SELECTIONS FROM LIBER ALEPH VEL CXI ~ ALEISTER CROWLEY ~ BOOK ALEPH VEL 111

AN XIV ☉ in ♈ ☾ in ♈
MARCH 20, 1991 E.V. 10:02 P.M. E.S.T.
IN THE FORM OF AN EPISTLE OF 666 THE GREAT WILD BEAST TO HIS SON 777
BEING THE EQUINOX VOLUME III NUMBER VI BY THE MASTER THERION
DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW.

α - apologia

I have begotten thee o my son and that strangely as thou knowest upon the scarlet woman called hilarion as it was mysteriously foretold unto me in the book of the law now therefore that thou art come to the age of understanding do thou give ear unto my wisdom for that therein lieth a simple and direct way for every man that he may attain to the end firstly then I would have thee to know that spiritual experience and perfection have no necessary connection with advancement in our holy order but for each man is a path there is a constant and there is a variable seek ever therefore in thy work of the promulgation of the law to discover in each man his own true nature for in each man his inmost light is the core of his star that is hadit and his work is the identification of himself with that light it is not every man who is called to the sublime task of the A.A. wherein he must master thoroughly every detail of the great work so that he may in due season accomplish it not only for himself but for all who are bound unto him there are very many for whom in their present incarnations this great work may be impossible since their appointed work may be in satisfaction of some magical debt or in adjustment of some balance or in fulfilment of some defect as is written suum cuique now because thou art the child of my bowels I yearn greatly towards thee o my son and I strive strongly with my spirit that by my wisdom I may make plain thy way before thee and thus in many chapters will I write for thee those things that may profit thee sis benedictus.

β - de arte kabbalistica

Do thou study most constantly my son in the art of the holy qabalah know that herein the relations between numbers though they be mighty in power and prodigal of knowledge are but lesser things for the work is to reduce all other conceptions to these of number because thus thou wilt lay bare the very structure of thy mind whose rule is necessity rather than prejudice not until the universe is thus laid naked before thee canst thou truly anatomize it the tendencies of thy mind lie deeper far than any thought for they are the conditions and the laws of thought and it is these that thou must bring to nought this way is most sure most sacred and the enemies thereof most awful most sublime it is for the great souls to enter on this rigour and austerity to them the gods themselves do homage for it is the way of utmost purity.

γ - de vita corrigenda

Know son that the true principle of self-control is liberty for we are born into a world which is in bondage to ideals to them we are perforce fitted even as the enemies to the bed of procrustes each of us as he grows learns repression of himself and his true will it is a lie this folly against self these words are written in the book of the law so therefore these passions in ourselves which we understand to be hindrances are not part of our true will but diseased appetites manifest in us through false early training thus the tabus of savage tribes in such matter as love constrain that true love which is born in us and by this constraint come ills of body and mind either the force of repression carries it and creates neuroses and insanities or the revolt against that force breaking forth with violence involves excesses and extravagances all these things are disorders and against nature now then learn of me the testimony of history and literature as a great scroll of learning but the vellum of the scroll is of man's skin and its ink of his heart's blood.

δ - legenda de amore

The fault that is fatality in love as in every other form of will is impurity it is not the spontaneity there-of which worketh woe but some repression in the environment in the fable of adam and eve is this great lesson taught by the masters of the holy qabalah for love were to them the eternal eden save for the repression signified by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thus their nature of love was perfect it was their fall from that innocence which drove them from the garden in the love of romeo and juliet was no flaw but family feud which imported nothing to that love was its bane and the rashness and violence of their revolt against that repression slew them in the pure outrush of love in desdemona for othello was no flaw but his love was marred by his consciousness of his age and his race of the prejudices of his fellows and of his own experience of woman-frailty.

ε - gesta de amore

Now as literature overfloweth with the murders of love so also doeth history and the lesson is ever the same thus the loves of abelard and of heloise were destroyed by the system of repression in which they chanced to move thus beatrice was robbed of dante by social artificialities and paolo slain on account of things external to his love of francesca then per contra martin luther being a giant of will and also the eighth henry of england as a mighty king bent them to overturn the whole world that they might have satisfaction of their loves and who shall follow them for even now we find great churchmen statesmen princes drama-makers and many lesser men overwhelmed utterly and ruined by the conflict between their passions and the society about them wherein which party errs is no matter of moment for our thought but the existence of the war is evidence of wrong done to nature.

ϝ - ultima thesis de amore

Therefore o my son be thou wary not bowing before the false idols and ideals yet not flaming forth in fury against them unless that be thy will but in this matter be prudent and be silent discerning subtly and with acumen the nature of the will within thee so that thou mistake not fear for chastity or anger for courage and since the fetters are old and heavy and thy limbs withered and distorted by reason of their compulsion do thou having broken them walk gently for a little while until the ancient elasticity return so that thou mayst walk run and leap naturally and with rejoicing also since these fetters are as a bond almost universal be instant to declare the law of liberty and the full knowledge of all truth that appertaineth to this matter for if in this only thou overcome then shall all earth be free taking its pleasure in sunlight without fear or phrenzy amen.

ζ - de natura sua percipienda

Understand o my son in thy youth these words which some wise one now nameless spake of old except ye become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven this is to say that thou must first comprehend thine original nature in every point before thou wast forced to bow before the gods of wood and stone that men have made not comprehending the law of change and of evolution through variation and the independent value of every living soul learn this also that even the will to the great work may be misunderstood of men for this work must proceed naturally and without overstress as all true works right also is that word that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force but except thou be violent by virtue of thy true nature how shalt thou take it be not as the ass in the lion's skin but if thou be born ass bear patiently thy burdens and enjoy thy thistles for an ass also as in the fables of apuleius and matthaiss may come to glory in the path of his own virtue.

χ - de voluptate poenarum

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.

aυ - sequitur classica

My son neglect not in any wise the study of the writings of antiquity and that in the original language for by this thou shalt discover the history of the structure of thy mind that is its nature regarded as the last term in a sequence of causes and effects for thy mind hath been built up of these elements so that in these books thou mayst bring into the light thine own subconscious memories and thy memory is as it were the mortar in the house of thy mind without which is no cohesion or individuality possible so that the lack thereof is called dementia and these books have lived long and become famous because they are the fruits of ancient trees whereof thou art directly the heir wherefrom say I they are more truly german to thine own nature than books of collateral offshoots though such were in themselves better and wiser yes o my son in these writings thou mayst study to come to the true comprehension of thine own nature and that of the whole universe in the dimension of time even as the mathematic declareth it in that of space that is of extension moreover by this study shall the child comprehend the foundation of manners the which as sayeth one of the sons of wisdom maketh man.

confessions

We may now return to the subject of the initiation itself besides my work of proclaiming the law to the profane and expounding it to the aspirant I was set the task of analysing it in such a way as to illuminate the most advanced during most of the winter I gave most of my spare time to the creation of literature which corresponded nobly with this three fold labour... for the aspirant I wrote the book called de lege libellum otherwise called the sandal in which I analysed the law as the source of light life love and liberty and pronounced a panegyric upon it in each of these respects successively for sustained sublimity of prose this book perhaps ranks next to those in which my pen was definitely and authentically inspired... I regarded and still regard this book the sandal as essentially an exercise in technique undertaken in order to fit myself to write liber aleph the book of wisdom or folly which is beyond question a consummate masterpiece in its particular sphere in literature... liber aleph the book of wisdom or folly was intended to express the heart of my doctrine in the most deep and delicate dimensions... liber aleph is the most tense and intense book that I have ever composed the thought is so concentrated and if I may use the word nervous that both to write then and to read now involved an involves an almost intolerable strain I remember how I used to sit at my desk night after night it was the bitterest winter that had been known in new york for many years but even if the central heating had been the flames of hell itself I doubt whether I should have been warm night after night I sat all through rigid as a corpse and icier the whole of my life concentrated in two spots the small section of my brain which was occupied in the work and my right wrist and fingers I remember with absolute clearness that my consciousness appeared to start from a perfectly dead forearm the book is written in prose yet there is a formal circumscription more imminent than anything which would have been possible in poetry I limited myself by making a point of dealing thoroughly with a given subject in a single page it was an acute agony similar to that of asana to write and the effort removed me so far from normal human consciousness that there was something indicibly ghastly in its unnaturalness when I got into bed in full daylight in the hope of acquiring a particle of warmth from the complacent camel... an uninitiated translator is bound to meet constantly with apparently nonsensical passages one must know what the author is likely to mean by any given phrase and this can only be done by a man who has intimate experience of the spiritual states and magical principles set forth.