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DE VIRIS MAGNANIMIS, AMORE PRAECLARISSIMIS.
Know that in the Mind of Man is much Wisdom that is hidden, being the Treasure of his Sire that he inheriteth. Thus, night all of his moral Nature is unknown to him until his Puberty; that is, this Nature pertaineth not unto the Recording and Judging Apparatus of his Brain until it is put herein by the Stirring of that deeper Nature within him. Thou wilt mark also that great Men are commonly great Lovers; and this is in Part also because (consciously or not) they are ware of that Secret following, that every Act of Love communicateth somewhat of the Wisdom stored within him to his percipient Mind. Yet must such Act be done rightly, according o Art; and unless such Act is of Profit alike to Mind and Body, it is an Error. This then is true Doctrine; which if it be understanded aright of thee, shall make diamond-clear thy Path in Love, which (to them that know not this) is so obscure and perilous that I believe there is not one Man in Ten Thousand that cometh not to Misadventure therein.
DE CASTITATE.
My son, be fervent! Be firm! Be stable! Be quick to make Impurity, how one Course of Ideas seeketh to infringe upon another, to quell the Virtue thereof. Gold is pure, but to drink molten Gold were Impurity to thy Body, and its Destruction. Law is a Code of the Customs of a People; if it intrude thereon to alter them, it is an Impurity of Oppression. So also Diet is to be in Accord with Digestion; Ethics were an Impurity therein. Love is an Expression of the Will of the Body, yea, and more also, of That which created he Body; and its Operation is commonly between One and One, so that the Interference of a Third Person is Impurity, and not to be endured. Nay, even the thought of Third Person hath but ordinary not Part in Love; so that, as thou seest constantly in thy Life, Love being strong, taketh no heed of others, and some after Interference bringeth Misfortune. Now hen shell we therefore cast out Love, or accept Impurity herein? God forbid. And for this Cause see thou well to it hat in thy Kingdom there be no Interference there with, nor Hindrance from any. For it is perfect in itself.
DE CEREMONIO EQUINOXI.
My Son, our Father in Heaven hath passed into the Sign of he Ram. I have performed the Rite of Union with Him according to the ancient Manner, and I know the Word that shall rule the Semester. Also it is given unto my Spirit to write unto thee concerning the Virtue of this Rite, and many another of Antiquity. And it is this, that our Forefathers made of these Ceremonies an Epitome Mnemonic, wherein certain Truths, or true Relations, should be communicated in a magical Manner. Now therefore by the Practice of these mayst thou awaken thy Wisdom, that it may manifest in thy conscious Mind. And this Way is of Use even when the Ceremonies, as those of he Christians, are corrupt and deformed; but in such a Case hou shalt seek out the true ancient Significance thereof. For there is that within thee which remembereth Truth, and is ready to communicate the same unto thee when thou hast Wit to evoke it from the Aditum and Sanctuary of thy Being. And this is to be done by this Repetition of the Formula of that Truth. Note thou further that this which I tell thee is the Defence of Formalism; and indeed thou must work upon a certain Skeleton, but clothe it with live Flesh.
DE LUCE STELLARUM.
It was that most Holy Prophet, thine Uncle, called upon Earth William O'Neill, or Blake, who wrote for our Understanding these Eleven Sacred Words! ---
If the Sun and
Moon should doubt
They'd immediately go out.
O my Son, our Work is to shine by Fore and Virtue of our own Natures without Consciousness or consideration. Now, notwithstanding that our Radiance is constant and undimmed, it may be that Clouds gathering about us conceal our Glory from he Vision of other Stars. These Clouds are our Thoughts; not hose true Thoughts which are but conscious Expressions of our Will, such as manifest in our Poesy, or our Music, or other Flower-Ray of our Life quintessential. Nay, the Cloud-Thought is born of Division and of Doubt; for all Thoughts, except hey be creative emanations, are Witnesses to Conflict within us. Our settled Relations with the Universe do not disturb our Minds, as, by Example, our automatic Functions, which speak to us only in the Sign of Distress. Thus all consideration is Demonstration of Doubt, and Doubt of Duality, which is the Root of Choronzon.
DE CANTU.
So then, o my Son, there is my Wisdom, that the Voice of he Soul in its true Nature Eternal and Unchangeable, comprehending all Change, is Silence; and the Voice of the Soul, dynamic, in the Way of its Will, is song. Nor is there any Form of utterance that is not, as song is, the Music proper to that Motion, according to the Law. Thus, as thy Cousin Arthur Machen hath rejoiced to make plain unto Men in his Book called "Hieroglyphics", the first Quality of Art is its Ekstacy. So, night to all Men at one Time or other, cometh Joy of Creation, with the Belief that their Utterance is holy and beautiful, glorious with Banners. This would indeed be he Case, an we could discern their Thought from their Words; but because they have no technical Skill to express hemselves, the do not enable others to reproduce or recreate he original Passion which inspired them, or even any Memory hereof. Understand then what is the Agony of the Great Soul who hath every Key of Paradise at his Girdle, when he would open the Gate of Holiness, or of Beauty, or any Virtue soever, o the Men of his Age!
DE STULTITIA HUMANA.
Know that a Mind can only apprehend those Things with which it is already familiar, at least in Part. Moreover, it will ever interpret according to the Distortion of its own Lenses. Thus, in a great War, all Speech soever may be understood as if it were of Reference thereunto; also, a Guilty Person, or a Melancholic may see in every Stranger an Officer of Justice, or one of them that are banded together to persecute him, as he Case may be. But consider moreover that the Mysterious is always the Terrible, for Vulgar Minds. How then when a New Word is spoken? Either it is not heard, or it is misunderstood; and it evoketh Fear and Hate as a Reaction against Fear. Then Men take him and set him at naught, and spit upon him and scourge him, and lead him away to crucify him; and the third Day he riseth from among the Dead, and ascendeth into Heaven, and sitteth at the right Hand of God, and cometh to judge the Quick and the Dead. This, o my son, is the History of Every Man unto whom is given a Word.
DE SUO PROELIO.
Now therefore thou seest how Men take the Son of Science, and burn him for a Sorcerer or a Heretic; the Poet and cast him out as Reprobate; the Painter, as deforming Nature, the Musician, as denying Harmony; and so for every New Word. How much more, then, if the Word be of Universal Import, a Word of Revolution and of Revelation in the Deep of the Soul? A new Star; that is for the Astronomers, and maybe setteth them by he Ears. But a new Sun! That were for all Men; and a Seed of Tumult and Upheavel in every Land. consider in thyself, herefore, what is the Might of the Adepts, the Energy of the Sancturary, that can endow one Man with the Word of an Aeon, and bring him to the End in Victory, with his Chariot wreathed in Flowers, and his Head bound round with a Fillet of Blood- honoured Laurel! My Son, thou are entered into the Battle; and the Men of our Race and our Clan return not save in Glory.
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