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67. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Xi-Zeta} SODOM-APPLES
I have bought pleasant trifles, and thus soothed my lack of LAYLAH.
Light is my wallet, and my heart is also light; and yet I know that the
clouds will gather closer for the false clearing.
The mirage will fade; then will the desert be thirstier than before.
O ye who dwell in the Dark Night of the Soul, beware most of all of
every herald of the Dawn!
O ye who dwell in the City of the Pyramids beneath the Night of PAN,
remember that ye shall see no more light but That of the great fire that
shall consume your dust to ashes!
COMMENTARY ({Xi-Zeta})
This chapter means that it is useless to try to abandon the Great Work.
You may occupy yourself for a time with other things, but you will only
increase your bitterness, rivet the chains still on your feet.
Paragraph 4 is a practical counsel to mystics not to break up their
dryness by relaxing their austerities.
The last paragraph will only be understood by Masters of the Temple.
68. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Xi-Eta} MANNA
At four o'clock there is hardly anybody in Rumpelmayer's.
I have my choice of place and service; the babble of the apes will begin
soon enough.
"Pioneers, O Pioneers!"
Sat no Elijah under the Juniper-tree, and wept?
Was not Mohammed forsaken in Mecca, and Jesus in Gethsemane?
These prophets were sad at heart; but the chocolate at Rumpelmayer's is
great, and the Mousse Noix is like Nepthys for perfection.
Also there are little meringues with cream and chestnut-pulp, very
velvety seductions.
Sail I not toward LAYLAH within seven days?
Be not sad at heart, O prophet; the babble of the apes will presently
begin.
Nay, rejoice exceedingly; for after all the babble of the apes the
Silence of the Night.
COMMENTARY ({Xi-Eta})
Manna was a heavenly cake which, in the legend, fed the Children of
Israel in the Wilderness.
The author laments the failure of his mission to mankind, but comforts
himself with the following reflections: (1) He enjoys the advantages of
solitude. (2) Previous prophets encountered similar difficulties in
convincing their hearers. (3) Their food was not equal to that
obtainable at Rumpelmayer's. (4) In a few days I am going to rejoin
Laylah. (5) My mission will succeed soon enough. (6) Death will remove
the nuisance of success.
69. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Xi-Theta} THE WAY TO SUCCEED --
AND THE WAY TO SUCK EGGS!
This is the Holy Hexagram.
Plunge from the height, O God, and interlock with Man!
Plunge from the height, O Man, and interlock with Beast!
The Red Triangle is the descending tongue of grace; the Blue Triangle is
the ascending tongue of prayer.
This Interchange, the Double Gift of Tongues, the Word of Double Power-ABRAHADABRA!-is
the sign of the GREAT WORK, for the GREAT WORK is accomplished in
Silence. And behold is not that Word equal to Cheth, that is Cancer,
whose Sigil is {Cancer}?
This Work also eats up itself, accomplishes its own end, nourishes the
worker, leaves no seed, is perfect in itself.
Little children, love one another!
COMMENTARY ({Xi-Theta})
The key to the understanding of this chapter is given in the number and
the title, the former being intelligible to all nations who employ
Arabic figures, the latter only to experts in deciphering English puns.
The chapter alludes to Levi's drawing of the Hexagram, and is a
criticism of, or improvement upon, it.
In the ordinary Hexagram, the Hexagram of nature, the red triangle is
upwards, like fire, and the blue triangle downwards, like water. In the
magical hexagram this is revered; the descending red triangle is that of
Horus, a sign specially revealed by him personally, at the Equinox of
the Gods. (It is the flame descending upon the altar, and licking up the
burnt offering.) The blue triangle represents the aspiration, since blue
is the colour of devotion, and the triangle, kinetically considered, is
the symbol of directed force.
In the first three paragraphs this formation of the hexagram is
explained; it is a symbol of the mutual separation of the Holy Guardian
Angel and his client.
In the interlocking is indicated the completion of the work.
Paragraph 4 explains in slightly different language what we have said
above, and the scriptural image of tongues is introduced.
In paragraph 5 the symbolism of tongues is further developed.
Abrahadabra is our primal example of an interlocked word. We assume that
the reader has thoroughly studied that word in Liber D., etc. The sigil
of Cancer links up this symbolism with the number of the chapter.
The remaining paragraphs continue the Gallic symbolism.
70. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron} BROOMSTICK-BABBLINGS
FRATER PERDURABO is of the Sanhedrim of the Sabbath, say men; He is the
Old Goat himself, say women.
Therefore do all adore him; the more they detest him the more do they
adore him.
Ay! let us offer the Obscene Kiss!
Let us seek the Mystery of the Gnarled Oak, and of the Glacier Torrent!
To Him let us offer our babes! Around Him let us dance in the mad
moonlight!
But FRATER PERDURABO is nothing but AN EYE; what eye none knoweth.
Skip, witches! Hop, toads! Take your pleasure! -- for the play of the
Universe is the pleasure of FRATER PERDURABO.
COMMENTARY ({Omicron})
70 is the number of the letter Ain, the Devil in the Tarot.
The chapter refers to the Witches' Sabbath, the description of which in
Payne Knight should be carefully read before studying this chapter. All
the allusions will then be obvious, save those which we proceed to not.
Sanhedrim, a body of 70 men. An Eye. Eye in Hebrew is Oin, 70.
The "gnarled oak" and the "glacier torrent" refer to the confessions
made by many witches.
I paragraph 7 is seen the meaning of the chapter; the obscene and
distorted character of much of the universe is a whim of the Creator.
71. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Alpha} KING'S COLLEGE
CHAPEL
For mind and body alike there is no purgative like Pranayama, no
purgative like Pranayama.
For mind, for body, for mind and body alike -- alike! -- there is, there
is, there is no purgative, no purgative like Pranayama -- Pranayama! --
Pranayama! yea, for mind and body alike there is no purgative, no
purgative, no purgative (for mind and body alike!) no purgative,
purgative, purgative like Pranayama, no purgative for mind and body
alike, like Pranayama, like Pranayama, like
Prana-Prana-Prana-Prana-pranayama! -- Pranayama!
AMEN.
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Alpha})
This chapter is a plain statement of fact, put in anthem form for
emphasis.
The title is due to the circumstances of the early piety of Frater
Perdurabo, who was frequently refreshed by hearing the anthems in this
chief of the architectural glories of his Alma Mater.
72. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Beta} HASHED PHEASANT
Shemhamphorash! all hail, divided Name!
Utter it once, O mortal over-rash!-
The Universe were swallowed up in flame
-Shemhamphorash!
Nor deem that thou amid the cosmic crash
May find one thing of all those things the same!
The world has gone to everlasting smash.
No! if creation did possess an aim
(It does not.) it were only to make hash
Of that most "high" and that most holy game,
Shemhamphorash!
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Beta})
There are three consecutive verses in the Pentateuch, each containing 72
letters. If these be written beneath each other, the middle verse bring
reversed, i.e. as in English, and divisions are then made vertically, 72
tri-lateral names are formed, the sum of which is Tetragrammaton; this
is the great and mysterious Divided Name; by adding the terminations Yod
He, or Aleph Lamed, the names of 72 Angels are formed.
The Hebrews say that by uttering this Name the universe is destroyed.
This statement means the same as that of the Hindus, that the effective
utterance of the name of Shiva would cause him to awake, and so destroy
the universe.
In Egyptian and Gnostic magick we meet with pylons and Aeons, which only
open on the utterance of the proper word.
In Mohammedan magick we find a similar doctrine and practice; and the
whole of Mantra-Yoga has been built on this foundation.
Thoth, the god of Magick, is the inventor of speech; Christ is the
Logos.
Lines 1-4 are now clear.
In lines 507 we see the results of Shivadarshana. Do not imagine that
any single ides, however high, however holy (or even however
insignificant!!), can escape the destruction.
The logician my say, "But white exists, and if white is destroyed, it
leaves black; yet black exists. So that in that case at least one known
phenomenon of this universe is identical with one of that." Vain word!
The logician and his logic are alike involved in the universal ruin.
Lines 8-11 indicate that this fact is the essential one about
Shivadarshana.
The title is explained by the intentionally blasphemous puns and
colloquialisms of lines 9 and 10.
73. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Gamma} THE DEVIL, THE
OSTRICH, AND THE ORPHAN CHILD
Death rides the
Camel of Initiation. (36)
Thou humped and stiff-necked one that groanest in Thine Asana, death
will relieve thee!
Bite not, Zelator dear, but bide! Ten days didst thou go with water
in thy belly? Thou shalt go twenty more with a firebrand at thy rump!
Ay! all thine aspiration is to death: death is the crown of all thine
aspiration. Triple is the cord of silver moonlight; it shall hang thee,
O Holy One, O Hanged Man, O Camel-Termination-of-the-third-person-plural
for thy multiplicity, thou Ghost of a Non-Ego!
Could but Thy mother behold thee, O thou UNT! (37)
The Infinite Snake Ananta that surroundeth the Universe is but the
Coffin-Worm!
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Gamma})
The Hebrew letter Gimel adds up to 73; it means a camel.
The title of the chapter is borrowed from the well-known lines of
Rudyard Kipling:
"But the commissariat camel, when all is said and done,
'E's a devil and an awstridge and an orphan-child in one."
Paragraph 1 may imply a dogma of death as the highest form of
initiation.
Initiation is not a simple phenomenon. Any given initiation must take
place on several planes, and is not always conferred on all of these
simultaneously.
Intellectual and moral perception of truth often, one might almost say
usually, precedes spiritual and physical perceptions. One would be
foolish to claim initiation unless it were complete on every plane.
Paragraph 2 will easily be understood by those who have practised Asana.
There is perhaps a sardonic reference to rigor mortis, and certainly one
conceives the half-humorous attitude of the expert towards the beginner.
Paragraph 3 is a comment in the same tone of rough good nature. The word
Zelator is used because the Zelator of the A.'.A.'. has to pass an
examination in Asana before he becomes eligible for the grade of
Practicus. The ten days allude merely to the tradition about the
camel, that he can go ten days without water.
Paragraph 4 identifies the reward of initiation with death; it is a
cessation of all that we call life, in a way in which what we call death
is not. 3, silver, and the moon, are all correspondences of Gimel, the
letter of the Aspiration, since gimel is the Path that leads from the
Microcosm in tiphareth to the Macrocosm in Kether.
The epithets are far too complex to explain in detail, but Mem, the
Hanged man, has a close affinity for Gimel, as will be seen by a study
of Liber 418.
Unt is not only the Hindustani for Camel, but the usual termination
of the third person plural of the present tense of Latin words of the
Third and Fourth Conjugations.
The reason for thus addressing the reader is that he has now transcended
the first and second persons. Cf. Liber LXV, Chapter III, vv. 21-24, and
FitzGerald's Omar Khayyam:
"Some talk there was of Thee and Me
There seemed; and then no more of Thee and Me.")
The third person plural must be used, because he has now perceived
himself to be a bundle of impressions. For this is the point on the Path
of Gimel when he is actually crossing the Abyss; the student must
consult the account of this given in "The Temple of Solomon the King".
The Ego is but "the ghost of a non-Ego", the imaginary focus at which
the non-Ego becomes sensible.
Paragraph 5 expresses the wish of the Guru that his Chela may attain
safely to binah, the Mother.
Paragraph 6 whispers the ultimate and dread secret of initiation into
his ear, identifying the vastness of the Most Holy with the obscene worm
that gnaws the bowels of the damned.
NOTES
(36) Death is
said by the Arabs to ride a Camel. The Path of Gimel (which means a
Camel) leads from Tiphareth to Kether, and its Tarot trump is the "High
Priestess".
(37) UNT, Hindustani for Camel. I.e. Would that BABALON might look on
thee with favour.
74. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Delta} CAREY STREET
When NOTHING became conscious, it made a bad bargain.
This consciousness acquired individuality: a worse bargain.
The Hermit asked for love; worst bargain of all.
And now he has let his girl go to America, to have "success" in "life":
blank loss.
Is there no end to this immortal ache That haunts me, haunts me sleeping
or awake?
If I had Laylah, how could I forget Time, Age, and Death? Insufferable
fret!
Were I an hermit, how could I support The pain of consciousness, the
curse of thought?
Even were I THAT, there still were one sore spot --
The Abyss that stretches between THAT and NOT.
Still, the first step is not so far away:
The Mauretania sails on Saturday!
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Delta})
Carey Street is well known to prosperous Hebrews and poor Englishmen as
the seat of the Bankruptcy buildings.
Paragraphs 1-4 are in prose, the downward course, and the rest of the
chapter in poetry, the upward.
The first part shows the fall from Nought in four steps; the second
part, the return.
The details of this Hierarchy have already been indicated in various
chapters. It is quite conventional mysticism.
Step 1, the illumination of Ain as Ain Soph Aour; step 2, the
concentration of Ain Soph Aour in Kether; step 3, duality and the rest
of it down to Malkuth; step 4, the stooping of Malkuth to the Qliphoth,
and the consequent ruin of the Tree of Life.
Part 2 show the impossibility of stopping on the Path of Adeptship.
The final couplet represents the first step upon the Path, which must be
taken even although the aspirant is intellectually aware of the severity
of the whole course. You must give up the world for love, the material
for the moral idea, before that, in its turn, is surrendered to the
spiritual. And so on. This is a Laylah-chapter, but in it Laylah figures
as the mere woman.
75. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Epsilon} PLOVERS' EGGS
(38)
Spring beans and strawberries are in: goodbye to the oyster!
If I really knew what I wanted, I could give up Laylah, or give up
everything for Laylah.
But "what I want" varies from hour to hour.
This wavering is the root of all compromise, and so of all good sense.
With this gift a man can spend his seventy years in peace.
Now is this well or ill?
Emphasise gift, then man, then spend, then seventy years, and lastly
peace, and change the intonations -- each time reverse the meaning!
I would show you how; but for the moment!
-- I prefer to think of Laylah.
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Epsilon})
The title is explained in the note, but also alludes to paragraph 1, the
plover's egg being often contemporary with the early strawberry.
Paragraph 1 means that change of diet is pleasant; vanity pleases the
mind; the idee fixe is a sign of insanity. See paragraphs 4 and 5.
Paragraph 6 puts the question, "Then is sanity or insanity desirable?"
The oak is weakened by the ivy which clings around it, but perhaps the
ivy keeps it from going mad.
The next paragraph expresses the difficulty of expressing thought in
writing; it seems, on the face of it, absurd that the the text of this
book, composed as it is of English, simple, austere, and terse, should
need a commentary. But it does so, or my most gifted Chela and myself
would hardly have been at the pains to write one. It was in response to
the impassioned appeals of many most worthy brethren that we have
yielded up that time and thought which gold could not have bought, or
torture wrested.
Laylah is again the mere woman.
NOTE
(38) These eggs
being speckled, resemble the wandering mind referred to.
76. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Digamma} PHAETON
No.
Yes.
Perhaps.
O!
Eye.
I.
Hi!
Y?
No.
Hail! all ye spavined, gelded, hamstrung horses!
Ye shall surpass the planets in their courses.
How? Not by speed, nor strength, nor power to stay,
But by the Silence that succeeds the Neigh!
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Digamma})
Phaeton was the charioteer of the Sun in Greek mythology.
At first sight the prose of this chapter, though there is only one
dissyllable in it, appears difficult; but this is a glamour cast by
Maya. It is a compendium of various systems of philosophy.
No = Nihilism; Yes = Monism, and all dogmatic systems; Perhaps =
Pyrrhonism and Agnosticism; O! = The system of Liber Legis. (See Chapter
0.)
Eye = Phallicism (cf. Chapters 61 and 70); I = Fichteanism; Hi! =
Transcendentalism; Y? = Scepticism, and the method of science. No denies
all these and closes the argument.
But all this is a glamour cast by Maya; the real meaning of the prose of
this chapter is as follows:
No, some negative conception beyond the IT spoken of in Chapters 31,
49 and elsewhere.
Yes, IT.
Perhaps, the flux of these.
O!, Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
Eye, the phallus in Kether.
I, the Ego in Chokmah.
Hi!, Binah, the feminine principle fertilised. (He by Yod.)
Y?, the Abyss.
No, the refusal to be content with any of this.
But all this is again only a glamour of Maya, as previously observed in
the text (Chapter 31). All this is true and false, and it is true and
false to say that it is true and false.
The prose of this chapter combines, and of course denies, all these
meanings, both singly and in combination. It is intended to stimulate
thought to the point where it explodes with violence and for ever.
A study of this chapter is probably the best short cut to Nibbana.
The thought of the Master in this chapter is exceptionally lofty.
That this is the true meaning, or rather use, of this chapter, is
evident from the poetry.
The master salutes the previous paragraphs as horses which, although in
themselves worthless animals (without the epithets), carry the
Charioteer in the path of the Sun. The question, How? Not by their own
virtues, but by the silence which results when they are all done with.
The word "neigh" is a pun on "nay", which refers to the negative
conception already postulated as beyond IT. The suggestion is, that
there may be something falsely described as silence, to represent
absence-of-conception beyond that negative.
It would be possible to interpret this chapter in its entirety as an
adverse criticism of metaphysics as such, and this is doubtless one of
its many sub-meanings.
77. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Zeta} THE SUBLIME
AND SUPREME SEPTENARY IN ITS MATURE MAGICAL MANIFESTATION THROUGH
MATTER: AS IT IS WRITTEN: AN HE-GOAT ALSO
Laylah.
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Zeta})
77 is the number of Laylah (LAILAH), to whom this chapter is wholly
devoted.
The first section of the title is an analysis of 77 considered as a
mystic number.
7, the septenary; 11, the magical number; 77, the manifestation,
therefore, of the septenary.
Through matter, because 77 is written in Hebrew Ayin Zayin (OZ), and
He-Goat, the symbol of matter, Capricornus, the Devil of the Tarot;
which is the picture of the Goat of the Sabbath upon an altar,
worshipped by two other devils, male and female.
As will be seen from the photogravure inserted opposite this chapter,
Laylah is herself not devoid of "Devil", but, as she habitually remarks,
on being addressed in terms implying this fact, "It's nice to be a devil
when you're one like me."
The text need no comment, but it will be noticed that it is much shorter
that the title.
Now, the Devil of the Tarot is the Phallus, the Redeemer, and Laylah
symbolises redemption to Frater P. The number 77, also, interpreted as
in the title, is the redeeming force.
The ratio of the length of title and text is the key to the true meaning
of the chapter, which is, that Redemption is really as simple as it
appears complex, that the names (or veils) of truth are obscure and
many, the Truth itself plain and one; but that the latter must be
reached through the former. This chapter is therefore an apology, were
one needed, for the Book of Lies itself. In these few simple words,
it explains the necessity of the book, and offers it humbly, yet with
confidence -- as a means of redemption to the world of sorrowing men.
The name with full-stops: L.A.Y.L.A.H. represents an analysis of the
name, which may be left to the ingenium of the advanced practicus (see
photograph).
78. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Eta} WHEEL AND --
WOA!
The Great Wheel of
Samsara.
The Wheel of the Law [Dhamma].
The Wheel of the Taro.
The Wheel of the Heavens.
The Wheel of Life.
All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of the TARO alone
avails thee consciously.
Meditate long and broad and deep, O man, upon this Wheel, revolving it
in thy mind. Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily
from each other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of
Coins.
Then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny complete, mayst thou
perceive THAT Will which moved it first. [There is no first or last.}
And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Eta})
The number of this chapter is that of the cards of the Tarot.
The title of this chapter is a pun of the phrase "weal and woe". It
means motion and rest. The moral is the conventional mystic one; stop
thought at its source!
Five wheels are mentioned in this chapter; all but the third refer to
the universe as it is; but the wheel of the Tarot is not only this, but
represents equally the Magickal Path.
This practice is therefore given by Frater P. to his pupils; to treat
the sequence of the cards as cause and effect. Thence, to discover the
cause behind all causes. Success in this practice qualifies for the
grade of Master of the Temple.
In the penultimate paragraph the bracketed passage reminds the student
that the universe is not to be contemplated as a phenomenon in time.
79. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Theta} THE BAL BULLIER
Some men look into
their minds into their memories, and find naught but pain and shame.
These then proclaim "The Good Law" unto mankind.
These preach renunciation, "virtue", cowardice in every form.
These whine eternally.
Smug, toothless, hairless Coote, debauch-emasculated Buddha, come ye to
me? I have a trick to make you silent, O ye foamers-at-the mouth!
Nature is wasteful; but how well She can afford it!
Nature is false; but I'm a bit of a liar myself.
Nature is useless; but then how beautiful she is!
Nature is cruel; but I too am a Sadist.
The game goes on; it may have been too rough for Buddha, but it's (if
anything) too dull for me.
Viens, beau negre! Donne-moi tes levres encore!
COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Theta})
The title of this chapter is a place frequented by Frater P. until it
became respectable.
The chapter is a rebuke to those who can see nothing but sorrow and
evil in the universe.
The Buddhist analysis may be true, but not for men of courage. The plea
that "love is sorrow", because its ecstasies are only transitory, is
contemptible.
Paragraph 5. Coote is a blackmailer exposed by The Equinox. The end of
the paragraph refers to Catullus, his famous epigram about the youth who
turned his uncle into Harpocrates. It is a subtle way for Frater P. to
insist upon his virility, since otherwise he could not employ the
remedy.
The last paragraph is a quotation. In Paris, Negroes are much sought
after by sportive ladies. This is therefore presumably intended to
assert that even women may enjoy life sometimes.
The word "Sadist" is taken from the famous Marquis de Sade, who gave
supreme literary form to the joys of torture.
80. {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Pi} BLACKTHORN
The price of
existence is eternal warfare. (39)
Speaking as an Irishman, I prefer to say: The price of eternal warfare
is existence.
And melancholy as existence is, the price is well worth paying.
Is there is a Government? then I'm agin it! To Hell with the bloody
English!
"O FRATER PERDURABO, how unworthy are these sentiments!"
"D'ye want a clip on the jaw?"(40)
COMMENTARY ({Pi})
Frater P. continues the subject of Chapter 79.
He pictures himself as a vigorous, reckless, almost rowdy Irishman. He
is no thin-lipped prude, to seek salvation in unmanly self-abnegation;
no Creeping Jesus, to slink through existence to the tune of the Dead
March in Saul; no Cremerian Callus to warehouse his semen in his
cerebellum.
"New Thoughtist" is only Old Eunuch writ small.
Paragraph 2 gives the very struggle for life, which disheartens modern
thinkers, as a good enough reason for existence.
Paragraph 5 expresses the sorrow of the modern thinker, and paragraph 6
Frater P.'s suggestion for replying to such critics.
NOTES
(39) ISVD, the
foundation scil. of the universe = 80 = P, the letter of Mars.
(40) P also means "a mouth".
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