The Vision and the Voice

The Cry of the 30th Aethyr

TEX[1]

I am in a vast crystal cube in the form of the Great God Harpocrates. This cube is surrounded by a sphere.[2] About me are four archangels in black robes, their wings and armour lined out in white.

In the North[3] is a book on whose back and front are A.M.B.Z.[4] in Enochian characters.

Within it is written:

I AM, the surrounding of the four.

Lift up your heads, O Houses of Eternity: for my Father goeth forth to judge the World. One Light, let it become a thousand, and one sword ten thousand, that no man hide him from my Father's eye in the Day of Judgment of my God. Let the Gods hide themselves: let the Angels be troubled and flee away: for the Eye of My Father is open, and the Book of the Aeons is fallen.

Arise! Arise! Arise! Let the Light of the Sight of Time be extinguished: let the Darkness cover all things: for my Father goeth forth to seek a spouse to replace her who is fallen and defiled.

Seal the book with the seals of the Stars Concealed: for the Rivers have rushed together and the Name יהוה is broken in a thousand pieces (against the Cubic Stone).

Tremble ye, O Pillars of the Universe,[5] for Eternity is in travail of a Terrible Child; she shall bring forth an universe of Darkness, whence shall leap forth a spark that shall put his father to flight.

The Obelisks are broken; the stars have rushed together: the Light hath plunged into the Abyss: the Heavens are mixed with Hell.

My Father shall not hear their Noise: His ears are closed: His eyes are covered with the clouds of Night.

The End! the End! the End: For the Eye of Shiva He hath opened: the Universe is naked before Him: for the Aeon of Saturn leaneth toward the Bosom of Death.[6]

[7]

The Angel of the East[8] hath a book of red written in letters of Blue A.B.F.M.A.[9] in Enochian. The Book grows before my eyes and filleth the Whole Heaven.

Within: "It is Written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God."

I see above the Book a multitude of white-robed Ones from whom droppeth a great rain of Blood;[10] but above them is a Golden Sun, having an eye, whence a great Light.[11]

I turned me to the South:[12] and read therein:

Seal up the Book! Speak not that which thou seest and reveal it unto none: for the ear is not framed that shall hear it: nor the tongue that can speak it!

O Lord God, blessed, blessed, blessed be Thou for ever!

Thy Shadow is as great Light.

Thy Name is as the Breath of Love across all Worlds.

[13]

(A vast Svastika is shewn unto me behind the Angel with the Book.)

Rend your garments, O ye clouds! Uncover yourselves! for the Love of My Son!

Who are they that trouble thee?

Who are they that slew thee?

O Light! Come thou, who art joined with me to bruise the Dragon's head.[14] We, who are wedded, and the Earth perceiveth it not!

O that Our Bed were seen of Men, that they might rejoice in My Fertility: that My Sister might partake of My Great Light.

O Light of God, when wilt thou find the heart of man — write not! I would not that men know the Sorrow of my Heart, Amen!

I turned me to the West,[15] and the Archangel bore a flaming Book, on which was written AN[16] in Enochian. Within was drawn a fiery scorpion, yet cold withal.[17]

Until the Book of the East be opened!

Until the hour sound!

Until the Voice vibrate!

Until it pierce my Depth;

Look not on High!

Look not Beneath!

For thou wilt find a life which is as Death: or a Death which should be infinite.

For Thou art submitted to the Four: Five thou shalt find, but Seven is lone and far.[18]

O Lord God, let Thy Spirit hither unto me!

For I am lost in the night of infinite pain: no hope: no God: no resurrection: no end: I fall: I fear.

O Saviour of the World, bruise Thou my Head with Thy foot to save the world, that once again I touch Him whom I slew, that in my death I feel the radiance and the heat of the moving of Thy Robes!

Let us alone! What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth?

Go! Go!

If I keep silence — Or if I speak each word is anguish without hope.

And I heard the Aethyr cry aloud "Return! Return! Return! For the work is ended; and the Book is shut; and let the glory be to God the Blessed for ever in the Aeons, Amen." Thus far is the voice of TEX and no more.

[1] TEX = Cauda Draconis, Virgo and Earth. (The rationale behind the attributions given by Crowley to the letters of the Aethyrs is for the time being beyond me. Note 3 of the Aethyr clearly states that the Enochian alphabet is attributed only to the Zodiac and elements, not to the planets. But the rationale of the attributions is never explained. In the example above, TEX is attributed to Cauda, Virgo and Earth. In subsequent notes he then makes a further set of attributions from the Zodiacal ones to the Hebrew, according to the method described in Sepher Yetzirah. From there he proceeds in formal Qabalistic exegesis, using both Liber 777 and Sepher Sephiroth.)

[2] See Liber AL vel Legis, II, v. 7: "I am the Magician and the Exorcist." (The language alone is reminiscent of a Golden Dawn document entitled, "Z-2.") "I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle." (The Book of the Law is to be found in The Equinox of the Gods, also in Gems from the Equinox, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minn. There is a cheap paper back edition published by Xeno Publications, North Hollywood, Calif., 1967.)

[3] North: Destruction — the Old Formula is abrogated. (In the Golden Dawn Neophyte Ceremony the North is the station of the Stolistes, the Cupbearer in the North, to symbolize Cold and Moisture. Furthermore, in Book T, p.221, Vol. 4, Golden Dawn, Mathers wrote, "The Northern Pole, and Kether of the Material Planet — even of our Erthe, earth — lookth constantly unto Binah, for as much as she is under sorrow and suffering." Saturn is attributed to Binah, and one of the meanings of Saturn under such considerations is sorrow, death and destruction.

[4] AMBZ = Taurus, Aquarius, Aries, Leo. The forthsaying of the New Aeon. (No doubt the book is equated with The Book of the Law, but under the circumstance the meaning of the letters is not sufficiently clarified.)

[5] See Liber AL vel Legis, III, v. 71. "Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your time is nigh at hand." See also the 1st Aethyr, named LIL. (But the two Pillars are basic items of the Golden Dawn Temple, as arranged for the Neophyte Grade — thus it is a Microcosm of the Macrocosm.)

[6] Saturn is attributed in the Sepher Yetzirah to the letter Tau which has a numerical value of 400. Saturn is also attributed to Binah on the Tree of Life, with Death being one of its several meanings. Death is also the name of a Tarot Trump attributed to the Hebrew letter נ which is 50. The two added together make 450 which in the Greek alphabet is NU, representing Nuit, the Queen of the Stars.

[7] Represents the formula of drawing to a point; whence blooms erect a triple triad.

[8] East: the station of the Hierophant in the Neophyte Ceremony holding the banner of the morning light, which is the Banner of the East. He is also called power and mercy and abundance and he is the expounder of the Mysteries — therefore an Adept. Adepts: cleansed of their blood and brought to Light = there is a way to Light through giving up one's blood (or the ego). See 12th Aethyr.

[9] ABFMA = Taurus, Aries, Cauda Draconis, Aquarius and Taurus — the Opening of the New Aeon. The East represents the rising of the Light, the process of illumination, and so of the New Aeon of the Sun. (Horus has taken his place in the East.)

[10] Symbolism of the Cup of BABALON. (This theme is elaborated in later notes on the subsequent Aethyrs.)

[11] This refers to Kether = Horus.

[12] South: Silence. Marriage in Binah. This leads to the rapture of the ineffable union. Closing of the Old Aeon. (The South represents the station of the Dadouchos who carries the fire and censer — represents the Sun at its highest point, at noon.)

[13] The Swastika has 17 squares out of the 25 of the Magical Square of Mars — the Pentagram, or the human square. It is also Aleph (to which the Swastika is attributed) Harpocrates, Bacchus Diphues, Parzival, etc., the Pure Fool, the Wanderer, who weds the King's daughter. (I know of no better exposition of this theme than in Crowley's book on the Tarot, The Book of Thoth, Weiser, New York, 1969.) The square of 25 squares is really a 5 x 5 figure. See 29th Aethyr, Note 7.

[14] Means the Stooping Dragon (See 4° = 7^□ Ritual of the Golden Dawn.

[15] West: Fate (refusing initiation). The alternative is despair, of loneliness. (In the Neophyte Ritual, the West is the Station of the Hierus who is a symbol of the "increase of Darkness and decreas of Light and I am the Master of Darkness.")

[16] AN = Taurus and Scorpio. In Hebrew the letters אן mean Pain; also, by reversing the letters, נא = Failure. (See Sepher Sephiroth in Equinox VIII for a long list of Hebrew words classified according to their gematria, that is their numerical value, abstracted from the Zohar and the Old Testament.) These two letters added together equal 51 which is 3 x 17. Note the three vibrations as spoiling the ideas of 17 (AIO = יאו). The doom of the Old Aeon.

[17] Scorpio = נ = Fish = Jesus. The common symbol of Jesus is that of a fish, Ichthus. (The apostles were known as fishers of men.)

[18] Tetragrammaton, the blind forces of the Four Elements, bind the uninitiate. (To each letter of YHVH, one of the four letters is attributed in the Golden Dawn teaching.) He may attain to the Pentagram = Yeheshuah, the Man-master of those Elements (referred to the 5° = 6^□ grade). But he cannot reach Seven = BABALON (see the Sigil of the A∴A∴) for she is "lone and far", that is beyond the Abyss.