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40.
{Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu} THE HIMOG (19)
A red rose absorbs
all colours but red; red is therefore the one colour that it is not.
This Law, Reason, Time, Space, all Limitation blinds us to the Truth.
All that we know of Man, Nature, God, is just that which they are not;
it is that which they throw off as repugnant.
The HIMOG is only visible in so far as He is imperfect.
Then are they all glorious who seem not to be glorious, as the HIMOG is
All-glorious Within?
It may be so.
How then distinguish the inglorious and perfect HIMOG from the
inglorious man of earth?
Distinguish not!
But thyself Ex-tinguish: HIMOG art thou, and HIMOG shalt thou be.
COMMENTARY ({MU})
Paragraph 1 is, of course, a well-known scientific fact.
In paragraph 2 it is suggested analogically that all thinkable things
are similarly blinds for the Unthinkable Reality.
Classing in this manner all things as illusions, the question arises as
to the distinguishing between illusions; how are we to tell whether a
Holy Illuminated Man of God is really so, since we can see nothing of
him but his imperfections. "It may be yonder beggar is a King."
But these considerations are not to trouble such mind as the Chela
may possess; let him occupy himself, rather, with the task of getting
rid of his personality; this, and not criticism of his holy Guru, should
be the occupation of his days and nights.
NOTE
(19) HIMOG is a
Notariqon of the words Holy Illuminated Man of God.
41. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Alpha} CORN BEEF HASH
(20)
In V.V.V.V.V. is
the Great Work perfect.
Therefore none is that pertaineth not to V.V.V.V.V.
In any may he manifest; yet in one hath he chosen to manifest; and this
one hath given His ring as a Seal of Authority to the Work of the
A.'.A.'.through the colleagues of FRATER PERDURABO.
But this concerns themselves and their administration; it concerneth
none below the grade of Exempt Adept, and such an one only by command.
Also, since below the Abyss Reason is Lord, let men seek by experiment,
and not by Questionings.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Alpha})
The title is only partially explained in the note; it means that the
statements in this chapter are to be understood in the most ordinary and
commonplace way, without any mystical sense.
V.V.V.V.V. is the motto of a Master of the Temple (or so much He
disclosed to the Exempt Adepts), referred to in Liber LXI. It is he who
is responsible for the whole of the development of the A,'.A.'. movement
which has been associated with the publication of THE EQUINOX; and His
utterance is enshrined in the sacred writings.
It is useless to enquire into His nature; to do so leads to certain
disaster. Authority from him is exhibited, when necessary, to the proper
persons, though in no case to anyone below the grade of Exempt Adept.
The person enquiring into such matters is politely requested to work,
and not to ask questions about matters which in no way concern him.
The number 41 is that of the Barren Mother.
NOTE
(20) I.e. food
suitable for Americans.
42. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Beta} DUST-DEVILS
In the wind of the
mind arises the turbulence called I.
It breaks; down shower the barren thoughts.
All life is choked.
This desert is the Abyss wherein the Universe.
The Stars are but thistles in that waste.
Yet this desert is but one spot accursed in a world of bliss.
Now and again Travellers cross the desert; they come from the Great Sea,
and to the Great Sea they go.
As they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate the desert, till
it flower.
See! five footprints of a Camel! V.V.V.V.V.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Beta})
This number 42 is the Great Number of the Curse. See Liber 418, Liber
500, and the essay on the Qabalah in the Temple of Solomon the King.
This number is said to be all hotch-potch and accursed.
The chapter should be read most carefully in connection with the 10th
Aethyr. It is to that dramatic experience that it refers.
The mind is called "wind", because of its nature; as has been frequently
explained, the ideas and words are identical.
In this free-flowing, centreless material arises an eddy; a spiral
close-coiled upon itself.
The theory of the formation of the Ego is that of the Hindus, whose
Ahamkara is itself a function of the mind, whose ego it creates. This
Ego is entirely divine.
Zoroaster describes God as having the head of the Hawk, and a spiral
force. It will be difficult to understand this chapter without some
experience in the transvaluation of values, which occurs throughout the
whole of this book, in nearly every other sentence.
Transvaluation of values is only the moral aspect of the method of
contradiction.
The word "turbulence" is applied to the Ego to suggest the French
"tourbillion", whirlwind, the false Ego or dust-devil.
True life, the life, which has no consciousness of "I", is said to be
choked by this false ego, or rather by the thoughts which its explosions
produce. In paragraph 4 this is expanded to a macrocosmic plane.
The Masters of the Temple are now introduced; they are inhabitants, not
of this desert; their abode is not this universe.
They come from the Great Sea, Binah, the City of the Pyramids.
V.V.V.V.V. is indicated as one of these travellers; He is described as a
camel, not because of the connotation of the French form of this word,
but because "camel" is in hebrew Gimel, and Gimel is the path leading
from Tiphareth to Kether, uniting Microprosopus and Macroprosopus, i.e.
performing the Great Work.
The card Gimel in the Tarot is the High Priestess, the Lady of
Initiation; one might even say, the Holy Guardian Angel.
43. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Gamma} MULBERRY TOPS
Black blood upon
the altar! and the rustle of angel wings above!
Black blood of the sweet fruit, the bruised, the violated bloom -- that
setteth The Wheel a-spinning in the spire.
Death is the veil of Life, and Life of Death; for both are Gods.
This is that which is written: "A feast for Life, and a greater feast
for Death!" in THE BOOK OF THE LAW.
The blood is the life of the individual: offer then blood!
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Gamma})
The title of this chapter refers to a Hebrew legend, that of the prophet
who heard "a going in the mulberry tops"; and to Browning's phrase, "a
bruised, black-blooded mulberry".
In the World's Tragedy, Household Gods, The Scorpion, and also The
God-Eater, the reader may study the efficacy of rape, and the sacrifice
of blood, as magical formulae. Blood and virginity have always been the
most acceptable offerings to all the gods, but especially the Christian
God.
In the last paragraph, the reason of this is explained; it is because
such sacrifices come under the Great Law of the Rosy Cross, the
giving-up of the individuality, as has been explained ad nauseam in
previous chapters.
We shall frequently recur to this subject.
By "the wheel spinning in the spire" is meant the manifestation of
magical force, the spermatozoon in the conical phallus. For wheels, see
Chapter 78.
44. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Delta} THE MASS OF THE
PHOENIX
The Magician, his
breast bare, stands before an altar
on which are his Burin, Bell, Thurible, and two
of the Cakes of Light. In the Sign of the Enterer he
reaches West across the Altar, and cries:
Hail Ra, that goest in Thy bark
Into the Caverns of the DarK!
He gives the sign of Silence, and takes the Bell, and
Fire, in his hands.
East of the Altar see me stand
With Light and Musick in mine hand!
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell 3 3 3-5 5 5 5 5-3 3 3 and places
the Fire in the Thurible.
I strike the Bell: I light the flame:
I utter the mysterious Name.
ABRAHADABRA
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell.
Now I begin to pray: Thou Child, holy Thy name and undefiled!
Thy reign is come: Thy will is done.
Here is the Bread; here is the Blood.
Bring me through midnight to the Sun!
Save me from Evil and from Good!
That Thy one crown of all the Ten.
Even now and here be mine. AMEN.
He puts the first Cake on the Fire of the Thurible.
I burn the Incense-cake, proclaim
These adorations of Thy name.
He makes them as in Liber Legis, and strikes again
Eleven times upon the Bell. With the Burin he then
makes upon his breast the proper sign.
Behold this bleeding breast of mine
Gashed with the sacramental sign!
He puts the second Cake to the wound.
I stanch the blood; the wager soaks It up, and the high priest invokes!
He eats the second Cake.
This Bread I eat. This Oath I swear
As I enflame myself with prayer:
"There is no grace: there is no guilt:
This is the Law: DO WHAT THOU WILT!"
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell, and cries
ABRAHADABRA.
I entered in with woe; with mirth
I now go forth, and with thanksgiving,
To do my pleasure on the earth
Among the legions of the living.
He goeth forth.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Delta})
This is the special number of Horus; it is the Hebrew blood, and the
multiplication of the 4 by the 11, the number of Magick, explains 4 in
its finest sense. But see in particular the accounts in Equinox I, vii
of the circumstances of the Equinox of the Gods.
The word "Phoenix" may be taken as including the idea of "Pelican",
the bird, which is fabled to feeds its young from the blood of its own
breast. Yet the two ideas, though cognate, are not identical, and
"Phoenix" is the more accurate symbol.
This chapter is explained in Chapter 62.
It would be improper to comment further upon a ritual which has been
accepted as official by the A.'.A.'.
45. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Epsilon} CHINESE MUSIC
"Explain this
happening!"
"It must have a 'natural' cause."
"It must have a 'supernatural' cause."
Let these two asses be set to grind corn.
May, might, must, should, probably, may be, we may safely assume, ought,
it is hardly questionable, almost certainly -- poor hacks! let them be
turned out to grass!
Proof is only possible in mathematics, and mathematics is only a matter
of arbitrary conventions.
And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad master; a perfect mistress,
but a nagging wife.
"White is white" is the lash of the overseer: "white is black" is the
watchword of the slave. The Master takes no heed.
The Chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has 5 notes.
The more necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain it is
that I only assert a limitation.
I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I drank
and danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in the morning.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Epsilon})
The title of this chapter is drawn from paragraph 7.
We now, for the first time, attack the question of doubt.
"The Soldier and the Hunchback" should be carefully studied in this
connection. The attitude recommended is scepticism, but a scepticism
under control.
Doubt inhibits action, as much as faith binds it. All the best Popes
have been Atheists, but perhaps the greatest of them once remarked,
"Quantum nobis prodest haec fabula Christi". [How we are helped by this
fable of Christ!"]
The ruler asserts facts as they are; the slave has therefore no
option but to deny them passionately, in order to express his
discontent. Hence such absurdities as "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite",
"In God we trust", and the like. Similarly we find people asserting
today that woman is superior to man, and that all men are born equal.
The Master (in technical language, the Magus) does not concern
himself with facts; he does not care whether a thing is true or not: he
uses truth and falsehood indiscriminately, to serve his ends. Slaves
consider him immoral, and preach against him in Hyde Park.
In paragraphs 7 and 8 we find a most important statement, a practical
aspect of the fact that all truth is relative, and in the last paragraph
we see how scepticism keeps the mind fresh, whereas faith dies in the
very sleep that it induces.
46. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Digamma} BUTTONS AND ROSETTES
The cause of
sorrow is the desire of the One to the Many, or of the Many to the One.
This also is the cause of joy.
But the desire of one to another is all of sorrow; its birth is hunger,
and its death satiety.
The desire of the moth for the star at least saves him satiety.
Hunger thou, O man, for the infinite: be insatiable even for the finite;
thus at The End shalt thou devour the finite, and become the infinite.
Be thou more greedy that the shark, more full of yearning than the wind
among the pines.
The weary pilgrim struggles on; the satiated pilgrim stops.
The road winds uphill: all law, all nature must be overcome.
Do this by virtue of THAT in thyself before which law and nature are but
shadows.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Digamma})
The title of this chapter is best explained by a reference to
Mistinguette and Mayol.
It would be hard to decide, and it is fortunately unnecessary even to
discuss, whether the distinction of their art is the cause, result, or
concomitant of their private peculiarities.
The fact remains that in vice, as in everything else, some things
satiate, others refresh. Any game in which perfection is easily attained
soon ceases to amuse, although in the beginning its fascination is so
violent.
Witness the tremendous, but transitory, vogue of ping-pong and diabolo.
Those games in which perfection is impossible never cease to attract.
The lesson of the chapter is thus always to rise hungry from a meal,
always to violate one's own nature.
Keep on acquiring a taste for what is naturally repugnant; this is an
unfailing source of pleasure, and it has a real further advantage, in
destroying the Sankharas, which, however "good" in themselves,
relatively to other Sankharas, are yet barriers upon the Path; they are
modifications of the Ego, and therefore those things which bar it from
the absolute.
47. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Zeta} WINDMILL-WORDS
Asana gets rid of Anatomy-consciousness.
Involuntary Pranayama gets rid of Physiology -- "Breaks" consciousness.
Yama and Niyama get rid of Voluntary Ethical consciousness.
"Breaks" Pratyhara gets rid of the Objective.
Dharana gets rid of the Subjective.
Dhyana gets rid of the Ego.
Samadhi gets rid of the Soul Impersonal.
Asana destroys the static body (Nama).
Pranayama destroys the dynamic body (Rupa).
Yama destroys the emotions. (Vedana).
Niyama destroys the passions.
Dharana destroys the perceptions (Sanna).
Dhyana destroys the tendencies (Sankhara).
Samadhi destroys the consciousness (Vinnanam).
Homard a la Thermidor destroys the digestion.
The last of these facts is the one of which I am most certain.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Zeta})
The allusion in the title is not quite clear, though it may be connected
with the penultimate paragraph.
The chapter consists of two points of view from which to regard Yoga,
two odes upon a distant prospect of the Temple of Madura, two Elegies on
a mat of Kushagrass.
The penultimate paragraph is introduced by way of repose. Cynicism is
a great cure for over-study.
There is a great deal of cynicism in this book, in one place and
another. It should be regarded as Angostura Bitters, to brighten the
flavour of a discourse which were else too sweet. It prevents one from
slopping over into sentimentality.
48. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Eta} MOME RATHS (22)
The early bird
catches the worm and the twelve-year-old prostitute attracts the
ambassador.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
The first plovers' eggs fetch the highest prices; the flower of
virginity is esteemed by the pandar.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise:
But late to watch and early to pray brings him across the Abyss, they
say.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
COMMENTARY ({Mu-Eta})
This chapter is perfectly simple, and needs no comment whatsoever.
NOTE
(22) "The mome raths outgrabe" -- Lewis Carroll.
But "mome" is Parisian slang for a young girl, and "rathe" O.E. for
early. "The rathe primrose" -- Milton.
49. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Mu-Theta} WARATAH-BLOSSOMS
Seven are the veils of the dancing-girl in the harem of IT.
Seven are the names, and seven are the lamps beside Her bed.
Seven eunuchs guard Her with drawn swords; No Man may come nigh unto
Her.
In Her wine-cup are seven streams of the blood of the Seven Spirits of
God.
Seven are the heads of THE BEAST whereon She rideth.
The head of an Angel: the head of a Saint: the head of a Poet: the head
of An Adulterous Woman: the head of a Man of Valour: the head of a
Satyr: and the head of a Lion-Serpent.
Seven letters hath Her holiest name; and it is
A B
77
B A (Drawn upon this page is the 77 77 Sigil of BABALON.)
N L
7
O
This is the Seal upon the Ring that is on the Forefinger of IT: and it
is the Seal upon the Tombs of them whom She hath slain.
Here is Wisdom. Let Him that hath Understanding count the Number of Our
Lady; for it is the Number of a Woman; and Her Number is An Hundred and
Fifty and Six.
COMMENTARY ({Mu-theta})
49 is the square of 7.
7 is the passive and feminine number.
The chapter should be read in connection with Chapter 31 for IT now
reappears.
The chapter heading, the Waratah, is a voluptuous scarlet flower, common
in Australia, and this connects the chapter with Chapters 28 and 29; but
this is only an allusion, for the subject of the chapter is
OUR LADY BABALON, who is conceived as the
feminine counterpart of IT.
This does not agree very well with the common or orthodox theogony of
Chapter 11; but it is to be explained by the dithyrambic nature of the
chapter.
In paragraph 3 NO MAN is of course NEMO, the Master of the Temple,
Liber 418 will explain most of the allusions in this chapter.
In paragraphs 5 and 6 the author frankly identifies himself with the
BEAST referred to in the book, and in the Apocalypse, and in LIBER LEGIS.
In paragraph 6 the word "angel" may refer to his mission, and the word
"lion-serpent" to the sigil of his ascending decan. (Teth=Snake=spermatozoon
and Leo in the Zodiac, which like Teth itself has the snake-form. Theta
first written {Sun} = Lingam-Yoni and Sol.)
Paragraph 7 explains the theological difficulty referred to above. There
is only one symbol, but this symbol has many names: of those names
BABALON is the holiest.
It is the name referred to in Liber Legis, 1, 22.
It will be noticed that the figure, or sigil, of BABALON is a seal
upon a ring, and this ring is upon the forefinger of IT. This
identifies further the symbol with itself.
It will be noticed that this seal, except for the absence of a border,
is the official seal of the A.'.A.'. Compare Chapter 3.
It is also said to be the seal upon the tombs of them that she hath
slain, that is, of the Masters of the Temple.
In connection with the number 49, see Liber 418, the 22nd Aethyr, as
well as the usual authorities.
50. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Nu} THE VIGIL OF ST. HUBERT
In the forest God
met the Stag-beetle. "Hold! Worship me!" quoth God. "For I am All-Great,
All-Good, All Wise .... The stars are but sparks from the forges of My
smiths...."
"Yea, verily and Amen," said the Stag-beetle, "all this do I believe,
and that devoutly."
"Then why do you not worship Me?"
"Because I am real and you are only imaginary."
But the leaves of the forest rustled with the laughter of the wind.
Said Wind and Wood: "They neither of them know anything!"
COMMENTARY ({Nu})
St. Hubert appears to have been a saint who saw a stag of a mystical or
sacred nature.
The Stag-beetle must not be identified with the one in Chapter 16. It is
a merely literary touch.
The chapter is a resolution of the universe into Tetragrammaton; God the
macrocosm and the microcosm beetle. Both imagine themselves to exist;
both say "you" and "I", and discuss their relative reality.
The things which really exist, the things which have no Ego, and speak
only in the third person, regard these as ignorant, on account of their
assumption of Knowledge.
51. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Nu-Alpha} TERRIER-WORK
Doubt.
Doubt thyself.
Doubt even if thou doubtest thyself.
Doubt all.
Doubt even if thou doubtest all.
It seems sometimes as if beneath all conscious doubt there lay some
deepest certainty. O kill it! Slay the snake!
The horn of the Doubt-Goat be exalted
Dive deeper, ever deeper, into the Abyss of Mind, until thou unearth the
fox THAT. On, hounds!
Yoicks! Tally-ho! Bring THAT to bay!
Then, wind the Mort!
COMMENTARY ({Nu-Alpha})
The number 51 means failure and pain, and its subject is appropriately
doubt.
The title of the chapter is borrowed from the health-giving and
fascinating sport of fox-hunting, which Frater Perdurabo followed in his
youth.
This chapter should be read in connection with "The Soldier and the
Hunchback" of which it is in some sort an epitome.
Its meaning is sufficiently clear, but in paragraphs 6 and 7 it will be
noticed that the identification of the Soldier with the Hunchback has
reached such a pitch that the symbols are interchanged, enthusiasm being
represented as the sinuous snake, scepticism as the Goat of the Sabbath.
In other words, a state is reached in which destruction is as much
joy as creation.
(Compare Chapter 46.)
Beyond that is a still deeper state of mind, which is THAT.
52. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Nu-Beta} THE BULL-BAITING
Fourscore and
eleven books wrote I; in each did I expound THE GREAT WORK fully, from
The beginning even unto The End thereof.
Then at last came certain men unto me, saying:
O Master! Expound thou THE GREAT WORK unto us, O Master!
And I held my peace.
O generation of gossipers! who shall deliver you from the Wrath that is
fallen upon you?
O Babblers, Prattlers, Talkers, Loquacious Ones, Tatlers, Chewers of the
Red Rag that inflameth Apis the Redeemer to fury, learn first what is
Work! and THE GREAT WORK is not so far beyond!
COMMENTARY ({Nu-Beta})
52 is BN, the number of the Son, Osiris-Apis, the Redeemer, with whom the Master (Fra. P.) identifies
himself. He permits himself for a moment the pleasure of feeling his
wounds; and, turning upon his generation, gores it with his horns.
The fourscore-and-eleven books do not, we think, refer to the ninety-one
chapters of this little masterpiece, or even to the numerous volumes he
has penned, but rather to the fact that 91 is the number of Amen,
implying the completeness of his work.
In the last paragraph is a paranomasia. "To chew the red rag" is a
phrase for to talk aimlessly and persistently, while it is notorious
that a red cloth will excite the rage of a bull.
53. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Nu-Gamma} THE DOWSER
Once round the meadow. Brother, does the hazel twig dip?
Twice round the orchard. Brother, does the hazel twig dip?
Thrice round the paddock, Highly, lowly, wily, holy, dip, dip, dip!
Then neighed the horse in the paddock -- and lo! its wings.
For whoso findeth the SPRING beneath the earth maketh the treaders-of-earth
to course the heavens.
This SPRING is threefold; of water, but also of steel, and of the
seasons.
Also this PADDOCK is the Toad that hath the jewel between his eyes --
Aum Mani Padmen Hum! (Keep us from Evil!)
COMMENTARY ({Nu-Gamma})
A dowser is one who practises divination, usually with the object of
finding water or minerals, by means of the vibrations of a hazel twig.
The meadow represents the flower of life; the orchard its fruit.
The paddock, being reserved for animals, represents life itself. That is
to say, the secret spring of life is found in the place of life, with
the result that the horse, who represents ordinary animal life, becomes
the divine horse Pegasus.
In paragraph 6 we see this spring identified with the phallus, for it is
not only a source of water, but highly elastic, while the reference to
the seasons alludes to the well-known lines of the late Lord Tennyson:
"In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove,
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
-Locksley Hall.
In paragraph 7 the place of life, the universe of animal souls, is
identified with the toad, which
"Ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head"
-Romeo and Juliet-
This jewel being the divine spark in man, and indeed in all that "lives
and moves and has its being". Note this phrase, which is highly
significant; the word "lives" excluding the mineral kingdom, the word
"moves" the vegetable kingdom, and the phrase "has its being" the
lower animals, including woman.
This "toad" and "jewel" are further identified with the Lotus and
jewel of the well-known Buddhist phrase and this seems to suggest that
this "toad" is the Yoni; the suggestion is further strengthened by the
concluding phrase in brackets, "Keep us from evil", since, although it
is the place of life, the means of grace, it may be ruinous.
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