THE MAGICAL THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE
There are three main theories of the Universe; Dualism,
Monism and Nihilism. It is impossible to enter into a discussion
of their relative merits in a popular manual of this sort. They may
be studied in Erdmann's "History of Philosophy" and similar treatises.
All are reconciled and unified in the theory which we
shall now set forth. The basis of this Harmony is given in Crowley's
"Berashith" --- to which reference should be made.
Infinite space is called the goddess NUIT, while the infinitely
small and atomic yet omnipresent point is called HADIT.<> These
are unmanifest. One conjunction of these infinites is called RA-HOOR-KHUIT,<>
a unity which includes and heads all things.<> (There is also
a particular Nature of Him, in certain conditions, such as have obtained
since the Spring of 1904, e.v.) This profoundly mystical conception
{1} is based upon actual spiritual experience, but the trained reason<>
can reach a reflection of this idea by the method of logical contradiction
which ends in reason transcending itself. The reader should consult
"The Soldier and the Hunchback" in Equinox I, I, and Konx Om Pax.
"Unity" transcends "consciousness". It is above
all division. The Father of thought --- the Word --- is called Chaos
--- the dyad. The number Three, the Mother, is called Babalon.
In connection with this the reader should study "The Temple of Solomon
the King" in Equinox I, V, and Liber 418.
This first triad is essentially unity, in a manner transcending
reason. The comprehension of this Trinity is a matter of spiritual
experience. All true gods are attributed to this Trinity.<>
An immeasurable abyss divides it from all manifestations
of Reason or the lower qualities of man. In the ultimate analysis
of Reason, we find all reason identified with this abyss. Yet this
abyss is the crown of the mind. Purely intellectual faculties all
obtain here. This abyss has no number, for in it all is confusion.
Below this abyss we find the moral qualities of Man, of
which there are six. The highest is symbolised by the number Four.
Its nature is fatherly<>; Mercy and Authority are the attributes of
its dignity.
The number Five is balanced against it. The attributes
of Five are Energy and Justice. Four and Five are again combined
and harmonized in the number Six, whose nature is beauty and harmony, mortality
and immortality.
In the number Seven the feminine nature is again predominant,
{2} but it is the masculine type of female, the Amazon, who is balanced
in the number Eight by the feminine type of male.
In the number Nine we reach the last of the purely mental
qualities. It identifies change with stability.
Pendant to this sixfold system is the number Ten;
The balance
of the Sephiroth:
Kether (1) "Kether
is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether, but
after another manner."
Chokmah (2) is Yod
of Tetragrammaton, and therefore also Unity.
Binah (3)
is He of Tetragrammaton, and therefore "The
Emperor."
Chesed (4) is
Daleth, Venus the female.
Geburah (5) is the
Sephira of Mars, the Male.
Tiphereth (6) is the Hexagram,
harmonizing, and mediating between
Kether and Malkuth. Also it reflects Kether. "That
which is above, is like that which is below, and
that which is below, is like that which is above."
Netzach (7) and Hod
(8) balanced as in text.
Jesod (9)
see text.
Malkuth (10) contains all
the numbers.>>
which includes the whole of Matter as we know it by the senses.
It is impossible here to explain thoroughly the complete
conception; for it cannot be too clearly understood that this is a "classification"
of the Universe, that there is nothing which is not comprehended therein.
The Article on the Qabalah in Vol. I, No. V of the Equinox
is the best which has been written on the subject. It should be deeply
studied, in connection with the Qabalistic Diagrams in Nos. II and III:
"The Temple of Solomon the King".
Such is a crude and elementary sketch of this system.
The formula of Tetragrammaton is the most important for
the practical magician. Here Yod = 2, He = 3, Vau = 4 to 9, He final
= 10.
The Number Two represents Yod, the Divine or Archetypal World,
and the Number One is only attained by the destruction of the God and the
Magician in Samadhi. The world of Angels is under the numbers Four
to Nine, and that of spirits under the {3} number Ten.<> All these
numbers are of course parts of the magician himself considered as the microcosm.
The microcosm is an exact image of the Macrocosm; the Great Work is the
raising of the whole man in perfect balance to the power of Infinity.
The reader will remark that all criticism directed against
the Magical Hierarchy is futile. One cannot call it incorrect ---
the only line to take might be that it was inconvenient. In the same
way one cannot say that the Roman alphabet is better or worse than the
Greek, since all required sounds can be more or less satisfactorily represented
by either; yet both these alphabets were found so little satisfactory when
it came to an attempt at phonetic printing of Oriental languages, that
the alphabet had to be expanded by the use of italics and other diacritical
marks. In the same way our magical alphabet of the Sephiroth and
the Paths (thirty-two letters as it were) has been expanded into the four
worlds corresponding to the four letters of the name Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh; and
each Sephira is supposed to contain a Tree of Life of its own. Thus
we obtain four hundred Sephiroth instead of the original ten, and the Paths
being capable of similar multiplications, or rather of subdivision, the
number is still further extended. Of course this process might be
indefinitely continued without destroying the original system.
The Apologia for this System is that our purest conceptions {4}
are symbolized in Mathematics. "God is the Great Arithmetician."
"God is the Grand Geometer." It is best therefore to prepare to apprehend
Him by formulating our minds according to these measures.<>
To return, each letter of this alphabet may have its special
magical sigil. The student must not expect to be given a cut-and-dried
definition of what exactly is meant by any of all this. On the contrary,
he must work backwards, putting the whole of his mental and moral outfit
into these pigeon-holes. You would not expect to be able to buy a
filing cabinet with the names of all your past, present and future correspondents
ready indexed: your cabinet has a system of letters and numbers meaningless
in themselves, but ready to take on a meaning to you, as you fill up the
files. As your business increased, each letter and number would receive
fresh accessions of meaning for you; and by adopting this orderly arrangement
you would be able to have a much more comprehensive grasp of your affairs
than would otherwise be the case. By the use of this system the magician
is able ultimately to unify the whole of his knowledge --- to transmute,
even on the Intellectual Plane, the Many into the One.
The Reader can now understand that the sketch given above
of the magical Hierarchy is hardly even an outline of the real theory of
the Universe. This theory may indeed be studied in the article already
referred to in No. V of the Equinox, and, more deeply in the Book of the
Law and the Commentaries thereon: but the true understanding depends entirely
upon the work of the Magician himself. Without magical experience
it will be meaningless.
In this there is nothing peculiar. It is so with
all scientific knowledge. A blind man might cram up astronomy for
the purpose of passing examinations, but his knowledge would be {5} almost
entirely unrelated to his experience, and it would certainly not give him
sight. A similar phenomenon is observed when a gentleman who has
taken an "honours degree" in modern languages at Cambridge arrives in Paris,
and is unable to order his dinner. To exclaim against the Master
Therion is to act like a person who, observing this, should attack both
the professors of French and the inhabitants of Paris, and perhaps go on
to deny the existence of France.
Let us say, once again, that the magical language is nothing
but a convenient system of classification to enable the magician to docket
his experiences as he obtains them.
Yet this is true also, that, once the language is mastered,
one can divine the unknown by study of the known, just as one's knowledge
of Latin and Greek enables one to understand some unfamiliar English word
derived from those sources. Also, there is the similar case of the
Periodic Law in Chemistry, which enables Science to prophesy, and so in
the end to discover, the existence of certain previously unsuspected elements
in nature. All discussions upon philosophy are necessarily sterile,
since truth is beyond language. They are, however, useful if carried
far enough --- if carried to the point when it become apparent that all
arguments are arguments in a circle.<> But discussions of the
details of purely imaginary qualities are frivolous and may be deadly.
For the great danger of this magical theory is that the student may mistake
the alphabet for the things which the words represent.
An excellent man of great intelligence, a learned Qabalist,
once amazed the Master Therion by stating that the Tree of Life was the
framework of the Universe. It was as if some one had seriously maintained
that a cat was a creature constructed by placing the letters C. A. T. in
that order. It is no wonder that Magick has excited the ridicule
of the unintelligent, since even its {6} educated students can be guilty
of so gross a violation of the first principles of common sense.<>
A synopsis of the grades of the A.'. A.'. as illustrative
of the Magical Hierarchy in Man is given in Appendix 2 "One Star in Sight."
This should be read before proceeding with the chapter. The subject
is very difficult. To deal with it in full is entirely beyond the
limits of this small treatise.
"FURTHER
CONCERNING THE MAGICAL UNIVERSE"
All these letters of the magical alphabet --- referred
to above --- are like so many names on a map. Man himself is a complete
microcosm. Few other beings have this balanced perfection.
Of course every sun, every planet, may have beings similarly constituted.<>
But when we speak of dealing with the planets in Magick, {7} the reference
is usually not to the actual planets, but to parts of the earth which are
of the nature attributed to these planets. Thus, when we say that
Nakhiel is the "Intelligence" of the Sun, we do not mean that he lives
in the Sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although
we can invoke him, we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same
sense of the word in which our butcher exists.
When we "conjure Nakhiel to visible appearance," it may be that
our process resembles creation --- or, rather imagination --- more nearly
than it does calling-forth. The aura of a man is called the "magical
mirror of the universe"; and, so far as any one can tell, nothing exists
outside of this mirror. It is at least convenient to represent the
whole as if it were subjective. It leads to less confusion.
And, as a man is a perfect microcosm,<> it is perfectly easy to re-model
one's conception at any moment.
Now there is a traditional correspondence, which modern
experiment has shown to be fairly reliable. There is a certain natural
connexion between certain letters, words, numbers, gestures, shapes, perfumes
and so on, so that any idea or (as we might call it) "spirit", may be composed
or called forth by the use of those things which are harmonious with it,
and express particular parts of its nature. These correspondences
have been elaborately mapped in the Book 777 in a very convenient and compendious
form. It will be necessary for the student to make a careful study
of this book in connexion with some actual rituals of Magick, for example,
{8} that of the evocation of Taphtatharath printed in Equinox I, III, pages
170-190, where he will see exactly why these things are to be used.
Of course, as the student advances in knowledge by experience he will find
a progressive subtlety in the magical universe corresponding to his own;
for let it be said yet again! not only is his aura a magical mirror of
the universe, but the universe is a magical mirror of his aura.
In this chapter we are only able to give a very thin outline
of magical theory --- faint pencilling by weak and wavering fingers ---
for this subject may almost be said to be co-extensive with one's whole
knowledge.
The knowledge of exoteric science is comically limited
by the fact that we have no access, except in the most indirect way, to
any other celestial body than our own. In the last few years, the
semi-educated have got an idea that they know a great deal about the universe,
and the principal ground for their fine opinion of themselves is usually
the telephone or the airship. It is pitiful to read the bombastic
twaddle about progress, which journalists and others, who wish to prevent
men from thinking, put out for consumption. We know infinitesimally
little of the material universe. Our detailed knowledge is so contemptibly
minute, that it is hardly worth reference, save that our shame may spur
us to increased endeavour. Such knowledge<> as we have got is
of a very general and abstruse, of a philosophical and almost magical character.
This consists principally of the conceptions of pure mathematics.
It is, therefore, almost legitimate to say that pure mathematics is our
link with the rest of the universe and with "God".
Now the conceptions of Magick are themselves profoundly
mathematical. The whole basis of our theory is the Qabalah, which
corresponds to mathematics and geometry. The method of operation
in Magick is based on this, in very much the same way as the laws of mechanics
are based on mathematics. So far, therefore as we can be said to
possess a magical theory of the universe, it must be a matter solely of
fundamental law, with a {9} few simple and comprehensive propositions stated
in very general terms.
I might expend a life-time in exploring the details of
one plane, just as an explorer might give his life to one corner of Africa,
or a chemist to one subgroup of compounds. Each such detailed piece
of work may be very valuable, but it does not as a rule throw light on
the main principles of the universe. Its truth is the truth of one
angle. It might even lead to error, if some inferior person were
to generalize from too few facts.
Imagine an inhabitant of Mars who wished to philosophise
about the earth, and had nothing to go by but the diary of some man at
the North Pole! But the work of every explorer, on whatever branch
of the Tree of Life the caterpillar he is after may happen to be crawling,
is immensely helped by a grasp of general principles. Every magician,
therefore, should study the Holy Qabalah. Once he has mastered the
main principles, he will find his work grow easy.
"Solvitur ambulando" which does not mean: "Call the Ambulance!"