The Aim of Initiation into the A.’.A.’. System:

 The Aim of Initiation into the A.’.A.’. System:

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

AL I.7: "Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat."

THE NEW COMMENT

“Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer as that of the Intelligence Communicating. See note to Title. Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the "Babe in the Egg of Blue", is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. The connexion is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is unmanifested. See II:8. He is the First Letter of the Alphabet, Aleph, whose number is One, and his card in the Tarot is The Fool, numbered Zero. Aleph is attributed to the "Element" (in the old classification of things) of Air. Now as "One" or Aleph he represents the Male Principle, the First Cause, and the free breath of Life, the sound of the vowel A being made with the open throat and mouth. As Zero he represents the female Principle, the fertile Mother. (An old name for the card is Mat, from the Italian 'Matto', fool, but earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-Mother-Goddess). Fertile, for the 'Egg of Blue' is the Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuith, and it contains the Unborn Babe, helpless yet protected and nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on a lotus, the yoni. which floats on the 'Nile', the amniotic fluid. In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is "The Fool"; he is the 'Saviour', being the Son who shall trample on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris. Thus we see him as the "Great Fool" of Celtic legend, the "Pure Fool" of Act I of "Parsifal", and, generally speaking, the insane person whose words have always been taken for oracles. But to be 'Saviour' he must be born and grow to manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of virility. He usually wears the 'Coat of many colours' like Joseph the 'dreamer'; so he is also now the Green Man of spring festivals. But his 'folly' is now not innocence but inspiration of wine; he drinks from the Graal, offered to him by the Priestess.”

Here Crowley is not only comparing Aiwass to his Holy Guardian Angel, but also Harpocrates, the latter, who is related to the Hierophant ATU, Baphomet and the Fool in both his unrealized and fully realized aspects. This then draws a stunning connection to the idea of Phanes being representative of the same and that Light does not only refer to Light but is a symbol of consciousness itself.

He goes further in the above quote to very clearly tell us, that this idea is actually meant to be understood quite literally. As Phanes is attributed to the Holy Guardian Angel and consciousness and wherein the idea of Being unfolding is intimated, his statement that Parsifal of Act 1 is also the Fool, tells us something about the lesser form of Phanes called Protogonous associated with the unrealized Fool, that serves as candidate for the Neophyte initiation.

Nuit in the above quote is objective reality (the macrocosm) and the initiation of Protogonous, in order to be successful, demands that the Fool unites subject with object, in other words masculine and feminine, an act that can only be achieved through Love. This is hinted at, but obviously not as clearly expressed in the above. Hence, as per the above excerpt from a comment on Liber AL vel Legis, Phanes is the Great Fool and Protogonous is the Pure Fool, which in the grade system of the A.’.A.’. are associated to the grades of Adeptus, the Great Fool, which marks the complete unfolding of Being into Pure Consciousness and the Pure Fool, or the Neophyte who is taking his first steps onto the path.

“Love is the law, love under will.”