[Note: All italic comments belong to the Master Therion unless otherwise noted;

all plain type belong to Marcelo Motta]

Of course the elements below Spirit are considered from the point of view of Spirit, since Akasha is the Center, or harmonization, of the lower Elements. Also, the presentations given by O.M. in his commentaries are not as universal in scope as the images in the original: they represent a limitation, the point of view of one Adept, only. The Commentaries are therefore useful as referentials, but candidates must strive to build their own frames of coordinates, which can safely be done only from the verses themselves.

Whey, then, write Commentaries at all? There are many reasons. One of them, not the least, is that Religion should be a Science as well as an Art. Sciences need measurement, which depends on fulness of data. The more landmarks available, the easier to build frames, and eventually measurement will become possible. Then, of course, LXV will become obsolete as a religious manual. But by that time its Author, or His disciples, will be ready to produce another just beyond the reach ofmeasurement. Or if not they, someone else.

The references to precious stones hsould be understood in the light of qabalistic correspondences, but also, particularly, in the light of the Thrid Great Ordeal mentioned in AL III.66. If two men ivsit a country and then write a description of it, their descriptions will differ in what their normal idiosyncrasies differ, not matter how gereal be their intention to make their descriptions. In talking about realsms as little treaded as those of the subtler Sheaths of the Self, the almost total absence of general experience in the matter makes small differences in description more confusing, not only to the listeners but to the describer himself, than they should normally be.

In practice, what happens is that na Adept may be serenely minding his own business, and expouding his own system of achievement, and being successful in bringing other men to self-realization through his system, and suddenly he is confronted with what appears to be a totally different set of symbols nad plan of training which, nevertheless, he feels to be a least as valid as his own. This ‘feeling’ is of course simply his spiritual perception at work. But his Lower Manas does not share this spiritual perception (except in rarest cases) in its fuloness, and worries. The Lower Manas is the "cobbler" whose function is merely to mend the shoe (remember the sandal-strap in the hand of the Eqyptian god, signifying the power of Akasha, the power of Goiung) so that the higher faculties may walk (he is elsewhere mentioned in this Holy Book as the ‘scribe’, but the cobbler is a more complex concept. The ‘scribe’ is merely the Lower Manas, but he ‘cobbler’ is the complex Lower Manas + Kama+Prana+Linga Sharira+Sthula Sharira considered as the total ‘normal man’. Of course, in the case of an Adept, however, this ‘normal man’ is initiate, and will have greater control of his vehicles, and a greater infusion in them of spiritual principles, than is the true norm of profane mankind).

No matter what differences in approach there may be among legitimate Schools if Initiation (there are false schools, and ther are schools wiich are not false, but are so fragmentary in their training that it becomes impossible to call them legitimate), the human race is so constituted that it can only reach Integration, that is, Initiation, by the equilibrating Trances of the Middle Path of the Qabalah. These experiences are, therfore, the crucial ones (if you will pardon the pun). Provided the system in question includes them in one form or another, the system is all right.

Of course, other lines of evolution may be differently constituted. They all have in common the Smooth Point, however, or so at least the Angel seems to intimate.

Often ill-trainined, or greenhorn Adepts (those who are reaching Tiphereth for the frist time in one particular incarnation, and never reached it before, and therefore have no Magickal Memore—the so-called Intuition—to help them), will become disturbed when making contact with another system which may seem to differ wildly from their own (sometimes as if it were it complete opposite), and which yet they feel, rightly, to be true. In such cases it is fatal to leaveyour system and tackle theother. It is mixing the planes. If there be a need of contact between your branch of activity and that other, this contact should be made on the plane of Buddhi-Manas, and not on any lower plane. It is the "king’s son", that is, the Prince, that is, the Tiphereth-consciousness, that should handle the "Embassy" to the other King involved. The "cobbler" must be made to do his work, that is to deep the lower vehicles in good health and disciplned to the Call of the Highest.

There is naturally, and excpetion to the rule of not going into the details of another system: when you are tyring to perfect a new system that should include the best points of two—or more—others. Normally, however, the Impulse will be known, in this case, to come from the Prince—from Tiphereth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

The use of poisons and weapons as symbolas indicates that the first result of the impact of higher energy in lower vehicles is, apparently at least, destructive. The charge produces a stepping-up in existing rates of vibration, with consequent expansion and agitation of all psychosomatic processes. The purely physical phenomena subside quickly because the human body, materially speaking, is the highest developed vehicle that we possess, normally, at this stage of evolution. Emotionally we are also much better developed than mentally, so the ecstasies connected with the Trances are easily absorbed within a few days, at the most. But since our Manas is our most recently developed Sheath, mental disturbance may last for quite longer and, in some cases, amy become irreversible. In short, we may go insane as a result of Trance. Many have. This explains fanaticism, and religious persecution, throughout the history of mankind, but it also explains the excesses of revolutionaries and of conquering armies everywhere. Forget not, either, the bickering of scientists confronted with a new fact that fails to fit in with tier pet theories, or the existing concept of the Universe.

It is not quite correct to say that truth destroys reason. The impact of a new datum upon one’s existing concept of the Universe destroys the nice house of cards which we had built, and may cause anguish, mental perturbation, and so forth. But reason is nothing but the faculty of integrating data, and if the mind iwthstands the shock it soon starts the process of building a new frame of reference which should include the new fact introduced into our consciousness.

Reason, in the sense decried in Liber AL, indicates a mental structure which makes of this organic integrator of ours the core and source of our consciousness. This kind of insanity is not as difficult to occur as it seems, if your consider that the infusion of spiritual levels of energy in the Lower Manas may mislead a careless thingker into believing that he is functioning in Buddhi Manas when he is merely wallowing in an over-energized Lower Manas. The qabalists indicate this possibility of error by englobing both Lower Manas and Buddhi Manas in their concept of the Ruach. As long as Daath remains fluid, ever-changing, ever-integrating, ever transmitting and receiving, there is no danger. The minute it becomes static and remains so, there is danger, no matter how beautiful the crystal may be. Bno static view of the Universe, no matter how ample and how glorious, can be valid. For the Universe is a living thing, and is continually changing.

In one very important sense A.C. means here that the more dramatic and catastrophic a samadhi is, the less perfect it is. True union is unconscious, effortless; to put it in Taoist language, it is the Way of the Tao. A very noticiable samadhi is indication that the parapsychosoma involved is not familiar with the higher plane of existence from which the energy is being instilled. As is gradually adjusts to its new level of existence the samadhi becomes less intense and eventually seems to disappear completely. The Lower Manas frequently becomes disturbed right then: ‘Eli, Eli, lama sagacthani?’ But what actually happened is that the Angel’s energy went "underground"—that is, penetrated the subconscious. Only then can you really say that a particular Trance haas been conquered. If the Lower Manas takes the trouble to analyze behavior, day by day, it will soon realize that the total man no longer reacts to the same stimuli as it used to in the past. An initiation into a new attitude toward life has been undergone.

In another, and equally important sense, the verse warns claivoyants against a very common mistake: That of thinking that a shiny aura necessarily indicates spiritual advancement. This depends on the highest plane at which the clairvoyant is sensitive. Energy impinging from the plane immediately above may quite simply appear "black" to the inner eye. Since clairvoyants seldom have any sense of perspecitve—or ego control, if you prefer—they seldom discount their own limitations as observers. Hence, for instance, ‘Bishop’ Leadbeater’s glowing descriptions of the auras of ‘mahatmas’.

Still another important sense, also useful to clairvoyants, is when you are (asoccasionally happens) witness to an initiation from the inner planes. The more perfectly the initiate is agble to make contact with the spiritual force involved, the less his aura will shine. In the best instances, at the crowning momentof the initiation the initiate becomes invisible to other eyes. It is as if he had become envoloped in a cloud of total darkness. You do not even ‘feel’ his presence anymore.

The problem is the same as with those clairvoyants mentioned above. When they see a ‘black’ aura, it does not occur to them that maybe radiation is occurring beyond their level of perception. To do so would be humiliating to them, since it would admit an implicit inferiority. The sensitive capable of such an admission wuld be well on the way of transcending his then limitations and of passing into a higher level of being.

The subconscious antagonism is very real, and lower intitiates, as a rule, resent and fear the Adept. They are incapable of understanding, for instance, how a man can be sublime enough to oproduce, say, the Renaissance, and at the same time gross enough to want to fuck their wives (if you point out to them that this desire is a simple corrobration of their good taste in wives, therefore a compliment, they don’t get mollified). We have—thank the Adepts!—become tolerant enough, the great majority of us, to live with our little penises. But we still ge incensed at the bigger penises of our neighbors. Fean and hatred in the Ruach result from a psychological perception of personal inferiority. Of course, this inferiority is illusory, and would be dispelled by Adepthood. But often the man sulks foolishly, stamps his foot, and refuses to become an Adept. In such cases the initiator has no alternative but to strike hard and low, and to hell with them, master!

Those who praise an Adept, instead of condemning and persecuting him, have reached an equivalent level of insight. They see from the perspective Tiphereth, not from any lower perspective.

The reason for the secrecy is simple. The Inner College of the A.’.A.’. has a much stronger influx from the Supernals than the Outer College, necessarily. Therefore its Magickal Energy is most intense. Yet, for all its sublimity, the Inner College is below the Abyss, and subject to the laws of Duality and Glamour. The so-called "black Brothers" and their currents are therefore easily attracted by any demonstration of the Inner College’s energy, and interference is intense here—more intense than at the lower levels.

Silence and secrecy are therfore of the essence. The ancient so-called "Rosicrucians" ahd one single solitary rule for the outer world: they were not to be known as "Rosicrucians". Likewise, a prudent Adept will veil his energy and his works with the utmost secrecty. As far as possible he will keep his operations sub rosa—if you will pardon the pun.

It is not possible to escape interference altogether, since you have crossed that Veil on one side of which is written ‘No Separate Existence’ and on the other side of which is written ‘No Existence’. The very fact that you are alive, radiating, is enough of a provocation to the "Black Brothers". If, however, you can keep them from identifying the flesh from which your are working, and best of all, if you can keep them from perceiving what you are trying to do, you will reduce most of their interference to a negligible level.

Thus in A.C.’s novel Moonchild a magickal operation is conducted on two levels at once, but only one level is meant to attract the attention of the opposition and does; therefore the other level accomplishes its purpose without interference.

Normally, magickal operations are not conducted in such a way. Interference with any kind of operation, however, is very common. There are here several factors apparently complex, but ultimately very simple, which hinge on the nature of that great ‘devel’ Choronzon of which all "Black Brothers" are mere instruments.

Crown of violets—the violet is purple, a Thelemically important color, and grows best in hidden places, under cover of other plants.

Much of the symbolism of LXV is homosexual. This perhaps due to the sex of the Writer’s body, since the Marriage that takes place in Tiphereth is that of the soul as a bride to its god. Be that soul incarnated as a male or a female at the time, its formula is feminine in thei Operation. Feminine reactions and attitudes are more naturally expressed if the body occupied at the time is female; but for some kinds of Orgia, in such cases, other difficulties arise. In the case of the Magus of an Aeon, for instance, the work could hardly be done without the possession of the physical image of the Creative Power.

A virtue not very common among Adepts, who usually feat the Angel at least as much as they aspire to Him, and therefore dance like crabs along the way. But Perdurabo has always been an exceptional Star.

In this verse it is emphasized that the Spiritual Being mentioned as "Angel" here is in reality above all the so-called Angelic hierarchies in depth of perspective. We are not dealing with a planetary, or even with a starry nature. The Angel cannot be connected with a particul Sign of the Zodiac, as human beings can. No: his nature is cosmic. He is identified with our own Galaxy, the Milky Way; but it is pointed out that his power is somehow connected with our Sun, since the Zodiac exists only from the point of view of Sol, of course. Thus, we are dealing with a Being beyond us, yet of our own kind, in a sense. He is "of us". See AL I.60.

Not so; it is an injunction to the Adept to keep in close touch with the "scribe"—his physical instrument of manifestation. The injunction comes from the Angel. Adepts frequently dislike going down into the filthy mud of matter to instruct that blind creature of slime from which they emerged as butterflies from a cocoon. This kind of attitude, carried too far, makes for "black brotherhood" on the Adept’s part. This subject has been treated at great length by many different systems.

In this note we see the essetnial spiritual humility of Aleister Crowley, to whom the Adept was but the scribe to his Angel. But the verse says scribe, and means scribe: that syndrome linga sharira + sthula sharira+ prana + kama + manas of which we have already spoken. Naturally the scribe jumps to the occasion and upholds the Angel’s decision.

The worst mistake that a spiritual nature may do is to despise or neglect "material’ and "animalistic" things. Man, the great beast of the fields, is on this planet and at the present time the Crossroasd or Creation: the being which unites angel (do not confuse with the H.G.A.) and beast in one sole nature, the being where the Four Elemental Forces are to be harmonized, under the influence of Akasha, into the pentragram. It is the god suspendecd on the cross. Should the Initiate neglect and scorn that lower (but is it lower, from thepoint of ivew of the Infinite Abyss of the Void? For then what is up? what is down? what is above? what is below?) part of the sphinx whereon he rides, by that much neglect will be become less well-served by those faculties thereby represented. And since, so far as we now are able to perceive, the purpose of evolution is the spiritualization of blind matter, by that much neglect will he turn against the cosmic tide. "My adepts stand upright, their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells." Liber XC 40.

And, ofr course, quite often they are right. If you are going to build a new house, you must first raze down the old one. The Magus destroys with the dagger; the more skilful He is, the better He wields this weapon. A.C. ;himself, chipping away at a piece of wood in his reitrement in Lake Pasquaney, sufdenly ralized how the work of destruction can result in creation: you chip away your material so that your vision takes shape in what is left. But certainly you chip away. And the chipped-away material has every right to howl. Of course, so do you have every right to chip!

There are several other meanings to the verse, all of them most subtle and most wise. We would call the attention of Major Adepts, for instance, to the unusual verbal construction of the question.

The "servant"is, of course, the "scribe", that is, the initiated instrument of flesh.

Well, not quite. The relation is very real: only, on the plane of men the Adept seems to be busy "saving" mankind; on the plane where the river of Amrit flows, he and his Angel are fashioning a boat of mother-of-pearl. The boat, besides being a female symbol, is a symbol of the persistence of life through generations. Mother-of-pearl is the substance that gives origin to the pearl, which is sacred to the Moon and to Binah. Mother-of-pearl indicates therefore She who is the Mohter of Binah, that is to say, Nuit.

The supposed process of "salvation" of mankind is therfore a magickal process of immortalization, or perpetuation, of that complex of energies which we call the Adpet. To go deeper into this subject at present would be to foster speculation and fantasy in the inexperienced. Suffice it to say that this whole process is quite commonplace. All adepts go through it. We refer serious students to AL II.44.

Nonsense! The human mind demands the reward for which it has been willing to bear the inkhorn and the pen without material reward. Its devotion has been entirely serflish, but intelligent. Else the mind would be unsound. It is a lie, this foly against self. We do not serve the Masters becausxe we are slaves who will to serve. We serve them in order to learn their "secrets" and become Masters ourselves. (They have, in reality, no "secrets". Their only secret is their greater awareness and experience. By serving them, we increase ours.) The scribe in the verses, indignant upon realizing that the Adepts are not really "saving" anybody but themselves, demands the fulfilment of his contract. The accounting is immediately done, for the Masters, unlike "black brothers", pay their debts.

Not so: complete initiation. It is absed in shame because it realizes how gross and perceptionless it is compared to the Angel and its Master (the Buddhi-Consciousness).

By "everything possible" is meant the "outermost". This refers to the outermost boudaries of consciousness, which of course includes the microcosmic qliphoth. It is a well-known fact that we do not know the external universe, we know only the reaction produced in our consciousness by the contact of our "ego"—the Ahamkara—with it. This contact is constantly shifting, and the Ahamkara itself is a living,that is, a dynamic, thing. The Universe includes "demons", elementals, larvae, "shells" of the Qabalists—it includes, indeed, all kinds of very nasty things of which we are not usually aware, for we rarely take the trouble of extending consciousness to the outposts of our being. Yet, intelligence—in the sense of efficient communication—is one of the priorities in a successful army. Our consciousness is a Legion, but unless this Legion is disciplined and has a General in command, we are victims of some form of insanity or another. And if parts of our Legion are under our control, but we are not even aware of the existence of others, it cannot be said that the Commander is truly a General. The General commands all.

All this is connected with the legend that the Christ-consciousness—the Adept—has to go down int o hell. The forces which are storng enough, gross enough, insensitive enough—and yet sensitive enough at the same time—to sustain our contact with the external Universe partake, of necessity, of the nature of this external Universe. Thus the "pagans" and "godless" and "demons" which inhabit the boundaries of the Circle of the Magician. The circle must expand continuously, and control over environment is the aim of the Master. He must subdue all things—including his fear and his disgust of the most external things. Only when he is the true Commander of himself—the true Master of the Temple—is he qualified to yielf to the Angel. His expansion of consciousness is always in direct proportion to his extent of self-control.

Thus it can be perceived that any Initiate who becomes static is undergoing a psychic state similar to that of the "black brothers". Usually, however, the Enemy—the external Universe—soon comes to strike his shield and defy him to mortal combat in the eternal Comedy-Tragedy of Pan. If this does not happen—and sometimes, in the Play of the Waters, a twig may remain stationary for a season (see Liber Aleph, 166)—then the Initiate may temporarily become like a "black brother"indeed. The only difference will be in the telepathic influence—if any!

Nevertheless, this is exacty what he was doing then, writing LXV! But of course, it was not the scribe who was writing it…Or so the scribe thought.

This kind of seesaw effect is characteristic of the operation of the Ahamkara, or Ego-making faculty, and must be carefully studied. See and compare LXV I.23-26.

Not exactly this: The Agnel rather intimates that messages produced from certain levels of consciousness are unviersal in character, and can be translated by the listener into terms related to his or her own from a of reference without thereby diminishing their basic meaning or import. Such is the case with all A.’.A.’. publications in Class A.

As we can see, Masters (note the use of the capital H in both pronouns and compare with 52) are not any more immune to the symptoms of the Ahamkara than any other kind of human being. It is as if Picasso, indignant, protested that his pictures had only one legitimate meaning: the meaning that he himself found in them. Of course, the Angel soon puts his client right.

Not exactly: please note the lower-case h of the pronoun. Here it is no longer the Adept consciousness, the Master consciousness, speaking: it is the mere initiated man, ego hurting, who wants to keep his cake at the same time that he eats it. His explanation is a mere rationalization of his frustration at the fact that apparently he has no control over his own work.

Actually, the point made is: Do what thou wilt. The scribe is merely sulking, he is not really interested in the equations, as another star might be. Her serves a Magician, not an Accountant.

Not so: this is the preliminary razing of the old house ere the new one can be built. The last two world wars are but preliminary to the establishment of the Law of Thelema upon the earth.

The relationship of the Adept to mankind as Redeemer is not phantasmagoric on this plane. He is a Redeemer; he is the new Christ. But on the plane of the "river of Amrit" he and his Angel are merely fashioning their boat of mother-of-pearl. These two "truths" are not exclusive; in fact, the existence of one depends on the existence of the other.

Not exactly what is meant here; for the purple of the grape juice on the Adept’s lips is stained with the white glory of the lips of the Angel. Better say that every magickally creative act of the Adept is energized or guided or aided by the spritual energy of his Angel. See LXV III.13-17 and the comments thereon.

In short, go to the outermost places and subdue all things, then yield—and intoxicate the inmost.

In short, by induction, spiritual puberty was achieved. The Angel is bi-sexual, or better, omni-sexual. He is a cosmic, or if you prefer, macrocosmic being. In it highest sense, of course, Pan is Nuit.

Thus concludes the description of the relations of the Adept and his Angel so far as the element of Earth, the concrete and manifest aspect of Nature, is concerned. The whole illusion has been destroyed; the bread has become the body of God. Yet this is but the lowest form of existence; in the next chapter we shall understand how the mind—as distince from the matter of thought—is concentrated and sanctified by the Magick of the Adept.

The Hawk here, however, does not represent the Divine Consciousness: it is the magickal Self, which includes all parts of the complex sthula-linga-prana-kama-manas which the Magician ahs already been able to "bring to order".

To mix metaphor with objective scientific information is sometimes dangerous. Air is not the only vehicle of sound, and any way, in the mystical symbologyof the elements, hearing is referred to Akasha. We might say, therefore, that here is spoken of Akasha Vay, Sub-Element of the Elemetn of Air which is, so to speak, the Root of emotions are referred to Water. But of course thought and emotion, in what they intereact, partake of the nature of both, and sometimes more, Elements. It must always be kept in mind—if you will pardon the pun—that this Chapter refers to mind from the point of view of Spirit, that is, from the point of view of Initiation.

May be chosen at will before incarnation, and even then within limits. After incarnation, you are bound by your genetic limitations. You can do much, as in Initiate; but you are limited by your inherited combination of chromosomes.

This is one of the many reasons—all of them selfish, We assure—why the Adepts are continuously trying to improve mankind. The4 healthier, subtler, more complex combinations are asvailable, the greater the chances of expansion. Samadhi experienced by the brain of a 75 IQ is not the same as that of a brain of 300 IQ. Even if it happens to be the same kind of samadhi. You can’t make a silkpurse out of a sow’s ear. But you can make a beautiful purse out of pig leather, if you are skilful, and the pi8g healthy enough before death. In short, you must work with the material at your disposal, you must accept the fact that this material is basically an animal, and you must never make the mistake of denying or mortifying or restricting the beast in you. It must be trained, not broken!

The concept of God coming down into matter in order to "redeem" it is false, connected with the psychological hiatus between Chesed and Binah. The fable of the Fall was invented to explain why man is so unfortunately constituted (from the point of view of lazy men, of course), and to uphold the Father-Image at any cost. In reality, the hiatus is due to the fact that man is a Spirtual entity quickening the body and mind of na animal. There is no physiological connection in the brain between the faculties called the Supernals by the Qabalists and the highest faculty of the homo saps: Chesed. Daath is therefore an artificial construct (again th Ahamkara) with the purpose of making possible integration between the God and the man. Its inefficiancy is cdue to its very recent apparition. All the faculties related to the higher Manas and to Buddhi-Manas are liable to confusion and error at this stage of evolution, becdause they are new, and still at the experimental stage. And the lower faculties, left to themselves, work well from a worldly point of view: the man (or woman) is happy, contented, prosperous, and dead to the higher life. As soon as the higher faculties become active, happiness of this sort disappears. The man, no maltter how brilliant, proves incapable of providing his own living or that o fhis family; becomes "anti-social" and quite often ends up oin prison or in the asylum. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man had better run for his life. Check Liber VII II.27-33.

The purpose is to create a human type capable of living the higher life while in the body of flesh, and doing it without trouble, perturbation or unnecessary pain. This purpose may take Us a few hundred thousand years yet to accomplish, but that is Our program. Until then.

Why then does God come into matter? To enrich His-Her-Its Experience. And this enriching of experience is basically a selfish impulse. We are not trying to "save" man. Dammit, We are man. Without Us, there is only the monkey and the blind thing of slime here, as LXV itself wil make clear later on.

This is of course a description of Integration, or Initiation. Also, however, the whole operation is viewed from another plane, and according to another possbile formula of Attainment—not the one of the Savior-Adept, of course.

In each aeon there is an Adept who is schosen to the Christ of the aeon. In this aeon, he is TO MEGA THERION, 666, who was incarnated as Aleister Crowley. The choice is karmic, that is to say, cosmic. The Adept is chosen because the complex of energies which he represents harmonizes best with the cosmic complex of energies which provides the magickal currents of the aeon. He is, of course, the Magus of the Aeon.

The Holy One came upon me" is an expression with double meaning. In a sense it means, "I was taken up in samadhi". In another sense it means that the consciousness of the Angel, or guru (a lower case, but he expression is common in Hindu mysticism), enveloped the Adept, or the chela, thereby stimulating the lower mind into spiritaul perception. The effect of this "overshadowing" depends entirely on the level of development of the overshadowed. The more awake you are, the ampler the experience resulting from the interpenetration of your aura by the aura of the Angel. See Liber Samekh and the Scholia thereon.

Do not, either, misunderstand the expression "overshadowed". It is not hypnotism or domination or possession, but rather a phenomenon akin to resonance, in which, if a violin vibrates near another, the cords of the other insturment will tend to vibrate also.

Rather say tha time flows at a different rate of speed. It counts, but according to anoter formula.

Again, this state is not "perfection". Perfection is a limit to which we tend, but the day we believe we reached it we are dead. Hence Goethe’s Faust and Mephistopheles.

The most interestin poin in this is the description of the human reason as "a little crzy boy". We have, therefore, a faculty that is very young and which has not yet become fully harmonized.

It is utter folly to ask when the Universe began and when it will end, or to ask who created everything. We are mortal creatures, that is, creatures of vibration, and we perceive the external universe through our instrument of perception, which is vitiated by its own limitations. Why should things have had to be created? Why should they have to have a beginning or an end? Actually, the enegy which animates us in our short crawl over the surface of this planet (or our occasional jumps away from it) is not affected by the transmutations of our flesh. It has existed before we did, and will continue to exist after we no longer do. For us there is whence and whither, but if there is the same for it, it will be according to rather different parameters. All things are, and have always been, changing. There is no "Reason" to think that they not always will. Theories such as entropy are merely extrapolations of our own sense of finiteness. Actually, scientists are beginning to suspect that matter is continuously being created and dying all over the universe. Preceisely as human beings, not to say all other forms of life.

The swan has always been, in toe Orient, a symbol of samadhi. Hence the mystical title Paramahanse—the Transcendental Swan, that is, the mystic who has conquered Samadhi perfectly.

It must be understood that the planes cannot be mixed. On the plane in which we normally live, that indeed where the ‘little boy’ holds sway, the pain of desire, the strain of effort and the fear of failure anore normal mind-kama states. It is the perception that they are relations, andot absolutes, that produces in Initiates that strange (strange to normal mankind, it must be understood) detachment that makes them sometimes laugh in situations where other men might cry. Nevertheless we must act, on this plane of the ‘little crazy boy’, according to the rules of the game, if we want to ‘win’ on this plane. This is also what was meant by the early ‘Rosicrucian’ injunction that the brethren were to adopt theclothes and the customes of the country in which they happened to be travelling at any time.

The state of ‘Not’ may also be defined as the Nuptials of Nuit and Hadit, or the awakening and interaction of Ajna and Shashara.

‘That Thy glory may be seen of them’ is a phrase so awkwardly constructed as to be interpreted also as "That they may perceive that the glory they see is their own." This is obviously on purpose.

Whenever a man says "I am God" he awakens the indignation of most of his fellows. They do not realize that this indignation comes from the fact that whether they worhsip a God or not, subconsciously they identify their own innermost nature with Godhead. The indignation actually means: "No, you sonofabitch, you can’t be God, because I am." Adepts are therefore usually prudent enough no to declare their divinity. Friedrich Nietzsche, who reached Tiphereth only through his own genius, unfortunately had not sufficient magickal training to be discreet, and went around acting and speaking like the incarnation of Dionysus that he was. As a consequence, he ended his days in an insane asylum. The same kind of fate greeted Ezra Pound and Wilhelm Reich among others. That such men were sent to insane asylums does not condemn them, but shames the society in which they happened to move. Ancient tribes, being closer to nature, respect madmen and say, rightly, that they are "possessed by the gods." Left strictly alone, and being treated with gentleness and respect, people passing through mystical trances of this sort will gradually equilibrate their divers planes of consciousness and achieve a state of integration much ampler than the one they had before, thereby enriching the life of their society. Indeed, this is true of most psychological disturbances. Hopeless insanity may be the result of going through a spiritual awakening amonst "normal" people—who are, most of them, totally insane (‘a little crazy boy’) as well as immature from the point of view of the Supernals.

"Radiant God" is, of course, in any aeon, the God or Goddess ‘enthroned in Ra’s seat’, and here we are treating of problems of the Hierarchy. In any aeon there is Ra’s viceroy, a minister of Hoorpakraath (that is, a Hierophant of the Magi), and the Magus of the aeon (sometimes there is more than one, although this will not be the case in the present aeon), who is the Hierophant of the Masters of the Temple. We are, of course, using thelemic terms and dealing with thelemic classification.

Therion is an Adept of such high order that He is not in the least interested in being acknowledged as Redeemer: he wants mankind to experience direct contact with the Supreme Hierophant, Heru-ra-ha in this aeon. Thelema has come to lift the human race to a degree hitherto undreamed of civilization and spiritual progress. Therefore he withdraws into being simply the Channel whereby normal consciousness may get in touch with that Radiating Force of the Spiritual Sun. (The viceroy, of course, stimulates Kether-consciousness.)

We are going a little too far here. Horus is not the ultimate principle underlying all manifestation: this principle is Nuit. Nevertheless, because of His position as Kether-Consciousness, He will lead scientists and artists into a greater perception of the Universe—a perception which will be naturally tinted by the cokmplex of energies that form the present Aeon of Aquarius-Leo, and tinted by the Nature of the God itself. He is, in Himself, a Star—gigantic in comparison to normal mankind, an Ipsissimus of the highest order. He is, also, the Absolute Monarch of Initiation in this Aeon. To go counter Him is the ultimate failure, and to disobey or disrespect Him is fatal. This is due to the enormous potential of energy concentrated around His work, of which He is the center and point of balance. To go against him is to lose yourself in a maelstron of forces which go nowhere and which will tear you apart. And yet—how dare they who dare touch their spear to this Shield! The God laughs His rapture, and proves Himself. AL I.28-30.

‘The secret places’—the innermost hiding places in their own souls, which they thought safe from perusal even by their own normal consciousness.

The Hawk, the Swan and the Eagle are cognate symbols of Air, but each with a different type of function. Check The Heart of the Master and the magickal formulae corresponding to these birds. To each corresponds a type of samadhi also.

Not so: to harmonize them, that is, to organize his human life from the point of view of Spirit.

This is the equivalent attitude to the Master of the Temple’s, who swears to interpret all phenomena as a personal dealing between God and his soul. Oswald Spengler put this in terms more apprehensible by abstract intellection when he said: "Everything of which we are conscious…has for us a deeper meaning still, a final meaning. And the one and only means of rendering this incomprehensible comprehensible must be a kind of metaphysics which regards everything whatsoever as having significance as a symbol."

It is not only the Adept’s rational prejudices who will speak to him so; the ‘little crazy boys’ indicates all normal minds around him, echoed in or echoing his own.

If it were only this, we would be bound to accept that the relationship Adept-Angel is one of sheer slavery and vampirism. The truth is to be found in Chapter I.41-46 and the Commentaries thereon. What the Adept is trying to attain is beyond th grasp of the ‘little crazy boys’. To them he is a fool carrying an empty sack and assaulted by wild beasts, nose turned up into emptiness and an abyss gaping at his feet. Yet this is the Fool of the Taro, the First Emanation of Kether, the Perfect. See AL I.45

Once the Work has been accomplished, however, the Adept must—if he still has time left in that particular existence—consolidate his gains on the lwer planes too. See AL II.24

Not so extravagant: they intimate bliss, and then transcendence of the normal limits of consciousness into another state where parameters cannot be found.

This is one of the reasons why the Aspirant is urged again and again to increase the strength and health of his physical body. See the Tasks of the Grades, and See AL II.70

Please note the capital H and the small h in the verse. These variations are always very important and meaningful in Class A publications.

Readers may consider the juxtaposition of blood, grape and girl as a poetic metaphor, and it may be so; however, it can also be a unification of several memories into a ‘ripple of His hair’. This is a difficult subject and caution leads us not to encourage the overly imaginative by enlarging on it at present. We refer the serious student to LXV I.33-40, LXV II.30-33, LXV III.40-46, LXV IV.7, LXV V.47 and the Commentaries thereon.

This "fixidness" is of course in relation to the Smooth Point, center of the ocmplex of energies called ‘star’.

The result of this surrender is the awakening of the True Will. See AL I.61 And see the corresponding paragraphs in Liber NU. It would be possible to explain intellectually this apparent paradox, but we prefer to recall the imatge of the resonating violin. The Angel is doing His Will; the surrender of the Adept impels him in the direction of his own true orbit. See AL I.45-48 and the Commentaries thereon.

The problem arises from the fact that the mind—which, by the way, is very strictly connected with the Ahamkara—is a new faculty, justy developed. The simplicity to which A.C. refers is not the simplicity of absence of data, but the simplicity of harmonization of every single part of one’s mind into an integrated, living whole. In order to achieve this, the mind must ‘go to the outermost places and subdue all things.’

These ‘normal affairs’, nevertheless, are not the affairs of a ‘normal man’, since the scribe’s mind is an initiated mind.

This is one of the reasons why the Angel orders the Adept-Consciousness to ‘speak often’ to its servant in LXV I.30-31. Unless contact iskept, the scribe runs the risk of losing himself in the amorphous phenomena of the material world, which can only acquire meaning from the point of view of Spirit.

It will be noted that the Adept echoes the question of the ‘little crazy boy’.

The same answer is given, there is no end to rapture; but there is an ‘end’—a purpose—in it. This is related to the Magickal Oath of the A.’.A.’., whose every member is pledged to help the evolution of mankind. The Adept; must impart information; not only the scientific method, but also the scientifric ethics of free and full imparting of information openly to all, are Our way.

The Element of Water is of course identified with Emotions and Feelings. Passions, although they partake of water, are initiated by the element of Fire. Thus the problems (and the solution thereof) of kama, prana and sthula sharira are mopre especially treated here. Manas is involved only insofar as the intellect is affected by Apas.

See LXV II.5. The message is given through Binah, that is, Buddhi itself: the Angel is communicating at a very high level. As to grovelling in the dust, and base animal life, that is part of man; only, the Initiate must turn these forces into Service to the Higher Faculties. When the Eqyptian Initiate said ’There is no part of me that is not of the Gods’, he did not mean by this that his material body, his etheric and astral bodies, his lover manas, his vitality and his passions had suddenly become divine in the sense of transcending the planes where they normally functioned. He meant simply that all his faculties were geared to the purpose of the Gods, that is to say, his True Will was being done without interference from any part of his being; and therefore saying this he was stating htat he was God Made Flesh. And so does the priest mean it today when he says these words during the Gnostic Mass (See Liber XV).

Than and Tanha: there is no pun involved, but simply a direct derivation, just as Satan, the Enemy, and SANATANAS, the Eternal, titles of the Suns of the Trimurti. Contact between the Jews and the Eastern systems was always feared by the Jews because of their great emphasis on monotheism and their centuries of conditioning to the worship of’Jehovah’, with attendant punishments for default.

From the point of view of the Initiate, every movementof semen, or every passion, or every desire, or every feeling that is not directly concentrated on Service to the Highest is a breach of Chastiey—the most important of the Virtues of an Adept, since the sexual instinct connects all the lwer faculties directly with the Higher. Those Serpentine forms represent thus waste of Kundalini, which is the famous ‘sin against the Holy Ghost’. It is a waste of your Life Force itself.

Let it be understood that common men are not affected by this ‘sin’. Their normal fate is to be born, live and die. Their troubles begin the moment they take the Oath of Aspiration. It is not exactly that they are swimmin against the tide—not in this Aeon, fortunately. But they were floating along, and now they are trying to swim and thus go forward faster than their fellows. Energy must be saved, because it is needed for the extra effort that Initiation costs. If you waste it, you waste your substance itself. Thus Prudence is sister to Chastity, nay, its twin, nay, they are both the self-same Virtue! See Atu IX in the Taro, and Chapter 53 of Liber Aleph.

The nature of "Love" should be studied in Little Essays Toward Truth, chapter of the same name, particularly the last paragraph. It cannot be too well understood that all manifestations of human love, even the most lyrical, the happiest, the purest, the ones that all churches, from the Roman to the Buddhist, all States, from Italy to China, approve the "sanctify" with ceremonies and laws, are simply the convolutions of the old serpent, the activity of an animal instinct, the grunts and contortions, shomewhat refined in appearance no doubt, of the great apes.

The Curse of the Oath. This taint is totally invisible to normal mankind. You have to have the seeds of higher endeavor in you to sense it.

That is, of the animal ancestors of the bestial half of our race. Compare LXV II.3-5 and the Commentaires thereon.

The end here means both the purpose of this force, which is purely animal, and the consequence of yielding to it, which is severance form the Higher Faculties.

This is a very important point: it is useless to ask your Angel to do for you the things that you must do yourself. The Angel is not a master with a slave, or a puppeteer with his puppets: he is a Teacher to whom the Law of Thelema is foremost. "So with thy all; thou has no right but to do thy will." (AL I.42)

You will ntoe that the Serpentine Foirce is the same, but now, so to speak, the magnetic poles have been changed. In essence, the Blind Worm of Slime is also the worm of Hell, Hadit, which is Life, and the giver of Life. Kundalini is sent from the Muladhara up, which is enough to transofrm it form the Demon-Queen Lilith into a Manifestation of Nuit. It is not the material at hand that is important, but what you do with it; or rather, it is not the material at hand which is malignant or "evil", but you who surrender your lower self to gross indulgence.

This is not exactly what is supposed to be done. The ideaof the Ego must be used to unite the experience of the Adept below the Abyss; it is impossible to function as a human being without the Ahamkara. It sif or this purpose tha thte Ahamkara was constructed. But eh consciouysness of the Ego must be realized as a convenience, and as relative, not an absolute. The normal lines unting Kama, Manas and Ahamkara must be dissolved and repleaced by new lines—the lines of Initiation. In short, old synapses must be dissolved in the brain, and new synapses must be established.

The Crossing of the Abyss (which may be done in two planes, that of the Manas and that of Kama, which are treated respectively int ehLiber Os Abysmi and Liber Cheth; and, in order that the Master of the Temple may function efficiency, both crossings must take place, though not necessarily at the same time) is the dissolution of the mortal ego, or the ego of the lumar man, and the creation of something that cannot any longer be called ego, but is the consciousness of the solar man, or the "Body of Glory". The Ahamkara still exists, and still functions; but now the mind knows itself as an instrument and mediator—a "scribe"—and the Kama no longer is attached to the reactions of the Ahamkara.

"I"—the active aspect of the Ahamkara. "Me"—the passive aspect of the Ahamkara. "Mine"—the attachment to anything below the Abyss, possible only when some part or another of the Ahamkara becomes static, either through lack of energy at that spot, or through the formation of energy knots—complexes, as the psychoanalysts would say.

"The city of the violets and the roses" is, of course, the mind of Aleister Crowley, which is thus splendidly described.