This paper was written, independently of any idea of its
present place in this Book, by The
Beast 666 Himself, in the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu,
Sicily. No further apology is offered for
any repetitious of statements made in previous chapters.
I
Certain very serious questions have arisen with regard to
the method by which this Book was
obtained. I do not refer to those doubts --real or
pretended --which hostility engenders, for all
such are dispelled by study of the text; no forger could
have prepared so complex a set of
numerical and literal puzzles as to leave himself (a)
devoted to the solution for years after,
(b) baffled by a simplicity which when desclosed leaves
one gasping at its profundity, (c)
enlightened only by progressive initiation, or by
"accidental" events apparently disconnected
with the Book, which occurred long after its publication,
(d) hostile, bewildered, and careless
even in the face of independent testimony as to the power
and clarity of the Book, and of the
fact that by Its light other men have attained the
loftiest summits of initiation in a tithe of the
time which history and experience would lead one to
expect, and (e) angrily unwilling to
proceed with that part of the Work appointed for him
which is detailed in Chapter III, even
when the course of events on the planet, war, revolution,
and the collapse of the social and
religious systems of civilization, proved plainly to him
that whether he liked it or no, Ra Hoor
Khuit was indeed Lord of the Aeon, the Crowned and
Conquering Child whose innocence
meant no more than inhuman cruelty and wantonly senseless
destructiveness as he avenged
Isis our mother the Earth and the Heaven for the murder
and mutilation of Osiris, Man, her
son. The War of 1914-18 and its sequels have proved even
to the dullest statesmen, beyond
wit of even the most subtly sophistical theologians to
gloze, that death is not an unmixed
benefit either to the individual or the community : that
force and fire of leaping manhood are
more useful to a nation than cringing respectability and
emasculate servility; that genius goes
with courage, and the sense of shame and guilt with
"Defeatism."
For these reasons and many more I am certain, I the
Beast, whose number is Six Hundred
and Sixty Six, that this Third Chapter of the Book of the
Law is nothing less than the authentic
Word, the Word of the Aeon, the Truth about Nature at
this time and on this planet. I wrote it,
hating it and sneering at it, secretly glad that I could
use it to revolt against this Task most
terrible that the Gods have thrust remorselessly upon my
shoulders, their Cross of burning
steel that I must carry even to my Calvary, the place of
a skull, there to be eased of its weight
only that I be crucified thereon. But, being lifted up, I
will draw the whole world unto me; and
men shall worship me the Beast, Six Hundred and
Three-score and Six, celebrating to Me
their Midnight Mass every time soever when they do that
they will, and on Mine altar slaying
to Me that victim I most relish, their Selves; when Love
designs and Will executes the Rite
whereby (an they know it or not) their God in man is
offered to me The Beast, their God, the
Rite whose virtue, making their God of their throned
Beast, leaves nothing, howso bestial,
undivine.
On such lines my own "conversion" to my own
"religion" may take place, though as I write
these words all but twelve weeks of Sixteen years are
well nigh past. (Written in I920, e.v.)
II
This long digression is but to explain that I, myself,
who issue Liber Legis, am no fanatic
partisan. I will obey my orders (III, 42) "Argue
not, convert not;" even though I shirk some
others. I shall not deign to answer sceptical enquiries
as to the origin of the Book. "Success
is your proof." I, of all men on this Earth reputed
mightiest in Magick, by mine enemies more
than by my friends, have striven to lose this Book, to
forget it, defy it, criticise it, escape it,
these nigh sixteen years; and It holds me to the course
It sets, even as the Mountain of
Lodestone holds the ship, or Helios by invisible bonds
controls his planets; yea, or as
BABALON grips between her thighs the Great Wild Beast she
straddles!
So much for the sceptics; put your heads in the Lion's
mouth; so may you come to certainty,
whether I be stuffed with straw!
But, in the text of the Book itself, are thorns for the
flesh of the most ardent swain as he
buries his face in the roses; some of the ivy that clings
about the Thyrse of this Dionysus is
Poison Ivy. The question arises, especially on examining
the original manuscript in My
handwriting: "Who wrote these words?"
Of course I wrote them, ink on paper, in the material
sense; but they are not My words,
unless Aiwaz be taken to be no more than my subconscious
self, or some part of it: in that
case, my conscious self being ignorant of the Truth in
the Book and hostile to most of the
ethics and philosophy of the Book, Aiwaz is a severely
suppressed part of me. Such a theory
would further imply that I am, unknown to myself,
possessed of all sorts of praeternatural
knowledge and power. The law of Parsimony of Thought (Sir
W. Hamilton) appears in
rebuttal. Aiwaz calls Himself "the minister of
Hoor-parr- Kraat," the twin of Heru-Ra-Ha. This is
the dual form of Horus, child of Isis and Osiris. If so,
the theorist must suggest a reason for
this explosive yet ceremonially controlled manifestation,
and furnish and explanation of the
dovetailing of Events in subsequent years with His word
written and published. In any case,
whatever "Aiwaz" is, "Aiwaz" is an
Intelligence possessed of power and knowledge absolutely
beyond human experience; and therefore Aiwaz is a Being
worthy, as the current use of the
word allows, of the title of a God, yea verily and amen,
of a God. Man has no such fact
recorded, by proof established in surety beyond cavil of
critic, as this Book, to witness the
existence of and Intelligence praeterhuman and
articulate, purposefully interfering in the
philosophy, religion, ethics, economics and politics of
the Planet.
The proof of His praeterhuman Nature --call Him a Devil
or a God or even an Elemental as
you will --is partly external, depending on events and
persons without the sphere of Its
influence, partly internal, depending on the concealment
of (a) certain Truths, some
previously known, some not known, but for the most part
beyond the scope of my mind at the
time of writing, (b) of an harmony of letters and numbers
subtle, delicate and exact, and (c) of
Keys to all life's mysteries, both pertinent to occult
science and otherwise, and to all the
Locks of Thought; the concealment of these three galaxies
of glory, I say, in a cipher simple
and luminous, but yet illegible for over Fourteen years,
and translated even then not by me,
but by my mysterious Child according to the Foreknowledge
written in the Book itself, in
terms so complex that the exact fulfilment of the
conditions of His birth, which occurred with
incredible precision, seemed beyond all possibility, a
cipher involving higher mathematics,
and a knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek and Arabic Qabalahs
as well as the True Lost Word
of the Freemason, is yet veiled within the casual
silk-stuff of ordinary English words, nay,
even in the apparently accidental circumstance of the
characters of the haste-harried scrawl
of My pen.
Many such cases of double entendre, paranomasia in one
language or another, sometimes
two at once, numerical-literal puzzles, and even (on one
occasion) an illuminating connexion
of letters in various lines by a slashing scratch, will
be found in the Qabalistic section of the
Commentary. (In preparation.)
III
As an example of the first method above mentioned, we
have, Cap. III, "The fool readeth this
Book--and he understandeth it not." This has a
secret reverse-sense, meaning:
The fool (Parzival = Fra. O.I.V.V.I.O.) understandeth it
(being a Magister Templi, the Grade
attributed to Understanding) not (i.e. to be `not').
This Parzival, adding to 418, is (in the legend of the
Graal) the son of Kamuret, adding to
666, being the son of me The Beast by the Scarlet Woman
Hilarion. This was a Name chosen
by her when half drunk, as a theft from Theosophical
legend, but containing many of our
letter-number Keys to the Mysteries ; the number of the
petals in the most sacred lotus. It
adds to 1001, which also is Seven times Eleven times
Thirteen, a series of factors which may
be read as The Scarlet Woman's Love by Magick producing
Unity, in Hebrew Achad. For 7 is
the number of Venus, and the secret seven-lettered Name
of my concubine B A B A L O N is
written with Seven Sevens, thus:
77 + ((7+7)/7) + 77 = 156, the number of BABALON.
418 is the number of the Word of the Magical Formula of
this Aeon. (666 is I, The Beast.)
Parzival had also the name Achad as a Neophyte of A.A.,
and it was Achad whom Hilarion
bare to Me. And Achad means Unity, and the letter of
Unity is Aleph, the letter of The Fool in
the Tarot. Now this Fool invoked the Magical Formula of
the Aeon by taking as his Magick, or
True, Name one which added also to 418.
He took it for his Name on Entering the Gnosis where is
Understanding, and he understood
it--this Book--not. That is, he understood that this Book
was, so to speak, a vesture or veil
upon the idea of "not." In Hebrew
"not" is LA, 31, and AL is God, 31, while there
is a third 31
still deeplier hidden in the double letter ST, which is a
graphic glyph of the sun and moon
conjoined to look like a foreshortened Phallus,
thus--when written in Greek capitals. This S or
Sigma is like a phallus, thus, [Greek], when writ small ;
and like a serpent or spermatozoon
when writ final, thus, [Greek]. This T or Theta is the
point in the circle, or phallus in the kteis,
and also the Sun just as C is the Moon, male and female.
But Sigma in Hebrew is Shin, 300, the letter of Fire and
of the "Spirit of the Gods" which
broods upon the Formless Void in the Beginning, being by
shape a triple tongue of flame,
and by meaning a tooth, which is the only part of the
secret and solid foundation of Man that
is manifested normally. Teeth serve him to fight, to
crush, to cut, to rend, to bite and grip his
prey; they witness that he is a fierce, dangerous, and
carnivorous animal. But they are also
the best witness to the mastery of Spirit over Matter,
the extreme hardness of their substance
being chiselled and polished and covered with a
glistening film by Lefe no less easily and
beautifully than is does with more naturally plastic
types of substance.
Teeth are displayed when our Secret Self --our
Subconscious Ego, whose Magical Image is
our individuality expressed in mental and bodily form
--our Holy Guardian Angel --comes forth
and declares our True Will to our fellows, whether to
snarl or to sneer, to smile or to laugh.
Teeth serve us to pronounce the dental letters which in
their deepest nature express
decision, fortitude, endurance, just as gutturals suggest
the breath of Life itself free-flowing,
and labials the duplex vibrations of action and reaction.
Pronounce T,D,S or N, and you will
find them all continuously forcible exhalations whose
difference is determined solely by the
position of the tongue, the teeth being bared as when a
wild beast turns to bay. The sibilant
sound of S or Sh is our English word, and also the Hebrew
word, Hush, a strongly aspirated
S, and suggests the hiss of a snake. Now this hiss is the
common sign of recognition between
men when one wants to call another's attention without
disturbing the silence more than
necessary. (Also we have Hist, our Double letter.) This
hiss means: "Attention! A man!" For in
all Semitic and some Aryan languages, ISh or a closely
similar word means "a man." Say it:
you must bare your clenched teeth as in defiance, and
breathe harshly out as in excitement.
Hiss! Sh! means "Keep silent! there's danger if you
are heard. Attention! There's a man
somewhere, deadly as a snake. Breathe hard; there's a
fight coming."
This Sh is then the forcible subtle creative Spirit of
Life, fiery and triplex, continous, Silence of
pure Breath modified into sound by two and thirty
obstacles, as the Zero of Empty Space,
though it contain all Life, only takes form according (as
the Qabalists say) to the two and
thirty "Paths" of Number and Letter which
obstruct it.
Now the other letter, Theta or Teth, has the value of
Nine, which is that of AVB, the Secret
Magick of Obeah, and of the Sephira Yesod, which is the
seat in man of the sexual function
by whose Magick he overcomes even Death, and that in more
ways than one, ways that are
known to none but the loftiest and most upright
Initiates, baptised by the Baptism of Wisdom,
and communicants at that Eucharist where the Fragment of
the Host in the Chalice becomes
whole. (The Chalice is not presented to laymen. Those who
understand the reason for this
and other details of the Mass, will wonder at the
perfection with which the Roman Communion
has preserved the form, and lost the substance, of the
Supreme Magical Ritual of the True
Gnosis.)
This T is the letter of Leo, the Lion, the house of
heaven sacred to the Sun. (Thus also we
find in it the number 6, whence 666). And Teth means a
Serpent, the symbol of the magical
Life of the Soul, lord of "the double wand" of
life and death. The serpent is royal, hooded,
wise, silent save for an hiss when need is to disclose
his Will; he devours his tail --the glyph
of Eternity, of Nothingness and of Space; he moves
wavelike, one immaterial essence
travelling through crest and trough, as a man's soul
through lives and deaths. He straightens
out; he is the Rod that strikes, the Light-radiance of
the Sun or the Life radiance of the
Phallus.
The sound of T is tenuous and sharply final; it suggests
a spontaneous act sudden and
irrevocable, like the snake's bite, the loin's snap, the
Sun's stroke, and the Lingam's.
Now in the Tarot the Trump illustrating this letter Sh is
and old form of the Stele of Revealing,
Nuith with Shu and Seb, the pantacle or magical picture
of the old Aeon, as Nuit with Hadit
and Ra Hoor Khuit is of the new. The number of this Trump
is XX. It is called the Angel, the
messenger from Heaven of the new Word. The Trump giving
the picture of T is called
Strength. It shows the Scarlet Woman, BABALON, riding (or
conjoined with) me The Beast ;
and this card is my special card, for I am Baphomet,
"the Lion and the Serpent," and 666, the
"full number" of the Sun. (The "magical
numbers" of the Sun are, according to tradition, 6,
(6
x 6)=36, (666 / 111, and [epsilon] (1-36)=666.)
So then, as Sh, XX, shows the Gods of the Book of the Law
and T, XI, shows the human
beings in that Book, me and my concubine, the two cards
illustrate the whole Book in pictorial
form.
Now XX + XI = XXXI, 31, which we needed to put with LA,
31 and AL, 31, that we might have
31 x 3 = 93, the Word of the Law, THELEMA [in greek],
Will, and help, Love which under Will,
is the Law. It is also the number of Aiwaz, the Author of
the Book, of the Lost Word whose
formula does in sober truth "raise Hiram," and
of many another close-woven Word of Truth.
Now then this Two-in-One letter [sun, moon], is the third
Key to this Law; and on the
discovery of that fact, after years of constant seeking,
what sudden splendours of Truth,
sacred as secret, blazed in the midnight of my mind.!
Observe now: "this circle squared in its
failure is a key also." Now I knew that in the value
of the letters of ALHIM, "the Gods," the
Jews had concealed a not quite correct value of [pi], the
ratio of a circle's circumference to its
diameter, to 4 places of decimals: 3.1415; nearer would
be 3.1416. If I prefix our Key, 31,
putting [sun, moon], Set or Satan, before the old Gods, I
get 3.141593, [pi] correct to Six
places, Six being my own number and that of Horus the
Sun. And the whole number of this
new Name is 395, which on analysis yields and astounding
cluster of numerical "mysteries."
(Shin 300 Teth 9 Aleph 1 Lamed 30 He 5 Yod 10 Mem 40.
Note that 395 being the
corrections required! Note also the 31 and the 93 in this
value of [pi].)
Now for an example of the `paronomasia' or pun. Chapter
III, 17---"Ye, even ye, know not this
meaning all." (Note how the peculiar grammar
suggests a hidden meaning.) Now YE is in
Hebrew Yod He, the man and the woman; The Beast and
BABALON, whom the God was
addressing in his verse. Know suggests `no' which gives
LA, 31; `not' is LA, 31, again, by
actual meaning; and `all' refers to AL, 31, again.
(Again, ALL is 61, AIN, "nothing.")
V
Then we have numerical problems like this. "Six and
fifty. Divide, add, multiply and
understand." 6 / 50 gives 0.12, a perfect
glyph-statement of the metaphysics of the Book.
The external evidence for the Book is accumulating
yearly: the incidents connected with the
discovery of the true spelling of Aiwaz are alone
sufficient to place it beyond all quaver of
doubt that I am really in touch with a Being of
intelligence and power immensely subtler and
greater than aught we can call human.
This has been the One Fundamental Question of Religion.
We know of invisible powers, and
to spare! But is there any Intelligence or Individuality
(of the same general type as ours)
independent of our human brain-structure? For the first
time in history, yes! Aiwaz has given
us proof: the most important gate toward Knowledge suings
wide.
I, Aleister Crowley, declare upon my honour as a
gentleman that I hold this revelation a
million times more important than the discovery of the
Wheel, or even of the Laws of Physics
or Mathematics. Fire and Tools made Man master of his
planet: Writing developed his mind;
but his Soul was a guess until the Book of the Law proved
this.
I, a master of English, was made to take down in three
hours, from dictation, sixty-five 8" x I0"
pages of words not only strange, but often displeasing to
me in themselves; concealing in
cipher propositions unknown to me, majestic and profound;
foretelling events public and
private beyond my control, or that of any man.
This Book proves: there is a Person thinking and acting
in a praeterhuman manner, either
without a body of flesh, or with the power of
communicating telepathically with men and
inscrutably directing their actions.
VI
I write this therefore with a sense of responsibility so
acute that for the first time in my life I
regret my sense of humour and the literary practical
jokes which it has caused me to
perpetrate. I am glad, though, that care was taken of the
MS. itself and of diaries and letters
of the period, so that the physical facts are as plain as
can be desired.
My sincerity and seriousness are proved by my life. I
have fought this Book and fled it; I have
defiled it and I have suffered for its sake. Present or
absent to my mind, it has been my
Invisible Ruler. It has overcome me; year after year
extends its invasion of my being. I am the
captive of the Crowned and Conquering Child.
The point then arises: How did the Book of the Law come
to be written? The description in
The Equinox, I, VII, might well be more detailed; and I
might also elucidate the problem of the
apparent changes of speaker, and the occasional lapses
from straightforward scribecraft in
the MS.
I may observe that I should not have left such obvious
grounds for indictment as these had I
prepared the MS. to look pretty to a critical eye; nor
should I have left such curious
deformities of grammar and syntax, defects of rhythm, and
awkwardness of phrase. I should
not have printed passages, some rambling and
unintelligible, some repugnant to reason by
their absurdity, others again by their barbaric ferocity
abhorrent to heart. I should not have
allowed such jumbles of matter, such abrupt jerks from
subject to subject, disorder ravaging
reason with disconnected sluttishness. I should not have
tolerated the discords, jarred and
jagged, of manner, as when a sublime panegyric of Death
is followed first by a cipher and
then by a prophecy, before, without taking breath, the
author leaps to the utmost
magnificence of thought both mystical and practical, in
language so concise, simple, and
lyrical as to bemuse our very amazement. I should not
have spelt "Ay" "Aye," or acquiesced
in the horror "abstruction."
Compare with this Book my "jokes," where I
pretend to edit the MS. of another: "Alice,"
"Amphora," "Clouds without Water."
Observe in each case the technical perfection of the
"discovered" or "translated" MS.,
smooth skilled elaborte art and craft of a Past Master
Workman; observe the carefully detailed tone and style of
the prefaces, and the sedulous
creation of the personalities of the imaginary author and
the imaginary editor.
Note, moreover, with what greedy vanity I claim
authorship even of all the other A.'.A.'. Books
in Class A, though I wrote them inspired beyond all I
know to be I. Yet in these Books did
Aleister Crowley, the master of English both in prose and
in verse, partake insofar as he was
That. Compare those Books with the Book of the Law! Their
style is simple and sublime; the
imagery is gorgeous and faultless; the rhythm is subtle
and intoxicating; the theme is
interpreted in faultless symphony. There are no errors of
grammar, no infelicities of phrase.
Each Book is perfect in its kind.
I, daring to snatch credit for these, in that brutal
Index to The Equinox Volume One, dared
nowise to lay claim to have touched the Book of the Law,
not with my littlest finger-tip.
I, boasting of my many Books; I, swearing each a
masterpiece; I attach the Book of the Law at
a dozen points of literature. Even so, with the dame
breath, I testify, as a Master of English,
that I am utterly incapable, even when most inspired, fo
such English as I find in that Book
again and again.
Terse, yet sublime, are these verses of this Book; subtle
yet simple; matchless for rhythm,
direct as a ray of light. Its imagery is gorgeous without
decadence. It deals with primary ideas.
It announces revolutions in philosophy, religion, ethics,
yea, in the whole nature of Man. For
this it needs no more than to roll sea-billows solemnly
forth, eight words, as "Every man and
every woman is a star," or it bursts in a mountain
torrent of monosyllables as "Do what thou
wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
Nuit cries: "I love you," like a lover; when
even John reached only to the cold impersonal
proposition "God is love." She woos like a
msitress; whispers "To me !" in every ear;
Jesus,
with needless verb, appeals vehemently to them "that
labour and are heavy laden." Yet he
can promise in the present, says: "I give
unimaginable joys on earth," making life worth
while;
"certainty, not faith, while in life, upon
death," the electric light Knowledge for the
churchyard
corpsecandle Faith, making life fear-free, and death
itself worth while: "peace unutterable,
rest, ecstasy," making mind and body at ease that
soul may be free to transcend them when
It will.
I have never written such English; nor could I ever, that
well I know. Shakespeare could not
have written it: still less could Keats, Shelley, Swift,
Sterne or even Wordsworth. Only in the
Books of Job and Ecclesiastes, in the work of Blake, or
possibly in that of Poe, is there any
approach to such succinct depth of thought in such
musical simplicity of form, unless it be in
Greek and Latin poets. Nor Poe nor Blake could have
sustained their effort as does this our
Book of the Law; and the Hebrews used tricks of verse,
mechanical props to support them.
How then --back once more to the Path! --how then did it
come to be written ?
VII
I shall make what I may call an inventory of the
furniture of the Temple, the circumstances of
the case. I shall describe the conditions of the
phenomenon as if it were any other
unexplained event in Nature.
1. The time.
Chapter 1 was written between Noon and 1 p.m. on April 8,
1904.
Chapter II between Noon and 1 p.m. on April 9, 1904.
Chapter III between Noon and 1 p.m. on April 10, 1904.
The writing began exactly on the stroke of the hour, and
ended exactly an hour later ; it was
hurried throughour, with no pauses of any kind.
2. The place.
The city was Cairo.
The street, or rather streets, I do not remember. There
is a `Place' where four or five streets
intersect; it is near the Boulak Museum, but a fairly
long way from Shepherd's. The quarter is
fashionable European. The house occupied a corner. I do
not remember its orientation; but,
as appears from the instructions for invoking Horus, one
window of the temple opened to the
East or North. The apatment was of several rooms on the
ground floor, well furnished in the
Anglo-Egyptian style. It was let by a firm named Congdon
& Co.
The room was a drawing-room cleared of fragile obstacles,
but not otherwise prepared to
serve as a temple. It had double doors, poening on to the
corridor to the North and a door to
the East leading to another room, the dining-room, I
think. It had two windows opening on the
Place, to the South, and a writing table against the wall
between them.
3. The people.
A.Myself, age 28 1/2. In good health, fond of out-door
sports, especially mountaineering
and big-game shooting. An Adept Major of the A.'.A.'. but
weary of mysticism and
dissatisfied with Magick. A rationalist, Buddhist,
agnostic, anti-clerical, anti-moral, Tory
and Jacobite. A chess-player, first-class amateur, able
to play three games
simultaneously blindfold. A reading and writing addict.
Education: private governess
and tutors, preliminary school Habershon's at St.
Leonards, Sussex, private tutors,
private school 5I Bateman St., Cambridge, private tutors,
Yarrow's School, Streatham,
near London. Malvern College, Tonbridge School, private
tutors, Eastbourne College,
King's College, London, Trinity College, Cambridge.
Morality---Sexually powerful and passionate. Strongly
male to women; free from any
similar impulse toward my own sex. My passion for women
very unselfish; the main
motive to give them pleasure. Hence, intense ambition to
understand the feminine
nature; for this purpose, to identify myself with their
feelings, and to use all means
appropriate. Imaginative, subtle, insatiable; the whole
business a mere clumsy attempt
to quench the thirst of the soul. This thirst has indeed
been my one paramout Lord,
directing all my acts without allowing any other
considerations soever to affect it in the
least.
Strictly temperate as to drink, had never once been even
near intoxication. Light wine
my only form of alcohol.
Sense of justice and equity so sensitive, well-balanced
and compelling as to be almost
an obsession.
Generous, unless suspicious that I was being fleeced :
"penny wise and pound
foolish." Spendthrift, careless, not a gambler
because I valued winning at games of
skill, which flattered my vanity.
Kind, gentle, affectionate, selfish, conceited, reckless
and cautious by turns.
Incapable of bearing a grudge, even for the gravest
insults and injuries; yet enjoying to
inflict pain for its own sake. Can attack an unsuspecting
stranger, and torture him
cruelly for years, without feeling the slightest
animosity toward him. Fond of animals
and children, who return my love, almost always. Consider
abortion the most shameful
form of murder, and loathe the social codes which
encourage it.
Hated and despised my mother and her family; loved and
respected my father and his.
Critical events in my life.
First travelled outside England, 1883.
Father died March 5, 1887.
Albuminuria stopped my schooling, 1890-92.
First sexual act, probably 1889.
Ditto with a woman March, 1891 (Torquay--a theatre girl).
First serious mountain-climbing, in Skye, 1892. (The
"Pinnacle Ridge"
of Sgurr-nan-Gillean.)
First Alpine climb, I894.
Admitted to the Military Order of the Temple midnight,
December 31,
1896.
Admitted to permanent office in the Temple midnight,
December 31,
1897.
Bought Boleskine, 1899.
First Mexican climb, 1900.
First Big game, 1901.
First Himalayan climb, 1902. (Chogo Ri, or "K2"
expedition.)
Married at Dingwall, Scotland, August 12, 1903.
Honeymoon at Boleskine, thence to London, Paris, Naples,
Egypt,
Ceylon, and back to Egypt, Helwan and then Cairo early in
1904.
My "occult" career.
Parents Plymouth Brethren, exclusive.
Father a real P.B. and therefore tolerant to his son.
Mother only became P.B. to please him, perhaps to catch
him, and so
pedantically fanatical.
After his death I was tortured with insensate
persistency, till I said : Evil,
be thou my good ! I practised wickedness furtively as a
magical formula,
even when it was distasteful ; e.g. I would sneak into a
church*1*---a place
my mother would not enter at the funeral service of her
best-loved sister.
Revolted openly when puberty gave me a moral sense.
Hunted new "Sins" till October, '97, when one
of them turned to bay,
and helped me to experience the "Trance of
Sorrow." (Perception of the
Impermanence fo even the greatest human endeavour.) I
invoked
assistance, Easter, '98.
Initiated in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,
November 18, '98.
Began to perform the Abramelin Operation, I899.
Initiated in the Order R.R. et A.C., January, I909.
Made a 33 Freemason, 1900.
Began Yoga practices, 1900.
Obtained first Dhyana, October 1, 1901.
Abandoned all serious occult work of every sort, October
3, 1901, and
continued in this course of action till July, 1903, when
I tried vainly to force
myself to become a Buddhist Hermit Highland Laird.
Marriage was an uninterrupted sexual debauch up to the
time of the
writing of the Book of the Law.
B.Rose Edith Kelly.
Born 1874 (July 23). About '95 married one Major
Skerrett, R.A.M.C., and lived with
him some two years in South Africa. He died in '97.
She indulged in a few feeble-executed intrigues till
August 12, 1903, when she became
my wife, becoming pregnant with a girl born July 28,
1904. Health, admirable robust at
all points; she was both active and enduring, as our
travels in Ceylon and across
China prove. Figure perfect, neither big nor little, face
pretty without being petty; she
only missed Beauty by lacking Goethe's "touch of the
bizarre." Personality intensely
powerful and magnevit, intellect absent but mind
adaptable to that of any companion,
so that she could always say the right nothing.
Charm, grace, vitality, vivacity, tact, manners, all
inexpressible fascinating.
From her mother she inherited dipsomania, as bad a case
for stealth, cunning,
falsehood, treachery, and hypocrisy as the specialist I
consulted had ever known. This
was, however, latent during the satisfacion of sexuality,
which ousted all else in her life,
as it did in mine.
Education strictly social and domestic ; she did not even
know schoolgirl French. She
had read nothing, not so much as novels. She was a
miracle of perfection as Poetic
Ideal, Mistress, Wife, Mother, House-president, Nurse Pal
and Comrade.
C.Our head servant, Hassan or Hamid, I forget which. A
tall, dignified, hansome athlete of
about 30. Spoke good English and ran the household well;
always there and never in
the way.
I suppose I hardly ever saw the servants under his
authority: I do not even know how
many there were.
D.Lieut.-Col. Somebody, beginning, I think, with a B,
married, middle-aged, with manners
like the Rules of a Prison. I cannot remember that I ever
saw him; but the apartment
was sublet to me by him.
E.Brugsch Bey of the Boulak Museum dined with us once to
discuss the Stele in his
charge, and to arrage for its "abstruction."
His French assistant curator, who translated
the hieroglyphs on the Stele for us.
F.A Mr. Bach, owner of the "Egyptian News," an
hotel, a hunk of railway, &c., &c., dined
once.
Otherwise we knew nobody in Cairo except natives,
occasionally hobnobbed with a General
Dickson, who had accepted Islam, carpet merchant, pimps,
jewellers, and such small deer.
Contradictory hints in one of my diaries were inserted
deliberately to mislead, for some silly
no-reason unconnected with Magick.
4. The events leading up to the Writing of the Book. I
summarize
them from Eqx. I, VII.
March 16. Tried to shew the Sylphs to Rose. She was in a
dazed state, stupid, possibly
drunk; possibly hysterical from pregnancy. She could see
nothing, but could hear. She was
fiercely excited at the messages, and passionately
insistent that I should take them seriously.
I was annoyed at her irrelevance, and her infliction of
nonsense upon me.
She had never been in any state even remotely resembling
this, though I had made the same
invocation (in full) in the King's chamber fo the Great
Pyramid during the night which we
spent there in the previous autumn.
March 17. More apparently nonsensical messages, this time
spontaneous. I invoke Thoth,
probably as in Liber LXIV, and presumably to clear up the
muddle.
March 18. Thoth evidently got clear through to her; for
she discovers that Horus is
addressing me through her, and indentifies Him by a
method utterly excluding chance or
coincidence, and involving knowledge which only I
possessed, some of it arbitrary, so that
she or her informant must have been able to read my mind
as well as if I had spolen it.
Then she, challenged to point out His image, passes by
many such to fix on the one in the
Stele. The cross-examination must have taken place
between March 20 and 23.
March 20. Success in my invocation of Horus, by
"breaking all the rules" at her command.
This success convinced me magically, and encouraged me to
test her as above mentioned. I
should certainly have referred to the Stelle in my ritual
had I seen it before this date. I should
fix Monday, March 21, for the Visit to Boulak.
Between March 23 and April 8 the Hieroglyphs on the Stele
were evidently translated by the
assistant-curator at Boulak, into either French or
English--I am almost sure it was
French--and versified (as now printed) by me.
Between these dates, too, my wife must have told me that
her informant was not Horus, or Ra
Hoor Khuit, but a messenger from Him, named Aiwass.
I thought that she might have faked this name from
constantly hearing "Aiwa," the word for
"Yes" in Arabic. She could not have invented a
name of this kind, though ; her next best was
to find a phrase like "balmy puppy" ofr a
friend, or corrupt a name like Neuberg into an
obscene insult.
The silence of my diaries seems to prove that she gave me
nothing more of importance. I
was working out the Magical problem presented to me by
the events of March 16-21. Any
questions that I asked her were either unanswered, or
answered by a Being whose mind was
so different from mine that we failed to converse. All my
wife obtained from Him was to
command me to do things magically absurd. He would not
play my game: I must play His.
April 7. Not later than this date was I ordered to enter
the "tmeple" exactly at noon on the
three days following, and write down what I heard during
one hour, nor more nor less. I
imagine that some preparations were made, possilby some
bull's blood burned for incense,
or order taken about details of dress ro diet ; I
remember nothing at all, one way or the other.
Bull's blood was burnt some time in this sojourn in Cairo
; but I forget why or when. I think it
was used at the "Invocation of the Sylphs."
5. The actual writing.
The three days were precisely similar, save that on the
last day I became nervous lest I
should fail to hear the Voice of Aiwass. They may then be
described together.
I went into the "temple" a minute early, so as
to shut the door and sit down on the stroke of
Noon.
On my table were my pen--a Swan Fountain--and supplies of
Quarto typewriting paper, 8" x
I0".
I never looked round in the room at any time.
The Voice of Aiwass came apparently from over my left
shoulder, from the furthest corner of
the room. It seemed to echo itself in my physical heart
in a very strange manner, hard to
describe. I have noticed a similar phenomenon when I have
been waiting for a message
fraught with great hope or dread. The voice was
passionately poured, as if Aiwass were alert
about the time- limit. I wrote 65 pages of this present
essay (at about my usual rate of
composition) in about 10 1/2 hours as against the 3 hours
of the 65 pages of the Book of the
Law. I was pushed hard to keep the pace; the MS. shows it
clearly enough.
The voice was of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its
tones solemn, voluptuous, tender,
fierce or aught else as suited the moods of the message.
Not bass --perhaps a rich tenor or
baritone.
The English was free of either native or foreign accent,
perfectly pure of local or caste
mannerisma, thus startling and even uncanny at first
hearing.
I had a strong impression that the speaker was actually
in the corner where he seemed to be,
in a body of "fine matter," transparent as a
veil of gauze, or a cloud of incense-smoke. He
seemed to be a tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit,
active and strong, with the face of a
savage king, and eyes veiled lest their gaze should
destroy what they saw. The dress was
not Arab; it suggested Assyria or Persia, but very
vaguely. I took little note of it, for to me at
that time Aiwass and an "angel" such as I had
often seen in visions, a being purely astral.
I now incline to believe that Aiwass is not only the God
or Demon or Devil once held holy in
Sumer, and mine own Guradian Angel, but also a man as I
am, insofar as He uses a human
body to make His magical link with Mankind, whom He
loves, and that He is thus and
Ipsissimus, the Head of the A.'.A.'. Even I can do, in a
much feebler way, this Work of being a
God and a Beast, &c., &c., all at the same time,
with equal fullness of life.
6. The Editing of the Book.
"Change not so much as the style of a letter"
in the text saved me from Crowley-fying the
wholde Book, and spoiling everything.
The MS. shows what has been done, and why, as follows:
A.On page 6 Aiwaz instructs me to "write this (what
he had just said) in whiter words," for
my mind revelled at His phrase. He added at once
"But go forth on," i.e., with His
utterance, leaving the emendation until later.
B.On page 19 I failed to hear a sentence, and (later on)
the Scarlet Woman, invoking
Aiwass, wrote in the missing words. (How? She was not in
the room at the time, and
heard nothing.)
C.Page 20 of Cap. III, I got a phrase indistinctly, and
she put it in, as for "B."
D.The versified paraphrase of the hieroglyphs on the
Stele being ready, Aiwaz allowed
me to insert these later, so as to save time.
These four apart, the MS. is exactly as it was written on
those three days. The Critical
Recension will explain theses points as they occur.
The problem of the literary form of this Book is
astonishingly complex; but the internal
evidence of the sense is usually sufficient of make it
clear, on inspection, as to who is
speaking and who is being addressed.
There was, however, no actual voice audible save that of
Aiwaz. Even my own remarks made
silently were incorporated by him audibly, wherever such
occur.
Chapter I
Verse 1. Nuit is the speaker. She invokes her lover and
then begins to give a title to her
speech in the end of verse I--20.
In verses 3 and 4, she begins her discourse. So far her
remarks have been addressed to no
one in particular.
Verse 4 startled my intelligence into revolt.
In verse 5 she explains that she is speaking, and appeals
to me personally to help her to
unveil by taking down her message.
In verse 6 she claims me for her chosen, and I think that
I then became afraid lest I should be
expected to do too much. She answers this fear in verse 7
by introducing Aiwaz as the actual
speaker in articulate human accents on her behalf.
In verse 8 the oration continues, and we now see that it
is addressed to mankind in general.
This continues till verse 13.
Verse 14 is from the Stele. It seems to have been written
in by me as a kind of appreciation
of what she had just said.
Verse 15 emphasizes that it is mankind in general that is
addressed; for the Beast is spoken
of in the third person, though his was the only human ear
to hear the words.
Verses 18-19 seem to be almost in the nature of a
quotation from some hymn. It is not quite
natural for her to address herself as she appears to do
in verse 19.
Verse 26. The question "Who am I and what shall be
the sign?" is my own conscious thought.
In the previous verses I have been called to an exalted
mission, and I naturally feel nervous.
This thought is then entered in the record by Aiwaz as if
it were a story that he was telling ;
and he develops this story after her answer, in order to
bring bvack the thread of the chapter
to the numerical mysteries of Nuith begun in verses 24-
25, and now continued in verse 28.
Another doubt must have arisen in my mind at verse 30;
and this doubt is interpreted and
explained ot me personally in verse 31.
The address to mankind is resumed in verse 32, and Nuith
emphasizes the point of verse 30
which has caused me to doubt. She confirms this with an
oath, and I was convinced. I thought
to myself, "in this case let us hace written
instructions as to the technique," and Aiwaz again
makes a story out of my request as in verse 26.
In verse 35 it seems that she is addressing me
personally, but in verse 36 she speaks of me
in the third person.
Verse 40. The word "us" is very puzzling. It
apparently means "All those who have accepted
the Law whose word is Thelema." Among these she
includes herself.
There is now no difficulty for a long while. It is a
general address dealing with varoious
subjects, to the end of verse 52.
From verses 53-56 we have a strictly personal address to
me.
In verse 57 Nuit resumes her general exhortation. And I
am spoken of once more in the third
person.
Verse 61. The word "Thou" is not a personal
address. It means any single person, as
pooosed to a company. The "Ye" in the third
sentence indeicates the proper conduct for
worshippers as a body. The "you," in sentence
4, of course applies to a single person; but
the plural form suggests that it is a matter of public
worship as opposed to the invocation in
the desert of the first sentence of this verse.
There is no further difficulty in this chapter.
Verse 66 is the statement of Aiwaz that the words of
verse 65, which were spoken
diminuendo down to pianissimo, indicated the withdrawl of
the goddess.
CHAPTER II
Hadit himself is evidently the speaker from the srart.
The remarks are general. In verse 5 I
am spoken of in the third person.
After verse 9 he notices my vehement objections to
writing statements to which my conscious
self was obstinately opposed.
Verse 10, addressed to me notes that fact ; and in verse
11 he declares that he is my
master, and that the reason for this is that he is my
secret self, as explained in verses 12-13.
The interruption seems to have added excitement to the
discousre, for verse 14 is violent.
Verses 15 & 16 offer a riddle, while verse 17 is a
sort of parody of poetry.
Verse 18 continues his attack on my conscious mind. In
verses 15-18 the style is
complicated, brutal, sneering and jeering. I feel the
whole passage as a contemptuous
beating down of the resistance of my mind.
In verse 19 he returns to the exalted style with which he
began until I interfered.
The passage seems addressed to what he calls his chosen
or his people, though it is not
explained exactly what he means by the words.
This passage from verse 19 to verse 52 is of sustained
and matchless eloquence.
I must have objected to something in verse 52, for verse
53 is directed to encourage me
personally as to having transmitted this message.
Verse 54 deals with another point as to the
intelligibility of the message.
Verse 55 instructed me to obtain the English Qabalah; it
made me incredulous, as the task
seemed an impossible one, and probably his perception of
this criticism inspired verse 56,
though "ye mockers" applies evidently to my
enemies, referred to in verse 54.
Verse 57 brings us back to the suject begun in verse 21.
It is a quotation from the
Apocalypse verbatim, and is probably suggested by the
matter of verse 56.
There is no real change in the essence of anything,
however its combinations vary.
Verses 58-60 conclude the passage.
Verse 61. The address is now strictly personal. During
all this time Hadit had been breaking
down my resistance with his violently expresses and
varied phrases. As a result of this, I
attained to the trance described in these verses from
61-68.
Verse 69 is the return to consciousness of myself. It was
a sort of gasping question as a man
coming out of Ether might ask "Where am I?" I
think that this is the one passage in the whole
book which was not spoken by Aiwaz; and I ought to say
that these verses 63-68 were
writeen without conscious hearing at all.
Verse 70 does not deign to reply to my questions, but
points out the way to manage life. This
continues until verse 74, and seems to be addressed not
to me persoanllly but to any man,
despite the use of the word "Thou."
Verse 75 abruptly changes the subject, interpolating the
riddle of verse 76 with its prophecy.
This verse is addressed to me personally, and continues
to the end of verse 78 to mingle
lyrical eloquence with literal and numerical puzzles.
Verse 79 is the statement of Aiwaz that the end of the
chapter has come. To this he adds his
personal compliment to myself.
Chapter III
Verse I appears to complete the triangle begun by the
first verses of the two previous
chapters. It is a simple statement involving no
particular speaker or hearer. The ommission of
the "i" in the name of God appears to have
alarmed me, and in verse 2 Aiwaz offers a hurried
explanation in a somewhat excited manner, and invokes
Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
Verse 3 is spoken by Ra-Hoor-Khuit. "Them"
evidently refers to some undescribed enemies,
and "ye" to those who accept his formula. This
passage ends with verse 9. Verse 10 and
verse 11 are addressed to me personally and the Scarlet
Woman, as shown in the
continuation of his passage which seems to end with verse
33, though it is left rather vague
at times as to whether the Beast, or the Beast and his
concubine, or the adherents of Horus,
generally, are exhorted.
Verse 34 is a kind of poetical peroration, and is not
addressed in particular to anybody. It is a
statement of events to come.
Verse 35 states simply that section one of this chapter
is completed.
I seem to have become enthusiastic, for there is a kind
of interlude reported by Aiwaz of my
song of adoration translated form the Stele; the incident
parallels that of chapter I, verse 26,
&c.
It is to be noted that the translations from the Stele in
verses 37-38 were no more than
instantanious thoughts to be inserted afterwards.
Verse 38 begins with my address to the God in the first
sentence, while in the second is his
reply to me. He then refers to the hieroglyphs of the
Stele, and bids me quote my
praraphrases. This order was given by a species of
wordless gesture, not visible or audible,
but sensible in some occult manner.
Verses 39-42 are instructions for me personally.
Verses 43-45 indicate the proper course of conduct for
the Scarlet Woman.
Verse 46 is again more general --a sort of address to
soldiers before battle.
Verse 47 is again mostly personal instruction, mixed up
with prophecies, proof of the
praeterhuman origin of the Book, and other matters.
I observe that this instruction, taken with with those
not to change "so much as a style of a
letter," etc., imply that my pen was under the
physical control of Aiwaz; for this dictation did
not include directions as to the use of capitals, and the
occasional mis-spellings are most
assuredly not mine!
Verse 48 impatiently dismisses such practical matters as
a nuisance.
Verses 49-59 contain a series of declerations of war; and
there is no further difficulty as to
the speaker or hearer to the end of the chapter, although
the subject changes repeatedly in
an incomprehensible manner. Only verse 75 do we find a
perroation on the whole book,
presumably by Aiwaz, ending by his formula of withdrawal.
I conclude by laying down the principles of Exegesis on
which I have based my comment.
1.It is "my scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu" (CCXX, I,
36) who "shall comment" on "this
book"
"by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit"; that is,
Aleister Crowley shall write the Comment
from the point of view of the manifested positive Lord of
the Aeon, in plain terms of the
finite, and not those of the infinite.
2."Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and
secure thy pen" (CCXX, III, 40). My own
inspiration, not any alien advice or intellectual
consideration, is to be the energizing
froce of this work.
3.Where the text is simple straightforward English, I
shall not seek, or allow, and
interpretation at variance with it.
I may admit a Qabalistic or cryptographic secondary
meaning when such confirms,
amplifies, deepens, intensifies, or clarifes the obvious
common-sense significance ; but
only if it be part of the general plan of the
"latent light," and self-proven by abundatnt
witness.
For example: "To me!" (I, 65) is to be taken
primarily in its obvious sense as the Call of
Nuith to us Her stars.
The transliteration "TO MH" may be admitted as
the "signature" of Nuith, identifying
Her as the speaker; because these Greek Words mean
"The Not," which is Her Name.
This Gematria of TO MH may be admitted as further
confirmation, because their
number 418 is elsewhere manifested as that of the Aeon.
But TO MH is not to be taken as negating the previous
verses, or 418 as indicating the
fromula of approach to Her, although in point of fact it
is so, being the Rubrick of the
Great Work. I refuse to consider mere appropriateness as
conferring title to authority,
and to read my own personal theories into the Book. I
insist that all interpretation shall
be incontestably authentic, neither less, more, nor other
than was meant is the Mind of
Aiwaz.
4.I lay claim to be the sole authority competent to
decide disputed points with regard to
the Book of the Law, seeing that its Author, Aiwaz, is
none other than mine own Holy
Guardian Angel, to Whose Knowledge and Conversation I
hace attained, so that I have
exclusive access to Him. I have duly referred every
difficulty to Him directly, and
received His answer; my award is therefore absolute
without appeal.
5.The verse, II, 47, "one cometh after him, whence I
say not, who shall discover the key
of it all," has been fulfilled by "one"
Achad is not said to extend beyond this single
exploit; Achad is nowhere indeicated as appointed or even
authorized to relieve The
Beast of His task of the Comment. Achad has proved
himself,*1* and proved the Book,
by his on achievement; and this shall suffice.
6.Wherever
a.The words of the Text are obscure in themselves; where
b.The expression is strained; where
c.The Syntax,
d.Grammar,
e.Spelling, or
f.The use of capital letters present peculiarities; where
g.Non-English words occur; where the style suggests
h.Paronomasia,
i.Ambiguity, or
j.Obliquity; or where
k.A problem is explicitly declared to exist; in all such
cases I shall seek for a
meaning hidden by means of Qabalistic correspondences,
cryptography, or
literary subtleties. I shall admit no solution which is
not at once simple, striking,
consonant with the general plan of the Book ; and not
only adequate but
necessary.
Examples:
i.I, 4. Here the obvious sense of the text is nonsense;
it therefore needs intimate
analysis.
ii.II, I7, line 4. The natural order of the words is
distorted by placing "not" before
"know me"; it is proper to ask what object is
attained by this peculiarity of
phrasing.
iii.I, I3. The text as it stands is unintelligible; it
calls attention to itself; a meaning
must be found which will not only justify the apparent
error, but prove the
necessity of employing that and no other expression.
iv.II, 76. "to be me" for "to be I."
The unusual grammar invites enquiry; it suggests
that "me" is a concealed name, perhaps MH,
"Not," Nuit, since to be Nuit is the
satisfaction of the formula of the Speaker, Hadit.
v.III, I. The omission of the "i" in
"Khuit" is in- dicative that some concealed
doctrine
is based upon the variant.
vi.II, 27. The spelling of "Because" with a
capital B suggests that it may be a proper
name, and possibly that its Greek or Hebrew equivalent
may identify the idea
Qabalistically with some enemy of our Hierarchy; also
that such word may
demand a capital value for its initial.
vii.III, II. "Abstruction" suggests that an
idea other- wise inexpressible is conveyed in
this manner. Paraphrase is here inadmissible as a
sufficient in- terpretation;
there must be a correspondence in the actual structure of
the word with its
etymologically -deduced meaning.
viii.III, 74. The words "sun" and
"son" are evidently chosen for the identity of
their
sound-value; the inelegance of the phrase therefroe
insists on some such
adequate justification as the existence of a hidden
treasure of meaning.
ix.III, 73. The ambiguity of the instruction warrants the
supposition that the words
must somehow contain a cryptographic formula for so
arranging the sheets of
the MS. that an Arcanum becomes manifest.
x.I, 26. The apparent evasion of a direct reply in
"Thou knowest !" suggests that
the words conceal a precise answer more convincing in
cipher than their
openly-expressed equvialent could be.
xi.II, I5. The text explicity invites Qabalistic
analysis.
7.The Comment must be consistent with itself at all
points; it must exhibit ther Book of the
Law as of absolute authority on all possible questions
proper to Mankind, as offering
the perfect solution of all problems philosophical and
practical without exception.
8.The Comment must prove beyond possibility of error that
the Book of the Law,
a.Bears witness in itself to the quthorship of Aiwaz, an
Intelligence independent of
incarnation ; and
b.Is warranted wrothy of its claim to credence by the
evidence of external events.
For example, the first proposition is proved by the
cryptography connected with 31, 93,
418, 666,[pi], etc.; and the second by the concurrence of
circumstance with various
statements in the text such that the categories of time
and causality forbid all
explanations which exclued its own postulates, while the
law of probabilities makes
coincidence inconceivavle as an evasion of the issue.
9.The Comment must be expressed in terms intelligible to
the minds of men of average
education, and independent of abstruse technicalities.
10.The Comment must be pertinent to the problems of our
own tiems, and present the
principles of the Law in a manner susceptible of present
practical application. It must
satisfy all types of intelligence, neither revolting to
rational, scientific, mathematical,
and philosophical thinkers, nor repugnant to religious
and romantic temperaments.
11.The Comment must appeal on behalf of the Law to the
authority of Experience. It must
make Success the proof of the Truth of the Book of the
Law at every point of contact
with Reality.
The Word of Aiwaz must put forth a perfect presentation
of the Universe as Necessary,
Intelligible, Self-subsistent, as Integral, Absolute, and
Immanent. It must satisfy all
intuitions, explain all enigmas, and compse all
conflicts. It must reveal Reality, reconcile
Reason with Relativity; and, resolving not only all
antinomies in the Absolute, but all
antipathies in the appreciation of Aptness, assure the
acquiescence of every faculty of
manking in the perfection of its plenary propriety.
Releasing us from every restriction upon Right, the Word
of Aiwaz must extend its
empire by enlisting the allegiance of every man and every
woman that puts its truth to
the test.
On these principles, to the pitch of my power, will I the
Beast 666, who received the
Book of the Law from the Mouth of mine Angel Aiwaz, make
my comment thereon ;
being armed with the word: "But the work of the
comment? That is easy ; and Hadit in
thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen."
Editorial Note to this Chapter.
The reader is now in full possession of the account of
"how thou didst come hither". The
student who wishes to act intelligently will be at pains
to make himself thoroughly acquainted
at the outset with the whole of the external
circumstances connected with the Writing of the
Book, whether they are of biographical or other
importance. He should thus be able to
approach the Book with his mind prepared to apprehend the
unique character of their
contents in repect of its true Authorship, the
peculiarities of Its methods of communicating
Thought, and the nature of Its claim to be the Canon of
Truth, the Key of Progress, and the
Arbiter of Conduct. He will be able to form his own
judgment upon It, only insofar as he is
fixed in the proper Point-of-View; the sole question for
him is to decide whether It is or is not
that which It claims to be, the New Law in the same sense
as the Vedas, the Pentateuch, the
Tao Teh King, and Qu'ran are Laws, but with the added
Authority of Verbal, Literal, and
Graphic inspiration established and counter-checked by
internal evidence with the
impeccable precision of a mathematical demonstration. If
It be that, It is an unique document,
valid absolutely within the terms of its self-contained
thesis, incomparabley more valuable
than any other Transcript of Thought which we possess.
If It be not wholly that, it is a worthless curiosity of
literature; worse, it is an appalling proof
that no kind or degree of evidence soever is sufficient
to establish any possible proposition,
since the closest concatenation of circumstances may be
no more than the jetsam of chance,
and the most comprehensive plans of purpose a puerile
pantomime. To reject this Book is to
make Reason itself ridiculous and the Law of
Probabilities a caprice. In Its fall it shatters the
structure of Science, and buries the whole hope of man's
heart in the rubble, throwing upon
its heaps the sceptic, blinded, crippled, and gone
melancholy mad.
The reader must face the problem squarely; half-measures
will not avail. If there be aught he
recognize as transcendental Truth, he cannot admit the
possibility that the Speaker, taking
such pains to prove Himself and His Word, should yet
incorporate Falsehood in the same
elaborate engines. If the Book be but a monument of a
mortal's madness, he must tremble
that such power and cunning may be the accomplices of
insane and criminal archanarchs.
But if he know the Book to be justified of Itself, It
shall be justified also of Its children; and he
will glow with gladness in his heart as he reads the
sixty-third to the sixty-seventh verses of Its
chapter, and gain his first glimpse of Who he himself is
in truth, and to what fulfilment of
Himself It is of virtue to bring Him.
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