THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. V 1st part
June 17, 1990 e.v. key entry by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. with co-entry
of the second part by Rusty Sporer
--- needs proof reading
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{Illustration to this page described:
The top 1/5th of this page has a black and white rendering of the Keheprah scarab beetle. It shows a scarab beetle holding a sun disk between its hind legs at top and a smaller moon disk between its front legs at the bottom. The body of the scarab is upside-down, even though the legs are as described. Horizontally to left and right are two wings, very stylized, with primaries, secondaries and coverlet feathers depicted.}
THE WINGED BEETLE
By ALEISTER CROWLEY
PRIVATELY PRINTED: TO BE HAD THROUGH "THE EQUINOX"
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CONTENTS
ROSA Coeli --- Abjad-i-al'ain --- The Hermit --- The Wizard Way --- The Wings
--- The Garden of Janus --- The Two Secrets --- The Priestess of Panormita ---
The Hawk and the Babe --- The Duellists --- Athor and Asar --- After Judgment
--- The Five Adorations -- Telepathy --- The Swimmer --- The Muse --- The God
and the Girl --- Rosemary --- Au Bal --- Disappointment --- The Octopus ---
The Eyes of Dorothy --- Bathyllus --- The Mantra-Yogi --- The Poet and his
Muse --- Lilith --- Sport and Marriage --- The Twins --- The Convert --- The
Sorceress --- The Child --- Clytie --- A Slim Gilt Soul --- The Silence of
Columbine --- The Archaeologist --- The Ladder --- Belladonna --- The Poet at
Bay --- Ut --- Rosa Decidua --- The Circle and the Point --- In Memoriam ---
Ad Fidelem Infidelem --- The Sphinx --- The Jew of Fez --- The Pentagram ---
Song --- An Hymn --- Prologue to Rodin in Rime --- The Camp Fire --- Ave
Adonai --- The Wild Ass --- The Opium-Smoker --- In Manu Dominae.
Mr. Todd: a Morality.
TRANSLATIONS: L'Amour et le Crne --- L'Alchimie de Douleur --- Le Vampire
--- Le Balcon --- Le Gout de L'Infini --- L'Hautontimoroumenos --- Le vin de
L'Assassin --- Woman --- Tout Entire --- Le vin des Amants --- Le Revenant
--- Lola de Valence --- Le Beau Navire --- L'Invitation au Voyage --- Epilogue
to "Petits Poms en Prose" --- Colloque Sentimental --- En Sourdine --- The
Magician
MR. NEUBURG'S NEW VOLUME OF POEMS.
" "Imperial" 16mo, pp. 200
" "Now ready. Order through" The Equinox, "or of"
""any Bookseller."
THE TRIUMPH OF PAN.
POEMS By VICTOR B. NEUBURG.
This volume, containing many poems, --- nearly all of them hitherto
unpublished --- besides THE TRIUMPH OF PAN, includes THE ROMANCE OF OLIBA
VANE.
The First Edition is limited to Two Hundred and Fifty copies: Two Hundred
and Twenty on ordinary paper, whereof less than Two Hundred are for sale; and
thirty on Japanese vellum, of which Twenty-five are for sale. These latter
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with crimson sides; the ordinary copies are bound in crimson boards, half
holland.
The price of ordinary copies is Five Shillings net; of the special copies,
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EXTRACTS FROM FIRST NOTICES.
"Not everyone will care for Mr. Neuburg's tone in all the pieces, but he is
undoubtedly a poet to be reckoned with, and a volume so original as this is
should create no small stir. It is superbly produced by the publishers." ---
"Sussex Daily News."
"When one comes to the poems ... it is evident that they are written in
English.... In a certain oblique and sub-sensible sense, eloquent and
musical....Distinctly Wagnerian in their effects...." --- "Scotsman."
"It is full of 'the murmurous monotones of whispering lust,' 'the song of
young desire,' and that kind of poppycock." --- "London Opinion."
"A competent master of words and rhythms. ... His esoteric style is
unreasonably obscure from an intelligent plain poetry-lover's standpoint."
--- "Morning Leader."
"A charming volume of poems... Pagan glamour ... passion and vigour. ...
'Sigurd's Songs' are commendable for dealing with the all too largely
neglected Scandinavian Theology. ... A scholarly disciple. ... The entire
volume is eminently recommendable." --- "Jewish Chronicle."
"A gorgeous rhapsody. ... Fortunately, there are the police. ... On the
whole, we cannot help regretting that such splendid powers of imagination and
expression are flung away in such literary rioting." --- "Light."
"Sometimes of much beauty of rhythm and phrase. ..." ---"Times."
"Poets who have any originality deserve to be judged by their own standard.
... A Neo-mystic or semi-astrological pantheist. ..." --- "Liverpool Echo."
"Love-making appears to have an added halo in his eyes if it is associated
with delirium or bloodshed. ... Mr. Neuburg has a 'careless rapture' all his
own; the carelessness, indeed, is just the trouble. His versification is
remarkable, and there is something impressive in its mere fluency. ... So
luxurious, so rampant, a decadence quickly palls. ... On the whole, this book
must be pronounced a quite grievous exhibition of recklessness and folly." ---
"Manchester Guardian."
"...We began to be suspicious of him. ... Hardly the sort of person we
should care to meet on a dark night with a knobby stick in his hand. ... This
clever book." --- "Academy."
"A vivid imagination fostered by a keen and loving insight of nature, and
this allied to a command of richly adorned language ... have already assured
for the author a prominent place amongst present-day poets. ... An
enthusiastic devotion to classic song ... sustained metrical charm. From the
first to last the poet's work is an important contribution to the century's
literature." --- "Publishers' Circular."
"This [book] contains the answer to a very well-known riddle propounded by
the late Elizabeth Barrett Browning. You remember she asked in one of her
poems, 'What was he doing to Great God Pan: Down in the reeds by the River?'
Well, Mr. Victor Neuburg has discovered the answer, for he was obviously
wandering near the river if he was not hidden in the reeds. ..." --- "Robert
Ross in "The Bystander."
"There is no question about the poetic quality of much of Mr. Neuburg's
verse. ... We are given visions of love which open new amorous possibilities."
--- "Daily Chronicle."
Demy 8vo. Cloth gilt. 4s. 6d. net __________________ALCHEMY: Ancient and Modern.
BY H. STANLEY REDGROVE. B.Sc. (Lond.), F.C.SAUTHOR OF "ON THE CALCULATION OF THERMO-CHEMICAL CONSTANTS,"
"MATTER, SPIRIT, AND THE COSMOS," ETC. " "WITH SIXTEEN FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS" " "(including Portraits of the most celebrated Alchemists)." __________________CONTENTS: THE MEANING OF ALCHEMY --- THE THEORY OF PHYSICAL ALCHEMY --- THE ALCHEMISTS --- THE OUTCOME OF ALCHEMY --- THE AGE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY
--- MODERN ALCHEMY. " ""Some Opinions of the Press.""A thoroughly well-informed study of the subject, which has the merit of being more sympathetic than such studies often are, and not less learned." --- "The Scotsman."
" "Ready early in March. " 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 "in." 560 "pp."
DEATH: Its Causes and Phenomena.
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO IMMORTALITY. BY HEREWARD CARRINGTONLate Member of the Council of the American Institute for Scientific Research. Author of "Vitality, Fasting, and Nutrition," "The Coming Science," "The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism," etc. etc.
ANDJOHN R. MEADER
("GRAHAM HOOD")
Member of the American Statistical Society and of the Society for Psychical
Research, Author of "The Laws of Success," etc.
CONTENTS.PREFACE. PART I. "Physiological." --- I. The Scientific Aspect of Life and Death. II. The Signs of Death. III. Trance, Catalepsy, Suspended Animation, etc. IV. Premature Burial. V. Burial, Cremation, Mummification. VI. The Causes of Death. VII. Old Age; its Scientific Study. By Hereward Carrington. VIII. My Own Theory of Death. By Hereward Carrington. IX. My Own Theory of Death. By John R. Meader. X. On the Possible Unification of our Theories. XI. The "Questionnaire" on Death. Answers. XII. General Conclusions. PART II. "Historic Speculations on Death." --- I. Man's Theories about Immortality. II. The Philosophical Aspect of Death and Immortality. III. The Theological Aspect of Death and Immortality. IV. The Common Arguments for Immortality.
Appendices. Bibliography. Index.
The Star in the West
BY
CAPTAIN J. F. C. FULLER
"FOURTH LARGE EDITION NOW IN PREPARATION"
THROUGH THE EQUINOX AND ALL BOOKSELLERSSIX SHILLINGS NET
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THE EQUINOXTHE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE A.'. A.'. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUMINISM
An. VII VOL. I. NO. V. Sun in Aries
MARCH MCMXI
O.S.
"THE METHOD OF SCIENCE---THE AIM OF RELIGION"
CONTENTS
PAGE EDITORIAL 1
LIBER HHH 5
THE BLIND PROPHET. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 15
THE TRAINING OF THE MIND. BY ANANDA METTEYA 28
THE SABBATH. BY ETHEL RAMSAY 60
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING 65
A NOCTURNE. BY VICTOR B. NEUBURG 121
THE VIXEN. BY FRANCIS BENDICK 125
THE PILGRIM. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 130MY CRAPULOUS CONTEMPORARIES, NO. IV. --- WISDOM WHILE
YOU WAITE. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 133
X-RAYS ON EX-PROBATIONERS. BY PERDURABO 142
THE VAMPIRE. BY ETHEL ARCHER 143
THE BIG STICK 144
CORRESPONDENCE 158
"SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT"
LIBER CCCCXVIII (XXX AERUM) 1
STOP PRESS REVIEWS 177
EDITORIAL
THE price of this Magazine is now six shillings, and the size reduced. If the
whole edition is sold immediately, there should be a matter of eighteenpence
left to pay those who have toiled day and night, six months, to bring it to
perfection.
{3}
LIBER HHH
SVB FIGVRA
CCCXLI
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class D. Imprimatur: N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER HHH
"Sunt duo modi per quos homo fit Deus: Tohu et Bohu.
"Mens quasi flamma surgat, aut quasi puteus aquae quiescat.
"Alteri modi sunt tres exempli, qui illis extra limine collegii sancti dati
sunt.
"In hoc primo libro sunt Aquae Contemplationis."
"Two are the methods of becoming God: the Upright and the Averse. Let the"
"Mind become as a flame, or as a well of still water."
" Of each method are three principal examples given to them that are without"
"the Threshold."
" In this first book are written the Reflexions"
"Sunt tres contemplationes quasi halitus in mente humana abysso inferni.
Prima, Nu epsilon kappa rho omicron sigma ; secunds, Pi upsilon rho alpha mu iota sigma ;
tertia Phi alpha lambda lambda omicron sigma vocatur. Et hae reflexiones aquaticae sunt
trium enthusiasmorum, Apollonis, Dionysi, Veneris.
"Tota stella est Nechesh et Messiach, nomen HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Heh HB:Aleph cum
HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod conjunctum."
"There are three contemplations as it were breaths in the human mind, that"
"is the Abyss of Hell: the first is called" Nu epsilon kappa rho omicron sigma ", the"
"second" Pi upsilon rho alpha mu iota sigma ", and the third"
"Phi alpha lambda lambda omicron sigma "."
" These are the watery reflexions of the three enthusiasms; those of Apollo,"
"Dionysys, and Aphrodite."
" The whole star is Nechesh and Messiach, the name" HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Heh HB:Aleph " joined"
"with "HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod "." {7}
LIBER HHH
SUB FIGURA CCCXLI.CONTINET CAPITULA TRES: MMM, AAA, ET SSS.
I
M M M
"I remember a certain holy day in the dusk of the Year, in the dusk of the Equinox of Osiris, when first I beheld thee visibly; when first the dreadful issue was fought out; when the Ibis-headed One charmed away the strife. I remember thy first kiss, even as a maiden should. Nor in the dark byways was there another: thy kisses abide." --- LIBER LAPIDIS LAZULI. VII. 15, 16.
II
A A A
"These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the feet of Osiris, so that the flaming God may rage through the firmament with his fantastic spear." --- LIBER LAPIDIS LAZULI. VII. III.
III
S S S
"Thou art a beautiful thing, whiter than a woman in the column of this
vibration.
"I shoot up vertically like an arrow, and become that Above.
"But it is death, and the flame of the pyre.
"Ascend in the flame of the pyre, O my Soul! Thy God is like the cold
emptiness of the utmost heaven, into which thou radiatest thy little light.
"When Thou shalt know me, O empty God, my flame shall utterly expire in Thy
great N.O.X." --- LIBER LAPIDIS LAZULI. I. 36-40.
THE BLIND PROPHET
A BALLET
BY
ALEISTER CROWLEY
THE BLIND PROPHET
A BALLET
"
"The scene is an ancient Egyptian temple, supported by two mighty pillars. Two"
"rows of marble seats form a semi-circle, cut by a gap covered by a veil"
"in the East. On the upper seats are the musicians, flutes and violins;"
"on the lower are singers and dancers. There are doors also at the North"
"and South."
" "The Prophet." Lead me to the holy place!
Trace the circle widdershins!Light the incense! Set the pace
To the flutes and violins!
" "The Musicians." Kill! kill! Life is shrill!
Still! Still! word and will!
Flame! flame! speak the name!
Trill! trill! Thrill! thrill!
I acclaim the shame!
I have heard the word!
Fulfil the will!
" "The Prophet." Bid the virgins veil the bride!
Lead her forth, a shower of spray, {17}
A flower of foam upon the tide,A fleece of cloud upon the day!
So my sightless eyes may see
In the transcendental tranceThe virgin of eternity
Lead the demi-gods to dance.
Has the Tree of Life its root
In the soul or in the skin?Is it God, or is it brute,
That comes mystically inFor the doves within the flute,
The eagles on the violin?
Ah! The perfume's coiling tresses
Curl like veils upon the limbsOf the dancer that caresses
With her flying feet the hymnsThat flow and ripple in the air,
Bathing all the doves of prayer!
" "The Musicians." Lingering, low, fingering slow,
The tingling bows of the violins go.
Trembling, twittering, dissembling,
The lips of the flute-players wander
Over the stops, fiercer and fonder
Than scorpions that writhe and curl
In the fiery breast of an Arab girl!
["The dancers issue from beyond the veil." {18}
" "The Prophet." Sway like the lilies, gentle girls!
Like lilies glimmer!Furl yourselves as he lily furls
Its radiance dimmer!Curl as the lily-petal curls,
Subtler and slimmer!
Unfold your ranks and waft yourselves apart, That I may guess what pearl is at the heart, What dew-drop glistens on the crown gold-wrought Within the chalice of your coiled cohort!
" "The Musicians." the flutes coo.
It is the voice
Of love in spring,
At dawn, in dew;
And piercing through
Those low loves that rejoice,
Wails in the violin that supreme string
Of passion, that is more akin
To death than love, that shrieking sin
Whose teeth tear passion's tortured skin
And drink love's blood, and rage within
Black bowels of lust to win, to win
Some crown of thorns incarnadine,
Some cross whereof to fashion
Some newer, truer passion
Than even the agony of the violin!
" "The Prophet." Yes! like a careless breeze, the close caress Expands with a sob; the virgins wheel; there glows {19} In the midst a mystical rose!
["The dancers unfold, and their Queen appears."
O musical ministress
Of the dancing violin!
In an emerald spangled skin,
Hooded with harvest hair
Close-coiled, her serpent eyes
Hold ineffable sorceries!
Slender, and full, and straight is she
As an almond tree
Blest by an hermit! Her serpent eyes
Hold ineffable sorceries!
Slow she sways; her white arms ripple
From rosy finger to rosy nipple,
Ripple and flow like the melody
Of the flutes and the violins.
And! I see! I see --- she smiles on me
The heart of a million sins,
Each keener than death! Her serpent eyes
Hold ineffable sorceries.
" "The Musicians." Hush! Hush! the young feet flush,
The marble's ablush.
The music moves trilling,
Like wolves at the killing,
Moaning and shrilling,
And clear as the throb in the throat of a thrush!
Rustling they sway
Like a forest of rush
In the storm, and away! {20}
Away! Blow the blossoms
Of virgin bosoms
On the sob of the wind
Of the violins,
That bind and unbind
Their scarlet sins
On the brows of the world.
Hush! they are curled
In the rapture of reaping
The flowers that unfurled
When the gardeners were sleeping
In the breeze-swayed bowers
Of the Lord of the flowers!
Hush! Hush! the young feet flush
The marble! The temple's ablaze and ablush.
Hush! Hush! softer crush
The grape on the palate, the flower on the blossom,
The dream on the sleeper, the bride on the bosom!
" "The Prophet." Will she not deign, being drawn
Into the blush of dawn,
To yield the promise, to unveil
The Lady of bliss and bale?
I am old and blind; my vision
Hath the seer in derision.
I would set my lips between
Those rose-tipped moons, just thereWhere the deciduous green
Leaves the pearly rapture bare, {21}
With its blue veins like rivuletsIn still and shimmering air!
" "The Queen of the Dancers." No! No! the weird is woe.
The law is this, most surely this!
That who hath seen may never kiss.
The soul is at war with the flesh and the mind.
Life is dumb, and love is blind.
" "The Prophet." I am the Prophet of the Gods.
I have put these eyes out to attain
To the crown of the pallid periods
That pulse in the Almighty brain!
I have striven all my life for this;
That I might see, and still might kiss!
" "The Musicians." Vain! Vain! Time is sane.
Fain! Fain! Space is plain.
Time passes once, and is not found.
Space divides once, not heals the wound.
Knell! Knell! the shattered shell
That could not break the word of Hell.
Whirl! Whirl! the wanton girl
(Curve, and coil, and close, and curl!)
Slips the grip as the swallow avoids
The leaps of the dog; or the moon, that sails
Abeam to God's invisible gales,
The clumsy caress of the asteroids!
Love her in memory, love her in dream, {22}
Love her in hope, or love her in faith;
But all these loves are loves that seem;
The worst is a ghoul, the best is a wraith;
For to birth
On the earth
There is no power under, within, or above,
That can give thee love in truth and love.
" "The Prophet." Yet will I strive!
There is nothing but thisWhile I am alive
But the cancer's kiss.If I fail in that
Let the temple be broken,The pillars fall flat,
The word by unspoken,The lights be extinct,
The music be dumb,The circle unlinked,
The acolytes numb,The altar defiled,
The sacrament trodUnder foot by the wild
Despisers of god!
" "The Musicians." No! No! Life is woe.
Thou dost not know
How ineffably great
Is the weight of Fate.
Uncreate!
Ultimate! {23}
Born of Hate!
Brother of Woe!
Despair its mate!
Thou dost not know
How giant great
Is the grasp of Fate.
" "The Dancers," Vainly Pursuing
Impossible things,
The swamp-adder wooing
The lark with her wings!
" "The Queen of the Dancers." See how I glide ---
Canst thou not hold me?
In thine arms, at thy side ---
Why not enfold me?
Wisdom, awaken!
Never, oh never,
By wile or endeavour
Am I to be taken.
Will a wish or a word
Charm the hawk from the air?
And am I a bird
To be caught in a snare?
Will a word or a wish
Bring the trout from the brook?
And am I a fish
To snap at an hook?
" "The Prophet." Ye let me to the holy place.
All ye have mocked me to my face. {24}
Now ends the age of living breath;
I am sworn henchman unto death.
Lead me to the obelisks
That support the holy Disks!
I am here; my grasp is firm,
We are come unto the term.
Temple, dancers, girls, musicians,
Augurs, acolytes, magicians ---
Ruin, ruin whelm us all!
Fall!
["He pulls down the pillars; but the temple"
" was not supported on them as in his"
" blindness he supposed; and he is himself"
" his only victim."
" "The Dancers," Twine! twine! rose and vine.
Whirl! whirl! boy and girl.
Mine! mine! maid divine.
Curl! curl! peach and pearl.
Twist! twist! the towering trances
Are not sun-kissed
Like our delicate dances.
Expanses
Of fancies,
The turn of the ankle! the wave of the wrist
Enhances
Romances!
Twine! twine! tread me a measure!
The dotard is dead that disturbed our pleasure
With his doubt
About {25}
Souls and skins,
And the quickened shoots
Of pain that he tore
From the heart's core
Of the dreadful flutes
And the terrible violins.
Joy! joy! girl and boy!
He is dead! let us laugh! let us dance! let us love!
Leave the corpse there as it lies! we shall measure
A new true dance around and above,
And taste of the treasure,
The torrent of pleasure!
Curl! curl! peach and pearl!
Mine! mine! maid divine!
Whirl! whirl! boy and girl!
Twine! twine! rose and vine.
" "The Musicians." Hush! hush! the young feet flush,
The marble's ablush,
The music moves trilling ---
Like wolves at the killing,
Moaning and shrilling,
And clear as the throb in the throat of a thrush!
Rustling they sway
Like a forest of rush
In the storm, and away!
Away! blow the blossoms
Of virgin bosoms
On the sob of the wind
Of the violins {26}
That bind and unbind
Their scarlet sins
On the brows of the world.
Hush! they are curled
In the rapture of reaping
The flowers that unfurled
When the gardeners were sleeping
In the breeze-swayed bowers
Of the Lord of the Flowers!
Hush! Hush! the young feet flush
The marble. The temple's ablaze and ablush.
Hush! hush! softer crush
The grape on the palate, the bloom on the blossom,
The dream on the sleeper, the bride on the blosom!
"The Queen of the Dancers, in her prime pose."
" (Spoken without inflection or emphasis.)"
Now do you understand the tragedy of life?
{27}
THE TRAINING OF THE MIND
THE Religion of the Buddhas is, in the most eminent sense of the word, a
Practical Philosophy. It is not a collection of dogmas which are to be
accepted and believed with an unquestioning and unintelligent faith: but a
series of statements and propositions which, in the first place, are to be
intellectually grasped and comprehended; in the second, to be applied to every
action of our daily lives, to be practised, to be lived, up to the fullest
extent of our powers. This fact of the essentially practical nature of our
Religion is again and again insisted upon in the Holy Books. Though one man
should know by heart a thousand stanzas of the Law, and not practise it, he
has not understood the Dhamma. That man who knows and "practises" one stanza of
the Law, he has understood the Dhamma, he is the true follower of the Buddha.
It is the practice of the Dhamma that constitutes the true Buddhist, not the
mere knowledge of its tenets; it is the carrying out of the Five Precepts, and
not their repetition in the Pali tongue; ti is the bringing home into our
daily lives of the Great Laws of Love and Righteousness that marks a man as
"Samma-ditthi;" and not the mere appreciation of the truth of that Dhamma as a
beautiful and poetic statement of Laws which are too hard to follow. This
Dhamma has to be lived, to be {28} acted up to, to be felt as the supreme idol
in our hearts, as the supreme motive of our lives; and he who does this to the
best of his ability is the right follower of the Master; --- not he who calls
himself "Buddhist," but whose life is empty of the love the Buddha taught.
And because our lives are very painful, because to follow the Good Law in
all our ways is very difficult, therefore we should not despair of ever being
able to walk in the way we have learned, and resign ourselves to living a life
full only of worldly desires and ways. For has not the Master said, "Let no
man think lightly of good, saying 'it will not come nigh me' --- for even by
the falling of drops, the water-jar is filled. The wise man becomes full of
Good, even if he gather it little by little"? He who does his best, he who
strives, albeit failingly, to follow what is good, to eschew what is evil,
that man will grow daily the more powerful for his striving; and every wrong
desire overcome, each loving and good impulse acted up to, will mightily
increase our power to resist evil, will ever magnify our power of living the
life that is right.
Now, the whole of this practice of Buddhism, the whole of the Good Law
which we who call ourselves "Buddhists" should strive to follow, has been
summed up by the Tathagata in one single stanza: ---
"Avoiding the performance of evil actions, gaining merit by the performance
of good acts: and he purification of all our thoughts; --- this is the
Teaching of all the Buddhas."
Therefore we that call ourselves Buddhists have so to live that we may
carry out the three rules here laid down. We all know what it is to avoid
doing evil; --- we detail the acts {29} that are ill each time we take "Panca"
"Sila." The taking of life, the taking of what does not rightly belong to us,
living a life of impurity, speaking what is not true, or what is cruel and
unkind, and indulging in drugs and drinks that undermine the mental and moral
faculties --- these are the evil actions that we must avoid. Living in peace
and love, returning good for evil, having reverence and patience and humility
--- these are some part of what we know to be good. And so we can all
understand, can all try to live up to, the first two clauses of this stanza;
we can all endeavour to put them into practice in our daily lives. But the
way to purify the thought, the way to cultivate the thoughts that are good, to
suppress and overcome the thoughts that are evil, the practices by which the
mind is to be trained and cultivated; of these things less is known; they are
less practised, and less understood.
And so the object of this paper is to set forth what is written in the
books of these methods of cultivating and purifying the mind; --- to set forth
how this third rule can be followed and lived up to; for in one way it is the
most important of all, it really includes the other two rules, and is their
crown and fruition. the avoidance of evil, the performance of good: these
things will but increase the merits of our destinies, will lead but to new
lives, happier, and so more full of temptation, than that we now enjoy. And
after that merit, thus gained, is spent and gone, the whirling of the great
Wheel of Life will bring us again to evil, and unhappy lives; --- for not by
the mere storing of merit can freedom be attained, it is not by mere merit
that we can come to the Great Peace. This merit-gaining is secondary in
importance to the purification and culture of our thought, but it is
essential, because only by {30} the practice of "Sila" comes the power of Mental
Concentration that makes us free.1
In order that we may understand how this final and principal aim of our
Buddhist Faith is to be attained, before we can see why particular practices
should thus purify the mind, it is necessary that we should first comprehend
the nature of this mind itself --- this thought that we seek to purify and to
liberate.
In the marvellous system of psychology which has been declared to us by our
Teacher, the "Citta" or thought-stuff is shewn to consist of innumerable
elements which are called "Dhamma" or "Sankhra." If we translate "Dhamma" or
"Sankhra" as used in this context as "Tendencies," we shall probably come
nearest to the English meaning of the word. When a given act has been
performed a number of times; when a given thought has arisen in our minds a
number of times, there is a definite tendency to the repetition of that act; a
definite tendency to the recurrence of that thought. Thus each mental Damma,
each Sankhra, tends to produce constantly its like, and be in turn
reproduced; and so at first sight it would seem as though there were no
possibility of augmenting the states that are good. But, whilst our Master
has taught us of this tendency to reproduce that is so characteristic of all
mental states, he has also shewn us how this reproductive energy of the
Sankhras may itself be employed to the suppression of evil states, and to the
culture {31} of the states that are good. For if a man has many and powerful
Sankhras in his nature, which tend to make him angry or cruel, we are taught
that he can definitely overcome those evil Sankhras by the practice of mental
concentration on Sankhras of an opposite nature; --- in practice by devoting
a definite time each day to meditating on thoughts of pity and of love. Thus
he increases the Sankhras in his mind that tend to make men loving and
pitiful, and because "Hatred ceaseth not by hatred at any time, hatred ceaseth
by Love alone," therefore do those evil Sankhras of his nature, those
tendencies to anger and to cruelty, disappear before the rise of new good
tendencies of live and of pit, even as the darkness of the night fades in the
glory of the dawn. Thus we see that one way --- and the best way --- of
overcoming bad Sankhras is the systematic cultivation, by dint of meditation,
of such qualities as are opposed to the evil tendencies we desire to
eliminate; and in the central and practical feature of the instance adduced,
the practice of definite meditation or mental concentration upon the good
Sankhras, we have the key to the entire system of the Purification and
Culture of the mind, which constitutes the practical working basis of the
Buddhist Religion.
If we consider the action of a great and complex engine --- such a machine
as drives a steamship through the water --- we will see that there is, first
and foremost, one central and all-operationg source of energy; in this case
the steam which is generated in the boilers. This energy in itself is neither
1 Sila must then be defined as the discipline essential to Mental
Concentration, and this will vary with Race, Climate,
Individuality, etc. etc. --- A.C.
good nor bad --- it is simply "Power;" and whether that power does the useful
work of moving he ship, or the bad work of breaking loose, and destroying and
spoiling the ship, and {32} scalding men to death, and so on; all depends upon
the correct and co-ordinated operation of all the various parts of that
complex machinery. If the slide-valves of the great cylinders open a little
too soon and so admit the steam before the proper time, much power will be
lost in overcoming the resistance of the steam itself. If they remain open
too long, the expansive force of the steam will be wasted, and so again power
will be lost; and if they open too late, much of the momentum of the engine
will be used up in moving uselessly the great mass of the machinery. And so
it is with every part of the engine. In every part of the prime mover is that
concentrated expansive energy of the steam; but that energy must be applied in
each diverse piece of mechanism in exactly the right way, at exactly the right
time; otherwise, either the machine will not work at all, or much of the
energy of the steam will be wasted in overcoming its own opposing force.
so it is with this subtle machinery of the mind, --- a mechanism infinitely
more complex, capable of far more power for good or for evil, than the most
marvellous of man's mechanical achievements, than the most powerful engine
ever made by human hands. One great engine, at its worst, exploding, may
destroy a few hundred lives; at its best may carry a few thousand men, may
promote trade, and the comfort of some few hundred lives; but who can estimate
the power of one human mind, whether for good or for evil? One such mind, the
mind of a man like Jesus Christ, may bring about the tortured death of many
million men, may wreck states and religions and dynasties, and cause untold
misery and suffering; another mind, employing the same manner of energy, but
rightly using that energy for the {33} benefit of others, may, like the
Buddha, bring hope into the hopeless lives of crores upon crores of human
beings, may increase by a thousandfold the pity and love of a third of
humanity, may aid innumerable lakhs of beings to come to that Peace for which
we all crave --- that Peace the way to which is so difficult to find.
But the energy which these two minds employed is one and the same. That
energy lies hidden in every human brain, it is generated with every pulsation
of every human heart, it is the prerogative of every being, and the sole mover
in the world of men. There is no idea or thought, there is no deed, whether
good or gad, accomplished in this world, but that supreme energy, that steampower
of our mental mechanism, is the mover and the cause. It is by use of
this energy that the child learns how to speak; it is by its power that Christ
could bring sorrow into thousands of lives; it is by this power that the
Buddha conquered the hearts of one-third of men; it is by that force that so
many have followed him on the way which he declared --- the Nirvna Marga, the
way to the Unutterable Peace. The name of that power is Mental Concentration,
and there is nothing in this world, whether for good or for evil, but is
wrought by its application. It weaves upon the loom of Time the fabric of
men's characters and destinies. Name and Form are the twin threads with which
it blends the quick-flying shuttles of that Loom, men's good and evil thoughts
and deeds; and the pattern of that fabric is the outcome of innumerable lives.
It is by the power of this Samadhi that the baby learns to walk, it is by
its power that Newton weighed these suns {34} and worlds. It is the steam
power of this human organism, and what it does to make us great or little,
good or bad, is the result of the way in which the powers of the mind, all
these complex Sankhras, apply and use that energy. If the Sankhras act well
together, if their varying functions are well co-ordinated, then that man has
great power, either for good or for evil; and when you see one of weak mind
and will, you may be sure that his Sankhras are working one against another;
and so the central power, this power of Samadhi, is wasted in one part of the
mind in overcoming its own energy in another.
If a skilful engineer, knowing well the functions of each separate part of
an engine, were to have to deal with a machine whose parts did not work in
unison, and which thus frittered away the energy supplied to it, he would take
his engine part by part, adjusting here a valve and there an eccentric; he
would observe the effect of his alterations with every subsequent movement of
the whole engine, and so, little by little, would set all that machinery to
work together, till the engine was using to the full the energy supplied to
it. And this is what we have to do with this mechanism of our minds --- each
one for himself. First, earnestly to investigate our component Sankhras, to
see wherein we are lacking, to see wherein our mental energy is well used and
where it runs to waste; and then to keep adjusting, little by little, all
these working parts of our mind-engine, till each is brought to work in the
way that is desired, till the whole vast complex machinery of our being is all
working to one end, --- the end for which we are working, the goal which now
lies so far away, {35} yet not so far but that we may yet work for and attain
it.
But how are we thus to adjust and to alter the Sankh'aras of our natures?
If a part of our mental machinery "will" use up our energy wrongly, "will" let our
energy leak into wrong channels, how are we to cure it? Let us take another
example from the world of mechanics. There is a certain part of a locomotive
which is called the slide-valve. It is a most important part, because its
duty is to admit the steam to the working parts of the engine: and upon its
accurate performance of this work the whole efficiency of the locomotive
depends. The great difficulty with this slide-valve consists in he fact that
its face must be perfectly, almost mathematically, smooth; and no machine has
yet been devised that can cut this valve-face smooth enough. so what they do
is this: they make use of the very force of the steam itself, the very violent
action of steam, to plane down that valve-face to the necessary smoothness.
The valve, made as smooth as machinery can make it, is put in its place, and
steam is admitted; so that the valve is made to work under very great
pressure, and very quickly for a time. As it races backwards and forwards,
under this unusually heavy pressure of steam, the mere friction against the
port-face of the cylinder upon which it moves suffices to wear down the little
unevennesses that would otherwise have proved so fertile a source of leakage.
so we must do with our minds. We must take our good and useful Sankh'aras one
by one, and put them under extra and unusual pressure by special mental
concentration. And by this means those good Sankhras will be made ten times
as {36} efficient; there will be no more leakage of energy; and out mental
mechanism will daily work more and more harmoniously and powerfully. From the
moment that the Mental Reflex2 is attained, the hindrances ("i.e.", the action
of opposing Sankhras) are checked, the leakages (Asavas, a word commonly
translated corruptions, means literally leakages, --- "i.e.", leakages though
wrong channels of the energy of the being) are assuaged, and the mind
concentrates itself by the concentration of the neighbourhood degree.3
Now let us see how these Sankhras, these working parts of our mental
mechanism, first come into being. Look at a child leaning how to talk. The
child hears a sound, and this sound the child learns to connect by association
with a definite idea. By the power of its mental concentration the child
seizes on that sound, by its imitative group of Sankhras it repeats that
sound, and by another effort of concentration it impresses the idea of that
sound on some cortical cell of its brain, where it remains as a faint
Sankhra, ready to be called up when required. Then, one time, occasion
arises which recalls the idea that sound represents --- it has need to make
that sound in order to get some desired object. The child concentrates its
mind with all its power on the memorising cortex of its brain, until that
faint Sankhra, that manner of mind-echo of the sound that lurks in the little
brain-cell is discovered, and, like a stretched string played upon by the
wind, the cell yields up to the mind {37} a faint repetition of the sound-idea
2 The Mental Reflex or Nimitta, is the result of the practice of
certain forms of Samadhi. For a detailed account see Uisuddhi
Magga.
3 Visuddhi Magga, iv. There are two degrees of mental
concentration, termed "Neighbourhood-concentration" and
"Attainment-concentration" respectively.
which caused it. By another effort of concentration, now removed from the
memorising area and shifted to the speaking centre in the brain, the child's
vocal chords tighten in the particular way requisite to the production of that
sound; the muscles of lips and throat and tongue perform the necessary
movements; the breathing apparatus is controlled, so that just the right
quantity of air passes over the vocal chords; and as the child speaks it
repeats the word it had formerly learnt to associate with the object of its
present desire. Such is the process of the formation of a Sankhra. The more
frequently that idea recurs to the child, the more often does it have to go
through the processes involved --- the more often, in a word, has the mind of
the child to perform mental concentration,or Samadhi, upon that particular
series of mental and muscular movements, the more powerful does the set of
Sankh'aras involved become, till the child will recall the necessary sounddiea,
will go through all those complex movements of the organs of speech,
without any appreciable new effort of mental concentration; --- in effect,
that chain of associations, that particular co-ordinated functioning of memory
and speech, will have established itself by virtue of the past mental
concentrations as a powerful Sankhra in the being of the child, and that
Sankhra will tend to recur whenever the needs which let to the original
Samadhi are present, so that the words will be reproduced automatically, and
without fresh special effort.
Thus we see that Sankhras arise from any act of mental concentration. The
more powerful, or the more often repeated, is the act of Samadhi, the more
powerful the {38} Sankhras produced; thus a word in a new language, for
instance, may become a Sankhra, may be perfectly remembered without further
effort, either by one very considerable effort of mental concentration, or by
many repetitions of the word, with slight mental concentration.
The practical methods, then, for the culture and purification of the mind,
according to the method indicated for us by our Master, are two; first,
"Sammsati," which is the accurate reflection upon things in order to ascertain
their nature --- an investigation or analysis of the Dhammas of our own nature
in this case; and, secondly, "Sammsamdhi," or the bringing to bear upon the
mind of the powers of concentration, to the end that the good states, the good
Dhammas, may become powerful Sankhras in our being. As to the bad states,
they are to be regarded as mere leakages of the central power; and the remedy
for them, as for the leaky locomotive slide-valve, is the powerful practice
upon the good states which are of an opposite nature. So we have first very
accurately to analyse and observe the states that are present in us by the
power of Sammsati, and then practise concentration upon the good states,
especially those that tend to overcome our particular failings. By mental
concentration is meant an intentness of the thoughts, the thinking for a
definite time of only one thought at a time. This will be found at first to
be very difficult. You sit down to meditate on love, for instance; and in
half a minute or so you find you are thinking about what someone said the day
before yesterday. so it always is at first. The Buddha likened the mind of
the man who was beginning this practice of Samadhi to a calf which had been
used to running hither and thither in the fields, {39} without any let or
hindrance, which has now been tied with a rope to a post. The rope is the
practice of meditation; the post is the particular subject selected for
meditation. At first the calf tries to break loose, he runs hither and
thither in every direction; but is always brought up sharp at a certain
distance from the post, by the rope to which he is tied. For a long time, if
he is a restless calf, this process goes on; but at last the calf becomes more
calm, he sees the futility of struggling, and lies down by the side of the
post. So it is with the mind. At first, subjected to this discipline of
concentration, the mind tries to break away, ti runs in this or that
direction; and if it is an average restless mind, it takes a long time to
realize the uselessness of trying to break away. But always, having gone a
certain distance from the post, having got a certain distance from the object
selected for meditation, the fact that you have sat down with the definite
object of meditating acts as the rope, and the mind realizes that the post was
its object, and so comes back to it. When the mind, becoming concentrated and
steady, at last lies down by the post, and no longer tries to break away from
the object of meditation,then concentration is obtained. But this takes a
long time to attain, and very hard practice; and in order that we may make
this, the most trying part of the practice, easier, various methods are
suggested. One is, that we can avail ourselves of the action of certain
Sankhras themselves. You know how we get into "habits" of doing things,
particularly habits of doing things at a definite time of day. Thus we get
into the habit of waking up at a definite time of the morning, and we always
tend to wake up at that same hour of the day. We {40} get into a habit of
eating our dinner at seven o'clock, and we do not feel hungry till about that
time; and if we change the times of our meals, at first we always feel hungry
at seven, then, when we get no dinner, a little after seven that hunger
vanishes, and we presently get used to the new state of things. In effect the
practice of any act, the persistence of any given set of ideas, regularly
occurring at a set time of the day, forms within us a very powerful tendency
to the recurrence of those ideas, or to the practice of that act, at the same
time every day.
Now we can make use of this time-habit of the mind to assist us in our
practice of meditation. Choose a given time of day; always practise in that
same time, even if it is only for ten minutes, but always at exactly the same
time of day. In a little while the mind will have established a habit in this
respect, and you will find it much easier to concentrate the mind at your
usual time than at any other. We should also consider the effect of our
bodily actions on the mind. When we have just eaten a meal, the major part of
the spare energy in us goes to assist in the work of digestion; so at those
times the mind is sleepy and sluggish, and under these circumstances we cannot
use all our energies to concentrate with. so choose a time when the stomach
is empty --- of course the best time from this point of view is when we wake
up in the morning. Another thing that you will find very upsetting to your
concentration at first is sound --- any sudden, unexpected sound particularly.
so it is best to choose your time when people are not moving about --- when
there is as little noise as possible. Here again the early morning is
indicated, or else late at night, and, generally speaking, you {41} will find
it easiest to concentrate either just after rising, or else at night, just
before going to sleep.
Another thing very much affects these Sankhras, and that is "place." If you
think a little, you will see how tremendously place affects the mind. The
merchant's mind may be full of trouble; but no sooner does he get to his
office or place of business, than his trouble goes, and he is all alert --- a
keen, capable business-man. The doctor may be utterly tired out, and half
asleep when he is called up at night to attend an urgent case; but no sooner
is he come to his place, the place where he is wont to exercise his
profession, the bedside of his patient, than the powerful association of the
place overcome his weariness and mental torpor, and he is very wide awake ---
all his faculties on the alert, his mind working to the full limits demanded
by his very difficult profession. So it is in all things: the merchant at his
desk, the captain on the bridge of his ship, the engineer in his engine-room,
the chemist in his laboratory --- the effect of "place" upon the mind is always
to awaken a particular set of Sankhras, the Sankhras associated in the mind
with place. Also there is perhaps a certain intangible yet operative
atmosphere of thought which clings to place sin which definite acts have been
done, definite thoughts constantly repeated. It is for this reason that we
have a great sense of quiet and peace when we go to a monastery. The
monastery is a place where life is protected, where men think deeply of the
great mysteries of Life and Death; it is the home of those who are devoted to
the practice of this meditation, it is the centre of the religious life of the
people. When the people want to make merry, they have "pwes" and things in
their own houses, {42} in the village; but when they feel religiously
inclined, then they go to their monastery. So the great bulk of the thoughts
which arise in a monastery are peaceful, and calm, and holy; and this
atmosphere of peach and calm and holiness seems to penetrate and suffuse the
whole place, till the walls and roof and flooring --- nay, more, the very
ground of the sacred enclosure --- seem soaked with this atmosphere of
holiness, like some faint distant perfume that can hardly be scented, and yet
that one can feel. It may be that some impalpable yet grosser portion of the
thought-stuff thus clings to the very walls of a place: we cannot tell, but
certain it is that if you blindfold a sensitive man and take him to a temple,
he will tell you that it is a peaceful and holy place; whilst if you take him
to the shambles, he will feel uncomfortable or fearful.
And so we should choose for our practice of meditation a place which is
suited to the work we have to do. It is a great aid, of course, owing to the
very specialised set of place Sankhras so obtained, if we can have a special
place in which nothing but these practices are done, and where no one but
oneself goes; but, for a layman especially, this is very difficult to secure.
Instructions are given on this point in "Visuddhi Magga" how the priest who is
practising "Kammatthana" is to select some place a little way from the
monastery, where people do not come and walk about --- either a cave, or else
he is to make or get made a little hut, which he alone uses. But as this
perfect retirement is not easy to a layman, he must choose whatever place is
most suitable --- some place where, at the time of his practice, he will be as
little disturbed as possible, and, if he is able, this place should not be the
place where he sleeps, as the Sankhras of such a place would tend, {43} so
soon as her tried to reduce the number of his thoughts down to one, to make
him go to sleep, which is one of the chief things to be guarded against.
Time and place being once chosen, it is important, until the faculty of
concentration is strongly established, not to alter them. Then bodily posture
is to be considered. If we stand up to meditate, then a good deal of energy
goes to maintain the standing posture. Lying down is also not good, because
it is associated in our minds with going to sleep. Therefore the sitting
posture is best. If you can sit cross-legged as Buddharupas sit, that is
best; because this position has many good Sankhras associated with in the
minds of Buddhist people.
Now comes the all-impoortant question of what we are to meditate upon. The
subjects of meditation are classified in the books under forty heads; and in
the old days a man wishing to practise "Kammatthana" would go to some great man
who had practised long, and had so attained to great spiritual knowledge, and
by virtue of his spiritual knowledge that Arahat could tell which of the forty
categories would best suit the aspirant. Now-a-days this is hardly possible,
as so few practise this Kammatthana; and so it is next to impossible to find
anyone with this spiritual insight. So the best thing to do will be to
practise those forms of meditation which will most certainly increase the
highest qualities in us, the qualities of Love, and Pity, and Sympathy, and
Indifference to worldly life and cares; those forms of Sammsati which will
give us an accurate perception of our own nature, and the Sorrow,
Transitoriness, and soullessness of all things in the Samsara Cakka; and those
forms which {44} will best calm our minds by making us think of holy and
beautiful things, such as the Life of the Buddha, the liberating nature of the
Dhamma He taught, and the pure life which is followed by His Bhikkhus.
We have seen how a powerful Sankhra is to be formed in one of two ways:
either by one tremendous effort of concentration, or by many slight ones. As
it is difficult for a beginner to make a tremendous effort, it will be found
simplest to take one idea which can be expressed in a few words, and repeat
those words silently over and over again. The reason for the use of a formula
of words is that, owing to the complexity of the brain-actions involved in the
production of words, very powerful Sankhras are formed by this habit of
silent repetition: the words serve as a very powerful mechanical aid in
constantly evoking the idea they represent. In order to keep count of the
number of times the formula has been repeated, Buddhist people use a rosary of
a hundred and eight beads, and thus will be found a very convenient aid. Thus
one formulates to oneself the ideal of the Great Teacher: one reflects upon
His Love and Compassion, on all that great life of His devoted to the
spiritual assistance of all beings; one formulates in the mind the image of
the Master, trying to imagine Him as He taught that Dhamma which has brought
liberation to so many; and every time the mental image fades, one murmurs
"Buddhanussati" --- "he reflects upon the Buddha" --- each time of repetition
passing over one of the beads of the rosary. And so with the Dhamma, and the
Sangha; --- whichever one prefers to reflect upon.
But perhaps the best of all the various meditations upon the idea, are what
is known as the Four Sublime States --- {45} Cattro Brahavihara. These
meditations calm and concentrate The Citta in a very powerful and effective
way; and besides this they tend to increase in us those very qualities of the
mind which are the best. One sits down facing East, preferably; and after
reflection on the virtues of the Tri Ratna, as set forth in the formulas, "Iti
pi so Bhagava," etc., one concentrates one's thought upon ideas of Love; one
imagines a ray of Love going out from one's heart, and embracing all beings in
the Eastern Quarter of the World, and one repeats this formula: "And he lets
his mind pervade the Eastern Quarter of the World with thoughts of Love ---
with Heart of Love grown great, and mighty, and beyond all measure --- till
there is not one being in all the Eastern Quarter of the world whom he has
passed over, whom he has not suffused with thoughts of Love, with Heart of
Love grown great, and mighty,and far-reaching beyond all measure." And as you
say these words you imagine your Love going forth to the East, like a great
spreading ray of light; and first you think of all your friends, those whom
you love, and suffuse them with your thoughts of love; and then you reflect
upon all those innumerable beings in that Eastern Quarter whom you know not,
to whom you are indifferent, but whom you should love, and you suffuse them
also with the ray of your Love; and lastly you reflect upon all those who are
opposed to you, who are your enemies, who have done you wrongs, and these too,
by an effort of will you suffuse with your Love "till there is not one being
in all that Eastern Quarter of the Earth whom you have passed over, whom you
have not suffused with thoughts of Love with Heart of Love grown great, and
mighty, and beyond all measure." And then you imagine a similar {46} ray of
Love issuing from your heart in the direction of your right hand; and you
mentally repeat the same formula, substituting the word "Southern" for
"Eastern," and you go through the same series of reflections in that
direction. And so to the West, and so to the North, till all around you, in
the four directions, you have penetrated all beings with these thoughts of
Love. And then you imagine your thought as striking downwards, and embracing
and including all beings beneath you, repeating the same formula, and lastly
as going upwards, and suffusing with the warmth of your Love all beings in the
worlds above. Thus you will have meditated upon all beings with thoughts of
Love, in all the six directions of space: and you have finished the Meditation
on Love.
In the same way, using the same formula, do you proceed with the other
three Sublime States. Thinking of all beings who are involved in the Samsara
Cakka, involved in the endless sorrow of existence --- thinking especially of
those in whom at this moment sorrow is especially manifested, thinking of the
weak, the unhappy, the sick, and those who are fallen; you send out a ray of
Pity and Compassion towards them in all six directions of Space. And so
suffusing all beings with thoughts of Compassion, you pass on to the
meditation on Happiness. You meditate on all beings who are happy, from the
lowest happiness of earthly love to the highest, the Happiness of those who
are freed from all sin, the unutterable Happiness of those who have attained
the Nirvna Dhamma. You seek to feel with all those happy ones in their
happiness, to enter into the bliss of their hearts and lives, and to augment
it; and so you pervade all six directions with thoughts of {47} happiness,
with this feeling of sympathy with all that is happy and fair and good.
Then, finally, reflecting on all that is evil and cruel and bad in the
world, reflecting on the things which tempt men away from the holy life, you
assume to all evil beings thoughts of indifference --- understanding that all
the evil in those beings arises from ignorance; from the Asavas, the leakages
of mental power into wrong channels; you understand concerning them that is is
not your duty to condemn, or revile, but only to be indifferent to them, and
when you have finished this meditation in Indifference, you have completed the
meditation on the Four Sublime States --- on Love, and Pity, and Happiness,
and Indifference. The meditation on love will overcome in you all hatred and
wrath; the meditation on Pity will overcome your Sankh'aras of cruelty and
unkindness; the meditation on Happiness will do away with all feelings of envy
and malice; and the meditation on Indifference will take from you all sympathy
with evil ways and thoughts. And if you diligently practise these four
Sublime States, you will find yourself becoming daily more and more loving,
and pitiful, and happy with the highest happiness, and indifferent to personal
misfortune and to evil. So very powerful is this method of meditation, that a
very short practice will give results --- results that you will find working
in your life and thoughts, bringing peace and happiness to you, and to all
around you.
Then there is the very important work of Sammsati, the analysis of the
nature of things that leads men to realize how all in the Samsara Cakka is
characterised by the three characteristics of Sorrow, and Transitoriness, and
Soullessness: how there is nought that is free from these three
characteristics; and how only right reflection and right meditation can free
you from them, and can open for you the way to peace. And because men are
very much involved in the affairs of the world, because so much of our lives
is made of our little hates and loves and fears; because we think so much of
our wealth, and those we love with earthly love, and of our enemies, and of
all the little concerns of our daily life, therefore is this right perception
very difficult to come by, very difficult to realise as absolute truth in the
depth of our hearts. We think we have but one life and one body; so these we
guard with very great attention and care, wasting useful mental energy upon
these ephemeral things. We think we have but one state in life; and so we
think very much of how to better our positions, how to increase our fortune.
"I have these sons, mine is this wealth" --- thus the foolish man is
thinking: "he himself hath not a self, how sons, how wealth?" But if we could
look back over the vast stairway of our innumerable lives, if we could see how
formerly we had held all various positions, had had countless fortunes,
countless children, innumerable loves and wives; if we could so look back, and
see the constant and inevitable misery of all those lives, could understand
our every-changing minds and wills, and the whole mighty phantasmagoria of the
illusion that we deem so real; if we could do this, then indeed we might
realise the utter misery and futility of all this earthly life, might
understand and grasp those three characteristics of all existent things; then
indeed would our desire to escape from this perpetual round of sorrow be
augmented, augmented so that we would work with all our power unto liberation.
{49}
To the gaining of this knowledge of past births there is a way, a practice
of meditation by which that knowledge may be obtained. This at first may seem
startling; but there is nothing really unnatural or miraculous about it: it is
simply a method of most perfectly cultivating the memory. Now, memory is
primarily a function of the material brain: we remember things because they
are stored up like little mind-pictures, in the minute nerve-cells of the grey
cortex of the brain, principally on the left frontal lobe. so it may
naturally be asked: "If memory, as is certainly the case, be stored up in the
material brain, how is it possible that we should remember, without some
miraculous faculty, things that happened before that brain existed?" The
answer is this: our brains, it is true, have not existed before this birth,
and so all our normal memories are memories of things that have happened in
this life. but what is the "cause" of the particular brain-structure that now
characterises us? Past Sankhras. The particular and specific nature of a
given brain; that, namely, which differentiates one brain from another, which
makes one child capable of learning one thing and another child another; the
great difference of aptitude, and so on, which gives to each one of us a
different set of desires, capacities, and thought. What force has caused this
great difference between brain and brain? We say that the action of our past
Sankhras, the whole course of the Sankhras of our past lives, determined,
ere our birth in this life, whilst yet the brain was in process of formation,
these specific and characteristic features. And if the higher thinking levels
of our brains have thus been specialised by the acquired tendencies of all our
line of lives, {50} then every thought that we have had, every idea and wish
that has gone to help to specialise that thinking stuff, must have left its
record stamped ineffaceably, though faintly, on the structure of this present
brain, till that marvellous structure is like some ancient palimpsest --- a
piece of paper on which, as old writing faded out, another and yet another
written screen has been superimposed. By our purblind eyes only the last
record can be read, but there are ways by which all those ancient faded
writings can be made to appear; and this is how it is done. To read those
faded writings we use an eye whose sensitivity to minute shades of colour and
texture is far greater than our own; a photograph is taken of the paper, on
plates prepared so as to be specially sensitive to minute shades of colour,
and, according to the exposure given, the time the eye of the camera gazed
upon that sheet of paper, another and another writing is impressed upon the
sensitive plate used, and the sheet of paper, which to the untrained eye of
man bears but one script, yields up to successive plates those lost, ancient,
faded writings, till all are made clear and legible.
So it must be, if we think, with this memory of man; with all the multiple
attributes of that infinitely complex brain-structure.
All that the normal mental vision of man can read there is the last plain
writing, the record of this present life. But every record of each thought
and act of all our karmic ancestry, the records upon whose model this later
life, this specialised brain-structure, has been built, must lie there,
visible to the trained vision; so that, had we but this more sensitive mental
vision, that wondrous palimpsest, the tale of the innumerable {51} ages that
have gone to the composing of that marvellous document, the record of a brain,
would stand forth clear and separate, like the various pictures on the coloursensitive
plates. Often, indeed, it happens that one, perchance the last of
all those ancient records, is given now so clearly and legibly that a child
can read some part of what was written; and so we have those strange instances
of sporadic, uninherited genius that are the puzzle and the despair of Western
Psychologists? A little child, before he can hardly walk, before he can
clearly talk, will see a piano, and crawl to it, and, untaught, his baby
fingers will begin to play; and, in a few years' time, with a very little
teaching and practice, that child will be able to execute the most difficult
pieces --- pieces of music which baffle any but the most expert players.
There have been many such children whose powers have been exhibited over the
length and breadth of Europe. There was Smeaton, again, one of our greatest
engineers. When a child (he was the son of uneducated peasant people) he
would build baby bridges over the streams in his country --- untaught --- and
his bridges would bear men and cattle. There was a child, some ten years ago,
in Japan, who, when a baby, saw one day the ink and brush with which the
Chinese and Japanese write, and, crawling with pleasure, reached out his
chubby hand for them, and began to write. By the time he was five years old
that baby, scarce able to speak correctly, could write in the Chinese
character perfectly --- that wonderful and complex script that takes an
ordinary man ten to fifteen years to master --- and this baby of five wrote it
perfectly. This child's power was exhibited all over the country, and before
the Emperor of Japan; and the question that arises is, how did all these
children get their powers? Surely, because {52} for them the last writing on
the book of their minds was yet clear and legible; because in their last birth
that one particular set of Sankhras was so powerful that its record could
still be read.
And thus we all have, here in our present brains,the faded records of all
our interminable series of lives; a thousand, tens of thousands, crores upon
crores of records, one superimposed over another, waiting only for the eye
that can see, the eye of the trained and perfected memory to read them to
distinguish one from another as the photographic plate distinguished, and the
way so to train that mental vision is as follows: ---
You sit down in your place of meditation, and you think of yourself seated
there. Then you begin to "think backwards." You think the act of coming into
the room. You think the act of walking towards the room, and so you go on,
thinking backwards on all the acts that you have done that day. You then come
to yourself, waking up in the morning,. and perhaps you remember a few dreams,
and then there is a blank, and you remember your last thoughts as you went to
sleep the night before, what you did before retiring, and so on, back to the
time of your last meditation.
This is a very difficult practice; and so at first you must not attempt to
go beyond one day: else you will not do it well, and will omit remembering a
lot of important things. When you have practised for a little, you will find
your memory of events becoming rapidly more and more perfect; and this
practice will help you in worldly life as well, for it vastly increases the
power of memory in general. When doing a day becomes easy, then slowly
increase the time meditated upon. {53} Get into the way of doing a week at a
sitting --- here taking only the more important events --- then a month, then
a year, and so on. You will find yourself remembering all sorts of things
about your past life that you had quite forgotten; you will find yourself
penetrating further and further into the period of deep sleep; you will find
that you remember your dreams even far more accurately than you ever did
before. And so you go on, going again and again over long periods of your
life, and each time you will remember more and more of things you had
forgotten. You will remember little incidents of your child-life, remember
the tears you shed over the difficult tasks of learning how to walk and speak:
and at last, after long and hard practice, you will remember a little, right
back to the time of your birth.
If you never get any further than this, you will have done yourself an
enormous deal of good by this practice. You will have marvellously increased
your memory in every respect; and you will have gained a very clear perception
of the changing nature of your desires and mind and will, even in the few
years of this life. But to get beyond this point of birth is very difficult,
because, you see, you are no longer reading the relatively clear record of
this life, but are trying to read one of those fainter, under written records
the Sankhras have left on your brain. All this practice has been with the
purpose of making clear your mental vision; and, as I have said, this will
without doubt be clearer far than before; but the question is, whether it is
clear enough. Time after time retracing in their order the more important
events of this life, at last, one day you will bridge over that dark space
between death and birth, when all the Sankhras are, like the seed in the
earth, {54} breaking up to build up a new life; and one day you will suddenly
find yourself remembering your death "in your last life." This will be very
painful, but it is important to get to that stage several times, because at
the moment when a man comes very near to death, the mind automatically goes
through the very process of remembering backwards you have been practising so
long, and so you can then gather clues to all the events of hat last life.
Once this difficult point of passing from birth to death is got over, the
rest is said in the books to be easy. You can then, daily, with more and more
facility, remember the deeds and thoughts of your past lives; one after
another will open before your mental vision. You will see yourself living a
thousand lives, you will feel yourself dying a thousand deaths, you will
suffer with the suffering of a myriad existences, you will see how fleeting
were their little joys, what price you had again and again to pay for a little
happiness; --- how real and terrible were the sufferings you had to endure.
You will watch how for years you toiled to amass a little fortune, and how
bitter death was that time, because you could not take your treasure with you;
you will see the innumerable women you have thought of as the only being you
could ever love, and lakh upon lakh of beings caught like yourself in the
whirling Wheel of Life and Death; some now your father, mother, children, some
again your friends, and now your bitter enemies. You will see the good deed,
the loving thought and act, bearing rich harvest life after life, and the sad
gathering of ill weeds, the harvest of ancient wrongs. You will see the
beninningless fabric of your lives, with its every-changing pattern stretching
back, back, back into interminable vistas of past time, {55} and then at last
you will know, and will understand. You will understand how this happy life
for which we crave is never to be gained; you will realise, as no books or
monks could teach you, the sorrow and impermanence and soullessness of all
lives; and you will then be very much stirred up to make a mighty effort, now
that human birth and this knowledge is yours; --- a supreme effort to wake up
out of all this ill dream of life as a man wakes himself out of a fearful
nightmare. And this intense aspiration will, say the Holy Books, go very far
towards effecting your liberation.
There is another form of meditation which is very helpful, the more so as
it is not necessarily confined to any one particular time of the day, but can
be done always, whenever we have a moment in which our mind is not engaged.
This is the "mahasatipatthana," or great reflection. Whatever you are doing,
just observe and make a mental note of it, being careful to understand of what
you see that it is possessed of the Three Characteristics of Sorrow,
Impermanence and lack of an Immortal Principle of soul. Thin of the action
your are preforming,the thought you are thinking, the sensation you are
feeling, as relating to some exterior person;,take care not to think "I" am
doing so-and-so" but "there exists such-and-such a state of action." Thus,
take bodily actions. When you go walking, just concentrate the whole of your
attention upon what you are doing, in an impersonal kind of way. Think "now
he is raising his left foot," or, better, "there is an action of the lifting
of a left foot." "Now there is a raising of the right foot, now the body
leans a little forwards, and so advances, now it turns to the right, and now
it stands still." In this way, just practise concentrating the mind in
observing {56} all the actions that you perform, all the sensations that arise
in your body, all the thoughts that arise in your mind, and always analyse
each concentration object thus (as in the case cited above, of the bodily
action of waling). "what is it that walks?" and by accurate analysis you
reflect that there is no person or soul within the body that walks, but that
there is a particular collection of chemical elements, united and held
together by the result of certain categories of forces, as cohesion, chemical
attraction, and the like: that these acting in unison, owing to a definite
state of co-ordination, appear to walk, move this way and that, and so on,
owing to and concurrent with the occurrence of certain chemical decompositions
going on in brain and nerve and muscle and blood, etc., that this state of coordination
which renders such complex actions possible is the resultant of the
forces of innumerable similar states of co-ordination; that the resultant of
all these past states of co-ordination acting together constitute what is
called a living human being; that owing to certain other decompositions and
movements of the fine particles composing the brain, the idea arises, "I am
walking," but really there is no "I" to walk or go, but only an ever-changing
mass of decomposing chemical compounds;4 that such a decomposing mass of
chemical compounds has in it nothing that is permanent, but is, on the other
hand, subject to pain and grief and weariness of body and mind; that its
principal tendency is to form new sets of co-ordinated forces of a similar
nature --- new Sankhras which in their turn will cause new similar
4 The student should remember that this is only one (illusory)
point of view. The idealistic ego-centric position is just as
true and as false. --- A.C.
combinations of chemical elements to arise, {57} thus making an endless chain
of beings subject to the miseries of birth, disease, decay, old age and death;
and that the only way of escape from the perpetual round of existences is the
following of the Noble Eightfold Path declared by the Smmasambuddha, and that
it is only by diligent practice of His Precepts that we can obtain the
necessary energy of the performance of Concentration; and that by Sammsati
and Sammsamndi alone the final release from all this suffering is to be
obtained; and that by practising earnestly these reflections and meditations
the way to liberation will be opened for us --- even the way which leads to
Nirvna, the State of Changeless Peace to which the Master has declared the
way. Thus do you constantly reflect, alike on the Body, Sensations, Ideas,
Sankhras, and the Consciousness.
Such is a little part of the way of Meditation, the way whereby the mind
and heart may be purified and cultivated. And now for a few final remarks.
It must first be remembered that no amount of reading or talking about
these things is worth a single moment's practice of them. These are things to
be "done," not speculated upon; and only he who practises can obtain the fruits
of meditation.
There is one other thing to be said, and that is concerning the importance
of Sila. It has been said the Sila alone cannot conduct to the Nirvna
Dharma; but, nevertheless, this Sila is of the most vital importance, for
there is no Samadhi without Sila. And why? Because, reverting to our simile
of the steam-engine, whilst Samadhi, mental concentration, is the steam power
of this human machine, the fire that heats the water, the fire that makes that
steam and maintains it at high pressure is the power of Sila. A {58} man who
breaks Sila is putting out his fires; and sooner or later, according to his
reserve stock of Sila fuel, he will have little or no more energy at his
disposal. And so, this Sila is of eminent importance; we must avoid evil, we
must fulfil all good, for only in this way can we obtain energy to practise
and apply our Buddhist philosophy; only in this way can we carry into effect
that third Rule of the Stanza which has been our text; only thus can we really
follow in our Master's Footsteps, and carry into effect His Rule for the
Purification of the mind. Only by this way, and by constantly bearing in mind
and living up to his final utterance --- "Athakho, Bhikkhave, amentayami vo;
Vayadhmama Sankhara, Appamadena Sampadetha."
"Lo! now, Oh Brothers, I exhort ye! Decay is inherent in all the
Tendencies, therefore deliver ye yourselves by earnest effort."
ANANDA METTEYA.
{59}
THE SABBATH
" ""To A. E. W."
OCCULT, forbidden lights Move in the royal rites. Diaphanous, they dance Above the souls in trance That have attained to their untold inheritance.
Above the mystic masque, Like plumes upon a casque, They wave their purple and red Above each haggard head. Thy are like gems snake-rooted, basilisks' bed.
Here were the tables set For Baal and Baphomet: Her was the altar drest With fire and Alkahest For many a holy host, for many a goodly guest.
Here was the veil, and here
The sword and dagger of fear.
Here was the circle traced,
And here the pillar placed
For Him the utterly unfathomably chaste. {60}
Here grew the murmur grim Of the low-muttered hymn; Here sound itself caught flame From the dark drone of shame --- The world reverberated the unutterable Name!
Astarte from her trance Leapt loving to the dance, Greeting as fire greets firs Her whirling worshippers. And all her joy was theirs, and all their madness hers!
Yea! thou and I that strove For mastery in love, Circling the altar stone Maze-like, with magic moan, Forthwith made that divinest destiny our own.
Throughout that violent vigil We wove the stormy sigil, Our faces ashen-lipped From our heart's blood that dripped On the armed talismans of that moon-vaulted crypt.
Then came the sombre spectre
From the abyss of nectar;
Yea, from the icy North
Came the great vision forth,
A giant breaking through the weary web of wrath. {61}
Then, in the midst, behold That blaze of burnished gold Imperishable, set With adamant and jet; And by the obscene head we hailed him Baphomet.
Hail to the Master, hail! Lord of the Sabbath! Baal! I kiss thy feet, I kiss Thy knees --- and this --- and this --- Till I am lifted up to the incorporeal Byss.
Till here alone exalted I gaze beneath the vaulted Forehead, within the eyes Wherein such wonder lies, The incommensurable gain, the pagan prize.
We are thy moons an suns, Thy loyal knights and nuns, Who tread the dance around Thine altar, with the sound Of death-sobs echoing through the immemorial ground.
O glee! the price to pay!
Swear but our souls away!
And we may gain the goal
That all the wise extol ---
The world, the flesh, the devil, weighed against a soul. {62}
The wind blows from the south! Crushed to that burning mouth, Lured by that lurid law, We melt within that maw; And all he fiends loose hold, and all the gods withdraw!
Upon the altar-stone We are alone --- alone! In vivid blackness curled With livid lightings pearled --- Sweat-drops upon God's brow when He creates a world!
Sister, the word is spoken! Sister, the spell is broken. The Sabbath torches flicker; The Sabbath heart beats quicker; We have drained the Sabbath cup of its austerest liquor.
Forsaken is the hall; Finished the festival. My witch and I are thrown Dead on the altar stone By the contemptuous god that made our soul his own.
Come! Come! we must begone.
Hiss the last orison!
Intone the last lament!
Take the last sacrament,
The extreme unction, Saviour when the soul is spent! {63}
Come! hurry through the night, A trail of tortured flight! Eagle and pelican Become mere maid and man Till the next Sabbath --- days each like leviathan!
Nay! lift the languid head! Take of this wine and bread! The vision is withdrawn; The lake calls, and the lawn; Our love shall walk abroad in the grey hours of dawn! ETHEL RAMSAY.
{64}
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
THE KING
A.'. a.'. Publication in Class B. Imprimatur: N. Fra A.'. A.'.
{Chart approximated}
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3 6 3S. of Saturn 3 HB:Yod HB:Aleph HB:Taw HB:Bet HB:Shin 3Understanding. 3HB:Heh HB:Nun HB:Yod HB:Bet 3 3 3
3 10 3S. of Jupiter 3 HB:Qof HB:Dalet HB:Tzaddi 3Mercy. 3HB:Dalet HB:Samekh HB:Chet 3 4 3
3 15 3S. of Mars 3 HB:Mem-final HB:Yod HB:Dalet HB:Aleph HB:Mem 3Strength. 3HB:Heh HB:Resh HB:Vau HB:Bet HB:Gemel 3 5 3
3 21 3S. of Sol 3 HB:Shin HB:Mem HB:Shin 3Beauty. 3HB:Taw HB:Resh HB:Aleph HB:Peh HB:Taw 3 6 3
3 28 3S. of Venus 3 HB:Heh HB:Gemel HB:Vau HB:Nun 3Victory. 3HB:Chet HB:Tzaddi HB:Nun 3 7 3
3 36 3S. of Mercury 3 HB:Bet HB:Koph HB:Vau HB:Koph 3Splendour. 3HB:Dalet HB:Vau HB:Heh 3 8 3
3 45 3S. of Luna 3 HB:Heh HB:Nun HB:Bet HB:Lamed 3Foundation. 3HB:Dalet HB:Vau HB:Samekh HB:Yod 3 9 3
3 55 3S. of the Elements 3 HB:Taw HB:Vau HB:Dalet HB:Vau HB:Samekh HB:Yod HB:Mem-final HB:Lamed HB:Chet 3Kingdom. 3 HB:Taw HB:Vau HB:Koph HB:Lamed HB:Mem 3 10 3 3 66 3Air 3 HB:Chet HB:Vau HB:Resh 3Ox. 3HB:Peh-final HB:Lamed HB:Aleph 311 3
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3171 3Cancer 3 HB:Nun-final HB:Tet HB:Resh HB:Samekh 3Fence. 3HB:Taw HB:Yod HB:Chet 3 183
3190 3Leo 3 HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Resh HB:Aleph 3Serpent. 3HB:Taw HB:Yod HB:Tet 3 193
3210 3Virgo 3 HB:Heh HB:Lamed HB:Vau HB:Taw HB:Bet 3Hand. 3HB:Dalet HB:Vau HB:Yod 3 203
3231 3Jupiter 3 3Palm. 3HB:Peh-final HB:Koph 3 21 3
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3406 3Aquarius 3 HB:Yod HB:Lamed HB:Dalet 3Fish-hook. 3HB:Yod HB:Dalet HB:Tzaddi 3 283
3435 3Pisces 3 HB:Mem-final HB:Yod HB:Gemel HB:Dalet 3Back of Head. 3HB:Peh-final HB:Vau HB:Qof 3 293
3465 3Sol 3 3Head. 3HB:Shin HB:Yod HB:Resh 3 30 3
3496 3Fire 3 HB:Shin HB:Aleph 3Tooth. 3HB:Nun-final HB:Yod HB:Shin 331 3
3 3Earth 3 HB:Tzaddi-final HB:Resh HB:Aleph 3 --- 3HB:Vau HB:Taw 332bis3
3 3Spirit 3 HB:Taw HB:Aleph 3 --- 3HB:Nun-final HB:Yod HB:Shin 331bis3
{Chart approximated}
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3 Jupiter 4 3213 III 3 4 3 D HB:Dalet3 14 3
3 Mars 5 3273 IV 3 5 3 H HB:Heh3 153
3 Sun 6 3303 V 3 6 3 V HB:Vau3 163
3 Saturn 3 3323 VI 3 7 3 Z HB:Zain3 173
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THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE
KING ___ (Continued)
GREAT as were Frater P.'s accomplishments in the ancient sciences of the East,
swiftly and securely as he had passed in a bare year the arduous road which so
many fail to traverse in a lifetime, satisfied as himself was ___ in a sense
___ with his own progress, it was yet not by these paths that he was destined
to reach the Sublime Threshold of the Mystic Temple. For thought it is
written, "To the persevering mortal the blessed immortals are swift," yet,
were it otherwise, no mortal however persevering could attain the immortal
shore. As it is written in the Fifteenth Chapter of St Luke's Gospel, "And
when he was yet afar off, his Father saw him and ran." Had it not been so,
the weary Prodigal, exhausted by his early debauches (astral visions and
magic) and his later mental toil (yoga) would never have had the strength to
reach the House of his Father.
One little point St Luke unaccountably omitted. When a man is as hungry
and weary as was the Prodigal, he is apt to see phantoms. He is apt to clasp
shadows to him and cry: "Father!" And, the devil being subtle, capable of
disguising himself as an angel of light, it behoves the Prodigal to have some
test of truth. {69}
Some great mystics have laid down the law, "Accept no messenger of God,"
banish all, until at last the Father himself comes forth. A counsel of
perfection. The Father does send messengers, as we learn in St Mark xii.; and
if we stone them, we may perhaps in our blindness stone the son himself when
he is sent.
So that is no vain counsel of "St John" (1 John iv. 1), "Try the spirits,
whether they be of God," no mistake when "St Paul" claims the discernment of
Spirits to be a principal point of the armour of salvation (1 Cor. xii. 10).
Now how should Frater P. or another test the truth of any message
purporting to come from the Most High? On the astral plane, its phantoms are
easily governed by the Pentagram, the Elemental Weapons, the Robes, the Godforms,
and such childish toys. We set phantoms to chase phantoms. We make
our Scin-Laeca pure and hard and glittering, all glorious within, like the
veritable daughter of the King; yet she is but the King's daughter, the
Nephesch adorned: she is not the King himself, the Holy Ruach or mind of man.
And as we have seen in our chapter on Yoga, this mind is a very aspen; and as
we may see in the last chapter of Captain Fuller's "Star in the West," this
mind is a very cockpit of contradiction.
What then is the standard of truth? What tests shall we apply to
revelation, when our tests of experience are found wanting? If I must doubt
my eyes that have served me (well, on the whole) for so many years, must I not
much more doubt my spiritual vision, my vision just open like a babe's, my
vision untested by comparison and uncriticized by reason? {70}
Fortunately, there is one science that can aid us, a science that, properly
understood by the initiated mind, is as absolute as mathematics, more selfsupporting
than philosophy, a science of the spirit itself, whose teacher is
god, whose method is simple as the divine Light, and subtle as the divine
Fire, Whose results are limpid as the divine Water, all-embracing as the
divine Air, and solid as the divine Earth. Truth is the source, and Economy
the course, of that marvellous stream that pours its living waters into the
Ocean of apodeictic certainty, the Truth that is infinite in its infinity as
the primal Truth with which it is identical is infinite in its Unity.
Need we say that we speak of the Holy Qabalah? O science secret, subtle,
and sublime, who shall name thee without veneration, without prostration of
soul, spirit, and body before thy divine Author, without exaltation of soul,
spirit, and body as by His favour they bathe in His lustral and illimitable
Light?
It must first here be spoken of the Exoteric Qabalah to be found in books, a shell of that perfect fruit of the Tree of Life. Next we will deal with the esoteric teachings of it, as Frater P. was able to understand them. And of these we shall give examples, showing the falsity and absurdity of the uninitiated path, the pure truth and reasonableness of the hidden Way. For the student unacquainted with the rudiments of the Qabalah we recommend the study of S. L. Mathers' "Introduction"1 to his translation of the three principal books of the Zohar,2 and Westcott's "Introduction to the Study of the Qabalah." We venture to append a few quotations from the {71} former document, which will show the elementary principles of calculation. Dr Westcott's little book is principally valuable for its able defence of the Qabalah as against exotericism and literalism.
The literal Qabalah ... is divided into three parts: GMTRIA, Gematria;
NVTRIQVN, Notariqon; and ThMVRH, Temura.
Gematria is a metathesis of the Greek word
gamma rho alpha mu mu alpha tau epsilon iota alpha . It is based on the relative
numerical values of words. Words of similar numerical values are considered
to be explanatory of each other, and this theory is extended to phrases. Thus
the letter Shin, Sh, is 300, and is equivalent to the number obtained by
adding up the numerical values of the letters of the words RVCh ALHIM, Ruach
Elohim, the spirit of Elohim; and it is there fore a symbol of the spirit of
Elohim. For % = 200, V = 6, Ch = 8, A = 1, L = 30, H = 5, I = 10, M = 40;
total = 300. Similarly, the words AChD, Achad, Unity, One, and AHBH, Ahebah,
love, each = 13; for A =1, Ch = 8, D = 4, total = 13; and A = 1, H = 5, B = 2,
H = 5, total = 13. Again, the name of the angel MTTRVN, Metatron or
Methraton, and the name of the Deity, ShDI, Shaddai, each make 314;3 so the
one is taken as symbolical of the other. The angel Metatron is said to have
been the conductor of the children of Israel through the wilderness, of whom
God says, "My name is in him." With regard to Gematria of phases (Gen. xlix.
10), IBA ShILH, Yeba Shiloh, "Sjhiloh shall come" = 358, which is the
numeration of the word MShICh, Messiah. Thus also the passage, Gen. xviii. 2,
VHNH ShLShH, Vehenna Shalisha, "And lo, three men," equals in numerical value
ALV MIKAL GBRIAL VRPAL, Elo Mikhale Gabriel Ve-Raphael, "These are Mikhael,
Gabriel and Raphael"; for each phrase = 701. I think these instance will
suffice to make clear the nature of Gematria.
Notariqon is derived from the Latin word notarius, a shorthand writer. Of
Notariqon there are two forms. In the first every letter of a word is taken
from the initial or abbreviation of another word, so that from the letters of
a word a sentence may be formed. Thus every letter of the word BRAShITH,
Berashith, the first word in Genesis, is made the initial of a word, and we
obtain BRAShITh RAH ALHIM ShIQBLV IShRAL ThVRH, Berashith Rahi Elohim
Sheyequebelo Israel Torah; "In the beginning Elohim saw that Israel would
accept the law." In this connection I may give six very interesting specimens
of Notariqon formed from this same word BRAShITh by Solomon Meir Ben Moses, a
Jewish Qabalist, who embraced the Christian faith in 1665, and took the name
of Prosper Rugere. These have all a Christian tendency, {72} and by their
means Prosper converted another Jew, who had previously been bitterly opposed
1 WEH NOTE: Plagiarized entire from Ginsburg's "The Kabbalah".
2 WEH NOTE: Better: His purported translation of three of the
more obscure books of the Zohar.
3 WEH NOTE: This observation led Mathers to miss-identify a
picture of Moses as Metatron in his edition (not translation, the
MSS were in English!) of "The Greater Key of Solomon."
to Christianity. The first is, BN RVCh AB ShLVShThM IChD ThMIM, Ben, Ruach,
Ab, Shaloshethem Yechad Thaubodo: "The Son, the Spirit, the Father, ye shall
equally worship Their Trinity." The third is BKVRI RAShVNI AShR ShMV IShVO
ThOBVDV, Bekori Rashuni Asher Shamo Yeshuah Thaubodo: "Ye shall worship My
first-born, My first, Whose name is Jesus." The fourth is, BBVA RBN AShR ShMV
IShVO ThOBVDV, Beboa Rabban Asher Shamo Yeshuah Thaubodo: "When the Master
shall come Whose Name is Jesus ye shall worship." The fifth is, BThVLH RAVIH
ABChR ShthLD ISh VO THAShRVH, Bethulh Raviah Abachar Shethaled Yeshuah
Thashroah: "I will choose a virgin worthy to bring forth Jesus, and ye shall
call her belssed." The sixth is, BOVGTh RTzPIM ASThThR ShGVPI IShVO ThAKLV,
Beaugoth Ratzephim Asattar Shgopi Yeshuah Thakelo: "I will hid myself in cake
(baked with) coals, for ye shall eat Jesus, My Body."
The Qabalistical importance of these sentences as bearing upon the
doctrines of Christianity can hardly be overrated.
The second form of the Notariqon is the exact reverse of the first. By
this the initials or finals, or both, or the medials, of a sentence, are taken
to form a word or words. Thus the Qabalah is called ChKMH NSThRH, Chokhmah
Nesthrah, "the secret wisdom"; and if we take the initials of these two words
Ch and N, we form by the second king of Notariqon the word ChN, Chen,
"gracce." Similarly, from the initials and finals of the words MI IOLH LNV
HShMIMH, Mi Iaulah Leno Ha-Shamayimah, "Who shall go up for us to heaven?"
(Deut. xxx. 120, are formed MILH, Milah, "circumcision," and IHVH, the
Tetragrammaton, implying that God hath ordained circumcision as the way to
heaven.
Temura is permutation.4 According to certain rules, one letter is
substituted for another letter preceding or following it in the alphabet, and
thus from one word another word of totally different orthography may be
formed. Thus the alphabet is bent exactly in half, in the middle, and one
half is put over the other; and then by changing alternately the first letter
or the first two letters at the beginning of the second line, twenty-two
commutations are produced. These are called the "Table of the Combinations of
TzIRVP," Tzirup. For example's sake, I will give the method called ALBTh,
Albath, thus: ---
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
K I T Ch Z V H D G B A
M N S O P Tz Q R Sh Th L
Each method takes its name from he first two pairs composing it, the system {73} of pairs of letters being the groundwork of the the whole, as either letter in a pair is substituted for the other letter. Thus, by Albath, from RVCh, Ruach, is formed DTzO, Detzau. The names of the other twenty-one methods are: ABGTh, AGDTh, ADBG, AHBD, AVBH, AZBY, AChBZ, ATBCh, AIBT, AKBI, ALBK, AMBL, ANBM, ASBN, AOBS, APBO, ATzBP, AQSTz, ARBQ, AShBR, AND AThBSh. To these must be added the modes ABGD and ALBM. Then comes the "Rational Table of Tziruph," another set of twenty-two combination. There are also three "Tables of the commutations," known respectively as the Right, the Averse, and the Irregular. To make any of these, a square, containing 484 squares, should be made,and the letters written in. For the "Right Table" write the alphabet across from right to left; in the second row of squares do the same, but begin with B and end with A; in the third begin with G and end with B; and so on. For the "Averse Table" write the alphabet from right to left backwards, beginning with Th and ending with A; in the second row begin with Sh and end with Th, &c. The "Irregular Table" would take too long to describe. Besides all these, there is the method called ThShRQ, Thashraq, which is simply writing a word backwards. There is one more very important form called the "Qabalah of the Nine Chambers" or AIQ BKR, Aiq Bekar. It is thus formed: 4 WEH NOTE: Strictly speaking, no. Temura is substitution code, with 24 principal tables. Crowley tended to use simple permutation of the letters in some instances, calling it Temura.
Z___________________B____________________B____________________? 3 300 30 3 3 200 20 2 3 100 10 1 3
3 Sh L G 3 R K B 3 Q I A 3C___________________E____________________E____________________4 3 600 60 6 3 500 50 5 3 400 40 4 3
3 M final S V 3 K final N H 3 Th M D 3C___________________E____________________E____________________4 3 900 90 9 3 800 80 8 3 700 70 7 3
3Tz final Tz T 3 P final P Ch 3 N final O Z 3@___________________A____________________A____________________Y
I have put the numeration of each letter above to show the affinity between
the letters in each chamber. ?sometimes this is used as a cipher, by taking
the portions of the figure to show the letters they contain, putting one point
for the first letter, two for the second, &c. Thus the right angle,
containing AIQ, will answer for the letter Q if it have three dots or points
within it. Again a square will answer for H, H, or K final, according to
whether it has one, two, or three points respectively placed within it. so
also with regard to the other letters. But there are many other ways of
employing the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers, which I have not space to
describe. I will merely mention as an example, that by the mode of Temura
called {74} AThBsH, Athbash, it is found that in Jeremiah xxv. 26, the word
ShShK, Sheshakh, symbolises BBL, Babel.
Besides all these rules,there are certain meanings hidden in the shape of
the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; in the form of a particular letter at the
end of a word being different from that which it generally bears when it is a
final letter, or in a letter being written in the middle of a word in a
character generally used only at the end; in any letters or letter being
written in a size smaller or larger than the rest of the manuscript, or in a
letter being written upside down; in the variations found in the spelling of
certain words, which have a letter more in some places than they have in
others; in peculiarities observed in the position of any of the points or
accents, and in certain expressions supposed to be elliptic or redundant.
For example the shape of the Hebrew letter Aleph, A, is said to symbolize a
Vau, V, between a Yod, I, and a Daleth, D; and thus the letter itself
represents the word IVD, Yod. Similarly the shape of the letter He, H,
represents a Daleth, D, with a Yod, I, written at the lower left-hand corner,
&c.
In Isaiah ix. 6, 7, the word LMRBH, Lemarbah, "for multiplying," is written
with the character for M final in the middle of the word, instead of with the
ordinary initial and medial M. The consequence of this is that the total
numerical value of the word, instead of being 30 + 40 + 200 + 2 + 5 = 277, is
30 + 600 + 200 + 2 + 5 = 837 = by Gematria ThTh ZL, Tet Zal, the profuse
Giver. Thus by writing the M final instead of the ordinary character, the
word is made to bear a different qabalistical meaning.
. . . . . . . . .
It is to be further noted with regard to the first word in the Bible, BRAShITH, that the first three letters, BRA, are the initial letters of the names of the three persons of the Trinity: BN, Ben the Son; RVCh, Ruach, the Spirit; and AB, Ab the Father. Furthermore the first letter of the Bible is B, which is the initial letter of BRKH, Berakhah, blessing; and not A, which is that of ARR, Arar, cursing. Again, the letters of Berashith, taking their numerical powers, express the number of the years between the Creation and the birth of Christ, thus: B = 2,000, R = 200, A - 1,000, Sh = 300, I = 10, and Th
. . . . . . . . .
There are three qabalistical veils of the negative existence, and in
themselves they formulate the hidden ideas of the Sephiroth not yet called
into being, and they are concentrated in Kether, which in this sense is the
Malkuth of hidden ideas of the Sephiroth. I will explain this. The first
veil of the negative existence is the AIN, Ain, Negativity. This word
consists of three letters, which thus shadow forth the first three Sephiroth
or numbers. The second veil is the AIN SVP, the limitless. This title
consists of six letters, and shadows forth the idea of the first six Sephiroth
or numbers. The third veil is the AIN SVP AVR, Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless
Light. This again consists of nine letters, and suymbolises the first nine
Sephiroth, but of course in their hidden idea only. But when we reach the
number nine we cannot progress farther without returning to the unity, or the
number one, for the number ten is but a repetition of unity freshly derived
from the negative, as is evident from a glance at its ordinary representation
in Arabic numerals, where the circle O represents the Negative and the I the
Unity. Thus, then, the limitless ocean of negative light does not proceed
from a centre, for it is centreless, but it concentrates a centre, which is
the number one of of the Sephiroth, Kether, the Crown, the First Sephira;
which therefore may be said to be the Malkuth or the number ten of the hidden
Sephiroth. Thus "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether." Or as an
alchemical author of great repute (Thomas Vaughan, better known as Eugenius
Philalethes) says, apparently quoting from Proclus; "That the heaven is in the
earth, but after an earthly manner; and that the earth is in the heaven, but
after a heavenly manner." But inasmuch as negative existence is the subject
incapable of definition, as I have before shown, it is rather considered by
the Qabalists as depending back from the number of unity than as a separate
consideration therefrom; therefore they frequently apply the same terms and
epithets indiscriminately to either. Such epithets are "The concealed of the
Concealed," "The Ancient of the Ancient Ones," the "Most Holy Ancient One,"
etc. {76}
I must now explain the real meaning of the terms Sephira and Sephiroth.
The first is singular, the second is plural. The best rendering of the word
is "numerical emanation." There are ten Sephiroth, which are the most
abstract forms of the ten numbers of the decimal scale --- "i.e.", the numbers
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Therefore, as in the higher mathematics we
reason of numbers in their abstract sense, so in the Qabalah we reason of the
Deity by the abstract forms of the numbers in other words, by the SPIRVTh,
Sephiroth. it was from this ancient Oriental theory that Pythagoras derived
his numerical symbolic ideas.
Among the Sephiroth, jointly and severally, we find the development of the
persons and attributes of God. Of these some are male and some female. Now,
for some reason or other best known to themselves, the translators of the
Bible have carefully crowded out of existence and smothered up every reference
to the fact that the Deity is both masculine and feminine. They have
translated a feminine plural by a masculine singular in the case of the word
Elohim. They have, however, left an inadvertent admission of their knowledge
that it was plural in Genesis iv, 26: "And Elohim said: Let Us make man."
Again (v. 27), who could Adam be made in the image of Elohim, male and female,
unless the Elohim were male and female also? The word Elohim is a plural
formed from the feminine singular ALH, Eloh, by adding IM to word. But
inasmuch as IM is usually a termination of the masculine plural and is here
added to a feminine noun, it gives to the word Elohim the sense of a female
potency united to a masculine idea, and thereby capable of producing an
offspring. How, we hear much of the Father and the Son, but we hear nothing
of the Mother in the ordinary religions of the day. But in the Qabalah we
find that the Ancient of Days conforms Himself simultaneously into the Father
and the Mother, and thus begets the son. Now, this Mother is Elohim. Again,
we are usually told that the Holy Spirit is masculine. But the word RVCh,
Ruach, Spirit, is feminine, as appears from the following passage of the
Sepher Yetzirah: "AChTh RVCh ALHIM ChIIM, Achath (feminine, not Achad,
masculine) Ruach Elohim Chimm: One is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life."
Now, we find that before he Deity conformed Himself thus --- "i.e.", as male
and female --- that the worlds of the universe could not subsist, or, in the
words of Genesis, "The earth was formless and void." These prior worlds are
considered to be symbolised by the "kings who reigned in Edom before there
reigned a king in Israel," and they are therefore spoken of in the Qabalah as
the "Edomite kings." This will be found fully explained in various parts of
this work.
we now come to the consideration of the first Sephira, or the Number One,
the Monad of Pythagoras. In this number are the other nine hidden. It is
{77} indivisible, it is also incapable of multiplication; divide 1 by itself
and it still remains 1, multiply 1 by itself and it is still 1 and unchanged.
Thus it is a fitting representative of the unchangeable Father of all. Now
this number of unity has a twofold nature, and thus forms, as it were, the
link between the negative and the positive. In its unchangeable one-ness it
is scarcely a number; but in its property of capability of addition it may be
called the first number of a numerical series. Now, the zero, 0, is incapable
even of addition, just as also is negative existence. How, then, if 1 can
neither be multiplied nor divided, is another 1 to be obtained to add to it;
in other words how is the number 2 to be found? By reflection of itself. For
thought 0 be incapable of definition, 1 is definable. And the effect of a
definition is to form an Eidolon, duplicate, or image, of the thing defined.
Thus, then, we obtain a duad composed of 1 and its reflection. Now also we
have the commencement of a vibration established, for the number 1 vibrates
alternately from changelessness to definition, and back to changelessness
again. Thus, then, it is the father of all numbers, and a fitting type of the
Father of all things.
The name of the first Sephira is KThR, Kether, the Crown. The Divine Name
attributed to it is the Name of the Father given in Exod. iii. 4: AHIH,
Eheieh, I am. It signifies Existence.
. . . . . . . . .
The first Sephira contains nine, and produces them in succession thus: ---
The number 2 or the Duad. The name of the second Sephira is ChKMHm,
Chokmah, Wisdom, a masculine active potency reflected from Kether, as I have
before explained. this Sephira is the active and evident Father, to whom the
Mother is united, who is the number 3. This second Sephira is represented by
the Divine Names, IH, Yah, and IHVHY; and the angelic hosts by AVPNIM,
Auphanim, the Wheels (Ezek. i.). It is also called AB, Ab, the Father.
The third Sephira, or triad, is a feminine passive potency, called BINH,
Binah, the Understanding, who is co-equal with Chokmah. For Chokmah, the
number 2, is like two straight lines which can never enclose a space, and
therefore it is powerless till the number 3 forms a triangle. Thus this
Sephira completes and makes evident the supernal Trinity. It is also called
AMA, Ama, Mother, and AIMA, Mima, the great productive Mother, who is
eternally conjoined with AB, the Father, for the maintenance of the universe
in order. There fore is she the most evident form in whom we can know the
Father, and therefore is she worthy of all honour. She is the supernal
Mother, co-equal with Chokmah, and the great feminine form of god, the Elohim,
in whose image man and woman are created, according to the teaching of the
Qabalah, equal before God. Woman is equal with man, and certainly not {78}
inferior to him, as it has been the persistent endeavour of so-called
Christians to make her. Aima is the woman described in the Apocalypse (chap.
xii.). This third Sephira is also sometimes called the Great Sea. To her are
attribute the Divine names, ALHIM, Elohim, and IHVH ALHIM; and the angelic
order, ARALIM, Aralim, the Thrones. She is the Supernal Mother as
distinguished from Malkuth, the inferior Mother, Bride, and Queen.
The number 4. This union of the second and third Sephiroth produced ChSD,
Chesed, Mercy or Love, also called GDVLH, Gedulah, Greatness or Magnificence;
a masculine potency represented by the Divine Name AL, EL, the Mighty One, and
the angelic name, ChShMLIM, Chashmalim, Scintillating Flames (Ezek. iv. 4).
The number 5. From this emanated the feminine passive potency GBVRH,
Geburah, strength or fortitude; or DIN, Deen, Justice; represented by the
Divine Names, ALHIM GBVR, and ALH, Eloh, and the angelic name ShRPIM, Seraphim
(Isa. vi. 6). This Sephira is also called PChD, Pachad, Fear.
The number 6. And from these two issued the uniting Sephira, ThPARTh,
Tiphereth, Beauty or Mildness, represented by the Divine Name ALVH VDOTh,
Eloah Va-Daath, and the angelic names, Shinanim, ShNANIM (Ps. lxviii. 18), or
MLKIM, Melakim, kings. Thus by the union of justice and mercy we obtain
beauty or clemency, and the second trinity of the Sephiroth is complete. This
Sephira, or "Path," or "Numeration" --- for by these latter appellations the
emanations are sometimes called --- together with the fourth, fifth, seventh
eighth, and ninth Sephiroth, is spoken of as ZOIR ANPIN, Zaur Anpin, the
Lesser Countenance, Microprosopus, by way of antithesis to Macroprosopus, or
the Vast Countenance, which is one of the names of Kether, the first Sephira.
The six Sephiroth of which Zauir Anpin is composed, are then called His six
members. He is also called MLK, Melekh the King.
The number 7. The seventh Sephira is NTzCh, Netzach, or Firmness and
Victory, corresponding to he Divine Name Jehovah Tzabaoth, IHVH TzBAVTh, the
Lord of Armies, and the angelic names ALHIM, Elohim, gods, and ThRShIShIM,
Tharshishim, the brilliant ones (Dan. x. 6)5.
The number 8. Thence proceeded the feminine passive potency HVD, Hod,
Splendour, answering to the Divine Name ALHIM TzBAVTh, Elohim Tzabaoth, the
God of Armies, and among the angels to BNI ALHIM, Beni Elohim, the sons of the
Gods (Gen. vi. 4).
The number 9. These two produced ISVD, Yesod, the Foundation or Basis,
represented by AL ChI, El Chai, the Mighty Living One, and ShDI, Shaddai; and
among the angels by AShIM, Aishim, the Flames (Ps. civ. 5), yielding the third
Trinity of the Sephiroth. {79}
The number 10. From this ninth Sephira came the tenth and last, thus
completing the decad of the numbers. It is called MLVth, Malkuth, the
Kingdom, and also the Queen, Matrona, the inferior Mother, the Bride of
Microprosopus; and ShKINH, Shekinah, represented by the Divine Name Adonai,
ADNI, and among the angel hosts by the kerubim, KRVBIM. Now, each of these
5 WEH NOTE: Tharshisim. Literally the "ships of Tarshish".
Isaiah, II, 16: "And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon
all delightful imagery." See also Isaiah XXIII, 1. Mathers
copies Ginsburg's "The Kabbalah" with a reference to Daniel X,6 for
this angelic order, but all that is found there is a description
of an angel. The figuration of "Brass" in the description is all
that can be directly found to unite to Netzach --- in as much as
Brass contains Copper, the metal commonly attributed to Netzach.
One could just as well attribute to Hod, Brass being a mixed
metal.
Sephiroth will be in a certain degree androgynous, for it will be feminine or
receptive with regard to the Sephira which immediately precedes it in the
sephirotic scale, and masculine or transmissive with regard to the Sephira
which immediately follows it. But there is no Sephira anterior to Kether, nor
is there a Sephira which succeeds Malkuth. By these remarks it will be
understood how Chokmah is a feminine noun, though marking a masculine Sephira.
the connecting-link of the Sephiroth is the Ruach, spirit, Mezla, the hidden
influence.
I will how add a few more remarks on the qabalistical meaning of the term
MThQLA, Metheqla, balance. In each of the three trinities or triads of the
Sephiroth is a duad of opposite sexes, and a uniting intelligence which is the
result. In this, the masculine and feminine potencies are regarded as the two
scales of the balance, and the uniting Sephira as the beam that joins them.
Thus, then, the term balance maybe said to symbolise the Triune, Trinity in
Unity, and the Unity represented by the central point of the beam. But,
again, in the Sephiroth there is a triple Trinity, the upper, lower, and
middle. Now, these three are represented thus: the supernal, or highest, by
the Crown, Kether; the middle by the King, and the inferior by the Queen;
which will be the greatest trinity. And the earthy correlatives of these will
be the primum mobile, the sun and the moon. Here we at once find alchemical
symbolism.
. . . . . . . . .
The Sephiroth are futher divided into three pillars --- the right-hand
Pillar of Mercy, consisting of the second, fourth, and seventh emanations; the
left-hand Pillar of Judgment, consisting of the third, fifth, and eighth; and
the middle Pillar of Mildness, consisting of the first, sixth, ninth, and
tenth emanations.
In their totality and unity the ten Sephiroth represent the archetypal man,
ADM QDMVN, Adam Qadmon, the Protogonos. In looking at the Sephiroth
constituting the first triad, it is evident that they represent the intellect;
and hence this triad is called the intellectual world, OVLM MVShKL, Olahm
Mevshekal. The second triad corresponds to the moral world, OVLM MVRGSh,
Olahm Morgash. The third represents power and stability, and is therefore
called the material world, OLVM HMVTHBO, Olahm Ha-Mevethau. These three
aspect are called the faces, ANPIN, Anpin. Thus is the tree of life, OTz
ChIIM, Otz Chaiim, formed; the first triad being placed above, the {80}
second and third below, in such a manner that the three masculine Sephiroth
are on the right, the three feminine on the left, whilst the four uniting
Sephiroth occupy the centre. This is the qabalistical "tree of life," on
which all things depend. There is considerable analogy between this and the
tree Yggdrasil of the Scandinavians. I have already remarked that there is
one trinity which comprises all the Sephiroth, and that it consists of the
crown, the king, and the queen. (In some senses this is the Christian Trinity
of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which in their highest Divine nature are
symbolised by the first three Sephiroth, Kether, Chokmah, and Binah.) It is
the Trinity which created the world; or, in qabalistical language, the
universe was born from the union of the crowned king and queen. But according
to the Qabalah, before the complete form of the heavenly man (the ten
Sephiroth) was produced, there were certain primordial world created, but
these could not subsist, as the equilibrium of balance was not yet perfect,
and they were convulsed by the unbalanced force and destroyed. These
primordial worlds are called the "kings of ancient time" and the "kings of
Edom who reigned before the monarchs of Israel." In this sense, Edom is the
world of unbalanced force, and Israel is the balanced Sephiroth (Gen. xxxvi.
31.). This important fact, that worlds were created and destroyed prior to
the present creation, is again and again reiterated in the Zohar.
Now the Sephiroth are also called the World of Emanations, or the
Atziluthic World, or the archetypal world, OVLM ATzILUTh, Olahm Atziloth; and
this world gave birth to three other worlds each containing a repetition of
the Sephiroth, but in a descending scale of brightness.
The second world is the Briatic world, OVLM HBRIAH, Olahm Ha-Briah, the
world of creation, also called KVRSIA, Khorsia, the throne. It is an
immediate emanation from the world of Atziloth, whose ten Sephiroth are
reflected herein, and are consequently more limited, though they are still of
the purest nature, and without any admixture of matter.
The third is the Jetziratic world, OVLM HITzIRAH, Olahm Ha-Yetzirah, or
world of formation and of angels, which proceeds from Briah, and, though less
refined in substance, is still without matter. It is in this angelic world
that reside those intelligent and incorporeal beings who are wrapped in a
luminous garment, and who assume a form when they appear unto man.
The fourth is the Asiatic world, OVLM HOShIH, Olahm Ha-Asiah, the world of
action, called also the world of shells, OVLM HQLIPVTh, Olahm Ha-Qliphoth,
which is this world of matter, made up of the grosser elements of the other
three. In it is also the abode of the evil spirits, which are called "the
shells" by the Qabalah, QLIPVTh, Qliphoth, material shells. The devils are
also divided into ten classes, and have suitable habitations. (See Tables in
"777.") {81}
The demons are the grossest and most deficient of all forms. Their ten
degrees answer to the decad of the Sephiroth, but in inverse ratio, as
darkness and impurity increase with the descent of each degree. The two first
are nothing but absence of visible form and organisation. The third is the
abode of darkness. Next follow seven Hells occupied by those demons which
represent incarnate human vices, and those who have given themselves up to
such vices in earth-life. Their prince is Samael, SMAL, the angel of poison
and death.. His wife is the harlot, or woman of whoredom, AShTh ZNVNIM,
Isheth Zennuim; and united they are called the beast, CHIVA, Chioa. Thus the
infernal trinity is completed which is, so to speak,the averse and caricature
of the supernal Creative One. Samael is considered to be identical with
Satan.
The name of the Deity, which we call Jehovah, is in Hebrew ad name of four
letters, IHVH; and the true pronunciation of it is known to very few. I
myself know some score of different mystical pronunciations of it. The true
pronunciation of it is a most secret arcanum, and is a secret of secrets. "He
who can rightly pronounce it, causeth heaven and earth to tremble, for it is
the name which rusheth through the universe." Therefore when a devout Jew
comes upon it in reading the Scripture, he either does not attempt to
pronounce it, but instead makes a short pause, or else he substitutes for it
the name Adonai, ADNI, Lord. The radical meaning of the word is "to be," and
it is thus, like AHIH, Eheieh, a glyph of existence. It is capable of twelve
transpositions, which all convey the meaning of "to be"; it is the only word
that will bear so many transpositions without its meaning being altered. They
are called the "twelve banners of the mighty name," and are said by some to
rule the twelve signs of the Zodiac. These are the twelve banners: --- IHVH,
IHHV, IVHH, HVHI, HVIH, HHIV, VHHI, VIHH, VHIH, HIHV, HIVH, HHVI. There are
three other tetragrammatic names, which are AHIH, Eheieh, existence; ADNI,
Adonai, Lord; and AGLA. This last is not properly speaking, a word, but is a
notariqon of the sentence, AThH GBVR LOVLM ADNI, Steh Gebor Le0Olahm Adonai:
"Thou art might, for ever, O Lord!" A brief explanation of Agla is this; A,
the one first; A, the one last; G, the Trinity in Unity; L, the completion of
the great work.
. . . . . . . . .
But IHVH, the Tetragrammaton, as we shall presently see, contains all the
Sephiroth with the exception of Kether, and specially signifies the Lesser
Countenance, Microprosopus, the King of the qabalistical Sephirotic greatest
Trinity,and the Son in His human incarnation, in the Christian acceptation of
the Trinity. Therefore, as the Son reveals the Father, so does IHVH, Jehovah,
reveal AHIH, Eheieh. And ADNI is the Queen, by whom alone Tetragrammaton {82}
can be grasped, whose exaltation into Binah is found in the Christian
assumption of the Virgin.
The Tetragrammaton IHVH is referred to the Sephiroth, thus: the upper-most
point of the letter Yod, I, is said to refer to Kether; the letter I itself to
Chokmah, the father of Microprosopus; the letter H, or "the supernal He," to
Binah, the supernal Mother; the letter V to the next six Sephiroth, which are
called the six members of Microprosopus (and six is the numerical value of V,
the Hebrew Vau); lastly, the letter H, the "inferior He," to Malkuth, the
tenth Sephira, the bride of Microprosopus.
Advanced students should then go to the fountain head, Knorr von
Rosenroth's "Kabbala denudata," and study for themselves. It should not prove
easy; Frater P., after years of study, confessed: "I cannot get much out of
Rosenroth"; and we may add that only the best minds are likely to obtain more
than an academic knowledge of a system which we suspect von Rosenroth himself
never understood in any deeper sense. As a book of reference to the
hierarchical correspondences of the Qabalah, of course "777" stands alone an
unrivalled.
The graphic Qabalah has been already fully illustrated in this treatise.
See Illustrations 2, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 38,
39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 74,
75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82.
By far the best and most concise account of the method of the Qabalah is
that by an unknown author, which Mr. Aleister Crowley has printed at the end
of the first volume of his Collected Works, and which we here reprint in full.
QABALISTIC DOGMA
The Evolution of Things is thus described by the Qabalists.
First is Nothing, or the Absence of Things, HB:Nun-final HB:Yod HB:Aleph , which does not
and cannot mean Negatively Existing (if such an Idea can be said to mean
anything), as S. Liddell Macgregor Mathers, who misread the Text and
stultified the {83} Commentary by the Light of his own Ignorance of Hebrew and
Philosophy, pretends in his Translation of v. Rosenroth.
Second is Without Limit HB:Peh-final HB:Vau HB:Samekh HB:Nun-final HB:Yod a {WEH NOTE:
Corrected, original text had HB:Peh-final HB:Vau HB:Mem }, "i.e.", Infinite Space.
This is the primal Dualism of Infinity; the infinitely small and the
infinitely great. The Clash of these produces a finite positive Idea which
happens (see HB:Taw HB:Yod HB:Shin HB:Aleph HB:Resh HB:Bet , in "The Sword of song," for a more
careful study, though I must not be understood to indorse every Word in our
Poet-Philosopher's Thesis) to be Light, HB:Resh HB:Vau HB:Aleph . This word HB:Resh HB:Vau HB:Aleph
is most important. It symbolises the Universe immediately after Chaos, the
confusion or Clash of the infinite Opposites. HB:Aleph is the Egg of Matter;
HB:Yod is Taurus, the Bull, or Energy-Motion; and HB:Resh is the Sun, or organised
and moving System of Orbs. The three Letters of HB:Resh HB:Vau HB:Aleph thus repeat the
three Ideas. The Nature of HB:Resh HB:Vau HB:Aleph is thus analysed, under the figure
of the ten Numbers and the 22 Letters which together compose what the
Rosicrucians have diagrammatised under the name of Minutum Mundom. It will be
noticed that every Number and Letter has its "Correspondence" in Ideas of
every Sort; so that any given Object can be analysed in Terms of the 32. If I
see a blue Star, I should regard it as a Manifestation of Chesed, Water, the
Moon, Salt the Alchemical Principle, Sagittarius or What not, in respect of
its Blueness ---- one would have to decide which from other Data --- and refer
it to the XVIIth Key of the Taro in Respect of its Starriness.
The Use of these Attributions is lengthy and various: I cannot dwell upon
it: but I will give one Example.
If I wish to visit the Sphere of Geburah, I use the Colours and Forces
appropriate: I go there: if the Objects which then appear to my spiritual
Vision are harmonious therewith, it is one Test of their Truth.
so also, to construct a Talisman, or to invoke a Spirit.
The methods of discovering Dogma from sacred Words are also numerous and
important: I may mention: ---
("a)" The Doctrine of Sympathies: drawn from the total Numeration of a Word,
when identical with, or a Multiple of Submultiple of, or a Metathesis of, that
of another Word.
("b)" The Method of finding the Least Number of a Word, by adding (and readding)
the Digits of its total Number, and taking the corresponding Key of
the Taro as a Key to the Meaning of the Word.
("c") The Method of Analogies drawn from the Shape of the Letters.
("d") The Method of Deductions drawn from the Meanings and Correspondences of
the letters.
("e") The Method of Acrostics drawn from the Letters. This Mode is only
valid for Adepts of the highest Grades, and then under quite exceptional and
rare Conditions. {84}
("f") The Method of Transpositions and Transmutations of the Letters, which
suggest Analogies, even when they fail to explain in direct Fashion.
All these and their Varieties and Combinations, with some other more
abstruse or less important Methods, may be used to unlock the Secret of a
Word.
Of course with Powers so wide it is easy for the Partisan to find his
favourite Meaning in any Word. Even the formal Proof 0 = 1 = 2 = 3 = 4 = 5 =
....... = n is possible.
But the Adept who worked out this Theorem, with the very Intent to
discredit the Qabalistic Mode of Research, was suddenly dumfounded by the Fact
that he had actually stumbled upon the Qabalistic Proof of Pantheism or
Monism.
What really happens is that the Adept sits down and performs many useless
Tricks with the Figures, without Result.
Suddenly the Lux dawns, and the Problem is solved.
The Rationalist explains this by Inspiration, the superstitious Man by
Mathematics.
I give an Example of the Way in which one works. Let us take IAO, one of
the "Barbarous Names of Evocation," of which those who have wished to conceal
their own Glory by adopting the Authority of Zarathustra have said that in the
holy Ceremonies it has ineffable Power.
But what Kind of Power? By the Qabalah we can found out the Force of the
Name IAO.
We can spell it in Hebrew HB:Vau HB:Aleph HB:Yod or HB:Ayin HB:Aleph HB:Yod . The Qabalah will
even tell us which is the true Way. Let us however suppose that it is spelt
HB:Vau HB:Aleph HB:Yod . This adds up to 17.
But first of all it strikes us that I, A, and O are the three Letters
associated with the three Letters HB:Heh in the great Name of Six Letters,
HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Heh HB:Aleph , which combines HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Aleph and
HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod {WEH NOTE: sic. Should be: HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Heh HB:Aleph and
HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod }, Macroprosopus and Microprosopus. Now these feminine
Letters HB:Heh conceal the "Three Mothers" of the Alphabet, HB:Aleph , HB:Mem , and
HB:Shin . Replace these, and we get HB:Aleph HB:Vau HB:Mem HB:Yod HB:Shin HB:Aleph , which adds up to
358, the Number alike of HB:Shin HB:Chet HB:Nun , the Serpent of Genesis, and the
Messiah. We thus look for redeeming Power in IAO, and for the Masculine
Aspect of that Poser.
Now we will see how that Power works. We have a curious Dictionary, which
was made by a very learned Man, in which the Numbers 1 to 10,000 fill the left
hand Column, in Order, and opposite them are written all the sacred or
important Words which add up to each Number.
We take this Book, and look at 17. We find that 17 is the number of
Squares in the Swastika, which is the Whirling Disc or Thunderbolt. Also
there is HB:Nun HB:Vau HB:Chet , a Circle or Orbit; HB:Dalet HB:Vau HB:Zain , to seethe or boil;
and some other Words, {85} which we will neglect in this Example, thought we
should not dart to do so if we were really trying to find out a Thing we none
of us knew. To help our Deduction about Redemption, too, we find
HB:Heh HB:Dalet HB:Heh {WEH NOTE: sic, should be: HB:Heh HB:Dalet HB:Chet }, to brighten or make
glad.
We also work in another Way. I is the Straight Line or Central Pillar of
the Temple of Life; also it stands for Unity, and for the Generative Force. A
Circle from which everything came, also Nothingness, and the Female, who
absorbs the Male. The Progress of the Name shows then the Way from Life to
Nirvana by means of the Will: and is a Hieroglyph of the Great Work.
Look at all our Meanings! Every one shows that the Name, if it has any
Power at all, and that we must try, has the Power to redeem us from the Love
of Life which is the Cause of Life, by its masculine Whirlings, and to gladden
us and to being us to the bosom of the Great Mother, Death.
Before what is known a the Equinox of the Gods, a little While ago, there
was an initiated Formula which expressed these Ideas to the Wise. As these
Formulas are done with, it is of no Consequence if I reveal them. Truth is
not eternal, any more than God; and it would be but a poor God that could not
and did not alter his Ways at his Pleasure.
This Formula was used to pen the Vault of the Mystic Mountain of Abiegnus,
within which lay (so the Ceremony of Initiation supposed) the body of our
Father Christian Rosen Creutz, to be discovered by the Brethren with the
Postulant as said in the Book called Fama Fraternitatis.
There are three Officers, and they repeat the Analysis of the Word as
follows: ---
Chief. Let us analyse the Key Word --- I.
2nd. N.
3rd. R.
All. I.
Chief. Yod. HB:Yod .
2nd. Nun. HB:Nun .
3rd. Resh. HB:Resh .
All. Yod, HB:Yod .
Chief. Virgo (Virgo) Isis, Mighty Mother.
2nd. Scorpio (Scorpio) Apophis, Destroyer.
3rd. Sol (Sun) Osiris, slain and risen.
All. Isis, Apophis, Osiris, IAO.
All spread Arms as if on a cross, and say: ---
The Sign of Osiris slain! {86}
Chief bows his Head to the Left, rises his Right Arm, and lowers his Left keeping the Elbow at right Angles,thus forming the letter L (also the Swastika).
The Sign of the Mourning of Isis.
2nd. With erect Head, rises his Arms to form a V (but really to form the triple tongue of Flame, the Spirit), and says: ---
The Sign of Apophis and Typhon.
3rd. Bows his Head and crosses his Arms on his Breast (to form the Pentagram).
The Sign of Osiris risen.
All give the Sign of the Cross, and say: ---
L.V.X.
Then the Sign of Osiris risen, and say: ---
Lux, the Light of the Cross.
This formula, on which one may meditate for Years without exhausting its
wonderful Harmonies, gives an excellent Idea of the Way in which Qabalistic
Analysis is conducted.
First, the Letters have been written in Hebrew Characters.
Then the Attributions of them to the Zodiac an to Planets are substituted,
and the Names of Egyptian Gods belonging to these are invoked.
The Christian Idea of I.N.R.I. is confirmed by these, while their Initials
form the sacred Word of the Gnostics. That is, IAO. From the Character of
the Deities and their Functions are deduced their Signs, and these are found
to signal (as it were) the Word Lux (HB:Resh HB:Vau HB:Aleph ), which itself is contained
in the Cross.
A careful Study of these Ideas,and of the Table of Correspondences, which
one of our English Brethren is making, will enable him to discover a very
great Deal of Matter for Thought in these Poems which an untutored Person
would pass by.
To return to the general Dogma of the Qabalists.
The Figure of Minutum Mundum will show how they suppose one Quality to
proceed from the last, first in the pure God-World Atziluth, then in the
Angel-World Briah, and so on down to the Demon-Worlds, which are however not
thus organised. They are rather Material that was shed off in the Course of
Evolution, like theSloughs of a Serpent, from which comes their Name of
Shells, or Husks.
Apart from silly Questions as to whether the Order of the Emanations is
{87} confirmed by Palaeontology, a Question it is quite impertinent to
discuss, there is no Doubt that the Sephiroth are types of Evolution as
opposed to Catastrophe and Creation.
The great Charge against this Philosophy is founded on its alleged
Affinities with Scholastic Realism. But the Charge is not very true. No
Doubt but they did suppose vast Storehouses of "Things of one Kind: from
which, pure or mingled, all other Things did proceed.
Since HB:Gemel , a Camel, refers to the moon, they did say that a Camel and the
Moon were sympathetic, and came, that Part of them, from a common Principole:
and that a Camel being yellow brown, it partook of the Earth Nature, to which
that Colour is given.
Thence they said that by taking all the Natures involved, and by blending
them in the just Proportions, on might have a Camel.
But this is no more than is said by the Upholders of the Atomic Theory.
They have their Storehouses of Carbon, Oxygen, and such (not in one Place,
but no more is Geburah in one Place), and what is Organic Chemistry but the
Production of useful Compounds whose Nature is deduced absolutely from
theoretical Considerations long before it is ever produced in the Laboratory?
The difference, you will say, is that the Qabalists maintain a Mind of each
Kind behind each Class of Things on one Kind; but so did Berkeley, and his
Argument in that Respect is, as the great Huxley showed, irrefragable. For by
the Universe I mean the Sensible; any other is not to be Known; and the
Sensible is dependent upon Mind. Nay, though the Sensible is said to be an
Argument of a Universe Insensible, the latter becomes sensible to Mind as soon
as the Argument is accepted, and disappears with its Rejection.
Nor is the Qabalah dependent upon its Realism, and its Application to the
Works magical --- but I am defending a Philosophy which I was asked to
describe, and this is not lawful.
A great Deal may be learned from the Translation of the Zohar by S. Liddell
Macgregor Mathers, and his Introduction thereto, though for those who have
Latin and some acquaintance with Hebrew it is better to study the Kabbala
Denudata of Knoor von Rosenroth, in Despite of the heavy Price; for the
Translator has distorted the Text and its Comment to suit his belief in a
supreme Personal God, and in that degraded Form of the Doctrine of Feminism
which is so popular with the Emasculate.
The Sephiroth are grouped in various Ways. There is a Superior Triad or
Trinity; a Hexad; and Malkuth: the Crown, the Father, and the Mother; the Son
or King; and the Bride.
Also, a Division into seven Palaces, seven Planes, three Pillars or
Columns, and the like. {88}
The Flashing Sword follows the Course of the Numbers; and the Serpent
Nechushtan or of Wisdom crawls up the Paths which join them upon the Tree of
Life, namely the Letters.
It is important to explain the Position of Daath or Knowledge upon the
Tree. It is called the Child of Chokmah and Binah, but it hath no Place. But
it is really the Apex of a Pyramid of which the three first Numbers for the
Base.
Now the Tree, or Minutum Mundum, is a Figure in a Plane of a solid
Universe. Daath, being above the Plane, is therefore a Figure of a Force in
four Dimensions, and thus it is the Object of the Magnum Opus. The three
Paths which connect it with the First Trinity are the three lost Letters or
Fathers of the Hebrew Alphabet.
In Daath is said to be the Head of the great Serpent Nechesh or Leviathan,
called Evil to conceal its Holiness. (HB:Shin HB:Chet HB:Nun = 358 =
HB:Chet HB:Yod HB:Shin HB:Mem , the Messiah or Redeemer, and HB:Koph-final HB:Taw HB:Yod HB:Vau HB:Lamed = 496 =
HB:Taw HB:Vau HB:Koph HB:Lamed HB:Mem , the Bride.) It is identical with he Kundalini of the
Hindu Philosophy, the Kwan-se-on of the Mongolian Peoples, and means the
magical Force in Man, which is the sexual Force applied to the Brain, Heart,
and other Organs, and redeemeth him.
The gradual Disclosure of these magical Secrets to the Poet may be traced
in these Volumes, which it has been my Privilege to be asked to explain. It
has been impossible to do more than place in the Hands of any intelligent
Person the Keys which will permit him to unlock the many Beautiful Chambers of
Holiness in these Palaces and Gardens of Beauty and Pleasure.
Of the results of the method we possess one flawless gem, already printed
in the EQUINOX (Vol {I, No.) II. pp. 163-185), "A Note on Genesis" by V. H.
Fra. I. A.
From this pleasant, orthodox, and-so-they-all-lived-happy-ever-after view
let us turn for a moment to the critical aspect. Let us demolish in turn the
qabalistic methods of exegesis; and then, if we can, discover a true basis
upon which to erect an abiding Temple of Truth.
("See" TAROT CARDS, "AND MEDITATE")
ALP. Folly's Doom is Ruin.
BITh. The Juggler with the Secret of the Universe.
GML. The Holy Guardian Angel is attained by Self-Sacrifice and Equilibrium.
{94}
DLTh. The Gate of the Equilibrium of the Universe. (Note D, the highest
reciprocal path.)(Other meanings suit other planes and other grades.)
Truly there is no en to this wondrous science; and when the sceptic sneers,
"With all these methods one ought to be able to make everything our of
nothing," the Qabalist smiles back the sublime retort, "With these methods One
did make everything out of nothing."
Besides these, there is still one more method --- a method of some little
importance to students of the Siphra Dzenioutha, namely, the analogies drawn
from the shapes of letters; {95} these are often interesting enough. HB:Aleph ,
for example, is a HB:Vau between HB:Yod and HB:Yod , making 26. Thus
HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod 26 = HB:Aleph , 1. Therefore Jehovah is One. But it would be as
pertinent to continue 26 x 2 x 13, and 13 = Achad = 1, and therefore Jehovah
is Two.
This then is an absurdity. Yes; but it is also an arcanum!
How wonderful is the Qabalah! How great is its security from the profane;
how splendid its secrets to the initiate!
Verily and Amen! yet here we are at the old dilemma, that one must know
Truth before one can rely upon the Qabalah to show Truth.
Like the immortal burglar:
"Bill wouldn't hurt a baby --- he's a pal as you can trust, He's all right when yer know 'im; but yer've got to know 'im fust."
So those who have committed themselves to academic study of its mysteries
have found but a dry stick: those who have understood (favoured of God!) have
found therein Aaron's rod that budded, the Staff of Life itself, yea, the
venerable Lingam of Mahasiva!
It is for us to trace the researches of Frater P. in the Qabalah, to show
how from this storehouse of child's puzzles, of contradictions and
incongruities, of paradoxes and trivialities, he discovered the very canon of
Truth, the authentic key of the Temple, the Word of that mighty Combination
which unlocks the Treasure-Chamber of the King.
And this following is the Manuscript which he has let for our instruction.
{96}
AN ESSAY UPON NUMBER
(May the Holy One mitigate His severities toward His servant in respect of
the haste wherewith this essay hath been composed!
When I travelled with the venerable Iehi Aour in search of Truth, we
encountered a certain wise and holy man, Shri Parananda. Children! said he,
for two years must ye study with me before ye fully comprehend our Law.
"Venerable Sir!" answered Frater I.A., "the first verse of "Our" Law contains
but seven words. For seven years did I study that verse by day and by night;
and at the end of that time did I presume --- may the Dweller of Eternity
pardon me! -=-- to write a monograph upon the first word of those seven
words."
"Venerable Sir!" quoth I: "that First Word of our law contains but six
letters. For six years did I study that word by day and by night; and at the
end of that time did I not dare to utter the first letter of those six
letters."
Thus humbling myself did I abash both the holy Yogi and my venerable Frater
I. A. But alas! Tegragrammaton! Alas! Adonai! the hour of my silence is
past. May the hour of my silence return! Amen.)
PART I
THE UNIVERSE AS IT IS
SECTION I
SECTION II
SECTION III
SECTION IV
Having compared these attributions with those to be found in 777, studied
them, assimilated them so thoroughly that it is natural and needs no effort to
think "Binah, Mother, Great Sea, Throne, Saturn, Black Myrrh, Sorrow,
Intelligence, etc. etc. etc.," in a flash whenever the number 3 is mentioned
or seen, we may profitably proceed to go through the most important of he
higher numbers. For this purpose I have removed myself from books of
reference; only those things which have become fixed in my mind (from their
importance) deserve place in the simplicity of this essay.
12. HVA, "He," a title of Kether, identifying Kether with the Zodiac, and
"home of the 12 stars" and their correspondences. See 777.
13. AChD, Unity, and AHBH Love. A scale of unity; thus 13 x 1 = 1; 26 = 13
x 2 = 2; 91 = 13 x 7 = 7; so that we may find in 26 and 91 elaboration of the
Dyad and the Septenary respectively.
14. An "elaboration" of 5 (1 + 4 = 5), Force; a "concentration" or 86 ( 8
+ 6 = 14) Elohim, the 5 elements.
15. IH, Jah, one of the ineffable names; the Father and Mother united.
Mystic number of Geburah: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5.
17. The number of squares in the Swastika, which by shape is Aleph, HB:Aleph .
Hence 17 recalls 1. Also IAV, IAO, the triune Father. See 32 and 358.
18. ChI, Life. An "elaboration" of 9.
20. IVD, Yod, the letter of the Father.
21. AHIH, existence, a title of Keter, Note 3 x 7 = 21. Also IHV, the
first 3 (active) letters of IHVH. Mystic number of Tiphereth.
22. The number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet; and of the paths on the
Tree. Hence suggests completion of imperfection. Finality, the fatal
finality. Note 2 x 11 = 22, the accursed Dyad at play with the Shells.
24. Number of the Elders; and 72 v 3. 72 is the "divided Name." {99}
26. IHVH. Jehovah, as the Dyad expanded, the jealous and terrible God, the
lesser Countenance. The God of Nature, fecund, cruel, beautiful, relentless.
28. Mystic number of Netzach, KCh, "Power."
31. LA, "not"; and AL, "God." In this Part I. ("Nature as it is") the
number is rather forbidding. For AL is the God-name of Chesed, mercy; and so
the number seems to deny that Name.
32. Number of Sephiroth and Paths, 10 + 22. Hence is completion of
perfection. Finality: things as they are in their totality. AHIHVH, the
combined AHIH and IHVH, Macroprosopus, and Microprosopus, is here. If we
suppose the 3 female letters H to conceal the 3 mothers A, M, Sh, we obtain
the number 358, Messiach, q.v. Note 32 = 25, the divine Will extended through
motion. 64 = 26, will be the perfect number of matter, for it is 8, the first
cube, squared. So we find it a Mercurial number, as if the solidity of matter
was in truth eternal change.
35. AGLA, a name of God = Ateh Gibor Le Olahm Adonai. "To Thee by the
Power unto the Ages, O my Lord!" 35 = 5 x 7. 7 = Divinity, 5 = Power.
36. A Solar Number. ALH. Otherwise unimportant, but is the mystic number
of Mercury.
37. IChIDH. the highest principle of the soul, attributed to Kether. Note
37 = 111 v 3.
38. Note 38 x 11 = 418 q.v. in Part II.
39. IHVH AChD, Jehovah is one. 39 = 13 x 3. This is then the affirmation
of the aspiring soul.
40. A "dead" number of fixed law, 4 x 10, Tetragrammaton, the lesser
countenance immutable in the heaviness of Malkuth.
41. AM, the Mother, unfertilised and unenlightened.
42. AMA, the Mother, still dark. Here are the 42 judges of the dead in
Amennti, and here is the 42-fold name of the Creative God. See Liber 418.
44. DM, blood. See Part II. Here 4 x 11 = the corruption of the created
world.
45. MH, a secret title of Yetzirah, the Formative World. ADM, Adam, man,
the species (not "the first man"). A is Air, the divine breath which stirs
DM, blood, into being.
49. A number useful in the calculations of Dr. Dee, and a mystic number of
Venus.
50. The number of the Gates of Binah, whose name id Death (50 = HB:Nun = by
Tarot, "Death").
51. AN, pain. NA, failure. ADVM, Edom, the country of the demon kings.
There is much in the Qabalah about these kings and their dukes; it never meant
much to me, somehow. But 51 is 1 short of 52. {100}
52. AIMA, the fertilised Mother, the Phallus (HB:Yod ) thrust into AMA.
Also BN, the Son. Note 52 = 13 x 4, 4 being Mercy and the influence of the
Father.
60. Samekh, which in full spells 60 x 2 = 120 (q.v.), just as Yod, 10 in
full spells 10 x 2 = 20. In general, the tens are "solidifications" of the
ideas of the units which they multiply. Thus 50 is Death, the Force of Change
in its final and most earthy aspect. Samekh is "Temperance" in the Tarot: the
6 has little evil possible to it; the worst name one can call 60 is
"restriction."
61. AIN, the Negative. ANI, Ego. A number rather like 31, q.v.
64. DIN and DNI, intelligences (the twins) of Mercury. See also 32.
65. ADNI. In Roman characters LXV = LVX, the redeeming light. See the 5x
The most important attributions of 666, however, pertain to the second
part, q.v.
671. ThORA the Law, ThROA the Gate, AThOR the Lady of the Path of Daleth,
RPThA the Wheel. Also ALPH, DLTh, NUN, IVD, Adeonai (see 65) spelt in full.
This important number marks the identity of the Augoeides with the Way
itself ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life") and shows the Taro as a key;
and that the Law itself is nothing else than this. For this reason the outer
College of the A.'. A.'. is crowned by this "knowledge and conversation of
the Holy Guardian Angel."
This number too is that of the Ritual of Neophyte. See Liber XIII.
741. AMThSh, the four letters of the elements. AMN, counting the N final
as 700, the supreme Name of the Concealed One. The dogma is that the Highest
is but the Four Elements; that there is nothing beyond these, beyond
Tetragrammaton. This dogma is most admirably portrayed by Lord Dunsany in a
tale called "The Wanderings of Shaun." {106}
777. "Vide supra."
800. AShTh, the Rainbow. The Promise of Redemption (8) --- 8 as Mercury,
Intellect, the Ruach, Microprosopus, the Redeeming Son --- in its most
material form.
811. Iota Alpha Omega (Greek numeration).
888. Jesus (Greek numeration).
913. BRAShITh, the Beginning. See "A Note on Genesis." This list6 will
enable the student to follow most of the arguments of the dogmatic Qabalah.
It is useful for him to go through the arguments by which one can prove that
any given number is the supreme. It is the case, the many being but veils of
the One; and the course of argument leads one to knowledge and worship of each
number in turn. For example.
Thesis. The Number Nine is the highest and worthiest of the numbers.
Scholion alpha . "The number nine is sacred, and attains the summits of
philosophy," Zoroaster.
Scholion beta . Nine is the best symbol of the Unchangeable One, since by
whatever number it is multiplied,the sum of the figures is always 9, "e.g." 9 x
487 = 4383. 4 + 3 + 8 + 3 = 18. 1 + 8 = 9.
Scholion gamma . 9 = HB:Tet , a serpent. And the Serpent is the holy Uraeus,
upon the crown of the Gods.
Scholion delta . 9 = IX = the Hermit of the Tarot, the Ancient One with Lamp
(Giver of Light) and Staff (the Middle Pillar of the Sephiroth). This, too,
is the same Ancient as in 0, Aleph.
"The Fool" and Aleph = 1.
Scholion epsilon . 9 = ISVD = 80 = P = Mars = 5 = HB:Heh =
Z = G =GML = 73 = ChKMH =
the Mother = Binah = 3 4 = AB = The Father =
@ = ( 1 + 2 ) Mystic Number of Chokmah =
PART II
THE UNIVERSE AS WE SEEK TO MAKE IT
6 The complete dictionary, begun by Fra. I.A., continued by Fra.
P. and revise by Fra. A. e. G. and others, will shortly be
published by authority of the A.'. A.'.
In the first part we have seen all numbers as Veils of the One, emanations
of and therefore corruptions of the One. It is the Universe as we know it,
the static Universe.
Now the Aspirant to Magic is displeased with this state of things. He
finds himself but a creature, the farthest removed from the Creator, a number
so complex and involved that he can scarcely imagine, must less dare to hope
for, its reduction to the One.
The numbers useful to him, therefore, will be those which are subversive of
this state of sorrow. So the number 2 represents to him the Magus (the great
Magician Mayan who has created the illusion of Maya) as seen in the 2nd
Aethyr. And considering himself as the Ego who posits the Non-Ego (Fichte) he
hates this Magus. It is only the beginner who regards this Magus as the
Wonder-worker --- as the thing he wants to be. For the adept such little
consolation as he may win is rather to be found by regarding the Magus as B =
Mercury = 8 = Ch = 418 = ABRAHADABRA, the great Word, the "Word of Double
Power in the voice of the Master" which unites the 5 and the 6, the Rose and
the Cross, the Circle and the Square. And also B is the Path from Binah to
Kether; but that is only important for him who is already in Binah, the
"Master of the Temple."
He finds no satisfaction in contemplating the Tree of Life, and theorderly
arrangement of the numbers; rather does he enjoy the Qabalah as a means of
juggling with these numbers. He can leave nothing undisturbed; he is the
Anarchist of Philosophy. He refuses to acquiesce in merely formal proofs of
{108} the Excellence of things, "He doeth all things well," "Were the World
understood Ye would see it was good," "Whatever is, is right," and so on. To
him, on the contrary, whatever is, is wrong. It is part of the painful duty
of a Master of the Temple to understand everything. Only he can excuse the
apparent cruelty and fatuity of things. he is of the supernals; he sees
things from above; yet, having come from below, he can sympathise with all.
And he does not expect the Neophyte to share his views. Indeed, they are not
true to a Neophyte. The silliness of the New-Thought zanies in passionately
affirming "I am healthy! I am opulent! I am well-dressed! I am happy," when
in truth they are "poor and miserable and blind and naked," is not a
philosophical but a practical silliness. Nothing exists, says the Magister
Templi, but perfection. True; yet their consciousness is imperfect. Ergo, it
does not exist. For the M.T. this is so: he has "cancelled out" the
complexities of the mathematical expression called existence, and the answer
is zero. But for the beginner his pain and another's joy do not balance; his
pain hurts him, and his brother may go hang. The Magister Templi, too,
understands why Zero must plunge through all finite numbers to express itself;
why it must write itself as "n - n" instead of 0; what gain there is in such
writing. And this understanding will be found expressed in Liber 418 (Episode
of Chaos and His Daughter) and Liber Legis (i. 28-30).
But it must never be forgotten that everyone must begin at the beginning.
And in the beginning the Aspirant is a rebel, even though he feel himself to
be that most dangerous type of rebel, a King Dethroned.7
hence he will worship any number which seems to him to promise to overturn
the Tree of Life. He will even deny and blaspheme the One --- whom, after
all, it is his ambition to be --- because of its simplicity and aloofness. He
is tempted to "curse God and die."
Atheists are of three kinds.
/ \ [This is by taking the 5 middle letters.]R-----B
A The pentagram is 12, HVA, Macroprosopus./ \
H D The hexagram is 406, AThH, Microprosopus.\ /
B---R Thus it connotes the Great Work.\ /
A Note ABR, initials of the Supernals, Ab, Ben, Ruach.
(2) A [This is by separating the One (Aleph) from the Many/ \ / \ (diverse letters).]
A A R H ? "The Vision and the Voice," a\ / | | BRH = 207, Aur, Light C phrase which meant much A-A B D DBR = 206, Deber, Voice 3 to me at the moment of dis-
\ / Y covering this Word. R
(3) A A/ \ / \
A A B A\ / | | [By taking each alternate letter.] R-B H D
\ / R 205 = GBR, mighty. ? C This shows Abrahadabra as 213 = ABIR, mighty. Ythe Word of Double Power, another phrase that meant much to me at the time. AAB at the top of the Hexagram gives AB, AIMA, BN, Father, Mother, Child. HDR by Yetzirah gives Horus, Isis, Osiris, again Father, Mother , Child. This Hexagram is again the human Triad. Dividing into 3 and 8 we get the Triangle of Horus dominating the Stooping Dragon of 8 Heads, the Supernals bursting the Head of Daath. Also A
/ \ The Supernals are supported upon two squares ---
R---B
A--B A--H ABAD = DD, Love, 8.
| | | |
A--D R--A AHRA = AVR, Light, 207.
Now 8 x 207 = 1656 = ChI, Living, and 207 = 9 x 23, ChIH, Life. At this
time "Licht, Liebe, Leben" was the mystic name of the Mother-Temple of the
G.'. D.'. {117}
The five letters used in the word are A, the Crown; B, the Wand; D, the
Cup; H, the Sword; R, the Rosy Cross; and refer further to Amoun the Father,
Thoth His messenger, and Isis, Horus, Osiris, the divine-human triad.
Also 418 = ATh IAV, the Essence of IAO, q.v.
This short analysis might be indefinitely expanded; but always the symbol
will remain the Expression of the Goal and the Exposition of the Path.
419. Teth, the number of the "laughing lion" on whom BABALON rideth. See
Liber 418. Note 419 + 156 = 23 x 25, occultly signifying 24, which again
signifies to them that understand the interplay of the 8 and the 3. Blessed
be His holy Name, the Interpreter of his own Mystery!
434. Daleth, the holy letter of the Mother, in glory as Queen. she saves
the 4 by the 7 (D = 4 = Venus = 7), thus connects with 28. Mystic number of
Netzach (Venus), Victory. Note the 3 sundering the two fours. This is the
feminine victory; she is in one sense the Delilah to the divine Samson. Hence
we adore her from full hearts. It ought to be remembered, by the way, that
the 4 is not so evil when it has ceased to oppress us. The square identified
with the circle is as good as the circle.
441. Truth, the square of 21. Hence it is the nearest that our dualistic
consciousness can conceive of 21, AHIH, the God of Kether, 1. Thus Truth is
our chiefest weapon, our rule. Woe to whosoever is false to himself (or to
another, since in 441 that other is himself), and seven times woe to him that
swerves from his magical obligation in thought, word or deed! By my side as I
write wallows in exhaustion following an age of torment one who did not
understand that it is a thousand times better to die than to break the least
tittle of a magical oath.
I may close this paper by expressing a hope that I may have the indulgence
of students. The subject is incomparably difficult; it is almost an unworked
{119} vein of thought; and my expression must be limited and thin. It is
important that every identity should be most thoroughly understood. No mere
perusal will serve. This paper must be studied line by line, and even to a
great extent committed to memory. And that memory should already be furnished
with a thorough knowledge of the chief correspondences of 777. It is hard to
"suffer gladly" the particular type of fool who expects with a twenty-thirdrate
idle brain to assimilate in an hour the knowledge that it has cost me
twelve years to acquire. I may add that nobody will ever understand this
method of knowledge without himself undertaking research. Once he has
experienced the joy connecting (say) 131 and 480 though 15, he will
understand. Further, it is the work itself, not merely the results, that is
of service. We teach Greek and Latin, though nobody speaks either language.
And thus I close: Benedictus sit Dominus Deus Noster qui nobis dedit
Scientiam Summam.
Amen!
We may now return to Frater P.'s experiences. It will be remembered that
he found Yoga practices of any kind very difficult in the cold climate of his
home; for he was now sufficiently advanced to need long spells of continuous
concentration --- very different from the early days of practice when twenty
minutes in the morning and again in the evening sufficed fro the day.
Further, he had entered on the third stage of life, and from a Brahmachari
became a householder. It was in the course of the journey undertaken by him
shortly after his marriage that occurred the event which we shall proceed to
relate.
And to that end we must ask the reader to accompany us in imagination to
the sovereign nursery of wisdom and initiation, to the holy land of the Uraeus
serpent, to the land of Isis and Osiris, of the Pyramids and the Nile, even to
Khem, more magnificent in ruin than all other lands are in plenitude of their
glory.
{120}
A NOCTURNE
IN the little cleft of the rocks whence life first sprang To birth, by the secret shadowy molten sea, Where Aphrodite sprang to greet the sun, Low voices murmur: shadowy under-world In the void of time; light song of Erebus On the lips of a courtesan of Rome --- ah! list! A wandering singer caught the light o' the stars On his lips, and the sun-dawn of the world in his heart.
For I that dwelt within the city of Time
Was lost in a cloudy dawn; the silken veil
Of dew that clothed the green grass of the fields
Was the veil of Olympus; now the shadowy night
That sang to me, that sand, that sang to me,
Sprang from the underworld of Eld: the moon
That circled in the heavens sang to me,
And I that heard the olden monstrous lays
Of Eld, the dreaming wonders of the dawn,
Died, and still lie imprisoned in the rocks
By the salt sea, knowing of the doom of man,
But being dumb, as is the doom of man,
For nightfall is delight of Eld, and I
Wander bareheaded under the dark sky; {121}
Calling and calling from the windy deeps,
The olden night still draws me; moonlight weeps
Fro sunlight faded in the dark; the sea
Is under the dark clouds; still one by one
Soft, silver stars creep silently upon me,
Leaving soft trails of light; O wonder dawn
Of the inverted thunder of the skies!
Back to the gardens of old Babylon,
Fallen to idle sleep, and borne within
The Temple of Mind, the soul of Night is bared
Under the starry canopy of the worlds,
And the lamp is set upon her bier; let be,
Let her still slumber! Oh, my radiant one,
Thou that art born of the dew and of the stars, {122}
come thou to me, while that the soft night sleeps,
O thou far inmost and supernal Dawn,
O thou that bearest the torch for the feast o' the gods!
In the core of Night I found thee, and a rose
Was thy heart, and thorns were thy crown, and tiny rosebuds.
Girt thy green mantle, and thy yellow hair
Glittered with the dust of the stars! By the river-side
Thou camest unto me; ho, the secret night
When I stared into the water under the moon,
Singing and tumbling on its way to the sea!
The soft stream flowed under the milky stars,
And there were poplars by the water-side,
Gazing upon themselves; but I was blind,
Blinder than wood, more silent than the moon;
And so thou camest to me! Oh, my darling,
My little rose-lipped darling, fountain-cool
Thy hands, and thine eyes bright with celestial fire
Drawn from the world's heart! Oh, my little one,
Come to me here in the great slow silences,
In the radiant dimness of the after-glow
Of the passionate ache of the world; I am Pan no more,
But the Virgin of the starlight of the world.
Her in the silence, in the great, green woods,
Lie thou with me! Slumber with me to-night
Under the stars, and the yellow drifting moon.
We ill love no more as Syrinx and Pan; Diana!
Come unto me, and I will grant the thing
Thou cravest! Oh! the foaming milk of the stars!
" "I bear the red-tipped lilies under the moon!" {123}
Rosa Ignota! Ah! the pale moon flowers;
The soft shy glances, and the virgin unwon!
Oh! the sweet burden of the sunless hours:
Love! I am conquered! Nay, love! I have won!
Oh, feeble moon-light! Oh sweet stars undone
By the pale longing of Eld! O Virgin word,
Under the silent moon I bear the Sword!
Oh, the soft burden of the sunken sun
" "I bear a chalice of lilies under the moon!"
"I bear the red-tipped lilies under the moon!"
Light is no more; oh! let us swoon and die!
And the secret way is starlit, star-bestrewn,
Star-guarded, star-set under the starry moon!
Is there no way but this beneath the sky?
Oh, moon of Eld, ah! shall we die or swoon?
O Rose eclipsed, O Rose, my rose of roses,
The night is pale to death; the lyre reposes
Under the star-shot glamour of the moon
And all her palest roses.VICTOR B. NEUBURG.
{124}
THE VIXEN
"To and from N. I. L. B. W."
PATRICIA FLEMING threw the reins to a groom, and ran up the steps into the
great house, her thin lips white with rage.
Lord Eyre followed her heavily. "I'll be down in half an hour," she
laughed merrily, "tell Dawson to bring you a drink!" Then she went straight
through the house, her girlish eyes the incarnation of a curse.
For the third time she had failed to bring Geoffrey Eyre to her feet. She
looked into her hat; there in the lining was the talisman that she had tested
--- and it had tricked her.
What do I need? she thought. Mut it be blood?
She was a maiden of the pure English strain; brave, gay, honest, shrewd ---
and there was not one that guessed the inmost fire that burnt her. For she
was but a child when the Visitor came.
The first of the Visits was in a dream. She woke choking; the air ---
clear, sweet, and wholesome as it blew through the open window from the
Chilterns --- was fouled with a musty stench. And she woke her governess with
a tale of a tiger.
The second Visit was again at night. She had been hunting, was alone at
the death, had beaten off the hounds. That night she heard a fox bark in her
room, She spent a {125} sleepless night of terror; in the morning she found
the red hairs of a fox upon her pillow.
The third Visit was nor in sleep nor waking.
But she tightened her lips, and would have veiled the hateful gleam in her
eyes.
It was that day, though, that she struck a servant with her riding=whip.
She was so sane that she knew exactly wherein her madness lay; and she set
all her strength not to conquer but to conceal it.
Two years later, and Patricia Fleming, the orphan heiress of Carthwell
Abbey, as the county toast, Diana of the Chilterns.
Yet Geoffrey Eyre evaded her. His dog's fidelity and honesty kept him true
to the little north-country girl that three months earlier had seduced his
simplicity. He did not even live her; but she had made him think so for an
hour; and his pledged word held him.
Patricia's open favour only made him hate her because of its very
seduction. It was really his own weakness that he hated.
Patricia ran, tense and angry, through the house. The servants noticed it.
The mistress has been crossed, they thought, she will go to the chapel and get
ease. Praising her.
True, to the chapel she went; locked the door, dived behind the altar,
struck a secret panel, came suddenly into a priest's hiding-hole, a room large
enough to hold a score of men if need be.
At the end of the room was a great scarlet cross, and on it, her face to
the wood, her wrists and ankles swollen over the whip lashes that bound her,
hung a naked girl, big-boned, voluptuous. Red hair streamed over her back.
{126}
What, Margaret! so blue? laughed Patricia.
I am cold, said the girl upon the cross, in an indifferent voice.
Nonsense, dear! answered Patricia, rapidly divesting herself of her ridinghabit.
There is no hint of frost; we had a splendid run, and a grand kill.
You shall be warm yet, for all that.
This time the girl writhed and moaned a little.
Patricia took from an old wardrobe a close-fitting suit of fox fur, and
slipped it on her slim white body.
Did I make you wait, dear? she said, with a curious leer. I am the keener
for the sport, to be sure!
She took the faithless talisman from her hat. It was a little square of
vellum, written upon in black. She took a hairpin from her head, pierced the
talisman, and drove the pin into the girl's thigh.
They must have blood, said she. Now see how I will turn the blue to red!
Come! don't wince: you haven't had it for a month.
Then her ivory arm slid like a serpent from the furs, and with the cutting
whip she struck young Margaret between the shoulders.
A shriek rang out: its only echo was Patricia's laugh, childlike, icy,
devilish.
She struck again and again. Great weals of purple stood on the girl's
back; froth tinged with blood came from her mouth, for she had bitten her lips
and tongue in agony.
Patricia grew warm and rosy --- exquisitely beautiful. Her babe-breasts
heaved; her pips parted; her whole body and soul seemed lapped in ecstasy.
I wish your were Geoffrey, girlie! she panted. {127}
Then the skin burst. Raw flesh oozed blood that dribbled down Margaret's
back.
Still the fair maid struck and struck in the silence, until the tiny
rivulets met and waxed great and touched the talisman. She threw the bloody
whalebone into a corner, and went upon her knees. She kissed her friend; she
kissed the talisman; and again kissed the girl, the warm blood staining her
pure lips.
She took the talisman, and hid it in her bosom. Last of all she loosened
the cords, and Margaret sank in a heap to the floor. Patricia threw furs over
her and rolled her up in them; brought wine, and poured it down her throat.
She smiled, kindly, like a sister.
"Sleep now awhile, sweetheart!" she whispered, and kissed her forehead.
It was a very demure and self-possessed little maiden that made dinner
lively for poor Geoffrey, who was thinking over his mistake.
Patricia's old aunt, who kept house for her, smiled on the flirtation. it
was not by accident that she left them alone sitting over the great fire.
"Poor Margaret has her rheumatism again," she explained innocently; "I must go
and see how she is." Loyal Margaret!
So it happened that Geoffrey lost his head. "The ivy is strong enough"
(she had whispered, ere their first kiss had hardly died). "Before the moon
is up, be sure!" and glided off just as the aunt returned.
Eyre excused himself; half a mile from the house he left his horse to his
man to lead home, and ten minutes later was groping for Patricia in the dark.
{128}
White as a lily in body and soul, she took him in her arms.
Awaking as from death, he suddenly cried out., "Oh God! What is it? Oh
God! my God! Patricia! Your body! Your Body!"
"Yours!" she cooed.
"Why, you're all hairy!" he cried. "And the scent! the scent!"
From without came sharp and resonant the yap of a hound as the moon rose.
Patricia put her hands to her body. he was telling the truth. "The
Visitor!" she screamed once with fright, and was silent. he switched the
light on, and she screamed again.
There was a savage lust upon his face.
"This afternoon," he cried, "you called me a dog. I looked like a dog and
thought like a dog; and, by God! I am a dog. I'll act like a dog then!"
Obedient to some strange instinct, she dived from the bed for the window.
But he was on her; his teeth met in her throat.
In the morning they found the dead bodies of both hound and fox --- but how
did that explain the wonderful Elopement of Lord Eyre and Miss Fleming? For
neither of them were ever seen again.
I think Margaret understands; in the convent which she rules to-day there
hangs beside a blood-stained cutting-whip the silver model of a fox, with the
inscription:
"Patricia Margaritae vulpis vulpem dedit."
FRANCIS BENDICK. {129}
THE PILGRIM
AT the dawn of the bout Of my life I set out For the Palace of Light. At the end of the road I have found an abode In the Tavern of Night.
Ever on! ever on! Said the day-star, and shone! Ever on! and above! Said the even-star: rest In the night on my Breast! Beyond light there is love.
But I stayed not; I feared A false witch in her weird. I went on, ever on, Till the day and the night And the love and the light Were, suddenly, gone.
Came the Voice of the Lord:
"Now receive the reward {130}
Of the laughers at Life,
Who, faint, have not failed;
Who, weak, have not wailed:
My one jewel --- a wife.
"Since the ape stood erect For a sign of his sect There have only been ten. So perfect were they That their names are to-day Forgotten of men."
I took her, and still Through the wit and the will And the way and the word And the crown of all these, By the water at ease Sings our bliss as a bird.
Together! together!
The wage of the weather {131}
I liberty, light;
Is loyalty, love;
Is laughter, above
The caprices of night.
From ocean emergent Springs splendid, assurgent, The strenuous sun. The shadows are gone, But the tune ripples on, And the word is but one.
Let all that is living Unite in thanksgiving To Heaven above, For the Heaven within, That a woman may win For a man --- that is love.
At the end of the road I have found an abode In the Tavern of Night; And behold! it is one With the House of the Sun And the Palace of Light! ALEISTER CROWLEY.MY CRAPULOUS CONTEMPORARIES
NO. IV
WISDOM WHILE YOU WAITE
[The hibernation of A. Quiller, senior, and the approaching marriage of A. Quiller, junior, have prevented either of them from contributing their columns as usual. --- ED.]
WISDOM WHILE YOU WAITE
THE BOOK OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC. A. E. WAITE. Wm. Rider
& Son, Ltd., 15s.
IT would ill become us to review this book; which, when it was called "The
Book of Black Magic and of Pacts," was dismissed by the Editor of the "Goetia"
as "a farrago of twenty-fifth-rate shoddy schoolboy journalism." And we are
glad to see that in the new edition Mr Waite has corrected his logic by that
Editor's light. But the introduction is new, and deserves comment.
Mr Waite still talks as if his mouth were full of hot potatoes. The length
and obscurity of his archaisms renders him almost unintelligible to me, an
affectation which I find intolerable. Such fools as it may impress are not
worth having as followers, unless on is a swindler. In fact (let me whisper
in Mr Waite's ear) no follower is worth having.
Mr Waite's central doctrine appears identical with that to which I
personally assent; but I think he ruins its simplicity by his insistence on
sectarian symbols and on the literalism which he would be the first to condemn
in a Methodist.
As to the rituals of ceremonial magic which he condemns, he is right. But
the Mass itself is a Magical Ceremony, {135} and he does not condemn the Mass.
The ceremonies which might be practised by, say, a neophyte of the A.'.
A.'. would be as sublime as, and less tainted than, the services of the
Church. Of such rituals Mr Waite is ignorant, more ignorant than the author
of "The King's Dole" should be, unless such ignorance be the result of envy,
malice, and all uncharitableness.
Further, ceremonial magic, even of the low angelic order, may be a sort of
divine trap. The utterance of the Logos is one, but he is heard by divers
nations in divers languages. Cannot God deal with a soul even by allowing him
to pass through the "Houses of Sin"? Mr Waite blasphemes if he denies it.
As a practical example, I know of a man who took up the blackest magic from
sheer hatred of God and Christ, a hatred Shelleyan and Thomsonian. What
happened? He found by practice that to call forth an evil spirit you must
identify yourself with the god that commands him.
he then saw no use for the demon, and continued with the god. Reason next
said: " If with the small god, why not with the great God of all?" And in the
upshot he found himself practising exactly the same method as Molinos, St
Teresa, Buddha, Father Poulain, St Paul, Meredith Starr, A. E. Waite, Aleister
Crowley, and the rest --- and getting the very same results.
Oh, my dear sir, a man is a man, and if you give whisky to A, B, and C,
they all get drunk, with minor variations for the personal equation; and god
is one, and when A, B, and C pray, meditate, concentrate, invoke, chant,
utter, watch, resign themselves, it is all one thing in different words. One
is a little better, perhaps, for A; and another suits B. But God rewards all
alike, in The End. {136}
Mr Waite's grammar is as slovenly as ever: "The said three persons will
draw lots among each other."
Mr Waite's scholarship is as slovenly as ever. He refers to Molinos as a
Jesuit. I. Biss. * * * * * *I am learning Scotch (for legal purposes) at present. I know the meaning of "lovite," "compear," "furthcoming," "reponed," "Edictal," "the matter libelled," "effeirs," "teind," "condescendence," "decderned," "arrestments have been used," "diligence of arrestment," "addebted," "averments," "proof was led," "oath of calumny," "sist," "mandatory," "runrig and rundale," "the Record has been placed in the Roll for adjustment" (Not said of a Pianola). So that I have no time to learn Waitese, such as "palmary," "the imputed standpoint," "scattermeal," "a writer of my known dedications," "in respect of diluted views," "in respect of the mystic term," "in fine," "signal presentations," "it offers an experiment in integration," "casually literate," "some more withdrawn condition," "ineffable typology," "an essence so uttermost," "anywise," "dilucid," "hypostatic," "super-incession," "all antecedents and warrants of precursors," and so on. but where I can understand Mr Waite I am surprised to find him (as soon as he wishes to speak of the high states) borrowing without acknowledgment from my published works.
WAITE (1911) 3 CROWLEYThe act or "state of being lost" 3 Man's vision goes, dissolves in
in God is that which I have else- 3 God's. "AHA!" 1909.where described in a perfection of 3 All the illusion gone, behold The
all similitudes --- which is of my 3 One that is. Ib. {137}
adaptation but not of my making 3 "Thou fastenest on
(Is this his apology to me? A.C.) 3 This soul of mine, that it is gone,
when Christ delivers up the King- 3 Gone from all life, and rapt away." Ib.
dom of each soul to His Father, 3 "This I know, that I am gone
and God is all in all. 3 To the heart of God's great diamond."
3 "The Ladder," 1909.
3 "I climbed still inwards. At the
3 moveless point.
3 Where all power, life, light, motion
3 concentrate.
3 I found God dwelling ...
3 He drank my breath,
3 Absorbed my life in His, dispersed me,
3 gave me death."
3 "Aceldama," 1898.
3 "The First House ("i.e." the Father's
3 House) is so brilliant that you can't
3 think; and there, too, is my lover (the
3 Son) and I (the soul) when we are one.
3 "The Wake-World," 1907.
_____________________________________E________________________________________
This is the state beyond the 3 "reverent gaze
state when it is said that "they" 3 Upon the ancient One of Days,
shall see His face" 3 Beyond which fancy lies the Truth."
3 "Pentecost," 1902.
3 "to us the rites of Eleusis should open
3 the doors of Heaven, and we shall enter
3 in and see God face to face!
3 "Eleusis," 1906.
3 "ye also shall see God face to face."
3 Ib.
3 "they do lead one to the Vision of God
3 face to face." Ib.
3 "initiates --- men who have themselves
3 seen god face to face, and lived." Ib.
3 "the three ways to the Holy House
3 of the Old King ... so that is his
3 House, he is the Old King himself, and
3 so are you."
3 "The Wake World," 1907.
{138} 3 Leaping all the lesser bars, I shall
3 become the One and All ... and lose
3 myself. "Konx Om Pax," 1907.
3 This were my guerdon; to fade utterly
3 Into the rose-heart of that sanguine
3 vase,
3 And lose my purpose in its silent sea,
3 And lose my life, and find my life, and
3 pass
3 Up to the sea that is as molten glass.
3 "Tannhuser," 1901.
3 "the ego is altogether abased,
3 absorbed, in the Beloved."
3 "Time," 1906.
_____________________________________E________________________________________
"In that love and in that joining 3 (Of Dhyana)
together there is "no passage longer" 3 "The absolute identity
"from subject to object." But this is 3 Of the beholder and the Vision."
the Godhead." 3 "Pentecost," 1904. "The Most Secret, Most Holy 3 "If a single state of consciousness Temple, into which God and the 3 persist unchanged for a periodsoul go in (sic! I don't acknowledge 3 exceeding a very few seconds, its Mr Waite as a disciple in grammar) 3 duality is annihilated."
and only one comes out." 3 "Science and Buddhism," 1904.
3 The object ("scil." of meditation)
3 disappears; in its stead arises a great
3 glory, characterised by a feeling of
3 calm, yet of intense, unimaginable
3 bliss ... it might be absurd to assert
3 that either subject or object
3 disappears in Dhyana to the
3 disadvantage of the other.
3 "Time," 1906.
3 He (the Black Magician) works in a
3 circle. ... He says: I am inside, and
3 you can't get at me. He says One and
3 One are Two! (By the "Black Magician"
3 is here symbolised any person with the
3 normal dualistic consciousness.)
3 "Ali Sloper," 1907.
3 "Destroy him, or be he! That is
3 enough; there is no more to say."
3 "Konx Om Pax," 1907.
3 "Prostrate I wait upon Thy will,
3 Mine Angel, for this grace of
3 union." Ib.
3 "nothing is {139}
3 But the intensity of bliss.
3 Being is blasted. That exists."
3 "Aha!" 1909.
3 "All thoughts are evil. Thought is two:
3 The seer and the seen. Eschew
3 That supreme blasphemy, my son,
3 Remembering that God is One."
3 "Aha!" 1909.
3 "In the astral visions the
3 consciousness is hardly disturbed; in
3 magical evocations it is intensely
3 exalted; but it is still bound by its
3 original conditions. The Ego is still
3 opposed to the Non-Ego. ... all true
3 mystical phenomena contradict these
3 conditions. In the first place, the
3 Ego and the Non-Ego unite explosively
3 ... &c., &c."
3 --- "The Psychology of Hashish," 1909.
3 Samadhi (is) that state of mind in
3 which subject and object, becoming One,
3 have disappeared." Ib.
3 "The uniting of subject and object
3 which is Samadhi." Ib.
3 "O thou sun
3 Of thought, of bliss transcending
3 thought,
3 Rise "where division dies!" Absorb
3 In glory of the glowing orb
3 Self and its shadow!"
3 "Pentecost," 1904.
3 He (Huxley) denies the assertion of
3 duality; he has no datum to assert the
3 denial of duality. I have.
3 "Science and Buddhism," 1904.
_____________________________________E________________________________________
"Whosoever goes inward to find 3 "Miracles follow as a dower. anything but the Divine in his 3 But ah! they used the fatal powercentre is working on the side of his 3 And lost the Spirit in the act."
own loss ... those who are seek- 3 "Pentecost," 1904.ing to exercise the powers of the 3 "Let then the student contradict soul apart from its graces are tread-3 every vision and refuse to enjoy it."
ing the downward path." 3 "Postcards to Probationers," 1909.
{140} 3
"the quest of miraclous power 3 "It is waste of power (the most
(pertains to) the sciences of the 3 expensive kind of power) to 'make the
abyss." 3 spirits bring us all kinds of food, 3 etc." "John St John," 1908."The tradition rebours is de- 3 "divination should be discarded from
finitely and clearly that of mira- 3 the start." Ib. culous power in the quest and 3 "to use the spiritual forces to secure attainment thereof." 3 health is the vilest black magic." Ib. 3 "He asked him (i.e. the Adept) 3 frequently to dine, 3 Forgetting purposely the wine 3 (Though the Arcana of Nibbana 3 Ignore the very name of Cana). 3 He could not pass a heard of swine 3 Without a hint; in fact, in fine, 3 He took His Silence as a sign: 3 This is an enemy of mine!" 3 "Konx Om Pax," 1907. 3 "Fifth House, and mostly dream at 3 that." (The Fifth House is that of 3 Geburah, the house of Magical Power). 3 Ib._____________________________________E________________________________________
"But after all these wonders, 3 "Then subtly, easily, imperceptibly rank after rank of the Blessed 3 gliding, I passed away into nothing. Angels, after all visions of the 3 And I was wrapped in the blackGreat White Throne, it is as if a 3 brilliance of my Lord, that
quiet centre opened unawares and 3 interpenetrated me in every part, through an immeasurable silence 3 fusing its light with my darkness, and drew down the soul --- from one 3 leaving there no darkness, but pure many splendours into the one 3 light. ... At once, automatically, the splendour ... as if the soul saw 3 interior trembling began again, andthere the one God and itself as the 3 again the subtle brilliance flowed one worshipper. But after a little 3 through me. The consciousness again
while the worshipper itself has 3 died and was reborn as the divine,dissolved, and from henceforth and 3 always without shock or stress. ... for ever it has the consciousness of 3 Being entered into the Silence, let me
God only. ..." 3 abide in Silence!"
3 "John St John," 1909.
3 "O petty purities and pale,
3 These visions I have spoken of!
3 The Infinite Lord of Light and Love
3 Breaks on the soul like dawn. ...
3 In that fire the soul burns up. {141}
3 One drop from that celestial cup
3 Is an abyss, an infinite sea
3 That sucks up immortality."
3 "Aha!" 1909.
3 "Lie open, a chameleon cup,
3 And let Him suck thine honey up." Ib.
Dozens and scores of other parallel passages could be adduced; but I have
sat up half the night already.
It follows that: "either" Mr Waite is a disciple of my own, "or" "the devil is
quoting Holy Writ."
I'll risk a bob that he would rather be the devil!
ALEISTER CROWLEY.
X-RAYS ON EX-PROBATIONERS
RATS leave sinking ships; but you cannot be sure that a ship will sink because you see a rat running away from it. The captain may have given orders about it.
Persecution is like Keating's Powder. It does not injure the most delicate skin, but it removes all vermin.
"Mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted lifted up his heel against me" --- and then I saw it was the hoof of an ass.
PERDURABO.
{142}
THE VAMPIRE
I DREAM in strange laughterless Mazes;
I wake at the set of the sun;
All poppied the paean of praise is
That lives on the lives it has won.
And crimson grow cheeks that are ashen,
And gold gleam the locks that are grey,
For I live --- and bright blood is my passion,
Hot-veined in the heart of the day!
Aha! For the rapture that dazes!
Wine-drained as the breast of a nun
Droops the throat that my savage soul raises,
Thirsting yet for the life that is done!
Sharp as rocks where strong billows have thundered,
Calm as seas where strange tempests have run,
Strong as Death; were the Derelicts sundered
Feed the Soul without Hope, which is One.
In the Vault of the Infinite Spaces,
By the Moon of a mirrorless Sea,
I lie, while Eternity races ---
Dream-bound in the visions of me.
See poppied lips pale in the star-light,
The lustiest swoon at my breath,
Till the were-wolves howl --- ho! 'tis the far light! ---
Even so --- I caress --- it is Death!
ETHEL ARCHER.
{143} THE BIG STICK
A DREAMER'S TALES. By LORD DUNSANY.
Lord Dunsany's prose is like Baudelaire's. I can only criticise five of
these tales; for the others I have not yet read forty times!
"Poltarnees" is the best tale ever written of the lure of the Sea. I wish
I could think that my "Anima Lunae" helped to inspire it.
"Bethmoora" and "The Hashish Man" are really one tale. Words really fail
me here; if I quote one half sentence all who really understand English will
know that this is the perfection of the sublime in its simplicity. "Away we
went from that small, pale, "heinous" man."
"Pore Ole Bill" seems derived from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and
"the Yarn of the Nancy Bell." Mixed. What could be more ridiculous? Yet I
read it again and again, and the oftener I read it the keener does its
fascination grip me.
And what shall I say of "The Sword and the Idol"? Only this; that it is
true. Lord Dunsany has really beheld the dawn of the Iron Age, and the
conquest of the King by the Priest. G. W. Foote ought to publish this tale as
an atheistic pamphlet; it is the best ever written. And yet to me "The
Silence of Ged" (Oh bold my Lord Dunsany!) came as a voice in the wood at
midnight, when the sword-holder raises his steel against Ged. Ged neither hit
nor shrank --- in the end the sword was laid as an offering upon his knees.
So let the adept sit smiling through all that may befall him; then those
that hate him shall wonder at his strength; in the end they shall worship him.
And He, an He speak, shall by speaking save; an He yet keep silence, shall by
keeping silence, bless. Amen. ALEISTER CROWLEY.THE MESSAGE OF THUBA MLEEN
I
Far beyond Utnar Vhi, far beyond
The Hills of Hap,
Sits the great Emperor crowned with diamond,
Twitching the rosary in his lap --- {144}
The rosary whose every bead well-conned
With sleek unblinking bliss
Was once the eyeball of an unborn child of his.
II
He drank the smell of living blood, that hissed On flame-white steel. He tittered while his mother's limbs were kissed By the fish-hooks on the Wheel That shredded soul and shape, more fine than mistIs torn by the bleak wind
That blows from Kragua and the unknown lands behind.
III
As the last flesh was flicked, he wearied; slaves From bright Bethmoora Sprang forward with carved bowls whose crimson craves Green wine of hashish, black wine of datura, Like the Yann's earlier and its latter waves! These wines soothed well the spleen Of the Desert's bastard brother Thuba Mleen.
IV
He drank, and eyed the slaves. "'Mwass, Dagricho, Xu-XCulgulura, Saddle your mules!" he whispered, "ride full slow Unto Bethmoora And bid the people of the city know That that most ancient snake, The Crone of Utnar Vhi, is awake."
V
Thus twisted he his dagger in the hearts
Of those two slaves
That bore him wine; for they knew well the arts
Of Utnar Vhi --- what the grey Crone craves! ---
Knew how their kindred in the vines and marts
Of bright Bethmoora, thus accurst,
Would rush to the mercy of the Desert's thirst. {145}
VI
I would that Mana-Yood-Sushai would lean And listen, and hear The tittering , thin-bearded, epicene, Dwarf, fringed with fear, Of the Desert's bastard brother Thuba Mleen! For He would wake, and scream Aloud the Word to annihilate the dream.
THE TRIUMPH OF PAN. By VICTOR B. NEUBURG. The Equinox 5"s"
Shame, Mr Neuburg! Also fie! and tut! No dog-nosed and blue-faced baboon in rut Feels as you feel; or if he does, God's mercies Deny him power to tell his thoughts in verses.
This is a most regrettable collection Of songs; they deal with unrestrained affection Unlicensed by the Church and State; what's worse There's no denying they are first-rate verse. It surely cannot be that Pan's in clover And England's days of Sunday-school are over! PERCY FLAGE.THE GRACES OF INTERIOR PRAYER. FATHER POULAIN, S. J.
It would be easy, and was tempting, to dismiss Father Pulain and his 650
pages with a jest --- I have done harder things --- for the mountains of his
prejudice are difficult to approach across the abyss of his ignorance.
For example, he devotes just a paragraph to "Yogis." These persons he
describes as "Hindu Buddhists" who are "Pantheists," and endeavour to produce
"a state of stupefaction" in "their mental powers which are very low" and a
"comatose condition" of their body, whose joints they dislocate. How well
this describes such people as the Buddha and the author of the Bhagavadgita!
What a ring fence is Romanism against not merely truth but information!
We then examine Father Poulain on the scientific side. How does levitation
of the Saints take place?
"The simplest explanation, and that most in conformity with the order of
Providence, consists in saying: Since the angels have power to move corporeal
bodies, God makes use of their ministry, so as to avoid intervening Himself
without necessity." {146}
(This is not the translator's blundering, though perhaps much more may be
hoped from a lady who says that "Socrates remained for twenty-four hours lost
in thought in the camp the Potidaea was besieging." It was Potidaea's way of
doing her back hair that made her so generally admired.)
No; this is the real Poulain, 50 per cent. above proof.
I am sorry for this hobble-skirted Atalanta. He must not study mystic
facts; all he is allowed to do is to arrange, invent, delete as may suit
dogma. He is obliged to accept the nymphomaniac nun Gertrude, and treat her
blasphemous maunderings with reverence, or ascribe some peculiarly foul
outburst to an "early temptation." He must accept every orthodox levitation,
and explain it by weight-lifting competitions among the angels; he must deny
every heterodox levitation, or explain it by demonic power. And as one's
bitterest enemies are always one's nearest relations, so his bitterest
polemics are against the Quietists who are absolutely indistinguishable from
the orthodox, and in favour at Rome until the intrigues of the beast of blood
of the Society of Jesus destroyed Molinos. Father Poulain even repeats the
Catholic Truths about Molinos's confession. But Father Poulain is a Jesuit.
At this stage a reviewer wants to get up and stamp such people into pulp.
But the hour is not yet, though Ferrer's blood adds its cry to that of his
fellow-martyrs. Rather let us consider the good points in Father Poulain's
poultice.
He understand the mysticism of his own system fairly well, and his book
forms a most useful document in comparative Occultism. A. C.
ALCHEMY, ANCIENT AND MODERN. By H. STANLEY REDGRAVE.
A most admirable treatise on the little-understood and misunderstood
science of Alchemy. More, the only treatise. Clarity and good sense mark
every line. A book entirely essential to anyone who wishes to study the
subject, and to understand, (1) how the alchemists conceived of hierarchical
monism, (2) how they preserved mysticism, (3) how they made chemistry
possible.
The book is a complete refutation alike of the Pooh-Pooh and the Holy
Timmie schools of critics. LEO VIRIDIS.
LOTUS LEAVES. By ALICE l. HEAD. Elkin Mathews. I really enjoyed these charming poems. Now, you know, I don't often say a thing like that! ALICE L. FOOTE.
AN ADVENTURE. Anonymous.This little book appears to be the production of an extremely clever young man. {147}
I don't think! S. HOLMES.
The Porch. Vol. I. NO. 5. John G. Gichtel (Extracts).
Outside 21 Cecil Court I don't suppose one could find a holier man than
John G. Gichtel.
He writes likes a Magister Templi, does John G.; and does indeed
communicate a little that may be of use to an Adeptus of any kind. But there
is nothing for naughty Neophytes, or for poor putrid Probationers. Why
doesn't Mr. Watkins issue easy simple straightforward instructions, like the
EQUINOX? PROBATIONER.
Ib. No. 6. THE SEVEN VALLEYS. by FARIDUDDIN ATTAR. 3"d". A man of good repute who loved God saw Majnun sifting earth in the middle of the road, and said to him: "Oh Majnunj! What art thou seeking thus?" "I seek Laylah." "Can a pearl so pure be found in that dust?" "I seek Laylah everywhere, in the hope of finding her one day somewhere." This was my toil, and the reward is mine.
Of such gems the volume is full. A. C.
Ib. No. 7. A SERMON FOR WHIT SUNDAY. By JOHN TAULER. Awful good, but awful dull. Mr Crowley's "Pentecost" is much livelier.
H. G.
SPIRITISM AND INSANITY. By Dr MARCEL VIOLLET.
The worst type of cocksure medical dogmatising rendered into pitiably
Frenchified English. This is (I am told) not the fault of the translator, but
of Dr Viollet's arrogance. Good English is not good enough for him. It
sounds to me like incipient G.P.I. TARR, M.B.
DIVORCE PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY. E. S. P. HAYNES.
Divorce Law Reform Union. 1"s."
These papers are learned and acute, but also wise and broad-minded.
Mr. Haynes' suggestions go about as far as practical politics allow.
Polygynous Monogamy is the natural state of the Briton, and we cannot sweep it
away to pleas a few idealistic cranks. And marriage is a matter too serious
to be treated as Houdini treats handcuffs, popping in and out at will. On the
other hand, {148} everybody is not a Houdini, and we must help the weaker
brethren. No life should be irrevocably accurst. Marriage bonds should be
bonds of roses; and if the roses fade, they should be thrown away.
As for me, I feel at present like a cross between Galahad and St Paul.
Henry VIII. is but a memory.
MOHAMMED (dated from his suspended coffin).
THE HISTORY OF A SOUL. By GEORGE RAFFALOVICH. The Equinox.
3"s." 6"d."
this admirable study of a modern temperament, a thoughtful and generous
mind at sea in the whirl of these new forces, so difficult to understand at
all, so impossible to rate at their real value is a monument of our late
colleague's earlier manner.
PSYCHISM. By M. HUME.
Mrs Hume is a female M......h S....r. She begins by a long hypothesis full
of big words whose meaning she shows no sign of understanding, though the
sentence "Lunatics abound" can hardly be denied. The body of the book is made
up of rambling statements (unsupported by any sort of evidence) of psychic
powers that she possesses, the least of which, if substantiated, would be
sufficient to overturn the entire universe; and still more Starry are the
"inspirational" poems which disconnectedly impregnate the other rubbish.
"Nay, take her up gently, Dry thou her tears, Wind thine arm round her, Soothe thou her fears."This seems as obviously borrowed from Hood as her great male analogue borrows from any book that he has been reading recently. "Nature's law rules supreme
Because it is God's.
He framed it,
It must be,
And men are his 'lords.'" {149}
At this point, as Mrs Hume observes, "the strong man reeled in his
anguish." N. W.
THE HUMAN CHORD. By ALGERNON BLACKWOOD. If we were right in suggestion as de did in September, that Mr Edgar Jepson had stolen fire from Mr Blackwood, we must now admit that Mr Blackwood has got more than even. For the "Human Chord" has a plot so like that of No. 19 that we can hardly help thinking that Mr Blackwood must have been studying the methods of William Somerset Maugham, Esq., M.D. In both books we have a lonely place, and a strong man of the magician type, and the beautiful young lady, and the nice young gentleman, who agree after a little experience that it is much better to give up any aspiration higher than that of checking race suicide. Even the incidents in the "Human Chord" suggest "No,. 19." The horrible creature coming out of the dark is very like Mr Blackwood's personified sounds, and the final smash-up if of very much the sametype. Mr Blackwood's other sources are the Qabalah, which he appears to have taken from the preface to Mathers, and if he had only added to his library a shilling handbook on sound, he would have avoided some of the more absurd blunders. The distinguishing difference between "No. 19" and the "Human Chord," is that Edgar Jepson is a first-rate story-teller, while Algernon Blackwood is suffering from indigestion brought on be a surfeit of ill-cooked Theosophy. The theories spring up and choke the narrative, and it becometh unfruitful.
GEORGOS.
THE DEUCE AND ALL. By GEORGE RAFFLOVICH. Published by the EQUINOX.
Price 3"s." 6"d." and 1"s." net.
I can find no words of any known language strong and emphatic enough to
express my admiration of this extraordinary volume. Twelve tales! The twelve
Pointed Star of Genius! An introduction that is a Revelation! Magical
knowledge thrown away! Psychology never at fault! Truly the Book to read
again and again.
But, mind you, do not let it fall into the hands of elderly people. "They"
"would never die." GEORGE RAFFALOVICH.
POEMS. By VICTOR RATCLIFFE. Cambridge, 1910.
The title of this little volume is misleading. CANTAB.
BRACKEN. By JOHN TREVENA.
This is a very fine study of west country life. Jaspar Ramridge is a
schoolmaster, and can see nothing but discipline.
Cuthbert Orton is a schoolboy, and can see nothing but revolt against that
discipline. {150}
Neither grows up. So when they start to create, the boy produces a
creature of naked emotion and no more; the man a creature of naked intellect
and no more. The first is an animal, the second a devil.
This is our own doctrine; but never have I seen it better expressed.
It is not the province of man to create, but to beget. The father of the
girl who is in turn obsessed by Orton and Ramridge is a perfect ass; but he
made a very good job once in his life.
Let this admirable book be a warning to all those who seek magical power,
or to teach pupils.
If you obtain magical powers, as is easy, you can only use it to destroy
both yourself and your victims, unless by a greater miracle than the magic
itself. If you seek to teach, your pupils are almost sure to misunderstand.
The alternative is to initiate; and this can only be done by those who are
no longer men or magicians.
Let me congratulate Mr Trevena upon a most enthralling and instructive
book. O. H.
THE WHIRLPOOL. By ETHEL ARCHER. The Equinox. 1"s." net. I can add nothing to the appreciation which I have written for preface to
this volume, which all should read. ALEISTER CROWLEY.Look at the cover, and shudder!
E. J. WIELANDThe obsurer phases of love, the more mystic side of passion, have never been more enchantingly delineated than they are by Ether Archer, in this delightfully vicious book.
sonnet to the volume. VICTOR.The first thing one wishes to know on completing this extraordinary volume is: --- What is the author's definition of Art? Some say that the definition of Art is to please; I say Art is artifice; Phil May said something which conveys nothing {151} if translated into Latin, and is unprintable in English. If the author holds Phil Mar's opinion she has, of course, ever right to continue printing such books; if, however, her idea of Art is to please, then Ether Archer's idea of pleasure is as warped as her nature. To the Philistine Public this book will have but one use --- it contains just sufficient paper to set the drawing-room fire agoing in event of returning home after the domestics have retire to rest. Those, however, who appreciate good verse, with find just sufficient warmth therein to read it
though the fire be out. BUNCO.Especially after a last glance at the wonderful cover, I think that The World's Pool of Sound suggests itself as an alternative title to this thin volume. This but bony --- nor could sweeter marrow be found elsewhere. The volume has, I am afraid, an unfortunate horoscope, owing no doubt to some affliction in Virgo, with no correspondingly strong influence from the house
of Taurus. Let use leave it at that. GEORGE RAFFALOVICH.Babes of the Abyss! behold Form without Soul! Of womanhood (philosophical Weininger-womanhood!) Ether Archer is the supreme expression. She is passion rebours; L-bas in excelsis. One can imagine her writhing away from even the infamies and hysterics of Canon Docre; or, having won her broomstick, declining to go to the Sabbath. hers is the glass fruit of Murano, with its tinkling bells; hers that obscene chastity which blasphemes love and holds the candle to vice. Hers is the prudery and respectability which can pass through all fires unscorched, unwarmed. Hers is the soul of the real succuba, as that was before man idealised it away into a vampire of voluptuousness. Miss Archer (God help her!) is still young; her verse halts and her technique is faulty; it is amateurish. But she only needs a little hard work and experience to produce the vilest ravings that ever foamed upon the fleshless lips of a lost soul.
shudder. LAURA GRAHAME.
HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE!
ETHEL ARCHER. {152}
THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA, etc. BERNARD SHAW.
The preface to the first of these plays is a pointless hotchpotch of
ignorant balderdash, the eavesdropping of a doctor's flunky translated to a
suburban layman. sometimes it hits the marks; the law of chance provides for
this event.
The play is even worse rubbish.
Follows a dull, dirty stupid, prolix, foolish farrago about marriage. "By
George!" cried Somerset, "Three days of you have transformed me into an
ancient Roman!" Bernard Shaw is the nearest approach to the redoubtable Zero
that seems possible. I have had doubts about marriage,and troubles in
marriage; but Shaw has made me feel partly like St Paul and partly like Queen
Victoria.
But there is no need to take Shaw seriously. He has lived so long as cockof
-the-walk of his mattoid dunghill of sexless and parasexual degenerates that
he has lost sight of the world altogether. Probably a sewer-rat thinks that
fresh air smells nasty. Nor, one may add, is much consideration due to a
person so ignorant as to write "dumbfoundered" for "dumfoundered" and
"laudatores tempori acti." "Til" for "till" is doubtless only a foolish
faddism intended to irritate, like the Old Philadelphia Lady in the "New York"
"Herald," but he has not here sense of humour.
There is some ground, though, for hoping that the "Doctor's Dilemma" and
"Getting Married" merely mark the temporary eclipse of a great mind. for the
remarks on the Censor are quite informed and sensible, and Blanco Posnet is
really quite good. The characters are human and living --- a welcome change
indeed from the dogmatic dummies of the other two plays. A. C.
CAGLIOSTRO. By W. H. TROWBRIDGE.
I have a prejudice against memoirs of a century ago. They are usually
pornographic tittle-tattle, absolutely pointless, the favourite reading of a
Colonel Glumley. One expects to see them in a still-life whose other
ingredients are birches tied up with blue ribbons, and imitations of the
Inimitable.
What, then, was my pleasure in finding this study of Cagliostro a wellwritten
and profoundly interesting book!
The man problem of Cagliostro's identity is discussed with marvellous power
and fascination.
Mr Trowbridge's review of eighteenth-century occultism is strikingly sane
and intelligent. Knowing nothing of the causes priori, he has judged by the
effects, and these have not betrayed him. Indeed, had Mr Trowbridge sworn
secrecy to the modern Illuminati, I am afraid that he might have his s...l
{153} s..n across, and his b....s exposed to the s........g r..s of the s.n
before now!
I think Mr Trowbridge is too ready to assume that the initiations of
Egyptian Masonry were ridiculous. On what documents does he base his
description? It is always open to a Mason to reply to an "exposure" that
those who tell don't know, and those who know don't tell. My own small
knowledge of the matter assures me that the accounts given on pp. 111 and 112,
120 and 121 are entirely foreign to that knowledge and priori most unlikely.
It is incredible that one to whom so many impressive rites were accessible
should found his system on tomfoolery.
I wish Mr Trowbridge could have found time to study intimately fro a month
the life of a modern master.
As it is, the most natural phenomena perturb him. The periodical
disappearances of his hero annoy the historian; yet this is the first
condition of the life of a Magus, like the disappearance of salmon from
rivers. Unless one went back to the sea pretty often, those silver scales
would blacken.
Many other matter, too, would have suggested their own explanation.
However, the historian's native with has gone very far to supply him with
motives for Cagliostro. What puzzles fools, whether they be Jewish, Russian,
French, or naturalised Englishmen, in estimating the actions of an adept, is
this; they have not the smallest notion of what he loves, or even of what he
sees. Cagliostro is fortunate in finding a student with good sense and
perspicacity. It is only a step from Cagliostro's vindication (successfully
accomplished in this book) to his triumph. Mr Trowbridge will come one day to
see that his high mission was not a failure, recognise that Dumas is the most
illuminated of historians as well as the most fascinating of novelists.
ALEISTER CROWLEY.
THE WAY OF THE SOUL, a legend in line and verse. By WILLIAM T. HORTON.
A little while ago I begged the Deity to forbid that William T. Horton
should become vocal. My prayer was not heard.
Again, William T. Horton begged the Deity not to let the Equinox review his
book.
His prayer has not been heard.
Enough to shake anybody's faith!
There is a most illuminated forward by Ralph Shirley, a thing I could wish
to have written myself.
And now for the Reverse of the Medal.
The principal subject of illustration is a series of accordion-pleated
cliffs {154} made of Sunlight soap, waters made of vermicelli, suns indicated
by circles drawn with a compass surrounded by lines drawn with a very unsteady
hand to represent rays --- surely a ruler would have been neater? --- moons
cut out of cardboard probably by his little sister, trees rather well done as
they are accurately copied from Morris & Co., flaming swords like flyswitches,
roses and stars and the rest, all conceived and executed with
inconceivable coarseness, banality, and an absolute lack of any sense of
beauty on the one hand and technical skill on the other. Such drawing would
be rejected by the vulgarest comic papers; the best examples do not reach the
standard of Ally Sloper, though the feeling approximates to that journal's at
its nadir.
I did not mention that there are numerous attempts to represent divine,
angelic, and human forms; the subject is beyond my power of expression.
As it is, I can only beg my readers to buy this book, for these drawings
must be seen to be believed. And even then? Their existence is incompatible
with that of god.
The only other way to save my credit is to quote (without comment; I am
only human) the "verse"; it is better tan the drawings, but it will give an
idea of what William T. Horton really can do.
Isis-Osiris, Lo! on Thy throne
Two-in-One, apart, alone,
Breathe on us of Thy might;
Ruler of Love an Light
Isis-Osiris on Thy golden throne
Two-in-One, apart, alone.
. . . .
The Future hid,
The Soul, in Love,
Goes where 'tis bid.
By Love above.
. . . . . .
Within a cold and barren land,
Whereon, at times, a moon doth shine
A tree of Life doth upright stand,
Close by a gap, near a deep mine.
. . . . . .
I know that over there,
Behind the crescent moon,
There waits for me somewhere,
One I shall meet full soon.
. . . . . . {155}
Thy heart shall weary
And thy Soul shall cry,
Till thou findest me,
Thy Bride from on high.
. . . . .
Star of my Hope to thee I call
Upon the way I stumbling fall
Shine thou upon my weary soul
Disperse the clouds that o'er me roll.
I faint for thee with dear desire My heart with longing oft doth tire To thee I climb --- ah! shine on me Disclose thyself, revealed be.
Why hidest thou from me thy face? Come forth, thy hand in mine, Sweet, place; I stand where many coss roads meet Oh! guide and guard my faltering feet . . . . . . Within it's Crystal House the Soul, Made perfect, sits enthroned in joy, Around it all Earth's clouds may roll, But nought can harm it, or annoy. . . . . . . Isis, Mother of all the gods, By Thee th' aspiring Soul doth rise; No more on Earth it blindly plods But, Spirit-freed, mounts to the skies. . . . . . .The late Leonard Smithers once told me an anecdote, for whose truth I do not vouch.
"Turn again, Hor-ton, Ar-tist of Lon-don!"He turned. But I don't agree with Leonard Smithers' comment that William T. Horton could have made a good architect; I prefer the sober judgment of Ethel Archer that he might have been trained to be a bricklayer.
ALEISTER CROWLEY {156}
NEW EVIDENCES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. By J. ARTHUR HILL.
A very interesting record, written fairly and conceived clearly. There is
absolutely none of the sentimentality which degrades 99.9 per cent. of
Spiritistic "research."
I must confess that "Watson" does not impress me. He is too terribly
correct in his facts. To admit the supernormal hypothesis here would be to
betray all good sense. However unlikely it may appear, Watson must have known
the facts.
For otherwise, if he can describe and name some fifteen relatives of "F.
K.," he ought --- in the course of a lifetime --- to do as much for many
others. But he doesn't
The argument is this. Suppose my aeroplane does just manage to leave the
ground for a few yards, one can explain it away. But if I fly from London to
New York, I show such power that it is reasonable to insist on my flying at
least a few miles to order.
I challenge Watson to give me the name of one relative of a stranger that I
bring him.
the cross-correspondences are more satisfactory. But the hypothesis of
spirits is quite unnecessary.
If we admit, as any Pantheist would admit, that subliminal Mrs Verral is
identical with or in communication with subliminal Mrs Piper, there is no
mystery left, no suggestion of Myers to pit against the blank failure of the
sealed letter test. Further, I distrust "Mrs Holland." I cannot believe that
any one is so imbecile as not to solve the Hodgson cipher at a single glance.
But a grande hystrique forging the script might pretend to be unable to
decipher it.
I have seen more fraud from the vanity of amateurs than from the cupidity
of professionals. So, in the end, to this record as to all others, I enter
the Scotch verdict. A. C.
THE ALTAR IN THE WILDERNESS. By ETHELBERT JOHNSON.
A charming little book, a book of understanding. But this one thing he does not understand, that He who should come hath indeed come. "For we have
seen His Star in the West, and are come to worship Him." L. T. {157}
CORRESPONDENCE
"THE PERFECT SHOPKEEPER"
25 OLD BOND STREET, LONDON, W., 11"th Feb. 1911."
DEAR SIR, --- I have heard from our Lawyers (to whom you compelled us to go to
obtain payment from you) that you have paid ""6 into court in settlement of our
account of ""9, 10"s.", of which ""8, 10"s.", is for repairs to a suit case brought
to us in very bad state, the remaining ""1 being simply money paid out of
pocket to our workman for watch and coffee-pot repairs, etc.
In instructing our Lawyers to accept such payment, we think it best to
state that had you at any time told us you objected to any of the charges we
should at once have tried to have met your wishes and pleased you, but you
never have complained, simply ignoring all our applications for payment as on
previous occasions with your accounts. The write, you may possibly remember,
had an interview with you here in June 1906, when he remonstrated with you
strongly on your very shabby treatment; you there and then, to make up for it
perhaps, gave us an order, selecting the very fine suit case over which your
were, by the special instructions of the writer, put on most liberal terms for
cash.
Perhaps having treated us so shabbily again you will give us another order,
for if letting people in for needless Lawyers' expense is your idea of right
from wrong it is very different from
Yours faithfully,
A. ELLIOTT of
J. W. BENSON LTD.
"P.S." --- if calling, kindly ask for the writer, who will be pleased to see you again.
E. A. CROSLEY, Esq.,
124 Victoria Street, S. W.
[This letter (a masterpiece of autopsychography) should be read in the light of the article published in No. iv. pp. 311-313. A.C.] [This correspondence must "not" now cease. --- ED.]
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