Take Your Fill of Love:

 Take Your Fill of Love:

34. DE LIBERTATE CORPORIS. (On the Freedom of the Body)

There shall be no Property in Human Flesh. Every Man and every Woman hath Right Indefeasable to give the Body for the Enjoyment of any other. The Exercise of this Right shall not be punished either by Law or by Custom; there shall be no Penalty either by Loss or Curtailment of Liberty, of Rights, of Wealth, or of Social Esteem; but this Freedom shall be respected of all, seeing that it is the Right of the Bodily Will. For this same Reason thou shalt cause full Restriction and Punishment of any who may seek to limit that Freedom for the sake of his own Profit, or Desire, or Ideal. Every Man and every Woman has full right either to grant or to deny the Body, as the Will speaketh within. This being made Custom, the Evils of Love, which are many, extending to the Disturbance not only of Body but of Mind, and that in obscure Paths, shall little by little disappear from the Face of His unspeakable Glory.

Liber Aleph: Aleister Crowley-

What is pointed out in the above vignette has certainly become obvious to most of us in the world as an indefeasible right. Every man and every woman has the freedom to give his or her body for the enjoyment of any other. Also, that sexual slavery goes against the law of liberty is obvious. Although there is hypocrisy among a lot of people in the world today, the idea that a man may tell a woman what is permitted and what is not in this regard, at the same time the same people speaking out against slavery is an absurdity. To dictate to anyone under whatever authority one claims; what the limits of bodily freedom are, is as good as enslaving that person to one’s prejudices, or one’s need for control.

Children are accordingly off limits too, as there is not a child in the world that would welcome the advances of some slimy old man or woman. The thought is sick; to break the will of an innocent child proclaiming that such was welcomed is contrary to the Law of Thelema. The above is dealing with the effects of guilt and shame upon the psyche, and could be seen as a type of sexual trauma. The suppression of our natural inklings to abide by another’s sense of normalcy is presented as devastating to the inner constitution of the individual leading to disturbances of behavior and mind. How much worse must it be for a child when a transgression has occurred? We are not to hurt children in any way, but especially not in this way, we are to foster their development, to help them reach their potential. Abuse of this kind would be in direct conflict to our roles of cultivating a child’s authentic beingness in a loving and caring environment. To manipulate any person, whether a child or an adult, to do anything against their natural inclinations is a crime, and in a perfect world, attacks such as these on the freedoms of others, especially children, would be punished as they should be.

When we are free to express ourselves without guilt or shame, we come to terms with ourselves in ways that under more oppressive circumstances wouldn’t be possible. Self judgement limits self-development for it is biased, a consequence of the super ego’s role in mitigating our impulses. But we live in sick societies governed by offensive ideals of unnatural moralism, tyranny and patriarchy, thus the super ego is in constant conflict with the id, (our unconscious, that encompasses our true nature and wherein is hidden our True Wills). But as this morality is unnatural as well as non-sensical, the relationship between the id and the super ego is unbalanced leading to an increase in psychic issues that with greater freedom could have been avoided.

Repression of our natural modes of being only feed our complexes and by increasing these, not only do we run the risk of developing neuroses, but we are actively burying our True Wills under the rubble. When we are free to act and to be ourselves not limited by judgement or preconceived notions of right and wrong, we enter into intimate communion with our souls. This is especially true for sex, an act that is linked to more taboos than the act of murder, which is honestly an absurdity and a consequence of Christendom’s hold on western society. It is an act that when performed may open up a doorway to the divine, but only if we are free to experience it as such.

Nobody has the right to shame another or to make them feel as if they have to excuse themselves for being human. In the Islamic world the law is that a woman shall be stoned to death for adultery, but in the same holy Quran their prophet rapes a nine-year old girl. It seems that for these polygamists it’s not so much the act of sinning, since they are also allowed to rape a woman as long as the assault culminates in matrimony, if not it is a crime, as per a holy injunction: it seems that it is a woman having power over her own mind and body that is really being punished. This type of attitude towards women is not a Thelemic virtue, it is an Abrahamic one; although, I have known of some involved in Thelema who regard women in the same way. There are those who claim to be Thelemites who promulgate the same values regarding sex, especially when it comes to women: that they are placed on a lesser rung as servants in this capacity needing a man’s leadership. Again, such an attitude towards the fairer sex, with the man as her strength, is not a Thelemic virtue. Thelema is not concerned with the same ethical questions as the herd is, we have transcended these in our doctrine, and it is high time we start acting like it. Just as a woman has the right to deny her body to whoever she pleases, she has the same freedom to think for herself, that manipulation is no less than mental rape, and should be treated as such.

The above is not concerned with sex magick, it is simply affirming that every man and every woman shall be free to express their sexuality in whatever way they please. Whether that be a furry orgy in the forest with unicorns, or a ritual surrender under the stars in one’s highest adoration to the Goddess, lost in the embrace of the object of one’s love, it is a thing that can only be allowed or disallowed by the parties involved. When we are able to express ourselves freely in this way we heal our souls from the disturbances of mind and body that Crowley writes about in the vignette. What he indicates is that suppression of these desires or the inability to act out our desires in a healthy wholesome way within a supportive environment may lead to compulsions, when one’s needs aren’t met in their entirety, or they have been repressed by shame or guilt, when these perfectly natural acts are seen as unnatural. Since when something like this occurs, and the act becomes perverted and degenerates becoming unwholesome or self-destructive often manifesting as compulsive behaviors, it is particularly the fault of religious and cultural institutions, (institutions that foster what some call traditional values).

The Book of the Law is very clear about what is written of in the vignette when it tells us: “Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me.” And Crowley’s comment: “Also as to Love: be wholly free to make the best of your gifts in all respects, fearless and shameless. Yet all these acts must not be done for their results in success or pleasure, and the like; for they are holy and to be performed strictly as acts of Love under Will in worship of Nuit; that is, to fulfil all that may be and your own whole Nature by so doing.” Fulfilment in this context would be impossible in the Islamic world, or even just when attempted by a Muslim or a Christian; or anyone who under some ideal is restricted to lose themselves in this worship. When we are able, for lack of moral and idealistic strictures, to lose ourselves and fulfil our whole natures in this act, we peer into the very depths of our souls. It is a religious experience in every sense of the word, that when correctly performed, may lead us to uncovering the divinity of our own essential natures.

On the Imperfection of the Perfect:

 On the Imperfection of the Perfect:

31. DE LEGE MOTUS. (On the Law of Motion)

Consider, o my Son, that Word in the Call or Key of the Thirty Aethyrs: Behold the Face of your God, the Beginning of comfort, whose Eyes are the Brightness of the heavens, which provided you for the Government of the Earth, and her unspeakable Variety! And again: Let there be no Creature upon her or within her the same. All her Members let them differ in their Qualities, and let there be no Creature equal with another. Here also is the Voice of true Science, crying aloud: Variation is the Key of Evolution. Thereunto Art cometh the third, perceiving Beauty in the Harmony of the Diverse. Know then, o my Son, that all Laws, all Systems, all Customs, all Ideals and Standards which tend to produce Uniformity, being in direct Opposition to Nature's Will to change and to develop through Variety, are accursed. Do thou with all thy Might of Manhood strive against these Forces, for they resist Change, which is Life: and thus they are of Death.

Liber Aleph: Aleister Crowley-

How many people in this world would have us all be the same: to behave the same, to dress the same, to walk and talk the same, to find unity in sameness. Of course, to negate the beauty in the uniqueness of all beings upon the earth, is an accursed view of diversity. To deem oneself an authority in the field of morality and human behavior, to decide and promote what is expected from a gentleman or a lady in order to be called just that, and thereby only, to find acceptance among our peers as equals. Although, we are not equals, just as the lion is not equal to the dog, the huntsman is not an equal of the cripple: we are deferent and unique and some are better or stronger, more beautiful or more intelligent, than others.

Synthesis only works by union of opposites and evolution is the consequence of such union. How are we as beings upon this planet going to reach such a transcendent point if we are all the same, having the same ideas both morally and intellectually? Genius is not born from resignation, it is forged in hardships, when life becomes a theme-park of chaos, of the unexpected, when confronted by the most foreign landscape from which the will to power forces us to adapt and change. It is a position from where the people we meet and come in contact with are so alien that we inquire into the nature of ourselves in awe of our differences. We seek union with such people and circumstances, not for the comfort of similitude, but for the excitement of the experience. These are the things that have always attracted the strong, setting them apart from the herd as leaders among men and women, who insisting on change have moved humanity forward by creating the same inquiry in the hearts of those who encountered them. Not governing by force but by example, such are the people who have shown us what it means to be human.

To love the diversity within humanity is a perfectly natural stance for those who accept themselves, their flaws as well as their strengths have fitted them with the capacity to cherish the uniqueness of the people they meet and know. The weak are those unable to accept themselves for whom another’s pride is an insult, something that must be confronted for the person to be put in line and follow suit. These people find the uniqueness in others threatening, as it shines a light upon their complexes, their insecurities, their weaknesses, that without them around would remain hidden and unnoticed. This is true cowardice; it is an inability to accept themselves and take the first step to becoming human for the security of their own ignorance. The way they attack the individual is always a coward’s attack, never an exhibition of their own strengths but an attack on the individual’s character is their first assault: they attempt to control the mind of the herd: they have created an enemy and have united with the people justifying their ideal of sameness. It is exactly the same psychology used in fascism to unite a nation: they first establish enmity against a foreign adversary, and their propaganda is in most cases dishonest, such as the Jewish conspiracy propagated by the Nazis that caused six million innocent people to die in the most grotesque way imaginable. In the same way the weakling and the coward use slander when attacking the strong. They use a very specific kind of rhetoric to unite the herd in enmity against their chosen victim: they use rumor mongering and false allegations to keep the attention fixed on their victims and away from themselves. These people’s actions and motivations are born of their impotence to actively live unapologetically as themselves at peace with authenticity. This happened to Crowley during his life-time: the yellow press called him the wickedest man in the world and made up an entire article of lies about him that negatively impacted his reputation. However, since this article was influential but false, it served to keep his name floating around long enough after he died for him to eventually become the most impactful occultist who has ever lived. His authenticity, and his refusal to succumb to their attacks immortalized him, along with their own incapacity to see how much their attention meant and that truth is eternal.

We could even think of what happened with Crowley and the yellow press as evolution, the survival of the fittest from which only the strong survive. It is certain that Crowley’s influence has resurrected our school of magick, which today is fostering adepts that will fuel this fire started by the Great Beast to mitigate the severity of the opposition’s attacks. We are evolving and the rest are exactly where they have always been, (they are still stuck in their pigsty). These people are dead; their ideologies are stagnant and unimpactful as death. They have no lasting influence thus they comfort themselves for their ineptitude by isolating those who threaten their worldview. But we are alive, our veneration for each other’s differences and the excitement of being alive keeps it that way. Our acceptance of each other is a celebration of our places as stars or gods upon the earth. As gods and goddesses, we unite in ecstasy creating children of light that will carry our influence for generations, we evolve. We are not resentful of one another, we are curious: we yearn to love one another, to know one another — that we may inspire change as we are inspired by the same. We champion each-other’s differences and strengths, and we muse with delight at each-other’s imperfections, our love for the experience grounds us in the knowing that this is the way things are.

Nowadays there are many self-appointed prophets as public pundits who tell us how to live: they tell us what a man is and what a woman is, while at the same time humanity is evolving at such a pace that the inner development of humankind is palpable. So much so, that the rate of evolution renders their words and ideas incoherent. These people tell us how to raise our sons and our daughters: I say, we shall teach them how to love and raise them as humans, and “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” They say that we must raise them as Christians or as Muslims, turning them into Christians or Muslims promoting what they call traditional values and tearing the very humanity from their little souls by forming such a distinction. Unless children be what is good according to this barbaric worldview, they are doing something contrary to their own interests and become in many ways less than human. It is a mindset that in no way shares in the championing of our differences, but an insistence for conformity to an ideal more important than humanness and the negation of the individual. Their love and peace are based on the same ideal as mentioned earlier in this essay, an ideal of enmity, from where there is always love and peace but only for those safely tucked away within the fold: the other Christians or Muslims, but never a Muslim for a Christian or a Christian for a Muslim. What else could be expected from a patriarchal institution which at its very beginning plucked the goddess from her throne and replaced her with prejudice. But she is all around us: she is in nature: we see her in the play of creation, even the photosynthesis of plants and flowers demands her love to ignite the very spark of life. The denial of division as necessary and good, as the very source of creation is the denial of life itself. The futurists who inspired fascism were also against all feminine traits regarding them as weaknesses, traits such as love, compassion, maternity and empathy, that they should build a war machine geared towards progress at all costs was the aim, going as far as to say that the sound of an engine running was the most beautiful thing on earth, as it signaled the height of human achievement. In their minds it was a masculine sound and that women represented only the most useless and unnecessary characteristics of our species. Where does it leave us; the soul of humankind torn in two is an unbearable thought, but it is the very thing to which some aspire, or that they wish to maintain, for, as we have lived under this delusion of male grandeur for over two millennia, they are merely seeking to preserve the status quo. Hence, let us teach our children how to love, to celebrate humanity and humanness, and to never shy away from themselves; for it is within their very beingness, wherein they shall find God.

On Love and Holy Scripture:

On Love and Holy Scripture:

The divine feminine manifests as the Other, she is the universe, as the god Hadit is the Self. Every aspect of objective reality is the Goddess. She especially shows herself to us as divine within certain traditions such as the occult tradition, which by extension the poetic and philosophic traditions form part. We call her the Great Mother, as she by her nature symbolizes that part which we were one with during the pre-Oedipal stage. Union with her manifests in a loss of self that is symbolically represented as Hadit falling into the body of the Goddess and becoming one with pure-undifferentiated consciousness, thus, in psychoanalytic terms, this experience relieves the sense of separateness first experienced during the mirror stage.

Devotion and love are the ways by which our relationship with her is cultivated. As a symbol of tradition, she becomes the vehicle whereinto the Soul is born to be immortalized through its actualization. This is called Gnosis and entails the fully realized self and the congealed Soul having become aware of its True Will to work its magick and affect change in the world.

The Holy Books of Thelema are symbolic of the Goddess, as they are expressions of our tradition that through their constant study one draws down the Shekinah systematically unlocking the mysteries of our tradition. This is a form of Sex Magick, and the Holy Books are symbolic of a woman, and this practice is our first exploration of the Alchemical Wedding.

Those who have devoted their lives to this unfolding of self into Being are tasked to memorize certain Holy Books at certain junctures along the path and to recite them constantly throughout the grades. This recitation serves to bridge the gap between the conscious and the unconscious establishing these symbols within the very Soul of the magician, wherefrom having taken root serve to fuel the fire of his passion in love of the Goddess. This union is Qabalistically presented on the Tree of Life in the relationship between Tiphareth and Yesod, that are the spheres of the intellect and the astral respectively, that at the very beginning of the journey this relationship begins to be cultivated with the aim of complete union.

From this it is inferred that the grades of the Outer Order form the ritual for attaining Knowledge and Conversation with one’s Holy Guardian Angel and are not as disparate as one might think, but instead could be likened to the furnishings of a temple and the fumigations being prepared for the supreme ritual of attaining Knowledge and Conversation. The supreme ritual in this sense is uniting the Pentagram with the Hexagram. The Hexagram is thus the Goddess and the Pentagram is the God that from their union perfection is attained.

Although as far as sex is concerned, the phallus is active and the kteis is receptive, and the masculine intellect is receptive as the feminine is active. This difference in polarity is what generates the bioelectrical current that leads to ecstasy, not just orgasm, but the ecstasy of love itself as being in love tends to awaken within us a higher sense of purpose and vitality. Therefore, these poles may be attributed to the intellect and the emotions, even the instincts, and it is love and its effect on the heart that turns this union into a transcendent force, which corresponds to Tiphareth on the Tree of Life. Love is thus a union between the senses the instincts and the intellect leading to a dissolving of the ego in ecstasy of the experience, which effectively serves to bridge the gap between the unconscious and the conscious minds, (these parts of the body, or the head, the heart and reproductive organs, are referred to in Daoism as the three gates). By exploring these parts of the psyche, an initiate is slowly dissolving the separation between Self and the Other, which, by means of the relationship between these two aspects of being that is constantly confronted in the work, these natures are proven to be an illusion.

Firstly, in the beginning the magician is concerned with perfecting him her herself by the formulation of the Pentagram, entailing that on a microcosmic level, all these masculine and feminine elements are already present. Thus, Yesod and the sub-conscious and the unconscious are easily seen as attributed to the feminine, and the intellect and the passion are masculine, (the elements mentioned here are limited in their scope and the act of defining the masculine and feminine parts of the Soul may be explored indefinitely). There is a difficulty in this though, with Malkuth’s role obscured from the sight of the magician when involved in the work of these higher sephiroth. The reason for this is that the Kingdom has inherent all the elements worked on during the Outer grades, that via the process of the Soul’s congealing and the realization of the True Will, these elements, that were seen as heterogenous, are now crystalized in Malkuth at the birth of the Christ. Thus, hell is raised to be equilibrated again, as was also necessary at the beginning of the journey.

Therefore, allegorically, the Royal Marriage may be seen in the myth of Dionysus and his consort Demeter, both of whom first espousing their love on Earth before they are united again eternally; a love expressed upon Mount Olympus. Hence this initial union, in Malkuth, is of such a nature, that the sincerity of it must sustain the magician through the following ordeal. It is as if by way of his commitment to the Goddess, he has also committed himself to proving his worthiness of her love by accepting all the trials in which he will be engaged until their reunion in Tiphareth. An apt allegory for expressing the gravity of the Great Work, and the need for sincerity, is Heracles and all the monsters he faced and defeated for his immortalization. Of course, the Hero’s journey is thus an appropriate metaphor for the magick of alchemy: especially in the way given to us by the poets and prophets of the Romantic era.

The Holy Books are thus, not merely expressions of the Goddess, but are symbolic of her expressed femininity; that which we were initially attracted to as the masculine counterparts (Hadit-Nuit) of this relationship. Now, when separating this nature into its various elements and when considering their effect upon the Soul of an aspirant, we will see how this becomes an act of Sex Magick of the highest order.

Although there are other means of strengthening one’s association to the Goddess, whether in a positive or negative capacity, they are not of the same quality as anagogical prose. The traditions of imbibing, sex, fasting and animal sacrifice, for example, merely strengthen one’s connection to tradition by altering one’s state of mind, wherein self-consciousness falls away and the deeper mysteries of our tradition may be perceived. Keep in mind, that all these aspects of theurgy are forms of Sex Magick, although of a lesser grade than discussed in this essay and that Sex Magick refers to practices that are meant to bring about a new perception in a controlled manner by way of union, from whence a certain mastery over nature is developed.

This practice directly unites the lower with the higher, as it is a symbol of the Goddess in her entirety, and by embodying the elements of a woman she serves to open the three gates mentioned earlier. The symbols accordingly speak to the head which in Daoism is attributed to Spirit, thus this archetypal character enflames Spirit, then the practice of studying, of devoting oneself wholly to her mystery, the memorization and the recitation of these texts correspond to the reproductive organ, and an appropriate phrase for the result of this practice is to enflame one’s heart with prayer. It is the heart thusly enflamed that in love connects the higher to the lower.

Hereby the spirit of our tradition is enflamed within the heart of an aspirant to enliven his passion. Any other mode of union is of a lesser quality, that for example the art of imbibing may lead to ecstasy and even insights into the mysteries, but only in as far as it is done within the framework here discussed. What this means is, that this practice of devotion is compared to that which kindles the fire of passion within the heart, which through these various other modes release is facilitated. There needs to be an outlet for this pressure, as it is none other than the fire upon the altar that burns away the dross, and this burning away is what leads a magician to his ordeal of transformation but always born again into our tradition as owing to the character of his work and insights. Therefore, the aim of the practice, is that the fire must be heated to such a degree, that the slightest stimulus, such as love in the form of a man and a woman, or imbibing, or cocaine or all of these elements employed at once, may serve to plunge the aspirant violently into the sphere corresponding to his grade.

The Mechanics of Creation:

 The Mechanics of Creation:

24. DE VOLUPTATE POENARUM. (On the Joy of Sorrows)

Go forth, o my Son, o Son of the Sun, rejoicing in thy Strength, as a Warrior, as a Bridegroom, to take thy Pleasure upon the Earth, and in every Palace of the Mind, moving ever from the crass to the subtle, from the coarse to the fine. Conquer every Repulsion in thy self, subdue every Aversion. Assimilate all Poison, for therein only is there Profit. Seek constantly therefore to know what is painful and to cleave thereunto, for by Pain cometh true Pleasure. Those who avoid Pain physical or mental remain little Men, and there is no Virtue in them. Yet be thou ware lest thou fall into the Heresy which maketh Pain, and Self-sacrifice as it were Bribes to corrupt God, to secure some future Pleasure in an imagined After-life. Nay, also of the other Part, fear not to destroy thy Complexes, thinking dreadfully thereby to lose the Power of creating Joy by their Distinction.

Yet in each Marriage be thou bold to affirm the spiritual Ardour of the Orgasm, fixing it in some Talisman, whether it be Art, or Magick, or Theurgy.

Liber Aleph: Aleister Crowley-

The source of creation is nothingness, the light issuing forth from the negative veil is revealed by its counterpart Naught without whom the light would remain as she is. Nothing is related to death as it is that to which we return. The ontology of the god of light Phanes, being born from the womb of Night too symbolizes this idea. Hecate the lunar goddess of witchcraft was by the ancient Greek theologians seen as an aspect of Isis, and to them she was the goddess of death as well as fertility. This goddess was for a long time worshipped as the highest, even for the ancient Egyptians the counterpart of the Sun represented the divine feminine in her highest form. Today we worship Nuit who is both everything and nothing but not the self, that perhaps in her character has the goddess reached perfection.

The goddess was worshipped as a goddess of fertility by the rite of human sacrifice, more specifically the sacrifice of a male child. There is a reason for this owing to the magickal thinking of primitive people, and the difficulty of child birth having been a mortal ordeal for both the mother and her child. Suppose then, that children represented in the minds of these people the future prosperity of the tribe, of course, as they ensured the perpetuation of the race, that a new life was most valuable, not only to them but certainly to the goddess as well. This reasoning sets the stage for the murder of a mother and her child by a vengeful goddess who had not yet been appeased at childbirth, who Thus, out of necessity the tradition of sacrifice was created, perhaps reasoning, that it is better to lose one or a few and prevent the death of many or all unborn children and mothers, (as a demon she is Lilith, who was turned into a monster by the Jews inferentially owing to their patriarchal take on religion and their degradation of women in general, even impotence accordingly attributed to her stealing the man's semen). I am certain that human sacrifice didn’t work to appease any demons or goddesses, of course not, this superstition did nothing to help the outcome, they merely became more aware and vigilant owing to their ponderings and this influenced their preparation for the ordeal, also, it is simply natural to bear more children with every passing generation, thus an increase in numbers and a more prosperous harvest must follow. But the mythic significance of this savagery still lingers, and we have since then associated creativity with death and not with life, but as a gift emanating from the divine.

Now then for ecstasy, peering into the cellar of the collective mind one turns back inspired from what he has uncovered with a compulsion to reveal it. But what is this thing, how does ecstasy enable within the seeker new insights that affect creativity and what makes it a source of such inspired creation? It is certainly a death, and a death means a re-transfiguration, a reincarnation if you will, a position from where the limits of his previous perception have been transgressed owing to the experience and the imprint has been left upon his soul. One may need to get psychoanalytic in order to understand the relationship between the senses and the ego better, however, to speculate that an overstimulation of the senses have a tendency to bring to the surface certain parts locked away as part of the shadow, causing an increase in the number of elements inquired into when questioning the nature of Being, may just be, a reasonable hypothesis. This type of thing, when it occurs due to extreme trauma, is in many cases unresolvable and sees the subject drift in and out of normalcy until he or she is finally overwhelmed by the consequences of the initial sensory overload, as not having been capable of assimilation through understanding. In other words, an ecstatic experience, likened to a death, leaves one confused and causes one to ask questions about the nature of reality and existence, that prior to the experience the seeker was blind to. This questioning is the result of a new perception that must be integrated, and one outlet for this integration is creating, whether through art or other means, the creative pursuit serves to put the puzzle pieces together and make sense of this new life the magician is born into.

Ecstasy is referred to in the vignette as an orgasm, which of course, with the symbol’s sexual connotation birth and creativity are clear progressions, as symbolically sympathetic. But as mentioned earlier in this essay, so is death owing to the connotation of no-thing becoming some-thing or everything and the mythical relationship this holds to Diana and Hecate. Diana is Isis to the Egyptians and we find her in the formula of I.A.O. as representing life, and Apophis as the ecstasy which leads to death symbolized in Osiris. It is during putrefaction that the magician moves into assimilating those things that Apophis has shown him. Again, we may recall the unfortunate trauma victim, who paralyzed in death fruitlessly awaits a resurrection that may only lead to damnation. Magick is the means by which the self is reconstituted from the dissolving of the ego that results from ecstatic experience, but not necessarily for psychic trauma, as in the case of magick, the ecstasy and the pain are always received in a controlled manner, lessening the shock upon the subject's faculties. whereas for the trauma, he or she is entirely unprepared. Apophis is sometimes associated with purification, such as in the Fire Opal, which is a ritual given to initiates of the A.’.A.’. and symbolizes in a sense confronting the complexes, that when destroyed, one is presented with a fuller view of the world incorporating parts that were prior to this purifying obscured to the magician’s sight. Therefore, ecstasy brings to light the complexes within this experience, and the super ego abdicates as it is overwhelmed, as a result of the lesser parts of the ego and the id having taken control of the self, making the conscious mind acutely aware of these parts of the psyche that were locked away, many out of necessity.

Here we see that the sacrifice written of at the start of this essay is now symbolic of archetypal forces that shape the magician’s consciousness and ego. That the one sacrificed is the magician and that it is a willing self-sacrifice that unlocks the deeper mysteries of our tradition. Anyone who hasn’t experience the formula of I.A.O. remains blind to its significance and character and such a person is usually easily identified by their lack of insight. That it is not something that can be gleaned by erudite means, but must be experienced for oneself. Although in no way glamorous there is still danger in the reward obtained by way of suffering, as it may lead to glorifying the act of self-sacrifice. This formula keeps repeating itself throughout as it is the means by which one’s perceptual circumference is increased, and as pertaining to these major shifts, suffering as a means to attainment is often glorified, even seen as holy. If this is taken to an extreme a magician has fallen into the trap which Crowley warns about, of course, the greater the suffering the greater the reward, but such a self-sacrificial attitude to the work will not move the work forward, rather, it is the motivation that comes from realizing that life is temporal and that our time here is short which may lead to a deeper appreciation for the ecstasy of living, appreciating the experience of now—finding meaning in the joy of being alive even the suffering, instead of chasing the thrill of dying for some imagined future glory, or believing it to be a virtue.

Since being alive is ecstasy also, it stands to reason that similar effects shouldn’t be achieved by being present. To illustrate this point, psychoanalysis has shown that at every moment of being confronted with the semiotic there occurs a type of sublimation of the ego, a small death, from where reality is reconstituted upon the foundation of meaning. This meaning is constantly shifting as one’s relationship to the symbolic order is constantly changing. Hence there is a constant re-emergence of the ego, a recalibration of the self, owing to its relationship to the stimulus it is confronted with. The reason for the ego’s sublimation, is that as soon as one is confronted with a sign the mind starts identifying it and this is done by establishing a relationship between it and all the signs it forms a relationship with, since the ego is entirely reliant on the world as a reflection thereof, at this point of identification the relationship is negated and with this negation so is the ego. This theory shows that life is ecstatic in the magickal sense and that the fluidity of meaning and the ego’s inescapable reliance on such for navigating its place through the world, is in perfect harmony with the formula of I.A.O..

Although, this is to be taken into consideration there is pain in life, and it may be that the painful aspects of living are the one’s from which we see the most of ourselves. It is from pain that the self is revealed in its clearest form, and when we find ourselves under such conditions, Crowley says not to shy away from them and to hold onto the pain. Of course, this is pointed out in the vignette as the more we assimilate the greater the reward. The reward here are the insights we gain into Nature and Being, that when such suffering is experienced, the shadow rises to the occasion as a comfort and the complexes are seen in a clear light. Hence, the more we experience under the pressure of ecstasy, the more we are able to comprehend and the greater the force we may fix to our talismans. If these experiences force us to look closer at existence and to ask questions we have never considered as having been beyond our peripheral, then certainly, the creative expression of these insights would be of equal character.

Impressions:

Impressions:

 9. QUO MODO NATURA SUA EST LEGENDA.

(How One Should Consider One’s Nature)

Deem not therefore that thy lightest Fancy is witless: it is a Word to thee, a Prophecy, a Sign or Signal from thy Lord. Thy most unconscious Acts are Keys to the Treasure-Chamber of thine own Palace, which is the House of the Holy Ghost. Consider well thy conscious Thoughts and Acts, for they are under the Dominion of thy Will, and moved in Accord with the Operation of thy Reason; this indeed is a necessary work, enabling to comprehend in what manner thou mayst adjust thyself to thine Environment. Yet is this Adaptation but Defence for the most Part, or at the best Subterfuge and Stratagem in the Tactics of thy Life, with but an accidental and subordinate Relation to thy true Will, whereof by Consciousness and by Reason thou mayst be ignorant, unless by Fortune great and rare thou be already harmonized in thyself, the Outer with the Inner, which Grace is not common among Men, and is the Reward of previous Attainment.

Neglect not simple Introspections, therefore; but give yet greater Heed unto those Dreams and Phantasies, those Gestures and Manners unconscious, and of undiscovered Cause, which betoken thee.

Liber Aleph: Aleister Crowley

We lose ourselves in magick, even though, for most of us, it is the very place where we first found ourselves. Magicians are not of the herd, they seldom want what the average man or woman wants, in fact, to be and to stay committed to a path such as that given to us by the A.’.A.’., it could be said, that such a person must be insane. There are no material rewards in it for us, no earthly glory to be gained by way of this toil. But that was never what any of us signed up for. Any magician, who is always looking to find fault in others, or validation from them, or in a way presents this as something that needs to be revered that sets him apart as superior from the rest of humanity, or that it may manifest his every desire, is either insincere, or he is a liar and a fraud. Magick is subjective, it is the art and science of causing change subjectively, one cannot influence the weather or affect global affairs through magickal means. Magick will not give you what you want, it will give you what you need, until such time that you know what it is you truly want.

We start by asking questions: what made me get so angry, what about this situation made me behave in this way, is my aversion to that person justified, what about that person is making me feel this way, how can I love or hate such a person and are these feelings rational even if they are, what is the reason for my reaction? Then there are the dogs, I listen to their words and I pay attention to their attacks, and then I feel it, I ask myself what I am feeling and whether or not the way I am feeling is rational, what about this current experience is making me feel differently to an experience that was similar in almost every respect? One must also look at circumstances and memories and ask the same questions pertaining to them. These feelings are sometimes unbearably painfully and uncomfortable and sometimes joyful—pleasurable to the extreme, but this is what we are looking for. The humiliation, the fear, the uncertainty and anger, the joy, the love, the compassion, empathy and even the peace when in the company of a certain individual, in a certain environment, or the experience is associated with a specific set of circumstances; when evaluated, these questions may all shed light into the darkness of our inner worlds. We need these things to develop, whether painful or pleasurable; that through them we cultivate our Souls. Self-knowledge is the first requisite for any of us, and it is via our introspection that we attain mastery over our emotions, thoughts and feelings. Looking outward, trying to find someone or circumstances to blame, to run away or to look away from; defeats the entire purpose of this first injunction.

It has been documented, that aspirants and initiates of the Holy Order, throughout history, have in many cases been subject to slanderous attacks, and some have been tortured and killed for their association. There is nothing very glamorous about that prospect, and even so, some of us take on our responsibilities in full knowledge of this fact, that at the outset, we have accepted the opposition of the people as a potential fate. In the beginning, we are taught that to love the world and humanity is the highest adoration. Then we work to set ourselves apart from that very unity that we hold in such high regard. It is a tearing away from the mother that leaves us isolated and alone, that we may re-establish our relationship with her on our own terms and in a more perfect manner.

We have, under such circumstances, no choice but to enter into a deep and honest dialogue with ourselves, as there is truly nobody else to talk to. We must never allow ourselves to be dragged down so low as to partake in those things that are most detestable within the heart of humanity. We must be better; and instead of stooping to that level, to rather become quiet and to find answers from inside with which to move forward with integrity and pride; the pride of knowing that I am not an animal, that I am more refined. If I become, in any way, like that which I hate most, I would surely end up hating myself. How could I live with myself? But like this; I can live with pride in the reflection staring back at me, and I can die knowing that I didn’t negate my Soul for the sake of belonging or getting along. Know thyself; seems to be a rather straight forward injunction, but the way to accomplish it is to have nothing else to look at or to study; but to look into the very centre of one’s being demands isolation and a willingness to look at things that most people will never see. It is lonely, and so this must be done under Will. In order for this to be accomplished, one must become still and quiet, he must explore his inner world of symbols, and he must recognize and analyze his impressions without paying attention to the noise of the external world. Although, and this is where the difficulty lies: he must, even from his sense of isolation and indifference maintain harmony between himself and the world. This is achieved by utilizing the intellect and the Four Powers of the Sphinx and evaluating what habits, and behaviors as well as impressions don't serve his progress and cutting them away as they arise. Thereby he cultivates an environment of peaceful congruence that is absolutely essential to him at this stage in his magickal development.

31. For these fools of men and their woes care not thou at all! They feel little; what is, is balanced by weak joys; but ye are my chosen ones.

32. Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all.

Liber AL: Chapter I, Verse 31,32:

25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!

Liber AL: Chapter II, Verse 25:

The attacks of the people are in a way a blessing, that they serve to tear open new wounds and potential repressions from which we gain deeper insight into our Souls. They extend our circumference, that through this magick we attain greater control as our understanding of the semiotic relationship between the elements that shape our realities increase. The scars serve as reminders of those things we have overcome, those things that have aided in our development, albeit, some things we may have chosen to ignore, they are all things that we have entered into a relationship with, that have formed a part of us. Some of it may be neatly tucked away and avoided to form part of our shadows, but all of it fosters the unique character of every individual Soul. There is always a yearning to be reunited with the mother, however, this marriage is only possible once perfection is attained. Therefore, this initial step is of the utmost importance. As it teaches us what is of use to us, and what must be cut away. The Will of a magician and his intellect are the only tools he has to help him overcome these trials, as the yearning is there, and the herd will reinforce to him the idea that there is merit in his premature return to the world. Thus, his reward will only be attained in remaining steadfast, and by cutting away the false phantoms that seek to lure him, and guide him back from whence he came.

On Sex and the Children of Gods:

 On Sex and the Children of Gods:

Stare at the sun until your eyes are blistered, and you see the beauty of truth within the mind of God.

Sex Magick… Randolph wrote about it, and Crowley wrote about it, although, both, cryptically; now nobody writes about it; scared to death of the consequences, or perhaps to save them from embarrassment. They tell us though, that it does not necessarily have to be the type of sex between a man and a woman, and the brave one’s go as far as to say that this Royal Marriage is a metaphor for union between the macrocosm and the microcosm, even from whence a child is conceived.

Let us try to elucidate this practice, as to make as much sense as possible for the uninitiated, by using words and meanings, uniquely suited to such a mind, as to, at least glimpse the truth into that which some commit their souls. Of course, Sex Magick, in its most direct definition involves a man and a woman, and the act of love, but, in another sense, extends itself to the polarity of opposites that reach to the ends of the known universe. Hence, first, it is such union, and its role in magick that must be looked at.

Randolph informs us, that when involved in the sway of love, a woman’s intellect becomes active as her private area remains passive, as always, and the man is the opposite, his private area too remains the same, while his intellect is bewildered becoming passive, almost as if she is tending to his vitality. When we think of a man’s role, traditionally, this makes sense, to give him a break, and tend to his needs as needed. However, within this specific coital exchange, he is still the creative force, he, in fact, becomes that, in its entirety, he now, is the embodiment of a logos, and she becomes the spirit which carries this will into manifestation. She hence, becomes the nurturing womb of the logos, gestation is thus an apt metaphor for her role in this magick.

Love is the foundation upon which this relationship rests, whereupon this power stands, that by mutual sympathy they achieve agency over the forces of nature leading them to do their will upon the world. This will, is meditated on, agreed to, and it is actualized by way of the sex act, and must be performed by two individuals who are raised to the heights of ecstasy in their mutual embrace, otherwise, if one of the two lacks in sincerity, the operation will conceive a devil, and turn their intention into a hell. Therefore, one must avoid entering into such an operation lightly, also not to partake in such with prostitutes or the like, in other words, a woman incapable of love and anyone mentally unstable is to be excluded. The ritual, thus, is first and foremost a sacrament of love between a man and a woman, followed by the "act of causing change to occur in conformity with will".

Since ancient times, ecstasy has been associated with the divine, the gods; and love has been observed to be a rather straight path for its attainment. Other acts too, have been associated with such, such as lethal imbibing, self-mutilation, and even high fever, where the body is overwhelmed by the causal stimulus serving to give rise to a new perception as confronted by the necessity for transcendence anticipating the end. Sex however, or love—union between a man and a woman, has an uncanny knack for doing away with the near-death experience usually needed for the negation of self, and as such, is highly praised for its efficacy.

Here is a quote from De Arte Magica to illustrate further what is presented in the above: “On the appointed day he is attended by one or more chosen and experienced attendants whose duty is (a) to exhaust him sexually by every known means (b) to rouse him sexually by every known means. Every device and artifice of the courtesan is to be employed, and every stimulant known to the physician. Nor should the attendants reck of danger, but hunt down ruthlessly their appointed prey. Finally the Candidate will into a sleep of utter exhaustion, resembling coma, and it is now that delicacy and skill must be exquisite. Let him be roused from this sleep by stimulation of a definitely and exclusively sexual type.”

With a single courtesan, the position utilized must unite the poles, thus something more traditional is advisable, hereby creating an electrical current that is amplified as intensity increases, with the will imprinted at the moment of climax upon the substrate of consciousness. It must be love making in the deepest sense, self-consciousness must fall away from such an intense exchange. The hearts, privates and heads must all be intensely stimulated, as the security that such closeness creates, is a tool for charging the electric current, the three gates must thusly be activated and specific positions chosen to accommodate the release of bioelectricity during this exchange form part of the act. If this practice is properly performed, awareness of the above mentioned substrate should be such that it becomes visible to the magician, from whence the only things he will be aware of is firstly, the logos of the operation functioning as a spermatozoon poised to unite with the ovum and impregnate the universe with the magician's intention, and of course, the substratum whereupon this intention is imprinted, that which we call love. As mentioned in the quote, this practice must be continued until the will is utterly exhausted, and the magician falls into a sleep resembling a coma. More than one courtesan would reasonably demand more creative measures on part of the participants, although, the end must be a state of, for lack of a better word, “death” to the magician, as well as all involved must be perfectly suited for their roles.

The magician, by way of his continual death, and resurrection is in a very practical way sublimating his ego. Prior to the ritual, the magician is to meditate on the object of the ceremony for a prescribed amount of time, during which he is to have as little contact as possible with mundane folks. He is in a phrase, “enflaming his heart with prayer”, as he dedicates himself entirely to his creative will. His courtesan, for whom he must have an absolute affinity and vice versa, now takes on some responsibility, as well as, surrounding herself with the symbols of their invocation during the magician’s meditation and preliminary retirement. This kind of magickal relationship between a magician and his muse kindles the flame of love, instead of it diminishing through familiarity. This last point is of the utmost importance, as anything less would lead to ruins and hell, as if the Magickal Child had been a planned miscarriage, an abortion doomed at the point of conception, or a cripple, or worse, a demon sent to materialize hell.

What the magician is essentially achieving through this practice, by way of this sensory overload, is that, he is supplanting the ego with the will of his desire. “Yet if convenient, music wisely regulated will assist. The attendants will watch with assiduity for signs of waking; and the moment these occur, all stimulation must cease instantly, and the Candidate be allowed to fall again into sleep; but no sooner has this happened than the former practice is resumed.” The music referred to in the quote from De Arte Magica as wisely regulated, refers to a mnemonic, as the practice must render the ego negated, that the mnemonic corresponds to the logos of the operation and serves to strengthen the operation in its accumulative clarity. Thus, with each resurrection, the will is raised to a more vivid perfection. What this means is, that the music must be in sympathy with the intention, there, as in all operations, may be introduced scents and imagery also in harmony with the sphere worked in. These elements, thus serving a mnemonic function as well as an immediate aid for achieving union, will have accompanied the preliminary practices leading up to the ritual.

In order to fully understand the scope of this practice as a yogic discipline, a word about the nature of Samadhi is in order. Crowley wrote about a river, as if to represent a sea or stream of consciousness, a substrate if you will, an awareness which is only achieved from the loss of self in the other or Samadhi. What this seems to entail, is that even the self, having negated awareness in this loss is still aware of this substrate, which has been, and is referred to as love. It connects all animate and inanimate things in the universe, and by virtue of common sense, within it, karma reverberates. Therefore, what makes this magick as efficacious as it is, is that, for one lost in a state of ecstasy, or union from whence the ego is negated entirely, this substrate becomes visible, and the act of projecting the will onto it, becomes as tangible as slamming one’s head through a glass window.

Proclus and Neoplatonism 5:

Proclus and Neoplatonism 5: 

Proclus compared the gifts of the demiurge to a tetractys, which he likened to the ontology of consciousness and the universe. Hence, as such, each level of Being contains the lower level within itself, starting with the Monad, Dyad and Triad that ends with the lowest of these worlds represented in the four. Iamblichus regarded the soul as having entirely descended into matter upon incarnation, which is a stark contrast to Plotinus who believed that the soul only partly descends. Accordingly, certain higher souls expressed an initiated perspective of the soul's place in the universe containing its connection to the higher via certain structures in the world that mirrored not only the nature of the soul, but in their perfection, they mirrored the nature of the demiurge itself. Hence Theurgy and its principles serve the soul in cultivating a connection/relationship between it and the higher races necessary for its perfecting. Proclus compared the polis to a structure that mirrored the nature of Being and its perfecting potential, which is sometimes called the demiurgic art, that we are able with enough insight, to copy the nature of the higher that sustains corporeal reality, giving form to matter preventing us from drifting into chaos. The relationship between these structures may be represented by concentric circles, the middle one representing the soul the second the polis and the outer circle is the cosmos. Hence the reason theurgists placed such importance on studying astrology, and politics as they relate to the soul and its relationship to the demiurge is also clarified. Both the nature of the world and the universe as well as the constitutions of great countries and cities are subject to impermanence, it is only the soul that may be immortalized according to the neoplatonic doctrine. However it could be said that even such an immortalizing of the soul wouldn't fix its nature in permanency. As geography changes and cities are destroyed we see that the fleeting presence of these elements alludes to their imperfection, and according to this, perfection would have a character that is eternal. According to the philosophy here presented, only that which has been received by the priests and given to the world is eternal. Tradition, therefore, becomes the vehicle by which a soul develops its higher faculties, and it is tradition that will become the conduit of inspiration leading to its eventual immortalization. Proclus writes that these elements or gifts of the demiurge are held in place by friendship, and in the Thelemic tradition we call this Love in its highest sense. Hence, the substrate that tends towards the theurgist's transcendence is fostered by devotion or Bhakti Yoga to those elements that serve to inflame love within the heart of an aspirant. Here is the connection to Knowledge and Conversation with one's Holy Guardian Angel and the realization of the True Will; elements that within Thelema are metaphors for the Great Work, that too serve to immortalize the soul of an adept, and establishes him or her as a proponent of tradition.