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Page 1 of 31996 · PDF PAGE 18
…ected by a husband towards his wife and by a wife towards her husband. The creation of this artificial “sin of sex,” the attachment of a sense of guilt to a basic natural function, has brought about a disastrous perversion of sane moral feeling. It has destroyed or numbed our awareness of what is the only real sin, of what alone should cause a sense of guilt in us; that is, obstruction or denial of our true will, or of the true will of another. The acceptance of, or the deference to these malignant sex-tabus, has done incalculable harm and is s…
1996 · PDF PAGE 22
…nifestation of Nuit. Commentary: The theogony of our Law is entirely scientific. Nuit is Matter, Hadit is Motion, in their full physical sense.1 They are the tao and te of Chinese Philosophy; or, to put it very simply, the Noun and Verb in grammar. Our central Truth—beyond other philosophies—is that these two infinities cannot exist apart. This extensive subject must be studied in our other writings, nota bly Berashith, my own Magical Diaries, especially those of 1919, 1920 and 1921,1 2 and The Book of Wisdom or Folly.3 See also “The Soldier a…
1996 · PDF PAGE 169
…1 2 religions whose flesh must be torn out cover the whole globe outside Islam and Christianity. 1 [Din means religion in Arabic, in the sense of the obligation “reason ing” creatures have to God, with a sense of a debt to be discharged.] 2 [Four, not six, in the context of Crowley’s present discussion.] 3 [Crowley’s usual authority for etymology was Walter Skeat, who gives *mer (not *mr) as the “Indogermanic” (Indoeuropean) root underly ing death-words, giving as an example the Sanskrit mr-ta. Skeat was actually skeptical of a connection bet…
1996 · PDF PAGE 83
…! In particular, let me exhort all men and all women, for they are Stars! Heed well this holy Verse! True Religion is intoxication, in a sense. We are told elsewhere to intoxicate the innermost, not the outermost; but I think that the word “wine” should be taken in its widest sense as meaning that which brings out the soul. Climate, soil, and race change conditions; each man or woman must find and choose the fit intoxicant. Thus hashish in one or other of its forms seems to suit the Moslem, to go with dry heat; opium is right for the Mongol; wh…
1996 · PDF PAGE 124
… be, the individual expands and fulfils himself in all directions; it is an omniform samadhi. This is of course “eternal ecstasy” in the sense already explained. But in the time-world karma reconcentrates the elements, and a new incarnation occurs. 45. There is death for the dogs. Commentary: The prigs, the prudes, the Christians, die in a real sense of the word; for although even they are “Stars,” there is not enough body to them (as it were) to carry on the individuality. There is no basis for the magical memory if one’s incarnation holds not…
1996 · PDF PAGE 110
…lust” is to grasp continually at fresh aspects of Nuit. It is the mistake of the vulgar to expect to find satisfaction in the objects of sense. Disillusion is inevitable; when it comes, it leads only too often to an error which is in reality more fatal than the former, the denial of “materiality” and of “animalism.” There is a correspondence between these two attitudes and those of the “once-born” and “twice-born” of William James.1 2 Thelemites are “thrice-born”; we accept everything for what it is, without “lust of result,” without insisting …
1996 · PDF PAGE 181
… puff out their emptiness; scratched for the Great Race of Life, they watch the Derby instead. Brave such may be; they may well be (in a sense) classed with the rat; but brainless and idle they must be, who have no goal beyond the grave, where, at the best, chance flings fast-withering flowers of false and garish glory. They serve to defend things vital to their country; they are the skull that keeps the brain from harm? Oh foolish brain! Wert thou not wiser to defend thyself, rather than trust to brittle bone that hinders thee from growth? Let…
1996 · PDF PAGE 82
…ss. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me! 62. At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say—and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple—To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant. Commentary: It is evident that Our Lady, in her Personality, contemplates some more or less ope…
1996 · PDF PAGE 58
…r and of Vengeance”; see Cap. III. The doctrine of the previous verses, which appears not merely to allow sexual liberty in the ordinary sense, but even to advocate it in a sense which is calculated to shock the most abandoned lib ertine, can do no less than startle and alarm the magician, and that only the more so as he is familiar with the theory and prac tice of his art. “What is this, in the name of Adonai?” I hear him exclaim: “is it not the immemorial and unchallenged tradition that the exorcist who would apply himself to the most eleme…
1996 · PDF PAGE 16
…religious Law; its sanctions, its injunctions, and its prohibitions are religious. At the same time it is not a dogmatic religion in the sense in which most religions are dogmatic; it is a Faith for the individualist, as is clearly shown by its central text, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” “Discover your own true will,” is the mean- L40 ing of this; “and then act in harmony with it to the utmost of your powers.” The aim of the Commentary on the Book of the Law is to guide the reader along the path of the discovery of his own …
1996 · PDF PAGE 86
…se; and the Universe veils the Soul. Nature understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her units; and the Consciousness loses its sense of separateness by dissolution in Her. There has been much difficulty in the orthography (in sacred languages) of these names. Nu is clearly stated to be 56, 1]; but Had is only hinted obscurely. This matter is discussed later more fully; verses 15 and 16. 2. Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and Khabs is th…
1996 · PDF PAGE 6
…er of the small English expatriate community in New York during the First World War. Wilkinson was an English man of letters in the best sense; he not only wrote, and wrote well, but lived a literary life 7
1996 · PDF PAGE 163
…o these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof. Commentary: The word “lust” is not necessarily to be taken in the sense familiar to Puritans. It means robustness, “merri ment” as of old understood: the Germans have retained the proper force of the term in lustig. But even the English retain “lusty.” The Puritan is undoubtedly a marvel. He has even succeeded in attaching a foul connotation to a colourless word like “certain”—“In a section of the city with a certain reputation women of a certain class suffering from certai…
1996 · PDF PAGE 44
…ancer, an independent growth in him, yet one from which he cannot get free. The idea of self-sacrifice is a moral cancer in exactly this sense. Similarly, one may say that not to do one’s will is evidence of mental or moral insanity. When “duty points one way, and inclination the other,” it is proof that you are not one, but two. You have not centralized your control. This dichotomy is the beginning of conflict, which may result in a Jekyll-Hyde effect. Stevenson suggests that man may be discovered to be a “mere polity” of many individuals. The…
1996 · PDF PAGE 140
…r souls. Could Paganini have expressed himself on the “fiddle for eighteen pence” that someone once bought when he was “young and had no sense?” Each of us is Hadit, the core of our Khabs, our Star, one of the Company of Heaven; but this Khabs needs a Khu or Magical Image, in order to play its part in the Great Drama. This Khu, again, needs the proper costume, a suitable “body of flesh,” and this costume must be worthy of the Play. We therefore employ various magical means to increase the vigour of our bodies and the energy of our minds, to for…
1996 · PDF PAGE 203
…ss. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me! 62. At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say—and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple—To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant. 63. Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, …
1996 · PDF PAGE 151
… number of potentialities to be satisfied. In other words, the more complex the Khu of the Star, the greater the man, and the keener his sense of his own imperfections of the scope of his work, and of his need to achieve it. 75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words: 76. 4638ABK24ALGMOR3YX24 89RPSTOV A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chosen one, to be me; to follow the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to …
1996 · PDF PAGE 123
…rtal energy and rapture. 43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight! Commentary: To sleep is to return, in a sense, to the Bosom of Nuit. But there is to be a particular Act of Worship of Our Lady, as ye well wot.
1996 · PDF PAGE 87
88 The Law is for All He is “not extended”; that is, without condition of any sort in the metaphysical sense. Only in the highest trances can the nature of these truths be realized. It is indeed a supra-rational experience not dissimilar to those characteristic of the “Star-Sponge” Vision previously described1 that can help us here. The trouble is that the truth itself is unfitted to the dualistic reason of “normal” man kind. Hadit seems to be the principle of Motion which is every where, yet is not extended in any dimension except as it chan…
1996 · PDF PAGE 94
…ue Self, and exalting it to unimaginable heights. So long as one remains “one’s self,” one is overwhelmed by the Uni verse; destroy the sense of self, and every event is equally an expression of one’s Will, since its occurrence is the resultant of the concourse of the forces which one recognizes as one’s own. 9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains. Commentary: This verse is very thoroughly explained in Liber Aleph. “All in this kind are but s…