THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. II 1st part
September 2, 1989 e.v. key entry and January 18, 1990 e.v. first proof
reading against the 1st edition.
done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O.
(further proof reading desirable)
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(Addresses and invitations below are not current but copied from the original text of the early part of the 20th century)
.----------------------------------------------------------------------.
: THE EQUINOX : : : : No. III, will contain in its 400 pages: : : : :AN OFFICIAL NOTE of the Ordeals and Examinations to be : : passed by the Aspirant to the A.'. A.'. from Probationer to : : Adept. [A.'. A.'. publication in Class D.] With a Comment : : by G.H.Fra.O.S.V. : : : :LIBER 963. A collection of litanies whose use will enable the :: student to acquire the direct consciousness of God. [A.'. A.'. :
: Publication in Class B.] : : : :THE ELEMENTAL CALLS OR KEYS, WITH THE GREAT : : WATCH-TOWERS OF THE UNIVERSE and their explanation. : : A complete treatise, fully illustrated, upon the Spirits : : of the Elements, their names and offices, with the method of : : calling them forth and controlling them. From the MSS. of : : Dr. DEE and SIR EDWARD KELLY. : : : :THE CONTINUATION OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON : : THE KING. A full account of the reception of Fra. P. into :: the Rosicrucian Order, with illustrations; and of his operations :
: in Ceremonial Magic, &c. [His Studies of Eastern Magic and : : Meditation, &c., to follow in Nos. IV. and V.] : : : :THE CONTINUATION OF THE HERB DANGEROUS: : : "The Poem of Hashish," translated from the French of : : CHARLES BAUDELAIRE by ALEISTER CROWLEY. : : : :THE SOUL-HUNTER, unpublished pages from the Diary of Dr. : : ARTHUR LEE, "The Montrouge Vampire." : : : :AN ORIGIN, by VICTOR B. NEUBURG. : : : :MR. TODD: A Morality, by the author of "Rosa Mundi." : : : :IN MANU DOMINAE: A Black Mass. : : : :THE DAUGHTER OF THE HORSELEECH, by ETHEL RAMSAY. : : : : &c. &c. &c. :.----------------------------------------------------------------------.
THE EQUINOX
"The Editor will be glad to consider
contributions and to return such as
are unacceptable if stamps are enclosed
for the purpose"
THE EQUINOXTHE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE A.'. A.'. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUMINISM
An. V VOL. I. NO. II. Sun in LibraSEPTEMBER MCMIX
O.S.
"THE METHOD OF SCIENCE---THE AIM OF RELIGION"
LONDONSIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO.LTD.
CONTENTS
PAGE EDITORIAL 1 LIBER O 11THE HERB DANGEROUS --- (PART II) THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH. BY
OLIVER HADDO 31
REVIEWS 90, 104, 385
THE GARDEN OF JANUS. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 91
THE DREAM CIRCEAN. BY MARITAL NAY 105
THE LOST SHEPHERD. BY VICTOR B. NEUBURG 131
A HANDBOOK OF GEOMANCY 137
THE ORGAN IN KING'S CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE, BY G. H. S.
PINSENT 162
A NOTE ON GENESIS 163
THE FIVE ADORATIONS. BY DOST ACHIHA KHAN 186
ILLUSION D'AMOUREUX. BY FRANCIS BENDICK 187
THE OPIUM-SMOKER 191
POSTCARDS TO PROBATIONERS. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 196
THE WILD ASS. BY ALYS CUSACK 201
THE SPHINX AT GIZEH. BY LORD DUNSANY 205
THE PRIESTESS OF PANORMITA. BY ELAINE CARR 209
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING (BOOK II) 217
AMONGST THE MERMAIDS. BY NORMAN ROE 335
AVE ADONAI. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 351
THE MAN-COVER. BY GEORGE RAFFALOVICH 353
STEWED PRUNES AND PRISM: THE TENNYSON CENTENARY.
BY A. QUILLER, JR. 393
ILLUSTRATION
THE SIGNS OF THE GRADES "Facing page" 12
EDITORIAL
IT is four hundred and seventy-seven years since the trouble in the Monastery. There were assembled many holy men from every part of the civilized world, learned doctors, princes of the Church, bishops, abbots, deans, all the wisdom of the world; for the Question was important --- how many teeth were there in a horse's mouth. For many days the debate swung this way and that, as Father was quoted against Father, Gospel against Epistle, Psalm against Proverb; and the summer being hot, and the shade of the monastery gardens pleasant, a young monk wearied of the discussion, and rising presumptuously among those reverend men, impudently proposed that they should examine the mouth of a horse and settle the question.
Now, there was no precedent for so bold a method, and we are not to be surprised that those holy men arose right wrathfully and fell upon the youth and beat him sore.
Having further immured him in a solitary cell, they resumed debate; but ultimately "in the grievous dearth of theological and historical opinion" declared the problem insoluble, an everlasting mystery by the Will of God.
To-day, their successors adopt the same principles with regard to that darkest of horses, the A.'. A.'. They have {1} not only refused to open our mouths, but have even refused to look into them when we ourselves have gone to the length of opening them wide before them.
However, there have been others. Whether we were too confident or they too easily discouraged is a question unnecessary to discuss. We hoped to sever at one blow their bonds; at least we should have loosened them. But their struggle, which should have aided our efforts, seemed to them too arduous. They have been perplexed rather than illumined by the light which we flashed upon them; and even if it showed a road, gave no sufficient reason why it should be followed.
Of such we humbly crave the pardon; and in answer to a seemingly widespread desire to know if we mean anything, and if so, What? we request those who would know the Truth of Scientific Illuminism to look into the open mouth of its doctrine, to follow its simple teachings step by step and not to turn their backs on it and, walking in the opposite direction, declare so simple a problem to be an everlasting mystery.
We are therefore not concerned with those who have not examined our doctrine of sceptical Theurgy, or scientific illuminism, or that which lies beyond. Let them examine without prejudice.
Some, too, have raised weapons against us, thinking to hurt us. But malice is only the result of ignorance; let them examine us, and they will love us. The sword is not yet forged that can divide him whose helmet is Truth. Nor is the arrow yet fledged that will pierce the flesh of one who is clothed in the glittering armour of mirth. So here, and now, {2) and with us; he who climbs the Mountain we point out to him, and which we have climbed; he who journeys by the chart we offer to him, and which we have followed, on his return will come in unto us as one who has authority; for he alone who has climbed the summit can speak with truth of those things that from there are to be seen, for HE KNOWS. But he who stands afar off, and jests, saying: "It is not a Mountain, it is a cloud; it is not a cloud, it is a shadow; it is not a shadow, it is an illusion; it is not an illusion, it is indeed nothing at all!" --- who but a fool will heed him? for not having journeyed one step, HE KNOWS NOT concerning those things of which he speaks.
To make ourselves now utterly plain to all such as have misunderstood us, we will formulate our statement in many ways, so that at least there may be found one acceptable to each seeker who is open to conviction.
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
There was once an Inhabitant in a land called Utopia who complained to the Water Company that his water was impure. {6}
"No," answered the Water Man, "it can't be impure, for we filter it."
"Oh indeed!" replied the Inhabitant, "but my wife died from drinking it."
"No," said the Water Man; "I assure you that this water comes from the purest springs in Utopia; further, that water, however impure, cannot hurt anybody; further, that I have a certificate of its purity from the Water Company itself."
"The people who pay you!" sneered the Inhabitant. "For your other points, Haeckel has proved that all water is poison, and I believe you get your water from a cesspool. Why, look at it!"
"And beautiful clear water it is!" said the Water Man. "Limpid as crystal. Worth a guinea a drop!"
"About what you charge for it!" retorted the incensed Inhabitant. "It looks fairly clear, I admit, in the twilight. But that is not the point. A poison need not cloud water."
"But," urged the other, "one of our directors is a prophet, and he prophesied --- clearly, in so many words --- that the water would be pure this year. And besides, our first founder was a holy man, who performed a special miracle to make it pure for ever!"
"Your evidence is as tainted as your water," replied the now infuriated householder.
So off they went to the Judge.
The Judge heard the case carefully. "My good friends!" said he, "you've neither of you got a leg to stand on; for in all you say there is not one grain of proof. --- The case is dismissed." {7}
The Water Inspector rose jubilant, when from the body of the Court came a still small voice.
"Might I respectfully suggest, your Worship, that the water in question be examined through my Microscope?"
"What in thunder is a Microscope?" cried the three in chorus.
"An instrument, your Worship, that I have constructed on the admitted principles of optics, to demonstrate by experience what these gentlemen are arguing about "a priori" and on hearsay."
Then they both rose up against him, and cursed him.
"Unscientific balderdash!" said the Water Man, for the first time speaking respectfully of Science.
"Blasphemous Nonsense!" said the Inhabitant, for the first time speaking respectfully of Religion.
"Wait and see," said the Judge; for he was a just Judge.
Then the Man with the Microscope explained the uses of this new and strange instrument. And the Judge patiently investigated all sources of error, and concluded in the end that the instrument was a true revealer of the secrets of the water. And he pronounced just judgment.
But the others were blinded by passion and self-interest. They only quarrelled more noisily, and were finally turned out of court. But the Judge caused the Man with the Microscope to be appointed Government Analyst at Pounds12,000 a year.
Now the Water Man is the Believer, and the Inhabitant the Unbeliever. The Judge is the Agnostic --- in Huxley's sense of the word; and the Man with the Microscope is the Scientific Illuminist.
Curious as it may seem, all this was most carefully explained {8} in No. 1 of this Review, in Mr. Frank Harris's "The Magic Glasses."
Mr. 'Allett is the Materialist, Canon Bayton the Idealist, the Judge's daughter is the Agnostic, and Matthew Penry the Scientific Illuminist. If the little girl had been able to "follow up the light," she might there have seen Penry standing, his head and his feet white like wool, and his eyes a flaming fire!
This, then, in one language or another, is our philosophical position. But for those who are not content with this, let it be said that there is something more behind and beyond. Among us are those who have experienced things of a nature so exalted that no words ever penned could even adumbrate them faintly. The communication of such knowledge, so far as it is at all possible, must be a personal thing; and we offer it with both hands.
It is simple to write to the Chancellor of the A.'. A.'. at the care of the publishers, 23 Paternoster Row, E.C.; a neophyte of the Order will be detailed to meet the inquirer. He will read to him the History of the Order and explain the task of the Probationer. For we give to each inquirer a year's study; mutual, so that he may decide whether we can indeed give that which he wishes, and so that we may know exactly what training is suitable for him.
Also because we are subtle of mind, many are offended. For we wished to test the world by the touchstone of THE EQUINOX. Those who perceived the essential gold that lay hidden in that hard rock are now busy delving out the same; many are thereby become rich.
So I who write this for the Brethren, with all humility and {9} awe, do seriously summon all men unto the Search, even those who are offended because I laugh, gazing into the Eyes of the Beloved; and those who are offended because I hate the veil of words that hides the face of the Beloved; and those who are offended because my passion for the Beloved is too virile and eager to suit their awe; perhaps they forget that passion means suffering.
But let them know that my Beloved is mine and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies. {10}
LIBER O
VEL
MANVS ET SAGITTAE
SVB FIGVRA
VI
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class B.
Imprimatur: D.D.S.Praemonstrator O.S.V.Imperator N.S.F.Cancellarius
{Illustration facing page 12: THE SIGNS OF THE GRADES.
These are arranged as ten panels: * * * * * * * * * *
These are all halftone photos of a single human in a black Tau robe, barefoot with hood completely closed over the face. The hood displays a six-pointed figure on the forehead --- presumably the radiant eye of Horus of the A.'. A.'., but the rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant over the heart. The ten panels are numbered in white in the upper left, but the numerals are very dim even in the Ist edition (some blurred out entirely in the Weiser edition).
The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the left and 7 to 10 to the right. The description is bottom to top and left to right:
"1. Earth: the god Set fighting." Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and angled slightly outward with weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel touching Rt. heel and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right above head and in line with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fingers outstretched and together. Head erect.
"2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky." Frontal. Heels together and slightly angled apart to the front, flat on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on either side of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked as if supporting a ceiling just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of the hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight and together.
"3. Water: the goddess Auramoth." Same body and foot position as #2, but head erect. Arms are brought down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The fingers meet below the heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water.
"4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith." Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arms are angled so that the thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer side facing. Fingers meet above head, forming between thumbs and fingers the ascending triangle of fire.
"5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil." Head erect in both. #5 has the same body posture as #1, except that the left and right feet are countercharged and flat on the floor. Arms and hands are crooked forward at shoulder level such that the hands appear to be clawing open a split veil --- hands have progressed to a point that the forearms are invisible, being directly pointed at the front. Upper arms are flat and horizontal in the plain of the image. #6. has the same body posture as #1, feet in same position as #1 but flat to the floor. The arms are elbow down against abdomen, with hands forward over heart in claws such that the knuckles are touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is done by motion of shoulders and rotation of wrists. This is different from the other sign of opening the veil, the Sign of the Enterer, with is done with hands flat palm to palm and then spread without rotation of wrists.
"7-10. The L V X signs."
"7. + Osiris slain --- the cross." Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms directly horizontal from the shoulders in the plane of the image. Hands with fingers together, thumbs to side of palm and palmer side forward. The tau shape of the robe dominates the image.
"8. L Isis mourning --- the Svastica." The body is in semi-profile, head down slightly and facing right of photograph. The arms, hands, legs and feet are positioned to define a swastika. Left foot flat, carrying weight and angled toward the right of the photo. Right foot toe down behind the figure to the left in the photo. Right upper arm due left in photo and forearm vertical with fingers closed and pointing upward. Left arm smoothly canted down to the right of photo, with fingers closed and pointed down.
"9. V Typhon --- the Trident." Figure frontal and standing on tip toe, toes forward and heals not touching. Head back. Arms angled in a "V" with the body to the top and outward in the plain of the photo. Fingers and thumbs as #7, but continuing the lines of the arms.
"10. X Osiris risen --- the Pentagram." Body and feet as in #7. Head directly frontal and level. Arms crossed over heart, right over left with hands extended, fingers closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposite shoulders.}
LIBER O
VEL
MANVS ET SAGITTAE
SVB FIGVRA
VI
I.
II.
III
IV
I. The Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram must be committed to memory; they are as follows:
"The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram"
(i) Touching the forehead say Ateh (Unto Thee).
(ii) Touching the breast say Malkuth (The Kingdom).
(iii) Touching the right shoulder, say ve-Geburah (and
the Power).
(iv) Touching the left shoulder, say ve-Gedulah (and the
Glory).
(v) Clasping the hands upon the breast, say le-Olahm,
Amen (To the Ages, Amen).
(vi) Turning to the East make a pentagram (that of
Earth) with the proper weapon (usually the
Wand). Say ("i.e." vibrate) I H V H.
(vii) Turning to the South, the same, but say A D N I.
(viii) Turning to the West, the same, but say A H I H.
(ix) Turning to the North, the same, but say A G L A.
Pronounce: Ye-ho-wau, Adonai, Eheieh, Agla.
(x) Extending the arms in the form of a Cross say:
(xi) Before me Raphael;
(xii) Behind me Gabriel;
(xiii) On my right hand Michael.
(xiv) On my left hand Auriel;
(xv) For about me flames the Pentagram,
(xvi) And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star.
(xvii-xxi) Repeat (i) to (v), the Qabalistic Cross. {19}
"The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram"
The Pentagrams are traced in the air with the sword or other weapon, the name spoken aloud, and the signs used, as illustrated. THE PENTAGRAMS OF SPIRIT
' ' Equilibrium of Actives/ \ / \
I ' ' B N / \ # / \ * A Name: A L H I M V / \ \ / \ \ NO -------------\-- -------------\-- I (Elohim).
K '/ . . \'\ '/ . . \'\ S I / . " . \ \ / . " . \ \ H N / ' ' \ * / ' ' \ # I G N G
{20}
The signs of 4 Degree = 7 Square: Raise the arms above the head and join the hands, so that the tips of the fingers and of the thumbs meet, formulating a triangle ("See" illustration). (The Grade of 4 Degree = 7 Square is particularly attributed to the element Fire; it refers to the planet Venus; the paths of Qof, Tzaddi and Peh are attributed to this degree. For other attributions "see" "777" lines 7 and 31).
The Pentagrams of Water.
I ' ' B N / \ / \ A V #----------* *---------# NO ---------------- ---------------- I Name: A L (El).
K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S I / . " . \ / . " . \ H N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I G N G
The signs of 3 Degree = 8 Square: Raise the arms till the elbows are on a level with the shoulders, bring the hands across the chest, touching the thumbs and tips of fingers so as to form a triangle apex downwards. ("See" illustration). (The Grade of 3 Degree = 8 Square is particularly attributed to the element of Water; it refers to the planet Mercury; the paths of Resh and Shin are attributed to this degree. For other attributions "see" "777", lines 8 and 23). THE PENTAGRAMS OF AIR.
I ' ' B N / \ / \ A V *----------# #---------* N Name: I H V HO ---------------- ---------------- I (Ye-ho-wau).
K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S I / . " . \ / . " . \ H N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I G N G
The signs of 2 Degree = 9 Square: Stretch both arms upwards and outwards, the elbows bent at right angles, the hands bent back, the palms upwards as if supporting a weight. ("See" illustration). {21}
(The Grade of 2 Degree = 9 Square is particularly attributed to the element Air; it refers to the Moon; the path of Taw is attributed to this degree. For other attributions "see" "777" lines 9 and 11). THE PENTAGRAMS OF EARTH
I ' ' B N # / \ * / \ A V / / \ / / \ NO -/-------------- -/-------------- I Name: A D N I (Adonai).
K / '/ . . \' / '/ . . \' S I / / . " . \ / / . " . \ H N * / ' ' \ # / ' ' \ I G N G
The Sign of 1 Degree = 10 Square: Advance the right foot, stretch out the right hand upwards and forwards, the left hand downwards and backwards, the palms open. (The Grade of 1 Degree = 10 Square is particularly attributed to the element of Earth, "See" "777" lines 10 and 32 bis).
"The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram."
This ritual is to be performed after the "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram".
(i) Stand upright, feet together, left arm at side, right
across body, holding the wand or other
weapon upright in the median line. Then
face East and say:
(ii) I.N.R.I.
Yod. Nun. Resh. Yod.
Virgo, Isis, Mighty Mother.
Scorpio, Apophis, Destroyer.
Sol, Osiris, Slain and Risen.
Isis, Apophis, Osiris, IAO. {22}
(iii) Extend the arms in the form of a cross, and say:
"The Sign of Osiris Slain." ("See" Illustration).
(iv) Raise the right arm to point upwards, keeping the
elbow square, and lower the left arm to point
downwards, keeping the elbow square, while
turning the head over the left shoulder looking
down so that the eyes follow the left forearm,
and say, "The Sign of the Mourning of Isis."
("See" Illustration).
(v) Raise the arms at an angle of sixty degrees to each
other above the head, which is thrown back,
and say, "The Sign of Apophis and Typhon."
("See" Illustration).
(vi) Cross the arms on the breast, and bow the head
and say, "The Sign of Osiris Risen." ("See"
Illustration).
(vii) Extend the arms again as in (iii) and cross them
again as in (vi) saying: "L.V.X., Lux, the Light of the Cross".
/\ #/ \ \ (viii) With the magical weapon trace the / \ \ 1 Hexagram of Fire in the East, saying, / /\ \ * "Ararita" (Aleph-Resh-Aleph-Resh-Yod-Taw-Aleph).
---------- This Word consists of the initials of a/ \ # sentence which means "One is His Beginning: / \ \ One is His Individuality: His Permutation is ---------- \ 2 One."
*
This hexagram consists of two equilateral triangles, both apices pointed upwards. Begin at the top of the upper {23} triangle and trace it in a dextro-rotary direction. The top of the lower triangle should coincide with the central point of the upper triangle.
/\ #--------\- (ix) Trace the Hexagram of Earth in the
2* \/ \/\ South, saying "ARARITA." This Hexagram
\/\ /\ *1 has the apex of the lower triangle pointing
-\-------- downwards, and it should be capable of
# \/ inscription in a circle.
/\ #/ \ \
2* \ / West, saying "ARARITA." This Hexagram
\ \ / is like that of Earth; but the bases of the
\ \ / triangles coincide, forming a diamond.
\ \/The Banishing Ritual is identical, save that the direction of the Hexagrams must be reversed. {24}
"Invoking" "Banishing"
/\ # # /\ "The Greater Ritual of"
--------\- -/-------- "the Hexagram"
2* \/ \/\ Saturn /\/ \/ *2
\/\ /\ *1 1* /\ /\/ To invoke or banish
-\-------- --------/- planets or zodiacal
# \/ \/ # signs. 1 The Hexagram of 2* /\ *--/\--# Earth alone is used.-/-------- ---------- Draw the hexagram, /\/ \/ # Jupiter \/ \/ beginning from the
# /\ /\/ /\ /\ point which is
--------/- ---------- attributed to the
\/ *1 #--\/--* 2 planet you are dealing
with. ("See" "777" col.
#--/\--* 1 /\ *2 lxxxiii).
---------- --------\- Thus to invoke
\/ \/ # \/ \/\ Jupiter begin from the
/\ /\ Mars \/\ /\ # right-hand point of---------- -\-------- the lower triangle,
2 *--\/--# 1* \/ dextro-rotary and
complete; then trace
4,9.* # 6,7. the upper triangle
#-- / /\ # --*5,8. 10,3.*-- / /\ * --# from its left hand
--------\- --------\- point and complete.
2,11.*/\/ \/\# #/\/ \/\*2,11. Trace the
#\/\ /\/*1,12.Sun 1,12.*\/\ /\/# astrological sigil
-\------/- -\------/- of the planet in the
6,7.*-- # \/ * --# #-- * \/ # --*4,9.centre of your 3,10. 5,8. hexagram. For the Zodiac use #--/\--*2 /\ *1 the hexagram of the---------- --------\- planet which
\/ \/ Venus # \/ \/\ rules the {25) sign
/\ /\ \/\ /\ # you require ("777",
---------- -\-------- col. cxxxviii); but
1*--\/--# 2* \/ draw the astrological sigil of the sign, 1* /\ 2*--/\--# instead of that of the-/-------- ---------- planet.
# /\ /\/ /\ /\
--------/- ----------\/ *2 #--\/--*1
/\ # # /\--------\- -/--------
1* \/ \/\ Moon /\/ \/ *1
\/\ /\ *2 2* /\ /\/
# \/ \/ # {25}
For Caput and Cauda Draconis use the lunar hexagram, with the sigil of Caput Draconis or Cauda Draconis.
To banish, reverse the hexagram.
In all cases use a conjuration first with Ararita, and next with the name of the God corresponding to the planet or sign you are dealing with.
The Hexagrams pertaining to the planets are as in plate on preceding page.
2. These rituals should be practised until the figures drawn appear in flame, in flame so near to physical flame that it would perhaps be visible to the eyes of a bystander, were one present. It is alleged that some persons have attained the power of actually kindling fire by these means. Whether this be so or not, the power is not one to be aimed at.
3. Success in "banishing" is known by a "feeling of cleanliness" in the atmosphere; success in "invoking" by a "feeling of holiness." It is unfortunate that these terms are so vague.
But at least make sure of this: that any imaginary figure or being shall instantly obey the will of the student, when he uses the appropriate figure. In obstinate cases, the form of the appropriate God may be assumed.
4. The banishing rituals should be used at the commencement of any ceremony whatever. Next, the student should use a general invocation, such as the "Preliminary Invocation" in the "Goetia" as well as a special invocation to suit the nature of his working.
5. Success in these verbal invocations is so subtle a {26} matter, and its grades so delicately shaded, that it must be left to the good sense of the student to decide whether or not he should be satisfied with his result.
V
VI
EXPLICIT
{30} THE HERB DANGEROUS
PART II
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH
BY
OLIVER HADDOTHE HERB DANGEROUS
I
"The girders of the soul, which give her breathing, are easy
to be unloosed."
"Nature teaches us, and the oracles also affirm, that even the
evil germs of matter may alike become useful and good."
ZOROASTER.
COMPARABLE to the Alf Laylah wa Laylah itself, a very Tower of Babel, partaking alike of truth both gross and subtle inextricably interwoven with the most fantastic fable, is our view of the Herb --- Hashish --- the Herb Dangerous. Of the investigators who have pierced even for a moment the magic veil of its glamour ecstatic many have been appalled, many disappointed. Few have dared to crush in arms of steel this burning daughter of the Jinn; to ravish from her poisonous scarlet lips the kisses of death, to force her serpent-smooth and serpent-stinging body down to some infernal torture-couch, and strike her into spasm as the lightning splits the cloud-wrack, only to read in her infinite sea-green eyes the awful price of her virginity --- black madness.
Even supreme Richard Burton, who solved nigh every other riddle of the Eastern Sphinx, passed this one by. He took the drug for months "with no other symptom than increased appetite," and in his general attitude to hashish-intoxication {33} (spoken of often in the "Nights") shows that he regards it as no more than a vice, and seems not to suspect that, vice or no, it had strange fruits; if not of the Tree of Life, at least of that other Tree, double and sinister and deadly. ...
Nay! for I am of the Serpent's party; Knowledge is good, be the price what it may.
Such little fruit, then, as I may have culled from her autumnal breast (mere unripe berries, I confess!) I hasten to offer to my friends.
And lest the austerity of such a goddess be profaned by the least vestige of adornment I make haste to divest myself of whatever gold or jewellery of speech I may possess, to advance, my left breast bare, without timidity or rashness, into her temple, my hoped reward the lamb's skin of a clean heart, the badge of simple truthfulness and the apron of Innocence.
In order to keep this paper within limits, I may premise that the preparation and properties of "Cannabis indica" can be studied in the proper pharmaceutical treatises, though, as this drug is more potent psychologically than physically, all strictly medical account of it, so far as I am aware, have been hitherto both meagre and misleading. Deeper and clearer is the information to be gained from the brilliant studies by Baudelaire, unsurpassed for insight and impartiality, and Ludlow, tainted by admiration of de Quincey and the sentimentalists.<<At the time of writing this article, I had only glanced rapidly through Baudelaire's essay. When I made the experiments, I knew only Ludlow, and the brief note in "Martindale and Westcott." My research results, therefore, such as they are, are unbiased by knowledge. The coincidences with Baudelaire now appear very striking.>> {34}
My contribution to the subject will therefore be strictly personal, and so far incomplete; indeed in a sense valueless, since in such a matter personality may so largely outweigh all other factors of the problem. At the same time I must insist that my armour is more complete in several directions than that of my predecessors, inasmuch as I possess the advantage not only of a prolonged psychological training, a solid constitution, a temperament on which hashish acts by exciting perception (San~~n~~a), quite unalloyed by sensation (Vedana) and a perfect scepticism; but also of more than an acquaintance with ceremonial drunkenness among many nations and with the magical or mystical processes of all times and all races. It may fairly be retorted upon me that this unique qualification of mine is the very factor which most vitiates my results. However ...
With the question of intoxication considered as a key to knowledge let me begin, for from that side did I myself first suspect the existence of the drug which (as I now believe) is some sublimated or purified preparation of "Cannabis indica."
II
"Labour thou around the Strophalos of Hecate." ZOROASTER.
In 1898-1899 I had just left Cambridge and was living in rooms in Chancery Lane, honoured by the presence of Allan Bennett (now Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya) as my guest. {35}
Together for many months we studied and practised Ceremonial Magic, and ransacked the ancient books and MSS. of the reputed sages for a key to the great mysteries of life and death. Not even fiction was neglected, and it was from fiction that we gathered one tiny seed-fact, which (in all these years) has germinated to the present essay.
Through the ages we found this one constant story. Stripped of its local and chronological accidents, it usually came to this --- the writer would tell of a young man, a seeker after the Hidden Wisdom, who, in one circumstance or another, meets an adept; who, after sundry ordeals, obtains from the said adept, for good or ill, a certain mysterious drug or potion, with the result (at least) of opening the gate of the Other-world. This potion was identified with the Elixir Vitae of the physical Alchemists, or one of their "Tinctures," most likely the "White Tincture" which transforms the base metal (normal perception of life) to silver (poetic conception), and we sought it by fruitless attempts to poison ourselves with every drug in (and out of) the Pharmacopoeia.
Like Huckleberry Finn's prayer, nuffin' come of it.
I must now, like the Baker, skip forty years, or rather eight, and reach a point where my travels in India had familiarised me with their systems of meditation and with the fact that many of the lesser Yogis employed hashish (whether vainly or no we shall discuss later) to obtain Samadhi, that oneness with the Universe, or with the Nothingness, which is the feeble expression by which alone we can shadow that supreme trance. I had also the advantage of falling across Ludlow's book, and was struck by the circumstance that he, obviously ignorant of Vedantist and {36} Yogic doctrines, yet approximately expressed them, though in a degraded and distorted form.
I was also aware of the prime agony of meditation, the "dryness"<<The period of the rule of Apophis in the mystic regenerative process Isis Apophis Osiris I A O; or the Black Dragon in the alchemical translation from the First Matter of the Work into the Elixir.>> (as Molinos calls it) which hardens and sterilises the soul.
The very practice which should flood it with light leads only to a darkness more terrible than death, a despair and disgust which only too often lead to abandonment, when in truth they should encourage, for that --- as the oracles affirm --- it is darkest before the dawn.
Meditation therefore annoyed me, as tightening and constricting the soul. I began to ask myself if the "dryness" was an essential part of the process. If by some means I could shake its catafalque of Mind, might not the Infinite Divine Spirit leap unfettered to the Light?
Who shall roll away the stone?
Let it not be imagined that I devised these thoughts from pure sloth or weariness. But with the mystical means then at my disposal, I required a period of days or of weeks to obtain any Result, such as Samadhi in one of its greater or lesser forms; and in England the difficulties were hardly to be overcome. I found it impossible to meditate in the cold, and fires will not last equably. Gas stinks abominably; heating apparatus does not heat; electricity has hitherto not been available. When I build my temple, I shall try it.
The food difficulty could be overcome by Messrs. Fortnum and Mason, the noise difficulty by training, the leisure difficulty {37} by sending all business to the devil, the solitude difficulty by borrowing a vacant flat; but the British climate beat me. I hope one day to be rich enough to build a little house expressly for the purpose; but at present there is on the horizon no cloud even so large as the littlest finger of a man!
If only, therefore, I could reduce the necessary period to a few hours!
Moreover, I could persuade other people that mysticism was not all folly without insisting on their devoting a lifetime to studying under me; and if only I could convince a few competent observers --- in such a matter I distrust even myself --- Science would be bound to follow and to investigate, clear up the matter once for all, and, as I believed, and believe, arm itself with a new weapon ten thousand times more potent than the balance and the microscope.
Imagine me, therefore, if you please, selecting these few facts from the millions of others in the armoury of my brain, dovetailing them, and at last formulating an hypothesis verifiable by experiment.
III
"But I evolve all these mysteries in the profound abyss ofMind." --- ZOROASTER.
This was my hypothesis:
"Perhaps hashish is the drug which 'loosens the girders of the soul,' but is in itself neither good nor bad. Perhaps, as Baudelaire thinks, it merely exaggerates and distorts the natural man and his mood of the moment." The whole of {38} Ludlow's wonderful introspection seemed to me to fortify this suggestion.
"Well, then, let me see whether by first exalting myself mystically and continuing my invocations while the drug dissolved the matrix of the diamond soul, that diamond might not manifest limpid and sparkling, a radiance 'not of the Sun, nor of the Moon, nor of the Stars';" and then, of course, I remembered that this ceremonial intoxication constitutes the supreme ritual of all religions.
First, however, it was necessary to determine the normal action of the drug upon my particular organisation. There are various preparations of "Cannabis indica," all alike in this, that their action is so uncertain as to be not easily or surely standardised. It is not even a question of reasonable limits: of two samples apparently alike one may be fifty times stronger than the other. A sample may apparently degenerate 50 per cent. in strength within a few days. Some samples may be totally inert.
This fact has led to the almost total abandonment of the use of the drug in medicine.
Further, the personal equation counts for much. Allan Bennett in Chancery Lane had on one occasion taken sufficient Conium (hemlock) to kill forty men without the smallest result of any kind.
In Kandy I had (for the first time in my life) taken two hundred and twenty-five drops of Laudanum in five hours, also with no more result than would have been produced by ten drops upon the average man.
Our equation was therefore composed exclusively of variables, and wide variables at that! Nothing for it, then, {39} but rule-of-thumb! The old Chancery Lane rule: begin with half the minimum dose of the Pharmacopoeia, and if nothing happens within the expected time, double the dose. If you go on long enough, something is nearly sure to happen!
IV
"The Mind of the Father said Into Three! and immediatelyall things were so divided." --- ZOROASTER.
Let my readers be good enough to remember, then, that what follows concerns myself only. This must excuse the use of the first person, highly improper in a scientific essay, were it not that the personality of the experimenter is perhaps an essential. I cannot assert that my results would be achieved by another. Yet I have the strong conviction that I have eliminated many sources of error, and that my observations may possess a more absolute value in psychology than those of Ludlow or even of my great master Baudelaire. The few on whom I have been able to test the drug have in large measure confirmed, and in no way contradicted, my results.
In the first place, I make an absolute distinction between three effects of hashish, which may be, and I think probably are --- so distinct they appear --- due to three separate substances.
Possibly a simple stimulus-curve may account for it, but I do not think so.
V
"For this Paternal Intellect, which comprehendeth the
Intelligibles and adorneth things ineffable, hath sowed symbols
through the World."
"Comprehending that Intelligible with extended Mind; for
the Intelligible is the flower of Mind."
"A similar fire flashingly extending through the rushings of
air, or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a Voice, or
even a flashing Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying
aloud. Also there is the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of
Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on the shoulders of the
Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked, or
shooting with the bow shafts of Light and standing on the shoulders of
the horse; then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt
unite all these symbols into the Form of a Lion." --- ZOROASTER.
The most important of the psychological results of my experiments seem to me to lie in (alpha ). I devoted much pains to obtaining this effect alone by taking only the minutest doses, by preparing myself physically and mentally for the experiment, and by seeking in every possible way to intensify and prolong the effect.
Simple impressions in normal consciousness are resolved by hashish into a concatenation of hieroglyphs of a purely symbolic type.
Just as we represent a horse by the five letters h-o-r-s-e, none of which has in itself the smallest relation to a horse, so an even simpler concept such as the letter A seems resolved into a set of pictures, a fairly large number, possibly a constant number, of them. These glyphs are perceived together, just as the skilled reader reads h-o-r-s-e as a single word, not letter by letter. These pictorial glyphs, letters as it were of the {42} word which we call a thought, seem to stand at a definite distance in space behind the thought, the thought being farther from the perceiving soul. Looking at each glyph, one perceives, too, that itself is made up of other glyphs yet nearer to the Self, these glyphs, however, being formless and nameless; they are not truly perceived, but one is somehow aware of them.
Unfortunately, the tendency to fall into effect (beta ) makes it very difficult to concentrate on the analysis of these ideas, so that one is hurried on to a similar examination of the next thought. It is curious, though, to notice how this analysis corresponds to the worlds of the Qabalah, the single "pure soul" at the back of all, the shadowy "creative" world, the varied "formative world," and the single though concrete "material" world.
It puzzles one, too (at the time, in the very course of the analysis), to ask: If the external simple impression be made up of so many glyphs, and each of these again of many more, how can one ever return to the "pure soul"? For all the while one is clearly conscious of a simple Ego or "pure soul" which perceives all this.
The only solution appears to lie in a metaphysical identification of Monotheism and Pantheism.
Again, one is conscious of a double direction in the phenomena. Not only is it true to say that the thoughts are analysed into glyphs and so on, back to the pure soul; but also that the pure soul sends forth the glyphs, which formulate the thought. Here again we must identify the Atman system of Hinduism centred in Ego with the Anatta system of Buddhism, in which the impressions are all. {43}
Further, there arises an exceedingly remarkable state of mind, described in the Bhagavad-Gita (I quote Arnold):
"I, who am all, and made it all, abide its separate Lord."
The experience could not be better phrased. Zoroaster, too:
"Who first sprang from Mind, clothing the one Fire with the other Fire, binding them together, that he might mingle the fountainous craters, while preserving unsullied the brilliance of His own Fire."
"Containing all things in the one summit of his Hyparxis, He Himself subsists wholly beyond."
It is almost impossible to describe so purely metaphysical a state, which involves clearly enough a contradiction in terms. Yet the consciousness is so vivid, so intense, so certain, that logic is condemned unflinchingly as puerile. The best escape for the logician is to argue that the three assertions are closely consecutive, so closely that mind thinks them one; just as the two points of a pair of compasses pressed upon certain parts of the body are felt as one point only. While the mystic will mutter some esoteric darkness about the true interpretation of the doctrine of the Trinity.
I think one should add that these results of my introspection are almost certainly due to my own training in philosophy and magic, and that nothing but the intensification of the introspective faculty is due to the hashish. Probably, too, this effect (alpha ) would be suppressed or unnoticed in a subject who had never developed his introspection at all.
Yet I am inclined to believe that this effect (alpha ) is the true effect; and that Ludlow's "access of self-consciousness" is but the same operating on the organization of a man evidently nervous and timid. {44}
VI
"The Intelligible is the principle of all section." "The Mind of the Father whirled forth in re-echoing roar,
comprehending by invincible Will Ideas omniform; which flying
forth from that one fountain issued; for from the Father alike
was the Will and the End (by which are they connected with
the Father according to alternating life, though varying
vehicles). But they were divided asunder, being by Intellectual Fire
distributed into other Intellectuals. For the King of all previously
placed before the polymorphous World a Type, intellectual,
incorruptible, the imprint of whose form is sent forth through
the World, by which the Universe shone forth decked with Ideas
all-various, of which the foundation is One, One and alone.
From this the others rush forth distributed and separated through
the various bodies of the Universe, and are borne in swarms
through its vast abysses, ever whirling forth in illimitable radiation.
"They are intellectual conceptions from the Paternal Fountain
partaking abundantly of the brilliance of Fire in the culmination
of unresting time.
"But the primary self-perfect Fountain of the Father poured
forth these primogenial Ideas."
"The Soul, being a brilliant Fire, by the power of the Father
remaineth immortal, and is Mistress of Life, and filleth up the
many recesses of the bosom of the world." --- ZOROASTER.
The alleged annihilation of time and space, which so frequently reappears in articles on hashish, seems to me solved more simply by a more accurate analysis of the phenomenon. The normal explanation involves the assumption that man naturally possesses a perfect and infallible "time-sense" as regular as a clock. Which is absurd; were it so, we should not need watches. We are accustomed to work (whether the idea be philosophically tenable or not is not german to the matter) with a minimum cogitable both of space and of time. Just as a definite number of beats of the pendulum makes an {45} hour, so mentally a less definite but far from indefinite number of thoughts makes an hour's consciousness. Perhaps powerful and vivid thoughts count for a longer lapse of time than weak ones. Deep sleep passes like an invisible electric discharge.
The apparently contrary fact that time seems short when we have been reading an interesting book or performing a pleasant and absorbing task is explained thus; the multitude of impressions is harmonised into one impression. Read an unharmonious and dull book, or an essay like this, and the time appears ineffably long.
The other contrary fact, that a minute's Samadhi appears as an eternity, though Samadhi is a single thought, is explained by the intensity of that thought and by other considerations which I shall hope to discuss more fully in section xiii. of this essay.
This, then, is what happens to the eater of hashish. For each impression he has thousands of glyphs (effect(alpha )) or in the more common<<More common, judging by the reports of Ludlow and others. I never permitted myself to fall under its dominion.>> effect (beta ) the images are so multiplied and superimposed that all harmony is lost; the brain fails to keep pace with its impressions, still less to codify and control them. It finds then that from the idea "cat" to the idea "mouse" is a journey through the million dying echoes of cat to the million dawn-rays of mouse, and that the journey takes a million times as long as usual.
This analysis of a thought into its dawn, noon, and sunset, is well drawn in Buddhist psychology.<<"See Mrs. Rhys David's book.">>
Often, too, most often, one of the "cat-echoes" will be so loud that the whole chain is shattered; the cat-echo becomes {46} the dominant, and its harmonics (or inharmonics) themselves usurp the throne --- and so on and so on --- through countless ages of insane hallucination.
The same criticism applies to space; for in practice we judge of space by the time required to pass through it, either by the small angular or focussing movements of the eye or by our general experience. So that if I cross a room, and think a million thoughts on the way, the room seems immense. It is by the tedium of the journey, not by any hallucination of the physical eye, that this illusion is produced.
In writing my notes on one occasion I found that my right arm (which of course is not in the line of vision at all, normally) was many thousands of miles in extent. It was strange and difficult to control such colossal sweeps through space to the fine work of the pen. Yet my handwriting was no worse than usual --- I admit this says little! It was the time that it apparently took to get one word written that caused the illusion of extravagant size, itself therefore a rational illusion, turned to phantastic absurdity by the excited imagination, which visualized it.
VII
"The Intelligible is the principle of all section." "God is never so turned away from man, and never so much
sendeth him new paths, as when he maketh ascent to divine
speculations or works in a confused or disordered manner, and
as it adds, with unhallowed lips, or unwashed feet. For of those
who are thus negligent, the progress is imperfect, the impulses
are vain, and the paths are dark." --- ZOROASTER.
Another and highly important result of thought-analysis is the criticism of thought as it arises. Just as the impressions {47} are represented by pictorial glyphs, so each reflection upon an impression is accompanied by either one or two (more only when the control is imperfect) "critical" glyphs, as it were in small type, an annotation of approval or otherwise. Thus, a chain of thought A-B-C will have three approving pictures in a fainter key; the soul justifying the sequence. Should one continue A-B-C-E an opposing glyph will warn of the falsity, or at least cast doubt upon it. In the generally unstable condition of the thought, such a critical glyph may be strong enough to become the dominant; and then the whole line of thought breaks down. Let me give an example:
"Thought" "Criticisms and their glyphs."
The whole mind is now a raging sea of confused thought: doubts, attempts to remember accurately who on earth first said "featherless biped," even an agony to recover thought 1, and start again. This one unfortunate weakness of thought 2 has drawn the thought-current away from the consideration of "man" to an academic question; and, as hashish goes, one is unlikely ever to get back to it. On the contrary, one of the critical glyphs attacking the thought "Locke? Locke?" will probably be strong enough to carry away the thought into a new channel, in its turn to be diverted. This at the best: for one is now ready to fall into the Maelstrom of effect (beta ). {48}
There is only one remedy for this state of affairs, the discipline of thought which we call in its highest forms meditation and magic. The existence of the disease, it will be noticed, indeed perfectly explains the nature of thought-wandering as observed by me in simple meditation without drugs. It should be taken, I think, as the normal action of the untrained mind. So long as the thoughts are strongly thrown out, rational, the critical glyphs approve, and the thought-current moves harmoniously to its end. Such are the trained thought-currents of educated man. The irresponsible an aimless chatter of women and clergymen is the result of weak thoughts constantly drowned by their associated critical glyphs. Mere sympathetic glyphs, too, may be excited in really feeble intelligences. Puns and other false associations of thought are symptomatic of this imbecility. An extreme case is the classical "Cat-mousetrap-kittens" chain of the lunatic, when somebody said "hat."
As I said, there is but one remedy; we all more or less subject to this wandering of thought,and we may all wisely seek to overcome it; that remedy is to train the mind constantly by severe methods; the logic of mathematics, the concentrated observation necessary in all branches of science, the still more elaborate and austere training of magic and meditation.
Too many people mistake reverie for meditation; the chemist's boy who thought Epsom salts was oxalic acid is a less dangerous person. Reverie is turning thought out to grass; meditation is putting him between the shafts.
The so-called poet with his vague dreams and ideals is indeed no better than a harmless lunatic; the true poet is the {49} worker, who grips life's throat and wrings out its secret, who selects austerely and composes concisely, whose work is as true and clean as razor-steel, albeit its sweep is vaster and swifter than the sun's!
The discursive prattle of such superficial twaddlers as Longfellow and Tennyson is the most deadly poison of the mind. All this is true enough in the merest exoteric necessity of adult civilisation. But if we are to go further into the nature of things, to dive deeper than the chemist, soar higher than the poet, look wider than the astronomer, we must furnish ourselves with a blade of still better temper.
VIII
"It is not proper to understand that Intelligible One with
vehemence, but with the extended flame of far-reaching Mind,
measuring all things except that Intelligible. But it is
requisite to understand this; for if thou inclinest thy Mind thou wilt
understand it, not earnestly; but it is becoming to bring with
thee a pure and inquiring sense, to extend the void mind of thy
soul to that Intelligible, that thou mayst learn the Intelligible,
because it subsisteth beyond Mind."
"Thou wilt not understand it, as when understanding some
common thing." --- ZOROASTER.
In other of my philosophical writings I have endeavoured to show that the ratiocinative faculty was in its nature unable to solve any single problem of the universe.
Its "reductio ad absurdum" is clear enough in the gorgeous first section of Herbert Spencer's First Principles. Kant demonstrated the Dualism and inherent Self-contradiction well enough in the Prolegomena and its four theses and their {50} antitheses (Section 51); and Hegel's Logic, if properly understood, would have brought the whole thing into contempt.
But unfortunately the "common sense" of mankind retorted that after all the interior angles of every triangle "are" together equal to two right-angles; and that a mental process which deduced this so accurately from a few simple axioms and definitions must be trustworthy; adding something uncomplimentary about Germans and Metaphysics.
Both are right, and both are wrong. In the world of common sense, reason works; in the world of philosophy, it doesn't. The metaphysical deadlock is a real and not a verbal one. The inner nature of things is not rational, at least so long as we are asked to define "rational" as "rationalistic." Why should it be? Why should the rules of golf govern the mechanics of the flight of a golf-ball?
It is this fact that has made it possible for the faith-mongers to make head against the stream of philosophy. Fichte is really and truly just as right and as wrong as Schelling; Hume is quite as impregnable as Berkeley.
Let us not try to shirk the truth of it, either by the "common- sense" folly, or the "faith" folly, or the Hegelian folly.
It may, I think, be readily conceded that the reasoning faculty is not apodeictally absolute. It represents a stage in human thought, no
more.
You cannot convince a savage of the truth of the Binomial Theorem; should we then be surprised if a mystic fails to convert a philosopher?
Yet must he try. {51}
IX
"For being furnished with every kind of armour, and armed,
he is similar to the goddess." --- ZOROASTER.
My dear Professor, how can you expect me to believe this nonsense about bacteria? Come, saith he, to the microscope; and behold them!
I don't see anything.
Just shift the fine adjustment --- that screw there --- to and fro very slowly!
I can't see ---
Keep the left eye open; you'll see better!
Ah! --- But how do I know? ...
Oh, there are a thousand questions to ask!
Is it fair observation to use lenses, which admittedly refract light and distort vision?
How do I know those specks are not dust?
Couldn't those things be in the air?
And so on.
The Professor can convince me, of course, and the more sceptical I am the more thoroughly I shall be convinced in the end; but not until I have learned to use a microscope. And when I have learned --- a matter of some months, maybe years --- how can I convince the next sceptic?
Only in the same way, by teaching him to use the instrument.
And suppose he retorts, "You have deliberately trained yourself to hallucination!" What answer have I? None that I know of. Save that microscopy has revolutionised {52} surgery, &c., just as mysticism has revolutionised, again and again, the philosophies of mankind.
The analogy is a perfect one. By meditation we obtain the vision of a new world, even as the world of microorganisms was unsuspected for centuries of thinking --- thinking without method --- bricks without straw!
Just so, also, the masters of meditation have erred. They have attained the Mystic Vision, written long books about it, assumed that the conclusions drawn from their vision were true on other planes --- as if a microscopist were to stand for Parliament on the platform "Votes for Microbes" --- never noted possible sources of error, fallen foul of sense and science, dropped into oblivion and deserved contempt.
I want to combine the methods, to check the old empirical mysticism by the precision of modern science.
Hashish at least gives proof of a new order of consciousness, and (it seems to me) it is this "prima facie" case that mystics have always needed to make out, and never have made out.
But to-day I claim the hashish-phenomena as mental phenomena of the first importance; and I demand investigation.
I assert --- more or less "ex cathedra" --- that meditation will revolutionise our conception of the universe, just as the microscope has done.
Then my friend the physiologist remarks:
"But if you disturb the observing faculty with drugs and a special mental training, your results will be invalid."
And I reply:
"But if you disturb the observing faculty with lenses and a special mental training, your results will be invalid." {53}
And he smiles gently:
"Patient experiment will prove to you that the microscope is reliable."
And I smile gently"
"Patient experiment will prove to you that meditation is reliable."
So there we are.
X
"Stay not on the precipice with the dross of matter, for
there is a place for thine image in a realm ever splendid."
ZOROASTER.
"When thou seest a terrestrial demon approaching, cry aloud
and sacrifice the stone Mnizourin." --- ZOROASTER
As a boy at school I enjoyed a reputation for unparalleled cowardice; in the world I am equally accused of foolhardiness. The judgment of the boys was the better. The truth is that I have always been excessively cautious, have never willingly undertaken even the smallest risk.
The paradoxical result is that I have walked hundreds of miles unroped over snow-covered glaciers, and that nobody (so far as I know) has ever attempted to repeat my major climbs on Beachy Head. One may add a little grimly that the same remark applies to my excursions into the regions of the mind, the conscience, and the soul.
This bombastic prelude to a simple note on the precautions which I took in my experiments.
First, the use of the minutest care in estimating doses.
Secondly, the rule never to repeat my experiment before the lapse of at least a month. {54}
Frankly, I doubt if these were necessary. I do not suppose my will to be abnormally strong; I believe rather that there is a definite type of drug-slave, born from his mother's womb; and that those who achieve it or have it thrust upon them are a very small percentage. In saying this I include such obsessions as music, religion, gambling, among drugs. Is the "Keswick week" less of a debauch than the navvy's Bank Holiday? There are people who rush from meeting to meeting, and give up their whole lives to this unwholesome excess of stimulant; they are happy nowhere else; they become as irritable as the cocaine-fiend, and render wretched the lives of those who are forced to come in contact with them.
Personally, I have never felt the bearing-rein of habit, though I have tried all the mental and physical poisons in turn. I smoke tobacco, the strongest tobacco, to excess, as I am told; yet a dozen times I have abandoned it, in order to see whether it had any hold upon me. It had none; I resigned it as cheerfully as a small boy resigns the tempting second half of his first cigar. After a meal (for the first day or two) my hands would go to my pockets from habit; finding nothing there, I would remember, laugh, and forget the subject at once.
I think, therefore, that we may dismiss the alleged danger of acquiring the hashish habit as fantastic.
Nobody will acquire the habit but the destined drug-slave; and he may just as well have the hashish habit as any other; he is sure to fall under the power of some enchantress.
All these alarmist reports, however, are really worthless, worthless at the best as the "omne ignotum pro terribili" fear {55} of the savage for an unfamiliar shape of bottle, worthless at the worst as the temperance crank's account of the fatal effects of alcohol, the vegetarian's account of the dangers of meat-eating, or the missionary's account of the religion of the people he lives among. The alleged sensuality of hashish --- even Baudelaire admits it --- simply does not exist for me, perhaps because there is no germ of lasciviousness in my mind. Of course if you excite, by whatever stimulus, a foul imagination, you will get pestilent effects. When Queen Mab tickles the lawyer, he dreams of fees. So the people who associate nudity with debauchery, and see Piccadilly Circus in Monna Lisa, will probably obtain the fullest itching from the use of the drug.
I recommend it to them for, slaves and swine as they are, it must inevitably drag them to death by the road of a certifiable insanity less dangerous to society than their present subtler moral beastliness.
I think, too, that Baudelaire altogether exaggerates the reaction. I never felt the slightest fatigue or lassitude; but went from the experiments to my other work with accustomed freshness and energy. Probably, however, these effects depend largely on the sample of the drug employed; some may contain more active or grosser toxic agents than others.
Putting aside all these optimistic considerations, one is yet perfectly in accord with Baudelaire's conclusion, and for the same reason. (We discard his preliminary sophisms.)
I have no use for hashish save as a preliminary demonstration that there exists another world attainable --- somehow. Possibly if pharmacists were to concentrate their efforts upon {56} producing a standard drug, upon isolating the substance responsible for effect (alpha ), and so on, we might find a reliable and harmless adjuvant to the process which I have optimistically named Scientific Illuminism.
But at least for the present we have not arrived so far. In my own case I should know fairly well what to do, well enough to get my little "loosening of the girders of the soul" at a guess twice in five times, perhaps more.
Not surely enough to guarantee results to other people without a lengthy series of experiments, still less to recommend them to try for themselves, unless under skilled supervision.
My present appeal is to recognised physiologists and psychologists to increase the number and accuracy of their researches on the introspective lines which I have laid down above, possibly with further aid from the pharmacist.
Once the pure physio-psychological action is determined, I shall then ask their further attention to the special results of combining the drug with the mystic process --- always invoking trained observation --- and from that moment the future of Scientific Illuminism will be assured.
I must add a paragraph or two on the nature of the mystic process and the general character of the transcendental states of consciousness resulting from its successful practice.
XI
"He maketh the whole World of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth,
and of the all-nourishing Ether." --- ZOROASTER.
One truth, says Browning, leads right to the world's end; and so I find it impossible to open a subject, however small {57} in appearance, without discovering an universe. So, as I set myself to discuss the character of mystic states, it is immediately evident that if I am to render myself at all intelligible to English readers, a totally new system of classification must be thought out.
The classical Eight Jhanas will be useless to us; the Hindu system is almost as bad; the Qabalistic requires a preliminary knowledge of the Tree of Life whose explanation would require a volume to itself; but fortunately we have, in the Buddhist Skandhas and the Three Characteristics which deny them, a scheme easily assimilable to Western psychology.
In "Science and Buddhism" I dealt in some detail with these Skandhas; but I will briefly recapitulate.
In examining any phenomenon and analysing it we first notice its Name and Form (Nama and Rupa). "Here is a Rose," we say. In such a world live the entirely vulgar.
Next (with Berkeley) we perceive that this statement is false. There is an optical sensation (Vedana) of red; an olfactory sensation of fragrance; and so on. Even its weight, its space, are modifications of sense; and the whole statement is transformed into "Here is a pleasurable set of sensations which we group under the name of a rose." In such a world lives the sensuous artist.
Next, these modifications of sense are found to be but percepts; the pleasure or pain vanishes; and the sensations are observed coldly and clearly without allowing the mind to be affected. This perception (San~~n~~a) is the world of the surgeon or the man of science.
Next, the perception itself is seen to be dependent on the {58} nature of the observer, and his tendency (Sankhara) to perceive. The oyster gets no fun out of the rose. This state establishes a dualistic conception, such as Mansel was unable to transcend, and at the same time places the original rose in its cosmic place. The creative forces that have made the rose and the observer what they are, and established their relation to one another, are now the sole consciousness. Here lives the philosopher.
Easily enough, this state passes into one of pure consciousness (Vin~~n~~anam). The rose and the observer and their tendencies and relations have somehow vanished. The phenomenon (not the original phenomenon, "a rose," but the phenomenon of the tendency to perceive the sensation of a rose) becomes a cloudless light; a static, no longer a dynamic conception. One has somehow got behind the veil of the universe. Here live the mystic and the true artist.
The Buddhist, however, does not stop here, for he alleges that even this consciousness is false; that like all things it has the Three Characteristics of Sorrow, Change, and Unsubstantiality.
Now all this analysis is a purely intellectual one, though perhaps it may be admitted that few philosophers have been capable of so profound and acute a resolution of phenomena. It has nothing to do with mysticism as such, but its rational truth makes it a suitable basis for our proposed classification of the mystic states which result from the many religious and magical methods in use among men. {59}
XII
"The Vast sun, and the brilliant moon." "O Ether, sun, and spirit of the moon! Ye, ye are the
leaders of air!"
"The Principles, which have understood the Intelligible works
of the Father, He hath clothed in sensible works and bodies,
being intermediate links existing to connect the Father with
Matter, rendering apparent the Images of unapparent Natures, and
inscribing the Unapparent in the Apparent frame of the World."
"There are certain Irrational Demons (mindless elementals),
which derive their subsistence from the Aerial Rulers; where-
fore the Oracle saith, Being the Charioteer of the Aerial, Terres-
trial and Aquatic Dogs."
"The Aquatic when applied to Divine Natures signifies a
Government inseparable from Water, and hence the Oracle calls
the Aquatic Gods, Water Walkers."
"There are certain Water Elementals whom Orpheus calls
Nereides, dwelling in the more elevated exhalations of Water,
such as appear in damp, cloudy Air, whose bodies are sometimes
seen (as Zoroaster taught) by more acute eyes, especially in
Persia and Africa."
"Let the immortal depth of your soul lead you, but earnestly
raise your eyes upwards." --- ZOROASTER.
"Nama-Rupa." --- Purely material, and therefore shadowy and meaningless, are the innumerable shapes which haunt the mind of man. In one sense we must here include all purely sensory phenomena, and the images which memory presents to the mind which is endeavoring to concentrate itself upon a single thought.
In other systems of mysticism we must include all astral phantoms, divine or demoniac, which are merely seen or heard without further reflection upon them. To obtain these it is sufficient to perform the following experiment: {60}
Sit down comfortably; it is perhaps best to begin in the dark.
Imagine as strongly as possible your own figure standing in front of you.
Transfer your consciousness to that figure, so that you look down upon your physical body in the chair.
{This is usually the one difficulty.)
Feeling perfectly at home in your imagined body, let that body rise through the air to a great height.
Stop. Look around you. Probably the eyes of your "astral" body will be closed. It is sometimes difficult to open them.
You will then perceive all sorts of forms, varying as you travel about. Their nature will depend almost entirely on your power of control. Some people may even perceive the phantoms of delirium and madness, and truly go mad from fear and horror.
Let the "astral" body return and sit down, coinciding with the physical body.
Closely unite the two: the experiment is over.
Practice makes perfect.
This practice is delusive and even dangerous; it is best to precede and follow it by a carefully performed "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram."<<Mr. Haddo's suggestions have been officially taken up and a book of careful instruction compiled. "See" Liber O. --- ED.>> Better still, have a skilled teacher. The experiment is an easy one; with two pupils only (of some dozens) I have failed, and that completely; with the others the first experiment was a success.
We must include, too, in this section the forms appearing in answer to the rites of ceremonial magic. {61}
(Consult "Goetia," the "Key of Solomon," Eliphaz Levi, Cornelius Agrippa, Pietro di Abano, Barrett and others for instructions.)
These forms are more solid and real, much more dangerous, and are excessively difficult to obtain. I have known very few successful practitioners.
All these forms and names are almost infinitely varied. The grosser visual and auditory phenomena of hashish belong to the group. It is not just to suppose that a vision of a Divine being of ineffable splendour is necessarily of higher type than this shadowy form-world. Mistake on this point has led many a student astray. Highest among these things are the three visual and seven auditory phenomena of Yoga. (We omit consideration of the other senses; the subject requires a volume.) These are referred to the Sun, the Moon, and Fire; and their appearance marks the attainment of Dhyana. They are dazzling, and accompanied with such intense though passionless bliss that they partake of the nature of Vedana and may under certain conditions even rise to touch San~~n~~a. Of the auditory are sounds heard like bells, elephants, thunder, trumpets, sea-shells, "the sweet-souled Vina," and so on; they are of less importance and are much more common.
As one would expect, such forms leave little impress upon the memory. Yet they are seductive enough, and I am afraid that the very great majority of mystics live all their lives wandering about in this vain world of shadows and of shells.
All this, too, is the pleasant aspect of the affair. Here belong the awful shapes of delirium and madness, which obsess and destroy the soul that fails to control and dismiss them. Here lives the Dweller of the Threshold, that concentration {62} into a single symbol of the Despair and Terror of the Universe and of the Self. Yet on all the paths is He, ready to smite whoso falters or swerves, though he have attained almost the last height.
How many have I known, like Childe Roland and his peers, who have come to that Dark Tower! One young, one brave, one pure --- lost! lost! penned in the hells of matter, swept away in the whirling waters of insane vision, true victims of the hashish of the soul.
What poignant agony, what moaning abjectness, what self-disgust! What vain folly (of all true hope forlorn!) to seek in drugs, in drink, in the pistol or the cord, the paradise they have forfeited by a moment's weakness or a moment's wavering!
This "two-handed engine at the door stands ready to smite" each one of us who has not attained to Arahatship, admission to the Great White Brotherhood. Is it not enough to make us throw away our atheism and exclaim, "O God be merciful to me a sinner, and keep me in the way of Truth!" Nay, for those of us who know what triple silver cord of moonlight binds the red blood of our heart to the Ineffable Crown of Brilliance, who have seen what Angel stands in the moon-ray, who have known the perfume and the vision, seen the drops of dew supernal stand on the silver lamen of the forehead --- for us is neither fear nor pride, but silence in the one thought of the One beyond all thought.
The world of phantoms has no terror left; we can take the blood of the Black Dragon for our Red Tincture. We understand the precept "Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenias Occultum Lapidem"; and harnessing to our triumphal car the White Eagle and the Green Lion we voyage at {63} our ease upon the Path of the Chameleon, by the Towers of Iron and the Fountains of Supernal Dew, unto that black unutterable Sea most still.
XIII
"From the Cavities of the Earth leap forth the terrestrial
Dog-faced demons, showing no true sign unto mortal man."
"Go not forth when the Lictor passeth by."
"Direct not thy mind to the vast surfaces of the Earth; for
the Plant of Truth grows not upon the ground. Nor measure
the motions of the Sun, collecting rules, for he is carried by the
Eternal Will of the Father, and not for your sake alone. Dismiss
(from your mind) the impetuous course of the Moon, for she
moveth always by the power of necessity. The progression of
the Stars was not generated for your sake. The wide aerial
flight of birds gives not true knowledge, nor the dissection of
the entrails of victims; they are all mere toys, the basis of
mercenary fraud; flee from these if you would enter the sacred paradise
of piety, where Virtue, Wisdom, and Equity are assembled."
"Stoop not down unto the darkly splendid World; wherein
continually lieth a faithless Depth, and Hades wrapped in clouds,
delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black
ever-rolling Abyss; ever espousing a Body unluminous, formless
and void."
"Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the Earth,
reached by a descending Ladder which hath Seven Steps, and
therein is established the Throne of an evil and fatal force."
"Stay not on the Precipice with the dross of Matter, for
there is a place for thy Image in a realm ever splendid."
"Invoke not the visible Image of the Soul of Nature."
"Look not upon Nature, for her name is fatal."
"It becometh you not to behold them before your body is
initiated, since by always alluring they seduce the souls from the
sacred mysteries."
"Bring her not forth, lest in departing she retain something."
"The Light-hating World, and the winding currents by which
many are drawn down." --- ZOROASTER.
It may be useful here to distinguish once and for all between false and real mystical phenomena; for in the {64} previous section we have spoken of both without distinction. In the "astral visions" the consciousness is hardly disturbed; in magical evocations it is intensely exalted; but it is still bound by its original conditions. The Ego is still opposed to the non-Ego; time is, if altered in rate, still there; so, too, is Space the sort of Space we are all conscious of. Again, the phenomena observed follow the usual laws of growth and decay.
But all true mystical phenomena contradict these conditions.
In the first place, the Ego and non-Ego unite explosively, their product having none of the qualities of either. It is precisely such a phenomenon as the direct combination of Hydrogen and Chlorine. The first thing observed is the flash; in our analogy, the ecstasy of Ananda (bliss) attending the Dhyana. And as this flash does not aid us to analyse the Hydrochloric acid gas, so the Ananda prevents us by startling us from perceiving the true nature of the phenomenon. In higher mystic states, then, we find that the Yogi or Magician has learnt how to suppress it.
But the combination of the elements will usually be a definite single act of catastrophic energy.
This act, too, does not take place in time or space as we know them. I think that for the first time of experiencing a Dhyana it is necessarily single. Certain mystical methods may teach us to retain the image; but the criterion of true Dhyana is the singleness, so totally opposed as it is to the vague and varying phantoms of the "astral plane."
The new consciousness resulting from the combination is, too, always a simple one. Even where it is infinitely complex, as in Atmadarshana or the Vision of the Universal {65} Peacock, its oneness is the truer of these two contradictory truths.
So for the matter of time and space. All time is filled; all space is filled; the phenomenon is infinite and eternal.
This is true even though its singleness makes the duration of the phenomenon but one minimum cogitabile. In short, it is experienced in some other kind of time, some other kind of space.
There is nothing irrational about this. Non-Euclidean geometries, for example, are possible, and may be true. It is only necessary to a theory of the universe that it should be true to itself within itself; for there is no other thing outside by which we can check our calculations.
Nor is it inconceivable that many of these worlds may exist, interpenetrating. Assume four dimensions, and there is room for an infinite number of them. For though a plane fills a square completely, it must always leave a cube entirely empty.
Concerning the laws which govern this new realm we can say nothing here. The most mystics have been led away from the proper line of research, usually by the baser ("i.e.," the emotional or devotional) attractions of the Vedana-phenomena which we are about to notice; but perhaps even the best must be baffled by the non-congruity of their Experience with the symbols of language.
One may add that the language difficulty is in some ways an essential one. Language begins with simple expression of the common needs of the most animal life. Hence we see that all sciences have formulated a technical language of their own, not to be understanded of the common people. The {66} reproach against mystics that their symbols are obscure is just as well founded as a similar reproach against the algebraist or the chemist. A paper at the Chemical Society is often completely intelligible only to some three or four of the odd hundred distinguished chemists in the room.
What is gained to "popular science" is lost to exactitude; and in a paper of this sort I fear rather the reproach of my mystical masers than that of the bewildered crowd.
More important and certain than the mere characteristics of mystic traces in themselves is the great and and vital diagnostic that the result of a true trance is to inspire the Yogi with power to do first- rate work in his own department.
People who produce maudlin and hysterical gush, inane sentimentality, who are faddists, fools, drivellers, dodderers --- these I refuse to accept as mystics. The true phenomena of mysticism can only occur in a high-class brain and a healthy brain; and their action on that brain is to repose it, to fortify it, to make it more capable of lofty and continuous thought. Beware of the sheep in lions' skins, the asses that bray and think "the tiger roars!"
Physically too the mystic is to be known by his atmosphere of power, cleanliness and light; by his self-control, his concentration of thought and action, his vigour, his patience.
You will rarely find them at afternoon tea gossiping about clairvoyance, or even "playing Adam."
What? you don't know how to play "Adam"? And you call yourself a sage? Tut!
The game of "Adam" is played as follows.
Take a key, a Bible, an elastic band. {67}
Open the Bible at random till you find a favourable text.
There insert the key, leaving the barrel and ring outside.
Put the elastic band round the book, so as to fix the key firmly in it.
Balance the whole arrangement by putting your thumb and that of the Assistant Magus of Art under the ring, thumb against thumb.
(An important but, as I hold, heterodox school of adepts employ the forefinger.)
Keep very still; and ask your question: "Adam, Adam, tell me true! Shall I ---" &c.
If the Bible turns in a dextro-rotary manner the answer is "yes"; if in the opposite direction, "no."
This sublime method of tearing out the heart of destiny is evidently derived from a slightly more elaborate one in the "Key of Solomon" (Book I., chap. ix.) for detecting theft, which is done with a sieve, and which I supposed (until "Adam" advised me to the contrary) to represent the lowest debauchery in which the human intellect could wallow.
The game is, however, much esteemed by charlatan clairvoyants; and I can well understand their indignation at finding that I do not recognise their proficiency in this game and that of swindling and blackmail as entitling them to a seat at the Round Table of the Adepts.
Let us, however that may be, return to our classification. {68}
XIV
"There is a certain Intelligible One whom it becometh you
to understand with the Flower of Mind."
"Having mingled the Vital Spark, from two according substances,
Mind and Divine Spirit, as a third to these He added
Holy Love, the venerable Charioteer uniting all things."
"Filling the Soul with profound Love."
"The Soul of man does in a manner clasp God to herself.
Having nothing mortal, she is wholly inebriated with God. For
she glorieth in the harmony under which the moral body sub-
sisteth."
"As rays of Light his locks flow forth, ending in acute
points."
ZOROASTER.
"Vedana." --- Pertaining to Sensation we may first notice in the beginner's concentrating mind the class of distracting thoughts which refer to the emotions. The taking of pleasure in, or the endurance of pain from, the meditation itself is in particular to be dreaded.
Of mystic phenomena we may notice the immense class of devotional apparitions. Vishnu, Christ, Jehovah and other deities appear in response to long-continued and passionate love. See "Bhagavad Gita," chap. xi., the visions of many Catholic saints, Teresa, Gertrude, Francis and others, Anna Kingsford ("Clothed with the Sun," Part III.), Idra Rabba Qadisha and so on.
The Virgin Mary is a favourite with many; it is all one phenomenon.
Observe, though, that many such apparitions are not of the Dhyana type at all; they are mostly mere hallucinations of the "astral plane." In section xiii. we have indicated the diagnostics. {69}
Methods of obtaining these states are to be found in any book on Bhakta Yoga --- Swami Vivekananda's is the best I know of --- and in Loyola's "Exercitios Espirituales," whose discipline and method is, in my opinion, unsurpassed.
These phenomena are nearly always tainted with sexuality, and are excessively dangerous from this cause. "Dirt is matter in the wrong place," and to mix, consciously or unconsciously, either morality or immorality with religion is dirty; and dirt makes disease. The victim becomes a fanatic at the best, at the worst and most frequent a driveller.
Of a lower type are the loves of Magi and invoked elementals. As Levi says, "the love of the Magus for such beings is insensate, and may destroy him." It surely will, if he beware not in time.
Higher again because more purely formless and for this reason truer to the Vedana type are the ecstasies of joy and agony experienced by such men as Luther, Fox, Molinos, and others. Professor William James treats most adequately of this matter in his "Varieties of Religious Experience."
The limitations of this stage are first, its absorption in self; secondly, its almost always insuperable tendency to self-limitation and narrowness.
Two mystics, the one wallowing in Jesus and the other in Vishnu, will describe their experiences in almost identical language, yet denounce each other as "heathen" and "Mlechha" respectively.
Among hashish phenomena the correspondences are those of the intense emotions experienced (well described {70} by de Quincey (opium) and Ludlow in particular). Such are fear, pride, love, laughter, anguish, and the rest.
In the case of Vishvarupadarshana (the vision of Vishnu) and even of such results as those of St. Francis and St. Ignatius, the best mystics may steer clear of the selfishness, narrowness, and emotionalism, and raise their experience to the type of San~~n~~a or even of Sankhara.
The "Bhagavad Gita" certainly reaches the latter height --- or at least a reflection from that height --- at one or two points.
We must not omit to attribute to this section the lower aspect of what Abramelin the Mage calls the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, another (and less metaphysically pretentious) way of speaking of the "Higher Self" or "Genius." It is indeed but a low aspect, for in truth the phenomenon pertains to Vin~~n~~anam. Yet in simpler souls this peculiar Grace condescends --- may one say? --- to this level, just as a father may join in the games of his child, thus gaining its sympathy and confidence as a basis for a higher union.
XV
"The Mind of the Father riding on the subtle guiders which
glitter with the inflexible tracings of relentless fire."
"The Oracles assert that the types of Characters and of
other Divine visions appear in the Ether (or Astral Light)."
ZOROASTER.
"San~~n~~a." --- Chief among the phenomena of San~~n~~a, in the case of the beginner trying to concentrate his mind, are those {71} disturbing thoughts which analyse the very process itself. Harder to destroy are they than the others, since they come no longer from memory or physical conditions, but from the practice itself, so that they cannot be shut off, but must needs be faced and conquered directly.
In the mystic world, we come to those strange metaphysical ecstasies which (I am convinced) lie behind many philosophical dogmas.
St. Athanasius had probably experienced something of this type when he penned his insane creed. So the Hindus with their attempts to affirm Parabrahma by denying him all qualities, their dogmas of the "pairs of opposites," their assertion of Sat-Chit-Ananda as transcending these pairs; so too perhaps with Herbert Spencer it was direct Samadhic perception of this San~~n~~a type that led him to formulate his irrational doctrine of Transcendental Realism, just as (certainly) Berkeley's doctrine arose from Samadhi of the type of Vedana. For the stigma of this class of mystic experience is undoubtedly first its resolution of all concepts into purely formless and passionless perception, secondly (and above this), its transcendence of the laws of thought, as we have been accustomed to understand them.
(This is only in part true. Keynes' "Formal Logic," profoundly studied, leads one perilously close to the suprarational. The eminent professor is perhaps hardly aware of how his eagle-flights have brushed the sun with their fiery wings.)
If a dweller upon this plane meditate upon a God, his first experience of that God will be no longer of His appearance or of His effect upon himself, but rather of His nature in some {72} region of pure thought. In the case of the god Osiris, for example, he will no longer express his vision by the name Osiris or by the green face, by the white robes starred with the three active colours, by the crown and by the crook and scourge; nor will he chant wondrous hymns of the descent into Amennti, the death and resurrection of the God; but he will express all this by some pure symbol, such as the cross, the hexagram, or even the number 6. And those upon his plane will understand him.
Here, too, we must class the revelations of the pure Qabalah, and the discovery of the relations between symbols.
So exalted in truth are the states upon this San~~n~~a grade that the rational man will almost always fail to understand them. Of the Rupa visions he has some experience, if only in analogy; he calls the mystic of Rupa a silly fool; so too of Vedana, whose mystic he calls a besotted ass; but the mystic of San~~n~~a appears to him as a raving lunatic.
The hashish correspondences of this stage are the mental analyses which I have gone into so fully above, sections v. and vii.
The methods for obtain success in this matter are far more formidable than those previously sufficient. The whole mind must be intended for long unbroken periods, concentrated absolutely upon its own working until this becomes normal to it, when the state called Pratyahara is attained. The first result will be its resolution into disconnected impressions. Following this may occur a terrible experience; the consciousness of the disconnectedness of all phenomena, and of the units of consciousness of the observer. Both the Universe and the Self are insane. The mind may become a {73} total blank, the only relief (strange as it sounds) being the all but intolerable mental agony of the consciousness. This agony, belonging to the lower stage of Vedana, is the drag, ever pulling back the mystic as he endeavours to break down the blackness of his insanity. Yet the unity of its anguish is the proof of its Selfhood, and the earnest of its resurrection from the abyss. Such a mystic state may last through several days, perhaps through weeks. I should not care to assert limitations. The slightest error in the process would almost certainly result in permanent and hopeless melancholia; suicide might be the most fortunate termination.
XVI
"O how the world hath inflexible intellectual rulers!"
ZOROASTER.
"Sankhara." --- The reader will notice --- I trust with pained sympathy --- the increasing difficulty of expressing these results of meditation in language. At this point one almost desires to exclaim with Fichte that if it were only possible to start all over again, one would begin by inventing a totally new scheme of symbolism.
Here in Sankhara, hashish-analogy is somewhat at fault. Possibly the conviction of the irresistibility of the connection of cause and effect, the consciousness of the necessity of subject and object to each other through immutable glyphs may represent it. It may be that my experience of hashish is even more imperfect than I have supposed, and that more gifted experimenters might fill this gap. {74}
In the beginner's concentration --- though he is hardly to be called a beginner at this stage -- Sankhara presents a terrible obstacle. For the distraction to his even flow of thought is that very flow itself; not as in San~~n~~a, the accidents necessarily arising from that flow, as it were the rocks in the bed of the stream, but the law of gravitation itself, its necessary tendency to follow its own course. So that the good young Yogi finds himself thus awkwardly placed; that having created a mighty engine and removed all conceivable impediments to its smooth working, he is now confronted by the inertia of all that majesty and might.
Frankenstein!
The mystic states of Sankhara are more awful and tremendous than any we have yet noticed. Atmadarshana, for instance, is only to be described feebly (yet I fear unintelligibly, even so) by speaking of a consciousness of the entire Universe as One, and as All, in Its necessary relation to Itself in and out of Time and Space.
Here, too, is the result of Sammasati, a comprehension of one's own self and its relation to, and identity with, everything.
... But I feel that I am drivelling. The effort to think of these things, to translate them into the language of philosophy, gives the feeling --- I grope and find no other expression --- that one's head is going to blow off. One feels inclined to get up and shout for very feebleness, and only the utter fatuity of that or or any other method of obtaining relief keeps one quietly writing. One feels, too, like the old woman in Theresa Raquin, dumb and paralysed even while bursting with the tremendous secret. Small wonder than if the adepts demand years of training before the things themselves are {75} thought! "Look not upon the Visible Image of the Soul of Nature; for Her Name is Fatality; it becometh not thy body to behold Her, until it be first cleansed by the Sacred Mysteries."
The methods most practical and easy of obtaining these states are principally as follow:
First, the cultivation of the "magical memory." The practice is to remember the events of the day backwards; "i.e.", first dinner, then tea, lunch, and breakfast. Except, of course, that by this time one has abandoned meals for ever! The memory acquires the habit, and eventually goes on working backwards through sleep, back, back, through birth and previous states until (saith Bhikhu Ananda Metteyya) going ever back through the past one comes right round to the future --- "Which is pretty, but I don't know what it means!"
I think it right to mention that I never obtained any sort of success in this meditation, and only give it on hearsay.
The real key to the stage is Sammasati --- Right Recollection. One considers all known factors which have gone to make one up such as one is, oneself and not another. Clearly the omission of a single minute item must alter the whole course of events.
Consider then, why thus, and not thus.
"Explore the River of the Soul, whence, or in what order you have come: so that although you have become a servant to the body, you may again rise to the Order from which you descended, joining works to sacred reason."
Why was I born in England, not in Wales?
Why were my parents just who they were and not others?
Why did I take to climbing, not to cricket? {76}
So for every known fact that concerns one --- and all known facts concern one, if only to ask, "Why do I know this fact?"
How does it all fit in? It must, for the Universe is not insane --- that blackness has been passed.
Who then am I? And why? And why?
Reaching ecstasy or Samadhi through this channel, the riddle of Kamma is answered, and one is able to enter the realm of pure consciousness. The Universe, mastered long ere now in its effects, is at last mastered in its causes; and it is indeed a Magister of the Temple who can say:
"Vi Veri Vniversum Vivvs Vici."
XVII
"All things subsist together in the Intelligible World."
ZOROASTER.
I must insert a short note on the word Samadhi, source of infinite misunderstanding.
Etymologically it is composed of "Sam" (Greek sigma upsilon nu ), "together with," and Adhi (Heb. Adonai), "the Lord," especially the Personal Lord, or Holy Guardian Angel.
The Hindus accordingly use it to name that state of mind in which subject and object, becoming One, have disappeared. Just as H combines with Cl, and HCl results, so the Yogi combines with the object of his meditation (perhaps his own heart) and these disappearing, Vishnu appears. It is not that the Yogi perceives Vishnu.<<The difficulty of showing this makes the author of the "Bhagavad Gita" descend to Rupa-symbols when he ought to have been in Vin~~n~~anam (chap. xi.). It is quite essential to change the subject of the sentence. Thus the Autobiography of a Mystic would run: foetus, babe, child, boy, youth, man, 418. There is no personal identity as a link between the man who is on the brink of "attainment" and the Being who arises in him, annihilating him, and Whom he subsequently remembers as his "Gemius.">> The Yogi is gone, just as the {77} Hydrogen is gone. It is not that the Heart has become Vishnu, or that Vishnu has filled the heart. The heart is gone, just as the Chlorine is gone. There is the tube, and it is full of HCl out of all relation to its elements, through the result of their union. (I purposely take the "elementary chemistry" view of the matter.)
Samadhi is therefore with the Hindu a result, the result of results indeed. There are higher and lower forms. That called Nirvikalpa-Samadhi, when the trance results from banishing thought altogether, instead of concentrating on one thought, is the highest kind.
But, with the Buddhist, Samadhi, though the state of mind meant is the same, is not an end, but a means.
The holy-man-of-the-East must keep this state of mind unimpaired during his whole life, using it as a weapon to attack the Three Characteristics (the anthithesis of Nibbana) even as one uses one's normal dualistic consciousness to attack that dualism.
But I must observe that this idea is so tremendous that I almost doubt its possibility, and tremble as to my own understanding of it. Samadhi twelve seconds in duration is a phenomenon to shake the soul of a man, to uproot his Kamma, to destroy his Identity --- and Bhikku Ananda Metteyya cheerfully talks of practically perpetual Samadhi as the first step to attainment!
The Hindu, too, asks this question. {78}
"I," he says, "define Phenomena as changeful and Atman the Noumenon as without change. When challenged, I merely retort by distinguishing between Atman and Paramatman. You say the same, but for Atman you say 'Nibbana.'"
The Buddhist can only retort, rudely enough: There is no Atman; and there is Nibbana.
The Hindu probably mutters something about criticism of Nibbana having forced some Buddhists to a conception of Parinibbana, simply but neatly defined as That to which none of the criticisms apply! Yet Atman and Nibbana are defined in almost identical terms.
It is clearly idle for us who know neither perfectly to attempt to arbitrate in so delicate an imbroglio. On the contrary, we had better set to and attain them both, and That which combines, denies, and transcends them both. Words are cheap!
XVIII
"In this the things without figure are figured." "A similar Fire flashingly extending through the rushings of
Air, or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a Voice, or
even a flashing Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying
aloud. Also there is the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of
Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on the shoulders of the Celes-
tial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked, or shooting
with the bow shafts of Light, and standing on the shoulders of the
horse; then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt unite
all these Symbols into the form of a Lion."
"But God is He having the Head of the Hawk." --- ZOROASTER.
"Vin~~n~~anam." --- If hashish-analogy be able to assist us here, it is in that supreme state in which the man has built himself {79} up into God. One may doubt whether the drug alone ever does this. It is perhaps only the destined adept who, momentarily freed by the dissolving action of the drug from the chain of the four lower Skandhas, obtains this knowledge which is his by right, totally inept as he may be to do so by any ordinary methods.
In the case of the aspirant to meditation, this stage is even more terrible than the last. He has, to use our previous figures, suspended the law of gravitation; the stream is still, and the Sun of the soul is faithfully reflected in its brilliance; the mighty engine is stopped.
But --- "there it is!" We have got rid of motion, but matter remains. (Again must I apologise for taking so elementary a view of physics.) And while there is a particle of matter, it must fill the Universe --- there is no place for spirit. His thought is controlled and smooth; his thought (even!) is stopped: but there the thought is. Immutable it abides, stronger than ever in its silence and vastness; and --- O unhappy one! "that which can be thought is not true."
Thou hast taken thee the lies, those little foxes that spoil the grapes. Lie after lie thou has suppressed; and what hast thou achieved?
Thou hast smitten all the illusions --- O miserable slave! All thou hast done is to harmonise and weld all the lies and illusions into one universal lie, one infinite illusion. It is one; there is nothing to oppose to it. Thou art ten million-fold more in the grip of Maya than ever, thou who callest thyself Parabrahma, Hua, IAO!
The mystic states of this grade are the final and perfect identity of the Self with the Holy Guardian Angel, the Vision {80} of Pan, the Four Formless States of Buddhism, namely, Samadhi upon consciousness, Space, Nothing, and that which is neither P nor p', in logical phraseology. Here, too, we should place Shivadarshana, the Vision of the Destruction of the Universe, the Opening of the Eye of Shiva.
(Which is why adepts of this stage wear an eye as a badge.)
Of this vision what can one say, save that the Universe, as previously known through Atmadarshana, is annihilated? Yet the negation of this phrase is only apparent; the sense is that all that negative Atmadarshana is destroyed; it is only an illusion that goes. Yet there is indeed Nothing in its place --- and the only way to express the matter is to spell that Nothing with a capital N.
If the rationalist reader has had the quite super-Stylite patience to read to this point, he will surely now at last throw down the book with an ethically justifiable curse.
Yet I beg him to believe that there is a shade of difference between me and a paradox-monger. I am not playing with words --- Lord knows how I wish I could! I find that they play with me! --- I am honestly and soberly trying to set down that which I know, that which I know better than I know anything else in the world, that which so transcends and excels all other experience that I am all on fire to proclaim it.
Yet I fail utterly. I have given my life to the study of the English language; I am supposed by my flatterers to have some little facility of expression, especially, one may agree, in conveying the extremes of thought of all kinds. {81} Yet here I want to burn down the Universe for lack of a language. So the angry mood passes, and one understands how one's predecessors, in the same predicament, got out of it by quietly painting a "Heart girt with a Serpent," or a "Winged Globe" or some similar device.
If I persist, seeing that my little gift of language must be mine for some purpose, and therefore for this purpose, since no other purpose can there be, let my rationalist friends excuse me, as the agony of my impotence most terribly avenges them.
Concerning the methods of obtaining these particular states, I am almost at one with Sri Parananda, my godly friend, when he talks of "the Grace of the Lord Shiva," and with my ungodly friend Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya, when he hints that the accidental coincidence of the circumferences of the Nibbana-Dhatu and the Samsara-Chakra with the Brahmarandra of the sphere of the 99-year-old-Talipot-palm-like sucking Arahat may have something to do with it.
Plainly, we know so very little; so few ever attain this class of experience that one is perhaps hardly justified in maintaining (as I always have maintained and that stoutly) that the reward is according to the work. It may conceivably be that work does not affect the question, as it clearly does in the lower grades, it may be that an outsider may pull off the big thing --- Agnosco!
Still, I advise people to work at it.
Perhaps the most direct method is that of sitting in your Ajna Chakra (that point in your brain where thoughts rise, a point to be discovered and rendered self-conscious by repeated {82} experiment) and without thinking of anything whatever, killing the thoughts as they rise with a single smack, like a child killing flies. The difficulty is of course to kill them without thinking of the killing, which thought is naturally just as bad as any other thought. I never got any good out of this method myself. It may, I believe, happen with fair frequency that in the course of any advanced meditation or invocation this particular type of spiritual experience may suddenly arise without apparent cause.
Anyway, let us hope so!
As a matter of practical politics, I think that a judicious mixture of the methods of East and West is likely to give the best results.
Let the young Adept, for example, master thoroughly the groundwork of the Hindu system.
Let him master Asana, posture, so that he can sit motionless for hours without any message from his body reaching and so disturbing his brain. Let him include in his accomplishments Paranayama, control of the breath and of the vital nervous currents which react in sympathy with it.
Let him then exalt to the utmost his soul by the appropriate ritual of ceremonial magic; and when by this means he has most thoroughly identified himself with the Supreme, let him, as that Supreme One, continue to meditate with intense force upon Himself, until his sphere is entirely filled with the single Thought.
Lastly, if this, the male energy, suffice not, let him transform it into a pure and perfect emptiness and passivity, as of one waiting for the Beloved One, with intense longing rendered passionless by the certainty that He will come. {83}
Then, it may be, the Eye will open upon him, and the tomb of his Pyramid be unsealed.
It is impossible in a few words to explain thoroughly this eclectic system; for each act and thought of the ritual demands an expert teacher, and even a good pupil might study for years before mastering the method. By which time he might not impossibly have discovered one of his own.
Howbeit, I must do my best; and if by that best I can help "the least of these little ones," so much the better.
XIX
"The Intelligible subsisteth beyond Mind." --- ZOROASTER.
"Nerodha-samapatti." --- It must be very satisfactory, you will probably be thinking, to wear that Eye as a badge, to have got so near to the End.
And that is where the joke comes in. Yet to the adept the Anglo- Indian proverb, "A jok's a jok (leech) but a jok up your nose is no jok" (Nose is not the word; but no matter!), may occur with painful intensity.
For he is no nearer to Nibbana than when he started. Though he has stripped off all the husks of thought and touched Thought itself, even attaining to Negation of thought; yet he is still upon the plane of Thought. And --- that which can be thought is not true.
All his righteousness is as filthy rags; even his eternity of Shivadarshana, his stored crores of Mahakalpas in the Arupa-Brahma-Lokas must pass; he must come back to his horses --- and this time as a horse- fly. {84}
So then he must abandon the whole series of ecstasies; all this time he has been on the wrong road. For the Three Characteristics are true of Vin~~n~~anam as they are of Rupa; Change, Sorrow, Unsubstantiality.
He has only one asset; the habit of One-pointedness --- Ekagrata. He may be all kinds of a black magician; but at least he has learnt to concentrate his mind. But what is he to aim at? Hashish-analogy is better than ever here; for Nibbana stands to the attainment of the Eight Jhanas, the Four Formless States kappa.tau.lambda. as the Decalogue does to any of his hashish-states. It has nothing whatever to do with it.
All this time he has been walking round the circumference of a wheel, cheerfully singing "Nearer, my God, to Thee; Nearer to Thee!" while his God is in the centre. He has done the medicine-man trick, and wasted a lot of maidens in the hope of making rain.
So --- one must suppose, for here I reach a point where, as Mr. Waite jeers, we are driven to take refuge in portentous darkness and irretrievable mystery (because we don't know anything about it) --- he sits down and contemplates the Three Characteristics. This will presumably be very difficult to do because he is probably (for all the "Grace of the Lord Shiva" business) an expert in the Vin~~n~~anam trances, and having thus created an eternal Universe and an even more eternal Absence of Universe, both of which, too, are probably mere masses of Sat --- Chit --- Ananda (Being --- Knowledge --- Bliss) while he is trying to think of Change --- Sorrow --- Unsubstantiality.
At last, as I imagine, probably without foundation, he succeeds in seeing first the truth and then the falsity of the Three Characteristics --- and that is Nibbana. {85}
(One may explain, as with Samadhi, that the man is not "in" Nibbana; the Characteristics are not "in" Nibbana: but --- Nibbana is.)
It would be easy to string up a paradox-scheme in which Change, not-Change, both-Change-and-not-Change, and neither-Change-nor-not- Change were all four perceived at once; and indeed some authors have done something very like this; but, between you and me, I don't believe they knew anything about it; and as I certainly don't know anything myself, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather leave the subject alone. We really can't have another Hargrave Jennings on "The Rosicrucians: their Rites and Mysteries."
So there the matter must rest. I have added this section for the sake of completeness; but it is all hearsay. I am too blind to see the necessity of the section at all; I am far from convinced that the Vin~~n~~anam phenomena do not represent finality; so stupendous are they that even to one who is accustomed to them it must always be difficult to imagine a state not merely beyond them but out of their dimension. Yet? ... Perhaps that which I now urge is indeed the Great Illusion. ...
At least, having adopted the Buddhist Skandhas as the basis of my classification, I was bound in mere courtesy to give the Buddhist doctrine as I have heard it from the one man who really understands it, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya.
If I could only understand Him. . . ! {86}
XX
"If thou extendest the Firey Mind to the work of piety, thou
wilt preserve the fluxible body."
"For three days and no longer need ye sacrifice." ---
ZOROASTER.
We are at the end of our little digression upon mystic states, and may cheerfully return to the consideration of Scientific Illuminism. We have had, you may say, a poor half-pennyworth of Science to an intolerable deal of Illuminism. Well, that is what I wanted you to say. Were it not so, I would not have spent these two nights over this paper, when I want to be fresh every morning to go to the Prado and gloat over Velasquez!
Here, gentlemen, are a number of genuine mystic states; some home- grown, some imported. Please tell us what they are! (You are fond of telling us what things are.)
It is useless to label the whole lot as insane: nor are they unimportant.
In my view, most of the great men of the world have known them; themselves attributed their greatness to these experiences, and I really do not see why admittedly lesser men should contradict them. I hope to argue this point at greater length when I am better documented; but at the very least, these states are of the most extraordinary interest. Even as insanities, they would demand the strictest investigation from the light they throw upon the working of the brain. But as it is! All the sacred literature of the world is full of them; all the art and poetry of all time is inspired by them; and, by the Lord Harry! we know nothing about them. Nothing but what vague and troubled reflections the minds {87} of the mystics themselves, untrained in accuracy of observation, bring back from the fountains of light; nothing but what quacks exploit, and dotards drivel of.
Think of what we claim! That concentration and its results can open the Closed Palace of the King, and answer the Riddle of the Sphinx. All science only brings us up to a blind wall, the wall of Philosophy; here is your great Ram to batter a breach and let in the forlorn hope of the Children of the Curse to storm the heights of heaven.
One single trained observer with five years' work, less money than would build a bakehouse, and no more help than his dozen of volunteer students could give him, would earn himself a fame loftier than the stars, and set mankind on the royal road to the solution of the One great problem. Scientific Illuminism would have deserved its name, or mysticism would have received a blow which would save another young fool like myself from wasting his whole life on so senseless a study and enable him to engage in the nobler career of cheating and duping his fellows in the accredited spheres of commerce and politics, to say nothing of the grosser knaveries of the liberal professions.
But I have no doubts. Let the investigator study his own brain on the lines I have laid down, possibly in the first place with the aid of hashish or some better physical expedient, to overcome the dull scepticism which is begotten of idleness upon ignorance; it is useless to study the no-brain of another, on the strength of a reputation for fraud, as the spiritualist investigators seem to do. Your own brain is the best; next, the trained and vigorous brains of clever and educated men, in perfect health, honest and wary. {88}
You will get more from them than you will from some maudlin hysteric professional mountebank. All talk to the contrary is the merest froth; Mohammed was a great lawgiver and a great fighter; try your experiment with the sane, and not with the crazy!
True, you will get hallucinations more easily with the unsound; but you will never, never, never find a woman or a degenerate who is capable of any trance of type higher than Vedana. Take my word for it!
No! take my word for nothing: try all things; hold fast that which is good!
MADRID,
"August 1908," O.S. {89}
ANNIE BESANT: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. T. Fisher Unwin, Third Impression, 5s.
It is a splendid oasis in the desert of silly memoirs, this sturdy and valiant record of a very noble life.
How surely and steadily has Mrs. Besant moved, urged by the one unselfish thought, high-minded love for humanity, from her Eden through the hell of revolt to the Paradise that so few earn! And she is still fighting in the flesh, though her spirit has its peace.
Priceless and unenvied reward of suffering!
True it is, that the chosen of the Masters must leave all. The lightest breeze can stir the Feather of our Lady Maat; there must be no breath of passion or of thought, if we would live in those Halls of Hers,
"Elysian, windless, fortunate abodes
Beyond Heaven's constellated wilderness."
And to one who shares, however humbly, her high hope, and love exalted, and faith transcending, who is confronted by the same foes that she has beaten, assailed by the same slanders that she has lived down, her book comes as a direct message from the Masters: "Courage, child! --- there lies a great reward immediately beyond. Nay! but for the work's sake, work! Though thou perish, let them be saved. And remember: there is not one single grain of dust that shall not attain to Buddhahood."
Self-doubt, and self-distrust: these find little place in Mrs. Besant's story; yet surely they attack all of us alike who strive to those calm heights. Is it that they are ultimately forgotten, like all lesser ills? Is the spectre, self, laid beyond remembrance, even, of its horror; that horror which seems branded into the brain of whoso has beheld it?
Long years are they through which Mrs. Besant fought with hardly a friend or a helper; must it be so for all of us? Yes, for we are all too blind to know our friends, our wardens, the Stones in the great Wall of Arhans that guards humanity.
We have been with James Thomson and watched the dreadful seeker go his unending round to the death-places of love and faith and hope; we have passed out of the doomed triangle into the infinite circle of emerald that girdles the Universe, the circle wherein stands he, the Master whose name is Octinomos.
A.C. {90}
THE GARDEN OF JANUS
BYALEISTER CROWLEY THE GARDEN OF JANUS
I
THE cloud my bed is tinged with blood and foam.
The vault yet blazes with the sun
Writhing above the West, brave hippodrome
Whose gladiators shock and shun
As the blue night devours them, crested comb
Of sleep's dead sea
That eats the shores of life, rings round eternity!
II
So, he is gone whose giant sword shed flame
Into my bowels; my blood's bewitched;
My brain's afloat with ecstasy of shame.
That tearing pain is gone, enriched
By his life-spasm; but he being gone, the same
Myself is gone
Sucked by the dragon down below death's horizon.
III
I woke from this. I lay upon the lawn;
They had thrown roses on the moss {93}
With all their thorns; we came there at the dawn,
My lord and I; God sailed across
The sky in's galleon of amber, drawn
By singing winds
While we wove garlands of the flowers of our minds.
IV
All day my lover deigned to murder me,
Linking his kisses in a chain
About my neck; demon-embroidery!
Bruises like far-ff mountains stain
The valley of my body of ivory!
Then last came sleep.
I wake, and he is gone; what should I do but weep?
V
Nay, for I wept enough --- more sacred tears! ---
When first he pinned me, gripped
My flesh, and as a stallion that rears,
Sprang, hero-thewed and satyr-lipped;
Crushed, as a grape between his teeth, my fears;
Sucked out my life
And stamped me with the shame, the monstrous word of
wife.
VI
I will not weep; nay, I will follow him
Perchance he is not far, {94}
Bathing his limbs in some delicious dim
Depth, where the evening star
May kiss his mouth, or by the black sky's rim
He makes his prayer
To the great serpent that is coiled in rapture there.
VII
I rose to seek him. First my footsteps faint
Pressed the starred moss; but soon
I wandered, like some sweet sequestered saint,
Into the wood, my mind. The moon
Was staggered by the trees; with fierce constraint
Hardly one ray
Pierced to the ragged earth about their roots that lay.
VIII
I wandered, crying on my Lord. I wandered
Eagerly seeking everywhere.
The stories of life that on my lips he squandered
Grew into shrill cries of despair,
Until the dryads frightened and dumfoundered
Fled into space ---
Like to a demon-king's was grown my maiden face!
XI
At last I came unto the well, my soul.
In that still glass, I saw no sign {95}
Of him, and yet --- what visions there uproll
To cloud that mirror-soul of mine?
Above my head there screams a flying scroll
Whose word burnt through
My being as when stars drop in black disastrous dew.
X
For in that scroll was written how the globe
Of space became; of how the light
Broke in that space and wrapped it in a robe
Of glory; of how One most white
Withdrew that Whole, and hid it in the lobe
Of his right Ear,
So that the Universe one dewdrop did appear.
IX
Yea! and the end revealed a word, a spell,
An incantation, a device
Whereby the Eye of the Most Terrible
Wakes from its wilderness of ice
To flame, whereby the very core of hell
Bursts from its rind,
Sweeping the world away into the blank of mind.
XII
So then I saw my fault; I plunged within
The well, and brake the images
That I had made, as I must make --- Men spin {96}
The webs that snare them --- while the knees
Bend to the tyrant God --- or unto Sin
The lecher sunder!
Ah! came that undulant light from over or from under?
XIII
It matters not. Come, change! come, Woe! Come, mask!
Drive Light, Life, Love into the deep!
In vain we labour at the loathsome task
Not knowing if we wake or sleep;
But in the end we lift the plumed casque
Of the dead warrior;
Find no chaste corpse therein, but a soft-smiling whore.
XIV
Then I returned into myself, and took
All in my arms, God's universe:
Crushed its black juice out, while His anger shook
His dumbness pregnant with a curse.
I made me ink, and in a little book
I wrote one word
That God himself, the adder of Thought, had never heard.
XV
It detonated. Nature, God, mankind
Like sulphur, nitre, charcoal, once {97}
Blended, in one annihilation blind
Were rent into a myriad of suns.
Yea! all the mighty fabric of a Mind
Stood in the abyss,
Belching a Law for "That" more awful than for "This."
XVI
Vain was the toil. So then I left the wood
And came unto the still black sea,
That oily monster of beatitude!
('Hath "Thee" for "Me," and "Me" for "Thee!")
There as I stood, a mask of solitude
Hiding a face
Wried as a satyr's, rolled that ocean into space.
XVII
Then did I build an altar on the shore
Of oyster-shells, and ringed it round
With star-fish. Thither a green flame I bore
Of phosphor foam, and strewed the ground
With dew-drops, children of my wand, whose core
Was trembling steel
Electric that made spin the universal Wheel.
XVIII
With that a goat came running from the cave
That lurked below the tall white cliff. {98}
Thy name! cried I. The answer that gave
Was but one tempest-whisper --- "If!"
Ah, then! his tongue to his black palate clave;
For on soul's curtain
Is written this one certainty that naught is certain!
XIX
So then I caught that goat up in a kiss.
And cried Io Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!
Then all this body's wealth of ambergris,
(Narcissus-scented flesh of man!)
I burnt before him in the sacrifice;
For he was sure ---
Being the Doubt of Things, the one thing to endure!
XX
Wherefore, when madness took him at the end,
He, doubt-goat, slew the goat of doubt;
And that which inward did for ever tend
Came at the last to have come out;
And I who had the World and God to friend
Found all three foes!
Drowned in that sea of changes, vacancies, and woes!
XXI
Yet all that Sea was swallowed up therein;
So they were not, and it was not. {99}
As who should sweat his soul out through the skin
And find (sad fool!) he had begot
All that without him that he had left in,
And in himself
All he had taken out thereof, a mocking elf!
XXII
But now that all was gone, great Pan appeared.
Him then I strove to woo, to win,
Kissing his curled lips, playing with his beard,
Setting his brain a-shake, a-spin,
By that strong wand, and muttering of the weird
That only I
Knew of all souls alive or dead beneath the sky.
XXIII
So still I conquered, and the vision passed.
Yet still was beaten, for I knew
Myself was He, Himself, the first and last;
And as an unicorn drinks dew
From under oak-leaves, so my strength was cast
Into the mire;
For all I did was dream, and all I dreamt desire.
XXIV
More; in this journey I had clean forgotten
The quest, my lover. But the tomb {100}
Of all these thoughts, the rancid and the rotten,
Proved in the end to be my womb
Wherein my Lord and lover had begotten
A little child
To drive me, laughing lion, into the wanton wild!
XXV
This child hath not one hair upon his head,
But he hath wings instead of ears.
No eyes hath he, but all his light is shed
Within him on the ordered spheres
Of nature that he hideth; and in stead
Of mouth he hath
One minute point of jet; silence, the lightning path!
XXVI
Also his nostrils are shut up; for he
Hath not the need of any breath;
Nor can the curtain of eternity
Cover that head with life or death.
So all his body, a slim almond-tree,
Knoweth no bough
Nor branch nor twig nor bud, from never until now.
XXVII
This thought I bred within my bowels, I am.
I am in him, as he in me; {101}
And like a satyr ravishing a lamb
So either seems, or as the sea
Swallows the whale that swallows it, the ram
Beats its own head
Upon the city walls, that fall as it falls dead.
XXVIII
Come, let me back unto the lilied lawn!
Pile me the roses and the thorns,
Upon this bed from which he hath withdrawn!
He may return. A million morns
May follow that first dire daemonic dawn
When he did split
My spirit with his lightnings and enveloped it!
XXIX
So I am stretched out naked to the knife,
My whole soul twitching with the stress
Of the expected yet surprising strife,
A martyrdom of blessedness.
Though Death came, I could kiss him into life;
Though Life came, I
Could kiss him into death, and yet nor live nor die!
XXX
Yet I that am the babe, the sire, the dam,
Am also none of these at all; {102}
For now that cosmic chaos of I AM
Bursts like a bubble. Mystical
The night comes down, a soaring wedge of flame
Woven therein
To be a sign to them who yet have never been.
XXXI
The universe I measured with my rod.
The blacks were balanced with the whites;
Satan dropped down even as up soared God;
Whores prayed and danced with anchorites.
So in my book the even matched the odd:
No word I wrote
Therein, but sealed it with the signet of the goat.
XXXII
This also I seal up. Read thou herein
Whose eyes are blind! Thou may'st behold
Within the wheel (that alway seems to spin
All ways) a point of static gold.
Then may'st thou out therewith, and fit it in
That extreme sphere
Whose boundless farness makes it infinitely near.
{103}
MODERN ASTROLOGY. Edited by ALAN LEO. Monthly, 6d. 42 Imperial
Buildings, Ludgate Circus, E.C.
Foremost in the attempt to rehabilitate astrology on modern lines is this well-known monthly magazine. The method indicated is the sound one of accurate observation and deduction; but whether the ultimate proposition of astrology can be established is a question which your reviewer at present is disinclined to assert. It is quite easy to throw ridicule, or to demolish by inexorable logic; but such methods do not convince. At least we believe that any person with a little experience can tell almost at a glance the sign rising at a stranger's birth, and that so frequently and certainly as to put chance and coincidence out of the question. For our own part, we consider Astrology a valuable aid to concentration, and perhaps the best of the methods of determining the Sankhara-skanda of a man. In your reviewer's own experience she has found it more reliable than either Geomancy or the Tarot, in questions genethliacal, at least. A careful study of the characteristics of the signs and planets is, moreover, of the very greatest assistance in the use of the Book "777". Unable as the Editor is to find space within the restricted pages of THE EQUINOX for astrological matters, we are glad to think that the subject has a specialised organ in competent hands.
ETHEL RAMSAY.
CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY. By GUIDO VILLA. Translated by HAROLD
MANACORDA. Swan Sonnenschein, 10s. 6d". net.
This long and learned work is not exciting:
The good translation shames the pedant's writing.
The wise Professor reconstructs duality,
Made of mentality and animality.{104} THE DREAM CIRCEAN THE DREAM CIRCEAN
I AU "LAPIN AGILE"
PERCHED at the junction of two of the steepest little streets in Montmartre shines the "Lapin Agile," a tiny window filled with gleaming bottles, thrilled through by the light behind, a little terrace with tables, chairs, and shrubs, and two dark doors.
Roderic Mason came striding up the steepness of the Rue St. Vincent, his pipe gripped hard in his jaw; for the hill is too abrupt for lounging. On the terrace he stretched himself, twirled round half a dozen times like a dervish, pocketed his pipe, and went stooping through the open doorway.
Grand old Frederic was there, in his vast corduroys and sou'-wester hat, a 'cello in his hand.
His trim grey beard was a shade whiter than when Roderic had last patronised the "Lapin," five years before; but the kindly, gay, triumphant eyes were nowise dimmed by time. He knew Roderic at a glance, and give his left hand carelessly, as if he had been gone but yesterday. Time ambles easily for the owner of such an eyrie, his life content with wine and song and simple happiness. {107}
It is in such as Frederic that the hope of the world lies. You could not bribe Frederic with a motor-car to grind in an office and help to strive and enslave his fellows. The bloated, short-of-breath, bedizened magnates of commerce and finance are not life, but a disease. The monster hotel is not hospitality, but imprisonment. Civilisation is a madness; and while there are men like Frederic there is a hope that it will pass. Woe to the earth when Bumble and Rockefeller and their victims are the sole economic types of man!
Roderic sat down on his favourite bench against the wall, and took stock of things.
How well he remembered the immense Christ at the end of the room, a figure conceived by a giant of old time, one might have thought, and now covered with a dry, green lichenous rot, so that the limbs were swollen and distorted. It gave an incredibly strong impression of loathsome disease, entirely overpowering the intention of picturing inflicted pain.
Roderic, who, far from being a good man, was actually a Freethinker, thought it a grimly apt symbol of the religion of our day.
On His right stood a plaster Muse, with a lyre, the effect being decidedly improved by some one who had affixed a comic mask with a grinning mouth and a long pink nose; on His left a stone plaque of Lakshmi, the Hindu Venus, a really very fine piece of work, clean and dignified, in a way the one sanity in the room, except an exquisite pencil sketch of a child, done with all the delicacy and strength of Whistler. The rest of the decoration was a delicious mixture of the grotesque and the obscene. Sketches, pastels, cuts, cartoons, oils, all the media of art, had been exhausted in a {108} noble attempt to flagellate impurity --- impurity of thought, line, colour, all we symbolise by womanhood.
Hence the grotesque obscenity in nowise suggested Jewry; but gave a wholesome reaction of life and youth against artificiality and money- lust.
As it chanced, there was nobody of importance in the "Lapin." Frederic, with his hearty voice and his virile roll, more of a dance than a walk, easily dominated the company.
Yet there was at least one really remarkable figure in the pleasant gloom of the little cabaret.
A man sat there, timid, pathetic, one would say a man often rebuffed. He was nigh seventy years of age, maybe; he looked older. For him time had not moved at all, apparently; for he wore the dress of a beau of the Second Empire.
Exquisitely, too, he wore it. Sitting back in his dark corner, the figure would have gained had it been suddenly transplanted to the glare of a State ball and the steps of a throne.
Merrily Frederic trolled out an easy, simple song with perfect art --- how different from the laborious inefficiency of the Opera! --- and came over to Roderic to see that his coffee was to his liking.
"Changes, Frederic!" he said, a little sadly. "Where is Madeleine la Vache?"
"At Lourcine."
"Mimi l'Engeuleuse?"
"At Clamart."
"The Scotch Count, who always spoke like a hanging judge?" {109}
"Went to Scotland --- he could get no more whisky here on credit."
"His wife?"
"Poor girl! poor girl!"
"Ah! it was bound to happen. And Bubu Tire-Cravat?"
Frederic brought the edge of his hand down smartly on the table, with a laugh.
"He had made so many widows, it was only fair he should marry one!" commented the Englishman. "And Pea-shooter Charley?"
"Don't know. I think he is in prison in England."
"Well, well; it saddens. 'Where are the snows of yesteryear?' I must have an absinthe; I feel old."
"You are half my years," answered Frederic. "But come! If yesteryear be past, it is this year now. And all these distinguished persons who are gone, together are not worth one silver shoe-buckle of yonder ---" Frederic nodded towards the old beau.
"True, I never knew him; yet he looks as if he had sat there since Sedan. Who is he?"
"We do not know his name, monsieur," said Frederic softly, a little awed; "but I think he was a duke, a prince --- I cannot say what. He is more than that --- he is unique. He is --- "le Revenant de la Rue des Quatre Vents!"
"The Ghost of the Street of the Four Winds?" Roderic was immensely taken by the title; a thousand fantastic bases for the sobriquet jumped into his brain. Was the Rue des Quatre Vents haunted by a ghost in his image? There are no ghosts in practical Paris. But of all the ideas {110} which came to him, not one was half so strange as the simple and natural story which he was later to hear.
"Come," said Frederic, "I will present you to him."
"Monseigneur," he said, as Roderic stood before him, ready to make his little bow, "let me present Monsieur Mason, an Englishman."
The old fellow took little notice. Said Frederic in his ear: "Monsieur lives on the boulevard St. Germain, and loves to paint the streets."
The old man rose with alacrity, smiled, bowed, was enchanted to meet one of the gallant allies whose courage had --- he spoke glibly of the Alma, Inkerman, Sebastopol.
The little comedy had not been lost on Roderic. Wondering, he sat down beside the old nobleman.
What spell had Frederic wrought of so potent a complexion?
"Sir," he said, "the gallantry of the French troops at the Malakoff was beyond all praise; it will live for ever in history."
To another he might have spoken of the "entente cordiale;" to this man he dared not.
Had not his brain perhaps stopped in the sixties?
Had the catastrophe of '70 broken his heart?
Roderic must walk warily.
But the conversation did not take the expected turn. The old gentleman elegantly, wittily, almost gaily, chattered of art, of music, of the changed appearance of Paris. Here, at any rate, he was "au courant des affaires."
Yet as Roderic, puzzled and pleased, finished his absinthe he said more seriously than he had yet spoken: "I hear that monsieur is a great painter" (Roderic modestly waved aside {111} the adjective), "has painted many pictures of Paris. Indeed, as I think of it, I seem to remember a large picture of St. Suplice at the Salon of eight years ago --- no, seven years ago."
Roderic stared in surprise. How should one --- such a man, of all men --- remember his daub, a thing himself had long forgotten? The oldster read his thought. "There was one corner of that picture which interested me deeply, deeply," he said. "I called to see you; you had gone --- none knew here. I am indeed glad to have met you at last. Perhaps you would be good enough to show me your pictures --- you have other pictures of Paris? I am interested in Paris --- in Paris itself --- in the stones and bricks of it. Might I --- if you have nothing better to do --- come to your studio now, and see them?"
"I'm afraid the light ---" begin Roderic. It was now ten o'clock.
"That is nothing," returned the other. "I have my own criteria of excellence. A match-glimmer serves me."
There was only one explanation of all this. The man must be an architect, perhaps ruined in the mad speculations of the Empire, so well described by Zola in "La Curee."
"At your service, sir," he said, and rose. The old fellow was surely eccentric; but equally he was not dangerous. He was rich, or he would not be wearing a diamond worth every penny of two thousand pounds, as Roderic, no bad judge, made out. There might be profit, and there would assuredly be pleasure.
They waved, the one an airy, the other a courteous, good-night to grand old Frederic, and went out.
The old man was nimble as a kitten; he had all the {112} suppleness of youth; and together they ran rapidly down to the boulevard, where, hailing a fiacre, they jumped in and clattered down towards the Seine.
Roderic sat well back in the carriage, a little lost in thought. But the old man sat upright, and peered eagerly about him. Once he stopped the cab suddenly at a house with a low railing in front of it, well set back from the street, jumped out, examined it minutely, and then, with a sigh and a shake of the head, came back, a little wearier, a little older.
They crossed the Seine, rattled up the Rue Bonaparte, and stopped at the door of Roderic's studio.
II LA RUE DES QUATRE VENTS
"Ah, well," said the old man, as he concluded his examination of the pictures, "what I seek is not here. If it will not weary you, I will tell you a story. Perhaps, although you have not painted it, you have seen it. Perhaps --- bah! I am seventy years of age, and a fool to the end.
"Listen, my young friend! I was not always seventy years of age, and that of which I have to tell you happened when I was twenty-two.
"In those days I was very rich, and very happy. I had never loved; I cared for nobody. My parents were both dead long since. A year of freedom from the control of my good old guardian, the Duc de Castelnaudry (God rest his soul!), had left me yet taintless as a flower. I had that chivalrous devotion to woman which perhaps never really existed at any time save for rare individuals. {113}
"Such a one is ripe for adventure, and since, as your great poet has said, "Circumstance bows before those who never miss a chance,' it was perhaps only a matter of time before I met with one.
"Indeed (I will tell you, for it will help you to understand my story), I once found myself in an extremely absurd position through my fantastic trust in the impeccability of woman.
"It was rather late one night, and I was walking home through a deserted street, when two brutal-looking ruffians came towards me, between them a young and beautiful girl, her face flushed with shame, and screaming with pain; for the savages had each firm hold of one arm, and were forcing her at a rapid pace --- to what vile den?
"My fist in the face of one and my foot in the stomach of the other! They sprawled in the road, and, disdaining them, I turned my back and offered my arm to the girl. She, in an excess of gratitude, flung her arms round my neck and began to kiss me furiously --- the first kiss I had ever had from a woman, mind you! Maybe I would not have been altogether displeased, but that she stank so foully of brandy that --- my gorge rises at the memory. The ruffians, more surprised than hurt, began laughing, but kept well away. I tried to induce the girl to come home; in the end she lost her temper, and fell to belabouring me with her fists. I was not strong enough or experienced enough to contend with a madwoman, and I could not allow myself to strike her. She beat me sore. ...
"I can remember the scene now as if it were yesterday: the bewildered boy, the screaming, swearing, kicking, scratching woman, the two 'savages' (honest "bourgeois" enough!) {114} reeling against the houses, crying with laughter, too weak with laughter to stand straight.
"By-and-by they took pity, came forward, and released me from my unpleasant situation.
"But the shame of me, as I slunk away down the streets! I would not go home that night at all, ashamed to face my own servants.
"I told myself, in the end, that this was a rare accident; but for all that there must have remained a slight stain upon the mirror of perfect chivalry. In the old days when they taught logic in the schools one learnt how delicate a flower was a 'universal affirmative.'
"It was some uneventful months after this 'tragedy of the ideal' that I was again walking home very late. I had been to the Jardin des Plantes in the afternoon, and, dining in that quarter, had stayed lingering on the bridge watching the Seine. The moon dropped down behind the houses --- with a start I realised that I must go home. There was some danger, you understand, of footpads. Nothing, however, occurred until --- I always preferred to walk through the narrow streets! --- I found myself in the Rue des Quatre Vents; not a stone's- throw from this house, as you know.
"I had been thinking of my previous misadventure, and, with the folly of youth, had been indulging in a reverie of the kind that begins 'If only.' If only she had been a princess ravished by a wicked ogre. If only ... If only ...
"On the south side of the Rue des Quatre Vents is a house standing well back from the street, with a railing in front of it --- a common type, is it not? But what riveted my {115} attention upon it was that while the front of the house was otherwise entirely dark, from a window on the first floor streamed a blaze of light. The window was wide open to the street; voices came from it.
"The first an old, harsh, menacing voice, with all the sting of hate in it; nay, the sting of something devilish, worse than hate. A corrupt enjoyment of its malice informed it. And the words it spoke were too infamous for me to repeat. They are scarred upon my brain. Addressed to the vilest harridan that scours the gutter for her carrion prey, they would have yet been inhuman, impossible; to the voice that answered ... !
"It was a voice like the tinkling of a fairy bell. Whoever spoke was little more than a child; and her answer had the purity and strength of an angel. That even the foul monster who addressed her could support it, unblasted, was matter for astonishment.
"Now the older voice broke into filthy insult, a very frenzy of malice.
"O heard --- O God! --- the swish of a whip, and the sound of it falling upon flesh.
"There was silence awhile, save for the hideous laughter of the invisible horror inside.
"At last a piteous little moan.
"My blood sang shrill within me. Out of myself, I sprang at the railings, and was over them in a second. Rapidly, and quite unobserved (for the scene was strenuous within), I climbed up the grating of the lower windows, and, reaching up to the edge of the balcony, swung myself up to and over it.
"As I stopped to fetch breath, as yet unperceived, I took in the scene, and was staggered at its strangeness. {116}
"The room, though exquisitely decorated, was entirely bare of furniture, unless one could dignify by that name a heap of dirty straw in one corner, by which stood a flattish wooden bowl, half full of what looked like a crust of bread mashed into pulp with water.
"Half turned away from me stood the owner of the harsh voice and soul abominable. It was a woman of perhaps sixty years of age, the head of an angel --- so regular were the features, so silver-white the hair --- set upon the deformed body of a dwarf. Hairy hands and twisted arms, a hunched back and bandy legs; in the gnarled right hand a terrible whip, the carved jade handle blossoming into a rose of fine cords, shining with silver --- sharp, three-cornered chips of silver! The whole dripped black with blood. Upon the angel face stood a sneer, a snarl, a malediction. The effect upon one's sense of something beyond the ordinary was, too, heightened by her costume; for though the summer was at its height she was clad from head to foot in ermine, starred, more heavily than is usual, with the little black tails in the form of "fleurs-de-lis."
"In extreme contrast to this monster was a young girl crouching upon the floor. At first sight one would have hardly suspected a human form at all, for from her head flowed down on all sides a torrent of exquisite blonde gold, that completely hid her. Only two little hands looked out, clasped, pleading for mercy, and a fairy child-face, looking up --- in vain --- to that black heart of hatred. Even as I gazed the woman hissed out so frightful a menace that my blood ran chill. The child shrank back into herself. The other raised her whip. I leapt into the room. The old hag spat one infamous word at me, turned on me with the whip. {117}
"This time I was under no illusions about the sanctity of womanhood. With a single blow I felled her to the ground. My signet- ring cut her lip, and the blood trickled over her cheek. I laughed. But the child never moved --- it would seem she hardly comprehended.
"I turned, bowed. 'I could not bear to hear your cries,' I said --- rather obviously, one may admit. 'I came --- 'adding under my breath, 'I saw, I conquered.' 'Who is that?' I added sternly, pointing to the prostrate hag.
"'Ah, sir' (she began to cry), 'it is my mother.' The horror of it was tenfold multiplied. 'She --- she ---' The child blushed, stammered, stopped.
"I heard, mademoiselle,' I cried indignantly.
"'I am here' (she sobbed) 'for a month, starved, whipped --- oh! By day the window barred with iron; by night, open, the more to mock my helplessness!' Then, with a sudden cry, her little pink hand darting out and showing a faultless arm: 'Look! look! she is on you.'
"The mother had drawn herself away with infinite stealth, regained her feet, and, a thin stiletto in her hand, was crouched to spring. Indeed, as she leapt I was hard put to it to avoid the lunge; the dagger-edge grazed my arm as I stepped aside.
"I turned. She was on me, flinging me aside with the force of her rush as if I had been a straw. The snarl of her was like a wolf.
"This time she cut me deep. Again a whirl, a rush. I altered my tactics; I ran in to meet her. Hampered as she was by her furs, I was now quicker than she. I struck her dagger arm so strongly that the blade flew into the air, and {118} fell quivering on the floor, the heavy hilt driving the thin blade deep into the polished wood. Even so I had her by the waist, catching her arm, and with one heave of my back I tossed her into the air, careless where she might fall.
"As luck would have it, she struck the balcony rail, broke it, and fell upon the pavement of the court. There was a crash, but no cry, no groan. I went to the balcony. She lay still, as the living do not lie, and her white hair was blackening, lapped by a congealing stream.
"I withdrew into the room. Since I have learnt that any death brings with it a strange sense of relief. There is a certain finality. "La comedie est jouee" --- and one turns with new life to the next business.
"The golden child had never stirred. But now she crouched lower, and fell to soft, sweet crying.
"'Your mother is dead,' I said abruptly. 'May I offer you the guardianship of my godmother, the Duchess of Castelnaudary? Come, mademoiselle, let us go.'
"'I thank you, sir,' she answered, still sobbing; 'but Jean is awake and at the door. Jean is fierce and lean as an old wolf.'
"I pulled the dagger from the floor. 'I am fierce and lithe as a young lion!' I said. 'Let the old wolf beware!'
"'But I cannot, sir, I cannot. I ...' Her confusion became acute.
"'I dare not move, sir --- I --- I --- my mother had taken away all my clothes.'
"'I marvelled. In her palace of gold hair nobody could have guessed it. But now I blushed, and lively. The dilemma was absurd. {119}
"'I have it,' said I. 'I will climb down and bring up the ermine.'
"She shuddered at the idea. Her dead mother's furs!
"'It must be,' I said firmly.
"'Go, brave knight!' --- a delicate smile lit up her face --- 'I trust myself to you.'
"I bent on my right knee to her. 'I take you,' I said, 'to be my lady, to fight in your cause, to honour and love you for ever.'
"She put out her right hand --- oh, the delicate beauty of it! I kissed it. 'My knight,' she said, 'Jean is below; he may hear you; you go perhaps to your death --- kiss me!'
"With a sob I caught her once full in my arms, and our mouths met. I closed my eyes in trance; my muscles failed; I sank, my forehead to the ground before her.
"When I opened my eyes again she too was praying. Softly, without a word, I stepped to the window, took the dagger in my teeth, dropped from the edge, landed lightly beside the corpse. She was quite dead, the skull broken in, the teeth exposed in a last snarl. She lay on her back; I opened the coat, turned her over. The gruesome task was nearly finished when the door of the house opened, and an old man, his face scarred, one lip cut half away in some old brawl, so that he grinned horribly and askew, rushed out at me, a rapier in his hand. My stiletto, though long beyond the ordinary, was useless against a tool of such superior reach.
"A last wrench gave me the ermine cloak, an invaluable parry. Could I entangle his sword, he was at my mercy. He saw it, and fenced warily. Indeed, I had the upper hand throughout. Threatening to throw the cloak, catch his {120} sword, blind him, rush in with my dagger --- he gave back and back in a circle round the courtyard.
"No sound came from the room above. Probably we three were alone. The fight was not to be prolonged for ever; the weight of the fur would tire me soon, counterbalance the advantage of age. Then, almost before I knew what had happened, we were fighting in the street. I would not cry for help; one was more likely to rouse a bandit than a guardian of the peace. And, besides, who could say how the law stood?
"I had certainly killed a lady; I was doing my best, with the aid of her stolen cloak, to kill a servant of the house; I contemplated an abduction. Best kill him silently, and be gone.
"But when and how had Jean pulled open the iron gates and retreated into the street?
"It mattered little, though certainly it left an uneasy sense of bewilderment; what mattered was that here we were fighting in semi- darkness --- the dawn was not fairly lifted --- for life and death.
"'Ten thousand crowns, Monsieur Jean,' I cried, 'and my service!' --- I gave him my style --- 'I see you can be a faithful servant.'
"'Faithful to death!' he retorted, and I was sorry to have to kill him.
"We fenced grimly on.
"'But,' I urged, 'your mistress is dead. Your duty is to her child, and I am her child's ---'
"He looked up from my eyes. 'An Omen!' he cried, pointing to the great statue of St. Michael trampling Satan, {121} for we had come fighting to the Place St. Michel. 'Darkness yields to light; I am your servant, sir.' He dropped on one knee, and tendered the hilt of his sword.
"But as I put out my hand to take it (guarded against attack, I boast me, but not against the extraordinary trick which followed) he suddenly snatched at the ermine, which lay loosely on my left arm, and, leaving me with sword and dagger, fled with a shriek of laughter across the Place St. Michel, and, flinging the furs over the bridge, himself plunged into the Seine and swam strongly for the other bank.
"There was no object in pursuing him; I would recover the furs, and return triumphant. Alas! they had sunk; they were now whirled far away by the swift river. Where should I get a cloak?
"How stupid of me! The old woman had plenty of other clothes beneath her furs; I would take them.
"And I set myself gaily to run back to the house.
III
"Whether by excitement I took the wrong turning, or whether -- but you will hear! --- in short, I do not clearly understand even now why I did not at once find the road. But at least I did fail to find it, discovered, as I supposed, my error, corrected it, failed once more. ... In the end I got flustered --- so much hung on my speedy return! --- I fluttered hither and thither like a wild pigeon whose mate has been shot. I stopped short, pulled myself together. Let me think it out! Where am I now? I was under the shadow (the dawn just lit its edge) of the mighty shoulder of St. Sulpice. 'More {122} haste, less speed!' I said to myself. 'I will walk deliberately down to the boulevard, turn east, and so I cannot possibly miss the Carrefour de l'Odeon' --- out of which, as I knew of old, the Rue des Quatre Vents leads. Indeed, I remembered the carrefour from that night. I had passed through it. I remembered hesitating as to which turning to take. For, as you know, the carefour is a triangle, one road leading from the apex, four (with two minor variations just off the carrefour) from the base.
"Following this plan, I came, sure enough, in three minutes or so into the Rue des Quatre Vents. It is not a long street, as you know, and I thought that I remembered perfectly that the house faced the tiny Rue St. Gregoire, which leads back to the Boulevard St. Germain. Indeed, it was down that obscure alley that Jean and I had gone in our fight. I remembered how I had expected to meet somebody on issuing into the boulevard; and then ... I must have been very busy fighting: I could not remember anything at all of the fight between that issue and the place of Jean's feint and flight.
"Well, here I was: the house should have been in front of me --- and it was not. I walked up and down the street; there was no house of the kind, no railings. No residential house. Yet I could not believe myself mistaken. I pinched myself; I was awake. Further, the pinching demonstrated the existence of a sword and dagger in my hands. I was bleeding, too; my left arm twice grazed. I took out my watch; four o'clock. Since I left the bridge --- ah! when had I left the bridge? I could not tell --- yes, I could. At moon-set. The moon was nine days old.
"No; everything was real. I examined the sword and {123} the stiletto. Silver-gilt; blades of exquisite fineness; the cipher of a princely house of France shone in tiny diamonds upon the pommels.
"The thought sent new courage and determination thrilling through me. I had saved a princess from shame and torture; I loved her! She loved me, for I had saved her --- ah! but I had not yet saved her. That was to do.
"But how to act? I had plenty of time. Jean would not return to the house, in all probability. But the markets were stirring; the weapons and my blood would arouse curiosity. Well, how to act?
"The positive certitude that I had had about the name of the street was my bane. Had I doubted I could have more easily carried out the systematic search that I proposed. But as it was my organized patrol of the quarter was not scientific; I was biased. I came back again and again to the street and searched it, as if the house might have been hidden in the gutter or vanished and reappeared by magic; as if my previous search might (by some incredible chance) have been imperfect, through relaxed attention. So one may watch a conjuror, observing every movement perfectly, except the one flash which does the trick.
"The search, too, could not be long; so I reflected as disappointment sobered me. One cannot go far from the Carrefour de l'Odeon in any direction without striking some unmistakable object. The two boulevards, the schools, the Odeon itself, St. Sulpice --- one could not be far off. Yet --- could I possibly have mistaken the Odeon for the Luxembourg?
"Could I ...? ...? A host of conjecture chased each {124} other through my brain, bewildering it, leading the will to falter, the steps to halt.
"Beneath, keener anguish than the thrust of a poisoned rapier, stabbed me this poignant pang: my love awaits me, waits for me to save her, to fly with her ...
"Where was she?
"It was broad day; I cleansed myself of the marks of battle, sat down and broke my fast, my sane mind steadily forcing itself to a sober plan of action, beating manfully down the scream of its despair. All day I searched the streets. Passing an antiquary, I showed him my weapons. He readily supplied their history; but --- there was none of that family alive, nor had been since the great Revolution. Their goods? The four winds of heaven might know. At those words 'the four winds' I rushed out of the shop, as if stung by an adder.
"I drove home, set all my servants hunting for railed houses. They were to report to me in the Rue des Quatre Vents. Any house not accounted for, any that might conceal a mystery, these I would see myself.
"All labour lost! My servants tried. I distrusted their energy: I set myself obstinately to scour Paris.
"There is a rule of mathematics which enables one to traverse completely any labyrinth. I applied this to the city. I walked in every road of it, marking the streets at each corner as I passed with my private seal. Each railed house I investigated separately and thoroughly. By virtue of my position I was welcome everywhere. But every night I paced the Rue des Quatre Vents, waiting ...
"Awaiting what? Well, in the end, perhaps death. The children gibed at me; passers-by shunned me. {125}
"'Le Revenant,'" they whispered, '"de la Rue des Quatre Vents.'"
"I had forgot to tell you one thing which most steadfastly confirmed me in the search. Two days after the adventure I passed, hot on the quest, by the Morgue. Two women came out. 'Not pretty, the fish!' said one. 'He with the scarred lip ---'
"I heard no more, ran in. There on the slab, grinning yet in death, was Jean. His swim had ended him. Faithful to death!
"I watched long. I offered a huge sum for his identification. The authorities even became suspicious: why was I so anxious? How could I say? He was the servant of ...
"I did not know my sweet child's name!
* * * *
"So, while a living man, I made myself a ghost.
IV
"It may have been one day some ten years later," continued the old nobleman, "when as I paced uselessly the Street of the Four Winds I was confronted by a stern, grey figure, short, stout, and bearded, but of an indescribably majesty and force.
"He laid his hand unhesitatingly upon my shoulder. 'Unhappy man!' he cried, 'thou art sacrificing thy life to a phantom. "Look not," quoth Zoroaster, "upon the Visible Image of the Soul of Nature, for Her name is Fatality." What thou hast seen --- I know not what it is, save that it is as {126} a dog-faced demon that seduceth thy soul from the sacred Mysteries; the Mysteries of Life and Duty.'
"'Let me tell my story!' I replied, 'and you shall judge --- for, whoever you may be, I feel your power and truth.'
"'I am Eliphaz Levi Zahed --- men call me the Abbe Constant,' returned the other.
"'The great magician?'
"'The enemy of the great magician.'
"We went together to my house. I had begun to suspect some trick of Hell. The malice of that devilish old woman, it might be, had not slept, even at her death. She had hidden the house beneath a magic veil? Or had her death itself in some strange way operated to --- to what? Even conjecture paled.
"But magic somewhere there must be, and Eliphaz Levi was the most famous adept in Paris at the time.
"I told my story, just as I have told it to you, but with strong passion.
"There is an illusion, master!' I ended. 'Put forth the Power and destroy it!'
"'Were I to destroy the illusion,' returned the magus, 'thinkest thou to see a virgin with gold hair? Nay, but the Eternal Virgin, and a Gold that is not gold.'
"'Is nothing to be done?'
"'Nothing!' he replied, with a strange light in his eyes. 'Yet, in order to be able to do nothing, thou must first accomplish everything.
"'One day,' he smiled, seeing my bewilderment, 'thou wilt be angry with the fool who proffers such a platitude.'
"I asked him to accept me as a pupil.
"'I require pay,' he answered, 'and and oath.' {127}
"'Speak; I am rich.'
"'Every Good Friday,' said the adept, 'take thirty silver crowns and offer them to the Hospital for the Insane.'
"'It shall be done,' I said.
"'Swear, then,' he went on, swear, then, here to me' --- he rose, terrible and menacing ---' by Him that sitteth upon the Holy Throne and liveth and reigneth for ever and ever, that never again, neither to save life, nor to retain honour, wilt thou set foot in the Street of the Four Winds; so long as life shall last.'
"Even as he bade me, I rose with lifted hand and swore.
"As I did so there resounded in the room ten sharp knocks, as of ivory on wood, in a certain peculiar cadence.
"This was but the first of a very large number of interviews. I sought, indeed, steadfastly to learn from him the occult wisdom of which he was a master; but, though he supplied me with all conceivable channels of knowledge --- books, manuscripts, papyri --- yet all these were lifeless; the currents of living water flowed not through them. Should one say that the master withheld initiation, or that the pupil failed to obtain it?
"But at least time abated the monomania --- for I know now that my whole adventure was but a very vivid dream, an insanity of adolescence. At this moment I would not like to say at what point exactly in the story fact and dream touch; I have still the sword and dagger. Is it possible that in a trance I actually went through some other series of adventures than that I am conscious of? May not Jean have been a thief, whom I dispossessed of his booty? Had I done this {128} unconsciously it would account for both the weapons and the scene in the Morgue. ... But I cannot say.
"So, too, I learnt from the master that all this veil of life is but a shadow of a vast reality beyond, perceptible only to those who have earned eyes to see withal.
"These eyes I could not earn; a faith in the master sustained me. I began to understand, too, a little about the human brain; of what it is capable. Of Heaven --- and of Hell!
"Life passed, vigorous and pleasant; the only memory that haunted me was the compulsion of my oath that never would I again set foot in the Rue des Quatre Vents.
"Life passed, and for the master ended. 'The Veil of the Temple is but a Spider's web!' he said, three days before he died. I followed Eliphaz Levi Zahed to the grave.
"I could not follow him beyond.
"For the next year I applied myself with renewed vigour to the study of the many manuscripts which he had left me. No result could I obtain; I slackened. Followed the folly of my life: I rationalised.
"Thus: one day, leaning over the Pont St. Michel, I let the whole strange story flow back through my brain. I remembered my agony; my present calm astonished me. I thought of Levi, of my oath. 'He did not mean "for all my life,"' I thought; 'he meant until I could contemplate the affair without passion. Is not fear failure? I will walk through just once, to show my mastery.' In five minutes --- with just one inward qualm --- again I was treading the well-worn flags of that ensorcelled road.
"Instantly --- instantly! --- the old delusion had me by {129} the throat. I had broken my oath; I was paying the penalty.
"Crazier than ever, I again sought throughout changed Paris for my dream-love; I shall seek her till I die. If I seem calmer, it is but that age has robbed me of the force of passion. In vain you tell me, laughing, that if she ever lived, she is long since dead; or at least is an old woman, the blonde gold faded, the child-face wrinkled, the body bowed and lax. I laugh at you --- at you --- for a blaspheming ass. Your folly is too wild to anger me!"
"I did not laugh," said Roderic gravely.
"Well," said the old man, rising, "I fear I have wearied you ... I thank you for your patience ... I know I am a mad old fellow. But, if you should happen --- you know. Please communicate. Here is my card. I must go now. I am expected elsewhere. I am expected."
MARTIAL NAY.
{130} THE LOST SHEPHERD
I
SHE walks among the starry ways,A crimson full-blown rose;
Her heart bears all the yesterdaysThat love from love-dawn knows;
Her sunny feet are shod in gold, She swings a censer rare and old --- Her heart the censer that she sways,Our Lady of the Snows.
II
I passed the morning she was bornWithin the heart of day;
A shepherd with a twisted horn I met upon the way.The straying sheep that autumn-tide Had wandered by the river-side;
And so I spent that gladsome morn,
And so I said my say. {131}
III
She passes by, she passes still The secret ways of earth; She kissed Will Blake beneath the hill, Robbed Shelley's heart of mirth.But I have stopped with love her lips, And as into my arms she slips,
I clip her close, and take my fill Of joy to make new birth.
IV
Oh, holloa! holloa! the hills among, And holloa! down the dale: I bear a golden lyre full-strung With heart-strings bright and pale.I've lilies from the fountain-head, And purple flags and roses red,
And all the songs of Pan have flung Their fragrance in my tale.
V
And but as yesterday it seems She tripped me as I ran, And scattering all my half-fledged dreams, Hailed me a foolish man.Perchance my dreams shall wing their way To some such other fool, perfay ---
God stop his mouth to still his screams,
And help him if He can! {132}
VI
Under the willows the stream runs strong When the wind is shrill and high; I wandered on, and I wandered long, Under the fleecy sky.A voice came out of a cloud to me,
And much I marvelled, and won a song, And so the day passed by.
VII
I was a shepherd in other days, Ere ever the earth was old; I wandered far into the Northern ways To bring back my sheep to the fold.Heyday! but the time was drear and long, For I lost my pipe and my mountain-song,
And all the others of my sweet lays Lost all their wonted gold.
VIII
Greece and Rome and the Pagan lands I knew ere the Christ was born; I whistled songs between my hands, And blew through an old ram's horn.I was wise indeed! For I lost my way Over the hills one summer's day,
And near where Venus' stature stands
I lingered all forlorn. {133}
IX
Laughing eyes and clear brown skin, And dark locks ripping wide, Where the sunbeams play and the eddies spin I saw my face in the tide.But I knew the trick Narcissus had done, So I shook back my hair to stare at the sun;
My slim brown body I'd keep within The shade of the green hillside.
X
I found the groves of Pan; I came At length to a daisied field, And the sun shone out with his yellow flame That makes the harvest yield.Yellow and purple are corn and grape, But scarlet the god when he takes his shape
At the sound of the awful hidden name In earth's eclipse revealed.
XI
And as he clasped me, slim and slight, I roared with the pain he gave, And he cried, "I will hold thee here all night, My beautiful, dark-haired slave;Kiss my lips and laugh in my eyes,
And thy flame shall yield to my eyes' fierce light
Ere thine ashes are laid in the grave!" {134}
XII
Then did I learn the lore of Earth, For mine was the light of Pan; The barren riddle unsolved by birth Was solved as the hot fire ran.The god's tongue flashed, and he roared with glee At each spasm he drew from the breast of me,
And the mystery of Panic mirth Lay bare in the sight of a man.
XIII
And many a love long since I've known, And many a city rare; I have sung and harped, I have fought and flown, I have wandered everywhere.But the thought of that day by the water-side, The god's hot breath and the hidden bride,
Makes me more shy as I wander alone, Unknowing whither I fare.
XIV
And in the morning Pan rose and fled, And left me alone to sleep; And long I lay in a slumber dead. Then on hands and knees did I creepBack to the shade of the sheltering trees; And I found my sheep on the shady leas;
And my body was flushed, and my cheeks were red,
And my eyes too bright to weep. {135}
XV
After long dreamless sleep I knew The tale that had fled my tongue, I found in far in the water blue, In the song by the skylark sung,In the melody slow of the waving corn, In the rushing of wind through the vines re-born,
And wherever the water-lilies grew, And the green, green willows swung.
XVI
And still the lady of my dream As a light before me goes; I see her in the sun's last gleam, In the moonlight on the snows.Ah! chiefly then her song is sung,
She is born at midnight on the stream, A starry, full-blown rose.
VICTOR B. NEUBURG.
{136}
A
HANDBOOK OF GEOMANCY
[THIS MS. is now first printed from the private copies of certain adepts, after careful examination and collation. It is printed for the information of scholars and the instruction of seekers. By the order of the A.'. A.'. certain formulae have been introduced into it, and omissions made, to baffle any one who may seek to prostitute it to idle curiosity or to fraud. Its practical use and the method of avoiding these pitfalls will be shown to approved students by special authority from V.V.V.V.V. or his deligates.] {137}
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class B.
Issued by Order:
D.D.S. 7 Degree = 4 Square O.S.V. 6 Degree = 5 Square N.S.F. 5 Degree = 6 Square
"Direct not thy mind to the vast surfaces of the earth; for the Plant of Truth grows not upon the ground. Nor measure the motions of the Sun, collecting rules, for he is carried by the Eternal Will of the Father, and not for your sake alone. Dismiss from your mind the impetuous course of the Moon, for she moveth always by the power of Necessity. The progression of the Stars was not generated for your sake. The wide aerial flight of birds gives no true knowledge, nor the dissection of the entrails of victims; they are all mere toys, the basis of mercenary fraud: flee from these if you would enter the sacred paradise of piety where Virtue, Wisdom, and Equity are assembled."
ZOROASTER{138}
.---------------. : M A C A N E H : : A R O L U S E : : D I R U C U N : : A L U H U L A : : S E R U R O C : : U N E L I R A : : L U S A D A M : .---------------.
{Illustration goes here. This is a drawing by Austin Osmond Spare of an anthropomorphic figure with a leaping wolf inside. There is a distorted face beneath the wolf, at about the position of the hip or genitalia.} {140}
A HANDBOOK OF GEOMANCY CHAPTER IATTRIBUTIONS OF GEOMANTIC FIGURES TO PLANETS, ZODIAC, AND RULING GENII .---.------.-----.-----.---.-------------------.----------.---------.-------. :---:SIGN :EL. :GEOM.:SEX: NAME AND MEANING : GENIUS : RULER :PLANET :
: : : : FIG.: : : : : ::---+------+-----+-----+---+-------------------+----------+---------+-------:
: 1 :Aries :Fire : * : M.: Puer :Malchidael:Bartzabel:Mars : : : : : * : : Boy, yellow, : : : : : : : : * * : : beardless : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2 :Taurus:Earth: * : F.: Amissio : Asmodel :Kedemel :Venus : : : : : * * : :Loss, comprehended : : : : : : : : * : : without : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 :Gemini: Air : * * : M.: Albus : Ambriel :Taphthar-:Mercury: : : : : * * : : White, fair : : tharath : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 4 :Cancer:Water: * * : F.: Populus : Muriel :Chashmo- :Moon : : : : : * * : : People, congreg- : : dai : : : : : : * * : : ation : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :: 5 : Leo :Fire : * * : M.: Fortuna Major : Verchiel : Sorath :Sun :
: : : : * * : : Greater fortune, : : : : : : : : * : :greater aid, safe- : : : : : : : : * : : guard entering : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 6 : Virgo:Earth: * * : F.: Conjunctio : Hamaliel :Taphthar-:Mercury: : : : : * : : Conjunction, : : tharath : : : : : : * : : assembling : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 7 : Libra: Air : * : M.: Puella : Zuriel : Kedemel :Venus : : : : : * * : : A girl, beautiful : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 8 :Scor- :Water: * * : F.: Rubeus : Barchiel :Bartzabel:Mars : : :pio : : * : : : : : : : : : : * * : : Red, reddish : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :: 9 :Sagit-:Fire : * * : M.: Acquisitio :Advachiel :Hismael :Jupiter:
: :tarius: : * : : : : : : : : : : * * : :Obtaining, compre- : : : : : : : : * : : hending without : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :10 :Capri-:Earth: * : F.: Carcer : Hanael :Zazel :Saturn : : :corn : : * * : : : : : : : : : : * * : : A prison, bound : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :11 :Aquar-:Air : * * : M.: Tristitia : Cambiel :Zazel :Saturn : : :ius : : * * : : Sadness, damned, : : : : : : : : * * : : cross : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :12 :Pisces:Water: * : F.: Laetitia : Amnixiel :Hismael :Jupiter: : : : : * * : : Joy, laughing, : : : : : : : : * * : : healthy, bearded : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : :.---.------.-----.-----.---.-------------------.----------.---------.-------. {141}
: : : : FIG.: : : : : ::---+------+-----+-----+---+-------------------+----------+---------+-------: :13 :Cauda :Fire : * : F.: Cauda Draconis :Zazel and :Zazel and:Saturn : : :Draco-: : * : : The threshold :Bartzabel :Bartzabel:Mars :
: :nis : : * : :lower, or going out: : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : ::14 :Caput :Earth: * * : M.: Caput Draconis : Hismael :Hismael :Jupiter: : :Draco-: : * : : The Head, the : and : and :Venus :
: :nis : : * : :threshold entering,: Kedemel : Kedemel : : : : : : * : :the upper threshold: : : : : : : : : : : : : ::15 : Leo :Air : * : M.: Fortuna Minor : Verchiel : Sorath :Sun :
: : : : * : : Lesser fortune, : : : : : : : : * * : :lesser aid, safe- : : : : : : : : * * : : guard going out : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :16 :Cancer:Water: * : F.: Via : Muriel :Chashmo- :Moon : : : : : * : : Way, journey : : dai : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : :.---.------.-----.-----.---.-------------------.----------.---------.-------.
CHAPTER II
THE MODE OF DIVINING --- MOTHERS --- DAUGUTERS ---
NEPHEWS --- WITNESSES --- JUDGE --- RECONCILER ---
PART OF FORTUNE
THINK fixedly of the demand; with a pencil mark 16 lines of points or dashes. Find whether number of points in each line is odd or even. For odd *; for even **. Lines 1-4 give the first mother; lines 5-8 the second; and so on.
EXAMPLE
4 3 2 1 * * 10 * * 12 * 15 * 15 * 11 * * 6 * * 16 * 15 * * 10 * 9 * 15 * * 16 * * 10 * 7 * * 14 * * 14
[The small Arabic numerals refer to the chance number of dashes.]
Use clean (virgin) paper; place appropriate Pentagram (either with or without a circumscribed circle) invoking. If a circle, draw this first. Sigil of Ruler to which nature of question most refers should be placed in the Pentagram thus: {142}
Saturn Agriculture, sorrow, death.
Jupiter Good fortune, feasting, church preferment.
Mars War, victory fighting.
Sun Power, magistracy.
Venus Love, music, pleasure.
Mercury Science, learning, knavery.
Moon Travelling, fishing, &c.
In diagram, p. 144, the Sigil of Hismael should be used. In marking points fix attention on Sigil and on the question proposed; the hand should not be moved from the paper till complete. It is convenient to rule lines to guide the eye. The daughters are derived by reading the mothers horizontally. The four nephews, Figures IX-XII, are thus formed: IX = I + II read vertically, added and taken as odd or even. So also XIII = IX + X, and XV = XIII + XIV.
. VIII VII VI V IV III II I
: * * * * * * * * * * * *
Referred to : * * * * * * * * * * * *
: * * * * * * * * * * * *
twelve : * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
-: .---.---. .---.---. .---.---. .---.---.
Astrological : XII XI X IX
: * * * * * * * *
Houses : * * * *
: * * * * * *
. * * * * * *
.------.------. .------.------.
XIV XIII
* * * *
LEFT * * * * RIGHT
WITNESS * * * * WITNESS
* *
.-------------.-------------.
JUDGE
XV
* *
* *
* *
* *
{143}
These last three are merely aids to general judgment. If the judge be good the figure is good, and "vice-versa."
The Reconciler = I + XV
To find the part of Fortune Earth (ready money or cash belonging to Querent), add points of the figures I - XII, divide by 12, and remainder shows figure. Here I + II + ... + XII = 74 points = 6 x 12 + 2 .'. Earth falls with
*
* * (II)
*
* *
CHAPTER IIIOF THE FIGURE OF THE TWELVE HOUSES OF HEAVEN
THE meaning of the twelve Houses is to be found, primarily, in any text- book of Astrology. Knowledge is to be enlarged and corrected by constant study and practice.
Place the figures thus:
I 10th IV 7th VII 5th X 3rd
II Asc. V 11th VIII 8th XI 6th
III 4th VI 2nd IX 12th XII 9th
EXAMPLE
.----------------------------------------.
: \ * /\ * * / :
: \ * / \ * / :
: \ * * / * \ * * / :
: * * \ * * / * \ * * / * * :
: * \11 * * \9/ * * :
: * 12 / \ * * / \8 * :
: * * / \ / \ * * :
: / \ / \ :
: / * \10 / * * \ :
: / * * \ / * \ :
: \ * ASC/ \7 * * /:
: \ * * / 4 \ * * / :
: \ / \ / :
: * \ / * * \ / * * :
: * * 2\ / * * \ /6 * :
: * * /3\ * 5\ * * :
: * / * * \ * /* * \ * :
: / * \ / * \ :
: / * \ / * \ :
: / * \ / * * \ :
.----------------------------------------.
{144}
CHAPTER IV
TABLES OF WITNESSES AND JUDGE
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * * : : : : : : : : : : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :: POPULUS :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Mod. : Good : Good : Mod. : Mod. : Evil : Good : Mod. : :Money, &c. 2: Mod. : Good : Good : Bad : Mod. : Evil : Mod. : Good : :Rank, &c. 3: Mod. : Good : Good : Mod. : Good : Mod. : Mod. : Bad : :Property 4: Mod. : Good : Good : Bad : Good : Bad : Mod. : Good : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Good : Bad : Good : Good : Bad : Good : Bad : :Sex ofChild6: 5# : Evil : Dau. : Son : Dau. : Dau. : 5 : Dau. : :Sickness 7: Asc. : Health: Soon : Health: Peril-: Health: Health: Asc. :
: : : : health: : ous : : : : :Prison 8: Come : Out : Soon :Out for: Long : Out : Die : Die : : : out : : out :nothing: : : there : there ::Journey 9:Good by: Slow : Medium:Good by: Evil : Medium: Medium: Evil :
: : water : : : water : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Found : Found : Part : Not : Found : Lost : Found : Part :
: : : : found : found : : : : found :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. # Arabic numbers mean that the judgment is determined by the figure in that House of Heaven. {145}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * : : : : : : : : : : * * :* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *: : * * : * * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *: : * * : * * : * * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *:: LAETITIA : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * :* * * *: :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good &: Med. : Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : Med. : Good :
: : long : : : : : : : ::Money, &c. 2:Increa-: Evil : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Med. :
: : se : : : : : : : ::Rank, &c. 3: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Good : Evil : Med. : Med. :
: :dignity: : : : : : : ::Property 4: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Good : Evil : Med. : Evil : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Med. : Med. : Evil : Good : Evil : Med. : Good : :Sex ofChild6: Son : Dau. : Dau. : 5 : Son : 5 : Son : 5 : :Sickness 7: Health: 11 : Asc. :Danger-: Health: Health: Health: 5 :
: : : : : ous : : : : : :Prison 8: Late : Come : Come : Come : Soon : Run : Escape: Come : : : out : out : out : out : out : away : & re- : out : : : : : : : : :capture: ::Journey 9:Good in:Hurtful: Evil : Evil : Good : Evil : Return:Good by:
: : end : : : : : : : water ::Thing Lost10: Found : Found : Part : Part : Part : Part : Part : Part :
: : : : found : found : found :yielded: found : found ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * :* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: : * :* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : : * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: : VIA :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * ::------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : :Money, &c. 2: Evil : Evil : Med. : Med. : Med. : Med. : Med. : Med. : :Rank, &c. 3: Med. : Good : Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : Med. : :Property 4: Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Med. : Good : Med. : Med. : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Good : Med. : Evil : Evil : Evil : Med. : Med. : :Sex ofChild6: Son : Dau. : 5 : 5 : 5 : 5 : Son : 5 : :Sickness 7: Health:Danger-: Health: Death : Death : Death : Health: Health:
: : : ous : : : : : : : :Prison 8:Out for: Evil : Come :Not out:Not out:Not out: Come : Soon : : :Nothing: : out : : : : out : out ::Journey 9:Good by:Good by: Slack : Return: Return: Late : Late : Good :
: : water : water : : : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Not : Not : Part : Found : Found : Part : Little: Not :
: : found : found :yielded: : : found : found : found :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {146}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * * : : : : : : : : : : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: * * : : * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : : * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: :Fortuna : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: :Major : : : : : : : : ::------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Med. : Good : Med. : :Money, &c. 2: Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Med. : Good : Med. : :Rank, &c. 3: Possi-: Evil : Good : Good : Good : Med. : Good : Good :
: : bility: : : : : : : : : : good : : : : : : : ::Property 4: Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Evil : Good : Good : Good : Evil : Good : Evil : :Sex ofChild6: 5 : Son : Son : 5 : Son : Dau. : 5 : 5 : :Sickness 7: Health: Health: Good : ASC. : Health: Peril-: Health: Health:
: : : : : : : ous : : : :Prison 8: Come : Late : Come : Die : Come : With : Come : Soon : : : out : : out : there : out : harm : out : out ::Journey 9: Good : Evil : Diffi-: Med. : Soon : Late : Good : Very :
: : with : : cult : : return: : : good : : : speed: : : : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Found : Not : Found : Found : Part : Not : Found : Not :
: : : found : : : found : found : : found ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : * * : * * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: : * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: : * * :* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *: * * *:: ALBUS : * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Evil : Good : Evil :Suffic-: Evil : Good : Evil : Med. :
: : : : : 'nt : : : : ::Money, &c. 2: Evil : Good : Med. : Good : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : :Rank, &c. 3: Evil : Good : Evil : Good : Evil : Good : Evil : Med. : :Property 4: Evil : Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : :Wife, &c. 5: Evil : Evil : Med. : Good : Evil : Good : Evil : Med. : :Sex ofChild6:Dau.die: 5 : Dau. : 5 : Dau. : 5 : Dau. : Dau. : :Sickness 7: Death : Health: Death : Health: Death : Health: Health: ASC. :
:Prison 8: Peril-: Late :Not out: Come : Die : Run : Come : Come : : : ous : : : out : there : away : out : out ::Journey 9: Med. : Good : Evil : Good : Diffi-: Slow : Med. :V. good:
: : : : : : cult : : : by : : : : : : : : : : Water ::Thing Lost10: Not : Not : Not : Part : Part : Found : Not : Part :
: : found : found : found : found : found : : found : found :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {147}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * * : : : : : : : : : : * : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * :* * * *: : * * :* * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *: * * *: : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *:: RUBEUS :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Evil : Very :
: : : : : : : : : evil ::Money, &c. 2: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Good : Evil : Very :
: : : : : : : : : evil ::Rank, &c. 3: Good : Med. : Med. : Med. : Evil : Good : Evil : Very :
: : : : : : : : : evil ::Property 4: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Evil : Very :
: : : : : : : : : evil ::Wife, &c. 5: Very : Evil : Good : Med. : Evil : Good : Evil :Immoral:
: : good : : : : : : : ::Sex ofChild6: Son : Dau. : Dau. : Son : Dau. : 5 : 5 : 5 : :Sickness 7: Health: Health: Death : Health: Health: Long : In : Peril-:
: : : : : : : sick : danger: ous : :Prison 8: Come : Diffi-: Evil : Evil : Come : Soon : Doubt-: Death : : : out : cult : : : out : out : ful : ::Journey 9: Diffi-: Evil : Evil : Evil : Evil : Slow : Evil : Robbed:
: : cult : : : : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Part : Part : Not : Found : Not : Found : Not : Not :
: : found :yielded: found : : found : : found : found ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * * : : : : : : : : : : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * :* * * *: * * : : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * : : * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * ::TRISTITIA : * * *:* * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * : :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Evil :Suffic-: Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Good : Evil :
: : : 'nt : : : : : : ::Money, &c. 2: Med. :Suffic-: Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Good : Very :
: : : 'nt : : : : : : evil ::Rank, &c. 3: Evil :Suffic-: Evil : Evil : Evil : Good : Good : Evil :
: : : 'nt : : : : : : ::Property 4: Good :Suffic-: Evil : Evil : Evil : Evil : Good : Very :
: : : 'nt : : : : : : evil ::Wife, &c. 5: Evil :Suffic-: Evil : Evil : Evil : Evil : Good : Evil :
: : : 'nt : : : : : : ::Sex ofChild6: 5 : Dau. : Son : Dau. : 5 : 5 : Dau. : 5 : :Sickness 7: Death : Death : Evil : Evil : Evil : Health: Health: Peril-:
: : : : : : : : : ous : :Prison 8: Death : Death : Evil : Evil : Evil : Come : Long : Hard : : : : : : : : out : : ::Journey 9: Evil : Evil : Evil : Evil : Evil : Very : Late : Med. :
: : : : : : : late : : ::Thing Lost10: Not : Found : Not : Not : Not : Not : Found : Not :
: : found : : found : found : found : found : : found :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {148}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * : : : : : : : : : : * * : * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: : * : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * : : * :* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:: PUELLA : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Med. : Med. : Good : Good : Evil : Med. : Good : Evil : :Money, &c. 2: Med. : Good : Good : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : :Rank, &c. 3: Evil : Good :V. good: Good : Evil : Good : Good : Evil : :Property 4: Evil : Good : Med. : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : :Wife, &c. 5: Med. : Good : Good : Good : Evil : Med. : Good : Med. : :Sex ofChild6: Dau. : Son : 5 : 5 : 5 : 5 : Dau. : 5 : :Sickness 7: ASC. : Health:Danger-: ASC. : Health: Health: Long : Health:
: : : : ous : : : : : : :Prison 8: Out by: Come : Come : Good : Come : Come : Long : Come : : : ill : out : out : end : out : out : : out : : : means : : : : : : : ::Journey 9: Peril-: Good :Good by: Good : Peril-: Slow : Good : Med. :
: : ous : : Water : : ous : : : ::Thing Lost10: Part : Found : Part : Found : Not : Not : Found : Part :
: : found : : found : : found : found : : found ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : : * * :* * * : * * : * * *: * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : : * : * * :* * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *:: PUER : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Evil : Evil : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Evil : :Money, &c. 2: Good : Some- : Evil : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Evil :
: : : what : : : : : : : : : : good : : : : : : ::Rank, &c. 3: Good : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Evil : :Property 4: Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Evil : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Evil : :Sex ofChild6: Son : Dau. : 5 : Dau. : Son : Dau. : Son : Dau. : :Sickness 7: Health: Soon : ASC. : Death : Health: Peril-: Health: Evil :
: : : die : : : : ous : : : :Prison 8: Well : Soon :Danger-: Die : Come : Peril-: Come : Evil : : : out : out : ous : there: out : ous : out : ::Journey 9: Return: Med. :Spoiled: Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : Evil : :Thing Lost10: Found : Part : Not : Not : Found : Not : Found : Not :
: : : found : found : found : : found : : found :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {149}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * * : : : : : : : : : : * : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * : * * : : * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : : * : * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: :CAPUT :* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *: :DRACONIS : : : : : : : : ::------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Evil : Good : V.good: Evil : Evil : Good : Evil : Good : :Money, &c. 2: Evil : Good : V.good:Suffic-: Med. : V.good: Evil : V.good:
: : : : : 'nt : : : : ::Rank, &c. 3: Evil : Good : V.good: Evil : Good : Good : Evil : Good : :Property 4: Evil : Good : V.good: Med. :Suffic-: Good : Evil : Good :
: : : : : : 'nt : : : ::Wife, &c. 5: Evil : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Med. : Evil : Good : :Sex ofChild6: Dau. : 5 : 5 : Dau. : Son : Son : Dau. : Son : :Sickness 7: ASC. : Health: ASC. : Health: Good : Health: Health: Health:
: : : : : : end : : : : :Prison 8: Long : Peril-: Come : Hard : 6 : Soon : Come : Out : : : : ous : out : : : out : out : late ::Journey 9: Evil : Med. :Good by: Evil : Evil : Good : Evil : V.good:
: : : :Water : : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Not : Found : Found : Found : Part : Found : Not : Found :
: : found : : : : found : : found : ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * :* * * : * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *:* * * : : * : * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * :* * * : : * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : :CAUDA : * * : * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : :DRACONIS : : : : : : : : ::------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Med. : Evil : Very : Toler-: Evil : Med. : Good : Evil :
: : : : evil : able : : : : ::Money, &c. 2: Good : Evil : Very : Good : Med. :Suffic-: Good : Evil :
: : : : evil : : : 'nt : : ::Rank, &c. 3: Med. : Evil : Very : Med. : Evil :Suffic-: Good : Evil :
: : : : evil : : : 'nt : : ::Property 4: Good : Evil : Very : Med. : Evil :Suffic-: Good : Med. :
: : : : evil : : : 'nt : : ::Wife, &c. 5: Med. : Evil : Very : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : Very :
: : : : evil : : : : : evil ::Sex ofChild6: Son : 5 : 5 : 5 : 5 : 5 :Son and: 5 :
: : : : : : : : live : ::Sickness 7: Health: Peril-: Death : Death : Death : Peril-: Health: ASC. :
: : : ous : : : : ous : : : :Prison 8: Good : Out : Death : Come : Come : Come : Soon :Danger-: : : end : with : : out :out pun: out : out : ous : : : : pain : : : ished : : : ::Journey 9: Evil : Evil : Very : Med. : Evil : Evil : Good : Very :
: : : : evil : : : : : evil ::Thing Lost10: Found : Not : Not : Found : Not : Part : Found : Not :
: : : found : found : : found : found: : found :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {150}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * * : : : : : : : : : : * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: : * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: : * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * ::ACQUISITIO :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Evil : V.good: Med. : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : :Money, &c. 2: Med. : Evil : V.good: Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : :Rank, &c. 3: Med. : Med. : V.good: Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : :Property 4: Med. : Evil : V.good: Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Evil : Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Good : :Sex ofChild6: 5 : Son : 5 : 5 : Son : Dau. : 5 : Son : :Sickness 7: Health: Health: Health: Health: Health: Health: ASC. : In :
: : : : : : : : : danger: :Prison 8: Death : Come : Come : Come : Long : Come : Late : Slow : : : : out : out : out : : out : out : ::Journey 9: Med. : Good : Good : Med. : Soon : Med. : Evil : Slow :
: : : : : : return: : : ::Thing Lost10: Found : Not : Found : Not : Found : Found : Found : Found :
: : : found : : found : : : : ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * * :* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: : * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: : * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :: AMISSIO : * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : :Money, &c. 2: Good : Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : :Rank, &c. 3: Med. : Med. : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : :Property 4: Med. : Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : Med. : :Wife, &c. 5: Med. : Med. : Evil : Med. : Med. : Evil : Evil : Evil : :Sex ofChild6: 5 : Son : 5 : 5 : Dau. : Son : 5 : 5 : :Sickness 7:The end: Health: Peril-: Health: Health: Health: Death : Health:
: : health: : ous : : : : : : :Prison 8: Long : Good : Hard : Soon : Come : Come : Out in: Die : : : : end : : out : out : out :the end: there::Journey 9: Good : Med. : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : Evil : Not :
: : : : : : : : : begun::Thing Lost10: Not : Found : Not : Not : Not : Not : Part : Part :
: : found : : found : found : found : found : found: found:.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {151}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * * : : : : : : : : : : * :* * * *: * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * : : * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : : * * :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * :* * * ::CONJUNCTIO : * * :* * * *:* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *: * * : :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : :Money, &c. 2: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : :Rank, &c. 3: Good : Med. : Med. : V.good: Evil : Good : Med. : Hard : :Property 4: Good : Med. : Med. : V.good: Evil : Good : Med. : Med. : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Evil : Med. : V.good: Evil : Good : Good : Med. : :Sex ofChild6: Son : 5 : 5 : Dau. : 5 : Son : Dau. : Dau. : :Sickness 7: Long &: Death : Death : ASC. : ASC. : Health: Peril-: Hard :
: : pining: : : : : : ous : : :Prison 8: Long : Out : Peril-: Long : Good : Come : Come : Long : : : time : with : ous : : : out : out : : : : : fear : : : : : : ::Journey 9: Slow : Med. :Good by: Good : Med. : Evil : Slow : Hard :
: : : :Water : : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Found : Found : Not : Found : Not : Found : Not : Found :
: : : : found : : found : : found : ::============+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======+=======:
: L.W. : : : : : : : : : : * : : : : : : : : : : * * :* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : : * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : : * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :: CARCER :* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * : :------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Med. : Good : Good : Med. :Suffic-: Evil : Med. :
: : : : : : : 'nt : : ::Money, &c. 2: Good : Evil : Good : Med. : Med. :Suffic-: Evil : Med. :
: : : : : : : 'nt : : ::Rank, &c. 3: Evil : Med. : Good : Good : Med. : Med. : Evil : Med. : :Property 4: Med. : Evil : Good : Good : Med. :Suffic-: Med. : Good :
: : : : : : : 'nt : : ::Wife, &c. 5: Evil : Med. : Good : Good : Med. :Suffic-: Evil : Good :
: : : : : : : 'nt : : ::Sex ofChild6: Dau. : 5 : Son : Dau. : 5 : 5 : 5 : Dau. : :Sickness 7: Health: Health: Health: Health: Health: Health: Peril-:Danger-:
: : : : : : : : ous : ous : :Prison 8: Good : Soon : Late : Come : Come : Come : Evil : Late : : : end : out : out : out : out : out : : out ::Journey 9: Slow : Good : Slow : Slow : Slow : Slow : Diffi-: Evil :
: : : : : : : : cult : ::Thing Lost10: Found : Little: Part : Part : Part : Not : Not : Be :
: : : found: found: found: found: found : found : found:.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. {152}
.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. : L.W. :R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:R.W. J.:
: * : : : : : : : : : : * :* * * :* * * : * * *:* * * : * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *: : * * :* * * : * * *: * * *: * * *:* * * : * * *:* * * :* * * : : * * : * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * : * * :* * * *:* * * *: :FORTUNA : * * :* * * *:* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * :* * * *: * * : :MINOR : : : : : : : : ::------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------: :Life, &c. 1: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Good : Med. : :Money, &c. 2: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Evil : Good : Med. : :Rank, &c. 3: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Good : Evil : :Property 4: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : :Wife, &c. 5: Good : Med. : Med. : Good : Evil : Med. : Evil : Med. : :Sex ofChild6: 5 : 5 : 5 : Son : Dau. : Son : Dau. : Dau. : :Sickness 7: Health: Death : Health: Health: ASC. : Health: Health: Peril-:
: : : : : : : :quickly: ous : :Prison 8: Come : Come : Hard :Long in: Come : Sorrow: Come : Die : : : out : out : prison: prison: out : : out : ::Journey 9: Good : Med. : Good : Late : Good : Med. : Med. : Evil :
: : : : : good : : : : ::Thing Lost10: Found : Found : Part : Found : Not : Not : Not : Found :
: : : : found: : found : found : found : :.------------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.
CHAPTER VTHE GENERAL MEANING OF THE SIXTEEN FIGURES IN
THE TWELVE HOUSES
HEREIN follows a set of general tables of the sixteen figures in the twelve Houses, for the better convenience of forming a general judgment of the scheme. Under the head of each figure separately is given its general effect in whatever House it may happen to fall. Thus, by taking the House signifying the thing demanded, and also that signifying the end of the matter (fourth House), and noticing what figures fall therein, you may find by these tables their general effect in that position. {153}
.----------------------------------------.
: ACQUISITIO ::Generally very good for profit or gain : :---.------------------------------------: : 1 : Happy success in all things :
: 2 : Very prosperous :: 3 : Favour and riches :
: 5 : Good success :: 6 : Good, esp. agreeing with 5th :
: 7 : Reasonably good :: 8 : Rather good, not very, the sick :
: : die : : 9 : Good in all ::10 : Good in suits, very prosperous :
:11 : Good in all ::12 : Evil, pain, and loss :
.----------------------------------------. : FORTUNA MINOR :
: Good in any matter where a :: person wishes to proceed quickly : :---.------------------------------------: : 1 : Speed in victory or love; but :
: 3 : Good, but wrathful :: 4 : Haste, rather evil, exc. for peace :
: 5 : Good in all : : 6 : Medium in all :: 7 : Evil, exc. for war or love :
: 8 : Evil generally : : 9 : Good, but chloeric ::10 : Good, exc. for peace :
:11 : Good, esp. for love ::12 : Good, exc. for alteration or :
: : serving another :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: AMISSIO ::Gd for loss of substance, and sometimes : : for love, but v. bad for gain :
.----------------------------------------.
: LETITIA :: Good for joy, present or to come : :---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Good exc. in war : : 2 : Sickly : : 3 : Ill :: 4 : Meanly good :
: 5 : Excellently good : : 6 : Evil generally :: 7 : Indifferent :
: 8 : Evil generally :: 9 : Very good :
:12 : Evil generally :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: FORTUNA MAJOR :: Good for gain in things where a person :
: has hopes to win ::---.------------------------------------: : 1 : Good, save in secrecy :
: 3 : Good in all :: 4 : Good in all but melancholy :
: 5 : Very good in all :: 6 : Very good, exc. for debauchery :
: 7 : Good in all : : 8 : Moderately good :: 9 : Very good :
:12 : Good in all :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: TRISTITIA :
: Evil in almost all things ::---.------------------------------------: : 1 : Med., but good for treasure and : : : fortiying :
: 9 : Evil, exc. for magic ::10 : Evil, exc. for fortification :
.----------------------------------------.
: PUELLA :
: Good in all demands, especially :
: those relating to women ::---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Good, exc. in war :: 2 : Very good :
: 3 : Good : : 4 : But indifferent :: 5 : V.good, but notice the aspects : : 6 : Good, but esp. so for debauchery :
: 7 : Good, exc. for war : : 8 : Good :: 9 : Good for music, otherwise medium :
:10 : Good for place ::11 : Good, and love of ladies :
.----------------------------------------.
: ALBUS :
: Good for profit and for entering into :
: a place of undertaking :
:---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Good for marriage; mercurial; peace:
: 2 : Good in all :
: 3 : Very good :
: 4 : Good, exc. in war : : 5 : Good :: 6 : Good in all :
: 7 : Good, exc. in war : : 8 : Good :: 9 : A messenger brings letters :
:10 : Excellent in all ::11 : Very good :
:12 : Marvelously good :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: PUER :
: Evil in most demands, except :
: those relating to war and love :
:---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Indifferent; best in war :
: 2 : Good, but with trouble :
: 3 : Good fortune :
: 4 : Evil, exc. in war and love :
: 5 : Medium good :
: 6 : Medium : : 7 : Evil, save in war : : 8 : Evil, exc. in love : : 9 : Evil, exc. for war ::10 : Evil rather; good for love and :
: : war; else medium : :11 : Medium; good favour : :12 : Very good in all :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: CONJUNCTIO :: Good with good, and evil with evil : : Recovery of things lost :
: 2 : Commonly good :: 3 : Good fortune :
: : House's figure :: 5 : Medium :
.----------------------------------------.
: RUBEUS :
: Evil in all that is good, and good :
: in all that is evil :
:---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Destroy the figure :: 2 : Evil in all :
.----------------------------------------.
: CARCER :
: General evil, delay, binding, stay, :
: bar, restriction ::---.------------------------------------: : 1 : Evil, exc. to fortify a place :
: : otherwise evil :: 3 : Evil :
: 9 : Evil in all ::10 : Evil, save for hid treasure :
:11 : Much anxiety : :12 : Rather good :.---.------------------------------------. {155}
.----------------------------------------.
: CAPUT DRACONIS :
: Good with good, evil with evil; gives :
: a good issue for gain :
:---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Good in all :: 2 : Good :
: 4 : Good, save in war :: 5 : Very good :
: 7 : Good, esp. for peace :: 8 : Good :
:10 : Good in all ::11 : Good for the Church and eccle- :
: : siastical gain : :12 : Not very good :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: VIA :
:Injurious to the goodness of other figs.:
: generally, but gd. for journeys & :
: voyages ::---.------------------------------------: : 1 : Evil;, exc. for prison :
: 3 : Very good in all :: 4 : Good in all, save love :
: 5 : Voyages good : : 6 : Evil :: 7 : Rather good, esp. for voyages :
: 8 : Evil :: 9 : Indifferent; good for journeys :
:10 : Good ::11 : Very good :
.----------------------------------------.
: CAUDA DRACONIS ::Good with evil, and evil with good; good: : for loss, and for passing out of an : : affair :
: 2 : Very evil : : 3 : Evil in all :: 4 : Good, esp. for conclusion of :
: : the matter : : 5 : Very evil : : 6 : Rather good : : 7 : Evil, war, and fire :: 8 : No good, exc. for magic :
: : journeys; robbery ::10 : Evil, save in works of fire :
:11 : Evil, save for favours : :12 : Rather good :.---.------------------------------------.
.----------------------------------------.
: POPULUS :
: Sometimes good, sometimes bad; good :
: with good, evil with evil :
:---.------------------------------------:
: 1 : Good for marriage :: 2 : Medium good :
: 5 : Good in most :: 6 : Good :
: 9 : Look for letters ::10 : Good :
OF THE ESSENTIAL DIGNITIES OF THE FIGURES IN THE
HOUSES; OF THE ASPECTS OF THE HOUSES; AND OF
THE FRIENDSHIP AND ENMITY OF THE RULERS IN
ASPECTS, ETC.
BY Essential Dignity is meant the strength of a figure when found in a particular House. A figure is therefore strongest in what is called its House; very strong in its Exaltation; strong in its Triplicity; very weak in its Fall; weakest of all in its Detriment. A figure is in its Fall when in a House opposite to that of its Exaltation; in its Detriment when opposite to its own House. The following list shows the Essential Dignities; that is to say, they follow the Dignities of their Ruling Planets, considering the twelve Houses of the scheme as answering to the twelve signs, thus: ASC. to Aries, 2 to Taurus, 3 to Gemini, &c., ... 12 to Pisces. Therefore Mars figures will be strong in ASC. and weak in 7th and so on. "See" chapter i. for attribution of figures to planets.
.------.-------------.------------.---------------.------------.------------. : --- : HOUSE : EXALTATION : TRIPLICITY : FALL : DETRIMENT : :------+-------------+------------+---------------+------------+------------: : ASC. : 1121, 2122, : 2211, 1122 :2211,1122,2121,: 1221, 2221 : 1212, 1211 :
: : 1112 : : 1222, 2111 : : : : : : : : : :: 2 : 1212, 1211 : 2222, 1111 :2222,1111,1212,: --- : 1121, 2122,:
: : 2111 : : 1211, 2111 : : 1112 : : : : : : : :: 3 : 2112, 2212 : 2111 :1221,222 12212,: 1112 : 2121, 1222,:
: : : : 2112, 112 : : 2111 :.------.-------------.------------.---------------.------------.------------.
{157}
TABLE OF ESSENTIAL DIGNITIES---"continued"
.------.-------------.------------.---------------.------------.------------. : --- : HOUSE : EXALTATION : TRIPLICITY : FALL : DETRIMENT : :------+-------------+------------+---------------+------------+------------:
: : : : : : :: 4 : 2222, 1111 : 2121, 1222 :1121,2122,1112 : 1121, 2122 : 1221, 2221,:
: : : : : : 1112 : : : : : : : :: 5 : 2211, 1122 : --- :2211,1122,2121,: --- : 1221, 2221,:
: : : : 1222, 2111 : : 1112 : : : : : : : :: 6 : 2112, 2212 : 2112, 2212 :2222,1111,1212,: 1212, 1211 : 2121, 1222,:
: : : : 1211, 2111 : : 2111 : : : : : : : :: 7 : 1211, 1212, : 1221, 2221 :1221,2221,2212,: 2211, 1122 : 1121, 2122,:
: : 2111 : : 2112, 1112 : : 1112 : : : : : : : :: 8 : 2122, 1121, : --- : 1121, 2122, : 2222, 1111 : 1212, 1211,:
: : 1112 : : 1112 : : 2111 : : : : : : : :: 9 : 2121, 1222, : 1112 :2211,1122,2121,: 2111 : 2212, 2112 :
: : 2111 : : 1222, 2111 : : : : : : : : : :: 10 : 1221, 2221, : 1121, 2122 :2222,1111,1212,: 1222, 2121 : 2222, 1111 :
: : 1112 : : 1211, 2111 : : : : : : : : : :: 11 : 1221, 2221, : --- :1221,2221,2212,: --- : 2211, 1122 :
: : 1112 : : 2112, 1112 : : : : : : : : : :: 12 : 1222, 2121, : 1212, 1211 : 1121, 2122, : 2212, 2112 : 2212, 2112 :
: : 2111 : : 1112 : : :.------.-------------.------------.---------------.------------.------------. THE ASPECTS OF THE HOUSES
The ASC. is aspected by 11, 10, 9 (as Sextile Quartile and Trine ) Dexter and by 3, 4, 5 ... Sinister, and has 7 in opposition. The Dexter aspect is that which is "contrary" to the natural order of the Houses; it is stronger than the Sinister. So for other Houses. Figures have Friends and Enemies: --- Saturn : Jupiter Sun Mercury Moon Friends; Mars Venus Enemies. Jupiter : Saturn Sun Venus Mercury Moon; and Mars. Mars : Venus; and Moon Saturn Sun Mercury. Sun : Jupiter Sun Venus Mercury Moon; and Saturn. Venus : Jupiter Sun Mars Mercury Moon; and Saturn. Mercury : Saturn Jupiter Sun Venus Moon; and Mars. Moon : Jupiter Sun Venus Mercury; and Saturn and Mars. {158} Also figures of Fire are sympathetic with those of Fire, friendly with Air and Earth; hostile to Water. So Water symp. Water, friendly Air and Earth, and host. Fire: Air symp. Air, friendly Fire and Water, and host. Earth. Earth symp. Earth, friendly Water and Fire, and host. Air. Again, sign figures are friends to those Sextile or Trine, and hostile to those Quartile or in Opposition.
CHAPTER VIIOF THE GENERAL METHOD OF JUDGING A FIGURE
*Part of Fortune Earth is in ASC. with * *, showing loss through Querent's own blunders.
The figures Quartile and * * * * * * Opposition are * *, * *, * *, which are not hostile to * ; therefore shows opposition not great.
{161}
THE ORGAN IN KING'S CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE
THEN silence,and the veil of light is raised And darkness seen behind. Now softly sound The Angels' herald-trumpets, calling round Thunders and mighty winds and powers amazed. Now laden with the spirit of man's hand There bursts an awful clarion-shout and brings Strange whispering and rushing of strange wings Battling, and furtive secrets of command.
Down from the height and up from the abyss Are swept dominion, power, angel, throne, For unimaginable ends, and hiss, And fall. The heralds trumpet; they are gone. Tread softly --- 'tis in God's house thou hast been --- And fearfully --- 'tis God that thou hast seen.
G. H. S. PINSENT.
{162}
A NOTE ON GENESIS
FROM THE PAPER WRITTEN
BY THE
V.H. FRA. I.A. 5 Degree = 6 Square
{163}
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class C.Issued by Order:
{164} A NOTE ON GENESIS PREFATORY NOTE
THE following Essay is one of the most remarkable studies in the Hebrew Qabalah known to me. Its venerable author was an adept familiar with many systems of symbolism, and able to harmonise them for himself, even as now is accomplished for all men in the Book "777".
In the year 1899 he was graciously pleased to receive me as his pupil, and, living in his house, I studied daily under his guidance the Holy Qabalah. Upon his withdrawal --- whether to enjoy his Earned Reward, or to perform the Work of the Brotherhood in other lands or planets matters nothing here --- he bequeathed to me a beautiful Garden, the like of which hath rarely been seen upon Earth.
It has been my pious duty to collate and comment upon this arcane knowledge, long treasured in my heart, watered alike by my tears and my blood, and sunned by that all-glorious Ray that multiplieth itself into an Orb ineffable.
In this Garden no flower was fairer than this exquisite discourse; I beg my readers to pluck it and lay it in their hearts.
It should be studied in connection with the Book "777," and with the Sepher Sephiroth, a magical dictionary of pure {165} number which was begun by the author of this essay, carried on by myself, and now about to be published as soon as the MS. can be prepared.
The reader who is at all familiar with the sublime computations of the Qabalah will find no difficulty in appreciating this Essay to the full; but all will gain benefit from the study of the ratiocinative methods employed. These methods, indeed, are so fine and subtile that they readily sublime into the Intuitive. This study is truly a Royal Magistry, an easy and sure means of exalting the consciousness from Ruach to Neschamah.
{166}
PART I
IN the First Verse of the First Chapter of the First Five Books of the Holy Law: it is written: --- B'RAShITh Ba RA ALoHIM ATh HaShaMaIM VaATH HaAReTz, or in Aramaic script
Bet-Resh-Aleph-Shin-Yod-Taw Bet-Resh-Aleph Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal Aleph-Taw Heh-Shin-Mem-Yod-Memfinal Vau-Aleph-Taw Heh-Aleph-Resh-Tzaddifinal
Such are the Seven Words which constitute the Beginnings or Heads of One Law; and I propose to show, by applying to the Text the Keys of the Qabalah, that not merely the surface meaning is contained therein. In the Beginning, created, God, the Essence of the Heavens, and the Essence, of the Earth.
In the Beginning. .God . .In Wisdom :Created:The Elohim :the Essence<<1>>:of the Heavens
In the Head<<2>>. .The Holy Gods. . . and the Essence:of the Earth .
<<1: Aleph-Taw = the First and Last --- Alpha and Omega --- Aleph and Tau.>> <<2: "I.e.," the White Skull. "Vide" Idra Zutra Qadisha, cap. ii. Distinguish from the skull of Microprosophus.>> Contained therein also are the Divine, Magical, and Terrestrial Formulae of the Passage of the Incomprehensible Nothingness of the Ain Soph to the Perfection of Creation {167} expressed by the Ten Voices or Emanations of God the Vast One --- Blessed be He! --- even the Holy Sephiroth. And the Method whereby I shall work shall be the One Absolute and inerratic Science: the Science of Number: which is that single Mystery of the Intellect of Man whereby he becometh exalted unto the Throne of Inflexible and Unerring Godhead. As it is written, "Oh, how the World hath Inflexible Intellectual Rulers" (Zoroaster). But before I may proceed unto the Qabalistical<<Here use in its true meaning of "the marshalling forth by number." Qabalah, Qof-Bet-Lamed-Heh, by Tarot, "The Mystery shown forth in balanced disposition by Command.">> enumeration and analysis of the Text, a certain preamble in the fruitful fields of that Science will become necessary. The Evolution of the Numbers is the Evolution of the Worlds, for as it is written in the Clavicula Salomonis, "The Numbers are Ideas; and the Ideas are the Powers, and the Powers are the Holy Elohim of Life." That which is behind and beyond all Number and all thought (even as the Ain Soph with its Mighty Veils depending back from Kether is behind and beyond all Manifestation) is the Number 0. Its symbol is the very Emblem of Infinite Space and Infinite Time. <<"Hidden behind my Magic Veil of Shows, I am not seen at all --- Name not my Name.">> Multiply by it any active and manifested number; and that number vanishes --- sinks into the Ocean of Eternity. So also is the Ain Soph. From it proceed all Things: unto It all will return, when the Age of Brahman is over and done, and the day of Peace-Be-with-Us is declared by Thoth, {168} the Great God, and the Material Universe sinketh into Infinity. The first Number, then is ONE; emblem of the All-Father; the Unmanifest Mind behind all Manifestation: the First Mind. Multiply by It any other Number --- for the Multiplication of the Numbers is a Generation, as is the Multiplication of Men and Gods --- and behold! the "Resultant" is a replica of the Number taken. So is One the All-Father, the All-begetter --- generating and producing all. The next step is the division into TWO. Thus was manifested the Great Dual Power of Nature. As above, so below. And thus we find that the simple division into two is the method of multiplication of the Amoeba, the lowest, simplest, and most absolute form of physical life that we know. The Dual Power of Nature is the Great Mother of the Worlds. Again, to draw an analogy from the Material World, consider the Moon, our Mother. Behold in her the Typic representative of the Powers of the Two. Light and Darkness, Flux and Reflux, Ebb and Flow --- these are her manifested Powers in Nature --- where also she binds the "Great Waters" to her Will. Now in the Yetziratic Attribution is the second number, Beth ("i.e.," a House), an Abode, the Dwelling of the Holy One, shown to be equivalent to the Sphere of Kokab and his lords. And the symbolic weapon of Mercury is the Caduceus, whose Twin Serpents show again the Dualistic Power. ("Note." --- Woden, the Scandinavian Mercury, was the All-Father, as it is written in the Ritual of the Path of the Spirit of the Primal {169} Fire HB:Shin. "For all things did the Father of All Things perfect, and delivered them over unto the "Second Mind; whom all Races of Men call 'First.'") Behold, then, in these two great Numbers 1 and 2 the Father and the Mother of the Worlds and of Numbers. Now these twain being Conjoined and manifest in ONE, produce the Number 3; as it is written: "For the Mind of the Father said that 'All Things should be cut into Three,' Whose Will<<HB:Bet, the magus of Power in Taro = Will.>> assenting All Things were so divided. For the Mind of the Father said "Into three," governing All Things by Mind. And there appeared in it the Triad, Virtue and Wisdom and Multiscient Truth." Thus floweth forth the form of the Triad.<<Ritual of the Path of the Daughter of the Firmament.>> Thus is formulated the Creative Trinity which is, as it were, the essential preliminary to Manifestation. This Mystic Son of the Eternal Parents, having for his number 3, is typified in all the sacred scripts by that number. Thus it is written of the manifestation of the Son of God upon the Earth, "Shiloh shall come" (the initial of which Mystery-Name is HB:Shin = 300). And in the Grecian tongue it is written: "In the beginning was the Word," &c., which is lambda omicron gamma omicron sigma (lambda = 30). But the best of all the Examples is found in the Holy Tetragram Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh. For we may regard this venerable name as typical of the Father and the Mother, and so divided into Vau-Heh and Yod-Heh.<<For it is written (Genesis v. 1, 2): :Bet-Resh-Aleph Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal Aleph-DaletMemfinal Bet-Dalet-Mem-Vau-Taw Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal Ayin-Shin-Heh Aleph-Taw-Vau Qof-Bet-Resh Vau-Nun-Qof-Bet-Heh Bet-Resh-Aleph-Memfinal
"And the Elohim created Mankind: in the Likeness of the Elohim created they them: Male and Female created they them." Now if ADAM be in the similitude of the Elohim: and are male and female, then must the Elohim be also male and female. Now in the first of those mysterious three verses in Exodus xiv. wherein the divided name is hidden it is written, "and went the Angel of the Elohim before the Camp," &c. And this Angel of the Elohim, Mem-Lamed-Aleph-Kophfinal Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal, is the Manifestations of their presence. Now Mem-Lamed-Aleph-Kophfinal hath the numeration 91, which also is the number of Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh Aleph-Dalet-Nun-Yod, wherefore by Gematria "Tetragrammaton our Lord" is the Angel Now if into the midst of this divided Name of the Elohim of the Divided Name. Therefore is the Tetragrammaton symbolic of the Manifested Presence of the Elohim; and if the Elohim be Male and Female, so also must be the Tetragram. Also is the number of Aleph-Mem-Nunfinal (also 91) by Aiq Bekar 1 + 4 + 5 = 10 --- the Perfection of the Sephiroth.>> {170} we cast the triple fire of the Holy letter HB:Shin = 300, we get the name of the Godhead Incarnate upon Earth, Yod-Heh-Shin-Vau-Heh. But 1 + 2 + 3 = 6, which is the number of HB:Vau, the third letter of the Venerable Name: Microprosopus and the Son of God.
We are now, therefore, arrived at the Great Mystery of the Tetractys, and to go further we must resort to the Twin Sister of the Science of Number --- which, indeed, is but Number made Flesh: Geometry, or Absolute Symbolism. Even as it was spoken by the holy Pythagoras: "God geometrises."
Let us behold the Work of His Fingers!
{The following illustration includes a circumscribed equilateral triangle. In the original, the triangle and circle are composed of solid lines. The form given here is an approximation.}
One Son Incomprehensible. . 3. . . /HB:Shin . . / \ . . / \ . . / \ . . / \ . . / \ .. / \ .
. / \ . . /HB:Aleph HB:Mem \ .One Father 1.----------------------- 2. One Mother
Incomprehensible. . . Incomprehensible. . . . . .
Fig. I. --- THE TRINITY UNMANIFEST. {171}
{The following illustration includes a circumscribed equilateral triangle with solid rays extending to nearly the center. In the original, the triangle and circle are composed of solid lines. The form given here is an approximation.}
One Son Eternal. . 3. . . /| \ . . / | \ . . / | \ . . / | \ . . / | \ . . / | \ .. / 4. \ .
. / / \ \ . . / / \ \ .. / / \ \ .
. . . . . . .
Fig. II. --- THE TRINITY IN MANIFESTATION.
In both of these Symbols the all-including circle represents the underlying idea of the Number 0: the Infinite: Parabrahman: the Ain Soph. In the first is shown the Mystic Trinity before manifestation; as it were unlimited, unbound, and unbounded, inoperative because of its diffusiveness and dispersion. In the second figure we behold their concentration: focalisation: producing by their joint action the number of manifestation --- 4. In the worlds --- Assiah: in the Taro, the Princess --- the throne of the Spirit: in the Tetragram, the He final, and in symbolic language --- the Daughter: in the Cycle of Life (Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection), the forth; in the Keys of the Book Universal, the Empress, Kappa-omicron-rho-eta Kappa-omicron-sigma-mu-omicron-upsilon, the Virgin of the World, Venus, Aphrodite: Centrum in Trigonis Centri --- by whatsoever of a myriad names we call Her, still the same in Spirit, the same in Number and in form! And this number is herein formulated by the Concentration of the Three in One. 3 + 1 = 4. Now in this Figure II. we behold six certain Paths; and in six days did {172} God create the Heavens and the Earth. And the total numeration of its numbers is the Perfect Number, even the Decade of the Sephiroth. (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10.) Thus can our Science teach us wherefore the Door<<As above, so below; wherefore saith the Holy Qabalah that alone amongst the Shells is Nogah, the Sphere of Venus, exalted unto Holiness. (Venus is the Goddess of Love.)>> of Venus, HB:Dalet, is the Gateway of Initiation: that one planet whose symbol alone embraceth the 10 Sephiroth; the Entrance to the Shrine of our Father C.R.C., the Tomb of Osiris; the God Revealer, coming, moreover, by the Central Path of HB:Samekh through the midst of the Triangle of Light. And the Lock which guards that Door is as the Four Gates of the Universe. And the Key is The Ankh, Immortal Life --- the Rose and Cross of Life; and the Symbol of Venus Venus.
{The following illustration includes a circumscribed equilateral hexagram with solid rays extending to nearly the center. In the original, the hexagram and circle are composed of solid lines. The form given here is an approximation.}
. 3. . . /| \ . . / | \ . 6. ----------+----------- 5.. \\ / | \ // .
. \ X | X / .. \ / \ | / \/ .
. \ 4. /\ .. / \ / | \ / \ .
. / X | X \ .. / / \ | / \ \ .
1.--------\--+--/-------- 2. . \ | / . . \|/ . . 7. .
Fig. III. --- THIRD SYMBOL.
By producing the Paths whereby the Forces of the Three ("see" Second Symbol) were concentred into four, we find they {173} read 1 + 4 = 5, 2 + 4 = 6, 3 + 4 = 7. And thus is revealed the Second Triangle of the Hexagram of Creation.<<As it is written in the Path of the Child of the Sons of the Mighty: "And the Chaos cried aloud for the unity of Form and the Face of the Eternal arose. ... That Brow and those Eyes formed the upright-Fire-triangle of the Measureless Heavens: and their Reflection formed the inverted-Water-triangle of the measureless Waters. And thus was formulated One Eternal Hexad: and this is the Number of the Dawning Creation.">> Further, this Reflected Triangle showeth forth the evolution of the four Worlds and their Consolidation: for
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = Yod = Atziluth
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 = Yod Heh = Briah
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21 = Yod Heh Vau = Yetzirah
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7<<10>> = 28 = 2 + 8 = 10 Assiah
<<10: But herein is the Fall, that there were only six numbers, so that for the seventh was 5 repeated. Hence 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 26 Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh. Assiah; Tetragrammaton as the Elemental Limitation, the Jealous God. --- P.>> The Number 28, the total numeration, therefore represents Malkuth, the Tenth Sephira: Assiah made manifest --- the Work of Creation accomplished: wherefore God rested on the "Seventh" Day. And 28 is 7 x 4, the seven stars shining throughout the four Worlds. One thing is significant, indeed. Let us take the Primal Three and convert those Numbers into Colours. So we get HB:Aleph, the Father, the Yellow Ray of the Dawning Sun of Creation; HB:Mem, the Mother, the Blue Ray of the Great Primaeval Waters; HB:Shin, the Son, the Red Ray: the Ruach Elohim,<<Remember that the numeration of the Name Resh-Vau-Chet Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal is 300 = HB:Shin.>> symbol of the Red Fire of God, which brooded (v.2) upon the Face of the Waters: or like the Red Glory that lights up the Heavens at Dawn, when the Golden Sun illumines the Waters above the Firmament. Now this Red Glory is the {174} IGNIS DEI: which is also the AGNUS DEI, or Lamb of God that destroyeth (literally "burns out") the Sins of the World. As it is written in the Ordinary of the Mass: the Priest goeth unto the South of the Altar and prays: "O Agnus Dei! qui tollis -- qui tollis Peccata Mundi --- Dona Nobis Pacem!" And this Fire, this Lamb of God, is "Aries," Symbol of the Dawning Year: whose colour also is as the Red Fire, and which is the head of the Fiery Triplicity in the Zodiac. So also in the Grade of Neophyte in the Order of the Golden Dawn the Hierophant weareth a robe of flame-scarlet as symbolic of the Dawn. NOTE. --- It may be objected to this enunciation of the colours that HB:Yod, the Father, is Fire; that HB:Heh, the Mother, is Water; that HB:Vau, the Son, is Air, and Yellow instead of Red. This also is true, but it relates to the governance of the Elemental Kingdoms, which are in the Astral Worlds, and whose monads are on the descending arc of Life, whilst Man is on the Ascending; that scale is therefore inverted. For by the mighty sacrifice of the Man Made Flesh and by His Torturous Pilgrimage is evolved that Glorified Son Who is Greater than His Father. In Alchemy we have again the descending arc, for we find that the "red" powder cast upon the Water of the Metals produceth the Golden Sol. But it is important not to confuse. The Christians have terribly muddled their Trinity by making the Son the second instead of the third Principle; whilst with them the Holy Spirit at one Time symbolizes the Mother and at another the Son. Thus at the Annunciation and at the Baptism of the Christ the S.S. appeareth as a Dove, emblem of Venus and the Mother: whilst the S.S. that descended upon the Apostles at {175} Pentecost was in reality the Spirit of the Christ, and therefore symbolised by the HB:Shin ("see" Lecture on Microcosmos in MSS. of R.R. et A.C.). In Theosophical nomenclature this latter was the M anas or Jeheshuah:
the third Principle. / \ A---UFor the same reason I have drawn the triangle with the 3 uppermost 3 instead of 3---2
1---2 1
{176}
PART II
IT was necessary that I should go thus somewhat at length into this Mystery of the Opening of the Numbers, because without this explanation much of the meaning of the verse must necessarily remain obscure. Now let us consider this most Mystic Verse! The first thing that strikes us is that it contains "Seven Words:" the Second that the number of its letters is "twenty-eight." Thus does it perfectly symbolise in its entirety the third Symbol in the numerical evolution. Before proceeding to a detailed analysis, and following the Process of Creation by Time ("i.e.," beginning at the first letter, and so proceeding), let me point out a few general facts. First as to the number of letters in each word, which converted into figures stands thus: 4.3.5.2.5.3.6. (Hebrew direction). In the midst is 2, by Taro the Central Will: and this two-lettered word is Aleph-Taw. On either side of this is the pair of figures 35- 53, balanced one against the other: as though symbolic of the great dawning of life of the "Mothers" --- HB:Heh and HB:Heh, vitalised by the SON (3) as the Vice-Gerent of His Father. These balanced figures together make 16, whereof the Key is 7; the total number of letters in the third Symbol. Then we have left at either end 4 and 6 = 10,<<"Vide" Sepher Yetzirah for this division of the Holy Sephiroth into a Hexad and a Tetrad.>> the perfection of the {177} Sephiroth, as if to declare that this verse from, beginning to end thereof reflected the Voices from Kether even unto Malkuth: and 6 - 4 = 2 again, the Central Will, HB:Bet, Thoth, in the Heart of the Universe (as in the centre of the verse). Note, then, this perfect equilibrium of the verse, and remember that Mystery --- that equilibrium is strength. Let us now look at the letters themselves. Counting them, we find that the two central ones are Mem-Aleph, the Supernal Mother; even as the number of letters had the dual symbol in their midst. Now their numeration is 41, yielding by Gematria Aleph-Yod-Lamed = Force: Might: Power: Gemel-Aleph-Vau-Aleph-Lamed, Divine Majesty: and Aleph-Chet-Lamed-Bet = Fecundity, all symbolic of the attributes of the Dual Polar Force and Mother. Moreover, 4 + 1 = 5 = HB:Heh, Mother Supernal once again --- and in its geometric symbol the Pentagram --- the Star of Unconquered Will. Add the next two letters on either side,
Yod-Memfinal-Aleph-Tawand we get Earth-Air-Water-Fire, or a concealed Tetragrammaton. And this also reads Yod-Memfinal, the Great Sea, Aleph-Taw, Alpha and Omega, or Essence. Add the next two, so that the six central letters are obtained; and we read Heh-Yod-Memfinal-Aleph-Taw-Heh, which signifies Heh-Yod-Memfinal, swollen, extended, or expanded; and hence "Thou" ("i.e.," God, Ateh, the All) "in extension." But by Metathesis of these six letters is obtained Heh-Yod-Heh Aleph-Mem-Taw = "Truth Was," as if affirming solemnly the presence in the Creation of the Supernal Truth. Now let us take the first and last letters of the verse and "cast into the midst thereof the Fire of the Sun" --- "i.e.", HB:Vau (6), "the Seal of Creation" --- and we have Bet-Vau-Tzaddifinal, an Egg. Where we see the whole universe enclosed in the Cosmic Egg of Hindu and Egyptian Mythology: and the Formulation of the Sphere {178} of the Universe (or Magical Mirror in Man). As it were the Egg of the Black Swan of Time, the Kala Hamsa, the Triune M
Now Beth primarily signifieth a House or Abode, and in Taro it
is Mercury, the Magus --- the Vox Dei --- and Thoth, the Recorder.
Coalesce these two ideas and we get HB:Bet.
"This is the Magical History."
HB:Resh signifieth the Head or Beginning of Time and {179}
Things; and by Taro it is glory, Life, Light, Sun.
Thus read:
"Of the Dawning of Life and Light."
HB:Aleph is by shape the Svastika, symbolically Aleph, the Ox, as
though showing the fearful force of the Spiritual "Whirling
Motions" upon the Material Plane, as a terrible and destructive
Power. This is also shown by the Foolish Man, as the Material
Tarotic emblem of that which in its proper and higher
manifestation is the Spiritual Ether. Therefore we read:
"Begun are the Whirling Motions."
HB:Shin signifieth mighty in flame, whereof it is also the
Hieroglyph. It is that Ruach Elohim brooding upon the Face of the
Waters. So read:
"Formulated is the Primal Fire."
HB:Yod is the Hand,<<The Hand of God, always the Symbol of His
Power.>> symbolising Power in Action, and its Taro
Key is the Hermit and the Voice of Light, the Prophet of the Gods.
Thus:
"Proclaimed is the Reign of the Gods of Light."
HB:Taw is the last letter of the Alphabet, the "finis", the Omega,
the Universe, Saturn, the outermost Planet, and it is also
Taw-Resh-Ayin-Aleph, Throa, the Gate of the Universe; and by
Qabalah of nine Chambers it is HB:Dalet, the Gateway of Initiation.
Hence:
"At the Threshold of the Universe." {180}
So the Whole Word reads:
HB:Bet This is the Magical History
HB:Resh Of the Dawning of the Light.
HB:Aleph Begun are the Whirling Motions;
HB:Shin Formulated is the Primal Fire;
HB:Yod Proclaimed is the Reign of the Gods of Light
HB:Taw At the Threshold of the Infinite Worlds!
Now compare this with the Particular Exordium (G.'. D.'. MSS. Z3):
.At the ending of the NIGHT
:At the Limits of the LIGHT
HB:Bet :Thoth stood before the Unborn Ones of Time
.Then was formulated the Universe.
.Then came forth the Gods thereof,
HB:Resh .The AEons of the Bornless Beyond.
HB:Aleph <<Remember in the description of the "Caduceus" ("see" p. 269)
the Air Symbol vibrating between them. [Also HB:Yod, Virgo, is a
Mercurial sign, and Thoth is Mercury, though on a Higher Plane. The
Hermit, with his Lamp and Wand, is Hermes, who guides the souls of
the dead, in the Greek Ritual of 0 Degree = 0 Square. --- P.]>> Then
was the Voice Vibrated.
HB:Shin <<The Name Shin-Memfinal, the Spirit of God, second Deity-Name in the
Law, the Trigrammaton, or Threefold Name, by which the Universe came
forth.>> Then was the Name declared.
.At the Threshold of Entrance,
HB:Taw .Betwixt the Universe and the Infinite,
.In the Sign of the Enterer: Stood Thoth
HB:Yod .As before Him the AEons were proclaimed.
The positions of the last two letters of the Word have been relatively changed, so as to render the meaning more harmoniously. {181} We will now proceed to the first word of the text as thus decapitated, taking B'rasheth as the Title rather than as the first Word. This latter stands Bet-Resh-Aleph, which hath three Letters, symbolising thereby the Unmanifest Trinity. Now its letters further exemplify the Trinity, for that they are the initials of three Hebrew words, which are the Names of the Persons thereof, viz:
Bet-Nunfinal Ben, the Son.
Resh-Vau-Chet Ruach, the Spirit (here the Mother).
Aleph-Bet Ab, the Father.
Note how here again the Son is first for Humanity and the Father last. These three letters, then, symbolise the three in One Unmanifest. Yet is there in them the All-potency of Life. For 2 + 2 + 1 = 5, the Symbol of Power, Mother Supernal, and HB:Heh also is Aries, Lamb of God and Dawn of the Life of the Year.
Wherefore in them lieth concealed and hidden, not alone the Divine White Brilliance of the Three Supernals (Heh-Vau-Aleph, Vau-Qof-Dalet-Vau-Shin, Bet-Resh-Vau-Kophfinal), but even also that Gleaming Glory which partaketh of the Redness, and which cometh from the Bornless Age, which is beyond Kether. As it is written in Ancient Hindu Scripture, "In the beginning Desire, TANHA, arose in It: which was the Primal Germ of Mind." Now in the Aryan Mythology Tanha, Desire, was the God of Love, Kama; whereof the symbolic tint was Pink: as it were the first pink blush of Dawn in the Macrocosmic Sky: Herald of the Rising Sun of the Worlds, when the Great Night of Brahma was over and done.
The next word in the Great Name of God the Vast One: Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal. Let us meditate upon its Mystery! Herein behold {182} five Letters: In its Centre is the Great Letter HB:Heh, Mother Supernal. Five once more; and its first and last letters are once again Aleph-Memfinal, 41, the Mother, and 5, the Maternal Essence. And its numeration is 86, whereof the Key is 14, whereof the Key is 5. Wherefore we say that this great name is 5 in its form symbolic. 5 in the Heart of its Power: the Beginning and the End thereof are 5; and 5 is it in its Venerable Essence!
Turn now back unto the third Symbol; gaze at it steadily for a few moments, and see hidden in the Six-fold Seal of Creation the Five-fold Star of Unconquered Will.
For this was the Divine Force which created the worlds! Power Eternal, Power Resistless, Power All-dominating, in its Absolute Supremacy --- gleaming as the Great Name Elohim in the Heart of the Six- fold star! Flaming as the Purifying Fire, purging and ordering the Chaos of the Night of Time!
As in the midst of the Letters of the Verse we saw the words Aleph-Taw-Heh -Heh Yod-Memfinal, "Thou in Extension," so also does the Name Elohim read Aleph-Lamed, "Deity," Heh-Yod-Memfinal, in Extension.<<And Aleph-Lamed = Lamed-Aleph, No, the Negative.>>
And the numeration of Elohim is 86, which by Gematria reads Peh-Aleph-Heh, again meaning "spread out, extended."
Write the letters of this Name in any Invoking Pentagram; and the Banishing Pentagram thereof will read 3.1415 (by Qabalah of nine Chambers), which is the Formula of the Proportion of diameter to circumference of the Circle.<<The nearest computation to four places of decimals is 3.1416 (3.14156 {SIC. s.b. 3.1415926... --- WEH}). But 3.1415 is good enough for the benighted Hebrews. --- P.
In the sublime Computations of the Qabalah the Final Forms of letters have no increased numerical value. Mem is 40, whether final or not. The Ancient Hebrew Method of obtaining all numbers above 400 and below 1000, respectively HB:Aleph and HB:Taw {SIC s.b. HB:Taw and HB:Aleph --- WEH}, was to make up the number with the proper letters. Thus 500 would have been written Taw-Qof, not HB:Kophfinal, and 800 Taw-Taw, and so on. [Yet in some few Arcana the Finals are counted as such. This mystery, however, pertaineth to a Grade even more exalted than our beloved and erudite Brother had attained at the period of this Essay {WEH paraphrase: Bennett didn't know, and Crowley either doesn't know or won't say.}. --- P.]>> Thus herein do we perceive the Hidden Power of the Three extended as a Mighty Sphere to the Confines of Space! {183}
{The following illustration includes a circumscribed equilateral pentagram. In the original, the pentagram and circle are composed of solid lines. The form given here is an approximation.}
1.HB:Aleph . . . . . / . . \ . . / .1.HB:Yod .-----------------\---------. 5.HB:Heh .
\ / / . . \ \/ . . \ / . . / \ / \ . . / \ . . / / \ \ . . / \ . / \3.HB:Lamed . . . 4.HB:Memfinal .
. . .
The next word is Aleph-Taw, which we have seen to be the Central word: and its signification is the Alpha and Omega --- From Beginning unto End: Essence: and its Key is 5. Five again are the letters of the word Heh-Shin-Mem-Yod-Memfinal,<<Whose Key number is 17: by Taro---Hope; whose title is Daughter of the Firmament, dweller between the Waters.>> which next follows; and in this word Shin-Mem-Yod-Memfinal, the Heavens, we perceive HB:Shin <<The initial HB:Heh is but the article "the.">> the Ruach Elohim, brooding upon the Face of the Waters, Mem-Yod-Memfinal (Maim), even as it is afterwards set forth in Verse 2. In the next word, Vau-Aleph-Taw, we find that the Conjunctive HB:Vau makes of the Key number of the Essence of the Earth 11 instead of 5: symbolising how the World should fall unto the Kingdom of the Shells, and how it should be redeemed by the Son of Man.<<For 11 is the Number of the Qliphoth; but when the Fall had occurred and the Sephira Malkuth had been cut off from the Tree by the folds of the Dragon there was added unto the Tree Dalet-Ayin-Taw, the Knowledge, as the 11th Sephira, to preserve intact the "Ten"-ness of the Sephiroth. Showing how by that very eating of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and of Evil should come the Saving of Mankind; for Daath is the Priceless Gift of Knowledge and Intellect whereby cometh Salvation. Wherefore also is 11 the Key Number of the Great Saviour's Name (Yod-Heh-Shin-Vau-Heh = 29 = 11), and this is also in the Taro the Wheel of the Great Law, HB:Koph, the Lord of the Forces of Life.>> {184} And finally the word Heh-Aleph-Resh-Tzaddifinal, Ha Aretz, the Earth, hath four Letters showing its Elemental Constitution, and its Key is 17 --- also Hope --- Hope in the Earth as there is Hope in Heaven. And the last letter of the verse is HB:Tzaddifinal (the letter of Hope), by Qabalah of Nine Chambers that number which contains in itself all the properties of Protean Matters: howsoever you may multiply it the Key of its Numbers is ever 9. Fitting Symbol of ever-changing matter which ever in its essence is One --- one and alone! Thus with the first appearance of the number of Matter does the first verse of B'rasheth close: formulating in itself the Beginning and the End of the Great Creation. "The Characters of Heaven with Thy Finger hast thou traced: But none can read them save he hath been taught in Thy School." Wherefore closing do I name the Mighty Words:
{Illustration at this point. Bounded above by this text in an arc: "SIT BENEDICTVS DOMINVS DEVS NOSTER". Within the arc, and bounded by a horizontal but unmarked lower limit: To left, an equal armed cross with intersection circumscribed by a ring. To center, a Chi-Rho with Alpha to the left below and Omega to the right below. To right an Ankh. Following below the outer arc of letters, passing from the cross to the Ankh above the Chi-Rho and paralleling the outer arc: "QVINOBIS DEDIT SIGNA"}
{185}
THE FIVE ADORATIONS
I PRAISE Thee, God, whose rays upstart beneath the Bright
and Morning Star:
Nowit asali fardh salat assobhi allahu akbar.
I praise Thee, God, the fierce and swart; at noon Thou ridest
forth to war!
Nowit asali fardh salat assohri allahu akabr.
I praise Thee, God, whose arrows dart their royal radiance
o'er the scar:
Nowit asali fardh salat asasri allahu akabr.
I praise Thee, God, whose fires depart, who drivest down the
sky thy car:
Nowit asali fardh salat al maghrab allahu akabr.
I praise Thee, God, whose purple heart is hidden in the abyss
afar:
Nowit asali fardh salat al asha allahu akabr.
DOST ACHIHA KHAN.
{WEH note --- a more loose translation would have to be published in a bucket! Each of these adorations differs from the others by a single word and occasional article}
{186}
ILLUSION D'AMOUREUX
SHE lay, the gilded lily with geranium lips, in the midst of the flower of night. Kindlier than the moon, her body glowed with more than harvest gold. Fierier than the portent of a double Venus, her green eyes shot forth utmost flames. From the golden chalice of love arose a perfume terrible and beautiful, a perfume strong and deadly to overcome the subtler fragrance of her whole being with its dominant, unshamed appeal.
She lay with arms outstretched, as if awaiting the visitation of some god.
Some ghastly god, for sure? For where she lay, the gilded lily with geranium lips, was, as it were, a flower of night.
It was a small square room, black from edge to edge. A dull dead black that gave back no light from the two solemn candlesticks of silver, crowned with long guttering tapers, which gave the only relief in all that world of night.
These stood at the head of her strange couch. It was a huge coffin, lidless, with hinged sides, whereon she lay. She had losened the girths and lowered the sides, to stretch herself at ease. Six black ropes of silk hung from the ceiling with their hooks, which could be attached to rings on the {187} sides of the coffin, so that at will it might be made to swing slowly to and fro.
A heavy rug of black cats' skin was spread under her, as if her body, gleaming now like moonstone, now like amber, would coax electric sparks from the fur.
Wonderful was the body of the woman; she changed ever as she lay. She outran the gamut of all music and flowers and jewels and soft words; there is nothing beautiful upon the earth that she did not resemble. At the sides of the room stood tall pier-glasses in black frames, cunningly disposed so that from the centre one could see endless avenues of her beauty, reaching out into infinity.
Even the roof was mirror-clad, so that as she lay upon the furs she might look upward, and see herself hanging like a star from the black vault of night.
Besides her in the temple was but one strange image. Carved of that polished black granite of Egypt, which seems, as it were, the very bodily form of the Night of Time, there squatted a god upon his pedestal; an inscrutable god, smiling, ever smiling with a smile that spoke unfathomable lust and cruelty resolved --- by what theurgic alchemy? --- into a pure and passionless bliss. It was a thing eternal as the stars --- nay, before it the very stars might bow as in the reverence of Youth to age! Yet in it stood a strength and beauty as of golden youth.
Its skin was polished and shining, not as if reflecting the guarded light of the electric globes, but as if the very soul of light --- a light too essential to be recognized as light by men --- did inhabit and inform it.
As she lay, the gilded lily, she moved the passionate lips {188} in some mysterious orison that was subtler and stronger than prayer.
"O beautiful, adorable, wonderful! O soul of wickedness! Supreme abomination, I invoke Thee! I worship Thee! I love Thee! Body and soul, I invoke Thee! Awake! Arise! Move! Manifest thy bliss to me, the soul that hungers for thy wisdom, as my body aches for thy kisses!
"Have not I wooed Thee and awaited Thee? But Thou comest not. By what spell may I conjure Thee? Am I the mock of Thy majesty? Ah, my god, my master, my lover --- nay, that Thou art not.
"But I love Thee! I worship Thee!"
With supreme force she cried out upon the God; she tore at her beautiful flesh with her fingers; she writhed upon the fur; words of dreadful passion bubbled at her lips; her mouth was like a raging sea of blasphemy; she moaned and struggled, torn by some internal force even as a woman in childbirth; she sank back into black silence, exhausted, numb.
But now the words came back like echoes from the infinite --- I love thee! I worship thee!
The lights went out; the black god gathered himself together; his mighty form outran the limits of space. He gathered himself in force and fire; he concentrated himself; as a black cloud he wrapped her round -- body and soul. He ate her up with his first kiss; his arms crushed her into his mouth as a boy might crush some golden grape; the majesty of his passion clove her with white-hot steel; her life rushed headlong down the steeps of annihilation.
Yet in her rose the awful dawn of a new life, vast and {189} magnificent. She became the god, absorbed in His being; her dreadful shriek --- the cry of a soul at Heaven's gate smitten by the lightning into the abyss --- changed to a marvellous laughter of love as she touched the summit of felicity.
FRANCIS BENDICK.
{190} THE OPIUM-SMOKER (IN EIGHT FUGUES)
I
CROWN me with poppy-leaves: sere are the bays.
Fling down the myrtle: the myrtle decays.
Still be the strife of the strenuous days!
Still be thy stridency, Player Pandean!
Soothe me the lute; but oh hush to the paean!
Feed me on kisses of flowers Lethean!
Specks on the wheel are the nights and the days,
Fast as they fall from me, lost in the haze,
Sobered to softness of silvery grays.
Satan is fallen from the pale empyrean
Down in the dusk with the dead Galilean: ---
Fill me the Cup of the poppy Circean!
II
Hardly a glimmer to chasten the gloom.
Hardly a murmur of Time at his loom.
Nothing of sense by the poppy-perfume. {191}
Boy, as you love me, I charge you to fold
Pipe over pipe into gardens of gold
Such as a god may be glad to behold.
Seated on high in the aeons of doom,
Sucked as a seed into the infinite womb,
Sealed is my soul in the sheath of its tomb.
Boy, as you love me, I charge you to mould
Pipe after pipe, till the heavens are rolled
Back and are lost as a tale that is told!
III
Silence and darkness are weaving a web
Broidered with Nothing at uttermost ebb: ---
Cover, oh cover the shaming of Seb!
Fling the wide veil, O Nuit, on the shame! ---
Shame from the Knowledge and unto the Name ---
Hide it, O hide it, in flowers of flame!
Now in the balance of infinite things
Stirs not a feather; the universe swings
Poised on the stealth of ineffable wings.
Surely the sable Osirian bird
Sole in the aether shall utter the Word
Now that its crying can never be heard! {192}
IV
See how the Star of the Universe blazes!
Millions of meteors in marvellous mazes
Mingle their magic of peony praises.
Oh! the dark streak on the heart of its flood!
Smitten is the Star, and its poisonous blood
Drips through the race of the luminous scud.
Poison and poison and poison! I quiver,
Drenched with the hate of the horrible river ---
O but the stars of it stagger and shiver!
Leave me in peace, O disaster of light!
Leave me to solitude, leave me to night!
Is there no moon to enkindle the height?
V
See how the moon with her amrita dews
Drinks up the death of the Star, and renews
Life in cascades of peonian hues!
Nay, but she curves to arise, to increase;
Glamour on glamour to sicken and cease.
How shall the warrior wing to the peace?
Fade, O thou moon, in thy magical bark!
Sink in the ocean thy silvery spark!
Leave me, ah leave me alone in the dark! {193}
Art thou not burnt in the fire of my will?
See, by the flashes that crimson and kill
I am the master; the magic is still.
VI
See! how the wrath of my rune that I send her,
Fire of my fire, is flung flying to end her,
Wrapping in ruin that scintillant splendour.
Fire of my fire! how the brilliance darts forth,
Runs to the uttermost pole of the North,
Splashing all space with the spume of my wrath!
Ah! but the subtle, the perilous way;
That hath no fire to enkindle the clay.
Ever to all be the word of me Nay!
I who am Being and knowledge and Bliss
Lack by so much of the utter abyss: ---
Bring me, O bring me, O bring me to this!
VII
Nay! it is over; I may not attain.
Why am I faint but because I am fain?
Roll me the rapture of amber again!
Ah! but the poppy's deciduous dream
May not avail me to stand to the stream
Bearing me back from the Mighty Extreme. {194}
Subtle and sombre the eagre of sleep
Rolls up the bay to envelop the steep.
What then is left, what is left --- but to weep?
Maybe the stridency purpled of Pan
Leads at the last to the light of His plan.
Maybe his work is the wealth of a man!
VIII
Bring me the tablets, the stylus of jade.
Lend me thy light, O compassionate maid!
Soul of the master, O come to mine aid!
Make me the man of the marvellous mission!
Sharpen the sword of veridical vision!
Cut me the knot of the mighty magician!
Here I devote me (record me the vow)
Unto the terrible task of the Tao.
Soul of the master, the writer be thou!
Bring me the tablets and stylus! Have done!
Guard me the doors; they are open to none,
Not to the Emperor! I have begun.
{195}
POSTCARDS TO PROBATIONERS
THEOREMS
I. The world progresses by virtue of the appearance of
Christs (geniuses).
II. Christs (geniuses) are men with super-consciousness of
the highest order.
III. Super-consciousnes of the highest order is obtainable by
known methods.
Therefore, by employing the quintessence of known methodswe cause the world to progress.
ESSENTIALS OF METHOD
I. Theology is immaterial; for both Buddha and St. Ignatius
were Christs.
II. Morality is immaterial; for both Socrates and Mohammed
were Christs.
III. Super-consciousness is a natural phenomenon; its
conditions are therefore to be sought rather in the
acts than the words of those who attain it.
The essential acts are retirement and concentration ---as taught by Yoga and Ceremonial Magic. {196}
MISTAKES OF MYSTICS
I. Since truth is supra-rational, it is incommunicable in
the language of reason.
II. Hence all mystics have written nonsense, and what sense
they have written is so far untrue.
III. Yet as a still lake yields a truer reflection of the sun
than a torrent, he whose mind is best balanced will,
if he become a mystic, become the best mystic.
THE METHOD OF EQUILIBRIUM
I. THE PASSIONS, ETC.
I. Since the ultimate truth of teleology is unknown, all
codes of morality are arbitrary.
II. Therefore the student has no concern with ethics as such.
III. He is consequently free 'to do his duty in that state of
life to which it has pleased God to call him.'
II. THE REASON
I. Since truth is supra-rational, any rational statement is
false.
II. Let the student than contradict every proposition that
presents itself to him. {197}
III. Rational ideas being thus expelled from the mind, there
is room for the apprehension of spiritual truth.
It should be remarked that this does not destroy thevalidity of reasonings on their own plane. III. THE SPIRITUAL SENSORIUM
I. Man being a finite being, he is incapable of apprehending
the infinite. Nor does his communion with infinite
being (true or false) alter this fact.
II. Let then the student contradict every vision and refuse
to enjoy it; first, because there is certainly another
vision possible of precisely contradictory nature;
secondly, because though he is God, he is also a man
upon an insignificant planet.
Being thus equilibrated laterally and vertically, it maybe that, either by affirmation or denial of all these things together, he may attain the supreme trance.
IV. THE RESULT
I. Trance is defined as the ek-stasis of one particular
tract of the brain, caused by meditation on the idea
corresponding to it.
II. Let the student therefore beware lest in that idea be any
trace of imperfection. It should be pure, balanced,
calm, complete, fitted in every way to dominate the
mind, as it will.
Even as in the choice of a king to be crowned. {198}
III. So will the decrees of this king be just and wise as he
was just and wise before he was made king.
The life and work of the mystic will reflect (thoughdimly) the supreme guiding force of the mystic, the highest trance to which he has attained.
YOGA AND MAGIC
I. Yoga is the art of uniting the mind to a single idea.
It has four methods. Gnana-Yoga. Union by Knowledge. Raja-Yoga. Union by Will. Bhakta-Yoga. Union by Love. Hatha-Yoga. Union by Courage.add Mantra-Yoga. Union through Speech.
Karma-Yoga. Union through Work. These are united by the supreme method of Silence.II. Ceremonial Magic is the art of uniting the mind to a single idea.
It has four Methods. The Holy Qabalah. Union by Knowledge. The Sacred Magic. Union by Will. The Acts of Worship. Union by Love. The Ordeals. Union by Courage.add The Invocations. Union by Speech.
The Acts of Service. Union through Work.
These are united by the supreme method of Silence. {199}
III. If this idea be any but the Supreme and Perfect idea, and
the student lose control, the result is insanity,
obsession, fanaticism, or paralysis and death (add
addiction to gossip and incurable idleness), according
to the nature of the failure.Let then the Student understand all these things andcombine them in his Art, uniting them by the supreme method of Silence.
ALEISTER CROWLEY