Liber L., Cap. 3
HERU-RA-HA
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
These five (or seven) words have several simultaneous interlocking meanings.
Chapters I and II opened with identifying (or caption) verses declaring the former to be “the manifestation of Nuit” (“to manifest” = ChVH, “Eve”) and the latter “the hiding of Hadit” (Greek AD = Hebrew ADM). Nuit and Hadit represent the two great complementary polarities of infinity. She “bends down;” He “lifts up” himself. Their union is in the Hexagram, the ensign of love, union, and the fulfillment of the Great Work. All of this is represented by the word “Abrahadabra.”
“Abrahadabra” — as we learned in I:20 (120!) — is “The key of the rituals,” a sobriquet of the Rosy Cross. It would be perfectly correct, I believe, to read this verse as “The Rosy Cross; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.”
In my meditation on Cap. I, v. 20, I summarized the main meanings of Abrahadabra. It is especially a word of eleven letters which unites the 5 with the 6, the Microcosm with the Macrocosm, AGAPH with ThELHMA. (“Had” in the midst of 11 letters = Had as the “secret centre” of Nuit.)
In Abrahadabra is the completion and fulfillment of the Great Work. [NOTE: 146 = consummata est, “It is finished,” and SVPh, “end, limit.”] It is especially the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (Abrahadabra is especially a symbol of the 5=6 equilibration. There is a different Word which reflects the equilibration of 8=3.) The Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is “the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.” Horus is an exterior image, or “visible object of worship,” of the Holy Guardian Angel, the Child (of the Great Mother and Great Father) who is part of the Magical Image of Tiphereth.
The exact form here — Ra Hoor Khut — is different from the form encountered previously, in Cap. I. For one thing, its numerical value is 10 less, 453. This is also the value of Behemoth (BHMVTh), the great land-monster of Hebrew mythology; and of nephesh chiah (NPhSh ChYH) “breath of life,” a term for the Animal Soul in its fullness, i.e. including the Creative Will (Chiah).
I also suspect that this orthography is intended to point us in a particular direction. The name “Ra-Hoor-Khuit” does not appear, as such, in any of the old Egyptian records; but there are some very similar names, especially Ra-Heru-Khuti or Ra-Heru-Khut. I think the Author of this Book is directing our attention to that particular archetype (even as mine own Angel led me, within the last few days, to review and relearn the material from which the following analysis is drawn).
Heru-Khuti is a very common name in the old writings. It is the Horakhte of which Fagan especially writes, properly translated “Horus of the Horizon.” Heru-Khuti or Horakhte (the Greek Hrumachis) is an especially mighty and wondrous manifestation of the Sun, virtually a Redeemer God. This name usually appears in combination with other names which specify the exact aspect of the Sun which is intended; for example, Tum-Heru-Khuti is the setting Sun.
Ra-Heru-Khuti (or Ra Hoor Khut) is, then, especially the rising Sun, the inner and natural experiences alike which can at once be represented by a Golden Dawn and the Rosy Cross. The newborn Sun, rapturously rising at dawn, is a stupendous emblem of this “reward.” When the “i” is added in the next verse, returning the value to 463, this symbol is again identified with Sushumna. It especially represents the translation of the nephesh chiah (453) into Sushumna (463). Here, in verse 1, the name is more specifically telling us that, in the dawning of this new Aeon of the Child, Hrumachis hath arisen (cf. verse 34).
I also recall Crowley’s observation that “reward” may have a double meaning; i.e. it may mean to “re-ward,” to set the wards again.
Thus, in this great Ritual of the Equinox of the Gods, the knell of the new Utterance hath sounded, the new Hierophant hath been seated upon His throne in the East (“throne” implies Binah as well; thus, His is a Supernal office of super-consciousness), and the universal temple is now to be re-warded — purified, consecrated, and sealed upon the reception of all the officers into their stations. The dictation (and verily the reading!) of this Third Chapter is a ritual whose guardians are now securely posted so that we may hear the promulgation of the Aeon — so to speak, the Hierophant’s lection of the occasion.
Abrahadabra is this warding, this sealing of the quarters by the interlocking triangles of Fire and Water, and by the Pentagram: 3-5-3 = [Water Triangle / Pentagram / Fire Triangle].
There is a clean, clear start at the beginning of this new chapter. The first two or three verses are setting up what is to follow. The function of this verse 2 is parallel the function of Chokmah in the Tree of Life, and it commences by declaring a fundamental duality: “There is division.”
In this verse, as well, there seem to be multiple simultaneous meanings (although only one primary current, which I shall get to in a bit). For example, “division” reflects that the God of this chapter is a Twin-God. The path of the Twins, Zayin, opens from the Sphere of Tiphereth just acknowledged (in verse 1) unto the Sphere of Binah, “home.” Whereas Nuit in Cap. I is the foundation or basis of nihilism, and Hadit in Cap. II of monism, so is Heru-Ra-Ha in Cap. III the foundation of a philosophy of dualism. Within Thelema, all three of these rivers of philosophy coexist, and our Qabalah shows how they are necessarily interrelated and coexistent.
But the primary meaning here, I am sure, is along other lines. “...the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all” (I:30). This verse, this entire chapter, simultaneously displays the Next Step for humanity collectively, and the Next Step for each of us individually. The enthroning of Horus is for the world what the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is for the individual. Throughout, we will see this parallel, repeatedly and (I think) exactly.
The “division” is the fundamental duality within us each, and especially the separation from the Holy Guardian Angel, the “wound” that is to be healed — the mystery of the Divine Twins in many lands, especially as treated by Jung and Hillman. The pain of this division “is as nothing,” yet, “the joy of dissolution” is “all.” It is unto the Reality that is Heru-Ra-Ha that the world must turn, that it must embrace; and it is unto the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, “the joy of dissolution,” that each must turn. This division is “hither homeward,” i.e. between “here” and “home,” the final goal (which, perhaps due to equations of “home” and “mother,” keeps appearing to me as Binah).
“there is a word not known.” Every word of this is pregnant with rich meaning! “there is a word” may mean only “a word exists;” but I believe it means “there is a word.” It is “there,” in or at the state called “home.” (Later: I see that AC agrees that “there” is positional, but he thinks it refers to verse 1. I will stick to my guns on this one, however.) This “word” is a teaching, a doctrine, a key — not, perhaps, literally verbal; in fact (“Spelling is defunct”), I am pretty sure no literal word (i.e. one make up of actual letters) is meant. It is silent Truth, Will in motion. It may be the “word not” (LA), as one of the ubiquitous “31” keys to this Book; but it is clearly “not known.” We do not have “knowledge” of it, in the sexual (union) sense. It is “there,” at “home,” and we have not yet united ourselves with this Logos of our being.
Note also that this is not a “Lost Word.” It would have been the easiest thing for Aiwass to have dictated, “the word is lost.” But this new Word has never yet been found! It is still unknown, unembraced, “undesired, most desirable.”
Again, the doctrine is very explicitly that of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
“Spelling is defunct.” At one level, this warns us that we should not play word games in trying to find this “word not known.” But I also agree with AC that the double use of “spelling” and “spell” in this verse is a clue, that the “spelling” which is defunct is the old way of executing spells.
(I must pause briefly in homage. I realize how powerfully AC’s views on these early verses of Cap. III imprinted me some 15 years ago [1979 E.V.]. He believed, probably correctly, that he really did not understand Cap. III; yet his pointers have served me very well in my own understanding. Many of these similarities in opinion I here note come not from consulting his commentaries now, but from the seeds they planted around 1979 E.V.)
“Spelling is defunct.” The old ways of composing letters and words (ideas, themes, forms) is outdated. “Defunct,” as AC suggested, means, “no longer able to function.” New modes of magical working, new formulae, now emerge.
“all is not aught.” I think I will skip this sentence for the rest of this lifetime! The word “aught” has the damnable quality (useful, however, in the metaphysics of Nuit) of meaning both “everything” (all) and “nothing.” In English this sentence either means “All is not all,” or “All is not nothing.” By Qabalah it gets even more confusing, with such equations as all = 61 = AYN (“nothing”), both equal to “aught” in meaning. The problem with this sentence is that it means so much — virtually everything! — that it means nothing at all. (God, I didn’t mean to do that!) Astounding! The sentence itself, by its very character of complex simultaneous meanings, enacts by the process of the sentence the literal meaning(s) of the sentence. Four words. Thirteen letters. A tremendously, marvelously complete and multilevel summation of Chapter I’s doctrine. [NOTE: AC, in the New Comment (N.C.), called this “an excessively neat cipher or hieroglyph of the great key to this Book.”] But why is it here? What has it to do with this verse in this chapter? My guess is that (by its incomprehensibility and simultneous internal self-contradiction and self-affirmation, if nothing else) it is intended to lift the mind out of Ruach into Neshamah, expanding on the effect of the immediately proceeding sentence, “Spelling is defunct.”
“Beware,” though expressed as a warning, simply means, “Be wary!” or “Be alert!” Aiwass is hollering, “Heads up!” It is an instruction in attentiveness, concentration, and mindfulness. “Hold” probably refers to self-discipline more than to halting or groping. Together, “Beware! Hold!” are an instruction in the method of yoga.
And the consequence — which is also our “assignment” — is the “raising” of “the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.” Among all its other interlocking meanings, this especially refers to the raising of the kundalini in the attainment of the K&C of the HGA, pictured in terms of this solar-phallic-Self-GOD (Ra-Hoor-Khu-it).
Ra-Hoor-Khuit (RA-HVVR-KVYT) = 463. This is the value of the Middle Pillar of the Tree of Life (Th = 400, S = 60, G = 3) and of Sushumna (SVShVMNA). This solar-phallic-Self-GOD is the Sushumna, who is our Middle Pillar.
This, then, is the fulfillment — and the uttering of the Word (this verse 2) — of which the redemptive and effulgent rising Sun of verse 1, Ra Hoor Khut, is the seed of promise.
“there is a word not known.” Compare this to the corresponding verse in Cap. II, “Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed.” In Cap. I, the corresponding verse is, “The unveiling of the company of heaven.” They are very similar, but with a progressive withdrawal from naked disclosure.
This is a very difficult verse. It requires that I address some of the recurrent themes of this chapter, especially that of war. My views on this are complex, because they change with the level of which we are speaking.
First, there is no mistaking the fact that, since 1904, this planet has been bathed in blood as it has not been since fully barbaric days — perhaps not even then, considering the vast population differences. Furthermore, these wars have had a powerful effect on the social, political, and ideological evolution of all cultures. Furthermore, this bloodshed has been triggered, with an amazing reliability, concurrent with the strongest steps of establishing the Law of Thelema in the world.
However, I think it a serious blunder to presume war as a necessary consequence of the energies of Horus. These wars are a result of the failure and weakness of humanity in the birthing of this new Aeon. Perhaps “labor pains” were inevitable, and the tantrums of an unruly child to be expected. Yet infants are usually only unruly in this way if given painful provocation.
The social and spiritual impetus which is Horus demands real change and real transformation. It is a certainty of the human constitution that if powerful inner forces are ignored or denied, these forces will exteriorize; and, not being consciously nurtured and directed, they will exteriorize in an immature and generally destructive fashion. It is only the ignorance of humanity, its failure to recognize these inner needs and forces, its stubborn and inertial resistance to real change, which has necessitated the pattern we have witnessed thus far — at least until about 1989 e.v.
(The commencement of open temple work by T.'.O.'.T.'. at the Spring Equinox, 1989 e.v., heralded the most extensive redrawing of the world map since at least World War II.)
This, by the way, is what must be true about all the so-called “prophecies” in this Book. Crowley was very excited about such things. To him, they were confirmations of the miracle of the transmission — as if the transmission itself were not miracle enough! However, I must regard them rather as “leaks.” The primary level of interpreting these verses must be in consciousness. Given the archetypal trueness, the same symbols will tend to “distill” into manifestation — that is, to exteriorize — to the extent that they are unfulfilled interiorly. The successful test of this premise is that, if it is true, there will be a tendency to have only negative or (consciously) undesirable prophecies exteriorize; and, in fact, it is primarily in the references to war, sacrifice, and sorrow, the tragedy of the Scarlet Woman, etc., that such outer manifestations of these “prophecies” appeared and were cited by AC. No one is bubbling over about the “good” prophecies being fulfilled. What of the “rich man from the west”? On the outer, everyone is still waiting for the golden shower!
The true warrior spirit blended with a redemptive or healing god must require that the battlefield is within ourselves, and that there is no opponent save ourselves.
In the present verse, it is the inner battle with self that must be our war. Also, in Hebrew characters, “war” is VAR = 207. That is, it is an anagram of AVR, “Light.” Horus is a God of Light, and it is as such that He is to inspire and mobilize us.
“Vengeance” is generally understood to be “the act or motive of punishing another in payment for a wrong or injury he has committed; retribution.” But it also means “with great violence or fury; excessively,” as in, “He acted with a vengeance.” Its root is the Latin vindicare, a most interesting word; for though it comes into English as “vindicate,” its full meaning is, “to lay a legal claim to; to protect, defend; to appropriate; to demand; to avenge, punish.”
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I have taken the intervening time since yesterday to examine further my resistance to the most literal interpretation of Ra-Hoor-Khuit as “a god of War and of Vengeance.” It appears the psychological necessity arises from the fact that (a) I feel inwardly deeply connected to the Horus archetype, and yet (b) I could never really accept my God being one of violence and cruelty which are ideas I fully relate to the usual meanings of “War and Vengeance.” That is one reason I became disillusioned with the Old Testament Jehovah, but could totally accept Krishna’s views on war which, for Arjuna, were perfectly Thelemic.
But I am not sure any usual meaning of “War and Vengeance” is put before us here. Why, for example, are they capitalized? (We are told twice in this Book that the “style of the letters” is important.) These cannot reasonably be the relatively petty human passions that humanity is all too eager to project onto its deities.
So, first: By mythic archetype I recognize that Horus, son of Osiris, was the avenger of his father’s murder.
It is completely clear that the highly energized and martial character of this God (whom I have previously equated with the kundalini and the primal power of the Sun) is to act “excessively” (i.e. “exceedingly;” see diary re: Cap. II, especially verse 71) and “with great fury.” There are no restrained half-measures typical of Him.
Also it is abundantly clear to me that the primary war we have each to wage is within our respective lives, our characters, our personae. That is the actual nature of the Great Work.
Nor shall I ever forget my tour of South-Central Los Angeles — the La Brea and Rodeo area in particular — the morning after the L.A. riots began after the first Rodney King verdict. With doors locked and radio off, I opened myself psychically to feel and enter into the collective reality of the rioting masses as I drove quietly and slowly through the riotous streets of scavengers. There, as the smoke rose (often black and always thick) from the burning buildings, it began to take shape in answer to my inner, stunned “Why?” The smoke rose and congealed massively above one building, into the gray-black form of a huge hawk, and its voice thundered through my being: “The God of Justice is a God of War; and for so great an injustice there must be an equally severe equilibration.” (Or words to that effect; see my diary of the time.)
And therein lies the key. Fear, severity, and brutality are the basest manifestations of Geburah. Its general nature is strength, and its highest manifestation is DYN, din, Justice. For so great an injustice there was demanded an equally great retribution — literally, “paying back” — and especially a compensating equilibration, and equalization of the distributed forces.
This is not the god of some petty human need for revenge, but the great God of Justice. “War and Vengeance,” closely examined, mean Light and Justice, Tiphereth and Geburah — Ra and Hoor.
After the foregoing it seems anticlimactic to attack the concluding sentence of this verse, “I shall deal hardly with them;” but it must be done.
This is an unusual use of “hardly,” though it is correctly employed in an adverbial form.
The common meaning of “scarcely, barely” hardly applies here.
It may also mean “in a hard way,” i.e. “harshly.”
A somewhat antiquated variant usage — which mostly survives as the contemporary word “hardily” — gives the meaning “strenuously.” The Middle English root hardli meant “boldly,” i.e. in a hardy fashion. This is the class of meanings that applies here.
What is the antecedent of “them”? I fear we have sloppily, unthinkingly ignored the grammatical integrity to easily accept the word as depicting the Great Vague Them — as in “us vs. them” — perhaps regarding it broadly as the nonspecific and generic enemies of Thelema or some sort of thing. Such ass-blind bigotry is, however, unworthy of a God — nor is it even good grammar!
Since the antecedent is not likely to be “War and Vengeance,” it likely reflects back to verse 2: the division, the ignorance, the “defunct spellings,” and all that is out of whack. These “wrongs,” i.e. “sins” (in the way this Book defines that word), will be dealt with in a strenuous and hardy fashion by the God of Light and of Justice.
These six verses form an apparent set. Like much of this Book, and especially like the first three verses of the present chapter, they are subject to simultaneous interpretation on several levels. That is, the essential principles here enunciated may exteriorize to various extents, in diverse areas of life, giving an apparency of multiple meanings.
I believe it is a waste of time for political science majors to scour the headlines for a geopolitical interpretation of these verses. Even if a clear “fit” were to be identified, it would be more or less irrelevant. The real and essential meaning must be the inmost; and any geopolitical consequence would be merely the working out of one particular example of a general principle.
The primary meaning, I believe, is very close to that which Fra. O.M. gave as his “mystical meaning” in the Old Comment (O.C.), to wit:
4. [Choose] one of the Cakkrams or nerve-centers in the spine.
5. Concentrate the mind upon it.
6. Prevent any impressions from reaching it.
7. I will describe a new method of meditation by which —
8. Ye shall easily suppress invading thoughts.
9. May mystically describe this method (e.g. Liber HHH, Section 3).
The deep meaning is a yogic meaning — with several possible variations on a theme. The battle being waged is not of Britain, but is fought within oneself over the integrity and fulfillment of Will.
The “island” may be a chakra, as AC speculated. Even more deeply, being a dry protrusion from a surrounding sea, it is a symbol of Hadit, a point of view within the Great Sea of Nuit. Here is the emergence, or coming forth, of a discrete individual. On a lower plane, it is the formulation of a distinctive ego on similar principles. It basically says, “Determine who you are.”
Translated into life, this also gives practical instruction in getting on. In a particular situation it says to get clear on what you want, what is your point of view or desired outcome or position; and stick to your guns! If it is in accord with True Will, Ra-Hoor-Khuit will fortify you with everything you need to succeed!
“Fortify it!” The ego must be strongly formulated — otherwise, it is a dysfunctional vehicle for the True Will.
The “enginery of war” (which — see verse 3 — especially means “enginery of Light”) is the strength, Light, fortification, power, and all other sources necessary to prosecute the objective. In a major way, we are each the “war-engine” — we are each, with our successive layers or vehicles, complex constructions, “wired” to execute when empowered by adequate energy.
v. 7: Again, “I will give you a LIGHT-engine.” (I also find it curious that 152, the number of this verse with respect to the entire Book, is the value of Concilio Firmata Dei, “Strengthened by God’s Counsel,” the motto of Jeanne d’Arc.)
v. 8: “The peoples” — not “The people” — at first implies a race war. The extra letter is no accident. Still, it clearly represents “the voice of the multitude,” the reactive and invading thoughts and idle thought-formations of which AC spoke. These are the more superficial aspects of our psyches. Our yoga must certainly take us deeper than this!
Ra-Hoor-Khuit — the Holy Guardian Angel — gives all of this help to those who persevere in the way of True Will. His “war-engine” is that inner aid which is best represented by the unfettered majesty of the Sun, before which Sempiternal Splendor the superficial and transient cannot stand.
Verse 9 may indeed describe the method — but it is more likely Liber Turris than Liber H. The “thus” in verse 9 is critical; for it confirms that whatever the preceding verses mean, they are the explication of Ra-Hoor-Khuit’s worship “about [His] secret house.” What is that “secret house” if not the heart, the inner and true Vault of the Adepti, the only true “sovereign sanctuary.” (AC’s New Comment on verse 9 slyly refers to a different “sovereign sanctuary.”)
N.B. Many of the English words in these 6 verses need to be looked up for more precise definitions, including etymological references.
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It has been a week and a half since I have worked on the verses of Chapter III of Liber Legis. There is an adjustment taking place. These verses are of an entirely different nature than those of either Cap. I or Cap. II. They are like nothing we have encountered before. And, despite my years of familiarity with this Book, and the particular advantage I might expect from the inner relationship I have forged or found with the Horus archetype, there is no great assistance.
It will, perhaps, be necessary for me to formally invoke Horus for assistance in this. Perhaps the Supreme Ritual will be helpful? [N.B. This was done on the following day, a Tuesday.]
Nuit and Hadit have, so to speak, formulated the two mating triangles; but in Cap. III we encounter Him who is their union in the Sacred Hexagram; and He is immeasurably different than these components. In this archetype of the Holy Guardian Angel there is a distinctive manifestation of one particular illimitable yet unextended aspect of Identity of Self-consciousness (Hadit) experiencing the universe (Nuit); and in doing so, it is both immeasurably limited by its discrete manifestation, and immeasurably empowered to fulfill its distinctive and irreplicable function or destiny.
So much in this Third Chapter seduces its witness to a literal interpretation. Furthermore, AC actualized, that is, materialized, many of these “prophecies” in his own life. Yet, even knowing this, I continue to be inwardly counseled that I am to view every part of this Book primarily at an archetypal level; and that its outward actualizations are to be valued merely as particular cases of a general meaning. Scanning forward, I find that this is difficult to do, in the verses immediately ahead, without feeling forced or artificial. Artifice is the last thing I want to bring to this particular work. It will be necessary for me to progress step by step, verse by verse; and my intellectual powers often will be the least useful of my tools until the point of actually framing what I learn into expressible language. This has frequently been true in the first two chapters; but I suspect it is to be considerably more so now. This path before me has very much the feeling of an initiation; of entering anew the Path of Darkness — the unknown and unguessed, the “undesired and most desirable.” May I walk this Path under the Shadow of the Wings of that One who goest ever before me, bearing the Light even when I know it not.
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On November 9 I left off with a note that many of the words in vv. 4-9 need to be looked up in a dictionary, with especial attention to their etymology, to seek subtler meanings than have been hitherto obvious. I do not expect to find much; but historically, this has often proven quite revelatory.
In verse 4, “island” has the broader and subtler meaning previously suspected. The word is used broadly in English to mean anything completely isolated in the way that an island is isolated. As such, it means any object of meditation whatsoever, and also is a distinctive metaphor of Hadit’s nature. Interestingly, the Indo-European root is akwa- (the Latin aqua) meaning “water.” All objects of attention, as all individual beings, are isolations within an infinite ocean of consciousness, the Qabalistic Great Sea.
The use of “dung” in verse 6 is interesting. If this is a conventional military usage, the dictionary does not reflect it. The word, of course, refers to feces; and its use as a verb means to pack manure around the base of a thing, as to fertilize a plant. (Its old root means “heap.”) From the Egyptian context of the Book’s dictation, we cannot fail to note the metaphor of the dung beetle, divinized as Khephra, God of Resurrection; and even without this metaphor, we certainly are led to see in this verse the employment of “excrement” — old and outworn forms and energies, qlippothic residue, dead and excreted patterns; in short, any of the refuse or “old shit” of our psyches — as protection, sustenance, fortification, and fertilizer for each new reality we are building. The Sword of Horus has come to sweep away the old; but every bit of the old has its use in tending the garden of new growth, the garden of the future. Nothing is lost but old forms; the essence is reconverted to new “plantings,” to new growth.
An “engine” is a special kind of “machine” — from Doric Greek machos, “contrivance or means.” A “machine” is thus something contrived — intentionally devised, as by a human mind — to be the “means” to make something happen. Its basic definition is, “any system, usually of rigid bodies, formed and connected to alter, transmit, and apply directed forces in a predetermined manner to accomplish a specific objective, such as the performance of useful work.” From the de-structed old patterns we are to draw raw resources to build up a new, more functional (and thus “better” structure which will serve our present ends in a far superior way.
An “engine” is a particular kind of machine which translates or converts energy into mechanical motion; or, more broadly, any agent, instrument, or means of accomplishment. Its purpose is accomplishment, movement, action. And, again, it is the result of intentional human contrivance, the use of our minds to formulate it; for the root of “engine” is ingenium.
It is a “war” engine = aur engine; so the raw stuff of which this is being built is L.V.X. (“War” comes from the Indo-European root wers-, meaning “to confuse,” i.e. to create a state of chaos and confusion. This brings the added meanings of a force which disables, for a time, the ordering and orderly function of the intellect; which, like the forces depicted in Atu XVI, The Tower, displaces our rigid control of definition for a time, so that we can actually experience what is before us and create or distill a new and superior Order. This is certainly a good description of the effect of this chapter’s construction on my mind. Briah must guide if we are to Understand.)
This “mechanism of confusion” (or “engine of Light”) is to be aimed at the general populace. The instruction is not only to shake up one’s own reality, but also, and perhaps especially, that of the world. Note that this is not by violence except violence of thought, not letting the comfortable rest in their comfort [NOTE: I am a great believer in the traditional job description of a priest — which I apply to any such spiritual guide — which says that the chief duty is to bring comfort to the discomfitted, and discomfort to the comfortable.], but shaking their foundation a little so that they come awake on their own. (An earthquake in California is often termed “nature’s wake-up call.”) The word “stand” in verse 8 means “withstand.”
“Lurk” is to lie in wait, to be still, to be concealed (a meditative method aspiring to Hadit). “Withdraw” is its complement, the pulling out of the concealed; but it also means to retire or isolate oneself. Thus, these two words again describe the basic practice of the yoga of stillness (even as they subtly describe a somewhat more active if esoteric methodology). They are the methods that depict what is really meant by Ra-Hoor-Khuit’s “Battle of Conquest.”
Throughout the day I have turned my attention many times to the words of this verse and the ones which follow it. In a way that is not true of Chapters I and II, this Chapter III is composed of words called into the service of a direct superconscious Message incapable of verbal expression. The metatext is as important as the literal text; that is, there is as much “message” in the indirect way that the lucidity and illucidity, the rhythm and texture, and other “invisible” characteristics interleave as there is in the actual words. In meditation, the heightened pitch of the superconscious Ideas that are bound into these words rebounds and rings as the clanging of steel on steel, high impact resounding.
Now is the Pillar established in the Void; now is Asi fulfilled of Asar; now is Hoor let down into the Animal Soul of Things like a fiery star that falleth upon the darkness of the earth.
Through the midnight thou art dropt, O my child, my conqueror, my sword-girt captain, O Hoor! and they shall find thee as a black gnarl’d glittering stone, and they shall worship thee. (Liber LXV, Cap. V, vv. 5-6)
On its surface, Cap. III is the most literal of the three; yet if that premise is followed, if the Chapter is held to a literal criterion, then the language balks and escapes. It leads the mind necessarily outside the bounds of any usual use of language, into a meta-language of its own. Yet to discuss it at all, even to record an outline of ideas for my own later reference, I must compel the ideas to incarnate as language, that I may constrain them to this page.
Turning to the words of verse 10, I am again confronted with the need to examine virtually every word, as well as the hidden assumptions behind them. Even in the first sentence is the phrase “stélé of revealing.” From our present position, four score and twelve years into the promulgation of the Law of Thelema, we may easily forget that, prior to this very verse, these words had never been strung together into a name or label.
Now, there appears no question of the allusion. In verse 19 we shall learn for sure that it is stélé 666 from the Boulaq Museum. Also, “stélé of revealing” is not given here as a proper name — it is not capitalized — so it is more descriptive than nominal. Why is this description given? AC never said. It seems so deeply ingrained in him that he never saw the need to explain it.
Did he, for example, see the dictation as an apokalupsis — literally a “revelation” — like that of St. John? His diary of just before the Vernal Equinox in ’04 e.v. refers to such a “revelation” coming through. Had this become his way of referring to the time? For the stélé is clearly that of the message of Liber Legis.
To “reveal” is to divulge or disclose, to make known; to bring to view, expose, show, etc. It is the “unveiling” that first appeared in Cap. I, v. 2, where the Body of Nuit — a higher octave of the same idea represented by Isis — is unveiled. Literally its Latin root revelare means “to pull back the veil.” By description, a “stélé of revealing” is a stélé of unveiling.
There is, however, a special theological meaning of “revelation” as “a manifestation of divine will or truth.” This seems to be the meaning really intended here.
Here enters also the English Qabalah Simplex; for by this method, revealing = 93. This is the “stélé of 93.” (stélé of revealing = 175.)
Thus far have we come merely identifying what is meant — that is, what may be the relevance — of the object intended.
We are to “get” the stélé and “set it in thy secret temple.” On the surface this seems to be an instruction to obtain a certain item and lock it away someplace. But I have long held — and now feel even more strongly that it is true — that this verse means something entirely different. In the verses preceding, we have been instructed in a process of isolative meditation, even of incarnation. In a practical sense, I believe this present verse means we are to take the image of the stélé and set it within the heart center (or, I suppose, whatever other “island” one has chosen). More deeply, of course, it means to place within the appropriate center the meaning, or inner reality, implied by the stélé.
This “secret temple” — possibly part of the “secret house” of verse 9 — has many more secrets. I was drawn to add up the word “thy” in Anglo-Hebraic script, ThY = 410. I believe this prompting was solely to alert me to the word for “secret temple,” MShKN, which also enumerates to 410. The phrase “in thy secret temple” is then BMShKNH = 417; and “in his secret temple” (no stranger a distortion that AC did with Cap. II, v. 78) is BMShKNV = 418.
The “secret house” of the God is essentially the same as the “secret temple” of the aspirant; and we are told that it “is already aright disposed.”
It is this sacred image, this Eidolon of Thelema, which, kept within the secret temple of an aspirant’s heart (or other “island”) is to be ever that person’s Kiblah, the “direction” he or she turns for regular worship. With perseverance in the practice it is readily discoverable that, “It shall not fade, but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day.” This is a far greater (and more useful) miracle than “the Trick of the Self-Revivifying Paint Sampler.”
The last sentence of the verse is a puzzle to me. The physical stélé has, of course, been closed in locked glass for years. However, if all the foregoing line of development is correct (as I have been inwardly advised it surely is), then there must be an at least metaphorical meaning here. “Lock” comes from a root leug- meaning “to bend, turn, wind,” hence lock (a strand of hair as much as a security apparatus), luxury, etc.; and it probably comes from the idea of “bending together” or “shutting.”
* * * * * * *
An examination of the definitions for “glass” produces no new clues except for very unfocused metaphors that the image is to be sealed (“locked”) yet its shield should be transparent (“glass”), and I am exceedingly skeptical of vague rubbish like this.
The Indo-European root of “glass” is ghel-, meaning “to shine.” I am reminded of words in other languages — like the English “clear” — which imply both transparency and lucidity. (Such ideas are closely associated with the Path of Beth; see The 32 Paths of Wisdom.) Derivations of ghel- refer to various colors, and to bright (especially yellow) materials of various types, hence such words as yellow, gull, gall, the Greek chloros (yellow-green; hence chloroform), gold, gleam, glimpse, glimmer, glisten, glass, glaze, glad, glee, glow, gloat, etc.
I must admit that this range of ideas, now laid out, does intrigue me much more with the idea that “glass” refers to a Mercurial idea (“Transparent or Clear Consciousness”). “Locked glass” then, is “fixed Mercury,” i.e. concentrated and firmly held thought. This gives a meaning totally consistent with everything in verses 3-10.
In conclusion, I feel strongly that this verse overall describes a method of worship for all, wherein the most sacred visual image of Thelema, a stélé summarizing the key features of Liber Legis, is held within an interior center (“island” or “secret temple”) such as the heart; the worshipper regularly turns in meditation toward this “Kiblah”; the image, rather than fading, is daily reinforced, becomes more lustrous and vivid, “new colour” returning to it day after day; and the enclosure of this image in firm and concentrated thought produces the only necessary or real “proof to the world” of Thelema. This “proof” is the way that the teachings infuse and inform the soul of the worshipper, and the consequences thereof. For it is ultimately the God of Silence who is the God of Strength.
I now note that AC, in the N.C., also doubts the literal meaning of this verse. He comments that, “The language is here so obvious and so inane that one is bound to suspect a deeper sense. It sounds as bad as ‘the last winking Virgin’ or St. Janarius.” (2/17/01 EV)
The numerical positioning of this verse in this Book overwhelms almost every other detail, and consumes the structural details of its words in a subsuming and purifying fire.
First, as the sixth verse in the present ten-verse series (vv. 151-160), it is a verse of Tiphereth: “Ra-hoor-Khu is with thee.” The Holy Guardian Angel is here, with you now. Horus is established as the governing spiritual force in the world.
But, beyond that, this is verse 11 of the present chapter, and verse 156 of the entire Book. Eleven is the characteristic nunmber of Nuit; 156 is the value of “Babalon,” the name of “the Victorious Queen” (This numeration appears in either Greek or Hebrew, which is strong evidence, incidentally, that Enochian words must be rightly enumerated either as Greek or as Hebrew.) This verse is, therefore, the manifestation of Nuit in Her aspect as Bbaln, the “secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me” (CCXX, 1:22).
The entire verse radiates with the characteristic qualities of Babalon. I know of no verse in the whole of Liber Legis that is so characteristic of the heart of The Vision & the Voice, or of Liber Cheth, or of the classic Babalon communications from the Dee and Kelly source works. (See also the [...] Ceremony of Temple of Thelema.) Her mark — her actual scent — is all over this verse like civet on a cat in heat.
This being said, I am hesitant to peer too deeply into the verse, to try to explain it too concretely. If my perceptions so far are correct, it would require a Master of the Temple 8=3 to Understand it. Normally I would, therefore, content myself with a rational analysis and let the deeper levls evolve in their own time; but for a verse such as this, such rational opinions could be little more than the dung of Choronzon. It is the feeling that must saturate my being here, not the thoughts; and the image presented by Nesahamah to confront the babbling Ruach is like an impassioned woman who grabs her lover by the collar or throat and, pulling him to her, exclaims, “Shut up and come to me now,” then proceeds to explain to him — or, more likely, show him — what she can do.
Having rested a long time in Her embrace, and with my Chiah still worshiping before Her Areopagus (which is that temple of Ares upon a certain hill of Athens), I now record what reason is presently given to know.
“This shall be your only proof.” The antecedent is whatever was meant by “proof to the world” in the verse preceding. I believe it to be the result of Thelemic worship, both in terms of inner aspiration and outer living, which are necessarily linked. The true “proof to the world” is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and its reflection into the other microcosm which is human society, regenerated by the Word Thelema. (Yet this latter transformation can only occur as a consequence of individuals perfecting the former.)
This “only proof” is the “conquering” which “is enough.” The conquest is of onself. (The word “Conquer,” very martial in style, ultimately means only to be victorious, to win; especially to gain or secure control or dominion.) The word comes from the Latin conquierere, “to search for, procure, win,” from quaerere, “to seek.” That is, “conquest” is a quest (cf. “question”), the chief metaphor of the Great Work.
The God of Conquest, however, forbids argument. Thelema is not a proselytizing religion. Verbal and intellectual disputes are specially foreign to the whole idea. Similarly, the real sanctuaries of initiation have traditionally issued manifestos proclaiming who they are, but have never indulged in debate beyond the clarification of their nature annd principles, nor proselytized for members.
Even this present “commentary,” often couched in the form of rational development of ideas, is not intended to be a debate nor to contend, but merely to trace the paths whereby certain ideas have precipitated into the intellectual plane, and how they can thereby become usefully embodied in words and nurtured in our teachings. It is a record of a particular birth, not a claim to know the only way to build a baby!
Although the Latin arguere meant “to make clear, assert, prove,” the English cognate is derived through the intermediary of the French arguer which means, “to blame!” This is idea that Aiwass forbids through the persona of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
In reference to the verses preceding, it means simply, “Don’t even think you know what I’m talking about. Just take it all down like I said, and it will be clear (to someone) in time.”
Aiwass is giving the same advice that found it say into Cap. I of Liber O. In this Third Chapter there are portrayed things both of great horror and of great beauty. We should not, however, ascribe to anything soever the importance it first appears to have.
“Don’t go rushing off towrad the good stuff you think is promised! And don’t be all in a panic about this horrible-sounding stuff. Cool out! You’re taking it all wrong, man. You ain’t gettin’ what I’m saying.”
Besides this, there is, of course, the point that, even if we did understand these verses correctly, we should have a certain detachment, giving way neither to fear nor to lust of result.
“...know not this meaning all (AL) is, of course, one of the Frater Achad keys, invoking to LA [Lamed-Aleph, lo] = AL [Aleph-Lamed, el] complement — which veils a secret, or rather a class of secrets, subsequently related to the 7=4 Grade of A.'.A.'. and, by [symbolic] correspondence, to the 7° of Temple of Thelema. (4/3/95 EV)
The antithesis, on the Tree of Life, of Mercy (Chesed) is Strength or Severity (Geburah). The initial wording is a little strange, but it clearly warrants a Geburan attitude, not that of Chesed.
This verse especially makes clear why we should not “quote scripture” out of context. The verses of this Book are connected and interrelated. The present verse is especially the antidote for the timorous and cowering behavior addressed by the prior verse: Act with Strength! Express your full aggressive vitality!
A fundamentalist reading of this verse would take it as an injunction to “Kill and torture,” and so forth. Although I have no easy explanation for my point of view, I simply renounce this meaning. (On further thought, I see that the explanation for my views is the more fundamental key of Thelema. None of us has the right to infringe another’s will, as by murder.) I suspect layers of meaning I have not tapped. Mostly, I just regard it as an injunction to let loose and ACT rather than brood in your timid closet.
AC, in the O.C., sees this verse as supporting the process of natural selection, and denouncing the artificial protection of the unfit. (4/3/95 EV)
This is verse 165 of the entire Book. 165 = NEMO (Nun Heh Mem A’ayin), a generic name for the Master of the Temple, 8=3. This is an appropriate verse for this number!
This verse especially goes with the preceding verse, and shows the frailty of logical exploration in the face of the elegant mystery of 718; solved eventually not by reason (despite its utterly rational nature) but by a seeming fluke such as startles by its inspiring electricity.
Because (by English Simplex = 56) was previously used in this Book as a variant name of Da’ath.
This present verse is a sublime ridicule of Reason. Even a child knows that the only answer to “Why” is “Because!” And here it is because Because ain’t good enough!
“Why” — Vav Heh Yod, by transliteration — is the Trigrammaton spelled qlippothically backwards. That is, it is an observation to the averse aspect of the Divine Name, manifest only to the plane of Yetzirah. [NOTE TO SELF: Develop it, though, also as the Pathway to its real answer — Vav, Heh, Yod as an ascent through the planes, from pure reason (Vav) to Briah (Heh), etc.]
Why is Because a “he”? Why is “he” “not there”? Why “again”? The obvious answer is — Because! (4/3/95 EV)
A method of talismanic magick, pure and simple, based on the animal sacrifice of cockroaches — something the whole family can enjoy!
But notice that we should think carefully about who are enemies are — whether they can ever be outside of us the way they are within us. (AC properly references Liber 418, 1st Aethyr, last long paragraph, for the rightr idea. (4/3/95 EV)
“Brothers,” in Hebrew, is AChYM, echiym = 59, the number of this verse.
Our comradeship, or kinship within Thelema, is with “the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty.” This is what we intrinsically are, the standard to which our young aspire. It is among such others — beings of strength and honor and integrity, with the courage to live their lives wholly and by their own sure knowledge of their course — that we belong, that we feel at home. With such as these shall we stand if need be, shoulder to shoulder, facing any common foe to that Life of Liberty, that Light of Love, which we hold so dear. (4/3/95 EV)
So simple. I do not want to spoil it. It promises success of the Book’s purposes. As a Word to AC from his own HGA, it is the simple assurance that cuts directly to the core and, coming with the divine Voice, wounds all doubts beyond recovery no matter how much they bitch and moan thereafter.
And it is the same promise to each of us. Discovery your True Will. Do that and nothing else. And there is success.
The promise of success composes the final Chesed verse of the Book. (4/3/95 EV)
Aiwass is speaking wholly as though Heru-Ra-Ha. This vast, beautiful, majestic image of the God has always been stunningly clear to me. The verse has always had a powerful effect on me, as do most of those here at the end of all.
It is interesting that his nemyss shrouds, or veils, the Body of Nuit, as if to reiterate that He is the “visible object of worship.” Note, though, that Aiwass — nasme beginning with A’ayin — would be expected to have an indigo nemyss.
If indigo is not exactly meant, but rather a kind of bluish “ultra-violet,xxq2 it is then the ambient aura that can be seen, at times with the physical eye, where Heru-Ra-Ha is properly invoked. Heru-Ra-Ha, of course, is both Harpocrates, the Lord of Silence, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the Lord of Strength. Furthermore, 215 (the number of this verse with respect to the entire Book) is the value of silentium viresque, “Silence & Strength.” 70 is the value of LYL, “night.”
This verse is the last Geburah verse of the Book. (4/3/95 EV)
All of the verses around it appear to be the words of Heru-Ra-Ha. This, though, appears to be directed to the Twin God. Thus taken, it says that the hour is “nigh at hand” of the “twin warriors” RHK and HPK. They are “about the pillars of the world,” i.e., at the threshold, between the pillars of its portal, prepared to enter in and take their ruling place. It is as though Crowley — or even Aiwass, the minister of HPK — suddenly turned to address them.
This is the 216th verse of the Book. 216 is a number very sacred to this god. It is 6 x 6 x 6 (666!), the solidification of sunlight, the entering in of these representatives of the new solar current with manifestation in this world. It is GBVRH, “strength,” and ARYH, “Leo, lion,” thus a perfect glyph of this solar-martial God. And it is more — which I cannot write because it is under an obligation I share with others.
Truly is Heru-Ra-Ha the Twin-God of the sun and of all polaritries, “Lord of the Light and of the Darkness.”
This verse 216 is the last Tiphereth chapter of the Book. (Updated 8/21/09 EV)
This has been taken, usually, to mean that the 65 pages of the original ms. of Liber Legis are to be so arranged. However, I feel certain this is not what it means.
The “sheets” are not of Liber Legis — Sepher TORA — but of Nuit’s book, Sepher TARO or ROTA (see I:57). The “sheets” are the individual pages or trumps of the Tarot. The correct arrangement is given in Liber Tav, all laid out. This is a tremendously important format for the correct study of the Hebrew letters and the corresponding trumps.
BYHOLD {Heb} = 121 or 11 x 11, a key to Nuit and, perhaps, confirmation that “Her Book” is intended.
This Mystery of the Pages of the Book comprises the last Hod verse of Liber L. (4/3/95 EV)
Abrahadabra is the completion of the Great Work. It is for this reason that I conclude almost every ritual either by declaring “Abrahadabra!xxq2 or by nocking 3-5-3. This is a declaration that all of the work that has gone before, no matter what its form or immediate purpose, is ultimately devoted to the One Work which is the Great Work.
Abrahadabra is the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. It is a formula of samyama.
Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon, is the ending of the words, for no other words are needed ,all other words are futile, and the the faculty of speech is rendered mute.
In this last verse — this Malkuth verse of the Tav segment, wherein all reaches its fulfillment and conclusion — The Book of the Law is written. This is obvious. It is also Concealed, because it is a Book of Concealed Mysteries. These are concealed not because of blinds or obscurities, but because each must discover them for himself or herself.
The first two chapters had the purpose of manifesting Nuit and hiding Hadit. Now the Book itself has, as well, been both manifest and hidden, “Written and Concealed,” with all the same meanings that were given to these words before.
All this is sealed with the words, Aum Ha. Crowley was explicit that this Aum (as all other occurrences in the Book) was to be transliterated Aleph A’ayin Mem. I agree. It thus enumerates to 111. Ha (Heh Aleph) enumerates to 6. These are two of the four great numbers of the Sun, and ha is the Sanskrit word for “sun.” The product is 666, the supreme number of Sol, and a number significant to Crowley. Some would regard it as the signature of the actual author. Aum Ha is as surely the sempiternal Sun as is Shemesh Olam.
Even spelling Aum alternately as Aleph Vav Mem, the whole (AVM HA) is then equal to 53, the value of ChMH, “the Sun,” among other important words.
There is another interpretation I may not share other than with initiates of Temple of Thelema, but have given in Acolyte Explanatory Lecture No. 3. It is based, in part, on a more literal reading of HA [Hebrew]. This alternate interpretaiton is especially appropriate for this present verse numbered 220. It is roughly synonymous with a certain phrase enumerating to 718, the notariqon of which is X.A.A.
Aum is the first letter of the (devanagari) Sanskrit alphabet, as ha is the name of the last letter. Aum Ha, therefore, is symbolically identical with the Greek Alpha kai Omega, the First and Last.
I note further that aum is a single word composed of three distinct modifications of the breath, even as this Book is composed of three distinct chapters as modifications of one Word. Ha is the one breath that is modified in aum, just as its meanings of Sun and Spirit are the One Radiance which is modified into the three distinctive chaptesr’ messages.
Ha is also the third syllable of the name Heru-Ra-Ha, and has the meanings already discussed. The Book ends on Ha, the solar-spirit breath, and even its last letter, Aleph (the Hebrew cognate of (, is the purest, most unconditioned form thereof, the Silence or Zero into which the Word of Aiwass withdraws.
The first two letters of the Book, as the last two, are thus “Ha.” To put it differently, the entire Book is contained between the letters H-a. Similarly, the Pentateuch is all contained beween its first letter, Beth, and its last letter, Lamed, spelling LB, “heart;” so it is said that the whole of the Five Books of Moses (that earlier “Book of the Law,” or Sepher ha-Torah) are contained within the heart (and within 32, the number of “Paths of Wisdom” in the Hebrew system). Similarly, we can say that the whole Book of the Law is contained in the Spirit (HA), and that the nature of that Spirit is solar (HA, “Sun” = 6). Yet HA is also the spelling of the letter Heh in Atziluth; therefore, 6 must be seen as the Mystic Number of Binah, the sum of 1-3, and Ha represents The Star and the all-embracing Mother on the highest spiritual plane. (11/9/03 EV)