The Gnostic Church of L.V.X.

Liber Siloam

SVB FIGVRA
CDLI

 

"Siloam" is an ancient Greek name derived from the more ancient Hebrew Shiloah (Shiloh).  The ancient city of Siloam was built around the ‘Serpent Stone’—Zoheleth; where Adonijah, a son of David gave his first feast in the time of Solomon.  It was Adonijah (a name formed of two godnames; Adonai and Jah—Jehovah) who tried to usurp the throne from his brother, Solomon.  The Pool of Siloam was an outlet to the Gihon Spring; one of the four rivers of Eden.

Shiloh was the name of both a city and the prophesied Messiah; meaning ‘one who comes.’  This has been interepreted as one ‘who is sent.’  The city of Shiloh was the original place for the sanctuary containing the Ark of the Covenant; the precursor of the first temple.  It remained there for 369 years (cf. Gnostic Cycles).  Shiloh is also the name used in Genesis 49:10 for the messiah mentioned in a benediction given by Jacob to his son Judah (whom the state of Judea will be named after); “the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the scepter from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and the obedience of the people be his.”

The Qabalah teaches

In nineteenth century ev occult literature the spelling "Sialam" is used.  The 'Sleep of Siloam' is a method of trance by which may come contact with praeter-human intelligences; most particularly that which is called one's Holy Guardian Angel.  This document is presumed to have been lost and to have resembled instructions given in the secret documents of the O.T.O.; particularly that which is called 'Eroto-comatose Lucidity'.  The document you hold here is an attempt to restore a more complete rendering to our lineage.

The "sleep of Siloam" (or 'Sialam') appears to have been a term used in certain occult fraternities to denote a controlled deliberate trance state (according to the editors of The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor the term originates in a 19th-century British army officer's memoir of his time in India, and was taken up by P.B. Randolph and H.P. Blavatsky).  In the "Religio-Philosophical Journal 22/20, May 19, 1877:p. 4, Blavatsky wrote that the separation of soul and body is "one of the last and very highest achievements of magic."

Related to this in Blavatsky's schema was the sacred "Sleep of *** " an obvious reference to the Sleep of Sialam, a term used by P.B.Randolph in his Rosicrucian novel Ravalette (1863) for the highest, drug induced vision state. It was taken up in Isis Unveiled where it relates to a drug- induced, prophetic "sublime lethargy" in which the unconscious subject is made the "temporary receptacle of the brightness of the immortal Augoeides."P.Deveney in "Astral Projection or Liberating of the Double and the Work of the Theosophical Society," writes: “Later the "Sleep of Sialam" came to mean the soma-induced trance during which the new initiate- both in the Orient and in the ancient Mysteries-comprehends the ultimate mysteries after undergoing the tests of Initiation.” ("The Esoteric Character of the Gospels, Lucifer, November 1887)Deveney ads that: "I do not think that drugs can be ruled out as a possibility in seeking practical techniques in the Theosophical Society - and would appear to be related to the degree structure or sections adopted by the Society at least as early as 1878 and which G.H.Felt were adopted from the very beginning." (Deveney gives then more evidence as he goes on, and this is indeed one of the books that is recommended reading if one wants to study this subject further, see: Deveney, "Astral Projection and the early Theosophical Society") In The SD (1888), Blavatsky specifically identifies the term as the one in use "to this day"among the Initiates in Asia Minor, in Syria and even in higher Egypt.

P.B. Randolph's [Theosophist] method of attaining spiritual knowledge was known as the sleep of Sialam, or Siloam. Shiloam, from the Hebrew Shiloah (literally, sending forth), was a spring outside Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible (John IX.7). Randolph would fall into a trance and experience visions. This method was probably developed during his spiritualistic period, although he referred to it as a Tibetan method.  Colonel Stephen Fraser, in his glorious volume entitled Twelve Years in India says:

"We joyfully, gladly went, five of us, her Majesty's Officers, on a tour of military inspection, the toils of which were likely to be rewarded by an opportunity of witnessing the dance of Illumination, of the MUNTRA-WALLAHS, or Magic-working Brahmans, whose strange miracles, worked apparently by the triple agency of Battasahs (rice), Gookal (red-powder), and strangest of all, by means of oval glasses or crystals, but black as night, in which it is reported, some very strange things were to be seen. We were all prepared to witness skilful jugglery, for which the residents of Muttr are renowned, but fully resolved to ascertain, if possible, how it was all done, rejecting, of course, everything claimed to be either supra-mortal or hyper-natural, so far as the underlying principles were concerned. …It was sheer skill, but such as no European could pretend to equal. Yet how the sleeping girl could tell our names, ages, place of birth, and fifty other true facts, she never having seen either of us before – because the dust of Jubalpore was still upon our clothes, we having been but one day in Muttra – was a problem not easily solved. They call it the Sleep of Sialam, and she passed into it by gazing into a dark glass.”

The similarities with Randolph, even on the verbal level, are apparent. It is the will alone that can save the disernbodied and lost criminal, and in the process of salvation he becomes a “vampire"-an echo of Dhoula Bel, the vampire, the enigmatic alter-ego that haunted Ravalette's steps in Ravalette. To drive home the comparison, moreover, Blavatsky goes on to add that “few kabbalists" believed in the possibility of this sort of reincarnation, and that the idea had originated with the astrologers who had come upon it in casting nativities for historical figures and found that the results tallied perfectly with certain prophecies.“Observation, and what would now be termed ‘remarkable coincidences,' added to revelation during the ‘sacred sleep' of the neophyte, disclosed the dreadful truth. So horrible is the thought that even those who ought to be convinced of it prefer ignoring it, or at least avoid speaking on the subject."Ibid., 1:357. The same idea is set forth in ,,Madame Blavatsky on the Views of the Theosophists," The Spiritualist (February 8, 1878): 68-69, reprinted in BCW, 1:290ff., 295-98.This “sacred sleep" can only be Randolph's sleep of Sialam.

“This way of obtaining oracles was practiced in the highest antiquity. In lndia, this sublime lethargy is called ,"the sacred sleep of * * * " It is an oblivion into which the subject is thrown by certain magical processes, supplemented by draughts of the juice of the soma. The body of the sleeper remains for several days in a condition resembling death, and by the power of the adept is purified of its earthliness and made fit to become the temporary receptacle of the brightness of the immortal Augoeides. In this state the torpid body is made to reflect the glory of the upper spheres, as a burnished mirror does the rays of the sun.

What his lips utter he will never know; but as it is the spirit, which directs them they can pronounce nothing but divine truth. For the time being the poor helpless clod is made the shrine of the sacred presence, and converted into an oracle a thousand times more infallible than the asphyxiated Pythoness of Delphi.”Isis Unveiled 1:357-58.

In the English Qabalah, 451 equates with the phrase 'Burn Up'; a reference to inflaming thyself with prayer and also the consumption of the lower ego by the higher ego (Asar Un Nefer).

In Liber Aleph, Crowley writes the following:

DE SOMNISS CAUSA PER ACCIDENS

As all diseases have two conjunct causes, one immediate, external and exciting, the other constitutional, internal, and predisposing, so it is with Dreams, which are Dis‑Eases, or unbalanced States of Consciousness, Disturbers of Sleep as Thoughts are of Life.

This exciting Cause is commonly of two kinds: videlicet, imprimis, the physical Condition of the Sleeper, as a Dream of Water caused by a shower without, or a Dream of Strangulation caused by a Dyspnoea, or a Dream of Lust caused by the seminal Congestions of an unclean Life, or a Dream of falling or flying caused by some unstable Equilibrium of Body.

Secundo, the psychic condition of the Sleeper, the Dream being determined by recent Events in his Life, usually those of the Day previous, and especially such Events as have caused Excitement of Anxiety, the more so if they be unfinished or unfulfilled.

But this exciting Cause is of a superficial Nature, as it were a Cloke or a Mask; and thus it but lendeth Aspect to the other Cause, which lieth in the Nature of the Sleeper himself.

DE SOMNIIS CAUSA PER NATURAM

The deep, constitutional, or predisposing Cause of Dreams lieth within the Jurisdiction of the Will itself. For that Will, being alway present, albeit (it may be) latent, discovereth himself when no longer inhibited by that conscious Control which is determined by Environment, and therefore oft times contrary to himself. This being so, the Will declareth himself, as it were in a Pageant, and showeth himself thus apparelled, unto the Sleeper, for a Warning or Admonition. Every Dream, or Pageant of Fancy, is therefore a Shew of Will; and Will being no more prevented by Environment or by Consciousness, cometh as a Conqueror. Yet even so he must come for the most Part throned upon the Chariot of the exciting Cause of the Dream, and therefore is his Appearance symbolic, like a Writing in Cipher, or like a Fable, or like a Riddle in Pictures. But always does he triumph and fulfill himself therein, for the Dream is a natural Compensation in the inner World for any Failure of Achievement in the outer.

DE SOMNIIS VESTIMENTA HORRORIS

Now then if in a Dream the Will be always triumphant, how cometh it that a Man may be ridden of the Nightmare? And of this the true Explanation is that in such a case the Will is in Danger, having been attacked and wounded or corrupted by the Violence of some Repression. Thus the Consciousness of the Will is directed to the sore Spot, as in Pain, and seeketh comfort in an Externalisation, or shew, of that Antagonism. And because the Will is sacred, such dreams excite an Ecstacy or Phrenzy of Horror, Fear or Disgust. Thus the true Will of Oedipus was toward the bed of Jocasta, but the Tabu, strong both by Inheritance and by Environment, was so attached to that Will that his Dream concerning his Destiny was a Dream of Fear and of Abhorrence, his Fulfilment thereof (even in Ignorance) a spell to stir up all the subconscious Forces of all the People about him, and his Realization of the Act a madness potent to drive him to self‑inflicted Blindness and fury‑haunted Exile.

DE SOMNIIS SEQUENTIS

Know firmly, o my son, that the true Will cannot err; for this is thine appointed course in Heaven, in whose order is Perfection. A Dream of Horror is therefore the most serious of all Warnings; for it signifieth that thy Will, which is Thy Self in respect of its Motion, is in Affliction and Danger. Thus thou must instantly seek out the Cause of that subconscious Conflict, and destroy thine Enemy utterly by bringing thy conscious Vigour as an Ally to that true Will. If then there be a Traitor in the Consciousness, how much the more is it necessary for thee to arise and extirpate him before he wholly infect thee with the divided Purpose which is the first Breach in that Fortress of the Soul whose Fall should bring it to the shapeless Ruin whose Name is Choronzon!

DE SOMNIIS CLAVICULA

The Dream delightful is then a Pageant of the Fulfilment of the true Will, and the Nightmare a symbolic Battle between it and its Assailants in thyself. But there can be only one true Will, even as there can be only one proper Motion in any Body, no matter of how many Forces that Motion be the Resultant. Seek therefore this Will, and conjoin with it thy conscious Self; for this is that which is written; "Thou hast no right but to do thy Will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." Thou seest, o my Son, that all conscious Opposition to thy Will, whether in Ignorance, or by Obstinacy, or through Fear of others, may in the end endanger even thy true Self, and bring thy Star into Disaster.

And this is the true Key to Dreams; see that thou be diligent in its Use, and unlock therewith the secret Chambers of thine Heart.

DE VIA PER EMPYRAEUM

Concerning they Travellings in thy Body of Light, or Astral journeys and Visions so‑called, do thou lay this Wisdom to thy Heart, o my Son, that in this Practice, whether Things Seen and Heard be Truth and Reality, or whether they be Phantoms in the Mind, abideth this Supreme Magical Value, namely: Whereas the Direction of such Journeys is consciously willed, and determined by Reason, and also unconsciously willed, by the true Self, since without It no Invocation were possible, we have here a Cooperation of Alliance between the Inner and the Outer Self, and thus an Accomplishment, at least partial, of the Great Work.

And therefore is Confusion or Terror in any such Practice an Error fearful indeed, bringing about Obsession, which is a temporary or even it may be a permanent Division of the Personality, or Insanity, and therefore a defeat most fatal and pernicious, a Surrender of the Soul to Choronzon.

DE CULTU.

Now, o my Son, that thou mayst be well guarded against thy ghostly Enemies, do thou work constantly by the Means prescribed in our Holy Books.

Neglect never the fourfold Adorations of the Sun in his four Stations, for thereby thou doest affirm thy Place in Nature and her Harmonies.

Neglect not the Performance of the Ritual of the Pentagram, and of the Assumption of the Form of Hoor‑pa Kraat.

Neglect not the daily Miracle of the Mass, either by the Rite of the Gnostic Catholic Church, or that of the Phoenix.

Neglect not the Performance of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, as Nature herself prompteth thee.

Travel also much in the Empyrean in the Body of Light, seeking ever Abodes more fiery and lucid.

Finally, exercise constantly the Eight Limbs of Yoga., And so shalt thou come to the End.

DE CLAVIGULA SOMNIORUM.

And now concerning Meditation let me disclose unto thee more fully the Mystery of the Key of Dreams and Phantasies.

Learn first that as the Thought of the Mind standeth before the Soul and hindereth its Manifestation in consciousness, so also the gross physical Will is the Creator of the Dreams of common Men, and as in Meditation thou doest destroy every Thought by mating it with its Opposite, so must thou cleanse thyself by a full and perfect Satisfaction of that bodily will in the Way of Chastity and Holiness which has been revealed unto thee in thy Initiation.

This inner Silence of the Body being attained, it may be that the true Will may speak in True Dreams; for it is written that He giveth unto His Beloved in Sleep.

Prepare thyself therefore in this Way, as a good Knight should do.

DE SOMNO LUCIDO.

Now know this also that at the End of that secret Way lieth a Garden wherein is a Rest House prepared for thee.

For to him whose physical Needs of whatever Kind are not truly satisfied cometh a Lunar or physical Sleep appointed to refresh and recreate by Cleansing and Repose; but on him that is bodily pure the Lord bestoweth a Solar or Lucid Sleep, wherein move Images of pure Light fashioned by the True Will. And this is called by the Qabalists the Sleep of Shiloam, and of this doeth also Porphyry make mention mention, and Cicero, with many other Wise Men of Old Time.

Compare, o my Son, with this Doctrine that which was taught thee in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis concerning the Death of the Righteous; and learn moreover that these are but particular Cases of an Universal Formula.

Exhaustion of prolonged sex with the male becoming oracular and being questioned very carefully by the female who is alert and charged with the essence of the male. This is the solar equivalent of the more extensive rites of the lunar Kalas in working the Ophidian current. The purpose of the work is to use the

trance for the male to make contact with the Angel Within and Without. Everything is carefully transcribed and recorded in the Magickal Record of the experiment. The signs of L.V.X. are employed in the Invocation of the Angel Without and the signs of N.O.X. for the evocation of the Angel Within.

The Gnostic Trance or Flying of the Witches generates a projected current of two possible frequencies. The first is inhibitory and quiets the mind to a single object of concentration…the Angel Within. It is used to contact ones Angel on that level in order to manifest direct intervention in mundane affairs and activities. The alternate frequency is excitatory with the mind raised to a fevered pitch in order to project into an Atavistic universe; beyond which lies the Angel and the power of the lycanthropic transformation, one can leap to the Angel's abode.

In Liber LXV IV.9-10, we append here the verses and the commentary:

LXV:IV.9 In the garden of immortal kisses, O thou brilliant One, shine forth! Make Thy mouth an opium-poppy, that one kiss is the key to the infinite sleep and lucid, the sleep of Shi-loh-am.

A garden usually symbolizes a place of cultivated beauty; Oriental poets use it to express a collection of poems or wise sayings. The immortal kisses are the tokens of the operation of “love under will'' which is perpetual. The Angel calls upon the Adept to display his brilliance as if the Knowledge and Conversation were a transcendental sacrament beyond that implied in all acts.

The opium poppy is a symbol of peace, exaltation, and delight, the giver of sleep, by which is meant the silencing of all possible distractions. The mouth of the Adept, the organ by which he is nourished, expresses his thoughts, and symbolizes his passions; by the kiss of this mouth is meant its surrender to the Angel, the act of marriage, and this is the key to the infinite sleep and lucid. Sleep has been explained above. It is infinite, being freed from the limitations of condition, and lucid as being characterized by pure vision. Shi-loh-am: the word means peace. (Sin =Fire, Lamed=Libra, Mem=Water. Star of David)

LXV:IV.10 In my sleep I beheld the Universe like a clear crystal without one speck.

The Angel explains that (in the reposeful ecstasy of love, I might even say in the orgasm of love, the reference is to the particular Samadhi of the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel) in his “sleep'' he obtained the vision of the Universe as a continuous and immaculate phenomenon. This is contrasted implicitly with the effect of the same act on the Adept, to whom it simply means union with Godhead. The Angel has found perfection in his own Adept: this completes Perfection.

Both vibratory channels employ the Karezza in which erotically charged stimulae is built up to Occult ends.

The Inhibitory frequency deploys a series of low intensity orgasms that induce trance. The orgasm is primarily genital in nature. The excitatory frequency involves a whole-body orgrasm from a vigorously passionate embrace that brings out the shaman animal in each partner. Whether the orgasm occurs before the genital orgasm or afterwords with the body on a plateau needs yet to be measured as to its efficacy and characteristics.

Of Eroto-comatose Lucidity

The Candidate is made ready for the Ordeal by general athletic training, and by feasting. 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 sink 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. 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. This alternation is to continue indefinitely until the Candidate is in a state which is neither sleep nor waking, and in which his Spirit, set free by perfect exhaustion of the body, and yet prevented from entering the City of Sleep, communes with the Most High and the Most Holy Lord God of its being, maker of heaven and earth.

The Ordeal terminates by failure — the occurrence of sleep invincible — or by success, in which ultimate waking is followed by a final performance of the sexual act. The Initiate may then be allowed to sleep, or the practice may be renewed and persisted in until death ends all. The most favourable death is that occurring during the orgasm, and is called Mors Justi.

As it is written: Let me die the death of the Righteous, and let my last end be like his!

The vision of the H.G.A. as a Probationer is that of a poisonous enemy. At Adepthood, the Aspirant is turned around and the Angel becomes and Ally. This is a refection of Choronzon who is an ally in one's devolutionary descent down the Tree-of-Life. But in one's ascension, Choronzon is the confuter.

There is a trinity of bodies involved in the earliest grades of Our Order and lineage. These are the physical body (Yesod/Zelator); the intellectual body (Hod/Practicus) and the emotional body (Netzach/Philosophus). For the Probationer, the Vampire is the reflection of Choronzon which causes those three bodies to be out of sync with each other and the sanctity and steadfastness of one's Aspiration is at risk. This is balanced by the study and memorization of one Chapter of Liber LXV. The Neophyte is given over to the Ordeal of the Nephesch (animal soul) as that body interferes with the work. And yet, this is balanced and fortified by Liber Reguli and the practice of the assumption of god-forms. Further, the Aspiration is strengthened by the study and memorization of one chapter of Liber VII.

The Zelator works the base of the astral triad and begins to incorporate the alignment of the intellectual and emotional bodies with that of the animal soul that should then be perfectly seated in the physical body.  Choronzon is then able to communicate directly with the Aspirant.  This at first might seem like a terrible ordeal.  However, it is precisely this ordeal that creates the open doorway to a deeper knowledge as through Yesod, one can go directly to Da'ath (Knowledge) and to the Mauve Zone and the employment of the animal soul in lycanthropic or shamanistic practices which generate the energy to make initial contact with the H.G.A.

As the Zelator in Yesod has finally a direct vision of Tiphareth–and so this practice supplements the work begun in the Zelator's working of the first two sections of Liber HHH.  It should begin with the male Aspirant worshipping the Phallus and the female Aspirant worshiping the Kteis in order that one may begin to more fully understand the nature of their sexuality.

The Female still must also focus on the Phallus to find the Bindu that is her own soul and the male must also focus on the Kteis as the gateway to Initiation.  This gateway is the Mauve Zone; that place 'in-between' from which real Knowledge is derived–being the first step to Magickal Power.

OF THE NATURE OF THE GODS

A Secret Instruction of the Seventh Degree

DE NATURA DEORUM

Baphomet X° O.T.O. Rex Summus Sanctissimus, from the Throne of Ireland Iona and all the Britains that are in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis to all Members of the Supreme Grand Council of Very Illustrious Sovereign Grand Inspectors General VII° Greeting and Peace.

Under the seal of the Obligation of the VII°.

I

From the Beginning of Years the Initiates of all peoples have held one central secret as a sure Bond of Brotherhood, as a unity whose truth is able to harmonize all men upon the Earth.

No fabrications of knavish priests, no vain dreams of mystics, can hide from the sane this one fact:

Not only is the Earth but a chilled spark of the Sun, a dropt petal of the Rose of Heaven, but the source of all Light and Life upon the planet is that same Sun. Not only is he creator, but sustainer, and it is He also that destroyeth in due season, and redeemeth when the time is come.

Therefore in the Macrocosm is one sole God, the Sun.

Now in the Microcosm, which is Man, the viceregent of the Sun, sole giver of life, is the Phallus. He is also sole giver of Light in a certain secret sense not fully declared in the VII°. This much may We hint: the Phallus is the physiological basis of the Oversoul (see also Liber 333, The Book of Lies, Caps. A, H, IA, IE, IF, IH, LB) And also of His own nature is He Liberty and Love.

Now of old our brethren hid this doctrine in tradition, and in fable, and in great buildings, and in the Rituals of Freemasonry. With this Key all these Rituals become intelligible, luminous, radiant; without it they are dark, the just scorn of the ignorant. Search and see.

II

In this book we have no need to speak of local and tribal Gods, of animistic personifications of partial phenomena, and the like.

But of universal Gods, as these:

The Fire; an image of Sol, and a fable of the Phallus.

The Moon; an image of Kteis, only worshipped with Sol in his aspect as an extension of the Phallus.

The Mountain; reverenced as the home of the Gods, the visible place of the rising of Sol, and as by shape symbolical of the Phallus. Some mountains are female, from shape or tradition.

The Ancestor; revered as an incarnation of the Phallus.

The Yoni or Kteis; revered as the House of the Phallus, and his complement.

The Snake; revered as giver of Death, and as a symbol of the Spermatozoon. He has often the head of

The Lion; to indicate the mighty power of the Spermatozoon.

The Egg; revered as Solar, and in itself as the vehicle of Phallic energy.

The Eagle; and many other winged creatures; also wings attached to the symbols. This represents the flight of Life from one resting-place to another, and is therefore a proper attribute of the Phallus.

The Tree; is but the flowering Phallus.

The Stars; these being the concourse of the Brethren of the Sun are venerable for the Wise even as He. And the star-universe is as it were His Mother, whence Nuit is the highest and holiest of all that may be. And her mate is Hadit, the secret and essential energy of Life whose raiment is the Phallus, wherefore is Hadit equal with Her, the highest and holiest of all that may be. And Their Child Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the visible Sol-Phallus upon earth. But this is a mystery of the Adepts of Thelema and the vulgar may not attain to it.

All other Gods should be referred to this synthesis in the Microcosmic Sun.

Thus Corn-goddesses conceal Mysteries of Germination, Wine-gods are Phallic and Solar in the Ecstasy of overflowing Life of which the proper use of wine makes even the common people conscious.

There are also gods invented to represent things useful to man; but these are by nature subservient to the prime God whose use and beauty are fundamental.

III

In that Sanctuary of the Gnosis to which, Very Illustrious Sir Knights your valour and chastity may one day obtain your admission, there is a certain deeper interpretation. Nor are ye wholly ignorant of how in the Figure called Baphomet and Babalon is a Measure of Heaven and Earth.

Again, those, Initiates indeed, who have penetrated in truth into the Sanctuaries of their own Being, and found That God Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent who is Light, Life, Love, and Liberty, beyond Time and Space, without quantity or quality, One Eternal, the very essence of the Sun and of the Phallus alike, will possess in their own consciousness, illuminated by That, a certain apprehension of the Truth which is not in any way to be shared by those who have not attained to this Treasure.

These, if they are wise, will make no attempt to disclose this inner Truth to the profane, but will be content that they rest in the shadow of that external Truth which We have here declared unto you, that God is One, and that His name is in the Macrocosm the Sun, and in the Microcosm the Phallus.

For all attempts to initiate even the worthy before they initiate themselves are folly and fatality. The Secrets of the Wise, although known of them, are not to be exprest in the language of common men. Look you, Sir Knights, this Doctrine itself that We reveal to you in this Supreme Grand Council to which ye have attained so hardly, how will it sound, think you, even in a Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret, prepared as they are for some such revelation? How then to mere Knights Kadosch, to Sovereign Princes of Rose Croix? And how to Master Masons? It is for this reason that our Council is thus Sentinelled within and without, and that our whole Ritual from Minerval upward is but a constant series of hints of this One Truth.

What is the tent of Saladin but the Phallus? And the First Word as the last is ON, the Sun.

But were the Minerval to suspect this truth, would he not turn to flee in terror from the Camp and be cut down by the Black Guard that wardeth even the outmost marches of the Kingdom of the Most Holy and Most High Lord God Almighty?

Therefore, reflect, act wisely and with prudence, Sir Knights, not declaring openly the Arcanum to such as understand not already of their own ripe wit. And in what time seemeth Him good shall the O.H.O., gathering his forces, declare this Truth privily unto the Kings and Princes of the Earth, that they may take counsel together and rule all men in peace and love by virtue of this Secret under the Shadow of the Wings of the One ineffable Lord.

For this secret is not only a convenient manner of doing this, a Pillar of Flame to disperse the Shadows of Earth, but is also a convenient veil — and the only veil worthy — of that further Light which We are not able to reveal even to this Supreme Grand Council of the O.T.O.

IV

Of all our enemies those are most to be feared, who make false gods of their imaginations.

For the heathen are turned easily from gods of clay; for truth strikes home sharply on their dark minds. It is easy to prove that the Sun is indeed the source of Life and Light, that the Phallus is indeed PANGENETOR. But to those who have stultified themselves, who have darkened their own eyes, who have betrayed their own reason in seeking out phantastic gods, foul and tangled cobwebs of metaphysic spun by emasculate spider-professors in sunless cloisters, bubbles blown by idiots and madmen, myths misinterpreted, fables taken for history, lies pushed forward by every forgery, fraud, treachery and murder, to such the Truth seems false, and the Light darkness.

Such Gods as Parabrahman merely bewilder the people, and render them the prey of priestcraft, while the Christs of the Latin, Lutheran and Anglican Churches alike are but the machine-gods of all fraud and oppression, being stolen and prostituted from that Christ in whom our Fathers in the Gnosis strove to synthesize the warring gods of Syria, Greece, Chaldea, Rome and Egypt at the time when the growth of the Roman Empire first made travel and the intercommunication of the priests of Mithras, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysius, Isis, Astarte, Venus and many scores of others possible.

Traces of this recension are still visible in the Mass and in the Calendar of the Saints, all gods and goddesses of universal import receiving the same honour by the same rites as before, while the local gods were replaced by saints, virgins, martyrs, or angels, often of the same name, always of the same character.

Thus on the altar the Solar-phallic Crucifix is surrounded by six lights for the planets, to use one example only of a hundred at Our disposal; and Christmas is at the winter Solstice, the birth of Christ put for the birth of the Sun. All these points may be studied in:

La Messe et ses Mysteres

Rome, Pagan and Papal

The Two Babylons

Rivers of Life

Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus

and many other books which may be studied in the library of the O.T.O. and elsewhere.

But in pure Free Masonry and especially in the O.T.O. this synthesis has been made with greater accuracy and skill, and with higher concentration, with more lucidity, with dramatic and poetic genius, so it is easier for ourselves to distinguish the Jewel from its setting, and possibly in the event of the Rite and its Tradition being lost in some universal Cataclysm for worthy successors inspired by Our Lord ‘to retrieve our loss, and recover the Word’.

Now then let Us once again recall to you, Very Illustrious Sir Knights of the Order of the Temple of the East, the history of our Religious and Military Monks and Knights, how, issuing from the West as crusaders, they met with initiates in the armies of Salah ‘ud Din, and from them obtained the secret called Baphomet, being the Mystery of the Measure of Heaven and Earth that lieth behind this secret of the VII° concerning the Unity of God. And ye have verily reason from the crowns of your heads to the soles of your feet to remember how this is the origin of all our tragedy. Thus therefore, Sir Knights valorous and noble, war constantly on all tyranny and superstition, and mostly against bigotries such as ‘orthodox’ Christianity as interpreted in its material sense, old wives’ tales and foolish fables, the immoral doctrines of original sin and vicarious atonement, and the most hideous eschatology in the history of false religion. Nor can much less be averred against all other orthodoxies, with their fables equally absurd, their postulates equally immoral.

But also let there be war upon those who seek to refine upon these bigotries in any other way than that of eclectic and syncretistic harmonizations; beware moreover of those who seek to ‘spiritualize’ their false gods, for their heads are even as vain pigs’ bladders of poisonous miasma.

But in your warfare honour brave antagonists; spare them, and bring them to initiation; while the hag and the eunuch — and such are well nigh all who support orthodoxies — must be shown the only mercy possible, that of swift destruction.

For those calling themselves orthodox who are yet men, and women, have in truth no faith in these follies, but only profess them as convenient means of dominating the vulgar. Such are already of us, although they know it not; such, albeit unconsciously, understand and live according to our Law of THELEMA — DO WHAT THOU WILT. They are ripe for conversion; they are of the Blood, and with little pains may be brought to fight in our ranks. So mote it be.

V

Here declare We a certain secret method of worship of the One True God if haply ye may find Him.

Let every Knight appoint a privy Chapel in his castle, and so far as may be let it resemble this order and disposition of Our Supreme Grand Council, having an ever-burning lamp as an image of the Sun to give light to a Phallus carved or moulded in gold, silver, platinum or bronze by the fine art of the sculptor. And let the Knight keep oft times vigil before it, devotedly with his whole heart uttering hymns and invocations, as may be fitting, and exalting himself in due commemoration of this Lord of Life, in such wise that the Image becomes consecrated by his will. Thus shall it be a storehouse of strength, and a focus or magnet, drawing to itself all subtle forces, and radiating benediction.

Let then the Knight keep secret this devotion, and enjoy its fruits in quiet.

VI

Here also is a deeper worship and an inner, that lieth nigher to the heart of God.

Let the good Knight devout appoint a secret shrine in his own body, in the brain, or in the throat, or in the heart, or in the solar plexus, or in that place called groin, or in some other centre of force, and there let him establish firmly a mental image of the Phallus or of the Sun; and, closing all avenues of sense, as it were tyling the lodge, let him worship and cherish that image with unwearying care. Let him rehearse before the Lord thus exalted his own deed of knightly devoir unto that Lord, so that Memory and Imagination dance about him as maids about the Maypole. And to these let him add Will, consecrating himself with oaths to the service of the Lord, and vowing to make himself a worthy priest unto Him. Thus, then, the whole thought being closely knit together and ranged about the Image, as soldiers that rally to a Standard, let him turn devoutly and intensely his mind to the sole contemplation of that Image, figuring to himself that all other thoughts are but as cowans and eavesdroppers. Now then, for a season shall it be difficult rightly to tyle that Lodge, and the mind shall turn ever from the Image. So therefore let the good Knight with fortitude redouble zeal, until it be that on a sudden all that turmoil cease, and the thought flow evenly up to the image. Then shall the God appear in all His glory, assuming the worshipper into His Heaven.

VII

Be it known unto you, Very Illustrious Sir Knights Councillors, that there lieth beyond all this a supreme mode by which God not only manifesteth Himself to man, but is with him united in most sweet nuptials. But this mystery is not to be known of them that are not yet initiates of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis IX°. But be ye also assured that by these practices preliminary ye shall be led to Godliness, and to the Reward and Favour of the All-One; and ye do fit yourselves for that further advancement, ye make yourselves worthy candidates for the Secret Areopagus of the Illuminati, wherein is much made light that is yet dark to you.

VIII

And may the Blessing of our Lord and Father the Sun, and the Favour and Fervour of the Lord IQFALLOS be upon you, and prepare you in brain and heart and body (wisdom, and beauty, and might of creation being within you) for the Glory of which this Council is but a figured veil.

Hail, Sir Knights Councillors, and farewell. In the Name of BABALON and THE BEAST conjoined, of the Secret Saviour and of IAO.

OF THE SECRET MARRIAGES OF GODS WITH MEN
A Secret Instruction of the Eighth Degree

De Nuptiis Secretis
DEORUM cum HOMINIBUS

Baphomet X° O.T.O. from the Throne of Ireland, Iona, and All the Britains that are in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis to the Perfectly Illuminated Adepts of the Secret Areopagus of the Eighth Degree, Pontiffis and Epopts of the Illuminati, Greeting and Peace.

Under the Seal of the Obligation of the VIII°.

I

Of Chastity

Dearly Beloved, in that war of the Brethren of the Left Hand Path against the Gnosis whose first phase ended in the establishment of that tyranny and superstition which is called Christianity, much Truth was stolen by the Black Lodge, and perverted to its vile uses. And most noxious in its corruption is that castration of man called Chastity, the atrophy of those noblest parts of the body which are the proper organs of Redemption both Gaian and Ouranian.

We then who in the Seventh Degree were sworn most solemnly to Chastity in the Inmost as in the Outermost, who have now as Epopts of the Illuminati beheld with our eyes, and as Perfect, Pontiffs of our noble Order administered with our members, the Initiation whose name is Resurrection unto the Light, we therefore are able to lighten the darkest places of the Earth, and to consider wisely what lieth in the empire of the Evil Ones. Read therefore these passages in the forgery called the Epistle of Paul to the Romans:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.

(Romans VI, 12-13 and 19-22)

Consider also these passages of the Old Testament:

And the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz; And I will take upon me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the Son of Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophetess and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

(Isaiah VIII, 1-4)

When the Lord spake at the first by Hosea, the LORD said unto Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom: for the land doth commit great whoredom, departing from the LORD. So he went and took Goher the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bare him a son.

(Hosea I, 2-3)

And the LORD said unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend and an adulteress, even as the LORD loveth the children of Israel, though they turn unto other gods, and love cakes and raisins. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be any man’s wife: so will I also be toward thee.

(Hosea III, 1-3)

It is then certain even out of the mouth of the enemy that there is a sacred use, even as an abuse, of the Sanctuaries of Life, and although there be rites so sacrosanct and so secreted that even to the Perfectly Illuminated Adepts of the VIII° they may not be disclosed, yet to them is due a full declaration of many Mysteries almost surpassing speech.

II

Of the Rites of Blood

It is said that there is a sect of the Jewish Brethren called Chassidim whose practice is the sacrifice of man. Thus preferably a child, but also an adult, is taken from among the Gentiles, and ceremonially slain so that not a drop of blood is lost, lest the spirit of the victim, taking refuge in that drop, escape the Exorcist. This blood is then consumed as a sacrament, or employed for talismanic purposes. For once the spirit of the slain one is sealed up into the spilt and gathered blood, it is multiplied in every part thereof, even as in the Mass the Body of Christ is said to be equally in all the myriad consecrated hosts, and His Blood in every drop of consecrated wine, everywhere and for all efficacious.

Consider this.

III

Of Certain Rites Secretly Practised in Russia

There is a body within the Greek Church which holds an esoteric doctrine and practises a Secret Rite.

At the meetings of this body the lights being extinguished, the worshippers, led by the Priest and a chosen and consecrated Priestess, seek out each other by touch and by subtle attraction; then they consummate the pure charity of their hearts in holy zeal.

If by the favour and indwelling of the Holy Ghost the Priestess (that is unto this Rite espoused, and else virgin) do conceive and bring forth, then is the child baptized by its father the Priest for the Purification by water, and for the Consecration by fire is roast and divided among the worshippers for use as a sacrament, as a talisman and as a medicine against all diseases. This also is said of the Knights of our own Holy Order of the Temple, that the offspring of any one of them by a virgin was roast and an unguent made of its fat wherewith to anoint the Magian and Ineffable figure of BAPHOMET.

Consider this.

IV

Of the Black Mass

Within the Roman Church have been found ever from the beginning to this day, persons and societies conforming outwardly to that base and materialistic cult, inwardly revolting against it; yet often are such so ignorant of our Light and of our Truth, that to them the attainment of Life, Liberty and Love seemed only possible through a profanation of their own Mysteries. For they knew not that these Mysteries were themselves but profanation and corruption of the true and perfect Mysteries of the Adepts.

They established therefore a cult whose fundamental formula was the defilement of the consecrated Host.

The Priest therefore having made the bread into the Body of Christ (as he could theoretically do by virtue of his Apostolic power) did, as he thought, defile that Body by using it as the object and vehicle of lust.

Heroic children of Liberty, but thrice blind! Samsons that perish with the Philistines!

For if the ecclesiastical theory be true, in fact they do incur damnation, if false, verily they lose their labour. But at least they set up Man against the foul demon of the Christians, and let this be accounted unto them for righteousness. But see, my Brethren Perfectly Illuminated Adepts, how great is their error, that they revolt who should be Kings. For it is in truth not the apish antics of the Priest that consecrate the bread, but his male power that should make holy all his deeds.

Consider of this.

V

Of the Sabbath of the Adepts

In the black hours of earth, when the Christian superstition with fell blight withered most malignantly the peoples of Europe, when our own Holy Order was dispersed and the sanctity of its preceptories lay violate, there were yet found certain to hold Truth in their hearts, and, loving Light, to bear the Lamp of Virtue beneath the Cloak of Secrecy. And these at certain seasons went at night by ways open or hidden to heaths and mountains, and there dancing together, and with strange suppers and spells diverse, did call forth Him, whom the enemy called ignorantly Satan, and was in truth the Great God Pan, or Bacchus, or even that Baphomet whom the Templars worshipped secretly, and yet worship as in the VI° all Illustrious Knights of the Holy Order of Kadosch, all Dame Companions of the Holy Grail are taught to do, or BABALON the Beautiful, or even Zeus Apollo of the Greeks.

And each when first inducted to the revel was made partner of that Incarnate One by the Consummation of the Rite of Marriage.

Consider of this.

VI

Of Classical Fables

The Ancients of every nation report their heroes to have been born of the marriage of Gods with mortals. As, Romulus and Remus begotten of the God Mars upon a vestal Virgin, Hercules of Jove, Buddha of Vishnu in the form of a white elephant with six tusks, Jesus of Jehovah upon a virgin, and many another. Even true Gods were born of mortal mothers, as Dionysius of Semele.

Also they recount many loves of heaven for earth, Diana for Endymion, Zeus for Leda, Danae, Europa, and the rest; even Hades issued from his gloomy kingdom to ravish the maid Persephone.

There are also loves of Gods for nymphs, Bacchus for the Ariadne, Zeus for Io, Pan for Syrinx; there is no end of these. And satyrs, fawns, centaurs, dryads, a thousand gracious tribes, leap lightly and lustfully through their legends.

Again we have the loves of fairies for mankind, and the commerce of the Beni Elohim with the daughters of men; and yet again the marriage of Orpheus with Eurydice a nymph, and the fatal nets that Laura, Melusina, the Sirens, Lilith and many another cast for men.

It is even said that to every Neophyte of the Order of A\A\ appeareth a demon in the form of a woman to pervert him; within Our own knowledge have not less than nine brethren been utterly cast out thereby.

There are also vain loves, as that of Ixion for Hera, of Actaeon for Artemis.

Consider of this.

VII

Of Certain Greek Rites

Among the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula and especially the Greeks, beneath the bush of their false Christianity, is hidden the wheat of Demeter. And even as the Muslim trust to be united by death to the Hur al’ Ayn of Paradise, so do these others yet think that earthly marriage is but fornication, for that Death is a nuptial wherein the soul is united to that God or Goddess to whom on earth his lust aspired. Thus, even in the embraces of their lovers, their hearts were fixed on Artemis or on Aphrodite or on Ares or on Apollo, as the inner tendency urges and the intuition thereof proclaims.

Consider of this.

VIII

Of Succubi and Incubi

From all time the life of man has now and again overflowed, in sleep, without will, and only reflected itself dimly and fantastically by dream into his knowledge. Now since naught can be lost on any plane, but only changed in appearance, the inner substance of this life-stuff does indeed beget monsters in part material, which the doctors of the Middle Ages called Incubi or Succubi according as they performed the functions of male or female. These, too, begat children upon women; but not the reverse, for the succubus, for all his female function, is as male as his brother. Of these monstrous lovers some even became famous on earth; as that one who tempted San Antonio, and the angel that wrestled with Jacob at the place called Paniel. Also Merlin was the child of an incubus, and thus also were many heroes of old time begot.

Consider of this.

IX

Of the Work of Adepts

Not only as a probation, and as a preparation, for the far greater Key of Magick Art that is given to Initiates of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis in the IX°, but for its own sake, and the practical and permanent value of its effects is a lesser work to be undertaken by Epopts — and how much more by Pontiffs! — of the Illuminati.  And this work is threefold.

I. Devotion to the Highest intensified on all planes until it culminates in Conjugal Union ratified by every God so firmly that Death itself is the gate to its fullest and permanent enjoyment.

And the soul is to beget itself as a child for a new incarnation upon the Body of the Great Goddess. As it is written, so be it spoken unto you! ‘O thou who hast formulated thy father and made fertile thy mother!’

II. Acceptance of the devotion of a lower or partial being such as a nymph or elemental in such wise that it is thereby redeemed and made a perfect soul through the death which it must pay as the price of union with man.

III. The deliberate and well-considered creation of new Orders of Being.

X

Of Great Marriages

1. The supreme means is declared fully in the Publications of the August Fraternity Most Holy the A\A\ Liber XI and Liber DLV.

2. This other method is suggested.

On every occasion before sleep let the Adept figure his goddess before him, wooing her ardently in imagination and exalting himself with all intensity toward her.

And let him consider all involuntary movements of the mind as adulteries vile and criminal.

Therefore, with or without an assistant, let him purge himself freely and fully, at the end of restraint trained and ordered unto exhaustion, concentrating ever ardently upon the Body of the Great Goddess, and let the Offering be preserved in Her consecrated temple or in a talisman especially prepared for this practice. And let no desire for any other enter the heart. Then shall it be in the end that the Great Goddess will descend and clother Her beauty in veils of flesh, surrendering her chaste fortress of Olympus to that assault of thee, O Titan, Son of Earth! Or at the least, this being denied thee, yet all thy life in heart and spirit being Hers, thy death shall be the consummation of these ‘betrothals’, an entry into the Closed Palace of thy Lady.

And of such Espousals mayst thou read in Liber CCCCXVIII, more especially in the Ninth and in the Second Aethyrs.

It is to be noted in all this that both God and the Soul are male or female as convenience requires. See, for a curious example, the mystic treatise called the Bagh-i-Muattur.

XI

Of Lesser Marriages

This matter is easy, for the souls of the elements desire constantly this salvation. But let the Adept beware:

1. That he choose wisely a reasonable soul, docile, apt, beautiful, and in all ways worthy of love.

2. That he fall not ever from love of the Great Goddess into love of this inferior, but give only as a master and of his pity, knowing that this also is Service to His High Lady above.

3. That of such familiar spirits he have but four. And let him regulate their service, appointing hours for each.

4. That he treat them with kindliness and firmness, being on guard against their tricks.

This being said, it is enough; for to have them is but the pains to call them forth from their homes. And the Spirits of the Elemental Tablets given by Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelly are the best, being very perfect in their nature and faithful, affectioning (sic) the human race. And if not so powerful as, they are less dangerous than, the planetary Spirits; for these are more boisterous, and by distraction stars are easily perturbed and afflicted. Call them therefore by the Keys of Enoch as is written in the Book ye know of; and let there be after the Calls an Evocation by the Wand; and let the Marrow of the Wand be preserved within the pyramids of the letters that make up the name of the Spirit.

Now unless ye be well skilled in Art Magick, ye will not dare call forth the Three Great Gods of the whole Tablet, or the King Serpent thereof, or the Six Seigneurs majestical, or even the Gods of the Calvary Crosses in the lesser angles. But the Cherubic rulers, yea verily and amen, these are your mates; and ye may yet more safely summon the Lesser assistant angles.

And those that are in this Art novices should wiselier call forth only the Trigrammaton of the Sub-Elements.

XII

Of the New and Holy Kingdom

It is written in the Papyrus of Nes-Min that the Sun spake in his name Toum and said:

‘… I copulated with my fist, I emitted semen into my shadow, I ejaculated into my own mouth, I sent forth issue as Shu, I poured myself out as Tefnut. Shu and Tefnut … brought to me my eye … I wept over them: mankind came into being from the tears which came forth from my eye. Shu and Tefnut brought forth Keb and Nut, and Keb and Nut brought forth Osiris and the Blind Horus and Set and Isis and Nephthys from the belly, one after another, and they brought forth their multitudes upon this earth.’

And again:

‘I copulated with my fist, my heart came to me into my hand, the semen fell into my mouth. I sent forth issue as Shu, I poured myself out as Tefnut: from one God I was three Gods….’

Thus then did the Sun formulate Male and Female, whose children are Earth and Heaven, whose children are the Five Elements or Tatwas, of which all visible things are made.

Let then the Adept make two talismans, pure Male and Female, with no admixture of any lesser principles; and let him consecrate himself as the Sun, and pour out Life upon them, vivifying them therewith. Then shall they conjoin, making unto themselves a new Heaven and a new Earth, whose union shall breed Elements, and multitudes of Beings to Live and Love in Liberty beneath thy Light, an house of Virgins singing praises among the flames of Glory wherein the Lord hath opened his mouth; whose works shall be a song of honour and the praise of your God in your creation!

XIII

Of Damnation

Remember, dearly beloved, perfectly illuminated Adepts of this secret Areopagus, that from the beginning of all, the vows of your Initiation have invoked upon you the most fearful penalties of disobedience.

For as soon as ye erect any natural and common thing into a Formula of Magick, so soon do ye excite also the contrary current. Thus while every child reads and speaks freely of the Pillars of the Temple of King Solomon by name, the Mason dare not so much as letter them without precaution. And while the private man may speak evil of the King, and blaspheme God without risk, yet the servant of the King, and the Minister of God, must cloke (sic) themselves with reverence, even though it be not in their hearts, for this reason, that they have invoked the King, and God, as sword and shield of their own authority.

To you, then, if you have dared to use this Force of the Holy Phallus, is its abuse fatal and deadly.

To the man of earth it matters but little if he suffer nocturnal pollution, or indulge in wantonness; to you that are Adepts it is ruin absolute.

For all that Force which passeth from under your control, unless so directed and fortified by your Will that it is but as a loyal soldier faithful unto death is as artillery abandoned that is seized upon by the enemy and turned against you. And because it is of your own substance, therefore has it, as it were, by nature a link with you, a right upon you, and all the fortresses, that your inheritance of God, and your own Holy Art, have built about you are of no force to resist this treasonable assault. Be wary therefore, for obsession, bodily wasting and disease, madness and even murder upon you may be inflicted by the engines that ye, having forged for the service of mankind and for the glory of the Lord, leave to the malignancy of the demon that he may turn them to your own destruction.

XIV

A Reproof

Hear then, dearly beloved, this reproof.

First, strengthen to the uttermost the power of restraint by daily practice as is taught by the Hindus and Arabs, masters of this science, in their books:

Shiva Sanhita

Hathayoga Pradipika

Kama Sutra

Ananga Ranga

The Scented Garden of the Sheikh Nefzawi

and many others.

Secondly, avoid the dangers of inadvertence by constant and regular practice (a) of the Greater and (b) the Lesser Works of an Epopt and Pontiff of the Illuminati and (c) of the Mystery of the New Holy Kingdom.

Thirdly, sleep always in a consecrated circle or in a room full of holy images before whose glory the powers of darkness tremble every day. Such images are:

1. The Sun.

2. The Holy Phallus.

3. The Great Seal of Babalon.

4. The Stele of Revealing.

5. The Great Seal of the O.T.O.

6. The Great Seal of Baphomet.

7. The Image of Baphomet./The Image of Babalon.

8. The Eye within the Triangle.

9. The Rosy Cross.

10. The Image of Harpocrates upon the Lotus, or standing upon Crocodiles.

11. The Image of Babalon with the Phallic reference Om mani padme hum.

12. The figure of Isis with Horus.

13. The Crucifix, but only if its solar-phallic significance be most firmly grasped, and if it be a shield of secrecy against the vulgar.

14. Talismans appropriate to this matter.

15. A living flame.

16. The symbols and insignia of the O.T.O. which your degree entitles you to bear.

Magical rings and neck-jewels should also be worn by night and day.

The Rituals of defence and protection should also be practised in perfection. All bodily excrements, such as cut nails, and hair, should be burnt; spittle should be destroyed or exposed to the Sun; the urine and faeces should be so disposed of that it is unlikely that any other person should obtain possession of them. It is even desirable in theory that linen should not be washed by strangers, and that old clothes should not be given to the poor until some time after the last occasion of wearing them.

But at most times these precautions are not necessary; only if engaged in operations of the greatest importance is it indispensable to observe them.

XV

Of the Cunning of this Instruction

Now concerning this charge, it may be that certain deem therein to be contained things monstrous and extravagant; let them consider this as a defect of their own intuition and apprehension, and moreover as a thickness of that Veil that is yet betwixt this Areopagus and the Sanctuary of the Gnosis. For perfectly Illuminated as ye are, beloved Brethren, think this, that there may be a Darkness that is more than all your Light.

XVI

Farewell

Amen, and Amen, and Amen of Amen.

I greet you by the sign: I exchange with you the token: I whisper the Word even as I received it and in no other manner.

I invoke upon you the Light of our Lord the Sun; I bestow upon you the blessing of the Lord IQFALLOS in the Name ON and in the name AMEN I call down the powers of Life, of Love, and of Liberty upon you.

And may the Glory of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis shine forth through the Veil thereof, and the Pageant of the Grail-feast pass again before your eyes!

Hail, Brethren beloved of the Most High, hail, perfectly Illuminated Adepts of our Secret Areopagus, thrice hail, Pontiffs and Epopts of the Illuminati, hail and farewell!

In the name of Babalon and the Beast conjoined, of the Secret Saviour and of IAO.

APPENDIX

In the Sacred Books of Thelema is hymned constantly the Nuptial of God and Man, See:

Liber LXV I 20, 22-8, 47-8, 64-5; II 4-16, 30-9, 45-6, 50-4, 57-61; III 31-6, 40-54, 60, 63-5; IV 1-5, 7-9, 24, 30-40, 42-44, 48-56, 61-5; V 8-12, 21-4.

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Muttra, a town in the province of Agra, India, on the west bank of the river Jumma, in latitude 27 deg. 31 min. North; longitude 77 deg. 33 min. East; a place famous for the manufacture of Magical apparatus, and one of the only two places on earth where the Paranaphthaline gum is prepared, wherewith the adepts smear the backs of these extraordinary mirrors, so celebrated by the various authorities named in the text." Twelves Years in India. Vol. 2, p. 286.

Paranaphthaline is also called Anthracene. It is a solid hydrocarbon, C6H4.C2H2.C6H4, which accompanies naphthalene in the last stages of the distillation of coal tar. Its chief use is in the artificial production of alizarin.

Alizarin is an orange-red crystalline compound used in making red pigments and in dyeing. It is a coloring principle, C14H6O2(OH)2, found in madder, and now produced artificially from anthracene. It produces the Turkish reds.
Madder (from which we get the English word ‘mad’) is a plant of the Rubia (R. tinctorum). Eurasian herb having small yellow flowers and red roots formerly an important source of the dye alizarin. The root is much used in dyeing red, and formerly was used in medicine. It is cultivated in France and Holland.