Liber CDXV - Opus Lutetianum
or The Paris Working
A∴A∴
Publication in Class AB.
THE BOOK OF THE HIGH MAGICK ART
that was worked by Frater O.S.V. 6 °= 5▫
Frater L.T. 2 °= 9▫
(Jan-Feb 1914 E.V.)
This is Document C in the account of
the progress of NEMO
to
TO MEGA THERION.
EDITORIAL
This Work was performed in Paris; as the name indicates, in the period from January to February 1914 e.v.. O.S.V., as everybody knows by now, was Aleister Crowley; L.T. was Victor Neuburg. We follow our usual policy: the original text by Crowley is in regular type; our notes are in italics.
This is the preliminary account of this Operation of Magick Art.
Sol in Libra, An IX, Fra. O.S.V. accomplished the task laid upon him by the Great White Brotherhood by issuing No. X of Vol. I of The Equinox.
Volume I, of course.
Thereby he being brought to the end of his resources, he bethought himself to pray unto the Great Gods of Heaven that they would bestow favour upon him -- for, even as did Job, he cursed not God at all -- that he might make a new sacrifice unto the Magnum Opus.
Minds of the John Symonds caliber had a field day with this and other statements of the same sort by Crowley, taking them as pious hypocrisy behind which the utterer hid either his sodomite tendencies or his satyr ones (when women were concerned). The study of this Equinox number as a whole may enlighten the pure-minded reader; it will certainly do little for others.
Now there appeared Fra. Lampada Tradam, having passed through the Ordeal of a Neophyte, to undertake the task of a Zelator, as by his Oath bound.
The Zelator, as the title indicates, is supposed to zeal for, and ward the Order.
Also for months eighteen had Fra. O.S.V. been initiated by Fra. M. into the Greater Mysteries, and been by him induced into the Throne of the Order of the Temple.
Frater M. - MERLINUS X° O.T.O., Theodor Reuss.
Moreover, it is fitting to reconstitute this order in its splendour, for at the entry of Sol into Aries, An X is the 600th anniversary of the Martyrdom of J.B.M. Also, a casual invocation of Pan by these Brethren had produced a great marvel.
J.B.M., Jacobus Burgundus Molensis, Jacque de Molays, the Grand Master of the Templars, tortured and burned alive by the Inquisition.
All these things therefore tending thereto, let us take up the Work with piety and zeal, and in holy charity and great chastity of body and soul. Amen.
Thus therefore to the Glory of the Ineffable One of the Dove and of the Serpent, did these two Brethren begin their Working --
First. From 4:55 to 5:35 did I confess myself, even I, Frater O.S.V. 6 °= 5▫ receiving the Sacrament from a certain priest A.B.
A Gnostic priest, of course.
and being thereby much comforted did I set myself to the painting of the prime pantacle of this book. Therein busied, came inspiration unto me from the Most High, and this is the consideration: that though Pan be the Master of this Work, yet is the Work naught without Wisdom divine, and that Hermes is rightly the god of this particular Operation of Magick Art. Therefore, say I, let Hermes first be invoked, and that by the Rite, and by this incantation which I made with my friend the Art-Bachelor W.D.
Walter Duranty, the journalist.
Jungitur en vati vates; rex inclyte rabdon Hermes
tu venias, verba nefanda ferens.
An English translation of the invocations has been kindly provided, along with valuable notes, by Mr. Martin P. Starr.
Priest is joined with Priest; renowned king of the wand,
Come thou, Hermes, bearing the unutterable words.
Perhaps "forbidden' would be a better translation of "nefanda". Or so, at least, did Crowley once remark.
Jointly, the bard in the bard, O famous king of the wand,
Hermes, mayest thou come bearing unspeakable words.
The First Working
[Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1913 e.v.]
At 11:30 therefore did I duly open the Temple, invoking also Thoth by the Egyptian formulae.
Cf. Liber LXIV vel Israfel.
And upon the stroke of midnight did the first words and acts of the Accendat strike on the Akasa. Then immediately did Mercury manifest in his first form, as it is written in Liber Ararita I, 8: "Thou hast appeared to me as a young boy mischievous and lovely, with thy winged globe and its serpents set upon a staff."
This was a very definite astral vision.
Astrally the Temple was full of thousands of flashing Caducei of gold and yellow, the serpents alive, and moving, Hermes bearing them. But so young and so mischievous was he that the sacrifice was impossible.
It was difficult for Neuburg, who had taken the active part, to concilate sex and religion. This is essentially a form of Tanha. The reaction against it has caused such misery in the world as the idea of "original sin". The gross instinctively feel their grossness, and want to punish themselves for it. Wiser by far would be to undergo the purging of fire, by which we do not mean the Roman Inquisition's barbecue. Cf. AL i 50.
This also we learnt, that at the Accendat the Ceremony is to be forgotten altogether, and to be resumed with equal suddenness at the first word of the mantra or versicle. And the excellence of this control is the agent evoking.
In plain English, since a gross Nephesch will not be able to produce an erect penis or a lubricating vulva while thinking of God, during the Accendat - that is to say, the Inflaming - the participants are advised to forget religion and concentrate on sex. This works fairly well for the beginner; but as Ida Craddock comments at the end of her Heavenly Bridegrooms, the advanced practitioner reaches a stage in which sex itself becomes distasteful unless it is a Magickal Act. The interpretation of Chastity is fraught with dire testing.
Then closed the Temple at 1:40 a.m. die Joviis Thursday thinking to renew the Rite in the evening, in the hope of obtaining Hermes in his next phase.
And Blessing and Worship to the Holy One, the Lord of the Serpent and the Dove. Amen.
The Second Working
This next invocation of Mercury was done with a new-made Image of the god in the East, a terminal Phallic figure in yellow wax, very beautiful, made that day by Fra. O.S.V. he also used these invocations "At the limits of the Night" and this "O light in light", before the "Majesty of Godhead".
Those are poems by Crowley. See Collected Works, Vol. III, p. 199.
The Temple was opened at 11:20 p.m. on the first day of the vulgar year. The Versicle began at 11:40 and ended at 11:55 circa. Immediately Fra. L.T. completely lost control; although a man of some education, degraded himself and dispersed the holy invoked Prana by defacing this volume with the meaningless scrawls opposite (omitted), declaring them to be the inspiration of Thoth which were unworthy even of His ape. In his way a great part of the virtue of the rite was lost. Some results were however obtained, and these were recorded in the esoteric account of this Working. The Temple was closed at about 2 o'clock of the forenoon of Friday.
Which is to say, at about 2 A.M. Follows the esoteric account:
The Esoteric Record
The god Hermes having been invoked, according to the Secret Rites, as elsewhere recorded, Frater L.T. proceeded to answer the demands, as follows:
Q: [O.S.V.]: Are we working right?
A: [L.T.]: No.
Q: What's wrong?
A: The time, and, to a less extent, the place.
Q: What is the right time?
A: Three hours before dawn.
Q: Does this apply to Mercury alone or to all the gods?
A: To Mercury alone.
Q: Are we to invoke Mercury again?
A: Yes.
Q: Tomorrow?
A: No.
Q: When, then?
A: On the day of the full moon.
Q: What god shall we invoke tomorrow?
A: Thoth.
Q: But Thoth is Mercury.
A: You will get another aspect.
Q: Shall we not use the same Versicle?
A: It does not matter.
Q: Shall I make statues of all the gods?
A: No.
Q: Shall I make tablets of all the gods?
A: Yes.
Q: Plain tablets, with the Versicles?
A: No.
Q: What tablets?
A: Tablets with the names only.
Q: In what order shall we invoke the gods?
A: The proper order is -- Venus, Mercury, Juppiter, Luna, Sol.
Q: Will he help in Geomancy?
A: Yes.
Q: And also in the conduct of affairs?
A: In some not in all.
Q: In business?
A: In some business.
Q: What?
A: Books, money, love.
Q: How can we invoke Mercury better?
A: Use a golden pentagram, placing the same in a prominent position; drink yellow wine and eat fish before the Ceremony. Let the clock be removed.
Q: Can you suggest any improvements in the Ceremonies, especially that of Juppiter?
A: Scarlet and silver should be worn, and the crown O.S.V. L.T. is to wear the scarlet robe, violets are to be strewn and trodden with bare feet.
Q: Give a distinct proof of your presence, appreciable by the intelligence of O.S.V.
A: LET THE WAND OR ONE BECOME NINE, THIS IS THE SIGN OF PRIAPUS, BUT AFTERWARDS NOTHING.
O.S.V.: I understand and agree the proof.
L.T.: Shall I let Him take full possession now?
A very dangerous practice; but Neuburg had meddled in spiritism before meeting Crowley. The wound in his aura was never healed, and the frequent outbursts during the Working were due to it.
O.S.V.: Yes.
L.T.: I am going..........Yes. What do you want to know now? There are other things I can tell, or else ask me questions.
O.S.V.: Tell.
You will notice that Crowley was not very respectful, supposing he was talking to the God Hermes Himself! But Crowley did not believe that Hermes was speaking through Neuburgh now; he merely let Neuburgh think that he believed so. He believed, nevertheless, that Neuburg might be inspired by Hermes. Our late Instructor, Mr. Karl J. Germer, once gave us precious advice: on the matter of inspired messages, etc., do not worry at the time if the messenger is truly inspired or not. This may spoil the experiment. Just take down what is said or done, and analyse it afterwards with a cool mind. Then you can decide if it was genuine or no.
L.T.: You will receive good news in respect of money on the eleventh of January in the forenoon. Fra. L.T. will be concerned with it: it will be quite unexpected. Money will be given by someone to whom L.T. introduced O.S.V. A change in O.S.V.'s affairs in February.
O.S.V.: (I am going to ask a very important question: concentrate hard.) N.C.G.M.H.D. (This question enquies as to when the speaker shall attain the grade of Magus.)
Notice the testing technique, which Crowley used often. Instead of asking the question out loud, you use the initials of the words in the question; or you may even choose arbitrary letters, to further test the genuineness of the oracle.
L.T.: L.P. L is 50; and P. is 6.
O.S.V.: 56 what?
L.T.: I don't know....Wait....Hours? I am not quite sure, but it is connected with time.
Now, this may have been simple telepathy, but at least was evidence of a rapport between Crowley and Neuburg, who could not have known Crowley's question was connected with time simply from the form in which the question was framed. Crowley added to this Record, much later, the following note.
(P.S. Time from Dec. 3 1909 e.v. to Oct. 12 1915 e.v. is 6 years less 50 days!!!)
L.T.: The Ceremonies should be done every other night.
The Fratre then changed functions.
O.S.V.: The god has appeared to me in his character as a messenger, but as a robust adult, rather than a slim youth. He has the winged helmet and sandals, and bears a Caduceus of gold. (Frater L.T. confirms this description in every respect.)
That is to say, they were both seeing the same Image.
O.S.V.: Hear the words which I bear through the ambient air. The Father of All hath girt Himself with a many-coloured robe; the Father of All hath spilt his seed on galaxy and globe. The formation of Nebulae is like the bursting of the seed pods of flowers. (These are not his words; but it is his meaning. I can't get his words at all.) What we call light he calls wind. Our highest spiritual experiences are what he calls light. That is why one gets the phenomenon of the Opalescent Universe, so to call it, in the Sacrament of the Ninth Degree. It is most important.... Never mind about that. (O.S.V. has now forgotten what it was.)
A common occurence when you are trying to communicate on a level of mentation higher than normal, in Buddhi-Manas, or Buddhi itself, or even in Chiah.
All this is the key to the meaning of the Latin invocation in the Vision of the Universal Mercury which I have never understood. (Memo; obtain a copy and confirm this) We shall shortly be given someone who will be of great help to us in our working. (P.S. This occurred.)
L.T. now wished to ask questions.
L.T.: When will the reconciliation of which I am thinking take place?
O.S.V.: There is no real enmity, it is a mere tiff or misunderstanding.
L.T.: When will the pressure of which I am thinking be relieved?
O.S.V.: The answer to both these questions is Death, but I don't know in what sense.
L.T.: Will the most important prediction of December be fulfilled?
O.S.V.: Better than you think.
L.T.: When?
O.S.V.: It is imminent.
L.T.: Conventionally?
O.S.V.: Like the Sword of Damocles, it impends always, but may never fall. The answer, however, that I get, is three months.
L.T.: Satisfactory?
O.S.V.: I haven't got that.... I want to lie here, and see Mercury. It seems that Hermes is my particular deity at present. The golden sparks of which the Universe is composed, are shot with silver lightnings. In his next aspect he should reveal to us a great deal of the inner meaning of this particular Rite.
The following was written then and at several times during the next day, as Crowley's contact with the God waxed or waned.
In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, who is Mercury; and is therefore to be identified with Christ. Both are messengers; their birth-mysteries are similar; the pranks of their childhood are similar. In the Vision of the Universal Mercury, Hermes is seen descending upon the sea, which refers to Mary. The Crucifixion represents the Caduceus; the two thieves, the two serpents; the cliff in the Vision of the Universal Mercury is Golgotha; Maria is simply Maia with the solar R in her womb.
The controversy about Christ between the Synoptics and John was really a contention between the priests of Bacchus, Sol, and Osiris, also, perhaps, of Adonis and Attys, on the one hand, and those of Hermes on the other, at that period when initiates all over the world found it necessary, owing to the growth of the Roman Empire and the opening up of means of communication, to replace conflicting Polytheisms by a synthetic Faith. (This is absolutely new to me, this conception of Christ and Mercury.)
It is absolutely new to me, the conception of the rise of Christism, and I do not buy it from any god, or even God. the opening up of means of communication brought many different religious groups together; but it also diminished the political power of the Romans, due to the sophistication and intensity of the "barbarian" faiths. Hence the alliance between the Emperors and the Roman-Alexandrine Church, with consequent persecution and massacre of other churches and rites. That Christ is Hermes is a moot point; even such a deficient and petty mind as Jean Overton Fuller's could remark that the identity had already been implied by shrewd Blavatasky in Isis Unveiled. (Of course, the egregious Ms. Fuller daintily skipped over the fact that Blavatsky points out the mystical and occult aspects of the Number 666 as well, since this would be making propaganda of the man she so obviously had been taught to hate by her Toshosophist slave-masters.)
Some difficulty about the.... (this sentence is now quite unintelligible)
To continue the identification, compare Christ's descent into hell with the function of Hermes as guide of the Dead. Also Hermes leading up Eurydice, and Christ raising up Jairus' daughter. Christ is said to have risen on the third day, because it takes three days for the Planet Mercury to become visible after separating from the orb of the Sun. (It may be noted here that Mercury and Venus are the planets between us and the Sun, as if the Mother and the Son were mediators between us and the Father.)
Note Christ as the Healer, and also his own expression: "The Son of Man cometh as a thief in the night."; and also this scripture: (Matthew xxiv, 24-7) "For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be."
Note also Christ's relations with the money-changers, his frequent parables, and the fact that his first disciple was a publican.
Those remarks should in no sense be taken to imply a personal belief of Crowley's in the historical reality of the Christist "Jesus". The whole story is a tapestry of symbols (not very well interwoven, one might add); and he is working with them.
Note also Mercury as the deliverer of Prometheus.
With whom Crowley identified himself in his Office as the Beast 666.
One half of the fish symbol is also common to Christ and Mercury; fish are sacred to Mercury, (owing presumably to their quality of movement and cold-bloodedness.) Many of Christ's disciples were fishermen and he was always doing miracles in connection with fish.
Note also Christ as the mediator: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me", and Mercury as Chokmah "through whom alone we can approach Kether."
The Caduceus contains a complete symbol of the Gnosis; the winged sun or phallus represents the joy of life on all planes from the lowest to the highest. The serpents, besides being active and passive, Horus and Osiris, and all their other well known attributions, are those qualities of Eagle and Lion respectively, of which we know but do not speak. It is the symbol which unites the Microcosm and the Macrocosm, the symbol of the Magical operation which accomplishes this. The Caduceus is life itself, and of universal application. It is the universal solvent. It is quite easy to turn quicksilver into gold on the physical plane, and this will soon be done.
It has already been done by atomic bombardment; but the process is too expensive to threaten Swiss Banks as yet.
New life will flow through the world in consequence. The god now lays his Caduceus upon my lips for silence; bidding me only remember that on the following night he is to come in another form.
The Temple was then closed.
Note: Promises to pay -- have quite replaced Gold.
He means promissory notes. Since the Paris Working, many changes have occurred in economics, and will continue to occur.
Written out from 12:45 -- 2.30 p.m. 2.1.14.
This all was written, with the exception of the "Note", between 12.45 and 2.30 P.M. on January 2 1914 e.v..
The Third Working
Friday, Jan. 2, 1914 e.v.
The Temple was opened at about midnight (the clock had been purposely removed); at 12.57 A.M. die Saturni, the Quia Patris was ended. During the Versicle Fra. O.S.V. approached the state of ecstatic possession, seeing the Triple Cross of the Grand Hierophants, and then Hermes Himself, comprehending also that the t.. t.... b.... were the twin serpents that writhe upon his wand. But, mastering the tendency, the Versicle was quietly concluded.
A great deal of information and counsel was thus obtained, the full account of which is in the esoteric record. The Temple was closed at 2.15 A.M.
Here follows the esoteric record of this Working.
In the morning the suggestion of O.S.V. that L.T. should arise, move and appear to transcribe the record led to two fine fights, a sign of the excess of magical force developed. During the previous day the Art-Bachelor W.D. came with what may prove to be good news of two matters, both of a Juppiterian nature. Also came a letter promising a valuable introduction. The Esoteric Record [of the Third Working]
Die Saturni: 12.58 a.m. Hermes as Force
L.T.: He is essentially phallic, but he has a book in his hand, the book II which has one hundred and six pages. On the last page, as a colophon, is a four-pointed star, very luminous, and this is to be identified with the Eve of Shiva, and the book pertains to the grade of 7 °= 4▫. The sub-title of the book is BIA, which is said to mean 'force'.
Every drop of semen which Hermes sheds is a world. The technical term for this semen is KPATOS. Those worlds are held in chains, but invisibly. People upon the worlds are like maggots upon an apple -- all forms of life bred by the worlds are in the nature of parasites. Pure worlds are flaming globes, each a conscious being. Number of worlds ejected, 7,482,135 = (symbol for Venus)
The name of this Phallus is Thoth, Hermes or Ma. Ma is the god who seduced the Phallus away from the Yoni; hence the physical Universe. All worlds are excreta; they represent wasted semen. Therefore all is blasphemy. This explains why man made god in his own image.
You will notice that this theory is totally un-Thelemic; the idea of degradation involved in Manifested Existence strongly resembles the dogma of Original Sin. Since this dogma was basically homosexual from its inception, it is not wonder that it should be said that the physical Universe is due to the Phallus having turned sodomite.
This is one interpretation, from one plane. From another, it should be observed that the syllable Ma can be interpreted both qabalistically and etymologically to yield a very different meaning.
The feminine side of Ma is Pan, which explains why Pan is a devil. The only way to be really born is by annihilation -- to be born into Chaos, where Pan is the Saviour.
From the point of view of this other interpretation, all the above is being spoken from the perspective of pure, unmanifested Force. Cf. LXV ii 3-6 and the Commentaries thereon.
I may say no more because the process is secret.
With regard to Genesis; when Adam died, Heva became masculine, in order to escape the temptations of the serpent; but she failed. Her failure cut the serpent in two; hence the Caduceus: because if there were only one serpent, Hermes could not be the messenger of the gods. It is the quality of this serpent business that gives Him power to travel. This again is blasphemy; but lawful, because the law of the Jews is founded upon it.
Irony and misdirection interwoven with information; truly characteristic of Hermes.
It is the fixed Mercury, of which the physical form of the god is made. This fixed Mercury is the result of the mind.
Semen itself is Mercury, the river of life flowing throughout the generations. That is fluid Mercury. What is (from the point of view of life) waste, is knowledge. Hence the opposition between knowledge and life. One is homo- and the other hetero-sexuality. Those are reconciled in Mercury, who is wisdom.
O.S.V.: I am making a silent prayer to the god, and thanksgiving. You can get magic force from either women or men; but to use the former is more dangerous to the career of the magician, and there is the danger of impregnation, which, however, can be guarded against in the obvious way.
It is not meant that the danger in using women is merely the danger of impregnation. Cf. LIBER ALEPH Chs. 82, 91-92, 100, 169-175.
It should be remarked, however, that this view is limited by a defect of language. The Man Formula may obtain in a particular personality, or the Woman Formula, regardless of one's physical sex. For example, the Vampire may manifest as a male to a homosexual; as indeed it has happened to at least one pupil of mine, who accordingly spent his time of servitude. The serious reader is referred to our comments on the BAGH I MUATTAR, elsewhere in this book.
In order to get this god more perfectly, a cock should be slain in his honour, and the blood drunk, as a sacrament. The throat of the cock should be cut over the great image that is upon the altar; the image should be placed in a vessel so as to catch the blood.
He should be invoked on 8 consecutive nights, beginning with Wednesday. He says we should feed in greater abundance: he will protect us. There is a gate to knock down between us and mastery of the Universe; and Frater L.T. has a fault, which is introspection. The point is that he is a man of thought, rather than of action. O.S.V. has also faults; his chief fault is contradiction. Whenever he gets into a state of hopelessness he may renew his strength by this Rite; and this will be good for always.
(P.S. It is remarkable that this actually occurred in May 1915 and July 1916 E.V. O.S.V. had forgotten the divine injunction. But the sudden change from "dryness" to "herbility" was extremely well marked. O.M.)
The nature of this god is to go blindly ahead. The semen that he sheds is Kether, and not his own. He is only responsible for ejecting it, and he cares nothing what may come to it. He despises intensely all these correspondences, identifications, and the like. He despises intelligence; for he is the supreme wisdom; so fully in accord with destiny, that interpretation is beneath him. If we need pure magical force, he is to be invoked. He says that tomorrow night we are to ask questions by Geomancy, without doing any rite. We are to invoke Juppiter on Monday. Had it not been that we first invoked him, we could not invoke Juppiter successfully. We shall probably have to invoke Juppiter for 4 nights running, reaching a climax on Thursday. We shall get not so much information as aid from Juppiter. It is very important to have Banquets.
L.T.: Will he help to this end?
It is not clear in the typescript at which point L.T. stopped being the oracle and Crowley took over.
O.S.V.: he doesn't know and doesn't care. He says "Don't be such an ass as to think how you are going to do a thing: just do it".
This advice may sound very reasonable from the heights of Olymbus, but it ain't so good for us poor mortals. But the truth of the matter is another. In all these experiments, Crowley and Neuburg were dealing with egregorae, that is to say, astral automata. The only difference between such constructs and the astral images of 'Jesus', 'Mary', etc. is that the Gods worshipped in the images really exist; they are Beings, or Stars, of high development, who normally function on much higher planes. The egregorae had fallen in disuse since the last days of Paganism, as the Emperor Julian discovered to his dismay; it was Crowley's special task in these Workings to renew the links between the egregorae and the divine Forces they represented. This, incidentally, he was quite successful in doing. The God in question is a Being who has thoroughly mastered phenomenal existence, at least on the plane from which Crowley and Neuburg were speaking; and was naturally impatient with the clumsiness of the two worshippers, who were far from as well-trained as Himself. What He was actually saying was what the Alchemists themselves said: if you have gold already, you can make more gold; if you don't have gold already, better go get some in the usual manner; the transmutation is beyond you as yet. This not a very compassionate attitude, but from the God's point of view there was no motive whatsoever to be compassionate towards Crowley and Neuburg. From Hermes' point of view, the two were Gods like him, pretending to be creatures of a much lower rate of vibration. Why compassion? As anybody knows from the legends, Hermes was never a great one for feeling sorry for people anyway, and why should He?
Note by David Bersson: When Hermes seems to so scornfully proclaim: "Don't be such an ass as to think how you are going to do a thing: just do it"., He is showing many interesting synchronizations that occur with higher manifestations on the path of initiations. Note carefully, he jeers the words “as to think” showing & knowing that “reason is a lie”. Also, the initiate knows magically what to do. This is difficult on the lower planes where Nu has not become your refuge and therefore Hadit as the light does not make the Path clear where the strength, force, vigour, of your arms hasn't manifested by those magical links of ceremony, meditation, experience and duty.
The man in the parable who counted the cost had the slave-spirit.
This absolutely does not mean that one should not husband one's resources to the best of one's abilities! The planes must not be mixed. You may not count the cost of Initiation, but you certainly ought to count the cost of the material steps that lead to it. Cf. Liber 333, Ch. 55.
He also says that in the rites of Luna and Venus, O.S.V. should have a woman; in that of Luna a menstruating woman.
A thought abhorred by the "holy" scriptures of the Hebrews, the Christists and the Moslems alike. Yet, menstrual blood is the only type of sacrificial blood that is totally free of karma. Indeed, it is even sterile in itself, like distilled water, provided the woman be in good health. It is also, as Paracelsus pointed out, a most potent magickal menstruum - if you will pardon the pun, or even if you will not.
He refuses to tell me when I am to have this woman; He says it is a question of common sense. He says do it; don't ask me about it.
I am now lost in contemplation of him, in his great aspect of vehicle of the energy of the highest. He is that which fertilizes the luminiferous ether, the strain in it that produces what is called matter.
He is the creative energy of the artist, in particular, and one should invoke him unless one wants the 'drawing-room songs of Apollo'.
It should not be thought that the God actually meant that no artist would have creative energy without Him.
What He meant is that His energy manifests on that plane of vibration, and will join with the energy of the creative artist,
just as a very strong man, seeing a weaker one trying to push a heavy car, may go and lend a shoulder to good effort. The difference being, the Force of the God is always radiating on that plane. It is not wise to try to tap it; this is lust of result, and may lead
to failure, or worse, offend Him. It is best to forget oneself in the joy of creativity, "The Perfect and the Perfect..." You know the rest.
This, incidentally, is true for all those Gods. They all manifest as Forces of some type or another, and will resonate with you
on some plane or another, sometimes when you least expect. Their "influence" or "help" should never under any circumstances be confused with that of your Holy Guardian Angel. Theirs is universal; the Angel's, at least so far as you are concerned, is individual.
I see it all now; the virile force of Mars is far beneath him. All of the other gods are merely aspects of Jupiter formulated by Hermes. He is the first of the Aeons.
In the Gnostic sense.
He wants us not to invoke the other forms of Mercury. He says that we have more knowledge than we know what to do with. Julius Caesar did not know the Qabalah, but he did better than the pair of you in the matter of husbands and wives. He, moreover, subdued Gaul and Germany, and would not have been killed if he had not gone to a talking shop.
Meaning, of course, the Roman Senate. Apparently, such places were then even as they are today - deserts of intelligence filled with oceans of logorrhea. As for Julius' ways with husbands and wives, when his legions marched back to Rome they usually sang a ditty to the effect that their general was the mistress of every husband in the city, and the lover of every wife.
I am praying Him to fill us with magick force for this invocation of Jupiter.
He says it depends principally upon the banquets. This is the great preparation to make. And he says "What fools to bother about the room, you don't think I am in the room, do you?" He wants us to overcome shame generally, and says "There is no shame about me, is there?"
He suggests an obvious method which I blush to repeat.
(An holy act before the world. This was done, at the house of the Lay-Sister J.C. The Art-Bachelor W.D. was the victim)
Jane Cheron's house. Walter Duranty was buggered in public, we do not know yet if by Crowley or by Neuburg. Plato's Retreat was a long way off.
The sense of humour of this god is very strong. He is not sentimental about his principal function; he regards the Universe as an excellent practical joke; yet he recognizes that Juppiter is serious, and the universe is serious, although he laughs at them for being serious. His sole business is to transmit the force from Juppiter, and he is concerned with nothing else. The message is life, but in Jupiter the life is latent; he says that we can do everything if we will only act as he does.
Yes, but you must first train your vehicles to be as responsive to your True Will as His are to His. Those who play with gods may be stepped on, should they lose their sense of place; or overreach themselves - which is hubris, remember"?
He again exhibits his contempt for the art of conversation, by making a suggestion, with which, owing to the lateness of the hour, we comply only in symbolic form.
Cf. LIBER 333, Chs. 79 and 69, and the Commentaries thereon. We now return to the exoteric record.
In the morning, the suggestion of O.S.V. that L.T. should arise, move and appear to transcribe the record led to two fine fights, a sign of the excess of magickal force developed.
Crowley was too charitable. Much more likely, a sign of Neuburg's defective aura, ruined by his past spiritistic practices.
During the previous day the Art-Bachelor Walter Duranty came with what may prove to be good news of two matters, both of a Jupiterian nature. Also came a letter promising a valuable introduction.
The Fourth Working
[Monday, Jan. 5, 1914 e.v.]
It now appears to O.S.V. that the suggestion made by Hermes of a further sacrifice was meant to be obeyed.
He refers to the suggestion that they stopper each other's mouth in the most aptly magickal way, under the circumstances. Cf. LIBER 333, Ch. 69.
The attempt to replace the real thing by its symbol led to
(a) O.S.V. having a bad cold which confined him to his bed
(b) the continued ill-temper of L.T.
(c) the breaking up of the rendezvous proposed in the letter
(d) the complete cessation of good news. However, this afternoon die Lunae did the Frater L.T. sacrifice to the glory of Hermes:
That is, he buggered Walter Duranty in Jane Cheron's drawing room, in front of several people. It should be remarked that for the bashful Neuburg to be capable of such a thing indicated a high degree of influence from the God.
and may He restore us to favour and help in the Work of Jupiter. Whom therefore let us invoke by the secret Rite and this holy Versicle:
Haud secus ac puerum spumanti semini vates
Lustrat, dum gaudens accipit alter aquas;
Sparge, precor, servis hominum rex atque deorum
Juppiter omnipotens, aurea dona tuis.
In Mr. Starr's translation:
And just as when the priest purifies the boy
With foaming seed, while the other rejoicing accepts the water
Sprinkle, I pray, Jupiter, king of gods and men, all powerful,
Golden gifts upon your servants.
9:00
This then was done duly, though with maimed Rites, owing to O.S.V.'s malady.
In her so-called "biography" of Neuburg, elsewhere reviewed in this number, the egregious Jean Overton Fuller commented that she could not believe that Hermes would afflict Crowley with a cold. This implies that Crowley stated that Hermes had done so, when he mentioned the negative results of not performing the Ritual Silencing as literally as the God had intended.
This was not the situation at all. The two men were attuned with a certain Force which they had invoked; the Force
suggested a manner in which the attuning could be maintained, and perhaps strengthened. When they did not do as they were told, they simply became partially out of phase with the Force. the natural inertia of the world of matter did the rest. One cannot create a Magickal stress without going somewhere with it. A simile would be a train going at speed. Either it keeps to the rails, or you will have a wreck; and the wreck will be stronger in relation to the momentum attained by the locomotive. It is as simple as this. No punishment is involved, merely Karma, that is to say, cause and effect. The morality being that in Magick, either you go all the way or you should not go at all; if you baulk at the wrong time, the repercussions on your physical or psychic health can be quite serious.
This warning, of course, affects only the half-serious practitioner; dilettanti need not fear the "revenge" of the Gods!
Yet did he take the function of priest. The Brethren remained conversing from 10 p.m. (when the Temple was closed) until about 1 a.m. die Martis (Tuesday) when L.T. beholding Jupiter saw this verse:
Via est hodie.
Nomina sanctissimorum in felicitate habent viam.
Deus dedit signum in via.
The way is today.
The names of the most holy in felicity have the way.
God gave a sign in the way.
There follows the esoteric account of this Working.
The Fifth Working
[Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1914 e.v.]
The Temple was opened at about 9.30, the rite performed ut ordinatur, and the closing accomplished by 10.30.
Deus adest. Fatur: "Sparge verba; opus fiat. Hodie est verbum in nomine Dei: cras est opus." Et postea "O beati qui haec verba noscunt! Ergo sum Deus hodie; aurea dona cras vobis feram." "Accipe Dei verba, atque vobis bene erit. Benignus sum in hominum mundo semper." Deinde: "Phallum ejaculatum tibi feram in nomine patri(s)." Verbum Tibi refert ad fratrem O.S.V. (Patris refert ad Fra. O.S.V.) In nomine.
God is present. He says: Sprinkle words; let the work be done. Today is the word in the name of God; tomorrow is the work. And afterwards, 'O blessed those who know these words. I am God today; tomorrow I will bring you the golden gifts.' Receive the words of God and it will be well with you. I am benevolent always in the world of men.' Then; I will bear to you an ejaculating phallus in the name of the Father. The word refers to Brother O.S.V., similarly to the father. In the Name.
p.s. This promise was very amply fulfilled.
The Sixth Working
[Wednesday, Jan. 7, 1914 e.v.]
The Temple opened about 9, the Rite performed orally by O.S.V. and the closing accomplished at 9.45. O.S.V. thinks that L.T. has failed in due banqueting.
The Seventh Working
[Thursday, Jan. 8, 1914 e.v.]
Hitherto, so far as we are aware, nothing great of the result of the operation of Juppiter is obtained. Yet tonight I feel more confidence than usual: I am in a highly nervous or electric state. My cold was better, and I went for a fairly long walk and dined out. Am tired, excited, feverish: I think a slight relapse. Juppiter bring's all to a good end.
The Temple opened about 10; the Rite being done ut ordinatur we behold a universe of the most brilliant purple with golden stars, and Jupiter seated on his throne surrounded by the 4 Beasts upon thick clouds borne upon a phalanx of eagles. In the Book LXV, Chap. V, we find the passage 9 or 10 -- the passage 8-13.
No book has been mentioned before. We do not know if there was a book in the Vision, or if they took an Oracle about it and got those particular verses. But since they seemed in doubt about which verses, perhaps this was part of the Vision.
Subsequently there appeared a great Peacock, meaning (according to Fra. L.T.) change - Journeys - motion - excitement - Improvement - ? Some word unknown. להיכמ עפי לו
The Peacock is now crowned, and regards himself in a mirror. This word is summarized in "Breaking" i.e. of all old conditions. Fra. L.T. connects this with the word of Equinox of Libra An. IX. The Temple was closed about 11:20.
Received several visitors; the Art-Bachelor W.D., the fair damosel J.C. and the good knight my brother-in-arms Sir Lionel. Sculptured a sacred Phallus till nigh 2:00. 4:15 a.m. die Venerii a wonderful and repeated dream. I wake up, at last able to get down the truth I have long seen. Aelfrida Tillyard the beloved disciple and one "Clairbelle" (Lady Waloskie) figure in it. "Mental images leave no trace when destroyed". Conservation of matter and energy are not paralleled by thought. (I had kept on reducing symbols to the Lingam and the Yoni and thence destroying them, much to the expressed wonder and alarm of Ae.T.) Of course the L. and Y. are only convenient standards of reduction: the point is that illusions destroyed leave no trace or effect, but merely vanish. As this process becomes general in one's life, it really diminishes one's universe. The bourgeois is subconsciously aware that this must result, and is therefore right in his own way in refusing to destroy even one illusion, and in persecuting those who shatter them.
Perhaps; but we cannot help enjoying Ambrose Bierce's definition of iconoclast in THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY:
"Iconclast, n. A breaker of idols, the worshippers whereof are imperfectly gratified by the performance, and most strenuously protest that he unbuildeth but doth not re-edify, that he pulleth down but pileth not up. For the poor things would have other idols in place of those he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth. But the iconoclast saith: 'Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not; and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depress the head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it".
Also there is only one right path; to either side leads not merely off, but to the abyss. I remember in my dream mimicking the bourgeois a-tiptoe marking time, trembling and blind. This idea was also presented in many other ways, intensely vivid, which now I forget. Moreover as I wake myself thoroughly by writing this note, the lens of my intellectual comprehension of the great truth seems to dim, and I find myself fearing in the morning I should find the words obscure. "The destruction of mental images is the only possible annihilation" is my dream-idea. "(Destroyed) mental images leave no trace" is close to, if not quite, the wording. My contrast with matter and energy (set forth above) was a waking rational comment. I remember catching up an old felt hat, and explaining to Ae.T., Saraswati, the beloved disciple, that it was only to be destroyed by first perceiving it as a disguise for the Yoni -- I think the dream ran thus. But much I fail to recapture. Let me sleep again, and may the Holy One give again (if it be his will) to his beloved in sleep!
9:30 The post has brought 3 things of the nature of Juppiter: a letter from my lawyers, a pot of opium, and a love-poem of a religious type (Chicago May) Some readers may boggle at the attribution, but they are dull.
The Eighth Working
[Sunday, Jan. 11, 1914 e.v.]
Sunday Jan. 11. I saw a most remarkable fulfilment of the prophecy of Hermes. Also 2 other excellent matters have come to fruition. Further, one of the Brethren of O.S.V. and L.T. has inherited money, which is a great indirect benefit to that cause we have at heart. We then invoked Hermes, and obtained a good result.
On Monday Fra. L.T. was indisposed.
On Tues. the Brethren performed 'The Mass of the Phoenix' in the house of a friend, P.D.F. An instruction was moreover given to the Fra. O.S.V., to which he will duly pay heed.
On Wednesday Fra. L.T. being again indisposed, O.S.V. decided to go on Thursday to the forest with him to seek health. This they did, and by the favour of the gods obtained it. Now therefore on Monday Jan. 19 according to the counsel and reproof of Hermes did they again address themselves to the invocation of Juppiter; and this is Die Lunae. The Esoteric Record [of the Eighth Working]
Die Lunae. Monday 12.15 a.m. The God Hermes having been invoked O.S.V. beheld him, in his character of the messenger, young, bearing the Caduceus. He stands upon the Altar of the East, poised upon his right toe. He is made of fixed light, the colour thereof being pale gold.
Lampada Tradam lifted up his voice and said' "What saith He?"
O.S.V.: I am the messenger of the gods, and I send you wreaths. Famed among men shall become this thy scripture.
L.T.: Will it be successful in its object?
O.S.V.: Yea: verily and amen. The whole method is right, but we shall improve in details. L.T.'s mental attitude should be more poetic. The Mass of the Phoenix on Tuesday depends entirely on the feeling of mental superiority thus induced.
L.T.: Is there any message for O.S.V. of a personal character?
O.S.V.: He will have news, perhaps even tomorrow morning; rather startling in character; to be included under the general heading of good.
L.T.: Will L.T. get news?
O.S.V.: News is coming to him.
L.T.: Good news?
O.S.V.: Soft news; like the body of a dove. From England.
Notice the poetic aspect of Hermes, manifesting. Elegance and subtlety of language.
L.T.: Are the gods pleased with the Ceremonies?
O.S.V.: Yea; they rejoice exceedingly.
At this point, in another "biography", the equally egregious John Symonds stated that in his opinion the Gods could not of cared less. Naturally, being a liar and a thief, he was beloved of the Gods, or at least of Hermes; thus in a position to know.
All kidding aside, whether the Gods rejoiced or not (if we could comprehend what rejoicing is for a Being at that stage) is
immaterial. The rituals did vitalize Archtypical Forms - egregorae - that had been weakened by lack of worshippers for several
centuries; thus re-established a link between the material plane and certain Forces through those revived Eidolons, which might be,
very imperfectly, likened to accummulators. We have already remarked on the total difference between such Archtypes and egregorae
of the Christist type, whose only strength comes from their worshippers, and are therefore mere automatic vampires, their influences as dystrophic as the diseased personalities that nourish them.
This Rite is to be the mainstay of the work. Anything can be obtained by this method. Suitable persons will present themselves for initiation into it. Women are not to be admitted, except in those rites where feminine gods are invoked. They must not be admitted to the invocations of male gods.
Women can be present at any rite, and participate in any rite, if they be trained Initiates; otherwise, it is as specified.
L.T.: What is the immediate task?
O.S.V.: The four-fold invocation of Jupiter should have been performed four times; this week, however, it has been interfered with by The Mass of the Phoenix. You will therefore employ it in experiments, invoking Priapus, Bacchus, Mars, unless you find suitable women. You must be very careful with Mars, if you invoke Him.
Because of the natural exacerbation of sadistic impulses produced by the Force of this god. Many cases of ritual homosexual murder are part of the police records of many different countries. Cf. our notes to the BAGH I MUATTAR.
If it is still necessary to invoke Jupiter, begin on Monday, four times a week, for four weeks. But why should it be necessary? Abramelin squares may be used as Versicles. This (i.e. quasi instrumentaum gaudii) was the use of the child in the Abramelin operation. Respectability is the greatest of all blinds. The general key in reading ancient documents of a magical nature, is to suspect the worst. O.S.V. seems to get his fame alright, and this will leave him very peaceful.
A great part of the statements here are provoked by the influence of the egregora, not by the Divine Force. The egregora had, naturally, the tendencies created in it by the type of worship that it received when it was formed. Cf. LXV v 19.
Any amount of news coming for both of us; but O.S.V. has more than L.T. The news is like parcels of dove's wings, of a delicate purple grey or black goose quill; there is also news from the West of England; from Glasgow, or its neighbourhood; and from America.
L.T.: Are any officers wanted?
O.S.V.: No. No one is to be initiated until after the public orgy.
The word orgy comes from the Indo-European root werg; the words energy and work in English have the same root. The American Heritage Dictionary, which in our opinion is the best available dictionary of the English language in America at the present time, gives as first definition of the word "orgy" the following: "A secret rite in the cults of Demeter, Dionysus, or other Greek or Mediterranean deities, typically involving frenzied singing, dancing, drinking, and sexual activity." This is an excellent definition, if one remembers that the word has the same original root as the words work and energy.
In this context, we are to assume that the public intercourse between L.T. and Walter Duranty had not yet taken part. It is
unfortunate, from the point of view of the contemporary reader, that these two Records, the exoteric and the esoteric, were not better organized at the time they were done. On the other hand, it is very fortunate for us that they were done at all.
One word about Walter Duranty. He was a roving journalist with a courageous and clear mind, an excellent style, and a no-nonsense
style, and a no-nonsense approach to his profession. Anyone who can lay his or her hands on any of his surviving written work will not be wasting time. His analysis of Stalin's Russia, for instance, is extremely acute. Who reads it and Hedrick's The Russians and draws conclusions on the events transpiring between the writing of the two books will learn a lot about Communism, about Socialism, and even about Democracy. Real Democracy, that is - not the demagogues's tripe.
I am now seeing the purple and grey background as if the force were developing. Around those clouds flash forth violet rays in the indigo. In the centre of all is the golden Mercury. Now He comes forward, kissing me on the mouth, laying his Caduceus on my Phallus. And he lifted up his voice, saying: "Unto all kingdoms shall thou utter the word". Now He puts his tongue into my mouth. It is not like the tongue of a man, but of a serpent or an ant-eater.
Actually, we thought it like a bird's tongue, but elastic. It may also appear scaly, or simply rough as a feline's. It was certainly not forked as a serpent's tongue when we saw it. We have never seen an anteater's tongue.
He runs it all over my brain, making the skull luminous, transparent, phosphorescent.
When we saw it, the pyramid within which we lay was crumbling under the attack of outside forces; the tongue mended the walls.
Moreover He spake winged words:
"I will give thee the wisdom the serpent, but thou must cleanse thy brain. Purge thyself in the sun. It is the love of others that will purify thee most. This needest thou: the devotion absolute of men four, and women four. And all these four men will be deformed, and these four women will come from the four quarters of the earth -- the four continents whose names begin with A"
To this A.C. appended the following table:
Windram. Infantile Palsy. Australia. L.W.
Newbury. Spinal Curvature, Asia. ? Ratan Devi.
varicocele, bent arm. Africa. ? Rose.
Cowie. Deaf and Dumb. America. ? J.F. or vircikemm.
Kennedy? Foot Deformity.
To the above, A.C. subsequently added: "Norman Mudd: One eye." He was evidently not sure about Kennedy as absolutely
devoted. It may be remarked that Cowie was not absolutely devoted either, since when A.C. sold Boleskine and donated the proceeds to the O.T.O. he, Cowie, stole them, under the pretext, very natural to him, that Crowley was a germanophile. Crowley was not, in the the sense prevailing during the two World Wars; but one could not expect a man of Cowie's limited intelligence to perceive this.
But Crowley should never have donated anything, whatsoever to anybody, and was under attack of the Dying-God qliphotic currents when he foolishly surrendered his lawful property to a bunch of "bandar-loghs" (as Kipling might have put it); and Cowie did his occult duty, if not his human duty, then. It took many years for the man A.C. to perceive his mistake, and he lived to regret it; fortunately, he also lived long after he would have preferred to have left this plane, in order to redress his blunder; and he redressed it.
I see the most wonderful range of mountains with orange clouds of sunrise flaming upon them. Yet the crest of the mountain curls over as it rolls onward, like the crest of a wave. With one foot on this crest stands Mercury again, around him soft flames of orange, and green, and purple. And these words spake he from golden mouth:
"Thou art mine. Thou comest always unto me. Always in every grade am I thy guide; and even at this hour do I burn up thy dust. Moreover, thou shalt behold a certain earnest of thy work, and that right early." This Mercury is poised upon a winged wheel that uttereth lightnings. He droppeth ostrich plumes for rank, and twists of flax to signify that the fate of certain men will be in my hands.
I now see a purple planet in space, radiating light from a luminous ring, and also from its poles.
With regard to Reincarnation, the heliocentric theory is right. As we conquer the conditions of a planet, we incarnate on the next planet inward until we return to the Father of All, when our experiences link together, become intelligible, and star speaks to star.
However, once you reach the Centre of All in this system, there is no certain test; for you can incarnate where you please. (You could also incarnate where you pleased before; but then it would have been lingering over conquered laurels, so to speak; now, it is the freedom of the Freeman or Freewoman of Our System). You can also go elsewhere, if you Will.
Terra is the last planet where bodies are made of earth; in Venus they are fluid; on Mercury aerial; while in the Sun they are fashioned of pure fire. It is most important to develop the fluid body, to pack away all your powers in it. He insists on the importance of a pure body, instancing Frater T'agathon as an example of a failure to do this.
Cf. BOOK FOUR PART III, Ch. XX, Section I of the original edition; also Ch. XXI, from the first paragraph of p. 203 to the end.
I now see the eight-fold star of Mercury suddenly blazing out, it is composed of four fleur-de-lys with rays like antlers, bulrushes in shape between them. The central core has the cypher of the Grand Master, but not the one you know. Upon the cross are the Dove, the Hawk, the Serpent, and the Lion. Also one other symbol, yet more secret.
Now I behold fiery swords of light. All this is upon a cosmic scale. All the distances are astronomical. When I say "Sword" I have a definite consciousness of a weapon many millions of miles in length. The field of my vision is as much enlarged as if I had been practising Batrachophrhenobookosmomachia for ten years.
Cf. LIBER DCCCVI.
Now follow numerous questions of O.S.V. to L.T.; indicated only by initials. The same question was asked repeatedly in different forms, but always answered in the same sense until the last question.
This testing has been omitted in the TS. in our possession.
[L.T.]: I have never seen such a lot of beautiful skyscapes. There are pink clouds like flights of birds, actually in flight, now they are like flying serpents, their colours are mingled with purple and green. Anhalonium visions must be very similar to this.
It is all over now.
He didn't go on, because he had come to tell us things, for a particular purpose.
The Temple was then closed; Fra. Lampada Tradam was then clairvoyant, as he thinks, or obsessed, as O.S.V. thinks, and makes the following statement, which O.S.V. considers demonic, on the grounds that many of the statements are contrary to public morality.
This, of course, is very clumsy irony; "public morality", specially in Christist societies, being more obscene now than it was at the time of pagan worship. Nevertheless, the majority of the preposterous statements produced by L.T. - we will indicate which are preposterous and which are not - are a curious mixture of early Judaism with other religious practices prevailing among Palestine peoples in so-called "biblical" times.
L.T. begins by saying that this Rite is a huge force that we unloose. correct By the time that we have 20 people working at it, it will become very dangerous. (from the point of view of the "crapulous creeds", correct). International complications are to be feared. (by Old Aeon die-hards, correct - and good. Note by A.C.: The world-war broke out just 6 months later. This was the original form of worship. It is important not to initiate any persons under the age of 30, unless for some special reason.
(because people younger than that age will seldom have the necessary psychic balance to withstand the shock of the impinging energies).
The obvious dangers of the Rite appall L.T.
(meaning, they appeal to his Jewish sadomasochism to a point that frightens his consious mind.)
He says that those who adopt this Rite will either succeed completely or fail utterly.
(false of anybody but himself, at least at the time he spoke).
There is no middle path for it is impossible to escape the ring of divine Karma created.
(un-divine Hebrew bullshit and guilt-complex).
In any series of Rites the roles of the celebrants should not be interchangeable. O.S.V. is to be priest only in invocations of feminine gods. The occult reason for this is that only the black gods are hermaphrodite. (!!)
(ridiculous Jewish bak-bak, combined with Neuburg's double-standarded homosexuality. He did not feel guilty screwing, but felt "inferior" when he was getting screwed; hence this "divine recommendation". Crowley must not have been fooled, for he added an exlamation mark at this point).
The exception to this rule is in cases of divine possession.
(meaning that Neuburg did not mind being screwed by God - were he not a Jew. Parodying a very immoral man, Quantum nobis prodest haec fabula Dei!)
The supreme Rite would be to bring about a climax in the death of the victim.
(initiatic death, certainly; if physical death, it would profit but the egregora's vitality" - and the egregora is a machine to be used, not to use us!)
By this Rite one would attain the summit of Magical Art.
(this is not only profoundly sad, it is characteristic of all the madness and excess of religious persecution throughout the ages. Indeed, it is Christism at its worst - the sacrifice of someone else in our stead. Ritual murders continue to occur. Recently, more than twenty children have been sacrificed in just one American city, Atlanta, and the police are helpless to find the culprit. The children were black; very likely so is the culprit, and of an occupation, and perhaps sex, above suspicion on the part of the average police mind)
Even better would be to slay a girl, preferably a willing victim. After violating her, she should be cut into 9 pieces.
(it should be remarked that a human victim MUST be willing, or sacrifice is impossible; anything else is murder. But leaving aside this aspect, the emphasis on a female dates the egregora: it was formed in the patiarchal Aeon of Osiris, for in the preceding Aeon, that of Isis, the precise opposite recommendation would have been made: a man should be slain, preferably a young, strong, handsome, virile one, either this, or a male chieftain at the height of his mature powers).
Note by David Bersson: It is well that Mr. Motta covers these issues of the demands of the egregora -
whereas such warning might stop the foolish novice from crossing that line where you listen – not to those Higher Spirits who would guide you toward Greater Initiations but the insane voices of awakened mechanical currents of the old Aeon which magical work has revived. Never forget Mr. Motta's sublime warning that "the egregora is a machine to be used, not to use us!"
I have been extremely severe with my students who would cross the line in this manner. I know that the violent insanity of the egregora or the tests that the Third Chapter would impose upon the initiate on the Path are laced with thorns to purge the fools. I have contemplated that this dire lesson that you have just read might have something to do with A.C. not including “polytheism” as one of the theories of the universe as stated in Magick in Theory & Practice, Ch. 0 where Dualism, Monism and Nihilism are included neglecting centuries of the metaphysics of polytheism. Yet, its absence might very well have something to do with this experience with Paris Working where Neuburg's reaction to the old Aeon Current has created an insanity that the Master Therion might be trying to avoid. This I have pondered on before with this as the only possible answer to this enigma that would make any sense. I have had students obsessed rather than inspired and I find myself sufficiently paranoid enough to bring severe discipline into the picture when such tendencies for insane violence would even remotely manifest in students. You must realize, however, that the method of the magical link must be known and perfected if you are to engage a magical gesture of alignment from some ancient force – and this I have done privately with magical experiments. One example I could give which might be an excellent magical gesture along these lines would be to go to Egypt and find an ancient Temple of Horus which would
have been used by ancient Egyptians. Use an adapted version of A.C.'s Invocation to Horus to align that ancient energy with the ceremony and create a magical link to manifest the 93 Current. Other Gods have I adapted ceremonies to “cluster exalt” and yet actually doing the ceremony in the location of its origin should be a real magical gesture with regards to the magical link. No doubt, if Horus has been worshipped (for example) four centuries (or more) in ancient Egypt the egregora can be aligned and changed to manifest a much more useful magical link than these Gods that were revived in the Paris Working.
These should not be eaten, but divided as follows: -- head, arms, legs, and quadrisected trunk. The names of the gods appropriate are to be written on the skin, the arms are then to be flayed, and burnt in honour of Pan or Vesta, the legs (treated in the same manner) should be offered to Priapus, Hermes, or Juno. The right shoulder is sacred to Jupiter, the left buttock to Venus. The head should not be flayed, but burnt simply, and that in honour either of Juno or Minerva.
(all this is perfectly standard, and was done in the days when those egregorae became powerful at the expense of this kind of waste; it is indeed a case of man - or woman - making God in his or her own image!)
The Rite should not be employed on ordinary occasions, but rarely, and then for great purposes; it should not be disclosed to any man.
In the opinion of O.S.V. and L.T.
(here it is obvious that Crowley's moral force prevailed over Neuburg's atavic and qliphotic - these adjectives are more synonymous in such cases, anyway - obsession, since all these "precious secrets" came through Neuburg's mouth. What a foul cloaca the Jewish subconsious sometimes is!),
these instructions partake of the character of black, or at least grey, magic. The reader is requested to note that the Temple had been formally closed before they were obtained.
The following questions were then asked by O.S.V. and answered by L.T.
It will be noticed that the overwhelming majority of the answers is incorrect; Neuburg was obsessed, not inspired.
Q: What will be the result of Yardley's mission?
A: Successful on the whole, but not entirely.
Q: Shall I know soon?
A: Within 14 days; say 10 or 11.
(Hermes returns; and kisses L.T. on lips, navel and Phallus.)
Q: Will L. get K's dances on?
A: Yes.
Q: Big success?
A: Yes.
Q: How soon?
A: Within three months. L.T. will be released within two months from everything: he will get into a new stratum of Karma. He is going away eastwards. In June he marries; but returns to the Great Work in September. - (P.S. All quite wrong without a single exception. Its conditions are quite altered. L.T. having acquired a great fortune.
O.S.V. goes away on a long journey to the East, leaving L.T. in charge
(Here Crowley added, as well he might, an exclamation mark again).
This results in serious trouble with regards to Krishnamurti.
Let O.S.V. not allow 493 to enter into Scorpio.
O.S.V.: What is 493?
A numerical cypher always caught Crowley's attention at once, since serious entities often use them to prove their reliability as messengers. Note how he tries to extract a concrete answer from the babble.
L.T. Connected with water and with Cremers. It is she that stirs up strife.
Ironically, Neuburg, after he failed his Task, would spend the rest of his life helplessly entangled in a web of black magic in which Cremers was one of the foci; a web formed by Toshosophic puppets. The "Black Brethen", foiled in their attempt to set up Krishnamurti as "World Savior", hit where they could.
O.S.V.: What is 493?
A: It is connected with O.S.V.'s dealings with Cremers. O.S.V. has told her too much.
Q: What is 493?
A: A book, of a Mercurial nature, stolen by Cremers. Don't let that get into Scorpio.
(The questioner in a fit of despair abandons the unequal contest.)
The above note is A.C.'s, not ours. Neuburg must have sensed that Crowley had given up trying to take him seriously, for he insists:
Cremers will either write to L.T. or communicate indirectly with him. (P.S. All this is entirely wrong.)
Not entirely, but Crowley could not be expected to forsee it at that time. He wrote a further speculative note: (?Energized Enthusiasm which got into Scorpio) before giving up.
The enigma yields to hindsight, as usual. Crowley had destroyed all chances of Besant and Leadbeater, those two sorcerers, setting up their wretched puppet, Krishnamurti, as "World Teacher", "Lord Maitreya", or whatnot. In so doing, he earned the persisent hatred of the Besant and Leadbeater followers, instigated by their leaders. To the poisonous fury of the Christist churches and the Zionists was added the malice of the corrupted Theosophical Society. Not being able to entrap Crowley personally, they bit at his ankles for the rest of his life, and waylaid his pupils whenever they could. Cremers, among others, was their instrument - a foul woman, as can be perceived even through Jean Overton Fuller's (another Tosphosophical dupe) totally biased account. To keep Neuburg away from Crowley was a task that took several incarnated demons the rest of their lives. They may have thought it mattered. Their success was only possible due to Neuburg's moral weakness.
Hermes now gives a gold ring to L.T. for O.S.V. The bezel of this ring is a ruby, with a white fleur-de-lys on each side of it. The ring is gold. Opposite the ruby are the initials S.T.R. This ring is the crown of the Phallus, the Yoni of Thoth, the collar of the Ape of Thoth.
Concerning the Rites, O.S.V. is always to be first to scry. L.T. is to write down in the scrying. L.T. is always to be the priest. These Rites are never to be done for more than six successive nights, and four is a better number.
Later Crowley added the following note for this:
(Note: Evidently the Rite of Mercury is exceptional; for it asks 8 nights, Wednesday to Wednesday. O.M.)
The Rites should never begin earlier than nine o'clock at night, and should never last longer than three hours and a half.
These are the colours of certain gods:-
Priapus -- Yellow and purple.
Iacchus -- Scarlet and green.
Venus-- Blue, white and gold.
Minerva-- White and silver with a little dark blue.
Pan-- Crimson.
The floor should be white, but, on festivals and special occasions, black and white, or red and white squares.
Further instructions will be given from time to time.
Music may be employed in the Rite, but in a subordinate manner. It should be soft and stringed. Celebrants of the Rite should not be bare-headed, but should wear head-dresses of white, or such other colour as may be indicated.
After five weeks other directions will be given. Until then work as aforesaid.
I now see the figure drawn hereunder. in original, only). It is familiar to O.S.V. as the sign of a certain grade, and the name of it is S.T.R.
Hermes now touches L.T.'s lips with his Caduceus, and gives this last message to O.S.V. "Beyond nothing is Everything."
Cf. LIBER H vel 5,, the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast.
He then kisses L.T., and departs.
We return now to the exoteric record of the Paris Working, and will remain with it to the end of it, only then returning to the esoteric record; for this, from then on, was mostly a list of remembered past incarnations with little directly expressed connection with the ceremonies executed by the two experimenters.
The Ninth Working
[Monday, Jan. 19, 1914 e.v.]
Die Sol 11.45 P.M.--12.30 A.M.
A most admirable working, the best we have done for Jupiter. During O.S.V.'s invocation of Amoun, his vibration of the Name Divine was echoed in second by a voice audible to the ear. Now then fair omens dexter prosper ye the work. During the Quia Patris Fra. L.T. at the Altar of the East being genuflected, beheld the colossal form of Juppiter our Father, manubis plenis. Yea, with gold were his hands full; praise unto our Father and our God!
How very foolish indeed, this anxiety for Jupiterian bribes. It would have been easier for O.S.V. to turn out tripe in G.K. Chesterton's style, and L.T. to join the Rothschilds in usury, if what they wanted was gold - and then what? Cf. Liber 418, 14th and 6th Aethyrs.
In the morning Fra. O.S.V. awoke early, having (as hath only occurred to him once before) dreamed a story which he remembered. He therefore spent the day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in writing down this story which he called 'The Stratagem'. May it bring fame and fortune.
(P.S. July 31, 1914 e.v.: This story is the first thing he ever did to be accepted instantly (by the English Review, and to attract real applause from all quarters.)
The Esoteric Record [of the Ninth Working]
Die Sol. Jan. 19, 11.45
The Rites of ♃ were duly performed on this and the next two days. With regard to the ceremony of Wednesday, I have to add to the esoteric record that Fra. O.S.V. was at one time a consecrated prostitute in the Temple of the ☉ at Agrigentum. This Temple had a 'long square' (2 X 1) outer court. In the upper square was a square Temple -- with facade and pillars. O.S.V., whose name was at that time Asteris (or something similar), used to sit on the steps and receive sacrifices. I think the name was Astarte, but am afraid of having been rational. (Aseria is the exact name of the Great Mother Goddess in Tyre. I did not know this. I regard this as a story proof of the accuracy of the vision. O.M.)
Not by itself, certainly. But the historical accuracy of such visions is important only to parapsychologists. To the individual involved, they are as useful to the discovery of his or her True Will as are his or her dreams; which is to say, very useful.
The great sacrifice of Spring was to cut open a bull, and lay a virgin in the hot carcass, there to be violated by the High Priest. She was finally choked in the bull's blood (in orgasmo).
Now, this is an obvious contradiction in terms, and the kind of feminine reaction that nasty-minded or disturbed adolescent males dream of while masturbating: that a woman can be raped, and yet the rapist be so adroit in the use of his appendage, or the appendage itself so big and thick and hot and hard, you know, that she will experience an orgasm. Add to that the fact that she experiences the orgasm while choking in bull's blood inside a bleeding, freshly opened carcass, and you have a very peculiar woman indeed (to say nothing of a very peculiar man).
Nevertheless, many things are simply a matter of cultural conditioning. The average sensitive woman, for instance, might have a hard time reaching an orgasm under Masters and Johnson's laboratory conditions; at least on the first try. True, sensitive women probably would not even volunteer for such sessions, unless their intelligence was as high as their sensitivity, and they perceived the importance of obtaining scientific data in these matters.
Undeniably, in the days when human sacrifice was more rampant than it is now (if you think we don't have it officially these days, think of wars, revolutions, terrorism, political and financial assassinations, for instance), quite a lot of the victims went willingly to the sacrifice (as quite a lot go today, in the name of patriotism, for instance); and also, undoubtedly, many of those victims were skillfully drugged beforehand, so as to dull the pain and the horror and increase the mystical ecstasy of the annihilation of the individual consciousness in the God's - or at least the egregora's.
But it is jejune to suppose that, under the conditions above described, a normal woman, in a normal mental state, would reach an orgasm every time, or even most of the times. Specially a virgin. The whole thing is a very unwholesome male dream of sadistic power; and this kind of dream, we repeat, is still, in milder variations, very common in masturbating men. The women in masturbatory visualizations always "come". And, as you know, if you treat them badly, they keep dragging themselves back to your mighty feet, begging for more.
We may add a seemingly cynical, and certainly sad reservation: there are masochistic women, and "normality", in the sense of mental and moral health, is almost as rare as genius. "Macho" men always seem to find company; not always male company, either. If the average woman in America were healthy and her right mind, and if the average man in America were in the equivalent state, the E.R.A. would have gone through quickly. It might even not have become necessary. And the feminists would not be a minority, which they undoubtedly are. Don't worry, girls. Quality is better than quantity - at least to discriminating Gods; Phyllis Schlafly and Marabel Morgan would possibly have choked eagerly in bull's blood, having multiple vaginal orgasms.
Now that we have taken care of the psychological and social aspects of the problem, it might be well to remark on the religious aspect too: a devout woman, specially a young girl, in those days, might have felt it her duty to go willingly to the sacrifice, and might have felt genuine pleasure in the catharsis of it. After all, when a modern-day nun takes a vow of sexual abstinence for the rest of her life, and keeps it, is there much difference, except that the fate of the virgin in the bull's carcass was mercifully quicker?
Within the Temple was a circular domed shrine about 40 feet across. The priestesses used to carry their offerings to the altar of Incense in the East, while the blood of the victims went to a big font in the West. (The door of the shrine was in the North; in the South was a statue of a Sun-God of a Syrian type - rather more like Bacchus than Apollo.)
In the centre was a light movable couch rather like one sees in pictures at Naples. It was used in the midnight ceremony to obtain oracles. The secret of the Temple was the midnight sun. Globes of fire used to gather on the font, and from the other altar, and begin to revolve in the shrine. They would coalesce and then become one, which stood single and unmoving all night, only fading with dawn.
If that was the price of the human sacrifice, a poor purchase indeed! For He shines at midnight, regardless of human sacrifice; and He does not shine in sectarian temples for a few, but everywhere for all.
Astarte Asteria? surprised the secret, and penetrated into the shrine at the midnight sacrifice and adoration of this globe. She was slain instantly by the priests, who passed their swords again and again through her body. This death was extreme pleasure.
Astarte, or Asteria, seems to have been a very mixed-up girl.
Again, however, there is a mystical meaning, and a true possibility: by surprising the secret, Asteria would have been challenging the entire social structure that this particular worship represented; and her death might have an Initiation pleasing to her and therefore to Him of Whom we spoke above; every step is a death and a birth
The body was thrown out upon the court at the foot of the Temple steps, and made tabu, so that it might be 'devoured by the Sun'.
Precisely what we mentioned before. "As above, so below."
She had incurred this incarnation as the result of various misdemeanors in Greece about an hundred years before.
Too bad he does not detail those "misdemeanors". Frankly, we find the whole theory of "bad" and "good" Karma, and "expiation" of past mistakes, errors, misdemeanors or whatnot, most a crock of ineffable bullshit.
"There is no Grace; there is no Guilt;
"This is the Law: Do what thou wilt!"
Her incarnations had always been at short intervals. It appears that in the beginning most people cannot bear frequent incarnations, and need long restorative periods of rest and peace. But superior spirits take a great oath, and get on faster. They suffer more in proportion. You can recognise them by sensitiveness, which is sometimes in the painful or morbid degree. This is the case when the Great Work has been forgotten for an incarnation, or a part of it; the idea is to impress the fact of the oath upon the sufferer.
Astarte he obviously settled for Astarte, rather than Asteria, after all) in her Grecian avatar had been a rather worldly priest.
Ah!
Her childhood was one of great misery. She had been taken by pirates and ill-treated - she came from Leghorn or its neighbourhood. A ship-wreck left her on the coast of Sicily. People found her, and finding her an excellent prostitute (she was now 14), put her in a brothel. She hated the life. At a spring festival she was lucky enough to attract a young priest who took her, put her through a year's purification, and added her to the Temple staff. But she only saw a dull routine, though applying herself to advancement in her profession by the skill of her embraces.
It was customary then for temples of certain deities to have sacred prostitutes on their staff, of either sex. The custom was also common among the biblical Hebrews, as can be seen from their own accounts. Civilization has progressed beyond such immorality, at least in America. Here, all prostitutes end up on the Mafia staff, including the ones on Capital Hill.
However, by the age of 20 or there-abouts she 'got religion', and began to act con amore. From this time she was rather the terror of the Temple. She used to do strange things, excesses, record-breaking acts, and so on. In fact she was a little mad; had a touch of the Sun as it were. However, she got the name of being inspired now and then, and was used in some of the public ceremonies. She made a young priest fall madly in love with her on one such occasion, and they violated their vows by carnal copulation of an irreligious character.
You really can't keep a good girl up, it seems.
In this way she made him tell her the secret of the Temple; she then killed him the same night, so that he should never betray the fact that he had betrayed the Mysteries.
Nice, political girl; really on line for the Vatican boss seat, where she later sat.
She was a slim, lean, nervous girl with a long face, a Roman nose, rather full lips, very strong from constant exercise, a habit of wriggling as if consumed by an inward itch, abundant and very wiry black hair which she sometimes dyed, very strong and very sharp and white regular teeth, deep violet eyes, very wide apart, and set obliquely like Chinese eyes. Her cheek-bones were high, and her expressions fierve. Her breasts were quite undeveloped, and her body body like a man's, or rather, like a boy's. Her vulva was lean and muscular, the nymphae hardly developed at all.
Astarte was her Temple name; her own was Felicia. Her parents were peasants, vine-dressers, in winter woodcutters. (This description is most strangely like Alostrael.)
Not where full lips are concerned.
The Tenth Working
[Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1914 e.v.]
Die Martiis 11.30 p.m. -- die Mercurii 12.15 a.m.
The Ceremony as usual. Fra. O.S.V. saw Juppiter in his form as Ammon-Ra, plumed and Phallic, standing in the East, during the verbal invocation of Amoun; this became much intensified during the Versicle. He lost all sense of the physical, and was only recalled to it by its climax. Subsequently he heard (and so did Fra. L.T.) clear and distinct 'astral' bells.
The Eleventh Working
[Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1914 E.V.]
During the day the Brethren were out of harmony, but conquered the feeling of animosity by Will. A full Banquet as ordained being consumed, the Brethren repaired to the Temple; Fra. O.S.V. opened the same at 11 p.m. die Mercurii. To the sight of O.S.V. (during the Versicle) Ammon-Ra appeared in the East, Juppiter Himself filling the Temple. This also appeared as a cone of white light whirling about the Image of the All - One that is upon the Altar of the Elements. After the Versicle Fra. L.T. obtained a message in Angelic to the effect that the gods wish to regain Their dominion upon earth, these Initiated Brethren being as Fiery Arrows shot by Them in Their war against the slave-gods. A Four-fold sacrifice was demanded; and that a sacrifice of cruelty.
Naturally! The egregorae getting stronger, they were becoming vampires; this was possibly specially due to Neuburg's natural propensity to negativity and filth.
Therefore did (...i...) and ultimately המ - פה. The Temple was closed 1.45 A.M. die Joviis, Fra. L.T. still (1.55) lying entranced. The God is now effective. And with a single sacrifice on his Night (early, to close before midnight) will that equilibration of the 4 and the 7 be accomplished.
Die Joviis 2 a.m. Frater L.T. says 'tetelestai' (N.B. this is the formula of 7 °= 4▫ thus making 4 either way, yet 7 in all. And on this third night forming the sacred Tau. During this Working Fra. L.T. again heard the astral bells.
Also concerning the sacrifices it was revealed in the night, during the sleep of exhaustion, to Fra. O.S.V. that the esence of the Operation is the freeing of the elemental spirit of an animal soul. This may be done by death or by complete exhaustion either through pleasure or through pain. In this death-like trance the spirit becomes free to wander, and is united to the invoked God. In the case of death this is permanent, and goes to increase the body of the God on the planet.
That is to say, the egregora. The desirability of this kind of operation is, to put it mildly, relative.
We should, therefore, when we can, obtain a closed and inviolable precinct, and slay therein victims daily.
Nothing would make the egregora happier; as to the God, It is beyond such offerings. Their desirability is only to the worshippers, since it intensifies the link with the Divine Essence through the egregora; but the danger of obsession through leaks in the circle increases in proportion the number of victims slain. The Old Testament Jews sacrificed their firstborns to Jehovah, and eventually started sacrificing animals instead; this latter type of sacrifice is probably still done, privately, by at least some Jews. But the stories of Jews slaying "Christian" children in sacrifice, so common in the Middle Ages, were in all probability lies spread by "noblemen" in order to justify their confiscation of Jewish wealth in the eyes of the common man. Naturally, making the Jews the villians of the "Gospel" fabrication was a great help.
In the meantime, let one of the Brethren at least be reduced always to exhaustion by wine, and by the infliction of wounds, and by the ceremony itself. And if he utter oracles, let them be not consciously given. And if the true God be duly invoked, they will be divine. And this is the oracle which Jupiter gave unto Fra. O.S.V. in the night, or early morning of his day.
During all this day Fra. L.T. is oveshadowed by Jupiter. The world about him appears a vision of the future. His eyes are dilated; he cannot read; his manner is as one stupefied or entranced.
The Twelfth Working
[Thursday, Jan. 22, 1914 E.V.]
The Banquet restored Fra. L.T. to a comparatively normal condition. At 9.55 p.m. die Joviis the Temple was opened as usual. The sacrifice was offered, Fra. O.S.V. perinde ac cadaver, and the Temple closed at 11 p.m. Fra. O.S.V. was completely exhausted. Thus endeth the First Series of the complete Working of Jupiter.
Friday a.m.
There is certainly some result of these invocations; for matters move strangely. Five people who arranged to come to see me in Paris all failed; and both business letters (urgent) and private letters remain unanswered. I assume that this is the 'fallow' period which follows the sowing of the seed. But Hermes produced instantly a direct result. I take it that Jupiter being a slow and steady God moves not so easily but with far more power.
At least to produce material results.
P.M. I mentioned this matter to Fra. L.T. as regards letters, his experience is precisely similar to my own.
The Thirteenth Working
[Monday, January 26, 1914 E.V.]
On Saturday the drought of result broke up suddenly; both letters and visitors appeared.
It is interesting that this should have happened on the day of Saturn, traditionally Jupiter's astrological "enemy". (Although, Initiatically, in what sense Binah is enmical to Chesed I for one should like to know. This holds true even astrologically, if the names of the planets mean anything. It is not Saturn who is enmical to Jupiter; after all, isn't Saturn Jupiter's father? and wasn't Saturn slain by Jupiter?...)
All things that have occurred have been of the nature of Jupiter, but so far there has been no plentiful harvest, naught as it were but green shoots peeping through the earth.
The Temple opened at about 11.30 Quia Patris 12.30, closing 2 a.m. die Martiis. Fra. O.S.V. became inspired in a Terpsichorean manner after the Accendat and Tu qui es. Much good force was obtained, and two Jataka stories.
That is, stories of past lives of Crowley. These are recounted in the esoteric record.
During the day Fra. L.T. obtained a small Jupiterian result, Fra. O.S.V. kept an appointment which may conceivably lead to vast Jupiterian results.
The Esoteric Record [of the Thirteenth Working]
January 26, 1914. Began about 11.30, ended about 12.30.
Rather short time.
After the Accendat, O.S.V. did an inspired dance of the seductive-fugitive order. After the Haud Secus the Brethren revelled in the Jupiterian atmosphere, and then in talking about this O.S.V. remembered he had been a priestess in what he thought was Greece of an orientalised type. L.T. recognized this as Crete. O.S.V. agreed.
L.T. saw a green figure constantly dancing round the altar.
This was not Ahanael; it is part of the memory of the past incarnation now to be detailed.
The ceremony was of initiation; this dance was the temptation. Neophytes were accepted if laughingly indifferent, or if, on the other hand, they refused to be played with, and violated the woman no matter how she struggled. Half measures were punished by having their testicles removed by a special instrument on the principle of a candle-snuffer, but with a regular cup instead of a guard.
We suppose that the ones who laughed became theologians, and the ones who raped became sacrificers. A neat anachronic take-off on natural selection - as interpreted in Iowa.
After the operation the instrument was thrust upon the brazier, and the man was thrust into the earthquake fissure, where he perished miserably.
No earthquake fissure has been mentioned; obviously, the record was jotted down later, and details that were in the memory were not all set down. But the two magicians were becoming sloppy by this time; the records lose detail and analysis. Drunk on too much atmosphere, perhaps; or yearning too much gold; or simply exhausted by the magickal strain. Cf. AL ii 70 and the Commentaries thereon. We must not forget, either, that they had been avoiding blood sacrifice, although the God himself - or at least the egregora - was repeatedly asking for it.
When all the flesh was gone, and the bones had dropped to the bottom, the next initiation could take place.
Not a very practical arrangement, if you want frequent initiations; as you will, if you are that kind of priest, running that kind of worship. Billy Graham would never have made money that way.
This Temple had pillars, a black floor shining like glass, mirrors to render the chase difficult. There were three priests, the lion-mask, the bull-mask, and the eagle-mask.
The initiate himself was the Fourth Kerub. These mysteries are the same -- or very nearly the same -- as the Samothracian mysteries.
O.S.V. had 28 hand-maidens. She was dressed in silver tissues, representing the way in which the moon slips away from the sun, and then falls back into his embraces: that is the idea of the dance.
We remind the reader that this memory came after he became inspired into the dance of a "seductive-fugitive kind" mentioned at the beginning of the Working.
O.S.V.'s name was Aia, which is really Gaia.
Twelve virgins were sacrificed annually, one a month.
How easier it was to find virgins in those uncivilized days! I suppose the women got wise to it, after a while, and decided to alter the conditions.
Released on menstruation, because they became inpure, and so could not live in the Temple.
This is the great idea of magicians in all time: - To obtain a Messiah by some adaptation of the sexual process.
This is totally incorrect, and Crowley should have known better, were he not under Neuburg's influence, the egregorae's influence, etc. Magicians are not trying to obtain "Saviors"; we are just trying to improve Humankind as a whole; and Crowley himself, later on, defined this ideal to himself and others in a Masterly way. Cf. the Essay on "Mastery" in LITTLE ESSAYS TOWARD TRUTH.
Nevertheless, civilization, as anything else, progresses by steps. We should not blame the Alchemists for not being geneticists, since Genetic Chemistry would have been impossible without those pioneers; and in the days of which Crowley is speaking above, perhaps the Initiates defined civilization as obtaining Saviors. Was not Crowley the Incarnation of a Savior, himself? Indeed, perhaps the greatest one to date?
In Assyria they tried incest; also in Egypt; the Egyptians tried brothers and sisters, the Assyrians mothers and sons. Phoenicians tried fathers and daughters; Greeks and Syrians mostly bestiality. This idea came from India. The Jews sought to do this by invocation methods (Note: also by paedicatis feminarum.)
Certainly, the most intelligent, most sophisticated way, if so; but Crowley remembered in time, and added in a note: "Also by paedicatis feminarum." Too bad they haven't tried it more often, since it is - for worshippers of the Jehovah of the Old Testament, at any rate - the very crown of sophistication at the present Time-Space Node for them!
The Mohammedans tried homosexuality; mediaeval philosophers tried to produce homunculi by making chemical experiments with semen.
But the root idea is that any form of procreation other than the normal is likely to produce results of a magical character.
This absolutely does not mean that the results would be desirable, either in a relative or a general sense.
Either the father of the child should be a symbol of the sun, or the mother a symbol of the moon.
This again is egregoric obsession - if one may coin an unhappy adjective. The Sun was considered female in matriarchal times, and the Moon male - cf. "Sin", for instance; so, any symbology in which the Sun is "male" and the Moon "female" would necessarily date from the Aeon of Osiris. The entire point, as far as Thelemic considerations go, is that BOTH the Sun and the Moon are necessary to produce... whatever will be produced in the next few thousand, or - optimistically - next few hundred years.
In short, we are looking for a FREE, SPONTANEOUS association of Male and Female; not for slavery of one by the other, no matter how the roles would be distributed in such a case. Nor, from the point of view of Magick, is the physical sex of the participants the essential or dominating factor. Cf. LXV v 44 and the Commentaries thereon.
SPRING CEREMONIES IN CRETE.
There was a labyinth there; they had the worship of Apis from Egypt. (See Frazer and others on bull-worship; Shiva etc.)
There was a sacred bull in this labryinth, quite white. At the spring festival they sacrificed twelve virgins to him.
Et crudelis amor tauri et supposita furto,
Pasiphae --------------- Aeneid VI.
They wanted to get a Minotaur, an incarnation of the sun, a Messiah. They said they had one, but they hadn't.
Well, the Roman-Alexandrinians did the same; but they, unfortunately, did not live on an island, so they harmed many more people with their lie.
L.T. was named Mardocles. Fair, very handsome, squarish golden beard. A very noble edition of Rudolph Cyriax.
A popular leading-man then, forgotten now.
Hair curled in Assyrian manner, wore Chiton.
O.S.V. killed him by dancing badly.
L.T. being initiated, O.S.V. and hand-maidens came out and danced. O.S.V. fell in love and spoiled her dancing (.)
L.T. knew what to do and couldn't remain indifferent, but couldn't be brutal. And so at the last moment L.T. spared O.S.V. and was thrust out of the Temple; but neither killed nor castrated. She was also expelled.
If true, the priests watching had standards of a sort, after all. Cf. Liber 333, Ch. 60, and the Commentaries thereon.
L.T. and O.S.V. went penniless and sad into a town.
O.S.V. did up L.T's sandals which had come undone.
This type of detail is much more telling in this kind of memory, much more impressive, than remembering that you were Cleopatra, or Elizabeth I, or Saint Germain, or Jesus Christ.
L.T. despised O.S.V. for ruining his career; he had been a merchant, a very wealthy corn-merchant (with a very rich father), and he had given up everything for initiation. L.T. was a special favourite of the high priest, the high priest being a friend of his father.
A worldly priest, certes.
L.T. was about 24 or 25, but much older than his years.
L.T. hated O.S.V. but was too chivalrous to leave her.
L.T. only cared for O.S.V. while she danced: he felt he had ruined O.S.V's career as well as his own. We sat down, two doors away from the cobbler's on a stone.
O.S.V. did up L.T's sandal strap. The cobbler offered to do it free; L.T. was so handsome. We were asked to the evening meal.
The cobbler had an ugly scolding wife looking like "Billiken" or the Duchess in "Alice."
A tiny little back room with children, including a boy of twelve or so.
The cobbler wanted us to go on the staff. This was perhaps in Ephesus; a sea-side place, anyhow.
His proposal was the only hope to avoid being sold for slaves by the magistrates.
Then, as now, if you were poor you did not have a chance. Either you proved you could support yourself, or you had to be supported by someone. If not a parent or a relative, then by a friend; if not by a friend, then by an owner. The only difference in Communist countries is that you get supported by the State - provided you make faithful Marxist - Leninist, or Maoist, or Castrist, or whatever, sounds.
But we were too proud, and said we would be sold for slaves, and we were.
Meaning that a man who could afford slaves (not a woman, in those days, unless she were a courtesan) would be a higher class person than a cobbler, and be able to afford them a better living. Everything is relative, as Einstein used to say (Was not it he who said, at the end of his life, that if he had known what life was like in the U.S.A., he would have become a plumber, and had some freedom of expression and time for thought? Naturally, it is only in the U.S.A. that plumbers are so rich in leisured money as all that. In Russia, for instance, he might have preferred to become a Commissar. Oh well, I'm letting my wit carry me away again.)
A man with a country house and a beautiful wife bought us.
Hmn. There are possibilities for the script of an Emanuelle IV here.
Shut up, Mark Motta.
His name was Demetrius, more like Demephorius? Demephorus.
We were employed about the house.
It was part of the ordinary duty of a servant to amuse the family, by various copulations. Only beautiful slaves were chosen for this purpose.
Not always. Then, as today, dwarfs and deformed people were highly prized by the jaded connoisseurs.
O.S.V. died of pneumonia some few months after.
Mistress a really classic type. Syro-Phoenician beauty. Grecian nose; coal-black curls, beautiful anklets; bracelets etc. Swathed in purple nearly always. Thin mouth; smile like Gioconda, but with corners turned down. The man was a fool; easy going; rather like Bourcier.
A hotel-keeper who put up with Crowley for years after everybody else had given up on him - and is being called a fool for thanks. A.C.'s last years may have been a requital for this kind of easy evaluation of people who were kind to him when they did not have to be. But then, when he wrote this, he had not yet reached the point when he depended on Bourcier's easy-goingness for shelter.
All this was long before the Trojan war. Very civilized; before the Greek civilization we know of. Or perhaps more Assyrian or Phoenician.
More likely Phoenician.
Asia-minor the scene of this.
They used oared galleys.
"I shall never forget the look you gave me in the slave market."
(O.S.V.)
"I am always unlucky for you, you know; you always have to sacrifice everything for my love. You don't want to in the least; that is because we both have hold of the wrong end of the stick. If only I could leave you, and you could love me. It would be lucky. But that has apparently never happened. Mutual indifference and mutual passion, and so on.
There follows the memory of still another incarnation; we do not know if he got this on this occasion or another, for by this time they were not bothering, apparently, with such details as accurate record-keeping.
.......
We played instruments in Corinth as girls.
? (L.T.'s name is not remembered) had white skin. L.T. Chryssipe had yellow hair. O.S.V.
We made popular Lesbian songs all day.
We went on for years, and years, and years. We were sixty, and terribly famous ... Like Zena and Phyllis Dare.
Or like Lilian Gish and whoever was her companion at the time; except that Gish put up such a good front of being not only "straight" but "virtuous" that she fooled fools for half a century, at least.
This devotion of ours became proverbial in Corinth; we had to keep it up, exactly like a vicar and his wife in public.
After forty-three and a half years it got awful: then we retired to our country estates; but we had the habit over there. We turned into old maids. We had really loved with the most intense and true passion for a year or so; and then kept it up for profit.
Like most married couples, if they are lucky.
But we were not cynical about it; we really fancied ourselves as the ideal lovers of Corinth.
They were not even intelligent, then; just cunning. Or perhaps, very adept at LIBER III, Section iii
Incarnation about wolves forgotten. Diana of Ephesus. We went on a mission, a business mission, of a Temple nature. Not L.T. (thank God.)
This is probably the funniest comment in this whole Record.
There were wolves, a plague of them.
The Fourteenth Working
The Temple was opened on the stroke of midnight, and closed at 1.07 a.m. dei Mercuri Fra. O.S.V. being completely exhausted. The Jovian pheonomena continue with steadiness, but not with such force as to enable to say that the success of the operation is assured. During the afternoon we went to the house of a lay sister, and invoked the Lord Jupiter by incense of His sacred herb.
Opium. In those happy days, you could still get opium cheaply, and enjoy yourself harmlessly for a few hours. Nowadays, thanks to restrictive idiotic laws, you have to content yourself with morphine, or heroine instead - and ruin your health and your purse.
This rested us mentally and physically, but caused some illness of a slight and temporary order.
The Fifteenth Working
The Temple opened at 11.15 p.m. and closed at 12.10. But the versicle was prolonged and very quiet, probably owing to the experience of the afternoon. Hence the force was coherent, crescent in a flat curve, but very strong in its culmination. The atmosphere of the Temple is now extremely good, not only in the ceremonies, when it is mellow, rich, velvety, luminous (purple, gold, green are the chief colours) strong without violence, calm, opulent, etc, etc, but throughout the day. We are excluding loose women and the like.
Meaning, that such women and their like - presumably certain homosexual types - would offend the Gods, and therefore ruin the aura.
The principal physical things are a green chameleon - like dancer named Ahanael (762) and the usual elementals darting about. Ahannael is under Bethor.
"Physical things" means physical, material manifestations. Naturally, the definition of "material" is open to discussion here. The beings seen were not necessarily material as you and me; they might just have seemed so to Crowley's and Neuburg's senses. Could they tip a scale in a physics laboratory as they were when Crowley and Neuburg saw them? Could a biopsy slide be taken from one of them and put under the microscope?
Who knows? Future generations may know.
The Sixteenth Working
The Temple opened at about 10.20 after the Haud secus (again of the soft steady watery tupe) the god demanded blood. O.S.V. cut a four-square on L.T's breast and offered thereof, L.T. then did a wonderful dance, O.S.V. in Shivasana, O.S.V. became inspired. The planetary spirits by the way are now plain to see, next week the God demands that the image shall be placed in a vesica, and a sparrow (or if not a pigeon) shall be slain therein before the Accendat, with these words: Nunc flavi Jovi spumantem sanguine saevo passerem... or such other words as may be suggested by the Art-Batchelor W. D., who has been sent by Jupiter from London on this account. The blood only of a sparrow is to remain in the vesica, and to be connected (after the Versicle) with the Magi by the sigil 4 on L.T's heart, right breast left breast and navel on the four nights. The body is to be burnt for the last 4 nights both flesh and blood are to be sacrificed. The Temple closed at midnight to Thursday midnight no other blood is to be taken but the banquets, not drink save only pure water.
The banquets, therefore, were supposed to be definite magickal acts, not gluttonry. Exactly like orgies.
It is to be noted that since the beginning of this Operation the Bank Rate has fallen to 3 per cent and Consols improved from 71 1/2 to 76 1/4, a gain to O.S.V. of over £1400.
On Saturday O.S.V. received a letter which should bring £500 within the next two months.
I should mention that the possession of O.S.V. on Thursday night was the most complete and material possession and has occurred to him most rarely.
The directions were obtained with difficulty, and his whole consciousness was wrapped up in the god, the only expression being these words
"Sanguis et Semen."
The pitiful Symonds, in his "biography", states at this point that Crowley somnambulated through the Temple, babbling the words "Blood and Semen". Nevertheless, it is stated above that Crowley was seated in Shivasana. What really happened is that he became conscious of how the energies called "Jupiterian" course through both semen and blood. Also, the egregora was reviving - thanks precisely to these offerings.
The Seventeenth Working
The Temple was opened about 10.30 and closed at 12.50 a.m. 3.2.14 E.V.
O.S.V. dedicated the bird to Jupiter and set it free.
Meaning, he was supposed to sacrifice it to the God, which was called "setting the bird free"; but he actually did set it free, instead of sacrificing it to the God, which was what the egregora had requested he do. This indeed was the the trick through which many a demon increased its power: masquerading through an egregora. The blood than ran in the the torture of heretics, and the posterior burning of them, during the Middle Ages, is a very acute example of this type of mechanism. But obviously Crowley should of sacrificed the sparrow as instructed - at least as an experiment.
During the Versicle O.S.V. lost consciousness. After the Quia Patris L.T. the 4 cut on his right breast, was to have acted as Virgo. A marvellous matter folled, but no further rite was accomplished. At 1 a.m. Fra. L.T. was still too exhausted to speak. O.S.V. doubts if he did well to avoid the apparent and obvious meaning of the instruction vouchsafed last Thursday night. This should be decided by the events of Tuesday -- Thursday. If unsatisfactory, the birds let loose 2 on Tuesday, on Wednesday, should all 4 be slain on the last night of this series.
The reader is reminded that either the God through the egregora, or the egregora mechanically by itself, had already requested blood sacrifices. The two experimenters have been complaining of poor results; but they have not been keeping to the letter of their instructions, not even the seemingly more harmless ones, very well. Are they really in a position to complain? Who can tell without trying? Success is your proof. So is your definition of success. Cf. AL iii 16.
The Eighteenth Working
The Banquet of Jupiter began at lunch. Then we bade Bro. Sir B. C. Hammond the Good Knight God - Speed.
This may have been your normal everyday kind of English Knight, or even baronet; but more likely it was an O.T.O. title. If deserved, much more illustrious.
At the conclusion of the banquet the spirit of Mars waxed strong, and O.S.V. tare L.T. with bitter words, to which Fra. L.T., like a good brother as he is, replied with modesty, humility, courtesy, forbearance and brotherly love. (The averse Mercury also seized upon Fra. O.S.V. during the writing of this last sentence!) However the Bretheren embraced in the name of Jupiter, and opened the Temple at 10.30. A lengthy ceremony followed, the usual rite being followed by ... vatem ... virgo ... orally. The image of the Most High was thus richly adorned with due ornament. The Temple closed at 1.5 a.m. dei Mercurii, the forces being completely absorbed.
The Nineteenth Working
Fra. O.S.V. during the day had a feverish attack of something resembling influenza; but receiving the remedy of Juppiter from the hands of the Lay-Sister Cheron, was miraculously made whole, though the aftermath still slightly inconveniences him, he having taken the Remedy in Excess.
The Temple opened at 11.28 closed at 12.50 a.m. dei Jovis, the ceremony being most magnificent. (Query; this represents the West Wind as last night the East, and the firstnight of this series the North?) During the Versicle O.S.V. saw the Sarcophagus of Ankh-f-n-khonsu, a misty dawn of gold at the East of the Altar, erect. The ceremony raised Fra. O.S.V. from discomfort, sleepiness, and fever to the top of his form. L.T. gets a white elephant with the word LEX Labor est + (The phallus in its sense of the completed Work.) Also Baphomet spelt בפמת (Note. 1081 = Tiphareth, add 1 for the א therein. No! O.M.) The atmosphere is marvellous calm and sweet, soft a the kisses of Zephyros - a perfect peace and joy.
During the day, by the way, Fra. O.S.V. got the idea that Fra. L.T. would make a perfect low comedian, and thus gain much gold.
Neuburg must have said something that amused him very much; possibly, even deliberating joking, and playing the low comedian. In hind-sight, it is melancholy that Neuburg did not try to become a low comedian indeed. He might of made much money for himself and the Work. As it is, he ran back to Mom - or rather, Mom grabbed him back. And everybody knows about Jewish mothers - or at least, so say Jewish sons.
The Twentieth Working
The Temple opened at 10, closed at 11 p.m. dei Jovis.
On Friday Fra. O.S.V. got a letter making a most valuable introduction; also full confirmation of the other matter. Praise Him! Fra. O.S.V's malady now reasserted itself, however, with great force. He has much fever and bronchitis, and is obliged to take to his bed. To-day, of the Moon, he is still very ill, but yet determined to continue the Operation as well as he may, though with mained rites.
The Esoteric Record
.......
Inspection of Cakkras.
O.S.V. ? 3-5 A.M. Feb. 8.
Muladhara. Blood-red, velvety, deep-bell shape. Around it the Kundalini coiled, but in constant spiral motion.
Luminous triangle - mirror-like-opens at base (very small.) I looked down through infinite stages of these triangles, at the bottom glitters a pearl-like (but self-luminous and most intense) phallus. Presently this goes, and up the tunnel march millions of men of every race, creed, caste and colour - not a single woman.
The "tunnel" IS Woman.
Svadistthana. Very large flattish white lotus, greenish tips to edges, very pale and fair; It floats in pale blue.
Manipura. A chysantheum of rainbow petals, active-like folding and refolding, comprehending alternatively microcosm and the macrocosm.
Anahata. Mostly gold and pearls with rubies and sapphires, I think, but this fades in memory.
Visuddhi: Myriad radiating knives of pure golden light; in all directions.
These descriptions should be compared to "Bishop" Leadbeater's description of the Cakkrams; and compared with the serious student's personal experience as well.
Here ends the Record of this series of Workings. It will be noticed that the Record becomes fragmentary towards the end; also, it will be noticed that the two experimenters concentrated mainly on Hermes and Jupiter - the first to get the second, and the second to get gold...
Nevertheless, Crowley had prepared, with Walter Duranty's help, the whole series of Mantras necessary for the invocation of the Greco-Roman Pantheon. These have been translated by Mr. Martin P. Starr, and we append the original Latin version and the translation for those who may want to continue this line of research and magickal Work (the Invocations should, of course, be done in the Latin version).
The Twenty-First Working
The Temple was opened mentally by O.S.V. at about 9.10, and closed at 9.25. In spite of all the handicap, the ceremony went exceedingly well. An excellent atmosphere was obtained, and O.S.V's temperature went down .4 degrees!!!!
The Twenty-Second Working
Fra. O.S.V. is now recovered, and is ungrateful enough to the doctor -- an excellent and clever practitioner to yet greater thanks to Juppiter. His temperature went down .3 C during the actual ceremony, which opened at 9.30 and closed at 10.15.
This was in some respects the best we have yet done. Fra. L.T. "Got Jupiter" in his pregnant phrase, and went on with the mechanism of the Accendat and the preparations for the performance of the Versicle before O.S.V. had finished his hexagram ritual (done after the verbal invocation of Amoun) but the Haud secus itself was brilliant and inspired, and the result overwhelming - a glow of stupendous success.
The mechanisms of the psyche are interesting. "Got Jupiter", in his own pregnant phase, and went on with the mechanism of the Accendat and the preparations for the performance of the Versicle before O.S.V. had finished his hexagram ritual; this means that before Crowley had gone through the preliminaries of opening the Temple completely Neuburg, excited, was carressing him and trying to penetrate him; which does not augur well for Neuburg's self control, but we already know he had none to write home about. "In his own pregnant phase" - Crowley, the buggered, emphasizes his own essential maleness, or at least Neuburg's essential femininity, in the use of the word "pregnant". But the whole of this was really done on three different levels: one, the personality asserting itself as male; two, the scientist skepically examining the whole thing. (Had Neuburg really got Jupiter? Or was he just horny? If the doubt did not exist, the situation would not have been expressed as it was, for Crowley had minimal, if any, sexual self-doubts by this time). And finally the third: the advanced magician balancing the pairs of opposites: for Neuburg manifested the God's essential maleness by becoming femininely open to Him.
The Twenty-Third Working
Fra O.S.V. worked very hard from 6.30 a.m. after a bad night, yet was well and strong in the ceremony which went magnificently. At the Quia Patris he saw his shadow plainly on the dim reddish wall in the East, although at the West there was but another such wall, and the firelight (in the North) was without effective radiance. The ceremony was more brilliant and ecstatic even than last night. Fra. L.T. is even more completely exhausted than before.
3.18 a.m. Message for A.G. "Without pity, act. Guests dally on the couches of mother of pearl in the garden. Go to the Holy House of Hathor and offer the five jewels of the cow on her altar. Then go under the night-stars in the desert and invoke Nuit. "Result establishment of Nuit cult. A previous divination had given (two days before) "is not the Nile a beautiful water?" the question being should I go to Tunis for A.G.? (Tunis being nearer the Pillars of Hercules and the Ocean of the West.) The Jupiteran events of a minor character are now so frequent that they are too many to record without tedium. Contrary events to not occur at all.
The Twenty-Fourth Working
Fra. O.S.V. had a sleepless night and had to work all day. Yet, opening the Temple at 6.15 and closing it at 7, this great operation was brought to a successful end. The ceremony was calm and deep, the very aroma of earth in spring. After the Work Fra. L.T. performed divination by Θελημα and obtained this versicle:
"I am Thou, and the Pillar is established in the Void."
During the Haud secus, Fra. L.T. was taken by Jupiter to be his cup-bearer. Fra. O.S.V. beheld the Violet, formless and of Dhanic intensity.
P.S. Result. Fra O.S.V. obtained the gifts of Jupiter as he asked, and was further made like Jupiter in his aspect as Amoun. During the whole summer he had but to ask to obtain.
Fra. L.T. on the contrary became Jupiter the bestower, and many folk became his guests.
We return to the esoteric record of the Workings.
A brief Summary of the Paris Working
Dec. 31, 1913 E.V. Preparations completed.
Jan. I 1914. I. Hermes as child; prevents Rite from completion.
II. do as Messenger. Identified with Christ
Jan. 3 1914. III do as Force. He is Semen, the vehicle of the Father.
He despises talk, and is all energy and action.
Jan. 5, 1914. IV Hermes as
Jan. 6, 1914. V Juppiter. Short message.
VI Juppiter. L.T. failed at proper method.
VII Juppiter. Vision - plalanx of Eagles supporting Zeus and
the 4 Beasts. Also Peacock. Revelation of Method of
Destroying the Universe.
Jan. 11, 1914. VIII Hermes. "Good result."
A week off. L.T.ill Mass of L.T. ill. To Forest -- only profane matters considered.
Jan. 19, 1914 IX Juppiter, as Bestower with hands full of gold.
Jan. 20, X do as Amuon-Ra, plumed and phallic. Astral Bells.
Jan 21, XI do as Cone of White Light. Message that O.S.V. and L.T. are as arrows of fire shot against the slave-gods. The Sacrifice was fourfold. Astral bells heard again. Revelation to O.S.V. of the Method of Rite. do to L.T. of present world as a vision of the future His eyes are so dilated that he cannot read.
Jan. 22, XII Juppiter. No remarks. But results on Material plane show.
Jan. 27 XIII Juppiter. Inspiration of O.S.V. to dance.
Two 'Jataka stories' got.
Jan. 27. XIV Juppiter Phenomena continue.
Jan. 28, XV. Juppiter. Atmosphere of Temple now constantly rich, mellow, velvety, and luminous, even when closed. A green chameleon-hued dancer Ahanael and other elementals in constant attendance.
Jan. 29, XVI. Juppiter. Additional Rites ordained. O.S.V. inspired; the essence of the nature of Juppiter was revealed. He obtained entire Unity with the God, Muttering constantly "Sanguis et Semen."
Feb. 2, 1914. E.V. XVII Juppiter. O.S.V. again in Samadhi.
Feb. 3, 1914. XVIII Juppiter. Complete absorption of force
Feb. 4, 1914. XIX Juppiter. Sarcophagus of Ankh-f-Khonsu appears.
Feb. 5, 1914. XX Juppiter. Material results confirmed.
Feb. 8, 1914. O.S.V. inspects certain chakras.
Feb. 9, 1914 XXI Juppiter.
Feb. 10, 1914 XXII. Juppiter. "A glow of stupendous success" L.T. in his peculiar type of Samadhi.
Feb. 11, 1914 XXIII. Juppiter. O.S.V. sees his shadow -- not a "physical one; light thrown by the God from the Altar or Cubriculum.
Feb. 12, 1914. XXIV. Juppiter. "Calm and deep, the very aroma of earth in Spring" O.S.V. be held The Violet, formless, of Dhyanic intensity.
General Result. O.S.V. obtained the funds required, and was like unto Amoun-Ra all the summer. L.T. became as Juppiter the hospitable, but had unworthy guests.
An unexpected result -- the Divine end of the stick -- was perhaps the War in the following August. See Op. XI.
Here follows the Grimoire of the Paris Working.
Reference in Grimoire.
L.DCCLXXI is the "Building of the Pyramid" a ritual of A∴A∴ see John St. John for sketch. Asperge me Domine hyssopo et mundabor; lavabis me et super nivem dealbabor. Per Sanctum mysterium. By the figurative mystery of these holy vestments etc. from Goetia. Orationes dei operis i.e. any chosen as suitable from Equinox or elsewhere. Tu que es oc "Thou who are I" from "The Ship." Quia patris es "For of the Father and the Son" from "The Ship".
GRIMORUM SANCTISSIUM.
ARCANUM ARCANORUM QUOD CONTINET NONDUM
REVELANDUM IPSIS REGIBUS SUPREMIS O.T.O.
GRIMORIUM QUOD BAPHOMET XI SUO ............... FECIT.
De templo.
1. Oriente. Cubiculum.
2. Occidente. Tabula dei invocandi.
3. Septentrione. Sacerdos.
4. Meridione. Ignis cum thuribulo K.t;l;
5. Centro. Lapis quadratus cum Imagine DEI MAXIMI INOENTIS NEFANDI INEFFABILIS SANCTISSIMI et cum ferro, tintinnabulo, Oleo. Virgo. Stet Imago juxta librum Θελημα.
De Ceremonio Principii.
Fiat ut in L. DXLXXI dicitur, sed antea virgo lavabitur cum verbis Asperge me k.t.l., et habilimenta ponat cum verbis.
Per sanctum Mysterium k.t.l.
Ita Pyramis fiat. Tunc virgo lavabit sacerdotem et vestimenta ponat ut supra ordinatur.
(Hic dicat virgo orationes dei operiso.)
fol II.
De Ceremonio thuribuli.
Manibus accendat et ignem et sacerdotem virgo, dicens: Accendat in nobis Dominus ignem sui amoris et flammam aeternae caritatis.
The Holy Hymns to the Great Gods of Heaven.
(composed in collaboration with the Art-Bachelor Gualterius de R., Universitytis Cantabrigiensis, for the use of the Knights of the Sacrosanct Order of KDSH.)
I. Jupiter.
Haud secus ac puerum spumanti semini vates
Lustrat, dum gaudens accipit alter aquas;
Sparge, precor, servis, hominum rex atque deorum
Jupiter omnipotens, aurea dona, tuis.
And just when the priest purifies the boy
With foaming seed, while the other rejoicing accepts the waters,
Sprinkle, I pray Jupiter, king of gods and men, all powerful,
Golden gifts upon thy servants.
Thus the bard purifies the boy with foaming semen.
While the other in his orgasm receives the waters.
O Omnipotent Jupiter, king of men and gods.
Sprinkle, I pray, thy golden gifts on thy servants.
II. Mercury.
Jungitur en vati vates; rex inclyte rhabdou
Hermes tu venias, verba nefanda ferens.
Priest is joined with priest; renowned kind of the wand,
Come thou, Hermes, bearing the unutterable words.
Jointly, the bard in the bard. O famous king of the wand.
Hermes, mayest hou come bearing unspeakable words.
III. Venus.
Tu Venus orta mari venias tu filia Patris,
Exaudi penis carmina blanda, precor.
Ne sit culpa nates nobis futuisse viriles,
Sed caleat cunnus semper amore meo.
Come thou, Venus, born of the sea, daughter of the Father.
Hear the seductive songs of the penis, I pray.
May our sin not be to have fucked male asses,
But let the cunt always flame with my love
Thou, O Venus, risen from the Sea, come thou daughter of the Father.
Hearken to the bland songs of the penis. I pray.
Let it be no sin to us to have fucked the virle bum.
But let the cunt always be hot with my love.
IV Juppiter Ammon.
Per regni sancti signum da Juppiter Ammon
Da nobis plena monera plena manu.
Through the mark of the holdy kingdom, give, o Jupiter Ammon,
Give to us abounding gifts with a full hand.
By the sign of the sacred kingdom, give, O Juppiter Ammon.
Give to us full rewards with a full hand.
V. Mars.
Hoc solet ad Martem ritu coluisse ferocem
Vir purus cunni sic placet omne deo.
Hostis fac collum nostro subiisse triumpho
Numina tum Martis carmina saeva canam.
It is customary to have given worship to fierce Mars with this rite.
Thus a man pure of cunt is wholly pleasing to the god.
Make us lead the enemy under the yoke in our triumph
Then may I sing of the fierce powers of Mars in song.
This is the rite of comrades;
No unmanly cunt mars it;
Make us strong, O Mars
and subdue our enemies.
VI. Iacchus.
En templo resonat nunc mystica vannus Iacchi.
Accedas adyto, Sancta Columba, tuo.
Intra dum vates agitat thrysum pueriles
Vates; omne actum est; Sancta Columba, veni.
Lo! Now the mystical fab if Iacchus resounds in the temple;
Holy Dove, draw near your sanctuary.
While within the boyish buttocks the priest drives on the thyrsus;
All is done; O Holy Dove, come!
Behold from the temple resounds now the mystic fan of Iacchus.
May you approach your shrine, Holy Columba.
While the prophet shakes the thyrsus inside the boy -
prophet: everything has been done; Holy Columba. come!
VII Vesta.
Vesta beata adsis virgo da lampada nobis
Det semen dominus terque quaterque suo(ae).
Det demen lammam vitalem vimgue deorum,
Omnia quae redeant, Vesta beata, tibi.
O blessed Vesta, be present, O virgin, give us the torch.
Let the Lord give semen to his/her own three and four times.
Let the semen give the fire of life and the wine of the gods.
So that all things return to you, O blessed Vesta
Blessed Vesta be present, maiden, give a lamp to us.
May the master give semen three times and four times to his ...
May he give seed, a life flame and the strength of the gods.
Everything that returns, blessed Vesta, to you.
VIII. Priapus.
Semina nunc molli dat mentula saeva cinaedo.
Aspectu gaudens ipse Priapus adest.
Gaudens exaudi; nobis sit mentula semper
Et Rigida et roseo semen ab ore jacens.
Now the grim penis gives semen to the soft catamite.
Rejoicing at the sight Priapus himself is present.
Rejoicing, listen: may we always have a penis
Both stiff and shooting semen from its rosy mouth.
The interpretation of Mars, as favoring homosexual over heterosexual behavior is open to question; Mars was traditionally infatuated with Venus, and Rome, a city dedicated to Mars, was founded on the rape of women, not men.
Here follows Mr. Starr's learned comment on the Hymns:
"These Hymns by Aleister Crowley were written for use in Invocations, as can be seen from the preliminary account of THE PARIS WORKING:
'Thereby he being brought to the end of his resources, he bethought himself to pray to the Great Gods of Heaven that they should bestow favour upon him - for even as Job, he cursed God not at all - that he might make a new sacrifice unto the Magnum Opus.'
"This translation of these Hymns was made from a copy in Crowley's hand preserved in the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Although it is stated that the first Hymn was 'made with my friend the Art-Bachelor Walter Durantly', all the rough notes and the finished copy are in A.C.'s hand alone."
"A static analysis of the Hymns shows a mastery of rules of quantity surprising in a man who claimed that 'I had the makings of a sound classical scholar, but I could not bring myself to memorize Greek and Latin poetry... the rules of scansion meant nothing to me, because no one explained their connection with the way a poem should be read.'
(Autohagiography, I 92) A comparison of these Hymns with the 'Introductory Pinaric Ode' in Alexandra will demonstrate A.C.'s poetic abilities in Latin, a language he was capable of using for both serious and silly ends.
MARTIN P. STARR
Quot stellae tot sint, precor, Phalle,
Amores hujus Di vere universi.
anni 1913 e.v. Kal. Ian. A.d.I.
Notes of the Paris Working.
31/12/13. Preparations completed.
1/ 1/14. 1. Hermes as child: prevent rite from completion.
2/ 1/14. 2. As messenger. Identified with X(superscript"t").
3/ 1/14. 3. As force: He is semen, the vehicle of the Father.
Despises talk, all energy and action.
5/ 1/14. 4.
6/ 1/14. 5. Jupiter. Short message.
6. " L.T. failed at proper method.
7. Jupiter. Vision. Phalanx of eagles supporting Zeus and the 4 Beasts. Also Peacock. Revelation of the method of destroying the Universe.
11/ 1/14. 8. Hermes. Good result.
Week.off. L.T. ill.
19/ 1/14. 9. Jupiter as Bestower with hands full of gold.
20/ 1/14.10. " " Ammon - R.A., plumed and phallic. Astral Bells.
21/ 1/14.11. " " cone of white light. Message that O.S.V. and L.T. are arrows of fire against the slave gods. The sacrifice was fourfold. Astral Bells heard again. Revelation to O.S.V. of Method of Rite. Ditto to L.T. of present world as a vision of the future. His eyes are so dilated, He cannot read.
23/ 1/14.12. Jupiter. Results on material plane.
13. " Inspiration of O.S.V. to dance. Two Jataka stories.
14. Jupiter. Phenomana continued.
15. Jupiter atmosphere of the Temple now constantly rich mellow velvety and luminous even when closed. A green chameleom hued dancer Ahanael and other elementals constantly in attendance.
16. Jupiter. Additional rites ordained. O.S.V. inspired. The essence of the nature of Jupiter revealed. He obtained entire unity with God, muttering constantly "Sanguis et Semen".
2/ 2/14.17. Jupiter. O.S.V. again in Samadhi.
18. " Complete absorption of force.
19. " Sarcophagus of Ankh-f-n-Khonsu.
20. " Material results confirmed. O.S.V. inspects certain shakras.
8/ 2/14.21. Jupiter.
22. "A glow of stupendous success".
L.T. in his peculiar type of Samadhi.
23. Jupiter O.S.V. sees his shadow -- not a physical one: Light thereon by the God from the Altar or Cobiculum.
24. Jupiter. Calm and deep. The very aroma of earth in Spring. O.S.V. beheld the violet, formless
light of Dhyanic intensity.
General result
O.S.V. obtained the funds required, and was like unto Ammon-Ra all the summer.
L.T. became as Jupiter the hospitable, but had unworthy guests.
An unexpected result -- the Divine end of the stick was perhaps the war in the following August. See 0/2/ XI.