The Formula of I.A.O.
This formula
is the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the
Redemption of Mankind. "I" is Isis, Nature, ruined by "A", Apophis
the Destroyer, and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris.<>
The same idea is expressed by the Rosicrucian formula of the Trinity:
"Ex Deo nascimur.
In Jesu Morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus."
This is also identical
with the Word Lux, L.V.X., which is formed by the arms of a cross.
It is this formula which is implied in those ancient and modern monuments
in which the phallus is worshipped as the Saviour of the World.
The doctrine
of resurrection as vulgarly understood is false and absurd. It is
not even "Scriptural". St. Paul does not identify the glorified body
which rises with the mortal body which dies. On the contrary, he
repeatedly insists on the distinction.
The same
is true of a magical ceremony. The magician who is destroyed by absorption
in the Godhead is really destroyed. The {28} miserable mortal automaton
remains in the Circle. It is of no more consequence to Him that the
dust of the floor.<>
But before
entering into the details of "I.A.O." as a magick formula it should be
remarked that it is essentially the formula of Yoga or meditation; in fact,
of elementary mysticism in all its branches.
In beginning a
meditation practice, there is always<> a quiet pleasure, a gentle natural
growth; one takes a lively interest in the work; it seems easy; one is
quite pleased to have started. This stage represents Isis.
Sooner or later it is succeeded by depression --- the Dark Night of the
Soul, an infinite weariness and detestation of the work. The simplest
and easiest acts become almost impossible to perform. Such impotence
fills the mind with apprehension and despair. The intensity of this
loathing can hardly be understood by any person who has not experienced
it. This is the period of Apophis.
It is followed
by the arising not of Isis, but of Osiris. The ancient condition
is not restored, but a new and superior condition is created, a condition
only rendered possible by the process of death.
The Alchemists
themselves taught this same truth. The first matter of the work was
base and primitive, though "natural". After passing through various
stages the "black dragon" appeared; but from this arose the pure and perfect
gold.
Even in the legend
of Prometheus we find an identical formula concealed; and a similar remark
applies to those of Jesus Christ, and of many other mythical god-men worshipped
in different countries.<>
A magical
ceremony constructed on this formula is thus in close essential harmony
with the natural mystic process. We find it the {29} basis of many
important initiations, notably the Third Degree in Masonry, and the 5 Degree
= 6Square ceremony of the G.'. D.'. described in Equinox I, III.
A ceremonial self-initiation may be constructed with advantage on this
formula. The essence of it consists in robing yourself as a king,
then stripping and slaying yourself, and rising from that death to the
Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel<>. There
is an etymological identity between Tetragrammaton and "I A O", but the
magical formulae are entirely different, as the descriptions here given
have schewn.
Professor
William James, in his "Varieties of Religious Experience," has well classified
religion as the "once-born" and the "twice-born"; but the religion now
proclaimed in Liber Legis harmonizes these by transcending them.
There is no attempt to get rid of death by denying it, as among the once-born;
nor to accept death as the gate of a new life, as among the twice-born.
With the A.'. A.'. life and death are equally incidents in a career, very
much like day and night in the history of a planet. But, to pursue
the simile, we regard this planet from afar. A Brother of A.'. A.'.
looks at (what another person would call) "himself", as one --- or, rather,
some --- among a group of phenomena. He is that "nothing" whose consciousness
is in one sense the universe considered as a single phenomenon in time
and space, and in another sense is the negation of that consciousness.
The body and mind of the man are only important (if at all) as the telescope
of the astronomer to him. If the telescope were destroyed it would
make no appreciable difference to the Universe which that telescope reveals.
It will
now be understood that this formula of I A O is a formula of Tiphareth.
The magician who employs it is conscious of himself as a man liable to
suffering, and anxious to transcend that state by becoming one with god.
It will appear to him as the Supreme Ritual, as the final step; but, as
has already been {30} pointed out, it is but a preliminary. For the
normal man today, however, it represents considerable attainment; and there
is a much earlier formula whose investigation will occupy Chapter VI.
THE MASTER
THERION, in the Seventeenth year of the Aeon, has reconstructed the Word
I A O to satisfy the new conditions of Magick imposed by progress.
The Word of the Law being Thelema, whose number is 93, this number should
be the canon of a corresponding Mass. Accordingly, he has expanded
I A O by treating the O as an Ayin, and then adding Vau as prefix and affix.
The full word is then
Vau Yod Aleph Ayin Vau
whose number is 93.
We may analyse this new Word in detail and demonstrate that it is a proper
hieroglyph of the Ritual of Self-Initiation in this Aeon of Horus.
For the correspondence in the following note, see Liber 777. The
principal points are these: {31}
--------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------
: :
: :
:
Atu :No.: Hebrew
:No.:Correspondence:
Other
:of :
:of :
:
(Tarot Trump) :Atu:
letters :let: in Nature :
Correspondences
: :
:ter:
:
--------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:
The Hiero-
: V :Vau (a nail) : 6 :Taurus (An :The Sun. The
son in Te-
phant. (Osi-:
: English V, : : earthy sign : tragrammaton. (See
Cap.
ris throned :
: W, or vo- : : ruled by
: III). The Pentagram
& crowned,
: : wel between : : Venus; the :
which shows Spirit
with Wand.
: : O and U- : : Moon exalt-
: master & reconciler of
: : ma'ajab and : : ed therein. : the
Four Elements.
: : ma'aruf. : : but male.)
:
Four Wor-
: :
: : Liberty,i.e.:The Hexagram which un-
shippers;the:
:
: : free will. : God and Man. The cons-
four ele-
: :
: :
: sciousness or Ruach.
ments.
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:Parzival as the Child in
: :
: :
: his widowed mother's
: :
: :
: care: Horus, son of
: :
: :
: Isis and the slain
: :
: :
: Osiris.
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:Parzival as King &
: :
: :
: Priest in Montsalvat
: :
: :
: performing the mir-
: :
: :
: acle of redemption;
: :
: :
: Horus crowned and
: :
: :
: conquering, taking the
: :
: :
: place of his father.
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:Christ-Bacchus in Hea-
: :
: :
: ven-Olympus saving the
: :
: :
: world.
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:
The Hermit
:IX :Yod (a hand) : 10:Virgo (an :The root of the
Alphabet
(Hermes
: : English I : : earthy sign
: The Spermatozoon. The
with Lamp,
: : or Y. :
: ruled by : youth setting out on
Wings,
: :
: : Mercury : his adventures
after
Wand,
: :
: : exalted : receiving the Wand.
Cloak, and
: :
: : therein; : Parzival in the desert
Serpent).
: :
: : sexually : Christ taking refuge
: :
: : ambivalent) : in Egypt, and on
: :
: : Light, i.e. : the Mount tempted by
: :
: : of Wisdom, : the Devil. The uncon-
: :
: : the Inmost. : scious Will, or Word.
{32}
--------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------
: :
: :
:
Atu :No.: Hebrew
:No.:Correspondence:
Other
:of :
: of:
:
(Tarot Trump) :Atu:
letters :let: in Nature :
Correspondences
: :
:ter:
:
--------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:
The Fool
: O :Aleph (an ox): 1 :Air (The con- :The free breath. The
(The Babe
: : English A, : : dition of
: Svastika. The Holy
in the Egg
: : more or : : all
Life, : Ghost. The Virgin's
on the Lo-
: : less :
: the impar- : Womb. Parzial as "der
tus, Bacchus:
:
: : tial vehicle: reine Thor" who knows
Diphues,
: :
: : Sexually : nothing.
Horus.
etc.
: :
: : undevelop- : Christ-Bacchus as the
: :
: : ed). Life; : innocent babe, pursued
: :
: : i.e. the : by Herod-Here.
: :
: : organ of : Hercules strangling
: :
: : possible : the serpents.
The
: :
: : expression. : Unconscious Self not
: :
: :
: yet determined in any
: :
: :
: direction.
: :
: :
:
: :
: :
:
The Devil
:XV :Ayin (an : 70:Capricornus :Parzival
in Black Armour,
(Baphomet
: : eye) En- : : (an earthy
: ready to return to
throned &
: : glish A, or: : sign ruled
: Montsalvat as Redeemer-
adored by
: : O more or : : by Saturn;
: King: Horus come to
Male & Fe-
: : less: the : : Mars exalt-
: full growth. Christ-
male. See
: : bleat of a : : ed therein. :
Bacchus with Calvary-
Eliphas
: : goat, A'a. : : Sexually
: Cross Kithairon ---
Levi's de-
: :
: : male) : Thyrsus.
sign.)
: :
: : love: i.e. :
: :
: : the instinct:
: :
: : to satisfy :
: :
: : Godhead by :
: :
: : uniting it :
: :
: : with the :
: :
: : Universe. :
: :
: :
:
Iota-Alpha-Digamma varies in significance with successive Aeons.
{33}
"Aeon of
Isis." Matriarchal Age. The Great Work conceived as a straightforward
simple affair.
We find
the theory reflected in the customs of Matriarchy. Parthenogenesis
is supposed to be true. The Virgin (Yod-Virgo) contains in herself
the Principle of Growth --- the epicene Hermetic seed. It becomes
the Babe in the Egg (A --- Harpocrates) by virtue of the Spirit (A = Air,
impregnating the Mother---Vulture) and this becomes the Sun or Son ( Digamma
= the letter of Tiphareth, 6, even when spelt as Omega, in Coptic.
See 777).
"Aeon of
Osiris." Patriarchal age. Two sexes. I conceived as the
Father-Wand. (Yod in Tetragrammaton). A the Babe is pursued
by the Dragon, who casts a flood from his mouth to swallow it. See
"Rev." VII. The Dragon is also the Mother --- the "Evil Mother" of
Freud. It is Harpocrates, threatened by the crocodile in the Nile.
We find the symbolism of the Ark, the Coffin of Osiris, etc. The
Lotus is the Yoni; the Water the Amniotic Fluid. In order to live
his own life, the child must leave the Mother, and overcome the temptation
to return to her for refuge. Kundry, Armida, Jocasta, Circe, etc.,
are symbols of this force which tempts the Hero. He may take her
as his servant<> when he has mastered her, so as to heal his father
(Amfortas), avenge him (Osiris), or pacify him (Jehovah). But in
order to grow to manhood, he must cease to depend on her, earning the Lance
(Parzival), claiming his arms (Achilles), or making his club (Hercules)<>,
and wander in the waterless wilderness like Krishna, Jesus, Oedipus,
chi. tau. lambda. --- until the hour when, as the "King's Son"
or knight-errant, he must win the Princess, and set himself upon a strange
throne. Almost all the legends of heroes imply this formula in strikingly
similar symbols. Digamma. Vau the Sun --- Son.
He is supposed to be mortal; but how is this shewn? It seems an absolute
perversion of truth: the sacred symbols have no hint of it. This
lie is the essence of the Great Sorcery. Osirian religion is a Freudian
phantasy fashioned of man's dread of death and ignorance of nature.
The parthenogenesis-idea {34} persists, but is now the formula for incarnating
demi-gods, or divine kings; these must be slain and raised from the dead
in one way or another.<>
"Aeon of Horus."
Two sexes in one person.
Digamma Iota Alpha
Omicron Digamma: 93, the full formula, recognizing the Sun as the
Son (Star), as the pre-existent manifested Unit from which all springs
and to which all returns. The Great Work is to make the initial
Digamma Digamma of Assiah (The world of material illusion) into the final
Digamma Iota Digamma of Atziluth,<> the world of pure reality.
Spelling the Name in
full, Digamma Digamma + Iota Digamma Delta + Alpha Lambda
Pi + Omicron Iota Nu + Digamma Iota = 309 = Sh T = XX + XI = 31 the
secret Key of the Law.
Digamma is the manifested
Star.
Iota is the secret Life
.............. Serpent
--- Light ............. Lamp
--- Love .............. Wand
--- Liberty ........... Wings
--- Silence ........... Cloak
These symbols are all shewn in the Atu "The Hermit".
They are the powers of the Yod, whose extension is the Vau.
Yod is the Hand wherewith man does his Will. It is also
The Virgin; his essence is inviolate.
Alpha is the Babe "who
has formulated his Father, and made fertile
his Mother" --- Harpocrates, etc., as before; but he develops
to
Omicron The exalted
"Devil" (also the "other" secret Eye) by the
formula of the Initiation of Horus elsewhere described in
detail. This "Devil" is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with
horror by people who are ignorant of his formula, and, imagining themselves
to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal crime.
Satan is Saturn, Set, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam, Adonai, etc.
The most serious charge against him is that he is the Sun in the South.
The Ancient Initiates, {35} dwelling as they did in lands whose blood was
the water of the Nile or the Euphrates, connected the South with life-withering
heat, and cursed that quarter where the solar darts were deadliest.
Even in the legend of Hiram, it is at high noon that he is stricken down
and slain. Capricornus is moreover the sign which the sun enterers
when he reaches his extreme Southern declination at the Winter Solstice,
the season of the death of vegetation, for the folk of the Northern hemisphere.
This gave them a second cause for cursing the south. A third; the
tyranny of hot, dry, poisonous winds; the menace of deserts or oceans dreadful
because mysterious and impassable; these also were connected in their minds
with the South. But to us, aware of astronomical facts, this antagonism
to the South is a silly superstition which the accidents of their local
conditions suggested to our animistic ancestors. We see no enmity
between Right and Left, Up and Down, and similar pairs of opposites.
These antitheses are real only as a statement of relation; they are the
conventions of an arbitrary device for representing our ideas in a pluralistic
symbolism based on duality. "Good" must be defined in terms of human
ideals and instincts. "East" has no meaning except with reference
to the earth's internal affairs; as an absolute direction in space it changes
a degree every four minutes. "Up" is the same for no two men, unless
one chance to be in the line joining the other with the centre of the earth.
"Hard" is the private opinion of our muscles. "True" is an utterly
unintelligible epithet which has proved refractory to the analysis of our
ablest philosophers.
We have
therefore no scruple in restoring the "devil-worship" of such ideas as
those which the laws of sound, and the phenomena of speech and hearing,
compel us to connect with the group of "Gods" whose names are based upon
Sht, or D, vocalized by the free breath A. For these Names imply
the qualities of courage, frankness, energy, pride, power and triumph;
they are the words which express the creative and paternal will.
Thus "the Devil"
is Capricornus, the Goat who leaps upon the loftiest mountains, the Godhead
which, if it become manifest in man, makes him Aegipan, the All.
The Sun
enters this sign when he turns to renew the year in the North. He
is also the vowel O, proper to roar, to boom, and {36} to command, being
a forcible breath controlled by the firm circle of the mouth.
He is the
Open Eye of the exalted Sun, before whom all shadows flee away: also that
Secret Eye which makes an image of its God, the Light, and gives it power
to utter oracles, enlightening the mind.
Thus, he is Man
made God, exalted, eager; he has come consciously to his full stature,
and so is ready to set out on his journey to redeem the world. But
he may not appear in this true form; the Vision of Pan would drive men
mad with fear. He must conceal Himself in his original guise.
He therefore becomes
apparently the man that he was at the beginning; he lives the life of a
man; indeed, he is wholly man. But his initiation has made him master
of the Event by giving him the understanding that whatever happens to him
is the execution of this true will. Thus the last stage of his initiation
is expressed in our formula as the final:
Digamma --- The series
of transformations has not affected his identity; but it has explained
him to himself. Similarly, Copper is still Copper after
Cu+O = CuO:+H SO =CuS
O(H O):+K S=CuS(K SO ):
2 4 4 2 2
2 4 + blowpipe and reducing agent = Cu(S).
It is the
same copper, but we have learnt some of its properties. We observe
especially that it is indestructible, inviolably itself throughout all
its adventures, and in all its disguises. We see moreover that it
can only make use of its powers, fulfill the possibilities of its nature,
and satisfy its equations, by thus combining with its counterparts.
Its existence as a separate substance is evidence of its subjection to
stress; and this is felt as the ache of an incomprehensible yearning until
it realises that every experience is a relief, an expression of itself;
and that it cannot be injured by aught that may befall it. In the
Aeon of Osiris it was indeed realised that Man must die in order to live.
But now in the Aeon of Horus we know that every event is a death; subject
and object slay each other in "love under will"; each such death is itself
life, the means by which one realises oneself in a series of episodes.
The second
main point is the completion of the A babe Bacchus by the O Pan (Parzival
wins the Lance, etc.). {37}
The first
process is to find the I in the V --- initiation, purification, finding
the Secret Root of oneself, the epicene Virgin who is 10 (Malkuth) but
spelt in full 20 (Jupiter).
This Yod
in the "Virgin" expands to the Babe in the Egg by formulating the Secret
Wisdom of Truth of Hermes in the Silence of the Fool. He acquires
the Eye-Wand, beholding the acting and being adored. The Inverted
Pentagram --- Baphomet --- the Hermaphrodite fully grown --- begets himself
on himself as V again.
Note that
there are now two sexes in one person throughout, so that each individual
is self-procreative sexually, whereas Isis knew only one sex, and Osiris
thought the two sexes opposed. Also the formula is now Love in all
cases; and the end is the beginning, on a higher plane.
The I is
formed from the V by removing its tail, the A by balancing 4 Yods, the
O by making an inverted triangle of Yods, which suggests the formula of
Nuit --- Hadit --- Ra-Hoor-Khuit. A is the elements whirling as a
Svastika --- the creative Energy in equilibrated action.