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Page 1 of 31919 · PDF PAGE 97
LIBER CORDIS CINCTI SERPENTE 8. Thou hast come hither, O my prophet, through grave paths. Thou hast eaten of the dung of the Abominable Ones; thou hast prostrated thyself before the Goat and the Crocodile; the evil men have made thee a plaything; thou hast wandered as a painted harlot, ravishing with sweet scent and Chinese colouring, in the streets; thou hast dark- ened thine eyepits with Kohl; thou hast tinted thy lips with vermilion; thou hast plastered thy cheeks with ivory enam- els. Thou hast played the wanton in every gate and by-way of …
1919 · PDF PAGE 360
…uth” (noble Truths) are adequately described in “Science and Buddhism.” [See Crowley, Collected Works.] 84. And of these modes of Truth: Hast thou not passed through knowledge of all mis- ery—truth the first? 85. Hast thou not conquered the Maras’ King at Tsi, the portal of assembling—truth the second? 86. Hast thou not sin at the third gate destroyed, and truth the third attained? 87. Hast thou not entered Tau, the “Path” that leads to knowledge—the fourth truth? The reference to the “Maras’ King” confuses the second truth with the third. [See…
1919 · PDF PAGE 338
…y pretended that this Book is an ancient Tibetan writing.—Eb.] 19. Saith the Great Law: “In order to become the knower of ALL-SELF, thou hast first of SELF to be the knower.” To reach the knowledge of that SELF, thou hast to give up Self to Non-Self, Being to Non-Being, and then thou canst repose between the wings of the GREAT BIRD. Aye, sweet is rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the AUM throughout eternal Ages. The words “give up” may be explained as “yield” in its subtler or quasi-masochistic erotic sense, but…
1919 · PDF PAGE 361
…th Buddhist, and the introduction of the ‘four noble truths’ comes very strangely as the precursor of verses 88 and 89. 89. Behold! thou hast become the Light, thou hast be- come the Sound, thou art thy Master and thy God. Thou art THYSELF the object of thy search: the VOICE unbroken, that resounds throughout eternities, exempt from change, from sin exempt, the Seven Sounds in one, THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE Om Cat Sat. This is a pure peroration, and clearly involves an ego- centric metaphysic. The style of the whole treatise is characteristicall…
1919 · PDF PAGE 432
…od our comment on verse 49. The highest marriage, that between Neshamah and Chiah, is accomplished—again, after another manner! 52. Thou hast now crossed the moat that circles round the gate of human passions. By “human passions” must be understood every kind of attraction, not merely gross appetites—which have been long ago conquered, not by excluding, but by regulating them. On the plane of mind itself all is in order; everything has been balanced by its opposite. 53. Thou hast now conquered Mara and his furious host. The seeker has now passe…
1919 · PDF PAGE 416
THE EQUINOX 21. Thou hast to be prepared to anwer Dharma, the stern law, whose voice will ask thee first at thy initial step: 22. “Hast thou complied with all the rules, O thou of lofty hopes? “Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind? For as the sacred River’s roaring voice whereby all Nature-sounds are echoed back, so must the heart of him “who in the stream would enter,” thrill in response to every sigh and thought of all that lives and breathes.” Here is another absurdity. What is the sense of asking a…
1919 · PDF PAGE 403
…d Dhyana winds on uphill. Thrice great is he who climbs the lofty top. 5. The Péramita heights are crossed by a still steeper path. Thou hast to fight thy way through portals seven, seven strongholds held by cruel, crafty Powers—passions incarnate. The distinction between the two Paths is now evident; that of Dhyana is intellectual, or one might better say, men- tal, that of Paramita, moral: But it may well be asked whether these Paths are mutually exclusive, whether a good man is always an idiot and a clever man always a brute, to put the anti…
1919 · PDF PAGE 413
…lar person. Narjol is the Path-Treader, not a paraffin-purgative. 13. Before thou canst approach the last, O weaver of thy freedom, thou hast to master these Paramités of perfection —the virtues transcendental six and ten in number—along the weary Path. We now get back to the Paramitas, and this treatise is ap- parently silent with regard to them. Does any one regret it? It isn’t the Path that is weary: it is the Sermons on the way. 14. For, O Disciple! before thou wert made fit to meet thy Teacher face to face, thy MASTER light to light, what …
1919 · PDF PAGE 425
THE SEVEN PORTALS The way to make thoughts harmless is by the equilibrium of contradictions—this is the meaning of the phrase, “Thou hast to study the voidness of the seeming full, the fulness of the seeming void.” This subject has been dealt with at some length in the “Soldier and the Hunchback” in Egurnox I. 1., and many other references are to be found in the works of Mr. Aleister Crowley. A real identification of the Self with the Not-Self is neces- sary. 40. For, on Path fourth, the lightest breeze of passion or desire will stir the steady…
1919 · PDF PAGE 396
…faun became Pan in the midst of the primal forest of Eternity. 44. Thou canst not charm the dolphin with silence, O my Prophet! 85. Thou hast the knowledge concerning the two Ways. Thy time will come for choice, O thou eager Soul, when thou hast reached the end and passed the seven Portals. Thy mind is clear. No more art thou entangled in delusive thoughts, for thou hast learned all. Unveiled stands Truth and looks 74
1919 · PDF PAGE 349
…E VOICE OF THE SILENCE appears on the surface. The words “bud” and “worm” form a clue. 49. Thou canst not travel on the path before thou hast become that Path itself. Compare the scene in Parsifal, where the scenery comes to the knight instead of the knight going to the scenery. But there is also implied the doctrine of the Tao, and only one who is an accomplished Taoist can hope to understand this verse. (See “The Hermit of Esopus Island,” part of the Magical Record of 666, to be published in THE Equinox, Vol. III.) 50. Let thy Soul lend its e…
1919 · PDF PAGE 81
…f me, as a grape upon the tongue of a white Doric girl that languishes with her lover in the moonlight. 55. Then let the End awake. Long hast thou slept, O great God Terminus! Long ages hast thou waited at the end of the city and the roads thereof. Awake Thou! wait no more! 56. Nay, Lord! but I am come to Thee. It is I that wait at last. 57. The prophet cried against the mountain; come thou hither, that I may speak with thee! 75
1919 · PDF PAGE 85
…ight; I am Thyself, O my Maker, my Master, my Mate! 37. Lam like the little red dog that sitteth upon the knees of the Unknown. 38. Thou hast brought me into great delight. Thou hast given me of Thy flesh to eat and of Thy blood for an offering of intoxication. 79
1919 · PDF PAGE 436
…l effort is required. The gates open of themselves to the Master of the Temple. 61. Till then, a task far harder still awaits thee: thou hast to feel thyself ALL-THOUGHT, and yet exile all thoughts from out thy SOUL. The discourse again reverts to another phase of this task of Vairaga. It is just as in the ‘Earth-Bhavana,’ where you have to look at a frame of earth, and reach that impres- sion of Earth in which is no Earthly quality, “that earth which is not earth,” as the Qabalah would say. So on this higher plane you must reach a quintessence…
1919 · PDF PAGE 86
THE EQUINOX 39. Thou hast fastened the fangs of Eternity in my soul, and the Poison of the Infinite hath consumed me utterly. 40. I am become like a luscious devil of Italy; a fair strong woman with worn cheeks, eaten out with hunger for kisses. She hath played the harlot in divers palaces; she hath given her body to the beasts. 41. She hath slain her kinsfolk with strong venom of toads; she hath been scourged with many rods. 42. She hath been broken in pieces upon the Wheel; the hands of the hangman have bound her unto it. 43. The fountains of…
1919 · PDF PAGE 369
…somewhat confused. 19. True knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk. If thou would’st eat the bread of Wisdom, thy flour thou hast to knead with Amrita’s clear waters. But if thou kneadest husks with Maya's dew, thou canst create but food for the black doves of death, the birds of birth, decay and SOrrow. “Amrita” means not only Immortality, but is the techni- cal name of the Divine force which descends upon man, but which is burnt up by his tendencies, by the forces which make him what he is. It is also a certain Elixir which is the…
1919 · PDF PAGE 419
THE SEVEN PORTALS jection to any one claiming to be one of Themselves. If he does so, let him abide by it. 25. Hast thou attuned thy being to Humanity’s great pain, O candidate for light? Thou hast? . . . Thou mayest enter. Vet, ere thou settest foot upon the dreary Path of Sorrow, *tis well thou should’ st first learn the pitfalls on thy way. It appears as if the condition of entering the Path was the Vision of Sorrow, and of course the present Commentator might be inclined to support this theory, since, in his own ex- perience, it was this Vi…
1919 · PDF PAGE 424
THE EQUINOX 37. But once thou hast passed the gate of Kshanti, step the third is taken. Thy body is thy slave. Now, for the fourth prepare, the Portal of temptations which do ensnare the inner man, We are now on a higher plane altogether. The Higher and Lower Selves are made One. It is that One whose further progress from Tiphareth to Binah is now to be described. 38. Ere thou canst near that goal, before thine hand is lifted to upraise the fourth gate’s latch, thou must have mastered all the mental changes in thy Self and slain the army of the…
1919 · PDF PAGE 441
THE SEVEN PORTALS 73. Thou hast estranged thyself from objects of the senses, travelled on the “Path of seeing,’ on the “Path of hearing,” and standest in the light of Knowledge. Thou hast now reached Titiksha state. O Narjol, thou art safe. In these three verses the passage to the sixth Gate is made clear. There is no longer any struggle, there is but the golden fire within the alabaster vase, and thou art that vase. Male and female are again interchanged. Above Chiah and Neshamah is Yechidah, and in the lower aspect of that, one has again bec…
1919 · PDF PAGE 435
…use when it is buried deep within the throbbing heart of earth. The proper place for a diamond is the neck of a courtesan. 60. When thou hast reached that state, the Portals that thou hast to conquer on the Path fling open wide their gates to let thee pass, and Nature’s strongest mights possess no 113