Chapter II A Verses 35-45
125
44. Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the 
dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.
Commentary: Do not be afraid of “going the pace.” It is 
better to wear out than to rust out. You are unconquerable, and 
of indefatigable energy. Great men find time for everything, shirk 
nothing, make reputations in half a dozen different lines, have 
twenty simultaneous love affairs, and live to a green old age. The 
milksops and valetudinarians never get anywhere; usually they die 
early; and even if they lived forever, what’s the use?
The body is itself a restriction as well as an instrument. When 
death is as complete as it should be, the individual expands and 
fulfils himself in all directions; it is an omniform samadhi. This is 
of course “eternal ecstasy” in the sense already explained. But in 
the time-world karma reconcentrates the elements, and a new 
incarnation occurs.
45. There is death for the dogs.
Commentary: The prigs, the prudes, the Christians, die in a 
real sense of the word; for although even they are “Stars,” there is 
not enough body to them (as it were) to carry on the individuality. 
There is no basis for the magical memory if one’s incarnation 
holds nothing worth remembering. Count your years by your 
wounds—forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit)
In regard to this question of death I quote from Liber Aleph.
Zi—DE MORTE 
[192—On Death]
Thou hast made Question of me concerning Death, and this 
is mine Opinion, of which I say not: This is the Truth. First: 
in the Temple called Man is the God, his Soul, or Star, indi­
vidual and eternal, but also inherent in the Body of Our Lady 
Nuit. Now this Soul, as an Officer in the High Mass of the 
Cosmos, taketh on the Vesture of his Office, that is, inhab- 
iteth 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
1 [Lat., from Virgil, /Eneid i, 203; in Corington’s translation, “This suf­
fering will yield us yet / A pleasant tale to tell.”]