The Vision and the Voice

The Cry of the 2nd Aethyr

ARN[1]

In the first place, there is again the woman riding on the bull, which is the reflection of Babalon, that rideth on The Beast. And also there is an Assyrian legend of a woman with a fish, and also there is a legend of Eve and the Serpent, for Cain was the child of Eve and the Serpent, and not of Eve and Adam; and therefore when he had slain his brother, who was the first murderer, having sacrificed living things to his demon, had Cain the mark upon his brow, which is the mark of the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse, and is the sign of initiation.[2]

The shedding of blood is necessary, for God did not hear the children of Eve until blood was shed.[3] And that is external religion; but Cain spake not with God, nor had the mark of initiation upon his brow, so that he was shunned by all men, until he had shed blood. And this blood was the blood of his brother. This is a mystery of the sixth key of the Taro, which ought not to be called The Lovers, but The Brothers.[4]

In the middle of the card stands Cain; in his right hand is the Hammer of Thor with which he hath slain his brother, and it is all wet with his blood. And his left hand he holdeth open as a sign of innocence. And on his right hand is his mother Eve, around whom the serpent is entwined with his hood spread behind her head; and on his left hand is a figure somewhat like the Hindoo Kali, but much more seductive. Yet I know it to be Lilith. And above him is the Great Sigil of the Arrow, downward, but it is struck through the heart of the child. This Child is also Abel.[5] And the meaning of this part of the card is obscure, but that is the correct drawing of the Taro card; and that is the correct magical fable from which the Hebrew scribes, who were not complete Initiates, stole their legend of the Fall and the subsequent events. They joined different fables together to try and make a connected story, and they sophisticated them to suit their social and political conditions.

All this while no image hath come unto the Stone, and no voice hath been heard.

I cannot get any idea of the source of what I have been saying. All I can say is, that there is a sort of dew, like mist, upon the Stone, and yet it has become hot to the touch.[6]

All I get is that the Apocalypse was the recension of a dozen or so totally disconnected allegories, that were pieced together, and ruthlessly planed down to make them into a connected account; and that recension was re-written and edited in the interests of Christianity, because people were complaining that Christianity could show no true spiritual knowledge, or any food for the best minds: nothing but miracles, which only deceived the most ignorant, and Theology, which only suited pedants.

So a man got hold of this recension, and turned it Christian, and imitated the style of John.[7] And this explains why the end of the world does not happen every few years, as advertised.[8]

There is nothing whatever in the Stone but a White Rose. And a voice comes: there shall be no more red roses, for she hath crushed all the blood of all things into her cup.

It seemed at one time as if the rose was in the breast of a beautiful woman, high-bosomed, tall, stately, yet who danced like a snake. But there was no subsistence in this vision.[9]

And now I see the white Rose, as if it were in the beak of a swan, in the picture by Michael Angelo in Venice. And that legend too is the legend of Babalon.

But all this is before the veil of the Aethyr. Now will I go and make certain preparations,[10] and I will return and repeat the call of the Aethyr yet again.

Biskra.

December 18, 1909. 9.20 - 10.5 a.m.

It is not a question of being unable to get into the Aethyr, and trying to struggle through; but one is not anywhere near it.[11]

A voice comes: When thy dust shall strew the earth whereon She walketh, then mayest thou bear the impress of Her foot. And thou thinkest to behold Her face!

The Stone is become of the most brilliant whiteness, and yet, in that whiteness, all the other colours are implicit.[12] The colour of anything is but its dullness, its obstructiveness. So is it with these visions. All that they "are" is falsity. Every idea merely marks where the mind of the Seer was too stupid to receive the light, and therefore reflected it. Therefore, as the pure light is colourless, so is the pure soul black.[13]

And this is the Mystery of the incest of Chaos with his daughter.[14]

There is nothing whatever visible.

But I asked of the Angel that is at my side if the ceremony hath been duly performed. And he says: Yes, the Aethyr is present. It is thou that canst not perceive it, even as I cannot perceive it, because it is so entirely beyond thy conception that there is nothing in thy mind on to which it can cast a symbol, even as the emptiness of space is not heated by the fire of the sun. And so pure is the light that it preventeth the formation of images, and therefore have men called it darkness. For with any lesser light, the mind responds, and makes for itself divers palaces.[15] It is that which is written: "In my Father's house there are many mansions"; and if the house be destroyed, how much more the mansions that are therein! For this is the victory of BABALON over the Magician that ensorcelled[16] her. For as the Mother she is 3 by 52, and as the harlot she is 6 by 26; but she is also 12 by 13, and that is the pure unity.[17] Moreover she is 4 by 39, that is, victory over the power of the 4, and in 2 by 78 hath she destroyed the great Sorcerer.[18] Thus is she the synthesis of 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, which being added are 10, therefore could she set her daughter upon her own throne, and defile her own bed with her virginity.[19]

And I ask the Angel if there is any way by which I can make myself worthy to behold the Mysteries of this Aethyr.

And he saith: It is not in my knowledge. Yet do thou make once more in silence the Call of the Aethyr, and wait patiently upon the favour of the Angel, for He is a mighty Angel, and never yet have I heard the whisper of his wing.

This is the translation of the Call of the Aethyr.[20]

O ye heavens which dwell in the first Aire, and are mighty in the parts of the earth, and execute therein the judgment of the highest, to you it is said: Behold the face of your God, the beginning of comfort, whose eyes are the brightness of the heavens which provided you for the government of the earth, and her unspeakable variety, furnishing you with a power of understanding, that ye might dispose all things according to the foresight of Him that sitteth on the Holy Throne, and rose up in the beginning, saying, The earth, let her be governed by her parts (this is the prostitution of Babalon to Pan), and let there be division in her (the formation of the Many from the One), that her glory may be always ecstasy and irritation of orgasm. Her course let it round with the heavens (that is, let her way be always harmonious with heaven), and as an handmaid let her serve them (that is, the Virgin of Eternity climbing into the bed of Chaos). One season let it confound another (that is, let there be unwearying variety of predicates),[21] and let there be no creature upon or within her the same (that is, let there be an unwearying variety of subjects).[22] All her members let them differ in their qualities, and let there be no one creature[23] equal with another (for if there were any duplication or omission, there would be no perfection in the whole). The reasonable creatures of the earth and men, let them vex and weed out one another (this is, the destruction of reason by internecine conflicts in the course of redemption). And their dwelling places, let them forget their names. (This is, the arising of Nemo.) The work of man and his pomp, let them be defaced. (That is, in the Great Work man must lose his personality.) His building, let it be a cave for the Beast of the Field. ("His building" means the Vault of the Adepts, and the "Cave" is the Cave of the Mountain of Abiegnus, and the "Beast" is he upon whom Babalon rideth, and the "Field" is the supernal Eden.) Confound her understanding with darkness. (This sentence is explained by what has been said concerning Binah.) For why, it rejoiceth me concerning the Virgin and the Man.[24] (Kelly did not understand this Call at all, and he would not believe this sentence was written so, for it seemed to contradict the rest of the Call, so he altered it.) One while let her be known and another while a stranger, (that is, the Mystery of the Holy One being at the same time identical with everything and apart from it), because she is the bed of an harlot, and the dwelling of him that is fallen. (That is that Mystery which was revealed in the last Aethyr; the universe being, as it were, a garden wherein the Holy Ones may take their pleasure.) O ye heavens, arise; the lower heavens beneath you, let them serve you. (This is a command for the whole of things to join in universal rapture.) Govern those that govern; cast down such as fall; bring forth those that increase; and destroy the rotten. (This means that everything shall take its own pleasure in its own way.)[25] No place let it remain in one number. ("No place" is the infinite Ain . . . "Let remain in one number"; that is, let it be concentrated in Kether.) Add and diminish until the stars be numbered. (It is a mystery of the Logos being formulated by the Qabalah, because the stars, are all letters of the Holy Alphabet, as it was said in a former Aethyr.) Arise! Move! and Appear! before the covenant of his mouth which he hath shewn unto us in his justice. ("The Covenant" is the letter Aleph; "His mouth", pé; "His Justice", lamed; and these add up again to Aleph, so that it is in the letter Aleph, which is zero, thus symbolizing the circles of the Aethyrs, that he calleth them forth. But men thought that Aleph was the initial ARR, cursing, when it was really the initial of AChD, unity, and AHBH, love. So that it was the most horrible and wicked blasphemy of the blackest of all the black brothers to begin Barashith with a beth, with the letter of the Magician. Yet, by this simple device, hath he created the whole illusion of sorrow.)[26] Open the mysteries of your creation, and make us partakers of the undefiled knowledge. (The word here is "IADNAMAD" is not the ordinary word for knowledge. It is a word of eight letters, which is the secret name of God, summarized in the letter cheth; for which see the Aethyr which correspondeth to that letter, the twelfth Aethyr.)[27]

Now from time to time I have looked into the Stone, but never is there any image therein, or any hint thereof; but now there are three arrows, arranged thus:

This is the letter Aleph in the Alphabet of Arrows.

(I want to say that while I was doing the translation of the Call of the Aethyrs, the soles of my feet were burning, as if I were on red hot steel.)[28]

And now the fire has spread all over me, and parches me, and tortures me. And my sweat is bitter like poison. And all my blood is acrid in my veins, like gleet. I seem to be all festering, rotting; and the worms eating me while I am yet alive.

A voice, neither in myself nor out of myself, is saying: Remember Prometheus; remember Ixion.[29]

I am tearing[30] at nothing. I will not heed. For even this dust[31] must be consumed with fire.

And now, although there is no image, at last there is a sense of obstacle, as if one were at length drawing near to the frontier of the Aethyr.

But I am dying.

I can neither strive nor wait. There is agony in my ears, and in my throat, and mine eyes have been so long blind that I cannot remember that there ever was such a thing as sight.[32]

And it cometh to me that I should go away, and await the coming of the veil of the Aethyr; not here. I think I will go to the Hot Springs.[33]

So I put away the Stone upon my breast.

Biskra.

December 18, 1909. 10.15 - 11.52 a.m.

Flashes of lightning are playing in the Stone, at the top; and at the bottom of the Stone there is a black pyramid,[34] and at the top thereof is a vesica piscis. The vesica piscis[35] is of colourless brilliance.

The two curves of Pisces are thus:

They are the same curves as the curves of vesica piscis, but turned round.[36]

And a voice comes: How can that which is buried in the pyramids[37] behold that which descendeth unto its apex?[38]

Again it comes to me, without voice: Therefore is motherhood the symbol of the Masters. For first they must give up their virginity to be destroyed, and the seed must lie hidden in them until the nine moons wax and wane, and they must surround it with the Universal Fluid. And they must feed it with blood for fire. Then is the child a living thing. And afterwards is much suffering and much joy, and after that are they torn asunder, and this is all their thank, that they give it to suck.[39]

All this while the vision in the Shew-Stone stays as it was, save that the lightning grows more vehement and clear; and behind the vesica piscis is a black cross[40] extending to the top and to the edges of the Stone. And now blackness spreads, and swallows up the images.

Now there is naught but a vast black triangle having the apex downwards,[41] and in the centre of the black triangle is the face of Typhon, the Lord of the Tempest, and he crieth aloud: Despair! Despair! For thou mayest deceive the Virgin, and thou mayest cajole the Mother; but what wilt thou say unto the ancient Whore that is throned in Eternity? For if she will not, there is neither force nor cunning, nor any wit, that may prevail upon her.

Thou canst not woo her with love,[42] for she is love. And she hath all, and hath no need of thee.

And thou canst not woo her with gold,[43] for all the Kings and captains of the earth, and all the gods of heaven, have showered their gold upon her. Thus hath she all, and hath no need of thee.

And thou canst not woo her with knowledge, for knowledge is the thing that she hath spurned.[44] She hath it all, and hath no need of thee.

And thou canst not woo her with wit,[45] for her Lord is Wit. She hath it all, and hath no need of thee. Despair! Despair!

Nor canst thou cling to her knees and ask for pity; nor canst thou cling to her heart and ask for love; nor canst thou put thine arms about her neck, and ask for understanding; for thou hast all these,[46] and they avail thee not. Despair! Despair!

Then I took the Flaming Sword,[47] and I let it loose against Typhon, so that his head was cloven asunder, and the black triangle dissolved in lightnings.[48]

But as he parted his voice broke out again: Nor canst thou win her with the Sword, for her eyes are fixed upon the eyes of Him in whose hand is the hilt of the Sword.[49] Despair! Despair!

And the echo of that cry was his word, which is identical, although it be diverse: Nor canst thou win her by the Serpent,[50] for it was the Serpent that seduced her first. Despair! Despair!

(Yet he cried thus as he fled:)

I am Leviathan, the great Lost Serpent of the Sea. I writhe eternally in torment, and I lash the ocean with my tail into a whirlpool of foam that is vemonous and bitter, and I have no purpose. I go no whither. I can neither live nor die. I can but rave and rave in my death agony. I am the Crocodile[51] that eateth up the children of men. And through the malice of Babalon I hunger, hunger, hunger.

All this while the Stone is more inert than ever yet; a thousand times more lifeless than when it is not invoked. Now, when it kindles, it only kindles into its physical beauty. And now upon the face of it is a great black Rose, each of whose petals, though it be featureless, is yet a devil-face. And all the stalks are the black snakes of hell. It is alive, this Rose; a single thought informs it. It comes to clutch, to murder. Yet, because a single thought alone informs it, I have hope therein.

I think the Rose has a hundred and fifty-six petals, and though it be black, it has the luminous blush.[52]

There it is, in the midst of the Stone, and I cannot see anyone who wears it.

Aha! Aha! Aha! Shut out the sight![53]

Holy, Holy, Holy art thou!

Light, Life and Love are like three glow-worms at thy feet: the whole universe of stars, the dewdrops on the grass whereon thou walkest!

I am quite blind.[54]

Thou art Nuit! Strain, strain, strain my whole soul![55]

A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.[56]

Falutli! Falutli![57]

I cling unto the burning Aethyr like Lucifer that fell through the Abyss, and by the fury of his flight kindled the air.

And I am Belial, for having seen the Rose upon thy breast, I have denied God.

And I am Satan! I am Satan! I am cast out upon a burning crag! And the sea boils about the desolation thereof. And already the vultures gather, and feast upon my flesh.

Yea! Before thee all the most holy is profane, O thou desolator of shrines! O thou falsifier of the oracles of truth! Ever as I went, hath it been thus. The truth of the profane was the falsehood of the Neophyte, and the truth of the Neophyte was the falsehood of the Zelator! Again and again the the fortress must be battered down! Again and again the pylon must be overthrown! Again and again must the gods be desecrated!

And now I lie supine before thee, in terror and abasement. O Purity! O Truth! What shall I say? My tongue cleaveth to my jaws, O thou Medusa that hast turned me to stone! Yet is that stone the stone of the philosophers. Yet is that tongue Hadit.

Aha! Aha![58]

Yea! Let me take the form of Hadit[59] before thee, and sing:

A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.

Nuit! Nuit! How art thou manifested in this place! This is a Mystery ineffable. And it is mine, and I can never reveal it either to God or to man. It is for thee and me !

Aha! Aha!

A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.

… My spirit is no more; my soul is no more. My life leaps out into annihilation!

A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.

It is the cry of my body! Save me! I have come too close. I have come too close to that which may not be endured. It must awake, the body; it must assert itself.

It must shut out the Aethyr, or else it is dead.

Every pulse aches, and beats furiously. Every nerve stings like a serpent. And my skin is icy cold.[60]

Neither God nor man can penetrate the Mystery of the Aethyr.

(Here the Seer mutters unintelligibly.)

And even that which understandeth cannot hear its voice. For to the profane the voice of the Neophyte is called silence, and to the Neophyte the voice of the Zelator is called silence. And so ever is it.

Sight is fire, and is the first angle of the Tablet;[61] spirit is hearing, and is the centre thereof; thou, therefore, who art all spirit and fire, and hast no duller elements in thy star; thou art come to sight at the end of thy will. And if thou wilt hear the voice of the Aethyr,[62] do thou invoke it in the night, having no other light but the light of the half moon. Then mayest thou hear the voice, though it may be that thou understandeth it not. Yet shall it be a potent spell, whereby thou mayest lay bare the womb of thy understanding to the violence of Chaos.

Now, therefore, for the last time, let the veil of the Aethyr be torn.

Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha!

A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.[63]

. . . . . . .

This Aethyr must be left unfinished then until the half moon.

Hammam Salahin.

December 18, 1909. 3.10 - 4.25 p.m.

An olvah nu arenu olvah. Diraeseu adika va paretanu poliax poliax in vah rah ahum subre fifal. Lerthexanax. Mama ra-la hum fifala maha.[64]

All this is the melody of a flute, very faint and clear. And there is a sort of sub-tinkle of a bell.

And there is a string instrument, somewhat like a zither. And there is a human voice.

And the voice comes: this is the Song of the Sphinx, which she singeth ever in the ears of men.

And it is the song of the syrens. And whoever heareth it is lost.[65]

I

Mu pa telai,
Tu wa melai
Ā, ā, ā
Tu fu tulu!
Tu fu tulu
Pa, Sa, Ga.

III

O chi balae
Wa pa malae: —
Ut! Ut! Ut!
Ge; fu latrai,
Le fu malai
Kut! — Hut! — Nut.

II

Qwi Mu telai
Ya Pa melai;
ū, ū, ū.
'Se gu melai;
Pe fu telai,
Fu tu lu.

IV

AI OAI[66]
Rel moai
Ti — Ti — Ti!
Wa la pelai
Tu fu latai
Wi, Ni, Bi.

Translation of Song.

I

Silence! the moon ceaseth (her motion),
That also was sweet
In the air, in the air, in the air!
Who Will shall attain!
Who Will shall attain
By the Moon, and by Myself, and by the Angel of the Lord!

II

Now Silence ceaseth
And the moon waxeth sweet;
(It is the hour of) Initiation, Initiation, Initiation.
The kiss of Isis is honeyed;
My own Will is ended,
For Will hath attained.

III

Behold the lion-child swimmeth (in the heaven)
And the moon reeleth: —
(It is) Thou! (It is) Thou! (It is) Thou!
Triumph; the Will stealeth away (like a thief),
The Strong Will that staggered
Before Ra Hoor Khuit! — Hadit! — Nuit!

100

IV

To the God OAI
Be praise
In the end and the beginning!
And may none fall
Who Will attain
The Sword, the Balances, the Crown!

101

And that which thou hearest is but the dropping of the dew from my limbs, for I dance in the night, naked upon the grass, in shadowy places, by running streams.

102

Many are they who have loved the nymphs of the woods, and of the wells, and of the fountains, and of the hills. And of these some were nympholept. For it was not a nymph, but I myself that walked upon the earth taking my pleasure. So also there were many images of Pan, and men adored them, and as a beautiful god he made their olives bear double and their vines increase; but some were slain by the god, for it was I that had woven the garlands about him.[67]

103

Now cometh a song.

104

So sweet is this song that no one could resist it. For in it is all the passionate ache for the moonlight, and the great hunger of the sea, and the terror of desolate places, — all things that lure men to the unattainable.

105

Ōmări tēssălă mărāx, tēssălă dōdĭ phōrněpāx. āmrĭ rādără pōlĭāx ármănă pīliŭ. āmrĭ rādără pīliŭ sōn'; mārĭ nāryă bārbĭtōn mādără ānăphăx sārpědōn āndălă hriliu.

106

Translation.

I am the harlot that shaketh Death. This shaking giveth the Peace of Satiate Lust. Immortality jetteth from my skull, And music from my vulva. Immortality jetteth from my vulva also, For my Whoredom is a sweet scent like a seven-stringed instrument, Played unto God the Invisible, the all-ruler, That goeth along giving the shrill scream of orgasm.

107

Every man that hath seen me forgetteth me never, and I appear oftentimes in the coals of the fire, and upon the smooth white skin of woman, and in the constancy of the waterfall, and in the emptiness of deserts and marshes, and upon great cliffs that look seaward; and in many strange places, where men seek me not. And many thousand times he beholdeth me not. And at last I smite myself into him as a vision smiteth into a stone, and whom I call must follow.

108

Now I perceive myself standing in a Druid circle, in an immense open plain.

109

A whole series of beautiful visions of deserts and sunsets and islands in the sea, green beyond imagination…. But there is no subsistence in them.[68]

110

A voice goes on: this is the holiness of fruitless love and aimless toil. For in doing the thing for the things's sake is concentration, and this is the holiest of them that suit not the means to the end. For therein is faith and sympathy and a knowledge of the true Magick.[69]

111

Oh my beloved, that fliest in the air like a dove, beware of the falcon! oh my beloved, that springest upon the earth like a gazelle, beware of the lion!

112

There are hundreds of visions, trampling over one another. In each one the Angel of the Aethyr is mysteriously hidden.

113

Now I will describe the Angel of the Aethyr until the voice begins again.

114

He is like one's idea of Sappho and Calypso, and all seductive and deadly things;[70] heavy eye-lids, long lashes, a face like ivory, wonderful barbaric jewellery, intensely red lips, a very small mouth, tiny ears, a Grecian face. Over the shoulders is a black robe with a green collar; the robe is spangled with golden stars; the tunic is a pure soft blue.

115

Now the whole Aethyr is swallowed up in a forest of unquenchable fire, and fearlessly through it all a show-white eagle flies. And the eagle cries: the house also of death.[71] Come away! The volume of the book is open, the Angel waiteth without, for the summer is at hand. Come away! For the Aeon is measured, and thy span allotted. Come away! For the mighty sounds have entered into every angle.[72] And they have awakened the Angels of the Aethyrs that slept these three hundred years.[73]

116

For in the Holy letter Shin, that is the Resurrection in the Book of Thoth, that is the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, that is three hundred in the tale of the years,[74] hath the tomb been opened, so that this great wisdom might be revealed.

117

Come away! For the Second Triad is completed, and there remaineth only the Lord of the Aeon, the Avenger, the Child both Crowned and Conquering, the Lord of the Sword and the Sun, the Babe in the Lotus, pure from his birth, the Child of suffering, the Father of justice, unto whom be the glory throughout all the Aeon![75]

118

Come away! For that which was to be accomplished is accomplished, seeing that thou hadst faith unto the end of all.

119

In the letter N the Voice of the Aethyr is ended.[76]

Biskra, Algeria.

December 20, 1909. 8.45 - 9.15 p.m.

[1] ARN = Taurus, Pisces, Scorpio. See the allusions to Bull, Fish and Serpent in the first paragraph. But Nako (נקו) = 156 = Babalon, also here mentioned; and the whole Aethyr is devoted to her.

[2] This is the third eye, the "Eye of Shiva", the Pineal Gland, supposed by some anatomists to be a rudimentary eye.

[3] The "Bloody Sacrifice" is commonly regarded as "black magic". But this depends upon the formula used by the magician. All taking of life could be reprehensible even though necessary were it not for the formula of evolution. One should assume into one's own being, ceremonially, the whole karma of the creature slain; thus building it up into a higher organic structure, and thus helping it to fulfill its true will of aspiration to a higher form of life. This is, of course, a gross and material method of working, but it is the only method available in such cases. The animal is in any case doomed to death, and the most fortunate, the most directly profitable to it, is this immediate translation of its Prana (in an actual ceremony) or the basis of its Prana (in simple consumption at the table) into a living organism of superior type. It is important not to allow this Prana to escape.

[4] There is another, even more important, attribution of this card. The Bowman is the father (י of יהוה‎) and the Man, the Son (ו‎). The Women are Isis and Nephthys (ה and ה final); and the whole symbolizes a formula of the highest magick, too obscure and too elaborate to treat in this elementary document.

[5] This child is really Seth, Set, Sol, Hadit. Abel's blood was the seed of this Seth. Remember that Abel = Baal.

[6] "Miracles" of this order constantly occur in the course of operations of magick. They are by-products.

[7] There is no question in my mind that this explanation is correct from the viewpoint of profane scholarship. Angels who offer absurd theories about material affairs are false elementals who amuse themselves at the expense of the naiveté of the would-be magician.

[8] In any case forecasts of the future cannot be made from Qabalistic data, which have nothing to do with terrestrial measures of time; e.g. to say that King Brahmadatta reigned 120,000 years in Benares, only means that he reigned in a manner congruous with the ideas symbolized by 120 and, on a very grand scale, as indicated by the multiplication by 1000.

[9] The allusion may be to one of those who occupied for a time the post of "Scarlet Woman". See Book 4, part 4, for a list of these women. (Note. - A.C. pencilled in the margin of his Eqx. here "Myriam Deroxe?" Opposite the next paragraph re. the white Rose he annotated "Leila Waddell?")

[10] In fact, the Seer was the prey of an intolerable uneasiness akin to fear. He was intuitively aware of the terrific nature of the Aethyr, and felt oppressed by the responsibility of seeing and hearing accurately in a matter of such dread importance. He felt even before penetrating the Aethyr, that he was already near the limit of his powers.

[11] It was not that the Call of the Aethyr had been ill performed, or that its virtue and efficacy were impaired. It was that the Seer being attached to his human instrument, that instrument automatically strove with all its might to escape the impact of so tremendous and so dire an energy which would infallibly be transmitted (to a certain small extent) through the Seer to it. In the same way, in a much lesser manner, there is a limit to the degree of pain a man can inflict on himself, as experiments with the Boulometer (the instrument invented by the Seer to measure this virtue) have shewn. (Note — it was a self-adjustable thumb screw. [Note by Yorke])

[12] This means more than the obvious. "The colours of the spectrum compose pure White Light." The Seer could see these colours directly, at the same time as the White. Another case of hypperabyssic logic.

[13] This doctrine is most profound and important. It throws light upon the mystery of evil, and upon the nature of Maya in general.

[14] Chaos is here the Yod of Tetragrammaton, his daughter the final Heh. This passage is to be studied closely in connection with the previous passages and notes with regard to the formula of יהוה; indeed one should perform samyama upon this whole matter.

[15] Note well this thesis. Anything which is not pure nothing is ipso facto unbalanced, and therefore imperfect — indeed illusory.

[16] The path of ב. Contrast this way of illusion forcibly with the obsession of Microprosopus by Daath. (There are also the difficulties of the Son with the glamour of the path of ג and of the Father with the path of א. See 3rd Aethyr concerning the Three Ways of Delusion that guard the Crown.)

[17] 52 = אימא‎, the fertile mother = 3 = Binah. 26 equals יהוה; also Kabad (כבד), the husband of the impure Lilith. 1 + 6 + 9 + 10, the Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar, the Phallus. 6 = 1 + 2 + 3, the Mystic number of Binah; also the Sun who shines on all alike. 6 also = Gaba (גבא) meaning to collect; also Dab (דב), a bear (Venus in Furs), and Ha (הא), a window, the illicit way of ingress into a house. 12 = הוא, the title of Kether, the Unity; 13 = Achad (אחד), Unity.

[18] 39 = YHVH Achad (יהוה אחד), meaning "Tetragrammaton is One", although He is composed of 4 letters, hence the triumph over the power of 4, limitation. But this explanation is not as clear, satisfactory and convincing with that singular feeling of ecstatic illumination which one rightly demands of the Qabalistic demonstration. There should be some further gematria of 39 not yet discovered. 2 = ב, Atu I — the Magus, Mayan the Great Scorceror. 78 = Mezla (מזלא), the Influence from Kether, and the number of the Tarot Cards; i.e., she destroys him by his own energies.

[19] Because she includes her daughter (10) in her own formula, she can use the daughter for Her own purposes.

[20] This reversal of the evident exoteric meaning of the Call is stupendous. This book, 418, is full of similar interpretations "by the rule of contraries". But this rule must be applied with skill and discretion, if error is to be avoided. It is a lamentable fact that a worthy Zelator of A∴A∴, one Frater Achad, having been taught (patiently enough) by the Seer to use this formula, was lured by his vanity to suppose that he had discovered it himself, and proceeded to apply it indiscriminately. He tried to stand the Serpent of Wisdom on its head, and argued that as he was a 1° = 10^□ of the Order, he must equally be a 10° = 1^□. As The Book of Lies says, "I wrenched DOG backwards to find God; now God barks!" He would have been better advised to reverse his adored ONE and taken a dose of Eno (Eno's Fruit Salts, an English purgative). (This is a reference to Crowley's unfortunate squabble with Frater Achad, Charles Stanfield Jones. The true causes of this disagreement have only been hinted at, but in reality to this day they are unknown. I.R..)

[21] The infinity of Nuit.

[22] The infinity of Hadit.

[23] An event, the fundamental unit of manifested existence.

[24] In Kelly's original: "It repenteth Me that I have made Man." Kelly was in constant trouble with his education as an orthodox Christian; also Dee forced him to reject the True Messengers, whose discourse implied antinomian Pantheism.

[25] One general application of the Law of Thelema. It is a stupid error to try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear; it hurts both parties to the transaction. The basic blunder is to set up an arbitrary ideal standard of "what ought to be". The "evil beginnings" on all planes have a proper and a useful function. A strong healthy man cannot be made by putting him in irons and protecting him artificially from all the "dangers of life."

[26] The passage is criticism of an obscure doctrine of the Qabalah. There is however a real mystery behind the rhetoric. (Note: The doctrine in Qabalah is that the Aleph remained in the mouth of the Creator, and Beth was the first letter to manifest. This comes partly from Aleph being the first letter and partly from Aleph being unpronouncable without another letter. Aleph is a pure aspirant. Beth in Hebrew signifies "in" as in "in the beginning". What does all this bear on Crowley's use of "Hadit" from the Stele, in place of the more common "BaHadit", Egyptian for entrance into the Winged Disk of the Sun? WEH)

[27] All these passages in brackets are the currente lingua explanations of the Seer (to himself) as each new phrase of the text was delivered by the Angel. To understand how startling it all was to him, one must remember that he had been using this Call, in its own obvious sense, for many weeks, and always with the utmost force and solemnity. His only warning had been the intuitive feeling that the Call was really a rejoicing at the opening of the 9th Aethyr. And he had thought this merely subjective, due to the relief of having passed through the Abyss.

[28] This was certainly due to no ordinary cause. The Seer was lying on the roof of the Hotel Royal at Biskra in the shade of the minaret. It was a cool bright morning.

[29] Prometheus stole the fire of Jupiter. Ixion attempted the virtue of Juno. The Seer, in trying to penetrate this most holy Aethyr, was similarly presumptious.

[30] He was using the Sign of the Rending of the Veil (one of the formal signs of the Portal grade) against the obscurity of the Aethyr. (See Liber O, Eqx. I, No. 2)

[31] This refers to the Magister Templi. See 6th Aethyr et al, supra. Only a Magus can truly pierce the veil of Babalon. It is written (of Isis), "No man (i.e., Nemo, the Magister Templi) hath lifted my veil." But to lift it and look upon her is one thing; to possess her another!

[32] The physical exhaustion of the Seer was complete. He realized that further effort was impossible; and — more also! — that had he suddenly succeeded, while in this state, the fury of the impact of the energy of the Aethyr would have been instantly destructive of his physical form.

[33] Hammam Salahin: Sulphurous waters, admirably apt to the idea of Babalon, whom the Seer intuitively understood to be the Soul of this Second Aethyr.

[34] Black for Binah. The pyramid for the phallus, for she is also androgyne. Or, as an unit of Her city, beneath the Night of Pan. See 14th Aethyr.

[35] The most perfect and mysterious of the symbols of the Feminine Principle. Its mathematical correspondences are of the greatest importance. See The Canon and several other treatises on Qabalistic geometry.

[36] This is the last desperate attempt of the Ruach of the Seer to escape the terror of the presence of Babalon.

[37] The Magister Templi.

[38] This apparently simple phrase conceals an allusion of the most sublime and terrific import. See Liber AL vel Legis Cap. I, vv. 14, 16, 19. Also The Book of Lies, Caps. 4 and 15. Mohammed said, "Cursed be he that maketh himself earth, and woman heaven!" For he understood this formula as of enormous magical power and wished to keep it from the profane, who might abuse it, or injure themselves by ignorant of imprudent application.

[39] See The Book of Lies, Cap. 3.

[40] This seems to refer to Thmaist, whose Aeon will succeed that of Horus. She is Atu VIII — Adjustment; — referring to Libra, the House of Venus. In her also, then, is Babalon the ageless virgin-harlot, our mother as our concubine.

[41] Cf. 3rd Aethyr, the vision of Lilith. This triangle seems to symbolize limitation or restriction; or so the sequel implies.

[42] The path of ד‎, Daleth. Babalon is thus shewn as more than merely Binah.

[43] Tiphareth is below her.

[44] Daath, the outcast into the Abyss, beneath her.

[45] Chokmah, the Highest Wisdom.

[46] As shewn in the previous note, the Magister Templi, though he can lift her veil and behold her with understanding, is unable to meet her as an equal and possess her.

[47] This sword has its hilt in Kether and its point in Malkuth. the Seer uses the entire Hierarchy of Existence against the destroyer of Osiris. The Flaming Sword

[48] His energy is transmuted into the primeval manifestation of the Divine Will.

[49] She is wholly set upon Kether. Only when her lover is wholly in his loftiest selfhood can he possess her.

[50] The Serpent of Wisdom, the 22 Paths which join the 10 Sephiroth. It is thus the complement of the Flaming Sword. The legend of Heva and Nachash is drawn from the mystical doctrine here in question. This Serpent is the totality of magical manifestation, the beauty of the 22 Palaces (Atu) of Wisdom. She is at once the mother and the sister of her adulterous Lord, Mayan, the Logos who created the universe of illusion. The Serpent of Wisdom

[51] Generally speaking, the monsters which inhabit water symbolize evil — in all senses, from the grossest to the most exalted. They represent the falling into passivity; whereras the activity of energy is the idea of joy.

[52] This Black Rose is then the veil of Babalon Herself. It is the repulsiveness which is one half of fascination.

[53] Thus suddenly Babalon breaks through to her lover.

[54] This is meant in its normal physical sense. The Seer supposed at the time that he had actually lost his sight.

[55] Against the appalling conviction that he had been stricken blind for his presumption in daring to aspire to Babalon in so intimate a sense he gathered himself together in a furious assault upon her.

[56] From the Stele of Revealing.

[57] The outburst of the orgasm (see 23rd Aethyr, Note 28). It continued unabated throughout the whole of the vision. The Seer was all this time seated in the water of the hot spring, struggling with all the pressure on his body, and roaring aloud in the intensity of his agony or ecstasy. This helped him to endure physically the continuous spasm of joy.

[58] AHA = אהא‎ = 7. It is therefore a God-name of Netzach, Venus. Interpreted by Yetziratic attribution, it is "The Crossing of our Lady (ה‎ — the Supernal Mother) in the air (א‎ = Air)." It is also the Pentagram between two swastikas. The symbolism of this word, simple as it is, is far too extensive to discuss adequately in a note. It must be studied intimately and at length by the postulant.

[59] Hadit is a mathematical expression rather than a God. By his form is meant "the winged globe", which is used in the Stele of Revealing to represent him.

[60] This was in a pool almost inconveniently hot to the normal sense.

[61] Meaning, the four watchtowers of the universe (Equinox I, VII). For the attributions of the senses to the elements see Liber 777. The growing intelligibility of the words indicates the exhaustion of the rapture of the Seer. The gradual withdrawal of the immanence of Babalon.

[62] Hitherto, the intellectual content of the Aethyr has been marked by the moral (or rather spiritual) ravishment of the Seer by Babalon.

[63] At this point the Seer sank back exhausted. The Scribe, fearing that he might be drowned, assisted him to come out of the Pool.

[64] This began instantly on the resumption of the Vision. We must assume that the Angel of the Aethyr, or one of his ministers, undertook the task of preparing the Seer for the "voice of the Aethyr" in this manner. It is the language of the Sappho-Calypso angel, commonly called Bathyllic. Its translation is:

"Now it glides in to the heaven-home, glides. Seducingly the mentrila of the begotten one of the Holy Head (or Skull) takes hold of the soft tissues, subtly plying its shuttle. Light follows the explosion. The soft tissues, cleaving to the shuttle, pump out every drop of water from the well."

[65] The magical fascination of the whole Aethyr is something quite apart from, and beyond, almost anything else in the experience of the Seer. The effort upon him (31 Equinoxes later) of writing these notes, is quite extraordinary. The memory of it diminishes the value of the rest of his life (with few excepted incidents) almost to nothing.

[66] The reversal of the formula of IAO (see Magick in Theory and Practice, part 3) implies roughly, the general mystical, as opposed to the general magical, process.

[67] From this it would appear that Babalon (who is speaking through one of her ministers) is the feminine (or androgyne) equivalent and not merely the complement of Pan. This is shewn in many of her images.

[68] These visions are semi-distractions, due to the Seer's human weakness, which could not endure the rapture of the voice. "Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy." Liber AL vel Legis, Cap. II, v. 70. During the great revelation of the Cairo Working, the Seer had been similarly ravished, and fainted under the excess of Enthusiasm.

[69] Liber AL vel Legis Cap. I, v. 44. "For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect." This doctrine is fundamental to all working soever. Its neglect vitiates (by a paradox curious enough) all fruitfulness in any operation. One may indeed distinguish work worthy of being performed from menial toil (such as that of statesmen, financiers, and sewer rats) by this criterion. (Faith, a practice not to be commended or even defended — it being of the nature of paranomasia — is equivalent to Kosher (כשר), meaning lawful.)

[70] Babalon, "in whom all power is given," is the Teh, Sakhti, ה. She is seductive and deadly, being the disturber of the total equilibrium of the absolute zero, which considered as a positive idea, is existence in perfect peace, an immutable essence. But He cannot truly exist without Her; and through Her therefore comes change, which is love and death.

[71] See the 11th Call, which invokes Earth of water, the Princess of the Lotus of the Floods. (The reading is a variant of that given in the official A∴A∴ ritual.) The Eagle is snow-white for Her purity; and he is the White Eagle of the Alchemists.

[72] See the Keys or Calls, especially the 5th and 6th, where the angels (of the watchtowers) are specifically mentioned.

[73] That is, since the working of Sir Edward Kelly and Dr. John Dee.

[74] Shin = 300. Also Shin is Atu XX — the Last Judgment (or Resurrection, as implied in the usual form of the Atu). Shin is Spirit in the regular attribution (the triple tongue of Fire; see the Acts of the Apostles). 300 = Ruach Elohim (רוח אלהים), the spirit of the gods.

[75] The Seer had absolutely forgotten this prophecy, and was amazed at the final identification of the child in LIL with Hoor.

[76] This implies that the Voice of the Aethyr ends never! For N is the vibration which continues through the nostrils. See Magick in Theory and Practice, pp. 45-47, on the word AUMGN; whereby the Seer rebuked and perfected the AUM of the Rishis. N Equals Nun, the letter of sexual immortality, the formula of perfection through putrefaction.