14
u80ici1.11hLiber 813
I
- O my God! One is Thy Beginning! One is Thy Spirit, and Thy Permutation
One!
- Let me extol Thy perfections before men.
- In the Image of a Sixfold Star that flameth across the Vault inane, let
me re-veil Thy perfections.
- Thou hast appeared unto me as an agd God, a venerable God, the Lord of
Time, bearing a sharp sickle.
- Thou hast appeared unto me as a jocund and ruddy God, full of Majesty, a
King, a Father in his prime. Thou didst bear the sceptre of the Universe,
crowned with the Wheel of the Spirit.
- Thou hast appeared unto me with sword and spear, a warrior God in
flaming armour among Thine horsemen.
- Thou hast appeared unto me as a young and brilliant God, a god of music
and beauty, even as a young god in his strength, playing upon the lyre.
- Thou hast appeared unto me as the white foam of Ocean gathered into
limbs whiter than the foam, the limbs of a miracle of women, as a goddess of
extreme love, bearing the girdle of gold.
- Thou hast appeared to me as a young boy mischievous and lovely, with Thy
winged globe and its serpents set upon a staff.
- Thou hast appeared to me as an huntress among Thy dogs, as a goddess
virginal chaste, as a moon among the faded oaks of the wood of years.
- But I was deceived by none of these. All these I cast aside, crying:
Begone! So that all these faded from my vision.
- Also I welded together the Flaming Star and the Sixfold Star in the forge
of my soul, and behold! a new star 418 that is above all these.
- Yet even so was I not deceived; for the crown hath twelve rays.
- And these twelve rays are one.
II
- Now then I saw these things averse and evil; and they were not, even as
Thou art Not.
- I saw the twin heads that ever battle against one another, so that all
their thought is a confusion. I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the darkeners of wisdom, like black apes chattering vile nonsense.
I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the devouring mothers of Hell, that eat up their children O ye
that are without understanding! I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the merciless and the unmajestic like harpies tearing their foul
food. I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the burning ones, giants like volcanoes belching out the black
vomit of fire and smoke in their fury. I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the petty, the quarrelsome, the selfish, they were like men, O
Lord, they were even like unto men. I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the ravens of death, that flew with hoarse cries upon the carrion
earth. I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the lying spirits like frogs upon the earth, and upon the water,
and upon the treacherous metal that corrodeth all things and abideth not. I
saw Thee in these.
- I saw the obscene ones, bull-men linked in the abyss of putrefaction,
that gnawed each other's tongues for pain. I saw Thee in these.
- I saw the Woman. O my God, I beheld the image thereof, even as a lovely
shape that concealeth a black monkey, even as a figure that draweth with her
hands small images of men down into hell. I saw her from the head to the
navel a woman, from the navel to the feet of her a man. I saw Thee even in
her.
- For mine was the keyword to the Closed Palace 418 and mine the reins of
the Chariot of the Sphinxes, black and white.
But I was not deceived by anything of all these things.
12. For I expanded it by my subtlety into Twelve Rays of the Crown.
13. And these twelve rays were One.
III
- Say thou that He God is one; God is the Everlasting One; nor hath He any
Equal, or any Son, or any Companion. Nothing shall stand before His face.
- Even for five hundred and eleven times nightly for one and forty days
did I cry aloud unto the Lord the affirmation of His Unity.
- Also did I glorify His wisdom, whereby He made the worlds.
- Yea, I praised Him for His intelligible essence, whereby the universe
became light.
- I did thank Him for His manifold mercy; I did worship His magnificence
and majesty.
- I trembled before His might.
- I delighted in the Harmony and Beauty of His Essence.
- In His Victory I pursued His enemies; yea I drave them down the steep; I
thundered after them into the utmost abyss; yea, therein I partook of the
glory of my Lord.
- His Splendour shone upon me; I adored His adorable splendour.
- I rested myself, admiring the Stability of Him, how the shaking of His
Universe, the dissolution of all things, should move Him not.
- Yea, verily, I the Lord Viceregent of His Kingdom, I, Adonai, who speak
unto my servant V.V.V.V.V. did rule and govern in His place.
- Yet also did I formulate the word of double power in the Voice of the
Master, even the word 418.
- And all these things deceived me not, for I expanded them by my subtlety
into the Twelve Rays of the Crown.
- And these twelve rays were One.