220A2-6.ASC `De Inferno Palatio Sapientiae. `Now then thou seest that this Hell, or concea
220A2-6.ASC
`De Inferno Palatio Sapientiae.. `Now then thou seest
that this Hell, or concealed Place within thee, is no more a
Fear or Hindrance to Men of a Free Race, But the
Treasure-House of the Assimilated Wisdom of the Ages, and the
Knowledge of the True Way. Thus are we Just and Wise to
discover this Secret in Ourselves, and to conform the
conscious Mind therewith. For that Mind is compact solely
(until it be illuminated) of Impressions and Judgments, so
that its Will is but directed by the sum of the Shallow
Reactions of a most limited Experience. But thy True Will is
the Wisdom of the Ages of thy Generations, the Expression of
that which hath fitted thee exactly to thine Environment.
Thus thy conscious Mind is oftentimes foolish, as when thou
admirest an Ideal, and wouldst attain it, but thy true Will
letteth thee, so that there is Conflict, and the Humiliation
of that Mind. Here will I call to Witness the common Event of
`Good Resolutions' that defy the Lightning of Destiny, being
puffed up by the Wind of an Indigestible Ideal putrefying
within thee Thence cometh colic, and presently the Poison is
expelled, or else thou diest. But Resolutions of True Will
are mighty against Circumstance.' `De Vitiis Voluntatis
Secretae. `Learn moreover concerning this Hell, or Hidden
Wisdom, that is within thee, that it is modified, little by
little, in respect of its Khu, through the Experience of the
Conscious Mind, which feedeth it. For that Wisdom is the
Expression, or rather Symbol and Hieroglyph, of the True
Adjustment of thy Being to its Environment. Now then, that
Environment being eroded by Time, this Wisdom is no more
perfect, for it is not absolute, but standeth in Relation to
the Universe. So then a Part thereof may become useless, and
atrophy, as (I will instance) Man's Wit of Smell; and the
bodily Organ corresponding degenerateth therewith. But this
is an Effect of much Time, so that in thy Hell thou art like
to find Elements vain, or foolish, or contrary to thy present
Weal. Yet, o my Son, this Hidden Wisdom is not thy true Will,
but only the Levers (I may say so) thereof. Notwithstanding,
there lieth therein a Faculty of Balance, whereby it is able
to judge whether any Element in itself is presently useful
and benign, or idle and malignant. Here then is a Root of
Conflict between the Conscious and the Unconscious, and a
Debate concerning the right Order of Conduct, how the Will
may be accomplished'.
61. This chapter now enters upon an entirely new phase.
The revelation or `hiding' of Hadit had by now sunk into the
soul of The Beast, so that He realized Himself.
62. `Uplifted in thine Heart': -- compare the Book of the
Heart Girt with a Serpent. (See Equinox III,I.)
63. This verse conceals a certain Magical Formula of the
loftiest initiations. It refers to a method of using the
breath, in connexion with the appropriate series of ideas,
which is perhaps not to be taught directly. But it may be
learnt by those who have attained the necessary degree of
magical technique, suggested automatically to them by Nature
Herself, just as newly-hatched chickens pick up corn without
instruction.
64. `The Kings' are evidently those men who are capable of
understanding Themselves. This is a consecration of THe Beast
to the task of putting forth the Law. `Thou art overcome'.
The conscious resisted desperately, and died in the last
ditch.
65. It is curious that this verse should be numbered 65,
suggesting L.V.X. and Adonai, the Holy Guardian Angel. It
seems then that He is Hadit. I have never liked the term
`Higher Self'; True Self is more the idea. For each Star is
the husk of Hadit, unique and conqueror, sublime in His own
virtue, independent of Hierarchy. There is an external
hierarchy, of course, but that is only a matter of
convenience.
66. The first part of this text appears to be a digression
in the nature of a prophecy. The word `Come!' is a summons to
reenter the full Trance. Its essence is declared in the last
six words. Notice that the transition from one to none in
instantaneous.
67. The instructions in the text of this and the next
verse were actual indications as to how to behave, so as to
get the full effect of the Trance. This too is a general
Magical Formula, convenient even in the Work of the physical
image of the Godhead. It is of the utmost importance to
resist the temptation to let oneself be carried away into
trance. One should summon one's reserve forces to react
against the tendency to lose normal consciousness. More and
more of one's being is gradually drawn into the struggle, and
one only yields at the last moment. (It needs practice and
courage to get the best results.). I quote from the Holy
Books: `Fall not into death, O my soul! Think that death is
the bed into which you are falling!' (Liber VII,I,33.) `Thou
hast brought me into great delight. Thou hast given me of Thy
flesh to eat and of Thy blood for an offering of
intoxication. Thou hast fastened the fangs of Eternity in my
soul, and the Poison of the Infinite hath consumed me
utterly. I am become like a luscious devil of Italy; a fair
strong woman with worn cheeks, eaten out with Hunger for
kisses. She hath played the harlot in diverse palaces; she
hath given her body to the beasts. She hath slain her
kinsfolk with strong venom of toads; she hath been scourged
with many rods. She hath been broken in pieces upon the
Wheel; the hands of the hangman have bound her unto it. The
fountains of water have been loosed upon her; she hath
struggled with exceeding torment. The hath burst in sunder
with the weights of the waters; she hath sunk into the awful
Sea. So am I, O Adonai, my lord, and such are the waters of
Thine intolerable Essence. So am I, O Adonai, my beloved,
and Thou hast burst me utterly in sunder. I am shed out like
spilt blood upon the mountains; the Ravens of Dispersion have
borne me utterly away. Therefore is the seal unloosed, that
guarded the Eighth abyss; therefore is the vast sea as a
veil; therefore is there a rending asunder of all things.'
(Liber LXV,III, vv. 38-48.) `Intoxicate the inmost, O my
lover, not the outermost!' (Liber LXV, I, v.64).
68. It is remarkable that this extraordinary Experience
has practically no effect upon the normal consciousness of
THe Beast. `Intoxicate the inmost, o my God' -- and it was
His Magical Self, 666, that was by this Ecstasy initiated. It
needed years for this Light to dissolve the husks of accident
that shrouded his True Seed.
69. The phrase -- ` the word' -- is of a deeper
significance than at first sight may appear. The question is
not merely equivalent to: `Is the dictation at an end?' For
the Word is Conceived as the act of possession. This is
evident from the choice of the word `exhausted'. The
inspiration has been like an electrical discharge. Language
is in itself nothing; it is only the medium of transmitting
experience to consciousness. Tahuti, Thoth, Hermes, or
Mercury symbolize this relation; the character of this God is
declared in very full terms in `The Paris Working', which
should be studied eagerly by those who are fortunate enough
to have access to the MS.
70. It is absurd to suppose that `to indulge the passions'
is necessarily a reversion or degeneration. On the contrary,
all human progress has depended on such indulgence. Every art
and science is intended to gratify some fundamental need of
nature. What is the ultimate use of the telephone and all the
other inventions on which we pride ourselves? Only to sustain
life, or to protect or reproduce it; or to subserve Knowledge
and other forms of pleasure. On the other hand, the passions
must be understood properly as what they are, nothing in
themselves, but the diverse forms of expression employed by
the Will. One must preserve discipline. A passion cannot be
good or bad, too weak or too strong, etc. by an arbitrary
standard. Its virtue consists solely in its conformity with
the plan of the Commander-in- Chief. Its initiative and elan
are limited by the requirements of his strategy. For
instance, modesty may well cooperate with ambition; but also
it may thwart it. This verse counsels us to train our
passions to the highest degree of efficiency. Each is to
acquire the utmost strength and intelligence; but all are
equally to contribute their quota towards the success of the
campaign. It is nonsense to bring a verdict of `Guilty' or
`Not Guilty' against a prisoner without reference to the law
under which he is living. The end justifies the means: if the
Jesuits do not assert this, I do. There is obviously a limit,
where `the means' in any case are such that their use
blasphemes `the end': e.g. to murder one's rich aunt affirms
the right of one's poor nephew to repeat the trick, and so to
go against one's own Will-to-live, which lies deeper in one's
being than the mere Will-to-inherit. The judge in each case
is not ideal morality, but inherent logic. This then being
understood, that we cannot call any given passion good or bad
absolutely, any more than we can call Knight to King's Fifth
a good or bad move in chess without study of the position, we
may see more clearly what this verse implies. There is here a
general instruction to refine Pleasure, not by excluding its
gross elements, but by emphasizing all elements in
equilibrated development. Thus one is to combind the joys of
Messalina with those of Saint Theresa and Isolde in one
single act. One's rapture is to include those of Blake,
Petrarch, Shelley, and Catullus. Liber Aleph has detailed
instruction on numerous points involved in these questions.
Why `eight and ninety' rules of art? I am totally unable to
suggest a reason satisfactory to myself; but 90 is Tzaddi,
the `Emperor', and 8, Cheth, the `Charioteer' or Cup-Bearer;
the phrase might them conceivably mean `with majesty'.
Alternatively, 98=2 x 49: now Two is the number of the Will,
and Seven of the passive senses. 98 might then mean the full
expansion of the senses (7 x 7) balanced against each other,
and controlled firmly by the Will. `Exceed by delicacy':
this does not mean, by refraining from so-called animalism.
One should make every act a sacrament, full of divinest
ecstasy and nourishment. There is no act which true delicacy
cannot consecrate. It is one thing to be like a sow,
unconscious of the mire, and unable to discriminate between
sweet food and sour; another to take the filth firmly and
force oneself to discover the purity therein, initiating even
the body to overcome its natural repulsion and partake with
the soul at this Eucharist. We `believe in the Miracle of the
Mass' not only because meat and drink are actually
`transmuted in us daily into Spiritual Substance', but
because we can make the `Body and Blood of God' from any
materials soever by Virtue of our royal and Pontifical Art of
Magick. Now when Brillat-Savarin (was it not?) served to the
King's table a pair of old kid gloves, and pleased the
princely palate, he certainly proved himself a Master-Cook.
The feat is not one to be repeated constantly, but one should
achieve it at least once -- that it may bear witness to
oneself that the skill is there. One might even find it
advisable to practice it occasionally, to retain one's
confidence that one's `right hand hath not lost its cunning'.
On this point hear further more our Holy Books: `Go thou
unto the outermost places and subdue all things'. Subdue thy
fear and thy disgust. Then -- yield!' (Liber LXV, I. 45.46).
`Morover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little
boat thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden
woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. also the river
was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved
her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream. I
gathered myself into the little Boat, and for many days and
nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.
Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth. But she stirred
not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to
blackness before me. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of
the flower of my youth. also it came to pass that thereby
she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself
into the stream. Then at the end appointed her body was
whiter that the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm
as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of
the midmost sun. Then rose she up from the abyss of Ages of
Sleep, and her body embraced me. Altogether I melted into her
beauty and was glad. The river also became the river of
Amrit, and the little boat was the chariot of the flesh, and
the sales thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me,
thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me, that beareth
me.' We therefore train our adepts to make the Gold
Philosophical from the dung of witches, and the Elixir of
Life from Hippomanes; but we do not advocate ostentatious
addiction to these operations. It is good to know that one is
man enough to spend a month or so at a height of twenty
thousand feet or more above the sea-level; but it would be
unpardonably foolish to live there permanently. This
illustrates on case of a general principle. We consider the
Attainment of various Illuminations, incomparably glorious as
that is, of chief value for its witness to our possession of
the faculty which made success possible. To have climbed
alone to the summit of Iztaccihuatl is great and grand; but
the essence of one's joy is that one possesses the courage,
knowledge, agility, endurance, and self-mastery necessary to
have done it. The Goal is ineffably worth all our pains, as
we say to ourselves at first; but in a little while are aware
that even that Goal is less intoxicating then the Way itself.
We find that it matters little whither we go; the Going
itself is our gladness, I quote in this connection Liber LXV,
II, 17-25, one of several similar passages in Our Holy Books.
`Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan
floating in the blue. Between its wings I sate, and the
aeons fled away. Then the swan flew and dived and soared,
yet no whither we went. A little crazy boy that rode with me
spake unto the swan, and said: Who art thou that dost float
and fly and dive and soar in the inane? Behold, these many
aeons have passed; whence camest thou? Whither wilt thou go?
And laughing I chide him, saying: No whence! No whither! The
swan being silent, he answered: Then, if with no goal, why
this eternal journey? And I laid my head against the Head of
the Swan, and laughed saying: Is there not joy ineffable in
this aimless winging? Is there not weariness and impatience
for who would attain to some goal? And the swan was ever
silent. Ah! but we floated in the infinite Abyss. Joy! Joy!
White swan, bear thou ever me up between thy wings!' `Be
strong!' We need healthy robust bodies as the mechanical
instruments of our souls. Could Paganini have expressed
himself on the `fiddle for eighteen pence' that some one once
bought when he was `young and had no sense'? Each of us is
Hadit, the core of our Khabs, our Star, one of the Company of
Heaven; but this Khabs needs a Khu or Magical Image, in order
to play its part in the Great Drama. This Khu, again, needs
the proper costume, a suitable `body of flesh', and this
costume must be worthy of the Play. We therefore employ
various magical means to increase the vigour of our bodies
and the energy of our minds, to fortify and sublime them.
The result is that we of Thelema are capable of enormously
more achievement than others, even in terrestrial matters,
from sexual orgia to creative Art. Even if we had only this
one earth-life to consider, we exceed our fellows some
thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some an hundredfold. One most
important point, in conclusion. We must doubtless admit that
each one of us is lacking in one capacity or another. There
must always be some among the infinite possibilities of Nuith
which possesses no correlative points of contact in any given
Khu. For example, the Khu of a male body cannot fulfil itself
in the quality of motherhood. Any such lacuna must be
accepted as a necessary limit, without regret or vain
yearnings for the impossible. But we should beware lest
prejudice or other personal passion exclude any type of
self-realization which is properly ours. In our initiation
the tests must be thorough and exhaustive. The neglect to
develop even a single power can only result in deformity.
However slight this might seem, it might lead to fatal
consequences; the ancient adepts taught that by the parable
of the heel of Achilles. It is essential for the Aspirant to
make a systematic study of every possible passion, icily
aloof from all alike, and setting their armies in array
beneath the banner of his Will after he has perfectly gauged
the capacity of each unit, and assured himself of its
loyalty, discipline, courage, and efficiency. But woe unto
him who leaves a gap in his line, or one arm unprepared to do
its whole duty in the position proper to its peculiar
potentialities!
71. `The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom'.
Progress, as its very etymology declares, means A Step Ahead.
It is the Genius, the Eccentric, the Man Who Goes One Better
than his fellows, that is the Saviour of the Race. And while
it is unwise possibly (in some senses) to exceed in certain
respects, we may be sure that he who exceeds in no respect is
a mediocrity. The key of Evolution is Right Variation.
Excess is evidence at least of capacity in the quality at
issue. The golf teacher growls tirelessly: `Putt for the back
of the hole! Never up, never in!' The application is
universal. Far from me be it to deny that excess is too often
disastrous. The athlete who dies in his early prime is the
skeleton at every Boat Supper. But in such cases the excess
is almost always due to the desire to excel other men,
instead of referring the matter to the only competent judge,
the true Will of the body. I myself used to `go all out' on
mountains; I hold more World's Records of various kinds than
I can reckon -- for pace, skill, daring, and endurance. But I
never worried about whether other people could beat me. For
this reason my excesses, instead of causing damage to health
and danger to life, turned me from a delicate boy, too frail
for football, doomed by my doctors to die in my teens, into a
robust ruffian who throve on every kind of hardship and
exposure. On the contrary, every department of life in
which, from distaste or laziness, I did not `exceed', is
constantly crippling me in one way or another -- and I
recognize with savage remorse that the weakness which I could
have corrected so easily in my twenties is in my forties an
incurably chronic complaint.
72. This striving is to be strenuous. We are not to set
our lives at a pin's fee. `Unhand me, gentlemen! I'll make a
ghost of him that lets me!' Death is the End that crowns the
Work. Evolution works by variation. When an animal develops
one part of itself beyond the others, it infringes the norm
of its type. At first this effort is made at the expense of
other efforts, and it seems as if, the general balance being
upset, the Nature were in danger. (It must obviously appear
so to the casual observer -- who probably reproaches and
persecutes the experimenter). But when this variation is
intended to meet some new, or even foreseen, change in
environment, and is paid for by some surplus part, or some
part now superfluous, although once useful to meet a quality
of the environment which no longer menaces the individual,
the adaptation is biologically profitable. Obviously, the
whole idea of exercise, mental or bodily, is to develop the
involved organs in manner physiologically and psychologically
proper. It is deleterious to force any faculty to live by an
alien law. When parents insist on a boy adopting a profession
which he loathes, because they themselves fancy it; when
Florence Nightingale fought to open hospital windows in India
at night; then the Ideal mutilates and murders. Every organ
has `no law beyond Do what thou wilt'. Its law is determined
by the history of its development, and by its present
relations with its fellow-citizens. We do not fortify our
lungs and our limbs by identical methods, or aim at the same
tokens of success in training the throat of the tenor and the
fingers of the fiddler. But all laws are alike in this: they
agree that power and tone come from persistently practising
the proper exercise without overstraining. When a faculty is
freely fulfilling its function, it will grow; the test is its
willingness to `strive ever to more'; it justifies itself by
being `ever joyous'. It follows that `death is the crown of
all'. For a life which has fulfilled all its possibilities
ceases to have a purpose; death is its diploma, so to speak;
it is ready to apply itself to the new conditions of a larger
life. Just so a schoolboy who has mastered his work, dies to
school, reincarnates in cap & gown, triumphs in the trips,
dies to the cloisters, and is reborn to the world. Note that
the Atu `Death' in the Tarot refers to Scorpio. This sign is
threefold: the Scorpion that kills itself with its own
poison, when its environment (the ring of fire) becomes
intolerable; the Serpent that renews itself by shedding its
skin, that is crowned and hooded, that moves by undulations
like Light, and gives man Wisdom at the price of Toil
Suffering and Mortality; and the Eagle that soars, its
lidless eyes bent boldly upon the Sun. `Death' is, to the
initiate, as inn by the wayside; its marks a stage
accomplished; it offers refreshment, repose, and advice as to
his plans for the morrow. But in this verse the main point
is that death is the `crown' of all. The crown is Kether, the
Unity; `Love under will' having been applied to all
Nuith-possibilities of all Khu- energies of any
Hadit-central-Star, that Star has exhausted itself perfectly,
completed one stage of its course. It is therefore crowned by
death; and, being wholly itself, lives again by attracting
its equal and opposite Counterpart, with whom `love under
will' is the fulfilment of the Law, in a sublimer sphere.
But there are no rules until on finds them: a man leaving
Ireland for the Sahara does well to discard such
`indispensable' and `proper' things as a waterproof and a
blackthorn for a turban and a dagger. The `moral' man is
living by the no-reason of Laws, and that is stupid and
inadequate even when the Laws still hold good; for he is a
mere mechanism, resourceless should any danger that is not
already provided for in his original design chance to arise.
Respect for routine is the mark of the second-rate man. The
`immoral' man, defying convention by shouting aloud in
church, may indeed be `brawling'; but equally he may be a
sensitive who has felt the first tremor of an earthquake. We
of Thelema encourage every possible variation; we welcome
every new `sport'; its success or failure is our sole test of
its value. We let the hen's queer hatching take to water, and
laugh at her alarms; and we protect the `ugly duckling',
knowing that Time will tell us whether it be a cygnet.
Herbert Spencer, inexorably condemning the Unfit to the
gallows, only echoed the High-Priest who protected Paul form
the Pharisees. Sound biology and sound theology are for once
at one!
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank