Collected Works (Vol. II)

Opus. Prima Materia. A.O Custodes.4 Sapiens dom- inabitur astris, Ss. 8. D. D. 1902 AMBROSIIL MAGI HORTUS ROSARUM* Translated into English by Christeos Luciftias. Printed by W. Black, at the Wheatsheaf in Newgate, and sold at the Three Keys in Nags-Head Court, Gracechurch St. IT is fitting that I, Ambrose, called I. A. O., should set down the life of our great Father (who now is not, yet whose name must never be spoken among men), in order that the Brethren may know what journeys he undertook in pursuit of that Knowledge whose attainment is their constant study. It was at his 119th year,! the Star Suaconch ? being” in the sign of the Lion, that our Father set out from his Castle of Ug? to attain the Quint- essence or Philosophical Tincture. The way being dark and the Golden Dawn at hand, he did call forth four servants to keep him in the midst of the way, and the Lion roared before him to bid the opposers beware of his coming. On the Bull he rode, and on his left hand and his right marched the Eagle and the Man. But his back was uncovered, seeing that he would not turn. And the Spirit of the Path met him. It was a young girl of two and twenty years, and she warned him fairly that without the Serpent ° his ways were but as wool cast into the dyer’s vat. ‘Two-and-twenty scales had the Serpent, and every scale was a path, and every path was alike an enemy and a friend. So he set out, and the darkness grew upon him. Yet could he well perceive a young maiden® having a necklace of two-and-seventy * It would require many pages to give even a sketch of this remarkable document. The Qabalistic Knowledge is as authentic as it is profound, but there are also allusions to contemporary occult students, and a certain very small amount of mere absence of meaning. The main satire is of course on the ‘‘ Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz.’’ A few only of the serious problems are elucidated in footnotes. 1 J.e. when 118=change,a ferment, strength. Also=before he was 120, the mystic age of a Rosicrucian., 2 Her-shell=Herschell, or Uranus, the planet which was ascending (in Leo) at Crowley's birth. $ Vau and Gimel, the Hierophant and High- Priestess in the Tarot. Hence ‘‘ from his Castle of Ug” means ‘ from his initiation.” We cannot in future do more than indicate the allusions. 4 The Kerubim. 5 See Table of Correspondences. 6 The 22nd Key of the Tarot. The other Tarot symbols can be traced by any one who possesses, and to some degree understands, a pack of the cards. The occult views of the nature of these symbols are in some cases Crowley's own. 252