spoken of!
The infinite Lord of Light and Love
Breaks on the soul like dawn. See! See!
Great God of Might and Majesty!
Beyond sense, beyond sight, a brilliance
Burning from His glowing glance!
Formless, all the worlds of flame
Atoms of that fiery frame!
The adept caught up and broken ;
Slain, before His Name be spoken!
In that fire the soul burns up.
One drop from that celestial cup
Is an abyss, an infinite sea
That sucks up immortality!
O but the Self is manifest
Through all that blaze! Memory stumbles
Like a blind man for all the rest.
Speech, like a crag of limestone, crumbles,
While this one soul of thought is sure
Through all confusion to endure,
Infinite Truth in one small span:
This that is God is Man.
OLYMPAS. Master! I tremble and rejoice.
MARSYAS. Before His own authentic voice
Doubt flees. The chattering choughs of talk
Scatter like sparrows from a hawk.
OLYMPAS. Thenceforth the adept is certain of
The mystic mountain? Light and LOve
Are life therein, and they are his?
MARSYAS. Even so. And One supreme there is
Whom I have known, being He. Withdrawn
Within the curtains of the dawn
Dwells that concealed. Behold! he is
A blush, a breeze, a song, a kiss,
A rosy flame like Love, his eyes
Blue, the quintessence of all skies,
His hair a foam of gossamer
Pale gold as jasmine, lovelier
Than all the wheat of Paradise.
O the dim water-wells his eyes!
There is such depth of Love in them
That the adept is rapt away,
Dies on that mouth, a gleaming gem
Of dew caught in the boughs of Day!
OLYMPAS. The hearing of it is so sweet
I swoon to silence at thy feet.
MARSYAS. Rise! Let me tell thee, knowing Him,
The Path grows never wholly dim.
Lose Him, and thou indeed wert lost!
But He will not lose thee!
OLYMPAS. Exhaust
The word!
MARSYAS. Had I a million songs,
And every song a million words,
And every word a million meanings,
I could not count the choral throngs
O Beauty's beatific birds,
Or gather up the paltry gleanings
Of this great harvest of delight!
Hast thou not heard the word aright?
That world is truly infinite.
Even as a cube is to a square
Is that to this.
OLYMPAS. Royal and rare!
Infinite light of burning wheels!
MARSYAS. Ay! the imagination reels.
Thou must attain before thou know,
And when thou knowest-Mighty woe
That silence grips the willing lips!
OLYMPAS. Ever was speech the thought's eclipse.
MARSYAS. Ay, not to veil the truth to him
Who sought it, groping in the dim
Halls of illusion, said the sages
In all the realms, in all the ages,
"Keep silence." By a word should come
Your sight, and we who see are dumb!
We have sought a thousand times to teach
Our knowledge ; we are mocked by speech.
So lewdly mocked, that all this word
Seems dead, a cloudy crystal blurred,
Though it cling closer to life's heart
Than the best rhapsodies of art!
OLYMPAS. Yet speak!
MARSYAS. Ah, could I tell thee of
These infinite things of Light and Love!
There is the Peacock; in his fan
Innumerable plumes of Pan!
Oh! every plume hath countless eyes;
-Crown of created mysteries!-
Each holds a Peacock like the First.
OLYMPAS. How can this be?
MARSYAS. The mind's accurst.
It cannot be. It is. Behold,
Battalion on battalion rolled!
There is war in Heaven! The soul sings still,
Struck by the plectron of the Will;
But the mind's dumb; its only cry
The shriek of its last agony!
OLYMPAS. Surely it struggles.
MARSYAS. Bitterly!
And, mark! it must be strong to die!
The weak and partial reason dips
One edge, another springs, as when
A melting iceberg reels and tips
Under the sun. Be mighty then,
A lord of Thought, beyond wit and wonder
Balanced-then push the whole mind under,
Sunk beyond chance of floating, blent
rightly with its own element,
Not lifting jagged peaks and bare
to the unsympathetic air!
This is the second veil; and hence
As first we slew the things of sense
Upon the altar of their God,
So must the Second Period
Slay the ideas, to attain
To that which is, beyond the brain.
OLYMPAS. To that which is?-not thought? not sense?
MARSYAS. Knowledge is but experience
Made conscious of itself. The bee,
Past master of geometry,
Hath not one word of all of it;
For wisdom is not mother-wit!
So the adept is called insane
For his frank failure to explain.
Language creates false thoughts; the true
Breed language slowly. Following
Experience of a thing we knew
Arose the need to name the thing.
So, ancients likened a man's mind
To the untamed evasive wind.
Some fool thinks names are things; and boasts
Aloud of spirits and of ghosts.
Religion follows on a pun!
And we, who know that Holy One
Of whom I told thee, seek in vain
Figure or word to make it plain.
OLYMPAS. Despair of man!
MARSYAS. Man is the seed
Of the unimaginable flower.
By singleness of thought and deed
It may bloom now-this actual hour!
OLYMPAS. The soul made safe, is vision sure
To rise therein?
MARSYAS. Though calm and pure
It seem, maybe some thought hath crept
Into his mind to baulk the adept.
The expectation of success
Suffices to destroy the stress
Of the one thought. But then, what odds?
"Man's vision goes, dissolves in God's;"
Or, "by God's grace the Light is given
To the elected heir of heaven."
These are but idle theses, dry
Dugs of the cow Theology.
Business is business. The one fact
That we know is : the gods exact
A stainless mirror. Cleanse thy soul!
Perfect the will's austere control!
For the rest, wait! The sky once clear,
Dawn needs no prompting to appear!
OLYMPAS. Enough! it shall be done.
MARSYAS. Beware!
Easily trips the big word "dare."
Each man's an OEdipus, that thinks
He hath the four powers of the Sphinx,
Will, Courage, Knowledge, Silence. Son,
Even the adepts scarce win to one!
Thy Thoughts-they fall like rotten fruits.
But to destroy the power that makes
These thoughts-thy Self? A man it takes
To tear his soul up by the roots!
this is the mandrake fable, boy!
OLYMPAS. You told me that the Path was joy.
MARSYAS. A lie to lure thee!
OLYMPAS. Master!
MARSYAS. Pain
And joy are twin toys of the brain.
even early visions pass beyond!
OLYMPAS. Not all the crabbed runes I have conned
Told me so plain a truth. I see,
Inscrutable Simplicity!
Crushed like a blind-worm by the heel
Of all I am, perceive, and feel,
My truth was but the partial pang
That chanced to strike me as I sang.
MARSYAS. In the beginning, violence
Marks the extinction of the sense.
Anguish and rapture rack the soul.
These are disruptions of control.
Self-poised, a brooding hawk, there hangs
In the still air the adept. The bull
On the firm earth goes not so smooth!
So the first fine ecstatic pangs
Pass ; balance comes.
OLYMPAS. How wonderful
Are these tall avenues of truth!
MARSYAS. So the first flash of light and terror
Is seen as shadow, known as error.
Next, light comes as light; as it grows
The sense of peace still steadier glows;
And the fierce lust, that linked the soul
To its God, attains a chaste control.
Intimate, an atomic bliss,
Is the last phrasing of that kiss.
Not ecstasy, but peace, pure peace!
Invisible the dew sublimes
From the great mother, subtly climbs
And loves the leaves! Yea, in the end,
Vision all vision must transcend.
These glories are mere scaffolding
To the Closed Palace of the King.
OLYMPAS. Yet, saidst thou, ere the new flower shoots
The soul is torn up by the roots.
MARSYAS. Now come we to the intimate things
Known to how few! Man's being clings
First to the outer. Free from these
The inner sheathings, and he sees
Those sheathings as external. Strip
One after one each lovely lip
From the full rose-bud! Ever new
Leaps the next petal to the view.
What binds them but Desire? Disease
Most dire of direful Destiny's!
OLYMPAS. I have abandoned all to tread
The brilliant pathway overhead!
MARSYAS. Easy to say. To abandon all,
All must be first loved and possessed.
Nor thou nor I have burst the thrall.
All-as I offered half in jest,
Sceptic-was torn away from me.
Not without pain! THEY slew my child,
Dragged my wife down to infamy
Loathlier than death, drove to the wild
My tortured body, stripped me of
Wealth, health, youth, beauty, ardour, love.
Thou hast abandoned all ? Then try
A speck of dust within the eye!
OLYMPAS. But that is different!
MARSYAS. Life is one.
Magic is life. The physical
(Men name it) is a house of call
For the adept, heir of the sun!
Bombard the house! it groans and gapes.
The adept runs forth, and so escapes
That ruin!
OLYMPAS. Smoothly parallel
The ruin of the mind as well?
MARSYAS. Ay! Hear the Ordeal of the Veil,
The Second Veil! . . . O spare me this
Magical memory! I pale
To show the Veil of the Abyss.
Nay, let confession be complete!
OLYMPAS. Master, I bend me at thy feet-
Why do they sweat with blood and dew?
MARSYAS. Blind horror catches at my breath.
The path of the abyss runs through
Things darker, dismaller than death!
Courage and will! What boots their force?
The mind rears like a frightened horse.
There is no memory possible
Of that unfathomable hell.
Even the shadows that arise
Are things too dreadful to recount!
There's no such doom in Destiny's
Harvest of horror. The white fount
Of speech is stifled at its source.
Know, the sane spirit keeps its course
By this, that everything it thinks
Hath causal or contingent links.
Destroy them, and destroy the mind!
O bestial, bottomless, and blind
Black pit of all insanity!
The adept must make his way to thee!
This is the end of all our pain,
The dissolution of the brain!
For lo! in this no mortar sticks;
Down comes the house-a hail of bricks!
The sense of all I hear is drowned;
Tap, tap, isolated sound,
Patters, clatters, batters, chatters,
Tap, tap, tap, and nothing matters!
Senseless hallucinations roll
Across the curtain of the soul.
Each ripple on the river seems
The madness of a maniac's dreams!
So in the self no memory-chain
Or causal wisp to bind the straws!
The self disrupted! Blank, insane,
Both of existence and of laws,
The Ego and the Universe
Fall to one black chaotic curse.
OLYMPAS. So ends philosophy's inquiry :
"Summa scientia nihil scire."
MARSYAS. Ay. but that reasoned thesis lacks
The impact of reality.
This vision is a battle axe
Splitting the skull. O pardon me!
But my soul faints, my stomach sinks.
Let me pass on !
OLYMPAS. My being drinks
The nectar-poison of the Sphinx.
This is a bitter medicine!
MARSYAS. Black snare that I was taken in!
How one may pass I hardly know.
Maybe time never blots the track.
Black, black, intolerably black!
Go, spectre of the ages, go!
Suffice it that I passed beyond.
I found the secret of the bond.
Of thought to thought through countless years,
Through many lives, in many spheres,
Brought to a point the dark design
Of this existence that is mine.
I knew my secret. All I was
I brought into the burning-glass,
And all its focussed light and heat
Charred all I am. The rune's complete
When all I shall be flashes by
Like a shadow on the sky.
Then I dropped my reasoning.
Vacant and accursed thing!
by my Will I swept away
The web of metaphysic, smiled
At the blind labyrinth, where the grey
Old snake of madness wove his wild
Curse! As I trod the trackless way
Through sunless gorges of Cathay,
I became a little child.
By naneless rivers, swirling through
Chasms, a fantastic blue,
Month by month, on barren hills,
In burning heat, in bitter chills,
Tropic forest, Tartar snow,
Smaragdine archipelago,
See me-led by some wise hand
That I did not understand.
Morn and noon and eve and night
I, the forlorn eremite,
Called on Him with mild devotion,
As the dew-drop woos the ocean.
In my wanderings I came
To an ancient park aflame
With fairies' feet. Still wrapped in love
I was caught up, beyond, above
The tides of being. The great sight
Of the whole universe that wove
The labyrinth of life and love
Blazed in me. Then some giant will,
Mine or another's, thrust a thrill
Through the great vision. All the light
Went out in an immortal night,
The world annihilated by
The opening of the Master's Eye.
How can I tell it?
OLYMPAS. Master, master!
A sense of some divine disaster
Abases me.
MARSYAS. Indeed, the shrine
Is desolate of the divine!
But all the illusion gone, behold
The One that is!
OLYMPAS. Royally rolled,
I hear strange music in the air!
MARSYAS. It is the angelic choir, aware
Of the great Ordeal dared and done
By one more Brother of the Sun!
OLYMPAS. Master, the shriek of a great bird
Blends with the torrent of the thunder.
MARSYAS. It is the echo of the word
That tore the universe asunder.
OLYMPAS. Master, thy stature spans the sky.
MARSYAS. Verily ; but it is not I.
The adept dissolves-pale phantom form
Blown from the black mouth of the storm.
It is another that arises!
OLYMPAS. Yet in thee, through thee !
MARSYAS. I am not.
OLYMPAS. For me thou art.
MARSYAS. So that suffices
To seal thy will? To cast thy lot
Into the lap of God? Then, well!
OLYMPAS. Ay, there is no more potent spell.
Through life, through death, by land and sea
Most surely will I follow thee.
MARSYAS. Follow thyself, not me. Thou hast
An Holy Guardian Angel, bound
To lead thee from thy better waste
To the inscrutable profound
That is His covenanted ground.
OLYMPAS. Thou who hast known these master-keys
Of all creation's mysteries,
Tell me, what followed the great gust
Of God that blew his world to dust?
MARSYAS. I, even I the man, became
As a great sword of flashing flame.
My life, informed with holiness,
Conscious of its own loveliness,
Like a well that overflows
At the limit of the snows,
Sent its crystal stream to gladden
The hearts of men, their lives to madden
With the intoxicating bliss
(Wine mixed with myrrh and ambergris!)
O this bitter-sweet perfume,
This gorse's blaze of prickly bloom
That is the Wisdom of the Way.
Then springs the statue from the clay,
And all God's doubted fatherhood
Is seen to be supremely good.
Live within the sane sweet sun!
Leave the shadow-world alone1
OLYMPAS. There is a crown for every one ;
For every one there is a throne!
MARSYAS. That crown is Silence. Sealed and sure!
That throne is Knowledge perfect pure.
Below that throne adoring stand
Virtues in a blissful band;
Mercy, majesty and power,
Beauty and harmony and strength,
Triumph and splendour, starry shower
Of flames that flake their lily length,
A necklet of pure light, far-flung
Down to the Base, from which is hung
A pearl, the Universe, whose sight
Is one globed jewel of delight.
Fallen no more! A bowered bride
Blushing to be satisfied!
OLYMPAS. All this, if once the Eye unclose?
MARSYAS. The golden cross, the ruby rose
Are gone, when flaming from afar
The Hawk's eye blinds the Silver Star.
O brothers of the Star, caressed
By its cool flames from brow to breast,
Is there some rapture yet to excite
This prone and pallid neophyte?
OLYMPAS. O but there is no need of this!
I burn toward the abyss of Bliss.
I call the Four Powers of the Name;
Earth, wind and cloud, sea, smoke and flame
To witness : by this triune Star
I swear to break the twi-forked bar.
But how to attain? Flexes and leans
The strongest will that lacks the means.
Could this be a physical representation of the eight to one and one to eight as we see in the following Mahakala
In the left symbol on the above note the triangle and the circles below.
The 8 to 1, 1 to 8 The Vees
MARSYAS. There are seven keys to the great gate, Being eight in one and one in eight.
First, let the body of thee be still,
Bound by the cerements of will,
Corpse-rigid ; thus thou mayst abort
The fidget-babes that tease the thought.
Next, let the breath-rhythm be low,
Easy, regular, and slow ;
So that thy being be in tune
With the great sea's Pacific swoon.
Third, let thy life be pure and calm
Swayed softly as a windless palm.
Fourth, let the will-to-live be bound
To the one love of the Profound.
Fifth, let the thought, divinely free
From sense, observe its entity.
Watch every thought that springs ; enhance
Hour after hour thy vigilance!
Intense and keen, turned inward, miss
No atom of analysis!
Sixth, on one thought securely pinned
Still every whisper of the wind!
So like a flame straight and unstirred
Burn up thy being in one word! (metaphor for the translation fires)
Next, still that ecstasy, prolong
Thy meditation steep and strong,
Slaying even God, should He distract
Thy attention from the chosen act!
Last, all these things in one o'erpowered!
Time that the midnight blossom flowered!
The oneness is. Yet even in this,
My son, thou shalt not do amiss
If thou restrain the expression, shoot
Thy glance to rapture's darkling root,
Discarding name, form, sight, and stress
Even of this high consciousness ;
Pierce to the heart! I leave thee here :
Thou art the Master. I revere
Thy radiance that rolls afar,
O Brother of the Silver Star!
OLYMPAS. Ah, but no ease may lap my limbs.
Giants and sorcerers oppose ;
Ogres and dragons are my foes!
Leviathan against me swims,
And lions roar, and Boreas blows!
No Zephyrs woo, no happy hymns
Paean the Pilgrim of the Rose!
MARSYAS. I teach the royal road of light.
Be thou, devoutly eremite,
Free of thy fate. Choose tenderly
A place for thine Academy.
Let there be an holy wood
Of embowered solitude
By the still, the rainless river,
Underneath the tangled roots
Of majestic trees that quiver
In the quiet airs ; where shoots
Of the kindly grass are green,
Moss and ferns asleep between,
Lilies in the water lapped,
Sunbeams in the branches trapped
-Windless and eternal even!
Silenced all the birds of heaven
By the low insistent call
Of the constant waterfall.
There, to such a setting be
Its carven gem of deity,
A central flawless fire, enthralled
Like Truth within an emerald!
Thou shalt have a birchen bark
On the river in the dark;
And at the midnight thou shalt go
To the mid-stream's smoothest flow,
And strike upon a golden bell
The spirit's call ; then say the spell :
"Angel, mine angel, draw thee nigh!"
Making the Sign of Magistry
With wand of lapis lazuli.
Then, it may be, through the blind dumb
Night thou shalt see thine angel come,
Hear the faint whisper of his wings,
Behold the starry breast begemmed
With the twelve stones of the twelve kings!
His fore head shall be diademed
With the faint light of stars, wherein
Thereat thou swoonest ; and thy love
Shall catch the subtle voice thereof.
He shall inform his happy lover ;
My foolish prating shall be over!
OLYMPAS. O now I burn with holy haste.
This doctrine hath so sweet a taste
That all the other wine is sour.
MARSYAS. Son, there's a bee for every flower.
Lie open, a chameleon cup,
And let Him suck thine honey up!
OLYMPAS. There is one doubt. When souls attain
Such an unimagined gain
Shall not others mark them, wise
Beyond mere mortal destines?
MARSYAS. Such are not the perfect saints.
While the imagination faints
Before their truth, they veil it close
As amid the utmost snows
The tallest peaks most straitly hide
With clouds their holy heads. Divide
The planes! Be ever as you can
A simple honest gentleman!
Body and manners be at ease,
Not bloat with blazoned sanctities!
Who fights as fights the soldier-saint?
And see the artist-adept paint!
Weak are those souls that fear the stress
Of earth upon their holiness!
They fast, they eat fantastic food,
They prate of beans and brotherhood.
Wear sandals, and long hair, and spats,
And think that makes them Arahats!
How shall man still his spirit-storm?
Rational Dress and Food Reform!
OLYMPAS. I know such saints.
MARSYAS. An easy vice:
So wondrous well they advertise!
O their mean souls are satisfied
With wind of spiritual pride.
They're all negation. "Do not eat;
What poison to the soul is meat!
Drink not; smoke not; deny the will!
Wine and tobacco make us ill."
Magic is life; the Will to Live
Is one supreme Affirmative.
These things that flinch from Life are worth
No more to Heaven then to Earth.
Affirm the everlasting Yes!
OLYMPAS. Those saints at least score one success:
Perfection of their priggishness!
MARSYAS. Enough. The soul is subtlier fed
With meditation's wine and bread.
Forget their failings and our own;
Fix all our thoughts on Love alone!
Ah, boy, all crowns and thrones above
Is the sanctity of love.
In His warm and secret shrine
Is a cup of perfect wine,
Whereof one drop is medicine
Against all ills that hurt the soul.
A flaming daughter of the Jinn
Brought to me once a winged scroll,
Wherein I read the spell that brings
The knowledge of that King of Kings.
Angel, I invoke thee now!
Bend on me the starry brow!
Spread the eagle wings above
The pavilion of our love!....
Rise from your starry sapphire seats!
See, where through the quickening skies
The oriflamme of beauty beats
Heralding loyal legionaries,
Whose flame of golden javelins
Fences those peerless paladins.
There are the burning lamps of them,
Splendid star-clusters to begem
The trailing torrents of the blue
Bright wings that bear mine angel through!
O Thou art like an Hawk of Gold,
Miraculously manifold,
For all the sky's aflame to be
A mirror magical of Thee!
The stars seem comets, rushing down
To gem thy robes, bedew thy crown.
Like the moon-plumes of a strange bird
By a great wind sublimely stirred,
Thou drawest the light of all the skies
Into thy wake. The heaven dies
In bubbling froth of light, that foams
About thine ardour. All the domes
Of all the heavens close above thee
As thou art known to me who love thee.
Excellent kiss, thou fastenest on
(AEon and rapture)
This soul of mine, that it is gone,
Gone from all life, and rapt away
Into the infinite starry spray
Of thine own AEon...Alas for me!
I faint. Thy mystic majesty
Absorbs this spark.
OLYMPAS. All hail! all hail!
White splendour through the viewless veil!
I am drawn with thee to rapture.
MARSYAS. Stay!
I bear a message. Heaven hath sent
The knowledge of a new sweet way
Into the Secret Element.
OLYMPAS. Master, while yet the glory clings
Declare this mystery magical!
(the return)
MARSYAS. I am yet borne on those blue wings
Into the Essence of the All.
Now, now I stand on earth again,
Though, blazing though each nerve and vein,
The light yet holds its choral course,
Filling my frame with fiery force
Like God's. Now hear the Apocalypse
New-fledged on these reluctant lips!
OLYMPAS. I tremble like an aspen, quiver
Like light upon a rainy river!
Marsyas. Do what thou wilt! is the sole word
Of law that my attainment heard.
Arise, and lay thine hand on God!
Arise, and set a period
Unto Restriction! That is sin:
To hold thine holy spirit in! (not to respond)
O thou that chafest at thy bars,
Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
With a pure heart (Her incense burned
Of gums and woods, in gold inurned),
And let the serpent flame therein
A little, and thy soul shall win
To lie within her bosom. Lo!
Thou wouldst give all--and she cries: No!
Take all, and take me! Gather spice
And virgins and great pearls of price!
Worship me in a single robe,
Crowned richly! Girdle of the globe,
I love thee. I am drunkenness
Of the inmost sense; my soul's caress
Is toward thee! Let my priestess stand
Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon
Mine iridescent altar-stone,
And in her love-chaunt swooningly
Say evermore: To me! To me!
I am the azure-lidded daughter
Of sunset; the all-girdling water;
The naked brilliance of the sky
In the voluptuous night am I!
With song, with jewel, with perfume,
Wake all my rose's blush and bloom!
Drink to me! Love me! I love thee,
My love, my lord--to me! to me!
OLYMPAS. There is no harshness in the breath
Of this- is life surpassed, and death?
MARSYAS. There is the Snake that gives delight
And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright
With drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine
Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine!
These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell
Not in the cold secretive cell,
But under purple canopies
With mighty-breasted mistresses
Magnificent as lionesses-
Tender and terrible caresses!
Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes ;
And massed hugh hair about them lies.
They lead their hosts to victory:
In every joy they are kings ; then see
That secret serpent coiled to spring
And win the world! O priest and king,
Let there be feasting, foining, fighting,
A revel of lusting, singing, smiting!
Work ; be the bed of work! Hold! Hold!
The stars' kiss is as molten gold.
Harden! Hold thyself up! now die-
Ah! Ah! Exceed! Exceed!
OLYMPAS. And I?
MARSYAS. My stature shall surpass the stars:
He hath said it! Men shall worship me
In hidden woods, on barren scaurs,
Henceforth to all eternity.
OLYMPAS. Hail! I adore thee! Let us feast.
MARSYAS. I am the consecrated Beast.
I build the Abominable House.
The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse- (this last bit sounded a bit off?)
OLYMPAS. What is this word?
MARSYAS. Thou canst not know
Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
OLYMPAS. I worship thee. The moon-rays flow
Masterfully rich and real
From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns
Chanting before the Holy Ones
Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons!
MARSYAS. The last spell! The availing word!
The two completed by the third! (is that like Burach where two parts seven = seven found in Baruch and judgment.)
The Lord of War, of Vengeance
That slayeth with a single glance!
This light is in me of my Lord.
His Name is this far-whirling sword.
I push His order. Keen and swift
My Hawk's eye flames ; these arms up!
The Banner of Silence and of Strength
Hail! Hail! thou art here, my Lord, at length!
Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I :
My nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
Hail! ye twin warriors that guard
The pillars of the world! Your time
Is nigh at hand. The snake that marred
Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
Is slain ; I bear the Wand of Power,
The Wand that waxes and that wanes;
I crush the Universe this hour
In my left hand; and naught remains!
Ho! for the splendour in my name
Hidden and glorious, a flame
Secretly shooting from the sun.
Aum! Ha!-my destiny is done.
The word is spoken and concealed.
OLYMPAS. I am stunned. What wonder was revealed?
MARSYAS. The rite is secret.
OLYMPAS. Profits it?
MARSYAS. Only to wisdom and to wit.
OLYMPAS. The other did no less. MARSYAS.
Then prove
Both by the master-key of Love
The lock turns stiffly? Shalt thou shirk
To use the sacred oil of work?
Not from the valley shalt thou test
The eggs that line the eagle's nest!
Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice,
The sheer wall of the precipice!
Master the cornice, gain the breach,
And learn what next the ridge can teach!
Yet-not the ridge itself may speak
The secret of the final peak.
OLYMPAS. All ridges join at last.
MARSYAS. Admitted,
O thou astute and subtle-witted!
Yet one-loose, jagged, clad in mist1
Another-firm, smooth, loved and kissed
By the soft sun! Our order hath
This secret of the solar path,
Even as our Lord the Beast hath won
The mystic Number of the Sun.
OLYMPAS. These secrets are too high for me.
MARSYAS. Nay, little brother! Come and see!
Neither by faith nor fear nor awe
Approach the doctrine of the Law!
Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout,
And those three others be cast out.
OLYMPAS. Lead me, Master, by the hand
Gently to this gracious land!
Let ne drink the doctrine in,
An all-healing medicine!
Let me rise, correct and firm,
Steady striding to the term,
Master of my fate, to rise
To imperial destinies ;
With the sun's ensanguine dart
Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
And my being's basil-plant
Bright and hard as adamant!
MARSYAS. Yonder, faintly luminous,
The yellow desert waits for us.
Lithe and eager, hand in hand,
We travel to the lonely land.
There, beneath the stars, the smoke
Of our incense shall invoke
The Queen of Space ; and subtly She
Shall bend from Her infinity
Like a lambent flame of blue,
Touching us, and piercing through
All the sense-webs that we are
As the aethyr penetrates a star!
Her hands caressing the black earth,
Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers,
She calls my name-she gives the sign
That she is mine, supremely mine,
And clinging to the infinite girth
My soul gets perfect joy thereof
Beyond the abysses and the hours ;
So that-I kiss her lovely brows;
She bathes my body in perfume
Of sweat . . . . O thou my secret spouse,
Continuous One of Heaven! illume
My soul with this arcane delight,
Voluptuous Daughter of the Night!
Eat me up wholly with the glance
Of thy luxurious brilliance!
OLYMPAS. The desert calls.
MARSYAS. Then let us go!
Or seek the sacramental snow,
Where like an high-priest I may stand
With acolytes on every hand,
The lesser peaks-my will withdrawn
To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
Changing that rosy smoke of light
To a pure crystalline white;
Though the mist of mind, as draws
A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun
A lemon-pale medallion!
Thence leap we leashless to the goal,
Stainless star-rapture of the soul.
So the altar-fires fade
As the Godhead is displayed.
Nay, we stir not. Everywhere
Is our temple right appointed.
All the earth is faery fair
For us. Am I not anointed?
The Sigil burns upon the brow
At the adjuration-here and now.
OLYMPAS. The air is laden with perfumes.
MARSYAS. Behold! It beams-it burns-it blooms.
* * * * *
OLYMPAS. Master, how subtly hast thou drawn
The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold
Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold;
Until I saw, flashed from afar,
The Hawk's Eye in the Silver Star!
MARSYAS. Peace to all beings. Peace to thee,
Co-heir of mine eternity1
Peace to the greatest and the least,
To nebula and nenuphar!
Light in abundance be increased
On them that dream that shadows are!
OLYMPAS. Blessing and worship to The Beast,
The prophet of the lovely Star!
more thoughtsFrom a personal prospective I thought that was interesting but I did feel a little uncomfortable about the association with the Beast under its current understanding, To me it implies a connection to the last rebel. However looking at it without fear from the Jesus prospective we can use many truth fragments that does emanate from this piece of work that can be used in connection to the journey of the ancient places.
Without pride or prejudice I did find many parallels and connections that seem to reflect the journey and the Sevenfold aha. I was intrigued especially about the 5 Vs and the physical connection we see in the Dalamatia V's.
I think Aleister Crowley was spot on in many fragments in this journey that does relate to Father in the "Kingdom of Heaven". All relevant information can be used for his purpose in connection to truth. To be fair there are many things that I was impressed with in the highlight and I do feel in many cases he was connected. Still thinking about it. All I know what "The Kingdom of Heaven" proposes in there connection to mankind requires no ritual of membership, its free to all.
Everything has to come out and if there are fragments of truth relating the final mystery here, it must dug out. Understand Aleisters Crowley's ideas do evolve out of the Kabala in his research and personal experience. Therefore his work is related to the Jewish mysticism as its root source. Because he was of unorthodox raiment in his research he was adjudged by the Christian church as worshipper of the last rebel. I wonder whether they researched his information fully in a wider sense of understanding.
Aleister's Crowley's is also the author of the Book of Toth which contains many many connections that I can see in the journey. I have always found the book fascinating which in my mind contains major connections to the Seven pattern and keys of the end times.
I checked on the net for the research on Crowley. Here some links (other people research where I feel I see other connections relating to transition.
http://www.hermetic.com/osiris/legendofpasiphae.htm
Here is a fragment
The Legend of Pasiphae is also interpreted at the beginning of the 16th Aethyr of The Vision and the Voice, where we begin to understand its relevance:
There are faint and flickering images in a misty landscape, all very transient. But the general impression is of a moonrise at midnight, and a crowned virgin riding upon a bull.
And they come up into the surface of the stone. And she is singing a chant of praise:
Glory unto him that hath taken upon himself the image of toil. For by his labour is my labour accomplished. For I, being a woman, lust ever to mate myself with some beast. And this is the salvation of the world, that always I am deceived by some god, and that my child is the guardian of the labyrinth that hath two-and-seventy paths.5
The above reads a little strange, but curiously reflective of the journey, the labyrinth, as in the submerged cities, The Stone, the artifact, the Seven commands and the recovery of them and the transition. Not to mention the work and the labor to dig out the final mystery and its various components
Another curious reflective element in the research, a fragment from the above link
The seers in the early days of the Aeon of Osiris foresaw the Manifestation of this coming Aeon in which we now live, and they regarded it with intense horror and fear, not understanding the procession of the Aeons, and regarding every change as catastrophe.
This is the real interpretation of, and the reason for, the diatribes against the Beast and the Scarlet Woman in the XIII, XVII and XVIII-th chapters of the Apocalypse; but on the Tree of Life, that path of Gimel, the Moon, descending from the highest, cuts the path of Teth, Leo, the house of the Sun, so that the Woman in the card may be regarded as a form of the Moon, very fully illuminated by the Sun, and intimately united with him in such wise as to produce, incarnate in human form, the representative or representatives of the Lord of the Aeon.7.
And now look at the dates of Leo the house of the Sun
The Sun passes through Leo from mid-August to mid-September. ... In astrology, the dates for Leo are between about 23 July and 22 August (see precession). ..
And now consider the Birthdate of Jesus is the 21st August 07 BC is within the dates of Leo the house of the Sun as in the above and is the new anchor point that leads to the 8,9,10th October period.
and Baruch on the 21st August
Here are some more links
About the Thelema
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/crowley/thelema.htm#THE%20LAW%20OF%20THELEMA
fragment
Summary Overview:
The Law of Thelema was revealed to the world by a praeterhuman Intelligence calling himself Aiwass in Cairo, Egypt in March and April, 1904 e.v. Aiwass appeared first to Rose Edith Kelly nee Crowley, in an altered state of consciousness (ASC), and subsequently to the British poet and magical adept, Aleister Crowley (born in Leamington, England on October 12, 1875 e.v.). Aiwass proceeded to demonstrate his objective existence independently of the psyches of both Crowley and Rose, by leading them to the stele of Ankh-af-na-khonsu, a Theban Egyptian priest of the 8th century B.C.E., in the Boulak Museum, where they had never been. He then dictated a sacred text to Crowley called the Book of the Law.
For five years thereafter Crowley resisted the Law of Thelema and the mission of Thelemic prophet laid upon him by Aiwass, regarding the Cairo Working, as it is called, as an "astral vision" (i.e., a purely imaginative but not "imaginary" experience).
However, Crowleys subsequent attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple in the Supreme College of the Great White Brotherhood resulted in his acceptance of the Law of Thelema and of his own prophetic role as described in the Book of the Law. Crowley proclaimed himself as the prophet of a new eon for humanity for the first time in his long mystical poem, Aha! (1909), which has been compared in beauty and profundity to the Bhagavad-Gita. Thereafter he signed his correspondence and formal instructions with the two main slogans of the Book of the Law, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law and Love is the law, love under will.
and another fragment
During this dictation Crowley "saw" Aiwass, who appeared as an Assyrian or Persian aristocrat with veiled eyes. Crowley also stated that Aiwass English was devoid of any accent.
another interesting fragment
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/cienciareal04.htm
On 26 December, 1993, no less an organ of the fourth estate, "The Economist" published the following under the heading, "The Good Network Guide":
"Beyond all these networks lies the mother of all networks, the Order of the Illuminati, known to some as the True Rulers of the World. Its age will remain uncertain until the story of the last days of Atlantis is better known. Though this secret body has hovered unseen over all history, its most public flowering was in the Enlightenment. Adam Weishaupt, a former Jesuit (who provided much of the inspiration for Shelleys Frankenstein) revealed its purpose and system of mutual surveillance to the world on May 1st 1776. Since then the order has taken a keen interest in another newborn of that year. It is significant that many American presidents have been Illuminati; and the Illuminati symbol of the eye in the pyramid still graces the dollar bill.
"The conspiracy is immense and terrifying, stretching from Hassan-i-Sabbah, 11th century Assassin, to Ian Fleming (who caricatured the order as "SPECTRE"). It is the network of those who run networks. Given its power, you should assume that anyone writing about the order must be either lying or part of a conspiracy to confound you. In wondering about the Illuminati, merely remember this. You have never arrived."(Note the motto of the Assassins: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted")
another fragment
Crowley is not an aberration. He is part of an historical process which has yet to reach its climax. The ruling spirits of this world relayed the primary plank of their program to Crowley, and this is contained in The Book of the Law. For human beings, the real struggle is not against each other, but against the evil cosmic powers which govern this dark age. Crowley was their medium, but on several occasions as he wrote down The Book of the Law, Aiwass chastised Crowley for being concerned about what he was writing.
As part of my own spiritual journey as a Christian, I eventually found myself looking into Crowley. It took sometime before I recognized that The Book of the Law was such an important work. I am not writing this article to make the facts fit in with my world-view. What I found is that The Book of the Law has been fulfilled to a large degree, and that its contents tie in strongly with the Revelation. Just as Jesus sent his angel to reveal future events to John, so did Satan send a spirit being, Aiwass, to Crowley. Both works are eschatological (the doctrine of last or final things).
The Book of the Law says that the god of war and vengeance, Ra-Hoor-Khu-It (Horus), is now positioned on his seat of power. His human incarnation will occur, and he will be in the form of a child, the False Prophet or Antichrist. He is the offspring of the union of Hadit (Satan) and Nuit (Babylon).This union and its "fruit" is referred to in Revelation chapter 13. The Book of the Law tells us that Satan is the coiled serpent, and he is about to spring. Christians will be put to death. Through war and chaos, the goddess (Nuit/Babylon) will be placed in a position to be worshipped, and her offspring, the child, will be mightier than all the kings of the earth, although one of these rich "kings" will finance him.
1. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law
2. Love is the law, love under will
3. Every man and every woman is a star
Digging a little further we see this remarkable link that links the words of Jack Parsons founder of JPL to the Beast 666
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/cienciareal.htm#menu
Bizarre to say the least
Parsons continued with his magickal operations for the remainder of the forties, and in 1949 wrote in The Manifesto of the Antichrist:
Apparently Ron L Hubbard was associated with Crowley and Parsons and practiced the varies rituals and challenging.
Seems like a dark side and connection in the history of this relationship.
Oh well this is detective work.
Here is some other bizarre information
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/dragons/esp_sociopol_dragoncourt02_01.htm
The Origins of Vampirism
Some of the earliest evidence of Ritual Vampirism comes from Tartaria in Transylvania and stems to the fifth millennium BC. Remains of a human body were found buried in a fire pit along with clay tablets upon which were inscribed the names of the Sumerian god Enki and the ranking number of Father Anu. The language was subsequently termed proto-Sumerian and represented some of the earliest written artifacts yet to be found.
The descendants of these early vampires were the Sacred Ubaid Race who, one millennium later, settled Mesopotamia and founded the Anunnaki religion of the Sumerians in 3500 BC. Their Transylvanian ancestors were the Anunnaki Gods themselves.
Various suggestions have been proposed in an attempt to explain the origin and meaning of the word vampire. One recent suggestion was that it was applied to a group of Watchers (Seers - Derkesthai: Dragons) who had occupied a settlement near "lake Van", in Urartu - Armenia. The original location - Greater Scythia - is faultless, the association is without error but the etymology is unresearched and the philology is completely absent.
Although that authors suggested identification between Watchers and Vampires is absolutely correct, the word vampire does not in any sense relate to their former geographical location or origin but, as we shall see, rather to the vampires social and spiritual identity and status within a given cultural framework, which in this instance was Scythian, overlaid on Celtic.another fragment
The Scythians
Throughout this discourse it must be borne in mind that when we speak of the Scythians as fairies, dragons, vampires or elves, we are not talking about either the client races of the Scythians, or the ordinary Scythian citizenry, but of Royal Scythians.
As we have discovered, the vampire - as a "witch" - belonged by genetic inheritance, to a distinct royal caste in Scythian-Celtic society, that of the priest-king or priestess-queen, the prince and princess-druids who had evolved very early on in human social history and who belonged to a Eurasian-wide hereditary priestly community which had originated with the Scythian-Aryans. The name Scythian was originally spelt Sithian in 16th century England, and it is from this tribal name that we obtain the word scythe, denoting a curved bladed agricultural tool, so named because of its similarity in shape to the Scythian sword.
The Scythians werent however named after their use of a curved sword. The name Sithian is related to a group of words that appear in Indo-European languages which are found as far apart as Eire and Northern India, indicating that they had a common Aryan origin in Scythia. These include - Sithia, Sidhe, Siddir and Siddhi.
In Cymric dd is pronounced th, whilst in Irish and Scots the th is spelt dialectically dh whilst the s beginning a word is pronounced sh. As we have related, the Siddir in Danish society were witches who practiced the art of knot tying and loosening.
These Siddir were directly related to the mythic Norns, the Mori or Fates who were said to be responsible for the fate of mankind by the patterns that they wove in the way that they tied and loosened the knots of the Web of Wyrd. The Siddirs, as well as being seers, could control such power as to influence the outcome of human affairs and in this respect their name reflects their abilities which, in India, were called the Siddhis, a word used to describe the powers of the Yogi who had self-realized.
The curious Irish word - Sidhe - pronounced shee, sheeth or sheeth-ay, attributed to the fairies and meaning powers, is therefore identical to Siddir (sheeth-eer) and Siddhi (sheeth-ee) and is derived therefore, from the people of the powers - the Scythians or Sidheans (sheethee-ans). In Scotland the royal fairies were called the Seelie or Sheelie and their princesses were related to the sculpted Sheelagh Na Gigs over church doorways, who do NOT depict ancient goddesses of fertility, but were the royal Grail Maidens of the Elven kings and queens.
The Sheelagh na Gigs were goddesses of sovereignty and transcendence, and their place over the doorways of churches, many of which were built on the sites of ancient sacred groves, indicated that in entering these buildings one was entering through the vulva of the maiden into the otherworld, the realm of Elphame and the Kingdom of Heaven.
They were permitted above church doorways because the early church itself wanted to be identified with the old ways, firstly because it was in fact, at least in the beginning, part of the old ways and later, when catholicism took over, the Sheelaghs remained in place - in order to attract and convert "pagans"
so further down the research we find this
In the west we call it magic but, as we have seen, it was also known as the Sidhe. Kaula Tantra is dedicated to the Goddess Kali who is associated with both creation and destruction in the Hindu pantheon. Kali is a lunar deity who, like Tantra itself, moved east from Sumeria. As a moon goddess she is associated particularly with moon blood and the essences of the female organs of generation
I just wonder if Kali is representative of Caligastia, the fallen planetary prince in the Urantia Book?
Lilith and Samael (fallen Son) is also found in the Book of Enoch
Here is another link to research to other papers.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/dragons/esp_sociopol_dragoncourt02.htm#part%201
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/dragons/esp_sociopol_dragoncourt02_06.htm
Isis figure is infinity or the number 8, which was often drawn as the double axe-head figure found in Knossos or Cnossos, a name derived itself from the Greek root word gno or gno, which also renders gnome, gnomen (judgment) and gnosis or wisdom from whence derives (self) knowledge.
Here is a recent post with some calculation including Crowleys thoughts including others. There maybe an conjunction of prophecy which points to a date.