The Sword of Song

78 1902 AMBROSII MAGI HORTUS ROSARUM* Translated into English by Christeos Lu ciftias. Printed by W. Black, at the Wheatsheaf in Newgate, and sold at the Three Keys in Nags-Head Court, Gracechurch St. IT is fitting that I, Am brose, called I.A.O., should set down the life of our great Father (who now is not, yet whose name must never be spoken among men), in order that the Brethren may know what journey s he undertook in pursuit of that Knowledge whose attainment is their constant study. It was at his 119th year,1 the S tar Suaconch2 being in the sign of the Lion, that our Father set out from his Castle of Ug 3 to attain the Quint- essence or Philosophical Tincture. The way being dark and the Golden Dawn at hand, he did call forth four se rvants to keep him in the m idst of the way, and the Lion roared before him to bid the opposers beware of his coming. On the Bull he rode, and on his left hand and his right marched the Eagle and the Man. But his b ack was uncovered, seeing that he would not turn. And the Spirit of the Path met him. It was a y oung girl of two and twenty y ears, and she warned him that without the Serpent5 his way s were but as wool c ast into the dy er’s vat. Two-and-twenty scales had t he Serpent, and every scale was a path, and every path was alike an enemy and a friend. So he set out, and th e darkness grew upon him. Yet could he well perceive a young maiden6 having a necklace o f two-and-seventy * It would require many pages to give even a sketch of this r emarkable document. The Qabalistic knowledge is as authentic as it is profound, but there are also allusions to contem porary occult students, and a cer tain very small amount of mere absence of meaning. The main satire is of course on the “Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz.” A few only of the serious problem s are elucidated in footnotes. 1 I.e. when 118 = change, a ferment, strength. Also = befor e he was 120, the mystic age of a Rosicrucian. 2 Her-shell = Herschell, or Uranus, the planet which was ascending ( in Leo) at Crowley’s birth. 3 Vau and Gimel, the Hierophant and High-Priestess in the Tarot. Hence “from his Castle of Ug” m eans “from his initiati on.” We cannot in future do m ore than indicate the allusions. 4 The Kerubim. 5 See Table of Correspondences. [A Table of Correspondences was intended to appear as an appendix to the fir st volume of Crowley’s Collected Works. It is not in the 1970s r eprint fr om which I am wor king, and may not have been in the original. See 777 instead – T.S.] 6 The 22nd Key of the Tarot. The other Taro t symbols can be traced by any one who possesses, and to som e degree understands, a pack of the cards. The occult views of the nature of these symbols are in some cases Crowley’s own. Opus Prima Materia. A. O. Custodes.4 Sapiens dom- inatibur astris. S. S. D. D.