Readings for April 9th

Happy Second Day of the Writing of The Book of the Law!

Reading 1: Liber AL vel Legis (CCXX), Chapter 2

http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0220.html#chap2

Reading 2: The Law of Liberty (Liber DCCCXXXVII), Section III, by Saint Aleister Crowley

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER of our book is given the word of Hadit, who is the complement of Nuit. He is eternal energy, the Infinite Motion of Things, the central core of all being. The manifested Universe comes from the marriage of Nuit and Hadit; without this could no thing be. This eternal, this perpetual marriage-feast is then the nature of things themselves; and therefore everything that is, is a crystallization of divine ecstasy.

Hadit tells us of Himself: "I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." He is then your own inmost divine self; it is you, and not another, who are lost in the constant rapture of the embraces of Infinite Beauty. A little further on He speaks of us:

"We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk."
"Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us."

"Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.'' Later, concerning death, He says: "Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever." When you know that, what is left but delight? And how are we to live meanwhile?

"It is a lie, this folly against self." [...] "Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this."

Again and again, in words like these, He sees the expansion and the development of the soul through joy.

Here is the Calendar of our Church: "But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!'' Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are rituals, must be rituals. ``There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times. A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride! A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet--secret, o Prophet! A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods. A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death! A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture! A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight! Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu." It all depends on your own acceptance of this new law, and you are not asked to believe anything, to accept a string of foolish fables beneath the intellectual level of a Bushman and the moral level of a drug-fiend. All you have to do is to be yourself, to do your will, and to rejoice.

"Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?" He says again: "Where I am, these are not." There is much more of the same kind; enough has been quoted already to make all clear. But there is a further injunction. "Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein! But exceed! exceed! Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine--and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous!--death is the crown of all."

Lift yourselves up, my brothers and sisters of the earth! Put beneath your feet all fears, all qualms, all hesitancies! Lift yourselves up! Come forth, free and joyous, by night and day, to do your will; for "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." Lift yourselves up! Walk forth with us in Light and Life and Love and Liberty, taking our pleasure as Kings and Queens in Heaven and on Earth.

Reading 3: Visvapani: The Bodhisattva and Spiritual Emanation of Amoghasiddhi, Tibetan Buddhist text

The musicality of being is the clash of sabers, the hero panting, the neighing war-horse
It is the noble struggle of man against man, arm against arm
It calls all beings to fight against stagnation
By sending them forward into battle.

How can one progress without change?
How can one evolve without strength?
There is always choice:
To be a dawdling child forever, dependent, self-satisfied,
Sucking its thumb, unwilling and unable to leave its mother
Or to be free, proud, noble, and self-sufficient
Blessed with the power of choice.

I shake off the sleep of living death
I rouse the dreamer into reality
I call him from his childhood nest
Saying: Look around you! The world awaits!

There is nowhere you can hide from yourself
In opium-filled rooms or sensual tangles
Sooner or later the voice must come:
Who am I? Why am I here?
My sack provides the strength and the weapons
To find the answer.

Why be swept about like a moth with no volition?
Why waste your time in hiding?
I am the voice of courage and I say unto you-
Adventure awaits you! Come forward!

There is death, but for the sake of life
There is slaughter, for one must survive
There is weakness and domination, there is defeat and conquest
A man may conquer his enemies, of sloth and alienation
Or he may die slowly.

The drums beat and the banners are waving
The call to self-assertion is everywhere
Fear your shadow or destroy it
Kill your fear, or have it kill you
March ever onwards, to grasp and hold
Your noble ideals.