The Law is for All

158 The Law is for All 111:20 The circumstances are so striking that it is well worth the while of the lay reader to become acquainted with the nature of the reasoning which attests the præterhuman character of the Author of this Book. It follows, in the words in which it was originally written, An. xvn, 0 in I, (£ in ®, June 8, 1921 E.v., with no preliminaries, in my Magical Diary, at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephalœdium of Trinacria. These verses are very subtly worded. How should I under­ stand this allusion to the Stèle; how “count well its name” without knowing it? I tried to count “Abomination of Desolation”, but that is what “they shall call” it, not its proper name. It seemed that this name, when found, ought to add to 718, or to be identical with some other word or phrase that did so. More, this name when found must somehow express “the fall of Because”. For many years these two verses, despite elaborate research, yielded no meaning soever. At last I chanced on 'YnOMONH as 718; it means “persistence,” the Greek noun corresponding to “Perdurabo,” my first magical Motto. Of course the Stèle had persisted since the 26th Dynasty,1 but that scarcely justified naming it “Persistence”; also, there was nothing about “the fall of Because”. 1 [Modern chronology dates the Stèle to the 25th Dynasty.] Now (An. xvn, © in I, C in ®) I was going through the Law in order to repair any details of omission in the rituals ordained, and found these verses introduced among the instructions. They fascinated me; when I had finished the work in hand, I returned to them and worked for some hours with a Lexicon, starting from the word APXH, “cause,” 709, to find some phrase equal to 718 which would deny Cause. I found AZA, 9, a word meaning “dryness,” but most espe­ cially the dirt or mould upon a disused object. APXH AZA is, therefore, a precise expression of the doctrine expounded in our Law about “Because”. So far, so good; but this is in no sense the name of the Stèle. I worked on, and found XOIZA, 718, “Yesterday” which might be grasped as a straw if I sank the third time; but I was swimming strongly enough.