Chapter II A Verses 11 — 13
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13. for why? Because thou wast the knower, and me.
Commentary: Hadit had to overcome the silly “knower,” 
who thought everything was Sorrow. Cf. “Who am I?”—“Thou 
knowest” in Chapter I.
I am far from satisfied with the above interpretation of this 
verse. We shall see a little later, verses 27 sqq., a general objection 
to “Because” and “why”. Then how is it that Hadit does not dis­
dain to use those terms? It must be for the sake of my mind. Then, 
“for why” is detestably vulgar; and no straining of grammar 
excuses or explains the “me.”
We have two alternatives. The verse may be an insult to me. 
My memory tells me, however, that the tone of the voice of Aiwaz 
was at this point low, even, and musical. It sounded like a confi­
dential, almost deferential, clarification of the previous verse, 
which had rung out with joyful crescendo.
The alternative is that the verse contains some Qabalistic 
proof of the authority of Aiwaz to lay down the law in so auto­
cratic a manner. Just so, one might add weight to one’s quotation 
from Sappho, in the English, by following it up with the original 
Greek.
The absence of all capital letters favours this theory. Simply 
enough, the solution begins with the idea that the small initial of 
“because” would be explained by a colon preceding it instead of a 
note of interrogation, which may have been due to my haste, 
ignorance, and carelessness.1 Then “for why” may be understood: 
“for the benefit of this Mr. Why—to satisfy your childish clamour 
for a reason—I will now repeat my remarks in an alternative 
form such that even your stupidity can scarcely fail to observe 
that I have sealed my psychological explanation in cipher.” We 
find accordingly that the arising “of me in Thee” constitutes a 
state wherein “thou knewest not.” By “knewest” we may under­
stand the function of Hadit, intellectually and conjugally united 
with Nuit.2 And “not” is Nuit, as in Cap. I. Now this idea 
explains that the arising “of me” (Hadit) “in Thee” (the Beast) is 
1 [“Because” is however clearly capitalized in both the ms. as well as the 
text of Liber CCXX as edited by Crowley.]
1:26
11:12