Notes on the nature of the "Astral Plane".
1) What are "Astral" and "Spiritual Beings?
Man is one: it is a case of any consciousness assuming
a sensible form.
Microcosms and elementals. Maybe an elemental (e.g.
a dog) has a cosmic conception in which he is a microcosm and man incomplete.
No means of deciding same, as in case of kinds of space.<>
Similarly, our gross matter may appear unreal to Beings
clad in fine matter. Thus, science thinks vulgar perceptions "error".
We cannot perceive at all except within our gamut; as, concentrated perfumes,
which seem malodorous, and time-hidden facts, such as the vanes of a revolving
fan, which flies can distinguish.
"Hence:" no "a priori" reason to deny the existence of
conscious intelligences with insensible bodies. Indeed we know of
other "orders" of mind (flies, etc., possibly vegetables) thinking by means
of non-human brain-structures.
But the fundamental problem of Religion is this: Is there
any praeter-human Intelligence, of the same order as our own, {245} which
is not dependent on cerebral structures consisting of matter in the vulgar
sense of the word?
2) "Matter" includes all that is movable. Thus, electric waves are "matter". There is no reason to deny the existence of Beings who perceive by other means those subtle forces which we only perceive by our instruments.
3) We can influence other Beings, conscious or no, as lion-tamers, gardeners, etc., and are influenced by them, as by storms, bacilli, etc.
4) There is an apparent gap between our senses and their correspondences in consciousness. Theory needs a medium to join matter and spirit, just as physics once needed an "ether" to transmit and transmute vibrations.
5) We may consider all beings as parts of ourselves, but it is more convenient to regard them as independent. Maximum Convenience is our cannon of "Truth".<> We may thus refer {246} psychical phenomena to the intention of "Astral" Beings, without committing ourselves to any theory. Coherence is the sole quality demanded of us.
6) Magick enables us to receive sensible impressions of worlds other than the "physical" universe (as generally understood by profane science). These worlds have their own laws; their inhabitants are often of quasi-human intelligence; there is a definite set of relations between certain "ideas" of ours, and their expressions, and certain types of phenomena. (Thus symbols, the Qabalah, etc. enable us to communicate with whom we choose.)
7) "Astral" Beings possess knowledge and power of a different kind from our own; their "universe" is presumably of a different kind from ours, in some respects. (Our idea "bone" is not the same as a dog's; a short-sighted man sees things differently to one of normal vision.) It is more convenient to assume the objective existence of an "Angel" who gives us new knowledge than to allege that our invocation has awakened a supernormal power in ourselves. Such incidents as "Calderazzo"<> and "Jacob"<> make this more cogent. {247}
8) The Qabalah maps ourselves by means of a convention. Every aspect of every object may thus be referred to the Tree of Life, and evoked by using the proper keys.
9) Time and Space are forms by which we obtain (distorted) images of Ideas. Our measures of Time and Space<> are crude conventions, and differ widely for different Beings. (Hashish shows how the same mind may vary.)
10) We may admit that any aspect of any object or idea may be presented to us in a symbolic form, whose relation to its Being is irrational. (Thus, there is no rational link between seeing a bell struck and hearing its chime. Our notion of "bell" is no more than a personification of its impressions on our senses. And our wit and power to make a bell "to order" imply a series of correspondences between various orders of nature precisely analogous to Magick, when we obtain a Vision of Beauty by the use of certain colours, forms, sounds, etc.)
11) "Astral" Beings may thus be defined in the same way as "material objects"; they are the Unknown Causes of various observed effects. They may be of any order of existence. We give a physical form and name to a bell but not to its tone, though in each case we know nothing but our own impressions. But we record musical sounds by a special convention. We may therefore call a certain set of qualities "Ratziel", or describe an impression as "Saturnian" without pretending to know what anything is in itself. All we need is to know how to cast a bell that will please our ears, or how to evoke a "spirit" that will tell us things that are hidden from our intellectual faculties.
12) (a) Every object soever may be considered as possessed
of an "Astral shape", sensible to our subtle perceptions. This "astral
shape" is to its material basis as our human character is to our physical
appearance. We may imagine this astral shape: e.g. we may "see" a
jar of opium as a soft seductive woman with a cruel smile, just as we see
in the face of a cunning and dishonest man the features of some animal,
such as a fox. {248}
(b) We may select any particular property of any object, and
give it an astral shape. Thus, we may take the tricky perils of a
mountain, and personify them as "trolls", or the destructive energies of
the simoom, as "Jinn".
(c) We may analyse any of these symbols, obtaining a finer
form; thus the "spirit" contains an "angel", the angel an "archangel",
etc.
(d) We may synthesize any set of symbols, obtaining a more general
form. Thus we may group various types of earth-spirit as gnomes.
(e) All these may be attributed to the Tree of Life, and dealt
with accordingly.
(f) The Magician may prepare a sensible body for any of these
symbols, and evoke them by the proper rites.
13) The "reality" or "objectivity" of these symbols is not pertinent
to the discussion. The ideas of X to the 4 power and Sq.Rt.of
subscript -1 have proved useful to the progress of mathematical advance
toward Truth; it is no odds whether a Fourth Dimension "exists", or whether
Sq.Rt.of subscript -1 has "meaning" in the sense that Sq.Rt.of
subscript 4 has, the number of units in the side of a square of 4
units.
The Astral Plane --- real or imaginary --- is a danger
to anybody who takes it without the grain of salt contained in the Wisdom
of the above point of view; who violates its laws either wilfully, carelessly,
ignorantly, or by presuming that their psychological character differentiates
them from physical laws in the narrower sense; or who abdicates his autonomy,
on the ground that the subtler nature of astral phenomena guarantees their
authority and integrity.
(14) The variety of the general character of the "planes" of
being is indefinitely large. But there are several main types of
symbolism corresponding to the forms of plastic presentation established
by the minds of Mankind. Each such "plane" has its special appearances,
inhabitants, and laws --- special cases of the general proposition.
Notable among these are the "Egyptian" plane, which conforms with the ideas
and methods of magick once in vogue in the Nile valley; the "Celtic" plane,
close akin to {249} "Fairyland", with a Pagan Pantheism as its keynote,
sometimes concealed by Christian nomenclature: the "Alchemical" plane,
where the Great Work is often presented under the form of symbolically
constructed landscapes occupied by quasi-heraldic animals and human types
hieroglyphically distinguished, who carry on the mysterious operations
of the Hermetic Art.
There are also "planes" of Parable, of Fable, and of Folk-lore;
in short, every country, creed, and literature has given its characteristic
mode of presentation to some "plane" or other.
But there are "planes" proper to every clairvoyant who
explores the Astral Light without prejudice; in such case, things assume
the form of his own mind, and his perception will be clear in proportion
to his personal purity.
On the higher planes, the diversity of form, due to grossness,
tends to disappear. Thus, the Astral Vision of "Isis" is utterly
unlike that of "Kali". The one is of Motherhood and Wisdom, ineffably
candid, clear, and loving; the other of Murder and madness, blood-intoxicated,
lust-befogged, and cruel. The sole link is the Woman-symbol.
But whoso makes Samadhi on Kali obtains the self-same Illumination as if
it had been Isis; for in both cases he attains identity with the Quintessence
of the Woman-Idea, untrammelled by the qualities with which the dwellers
by the Nile and the Ganges respectively disguised it.
Thus, in low grades of initiation, dogmatic quarrels are
inflamed by astral experience; as when Saint John distinguishes between
the Whore BABALON and the Woman clothed with the Sun, between the Lamb
that was slain and the Beast 666 whose deadly wound was healed; nor understands
that Satan, the Old Serpent, in the Abyss, the Lake of Fire and Sulphur,
is the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life, Lord of Infinite Space that flames
with His Consuming Energy, and is also that throned Light whose Spirit
is suffused throughout the City of Jewels.
Each "plane" is a veil of the one above it; the original
individual Ideas become diversified as they express their elements.
Two men with almost identical ideas on a subject would write two totally
different treatises upon it.
15) The general control of the Astral Plane, the ability to find
{250} one's way about it, to penetrate such sanctuaries as are guarded
from the profane, to make such relations with its inhabitants as may avail
to acquire knowledge and power, or to command service; all this is a question
of the general Magical attainment of the student.
He must be absolutely at ease in his Body of Light, and
have made it invulnerable. He must be adept in assuming all God-forms,
in using all weapons, sigils, gestures, words, and signs. He must
be familiar with the names and numbers pertinent to the work in hand.
He must be alert, sensitive, and ready to exert his authority; yet courteous,
gracious, patient, and sympathetic.
16) There are two opposite methods of exploring the Astral Plane.
(a). One may take some actual object in Nature, and analyse
it by evoking its astral form, thus bringing it into knowledge and under
control by applying the keys of the Qabalah and of Magick.
(b). One may proceed by invoking the required idea, and giving
body to the same by attracting to it the corresponding elements in Nature.
17) Every Magician possesses an Astral Universe peculiar to himself,
just as no man's experience of the world is coterminous with that of another.
There will be a general agreement on the main points, of course; and so
the Master Therion is able to describe the principal properties of these
"planes", and their laws, just as he might write a geography giving an
account of the Five Continents, the Oceans and Seas, the most notable mountains
and rivers; he could not pretend to put forth the whole knowledge that
any one peasant possesses in respect of his district. But, to the
peasant, these petty details are precisely the most important items in
his daily life. Likewise, the Magician will be grateful to the Master
Therion for the Compass that guides him at night, the Map that extends
his comprehension of his country, and shows him how best he may travel
afield, the advice as to Sandals and Staff that make surer his feet, and
the Book that tells him how, splitting open his rocks with an Hammer, he
may be master of their Virgin Gold. But he will understand that his
own {251} career on earth is his kingdom, that even the Master Therion
is no more than a fellow man in another valley, and that he must explore
and exploit his own inheritance with his own eyes and hands.
The Magician must not accept the Master Therion's account
of the Astral Plane, His Qabalistic discoveries, His instructions in Magick.
They may be correct in the main for most men; yet they cannot be wholly
true for any save Him, even as no two artists can make identical pictures
of the same subject.
More, even in fundamentals, though these things be Truth
for all Mankind, as we carelessly say, any one particular Magician may
be the one man for whom they are false. May not the flag that seems
red to ten thousand seem green to some one other? Then, every man
and every woman being a Star, that which is green to him is verily green;
if he consent to the crowd and call it red, hath he not broken the Staff
of Truth that he leaneth upon?
Each and every man therefore that will be a Magician must
explore the Universe for himself. This is pre-eminently the case
in the matter of the Astral Plane, because the symbols are so sensitive.
Nothing is easier than to suggest visions, or to fashion phantasms to suit
one's ideas. It is obviously impossible to communicate with an independent
intelligence --- the one real object of astral research --- if one allows
one's imagination to surround one with courtiers of one's own creation.
If one expects one's visions to resemble those of the Master Therion, they
are only too likely to do so; and if one's respect for Him induces one
to accept such visions as authentic, one is being false to one's soul;
the visions themselves will avenge it. The true Guide being gone,
the seer will stray into a wilderness of terror where he is tricked and
tortured; he will invoke his idol the Master Therion, and fashion in His
image a frightful phantasm who will mock him in his misery, until his mind
stagger and fall; and, Madness swooping upon his carrion, blast his eyes
with the horror of seeing his Master dissolve into that appalling hallucination,
the "Vision of THE DEMON CROWLEY!"
Remember, then, always, but especially when dealing with
the Astral Plane, that man's breath stirs the Feather of Truth. What
{252} one sees and hears is "real" in its way, whether it be itself, or
distorted by one's desires, or created by one's personality. There
is no touchstone of truth: the authentic Nakhiel is indistinguishable from
the image of the Magician's private idea of Nakhiel, so far as he is concerned.
The stronger one is to create, the more readily the Astral Light responds,
and coagulates creatures of this kind. Not that such creation is
necessarily an error; but it is another branch of one's Work. One
cannot obtain outside help from inside sources. One must use precautions
similar to those recommended in the chapter of Divination.
The Magician may go on for a long time being fooled and
flattered by the Astrals that he has himself modified or manufactured.
Their natural subservience to himself will please him, poor ape!
They will pretend to show him marvellous mysteries, pageants
of beauty and wonder unspeakably splendid; he will incline to accept them
as true, for the very reason that they are images of himself idealized
by the imagination.
But his real progress will stop dead. These phantasms
will prevent him from coming into contact with independent intelligences,
from whom alone he can learn anything new.
He will become increasingly interested in himself, imagine
himself to be attaining one initiation after another. His Ego will
expand unchecked, till he seem to himself to have heaven at his feet.
Yet all this will be nothing but his fool's face of Narcissus smirking
up from the pool that will drown him.
Error of this kind on the Astral Plane --- in quite ordinary
visions with no apparent moral import --- may lead to the most serious
mischief. Firstly, mistakes mislead; to pollute one's view of Jupiter
by permitting the influence of Venus to distort it may end in finding oneself
at odds with Jupiter, later on, in some crisis of one's work.
Secondly, the habit of making mistakes and leaving them
uncorrected grows upon one. He who begins by "spelling Jeheshua with
a 'Resh'" may end by writing the name of the Dweller on the Threshold by
mistake for that of his Angel. {253}
Lastly, Magick is a Pyramid, built layer by layer.
The work of the Body of Light --- with the technique of Yoga --- is the
foundation of the whole. One's apprehension of the Astral Plane must
be accurate, for Angels, Archangels, and Gods are derived therefrom by
analysis. One must have pure materials if one wishes to brew pure
beer.
If one have an incomplete and incorrect view of the universe,
how can one find out its laws?
Thus, original omission or error tends to extend to the
higher planes. Suppose a Magician, invoking Sol, were persuaded by
a plausible spirit of Saturn that he was the Solar Intelligence required,
and bade him eschew human love if he would attain to the Knowledge and
Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel; and suppose that his will, and
that Angel's nature, were such that the Crux of their Formula was Lyrical
Exaltation!
Apart from the regular tests --- made at the time ---
of the integrity of any spirit, the Magician must make a careful record
of every vision, omitting no detail; he must then make sure that it tallies
in every point with the correspondences in Book 777 and in Liber D.
Should he find (for instance) that, having invoked Mercury, his vision
contains names whose numbers are Martial, or elements proper to Pisces,
let him set himself most earnestly to discover the source of error, to
correct it, and to prevent its recurrence.
But these tests, as implied above, will not serve to detect
personation by self-suggested phantasms. Unless one's aura be a welter
of muddled symbols beyond recognition, the more autohypnotic the vision
is, the more smoothly it satisfies the seer's standards. There is
nothing to puzzle him or oppose him; so he spins out his story with careless
contempt of criticism. He can always prove himself right; the Qabalah
can always be stretched; and Red being so nearly Orange, which is really
a shade of Yellow, and Yellow a component of Green which merges into Blue,
what harm if a Fiend in Vermilion appears instead of an Angel in Azure?
The true, the final test, of the Truth of one's visions
is their Value. The most glorious experience on the Astral plane,
let it dazzle and thrill as it may, is not necessarily in accordance with
{254} the True Will of the seer; if not, though it be never so true objectively,
it is not true for him, because not useful for him. (Said we not
a while ago that Truth was no more than the Most Convenient Manner of Statement?)
It may intoxicate and exalt the Seer, it may inspire and
fortify him in every way, it may throw light upon most holy mysteries,
yet withal be no more than an interpretation of the individual to himself,
the formula not of Abraham but of Onan.
These plastic "Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man"
are well enough for those who have heard "Know Thyself". They are
necessary, even, to assist that analysis of one's nature which the Probationer
of A.'. A.'. is sworn to accomplish. But "Love is the law, love under
will." And Our Lady Nuit is "... divided for love's sake, for
the chance of union." These mirror-mirages are therefore not Works
of Magick, according to the Law of Thelema: the true Magick of Horus requires
the passionate union of opposites.
Now the proof that one is in contact with an independent
entity depends on a sensation which ought to be unmistakeable if one is
in good health. One ought not to be liable to mistake one's own sensible
impressions for somebody else's! It is only Man's incurable vanity
that makes the Astral "Strayed Reveller" or the mystic confuse his own
drunken babble with the voice of the Most High.
The essence of the right sensation consists in recognition
of the reality of the other Being. There will be as a rule some element
of hostility, even when the reaction is sympathetic. One's "soul-mate"
(even) is not thought of as oneself, at first contact.
One must therefore insist that any real appearance of the Astral
Plane gives the sensation of meeting a stranger. One must accept
it as independent, be it Archangel or Elf, and measure one's own reaction
to it. One must learn from it, though one despise it; and love it,
however one loathe it.
One must realize, on writing up the record, that the meeting
has effected a definite change in oneself. One must have known and
felt something alien, and not merely tried on a new dress. {255}
There must always be some slight pang of pain in a true
Astral Vision; it hurts the Self to have to admit the existence of a not-Self;
and it taxes the brain to register a new thought. This is true at
the first touch, even when exaltation and stimulation result from the joy
of making an agreeable contact.
There is a deeper effect of right reaction to a strange
Self: the impact invariable tends to break up some complex in the Seer.
The class of ideas concerned has always been tied up, labelled, and put
away. It is now necessary to unpack it, and rearrange its contents.
At least, the annoyance is like that of a man who has locked and strapped
his bag for a journey, and then finds that he has forgotten his pyjamas.
At most, it may revolutionise his ideas of the business, like an old bachelor
with settled plans of life who meets a girl once too often.
Any really first-class Astral Vision, even on low planes,
should therefore both instruct the Seer, and prepare him for Initiation.
Those failing to pass this test are to be classed as "practice".
One last observation seems fit. We must not assert
the "reality" or "objectivity" of an Astral Being on no better evidence
than the subjective sensation of its independent existence. We must
insist on proof patient to all qualified observers if we are to establish
the major premiss of Religion: that there exists a Conscious Intelligence
independent of brain and nerve as we know them. If it have also Power,
so much the better. But we already know of inorganic forces; we have
no evidence of inorganic conscious Mind.
How can the Astral Plane help us here? It is not
enough to prove, as we easily do, the correspondences between Invocation
and Apparition<>. We must exclude concidence<>, telepathy<>,
and subconscious knowledge.<> Our praeter-human Intelligence {256}
must convey a Truth not known to any human mind, past or present.
Yet this Truth must be verifiable.
There is but one document in the world which presents
evidence that fully satisfies these conditions. This is
LIBER AL vel LEGIS
the Book of the Law.
of this New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, the Aeon
whose Logos is THE BEAST 666, whose name in the Outer Order was FRATER
PERDURABO.
The nature of the proof of the separate existence of praeterhuman
Intelligence, independent of bodily form, is extremely complicated.
Its main divisions may be briefly enumerated. {257}
AIWAZ, the name of the Intelligence in question, proves:
(a) His power to pre-arrange events unconnected with His scribe
so that they should fit in with that scribe's private calculations.
E.g. The Stele which reveals the Theogony of the
Book was officially numbered 666, in the Boulak Museum. The scribe
had adopted 666 as His magical number, many years previously. Again,
the scribe's magical House, bought years earlier, had a name whose value
was 418. The scribe had calculated 418 as the {258} number of the
Great Work, in 1901 e.v. He only discovered that 418 was the number
of his house in consequence of AIWAZ mentioning the fact.
(b) His power to conceal a coherent system of numbers and letters
in the text of a rapidly-written document, containing riddles and ciphers
opening to a Master-Key unknown to the scribe, yet linked with his own
system; this Key and its subordinates being moreover a comment on the text.
{259}
E.g. "The word of the Law is GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha."
(Will); this word has the value of 93.
"Love is the law, love under will." Love,
GR:Alpha-gamma-alpha-pi-eta, like
GR:Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha, adds to 93.
AIWAZ itself adds to 93.<>
This was all strange to the scribe; yet years later he
discovered the "Lost Word" of one of his own Orders: it was 93 also.<<[WEH
Note: This refers to the word of the IIIrd Degree of O.T.O., readers who
may wish to acquire it may apply for initiation and work their way up through
the Degrees. Ordo Templi Orientis, JAF Box 7666, New York, NY
10116, USA.]>>
The Word of His most holy Order proved equally to count
up {260} to 93.<> Now 93 is thrice 31; 31 is LA, "Not" and AL,
"The" or "God"; these words run throughout the Book, giving a double meaning
to many passages. A third 31 is the compound letter ShT, the two
hieroglyphs of Sh and T (many centuries old) being pictures of the "Dramatis
Personae" of the Book; and ShT being a haphazard line scrawled on the MS.
touch letters which added to 418, valuing "this circle squared in its failure"
as GR:pi correct to six places of decimals, etc.
Again: "thou shalt know not"<<[WEH Note: It
is remarkable that Crowley succeeds in blowing every quotation of "Liber
AL" on this page. This despite the injunction of the Book itself:
AL I,54: "Change not as much as the style of a letter; for behold!
thou, o prophet, shalt not behold all these mysteries hidden therein."
Crowley strongly resisted the idea that he could not understand all of
the Book. In later life, he came to grudgingly accept this limitation.
Also, Achad did not work out as his successor. Several of these mis-quotes
relate to that belief. This particular mis-quote could come from
as many as six points in the text, but here is no part of the text in which
this quote appears exactly.]>>, meaning "thou shalt know LA"; and "he shall
discover the Key of it all"<<[WEH Note: This misquote could be from
AL III,47: "... Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence
I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all....".]>>, "id est," the
Key AL.
(c) His power to combine subsequent events beyond the control
of the scribe or his associates, so that they confirmed statements in the
Book. Or, per contra, to predict such events.
E.g. The first Scarlet Woman proved unworthy, and
suffered the exact penalties predicted.
Again, "one cometh after thee; he shall discover the key."<<[WEH
Note: misquoted from AL II,76: "...There cometh one to follow thee: he
shall expound it. ..."]>> This one was to be the "child" of the scribe,
"and that strangely"<<[WEH Note: This time the misquote is in the
style of the letters: AL III,47: "This book shall be translated into all
tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for
in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in
these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek
to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover
the Key of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle
squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall
be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for
thereby alone can he fall from it." --- interesting that these misquotes
seem to hit verses that either appear to warn Crowley against misquoting
or of his limits.]>>.
Nine months after THE BEAST 666 had gotten a Magical "child"
upon His concubine Jane Foster, a "Babe of the Abyss" was born, Frater
Achad asserting his right to that grade, and thus "coming after" THE BEAST
666, who had been the last Adept to do so. And this "child" was definitely
"one", since "one" is the meaning of his motto Achad. Finally, he
did in fact "discover the key of it all"<<[WEH Note: see the citation
in an earlier note of mine. This time Crowley missed the "style of
the letter" again.]>> after THE BEAST Himself had failed to do so in 14
years of study.
(d) His power to conceive and express in concise terms true solutions
of the main problems of the Universe.
E.g. The formula of Nuith and Hadith explain Existence
in the terms of Mathematical-Logical Philosophy, so as to satisfy the difficulties
of reconciling Dualism, Monism and Nihilism; all {261} antinomies in all
spheres; and the Original Perfection with the Manifest Imperfection of
Things.
Again "Do that thou wilt...", the most sublimely austere
ethical precept ever uttered, despite its apparent licence, is seen on
analysis to be indeed "...the whole of the Law.", the sole and sufficient
warrant for human action, the self-evident Code of Righteousness, the identification
of Fate with Freewill, and the end of the Civil War in Man's nature by
appointing the Canon of Truth, the conformity of things with themselves,
to determine his every act. "Do what thou wilt..." is to bid Stars
to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its level; man is the only
being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds with himself.
(e) His power to interpret the Spirit of the New Aeon, the relapse into ruthless savagery of the most civilized races, at a time when war was discredited by most responsible men.
(f) His power to comprehend and control these various orders
of ideas and events, demonstrating thereby a mind and a means of action
intelligible to, yet immensely above, all human capacity; to bind the whole
into a compact cryptograph displaying mastery of English, of mathematical
and philosophical conceptions, of poetic splendour and intense passion,
while concealing in the letters and words a complex cipher involving the
knowledge of facts never till than existing in any human mind, and depending
on the control of the arm of the scribe, though He thought He was writing
consciously from dictation; and to weave into a single pattern so many
threads of proof of different orders that every type of mind, so it be
but open and just, may be sure of the existence of AIWAZ as a being independent
of body, conscious and individual, with a mind mightier than man's, and
a power beyond man's set in motion by will.
In a word, the Book of the Law proves the prime postulate
of Religion.
The Magician may therefore be confident that Spiritual
Beings exist, and seek the Knowledge and conversation of His own Holy Guardian
Angel with the same ardour as that of FRATER PERDURABO when He abandoned
all: love, wealth, rank, fame, to seek Him. Nay, this he must do
or condemn himself to be {262} torn asunder by the Maenads of his insensate
impulses; he hath no safety save he himself be Bacchus! Bacchus,
divine and human! Bacchus, begotten on Semele of Zeus, the adulterous
Lord of Thunder ravishing, brutally, his virginal victim! Bacchus,
babe hidden from hate in the most holy of holies, the secret of thy sire,
in the Channel of the Star-Spate, Whereof one Serpent is thy soul!
Bacchus, twy-formed, man-woman, Bacchus, whose innocence tames the Tiger,
while yet thy horns drip blood upon thy mouth, and sharpen the merriment
of wine to the madness of murder! Bacchus, Thy thyrsus oozes sap; thine
ivy clings to it; thy Lion-skin slips from thy sleek shoulders, slips from
thy lissome loins; drunk on delight of the godly grape, thou knowest no
more the burden of the body and the vexation of the spirit.
Come, Bacchus, come thou hither, come out of the East; come out of the East, astride the Ass of Priapus! Come with thy revel of dancers and singers! Who followeth thee, forbearing to laugh and to leap? Come, in thy name Dionysus, that maidens be mated to God-head! Come, in thy name Iacchus, with thy mystical fan to winnow the air, each gust of thy Spirit inspiring our Soul, that we bear to thee Sons in Thine Image!
Verily and Amen! Let not the Magician forget for
a single second what is his one sole business. His uninitiated "self"
(as he absurdly thinks it) is a mob of wild women, hysterical from uncomprehended
and unstated animal instinct; they will tear Pentheus, the merely human
king who presumes to repress them, into mere shreds of flesh; his own mother,
Nature, the first to claw at his windpipe! None but Bacchus, the
Holy Guardian Angel, hath grace to be God to this riot of maniacs; he alone
can transform the disorderly rabble into a pageant of harmonious movements,
tune their hyaena howls to the symphony of a paean, and their reasonless
rage to self-controlled rapture. It is this Angel whose nature is
doubly double, that He may partake of every sacrament. He is at once
a God who is drunken with the wine of earth, and the mammal who quaffs
the Blood of God to purge him of mortality. He is a woman as he accepts
all impulses, are they not His? He is a man to stamp Himself upon
whatever would hallow itself to Him. He wields the Wand, {263} with
cone of pine and ivy tendrils; the Angel creates continually, wreathing
His Will in clinging beauty, imperishably green.
The Tiger, the symbol of the brutal passions of man, gambols
about its master's heels; and He bestrides the Ass of Priapus; he makes
his sexual force carry him whither He wills to go.
Let the Magician therefore adventure himself upon the
Astral Plane with the declared design to penetrate to a sanctuary of discarnate
Beings such as are able to instruct and fortify him, also to prove their
identity by testimony beyond rebuttal. All explanations other than
these are of value only as extending and equilibrating Knowledge, or possibly
as supplying Energy to such Magicians as may have found their way to the
Sources of Strength. In all cases, naught is worth an obol save as
it serve to help the One Great Work.
He who would reach Intelligences of the type under discussion
may expect extreme difficulty. The paths are guarded; there is a
lion in the way. Technical expertness will not serve here; it is
necessary to satisfy the Warders of one's right to enter the presence of
the Master. Particular pledges may be demanded, ordeals imposed,
and initiations conferred. These are most serious matters; the Body
of Light must be fully adult, irrevocably fixed, or it will be disintegrated
at the outset. But, being fit to pass through such experiences, it
is bound utterly to its words and acts. It cannot even appear to
break an oath, as its fleshly fellow may do.
Such, then is a general description of the Astral Plane,
and of the proper conduct of the Magician in his dealings therewith.