Liber Aleph

THE BOOK OF WISDOM OR FOLLY 137 Ez De Arte Amoris et Deliciarum Mystici (Of the Art of Love and of the Pleasure of the Mystic) HE Path therefore unto this beatific Vision of Beauty, o my Son, is that Practice of Bhakti Yoga which is written in the Book called Eight Score and Fifteen, or “Astarte,” by this mine Hand when I was in Gaul the beloved, at Montigny that is hard by the Forest of the Blue Fountain, with Agatha my Concubine, the very Soul of Love and of Musick, that had ventured herself from beneath the Cross Austral that she might seek me, to inspire and comfort me, and this was my Reward from the masters, and Consolation in the Years of my Sorrow. But the way that leadeth to the other Form of this Vision of Beatitude, to wit, Science is Gnana Yoga or Raja Yoga, of which I have written only here and there, as one who should throw great Stones upon the Earth in Disorder, by default of building them nobly into a Pyramid. And of this do I heartily repent me, and ask of the God Thoth that he may give me (albeit at the eleventh hour) virtue and with that I may compose a true Book upon these Ways of Union. Thy first Step, therefore, o my Son, is to attain unto Samadhi, and to urge thyself perpetually to repetition of thy Successes therein, for it hath been said by Philosophers of old that Practice maketh Perfect, and that Manners, being the constant Habit of Life, maketh Man. t