Readings for March 28th

Reading 1: From Liber Arcanorum (CCXXXI), by Saint Aleister Crowley

0. A, the heart of IAO, dwelleth in ecstasy in the secret place of the
thunders. Between Asar and Asi he abideth in joy.

1. The lightnings increased and the Lord Tahuti stood forth. The Voice came from the Silence. Then the One ran and returned.
2. Now hath Nuit veiled herself, that she may open the gate of her sister.
3. The Virgin of God is enthroned upon an oyster-shell; she is like a pearl, and seeketh Seventy to her Four. In her heart is Hadit the invisible glory.
4. Now riseth Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and dominion is established in the Star of the Flame.
5. Also is the Star of the Flame exalted, bringing benediction to the universe.
6. Here then beneath the winged Eros is youth, delighting in the one and the other.
7. He is Asar between Asi and Nepthi; he cometh forth from the veil. He rideth upon the chariot of eternity; the white and the black are harnessed to his car. Therefore he reflecteth the Fool, and the sevenfold veil is reveiled.
8. Also came forth mother Earth with her lion, even Sekhet, the lady of Asi.
9. Also the Priest veiled himself, lest his glory be profaned, lest his word be lost in the multitude.
10. Now then the Father of all issued as a mighty wheel; the Sphinx, and the dog-headed god, and Typhon, were bound on his circumference.
11. Also the lady Maat with her feather and her sword abode to judge the righteous.
For Fate was already established.
12. Then the holy one appeared in the great water of the North; as a golden dawn did he appear, bringing benediction to the fallen universe.
13. Also Asar was hidden in Amennti; and the Lords of Time swept over him with the sickle of death.
14. And a mighty angel appeared as a woman, pouring vials of woe upon the flames, lighting the pure stream with her brand of cursing. And the iniquity was very great.
15. Then the Lord Khem arose, He who is holy among the highest, and set up his crowned staff for to redeem the universe.
16. He smote the towers of wailing; he brake them in pieces in the fire of his anger, so that he alone did escape from the ruin thereof.
17. Transformed, the holy virgin appeared as a fluidic fire, making her beauty into a thunderbolt.
18. By her spells she invoked the Scarab, the Lord Kheph-Ra, so that the waters were cloven and the illusion of the towers was destroyed.
19. Then the sun did appear unclouded, and the mouth of Asi was on the mouth of Asar.
20. Then also the Pyramid was builded so that the Initiation might be complete.
21. And in the heart of the Sphinx danced the Lord Adonai, in His garlands of roses and pearls making glad the concourse of things; yea, making glad the concourse of things.

Reading 2: Liber Aleph (CXI), Chapters Ζι - Ζλ, by Saint Aleister Crowley

Ζι
de morte.

Thou hast made Question of me concerning Death, and this is my Opinion, of which I say not: this is the Truth. First in the Temple called Man is the God, his Soul, or Star, individual and eternal, but also inherent in the Body of Our Lady Nuith. Now this Soul, as an Officer in the High Mass of the Cosmos, taketh on the Vesture of his Office, that is, inhabiteth a Tabernacle of Illusion, a Body and Mind. And this Tabernacle is Subject to the Law of Change, for it is complex, and diffuse reacting to every Stimulus or Impression. If then the mind be attached constantly to the Body, Death hath no Power to decompose it wholly, but a decaying Shell of the dead Man, his Mind holding together for a little his Body of Light, haunteth the Earth, seeking a new Tabernacle (in its Error that feareth Change) in some other Body. These Shells are broken away utterly from the Star that did enlighten them, and they are Vampires, obsessing them that adventure themselves into the Astral World without Magical Protection, or invoke them, as do the Spiritists. For by Death is Man released only from the Gross Body, at the first, and is complete otherwise upon the Astral Plane, as he was in his Life. But this Wholeness suffereth Stress, and its Girders are loosened, the weaker first and after that the stronger.

Ζκ
de adeptis r.c. escatologia.

Consider now in this Light what shall come to the Adept, to him that hath aspired constantly and firmly to his Star, attuning the Mind unto the Musick of its Will. In him, if his Mind be knit perfectly together is itself, and conjoined with the Star, is so strong a Confection that it breaketh away easily not only from the Gross Body, but the fine. It is this Fine Body which bindeth it to the Astral, as did the Gross to the Material World so then it accomplisheth willingly the Sacrament of a second Death and leaveth the Body of Light. But the Mind, cleaveth closely, by Right of its Harmony, and Might of its Love, to its Star, resisteth the Ministers of Disruption, for a Season, according to its Strength. Now, if this Star be of those that are bound by the Great Oath, incarnating without Remission because of Delight in the Cosmic Sacrament, it seeketh a new Vehicle in the appointed Way, and indwelleth the Foetus of a Child, and quickeneth it. And if at this Time the mind of its Former Tabernacle yet cling to it, then is there Continuity Character, and it may be Memory between the two Vehicles. This is, briefly and without Elaboration, the Way of Asar in Amenti, according to mine Opinion, of which I say not: This is the Truth.

Ζλ
de nuptiis summis.

Now then to this Doctrine, o my Son, add thou that which thou hast learned in The Book of the Law, that Death is the Dissolution in the Kiss of Our Lady Nuith. This is a true Consonance as of Bass with Treble for here is the Impulse that setteth us to Magick, the Pain of the Conscious Mind. Having then Wit to find the Cause of this Pain in the Sense of Separation, and its Cessation by the Union of Love, it is the Summit of our Holy Art to present the whole Being of our Star to Our Lady in the Nuptial of our Bodily Death. We are then to make our whole Engine the true and real Appurtenance of our Force, without Leak, or Friction, or any other Waste or Hindrance to its Action. Thou knowest well how an Horse, or even a Machine propelled by a Man's feet, becometh as it were as Extension of the Rider, though his Skill and Custom. Thus let thy Star have profit of thy Vehicle, assimilating it, and sustaining it, so that it be healed of its Separation, and this even in Life, but most especially in Death. Also thou oughtest to increase thy Vehicle in Mass by true Growth in Balance, that thou be a Bridegroom comely and wellfavoured, a Man of might, and a Warrior worthy of the Bed of so divine a Dissolution.