I AM in a vast crystal cube in the form of the Great God Harpocrates. This cube is surrounded by a sphere.2 About me are four archangels in black robes, their wings and armour lined out in white. In the North3 is a book on whose back and front are A.M.B.Z.4 in Enochian characters.
Within it is written: I AM, the surrounding of the four. Lift up your heads, O Houses of Eternity: for my Father goeth forth to judge the World. One Light, let it become a thousand, and one sword ten thousand, that no man hide him from my Father's eye in the Day of Judgment of my God. Let the Gods hide themselves: let the Angels be troubled and flee away: for the Eye of My Father is open, and the Book of the Æons is fallen.
Arise! Arise! Arise! Let the Light of the Sight of Time be extinguished: let the Darkness cover all things: for my Father goeth forth to seek a spouse to replace her who is fallen and defiled.
Seal the book with the seals of the Stars Concealed: for the Rivers have rushed together and the Name יהוה is broken in a thousand pieces (against the Cubic Stone).5 Tremble ye, O Pillars of the Universe,6 for Eternity is in travail of a Terrible Child; she shall bring forth an universe of Darkness, whence shall leap forth a spark that shall put his father to flight.
The Obelisks are broken; the stars have rushed together: the Light hath plunged into the Abyss: the Heavens are mixed with Hell.
My Father shall not hear their Noise: His ears are closed: His eyes are covered with the clouds of Night.
The End! the End! the End: For the Eye of Shiva He hath opened: the Universe is naked before Him: for the Aeon of Saturn leaneth toward the Bosom of Death.7
The Angel of the East9 hath a book of red written in letters of Blue A.B.F.M.A.10 in Enochian.11 The Book grows before my eyes and filleth the Whole Heaven.
Within: "It is Written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God."12
I see above the Book a multitude of white-robed Ones from whom droppeth a great rain of Blood:13 but above them is a Golden Sun,14 having an eye,14 whence a great Light.14
I turned me to the South:15 and read therein:
Seal up the Book! Speak not that which thou seest and reveal it unto none: for the ear is not framed that shall hear it: nor the tongue that can speak it!
O Lord God, blessed, blessed, blessed be Thou for ever!
Thy Shadow is as great Light.
Thy Name is as the Breath of Love across all Worlds.
(A vast Svastika is shewn unto me behind the Angel with the Book.)16
Rend your garments, O ye clouds! Uncover yourselves! for the Love of My Son!
Who are they that trouble thee?
Who are they that slew thee?
O Light! Come thou, who art joined with me to bruise the Dragon's head.17 We, who are wedded, and the Earth perceiveth it not!
O that Our Bed were seen of Men, that they might rejoice in My Fertility: that My Sister might partake of My Great Light.
O Light of God, when wilt thou find the heart of man --- write not! I would not that men know the Sorrow of my Heart, Amen!
I turned me to the West, and the Archangel bore a flaming Book, on which was written AN18 in Enochian.19 Within was drawn a fiery scorpion, yet cold withal.20
Until the Book of the East be opened!
Until the hour sound!
Until the Voice vibrate!
Until it pierce my Depth;
Look not on High!
Look not Beneath!
For thou wilt find a life which is as Death: or a Death which should be infinite.
For Thou art submitted to the Four: Five thou shalt find, but Seven is lone and far.21
O Lord God, let Thy Spirit hither unto me!
For I am lost in the night of infinite pain: no hope: no God: no resurrection: no end: I fall: I fear.
O Saviour of the World, bruise Thou my Head with Thy foot to save the world, that once again I touch Him whom I slew, that in my death I feel the radiance and the heat of the moving of Thy Robes!
Let us alone! What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth?22
Go! Go!
If I keep silence - Or if I speak each word is anguish without hope.
And I heard the Aethyr cry aloud "Return! Return! Return! For the work is ended; and the Book is shut; and let the glory be to God the Blessed for ever in the Aeons, Amen." Thus far is the voice of TEX23 and no more.
The sky appears covered with stars of gold; the background is of green. But the impression is also of darkness.
An immense eagle-angel is before me. His wings seem to hide all the Heaven.2
He cried aloud saying: The Voice of the Lord upon the Waters: the Terror of God upon Mankind. The voice of the Lord maketh the Skies to tremble: the Stars are troubled: the Aires fall. The First Voice Speaketh and saith: Cursed, cursed be the Earth, for her iniquity is great. Oh Lord! Let Thy Mercy be lost in the great Deep! Open thine eyes of Flame and Light, O God, upon the wicked! Lighten thine Eyes! The Clamour of Thy Voice, let it smite down the Mountains!
Let us not see it! Cover we our eyes, lest we see the End of Man.
Close we our ears, lest we hear the cry of Woman.
Let none speak of it: let none write it: I, I am troubled, my eyes are moist with dews of terror: surely the Bitterness of Death is past.
And I turned me to the South and lo! a great lion3 as wounded and perplexed.
He cried: I have conquered! Let the Sons of Earth keep silence; for my Name is become as That of Death!
When will men learn the Mysteries of Creation?
How much more those of the Dissolution (and the Pang of Fire)?
I turned me to the West and there was a great Bull;4 White with horns of White and Black and Gold. His mouth was scarlet and his eyes as Sapphire stones. With a great sword he shore the skies asunder, and amid the silver flashes of the steel grew lightnings and deep clouds of Indigo.
He spake: It is finished! My mother hath unveiled herself!
My sister hath violated herself! The life of things hath disclosed its Mystery.
The work of the Moon is done! Motion is ended for ever!
Clipped are the eagle's wings: but my Shoulders have not lost their strength.
I heard a Great Voice from above crying: Thou liest! For the Volatile hath indeed fixed itself; but it hath arisen above thy sight. The World is desert: but the Abodes of the House of my Father are peopled; and His Throne is crusted over with white Brilliant Stars, a lustre of bright gems.
In the North is a Man upon a Great Horse, having a Scourge and Balances 5 in his hand (or a long spear glitters at his back or in his hand). He is clothed in black velvet and his face is stern and terrible.
He spake saying: I have judged! It is the end: the gate of the beginning. Look in the Beneath and thou shalt see a new world!
I looked and saw a great abyss and a dark funnel of whirling waters or fixed airs, wherein were cities and monsters and trees and atoms and mountains and little flames (being souls) and all the material of an universe.
And all are sucked down one by one, as necessity hath ordained. For below is a glittering jewelled globe of gold and azure, set in a World of Stars.6
And there came a Voice from the Abyss, saying: "Thou seest the Current of Destiny! Canst thou change one atom in its path? I am Destiny. Dost thou think to control me? for who can move my course?"
And there falleth a thunderbolt therein: a catastrophe of explosion: and all is shattered. And I saw above me a Vast Arm reach down, dark and terrible, and a voice cried: I AM ETERNITY.
And a great mingled cry arose: "No! no! no! All is changed; all is confounded; naught is ordered: the white is stained with blood: the black is kissed of the Christ! Return! Return! It is a new chaos that thou findest here: chaos for thee: for us it is the skeleton of a New Truth!"
I said: Tell me this truth: for I have conjured ye by the Mighty Names of God, the which ye cannot but obey.
The voice said:
Light is consumed as a child in the Womb of its Mother to develop itself anew. But pain and sorrow infinite, and darkness are invoked. For this child riseth up within his Mother and doth crucify himself within her bosom. He extendeth his arms in the arms of his Mother and the Light becometh fivefold.7
And be the glory for ever and ever unto the Most High God, Amen!
Then I returned within my body, giving glory unto the Lord of Light and of the Darkness. In Saecula Saeculorum.9 Amen!
(On composing myself to sleep, I was shewn an extremely brilliant:
in the Character of the Passing of the River, in an egg of white light. And I take this as the best of Omens. The letter was extremely vivid and indeed apparently physical. Almost a Dhyana.)
[Mexico, D.F.]
November 17th, 1900, Die [♄].11
November 17, 1900
A NOTE1
Concerning the 30 Aethyrs:
The Visions of the 29th and 30th Aethyrs were given to me in Mexico in August2, 1900, and I am now (November 23rd, 1909) trying to get the rest. It is to be remarked that the last three aethyrs3 have ten angels attributed to them,4 and they therefore represent the ten Sephiroth. Yet these ten form but one, a Malkuth-pendant to the next three,5 and so on, each set being, as it were, absorbed in the higher.6 The last set consists, therefore, of the first three aethyrs with the remaining twenty-seven as their Malkuth. And the letters of the first three aethyrs are the key- sigils of the most exalted interpretation of the Sephiroth.
I is therefore Kether;
L, Chokmah and Binah;
A, Chesed;
N, Geburah;
R, Tiphereth;
Z, Netzach;
N, Hod;
O, Jesod.
The geomantic correspondences of the Enochian alphabet form a sublime commentary.
Note that the total angels of the aethyrs are 91, the numeration of Amen.
There cometh an Angel into the stone with opalescent2 shining garments like a wheel of fire3 on every side of him, and in his hand is a long flail of scarlet lightning;4 his face is black,5 and his eyes white without any pupil or iris.6 The face is very terrible indeed to look upon. Now in front of him is a wheel, with many spokes, and many tyres; it is like a fence7 in front of him.
And he cries: O man, who art thou that wouldst penetrate the Mystery? for it is hidden unto the End of Time.8
And I answer him: Time9 is not, save in the darkness of Her womb by whom evil came.
And now the wheel breaks away, and I see him as he is. His garment is black beneath the opal2 veils, but it is lined with white, and he has the shining belly of a fish, and enormous wings of black and white feathers, and innumerable little legs and claws like a centipede, and a long tail like a scorpion. The breasts8 are human, but they are all scored with blood; and he cries: O thou who hast broken down the veil,8 knowest thou not that who cometh where I am must be scarred by many sorrows?10
And I answer him: Sorrow11 is not, save in the darkness of the womb of Her by whom came evil.
I pierce the Mystery11 of his breast,11 and therein is a jewel. It is a sapphire as great as an ostrich egg, and thereon is graven this sigil:
Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right eye from thy left;16 for in the aeon of my Father there is but one light.
Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right nostril17 from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is neither life nor death.
Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right ear18 from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is neither sound nor silence.
Whoso hath power to break open this sapphire stone shall find therein four elephants having tusks of mother-of-pearl, and upon whose backs are castles, those castles which ye call the watch-towers of the Universe.19
Let me dwell in peace within the breast of the Angel that is warden of the aethyr. Let not the shame of my Mother be unveiled. Let not her be put to shame that lieth among the lilies that are beyond the stars.
O man, that must ever be opening, when wilt thou learn to seal up the mysteries of the creation? to fold thyself over thyself as a rose in the embrace of night? But thou must play the wanton to the sun, and the wind must tear thy petals from thee, and the bee must rob thee of thy honey, and thou must fall into the dusk of things. Amen and Amen.
Verily the light is hidden, therefore he who hideth himself is like unto the light; but thou openest thyself; thou art like unto the darkness that bindeth the belly of the great goddess.20
OLAHO VIRUDEN MAHORELA ZODIREDA! ON PIREDA EXENTASER; ARBA PIRE GAH GAHA GAHAL GAHALANA VO ABRA NA GAHA VELUCORSAPAX.21
And the voice of the aeon cried: Return, return, return! the time sickeneth, and the space gapeth, and the voice of him that is, was and shall be crowned rattles in the throat of the mighty dragon of eld.22 Thou canst not pass by me, except thou have the mystery of the word of the abyss.
Now the angel putteth back the sapphire stone into his breast; and I spake unto him and said, I will fight with thee and overcome thee, except thou expound unto me the word of the abyss.
Now he makes as if to fight with me. (It is very horrible, all the tentacles moving and the flail flashing, and the fierce eyeless face, strained and swollen.) And with the Magic sword I pierce through his armour to his breast. He fell back, saying: Each of these my scars was thus made, for I am the warden of the aethyr. And he would have said more; but I cut him short, saying: expound the word of the Abyss. And he said:23 Discipline is sorrowful and ploughing is laborious and age is weariness.
Thou shalt be vexed by dispersion.24
But now, if the sun arise,25 fold thou thine arms;25 then shall God smite thee into a pillar of salt.26
Look not so deeply into words and letters; for this Mystery hath been hidden by the Alchemists. Compose the sevenfold into a fourfold regimen;27 and when thou hast understood thou mayest make symbols;28 but by playing child's games with symbols thou shalt never understand.29 Thou hast the signs; thou hast the words; but there are many things that are not in my power, who am but the warden of the 28th Aethyr.
Now my name thou shalt obtain in this wise. Of the three angels of the Aethyr,30 thou shalt write the names from right to left and from left to right and from right to left, and these are the holy letters:
The first 1, the fifth 2, the sixth 3, the eleventh 4, the seventh 5, the twelfth 6, the seventeenth 7.
Thus hast thou my name31 who am above these three, but the angels of the 30th Aethyr are indeed four, and they have none above them; wherefore dispersion and disorder.32
Now cometh from every side at once a voice, terribly great, crying: Close the veil; the great blasphemy hath been uttered; the face of my Mother33 is scarred by the nails of the devil. Shut the book, destroy the breaker of the seal!
And I answered: Had he not been destroyed he had not come hither, for I am not save in the darkness in the womb of Her34 by whom came evil into the world.
And this darkness swallows everything up,35 and the angel is gone from the stone;36 and there is no light therein, save only the light of the Rose and of the Cross.37
Aumale, Algeria.
November 23, 1909, between 8 and 9 p.m.