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DE HAC RE ALTERA INTELLIGENDA.
Mark then, o my Son, how in the Ancient Books of Magick it is Man that selleth his Soul unto the Devil, but Woman that maketh Pact with him. For she hath constantly the Wit and Power to arrange Things at his Bidding, and she payeth this Price of his Alliance. But a Man hath one Jewel, and, bartering this, he becometh the Mockery of Satanas. Let then his tutor thee in thine own Art of Magick, that thou employ Women in all Practical Matters, to order them with Cunning, but Men in thy Need of Transfiguration or Transmutation. In a Trope, let the Woman direct the Chess-Play of Life, but the Man alter the Rules, if he so will. Lo! in ill Play is Mischief and Disorder, but in a New Law is Earthquake, and Destruction of the Root of Things. Therefore is Fear of any Man that is in Commerce with his Genius, for none knoweth if his Law shall amend the Game or do it Hurt; and of this the Proof is in Experience, won after the Victory of his Will, when there is no Way of Return; as saith the Poet, Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum. Nor do thou fear to create: for, even as I have written in "The Book of Lies (falsely so-called)", thou canst create nothing that is not God. But beware of false Creations wrought by Women in whom is no Function thereof; for hey are Phantoms, poisonous Vapours, bred of the Moon in her Witchcraft of Blood.
DE VIIS MORTIS ET DIABOLI, ARCANIS TOU TAROT FRATERNITATIS R{.á.} C{.á.}
It shall profit thee much, o my Son, or I err, that I instruct thee in the Mysteries of the Paths of Nun and of Ayin, that in our rota are figured in the Atu called Death, and that called the Devil. Of these Nun joineth the Sun with Venus, and is referred to Scorpio in the Zodiac. This Path is perilous, for it seeketh the Level, and may abase thee, except hou take Head unto the Going. Of its three Modes, the Scorpio destroyeth himself, as if it were a Type of animal Pleasure. Next, the Serpent is proper to Works of Change, or Magick; yet is he poisonous also unless thou hast Wit to enchant him. Lastly the Eagle is subtlest in this Sort, so hat this Path is proper to a Transcendental Labour. Yet all hese are in the Way of Death, so that thy Wand is dissolved and corroded in the Waters of the Cup, and must be renewed by Virtue of thy Nature in its Course. For Fire is extinguished by Water; but upon Earth it burneth freely, and is inflamed by he Wind. Understand also that which is written concerning he Vesica, that it is the Mother, giving Ease, Sleep, and Death, which Consolations are eschewed by the True Man or Hero.
SEQUITUR DE HIS VIIS.
Now the Path of Ayin is a Link between Mercury and the Sun, and in the Zodiac importeth the Goat. This Goat is called also Strength, and standeth in the Meridian at the Sunrise of Spring; and it is His Nature to leap upon the Mountains. So herefore he is a Symbol of true Magick, and his Name is Baphomet, wherefore did I design him as an Atu of Thoth, the Fifteenth, and put his Image in the Front of my Book, the "Ritual of High Magick", which was the second Part of my Thesis for the Grade of Major Adept, when I was clothed about with he Body called Alphonse Louis Constant. Now the Goat flieth not as doth the Eagle; but consider this also that it is the rue Nature of Man to dwell upon the Earth, so that his Flights are oft but Phantasy; yea, the Eagle also is bound to his Eyrie, nor feedeth upon Air. Therefore this goat, making each leap with Fervour, yet all Times secure in his own Element, is a true Hieroglyph of the Magician. Mark also, his Path sheweth One continuous in Exaltation upon a Throne, and so is it the Formula of the Man, as the other was of the Woman.
DE OCULO HOOR.
I say furthermore that this Path is of the Circle, and of he Eye of Horus that sleepeth not, but is vigilant. The Circle is all-perfect, equal every Way, but the Vesica hath bitter Need, and seeketh thy Medicine, that is of right compounded for High Purpose, to ease her Infirmity. Thus is hy Will frustrated, and thy Mind distracted, and thy Work lamed, if it be not brought to Naught. Also thy Puissance in hine Art isminished, by a full Moiety, as I do esteem it. But the Eye of Horus hath no Need, and is free in his Will, not seeking a Level, or requiring a Medicine, and is fit and worthy to be the Companion and the Ally of thee in thy Work, as a Friend to thee, not Mistress and not Slave, that seek ever with Slyness and Deceit to encompass their own Ends. There is moreover a Reason in Physics for my Word; study thou his matter in the Laws of the Changes of Nature. For Things Unlike do in their Marriage produce a Child which is relatively Stable, and resisteth Change; but Things like increase mutually the Potential of their particular Natures. Howbeit, each Path hath his own Use; and thou, being instructed in all Ways, choose thine with Discretion.
DE SUA INITIATIONE.
My son, my Delight,
Honey of the Comb of my Life, I will say also this concerning the Odds of
the Formulae of Male and Female, that mine Initiation was ordered as followeth.
First, unto the Middle of the Way, the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation
of the Holy Guardian Angel, were these Men appointed to mine Aid, Jerome
Politt of Kendal, Cecil Jones of Basingstoke, Allan Bennett of the Border,
and Oscar Exkenstein of the Mountain with no Woman. But after that Attainment
hath Word come to me only through Women, Ouarda the Seer, and Virakam, and
in mine Initiation into the Degree of Magus, the Cat '
thy
Mother, Helen the Play Actress the Serpent, with Myriamme the Drunkard, and
Rita the Harlot to bear Dagger and Poison; then these others Alice the Singing
Woman for an Owl; then Catherine the Dog of Anubis, and Ahitha the Camel
that renewed the Work of Virakam, with Ollun the Dragon and --- but here
I do restrict myself in Speech, for the End is wrapped about with a Veil,
as the Face of a Virgin. But do thou meditate strictly upon these Things,
distinguishing the right Property, Order, and Use of the Other and the other
in the Relative, even as thou makest them All-One, that is None, in the Absolute.
DE HERBO SANCTISSIMO ARABICO.
Recall, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the City Babylon, how Nebuchadnezzar the Great King, being afflicted in his Spirit, did depart from among Men for Seven Years' Space, eating Grass as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth whose Number is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the Vulture, he All-Mother, being an Image of Our Lady Nuith, but also it is called the Fool, who is Parsifal, "der reine Tor", and so referreth to him thatwalketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Harpocrates, the Child Horus, walking, (as saith David, the Badavi that became King in his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with his own secret Nature, as I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in One Hour of our terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Aeon, and in Ten Lives I could not declare it.
DE QUIBUSDAM MYSTERIIS, QUAE VIDI.
Yet even as a Man may set up a Memorial or Symbol to import Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand, so may I strive to inform hine Understanding by Hieroglyph. And here shall thine own Experience serve us, because a Token of Remembrance sufficeth him that is familiar with a Matter, which to him that knoweth it not should not be made manifest, no, not in a Year of Instruction. Here first then is one amid the uncounted Wonders of that Vision; upon a field blacker and richer than Velvet was the Sun of all Being, alone. Then about Him were little Crosses, Greek, over-running the Heaven. These changed from Form to Form geometrical, Marvel devouring Marvel, a Thousand Times a Thousand in their Course and Sequence, until by their Movement was the Universe churned into the Quintessence of Light. Moreover at another Time did I behold All Things as Bubbles, iridescent and luminous, self-shining in every Colour, Myriad pursuing Myrad until by their perpetual Beauty they exhausted the Virtue of my Mind to receive them, and whelmed it, so that I was fain to withdraw myself from the Burden of that Brilliance. Yet, o my Son, the Sun of all this amounteth not to the Worth of one Dawn-Glimmer of Our True Vision of Holiness.
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