The Cry of the 2nd Aethyr, Which is Called ARN
In the first place, there is again the woman riding on the bull, which is the reflection of BABALON, that rideth on The Beast. And also there is an Assyrian legend of a woman with a fish, and also there is a legend of Eve and the Serpent, for Cain was the the child of Eve and the Serpent, and not of Eve and Adam; and therefore when he had slain his brother, who was the first murderer, having sacrificed living things to his demon, had Cain the mark upon his brow, which is the mark of the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse, and is the sign of initiation.
The shedding of blood is necessary, for God did not hear the children of Eve until blood was shed. And that is external religion; but Cain spake not with God, nor had the mark of initiation upon his brow, so that he was shunned by all men, until he had shed blood. And this blood was the blood of his brother. This is a mystery of the sixth key of the Taro, which ought not to be called The Lovers, but The Brothers.
In the middle of the card stands Cain; in his right hand is the Hammer of Thor with which he hath slain his brother, and it is all wet with his blood. And his left hand he holdeth open as a sign of innocence. And on his right hand is his mother Eve, around whom the serpent is entwined with his hood spread behind her head; and on his left hand is a figure somewhat like the Hindoo Kali, but much more seductive. Yet I know it to be Lilith. And above him is the Great Sigil of the Arrow, downward, but it is struck through the heart of the child. This Child is also Abel. And the meaning of this part of the card is obscure, but that is the correct drawing of the Taro card; and that is the correct magical fable from which the Hebrew scribes, who were not complete Initiates, stole their legend of the Fall and the subsequent events. They joined different fables together to try and make a connected story, and they sophisticated them to suit their social and political conditions.
All this while no image hath come unto the Stone, and no voice hath been heard.
I cannot get any idea of the source of what I have been saying. All I can say is, that there is a sort of dew, like mist, upon the Stone, and yet it has become hot to the touch.
All I get is that the Apocalypse was the recension of a dozen or so totally disconnected allegories, that were pieced together, and ruthlessly planed down to make them into a connected account; and that recension was re-written and edited in the interests of Christianity, because people were complaining that Christianity could show no true spiritual knowledge, or any food for the best minds: nothing but miracles, which only deceived the most ignorant, and Theology, which only suited pedants.
So a man got hold of this recension, and turned it Christian, and imitated the style of John. And this explains why the end of the world does not happen every few years, as advertised.
There is nothing whatever in the Stone but a White Rose. And a voice comes: there shall be no more red roses, for she hath crushed all the blood of all things into her cup.
It seemed at one time as if the rose was in the breast of a beautiful woman, high-bosomed, tall, stately, yet who danced like a snake. But there was no subsistence in this vision.
And now I see the white Rose, as if it were in the beak of a swan, in the picture by Michael Angelo in Venice. And that legend too is the legend of BABALON.
But all this is before the veil of the Aethyr. Now will I go and make certain preparations, and I will return and repeat the call of the Aethyr yet again.
Biskra.
December 18, 1909. 9:20 - 10:5 a.m.
It is not a question of being unable to get into the Aethyr, and trying to struggle through; but one is not anywhere near it.
A voice comes: When thy dust shall strew the earth whereon She walketh, then mayest thou bear the impress of Her foot. And thou thinkest to behold Her face!
The Stone is become of the most brilliant whiteness, and yet, in that whiteness, all the other colours are implicit. The colour of anything is but its dullness, its obstructiveness. So is it with these visions. All that they are is falsity. Every idea merely marks where the mind of the Seer was too stupid to receive the light, and therefore reflected it. Therefore, as the pure light is colourless, so is the pure soul black.
And this is the Mystery of the incest of CHAOS with his daughter.
There is nothing whatever visible.
But I asked of the Angel that is at my side if the ceremony hath been duly performed. And he says: Yes, the Aethyr is present. It is thou that canst not perceive it, even as I cannot perceive it, because it is so entirely beyond thy conception that there is nothing in thy mind on to which it can cast a symbol, even as the emptiness of space is not heated by the fire of the sun. And so pure is the light that it preventeth the formation of images, and therefore have men called it darkness. For with any lesser light, the mind responds, and makes for itself divers palaces. It is that which is written: “In my Father's house there are many mansions”; and if the house be destroyed, how much more the mansions that are therein! For this is the victory of BABALON over the Magician that ensorcelled her. For as the Mother she is 3 by 52, and as the harlot she is 6 by 26; but she is also 12 by 13, and that is the pure unity. Moreover she is 4 by 39, that is, victory over the power of the 4, and in 2 by 78 hath she destroyed the great Sorcerer. Thus is she the synthesis of 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, which being added are 10, therefore could she set her daughter upon her own throne, and defile her own bed with her virginity.
And I ask the Angel if there is any way by which I can make myself worthy to behold the Mysteries of this Aethyr.
And he saith: It is not in my knowledge. Yet do thou make once more in silence the Call of the Aethyr, and wait patiently upon the favour of the Angel, for He is a mighty Angel, and never yet have I heard the whisper of his wing.
This is the translation of the Call of the Aethyr.
O ye heavens which dwell in the first Aire, and are mighty in the parts of the earth, and execute therein the judgment of the highest, to you it is said: Behold the face of your God, the beginning of comfort, whose eyes are the brightness of the heavens which provided you for the government of the earth, and her unspeakable variety, furnishing you with a power of understanding, that ye might dispose all things according to the foresight of Him that sitteth on the Holy Throne, and rose up in the beginning, saying, The earth, let her be governed by her parts (this is the prostitution of BABALON to Pan), and let there be division in her (the formation of the Many from the One), that her glory may be always ecstasy and the irritation of orgasm. Her course let it round with the heavens (that is, let her way be always harmonious with heaven), and as an handmaid let her serve them (that is, the Virgin of Eternity climbing into the bed of CHAOS). One season let it confound another (that is, let there be unwearying variety of predicates), and let there be no creature upon or within her the same (that is, let there be an unwearying variety of subjects). All her members let them differ in their qualities, and let there be no one creature equal with another (for if there were any duplication or omission, there would be no perfection in the whole). The reasonable creatures of the earth and men, let them vex and weed out one another (this is, the destruction of reason by internecine conflicts in the course of redemption). And their dwelling places, let them forget their names. (This is, the arising of Nemo.) The work of man and his pomp, let them be defaced. (That is, in the Great Work man must lose his personality.) His building, let it be a cave for the Beast of the Field. (“His building” means the Vault of the Adepts, and the “Cave” is the Cave of the Mountain of Abiegnus, and the “Beast” is he upon whom BABALON rideth, and the “Field” is the supernal Eden.) Confound her understanding with darkness. (This sentence is explained by what has been said concerning Binah.) For why, it rejoiceth me concerning the Virgin and the Man. (Kelly did not understand this Call at all, and he would not believe this sentence was written so, for it seemed to contradict the rest of the Call, so he altered it.) One while let her be known and another while a stranger, (that is, the Mystery of the Holy One being at the same time identical with everything and apart from it), because she is the bed of an harlot, and the dwelling of him that is fallen. (That is that Mystery which was revealed in the last Aethyr; the universe being, as it were, a garden wherein the Holy Ones may take their pleasure.) O ye heavens, arise; the lower heavens beneath you, let them serve you. (This is a command for the whole of things to join in universal rapture.) Govern those that govern; cast down such as fall; bring forth those that increase; and destroy the rotten. (This means that everything shall take its own pleasure in its own way.) No place let it remain in one number. (“No place” is the infinite Ain . . . “Let remain in one number”; that is, let it be concentrated in Kether.) Add and diminish until the stars be numbered. (It is a mystery of the Logos being formulated by the Qabalah, because the stars, are all letters of the Holy Alphabet, as it was said in a former Aethyr.) Arise! Move! and Appear! before the covenant of his mouth which he hath shewn unto us in his Justice. (“The Covenant” is the letter Aleph; “His mouth”, pe'; “His Justice”, lamed; and these add up again to Aleph, so that it is in the letter Aleph, which is zero, thus symbolizing the circles of the Aethyrs, that he calleth them forth. But men thought that Aleph was the initial ARR, cursing, when it was really the initial of AChD, unity, and AHBH, love. So that it was the most horrible and wicked blasphemy of the blackest of all the black brothers to begin Barashith with a beth, with the letter of the Magician. Yet, by this simple device, hath he created the whole illusion of sorrow.) Open the mysteries of your creation, and make us partakers of the undefiled knowledge. (The word here is “IADNAMAD” is not the ordinary word for knowledge. It is a word of eight letters, which is the secret name of God, summarized in the letter cheth; for which see the Aethyr which correspondeth to that letter, the twelfth Aethyr.)
Now from time to time I have looked into the Stone, but never is there any image therein, or any hint thereof; but now there are three arrows, arranged thus:
(I want to say that while I was doing the translation of the Call of the Aethyrs, the soles of my feet were burning, as if I were on red hot steel.)
And now the fire was spread all over me, and parches me, and tortures me. And my sweat is bitter like poison. And all my blood is acrid in my veins, like gleet. I seem to be all festering, rotting; and the worms eating me while I am yet alive.
A voice, neither in myself nor out of myself, is saying: Remember Prometheus; remember Ixion.
I am tearing at nothing. I will not heed. For even this dust must be consumed with fire.
And now, although there is no image, at last there is a sense of obstacle, as if one were at length drawing near to the frontier of the Aethyr.
But I am dying.
I can neither strive nor wait. There is agony in my ears, and in my throat, and mine eyes have been so long blind that I cannot remember that there ever was such a thing as sight.
And it cometh to me that I should go away, and await the coming of the veil of the Aethyr; not here. I think I will go to the Hot Springs.
So I put away the Stone upon my breast.
Biskra
10:15-11:52 a.m.
Flashes of lightning are playing in the Stone, at the top; and at the bottom of the Stone there is a black pyramid,34 and at the top thereof is a vesica piscis. The vesica piscis35 is of colourless brilliance.
The two curves of Pisces are thus:
And a voice comes: How can that which is buried in the pyramids behold that which descendeth unto its apex?
Again it comes to me, without voice: Therefore is motherhood the symbol of the Masters. For first they must give up their virginity to be destroyed, and the seed must lie hidden in them until the nine moons wax and wane, and they must surround it with the Universal Fluid. And they must feed it with the blood for fire. Then is the child a living thing. And afterwards is much suffering and much joy, and after that are they torn asunder, and this is all their thank, that they give it to suck.
All this while the vision in the Shew-Stone stays as it was, save that the lightning grows more vehement and clear; and behind the vesica piscis is a black cross extending to the top and to the edges of the Stone. And now blackness spreads, and swallows up the images.
Now there is naught but a vast black triangle having the apex downwards, and in the centre of the black triangle is the face of Typhon, the Lord of the Tempest, and he crieth aloud: Despair! Despair! For thou mayest deceive the Virgin, and thou mayest cajole the Mother; but what wilt thou say unto the ancient Whore that is throned in Eternity? For if she will not, there is neither force nor cunning, nor any wit, that may prevail upon her.
Thou canst not woo her with love, for she is love. And she hath all, and hath no need of thee.
And thou canst not woo her with gold, for all the Kings and captains of the earth, and all the gods of heaven, have showered their gold upon her. Thus hath she all, and hath no need of thee.
And thou canst not woo her with knowledge, for knowledge is the thing that she hath spurned. She hath it all, and hath no need of thee.
And thou canst not woo her with wit, for her Lord is Wit.
She hath it all, and hath no need of thee. Despair! Despair!
Nor canst thou cling to her knees and ask for pity; nor canst thou cling to her heart and ask for love; nor canst thou put thine arms about her neck, and ask for understanding; for thou had all these, and they avail thee not. Despair! Despair!
Then I took the Flaming Sword, and I let it loose against Typhon, so that his head was cloven asunder, and the black triangle dissolved in lightnings.
But as he parted his voice broke out again: Nor canst thou win her with the Sword, for her eyes are fixed upon the eyes of Him in whose hand is the hilt of the Sword. Despair! Despair!
And the echo of that cry was his word, which is identical, although it be diverse: Nor canst thou win her by the Serpent, for it was the Serpent that seduced her first. Despair! Despair!
(Yet he cried thus as he fled:)
I am Leviathan, the great Lost Serpent of the Sea. I writhe eternally in torment, and I lash the ocean with my tail into a whirlpool of foam that is venomous and bitter, and I have no purpose. I go no whither. I can neither live nor die. I can but rave and rave in my death agony. I am the Crocodile that eateth up the children of men. And through the malice of BABALON I hunger, hunger, hunger.
All this while the Stone is more inert than ever yet; a thousand times more lifeless than when it is not invoked. Now, when it kindles, it only kindles into its physical beauty. And now upon the face of it is a great black Rose, each of whose petals, though it be featureless, is yet a devil-face. And all the stalks are the black snakes of hell. It is alive, this Rose; a single thought informs it. It comes to clutch, to murder. Yet, because a single thought alone informs it, I have hope therein.
I think the Rose has a hundred and fifty-six petals, and though it be black, it has the luminous blush.
There it is, in the midst of the Stone, and I cannot see anyone who wears it.
Aha! Aha! Aha! Shut out the sight!
Holy, Holy, Holy art thou!
Light, Life and Love are like three glow-worms at thy feet: the whole universe of stars, the dewdrops on the grass whereon thou walkest!
I am quite blind.
Thou art Nuit! Strain, strain, strain my whole soul!
A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.
Falutli! Falutli!
I cling unto the burning Aethyr like Lucifer that fell through the Abyss, and by the fury of his flight kindled the air.
And I am Belial, for having seen the Rose upon thy breast, I have denied God.
And I am Satan! I am Satan! I am cast out upon a burning crag! And the sea boils about the desolation thereof. And already the vultures gather, and feast upon my flesh.
Yea! Before thee all the most holy is profane, O thou desolator of shrines! O thou falsifier of the oracles of truth! Ever as I went, hath it been thus. The truth of the profane was the falsehood of the Neophyte, and the truth of the Neophyte was the falsehood of the Zelator! Again and again the the fortress must be battered down! pylon must be over thrown! Again and again must the gods be desecrated!
And now I lie supine before thee, in terror and abasement. O Purity! O Truth! What shall I say? My tongue cleaveth to my jaws, O thou Medusa that hast turned me to stone! Yet is that stone the stone of the philosophers. Yet is that tongue Hadit.
Aha! Aha!
Yea! Let me take the form of Hadit59 before thee, and sing:
A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.
Nuit! Nuit! Nuit! How art thou manifested in this place! This is a Mystery ineffable. And it is mine, and I can never reveal it either to God or to man. It is for thee and me !
Aha! Aha!
A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.
. . . My spirit is no more; my soul is no more. My life leaps out into annihilation!
A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.
It is the cry of my body! Save me! I have come too close. I have come too close to that which may not be endured. It must awake, the body; it must assert itself.
It must shut out the Aethyr, or else it is dead.
Every pulse aches, and beats furiously. Every nerve stings like a serpent. And my skin is icy cold.60
Neither God nor man can penetrate the Mystery of the Aethyr.
(Here the Seer mutters unintelligibly.)
And even that which understandeth cannot hear its voice. For to the profane the voice of the Neophyte is called silence, and to the Neophyte the voice of the Zelator is called silence. And so ever is it.
Sight is fire, and is the first angle of the Tablet; spirit is hearing, and is the centre thereof; thou, therefore, who art all spirit and fire, and hast no duller elements in thy star; thou art come to sight at the end of thy will. And if thou wilt hear the voice of the Aethyr, do thou invoke it in the night, having no other light but the light of the half moon. Then mayest thou hear the voice, though it may be that thou understandeth it not. Yet shall it be a potent spell, whereby thou mayest lay bare the womb of thy understanding to the violence of CHAOS.
Now, therefore, for the last time, let the veil of the Aethyr be torn.
Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha!
A ka dua
Tuf ur biu
Bi a'a chefu
Dudu ner af an nuteru.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
This Aethyr must be left unfinished then until the half moon.
Hammam Salahin.
December 18, 1909 3:10 - 4:25 p.m.
An olvah nu arenu olvah. Diraeseu adika va paretanu poliax poliax in vah rah ahum subre fifal. Lerthexanax. Mama ra-la hum fifala maha.
All this is the melody of a flute, very faint and clear. And there is sort of a sub-tinkle of a bell.
And there is a string instrument, somewhat like a zither. And there is a human voice.
And the voice comes: this is the Song of the Sphinx, which she singeth ever in the ears of men.
And it is the song of the syrens. And whoever heareth it is lost. I III
Mu pa telai, O chi balae
Tu wa melai Wa pa malae: —
A, a, a Ut! Ut! Ut!
Tu fu tulu! Ge; fu latrai,
Tu fu Tulu Le fu malai
Pa, Sa, Ga. Kut! — Hut! — Nut.
II IV
Qwi Mu telai AI OAI
Ya Pa melai; Rel moai
u, u, u. Ti — Ti — Ti!
'Se gu melai; Wa la pelai
Pe fu telai, Tu fu latai
Fu tu lu. Wi, Ni, Bi.
Translation of Song.
I
Silence! the moon ceaseth (her motion),
That also was sweet
In the air, in the air, in the air!
Who Will shall attain!
Who Will shall attain
By the Moon, and by Myself, and by the Angel of the Lord!
II
Now Silence ceaseth
And the moon waxeth sweet;
(It is the hour of) Initiation, Initiation, Initiation.
The kiss of Isis is honeyed;
My own Will is ended,
For Will hath attained.
III
Behold the lion-child swimmeth (in the heaven)
And the moon reeleth: —
(It is) Thou! (It is) Thou! (It is) Thou!
Triumph; the Will stealeth away (like a thief),
The Strong Will that staggered
Before Ra Hoor Khuit! — Hadit! — Nuit!
IV
To the God OAI
Be praise
In the end and the beginning!
And may none fall
Who Will attain
The Sword, the Balances, the Crown!
And that which thou hearest is but the dropping of the dews from my limbs, for I dance in the night, naked upon the grass, in shadowy places, by running streams.
Many are they who have loved the nymphs of the woods, and of the wells, and of the fountains, and of the hills. And of these some were nympholept. For it was not a nymph, but I myself that walked upon the earth taking my pleasure. So also there were many images of Pan, and men adored them, and as a beautiful god he made their olives bear double and their vines increase; but some were slain by the god, for it was I that had woven the garlands about him67.
Now cometh a song.
So sweet is this song that no one could resist it. For in it is all the passionate ache for the moonlight, and the great hunger of the sea, and the terror of desolate places, — all things that lure men to the unattainable.
Omari tessala marax,
tessala dodi phornepax.
amri radara poliax
armana piliu.
amri radara piliu son';
mari narya barbiton
madara anaphax sarpedon
andala hriliu.
Translation
I am the harlot that shaketh Death.
This shaking giveth the Peace of Satiate Lust.
Immortality jetteth from my skull,
And music from my vulva.
Immortality jetteth from my vulva also,
For my Whoredom is a sweet scent like a seven-stringed instrument,
Played unto God the Invisible, the all-ruler,
That goeth along giving the shrill scream of orgasm.
Every man that hath seen me forgetteth me never, and I appear oftentimes in the coals of the fire, and upon the smooth white skin of woman, and in the constancy of the waterfall, and in the emptiness of deserts and marshes, and upon great cliffs that look seaward; and in many strange places, where men seek me not. And many thousand times he beholdeth me not. And at last I smite myself into him as a vision smiteth into a stone, and whom I call must follow.
Now I perceive myself standing in a Druid circle, in an immense open plain.
A whole series of beautiful visions of deserts and sunsets and islands in the sea, green beyond imagination . . . . But there is no subsistence in them.
A voice goes on: this is the holiness of fruitless love and aimless toil. For in doing the thing for the things's sake is concentration, and this is the holiest of them that suit not the means to the end. For therein is faith and sympathy and a knowledge of the true Magick.
Oh my beloved, that fliest in the air like a dove, beware of the falcon! oh my beloved, that springest upon the earth like a gazelle, beware of the lion!
There are hundreds of visions, trampling over one another. In each one the Angel of the Aethyr is mysteriously hidden.
Now I will describe the Angel of the Aethyr until the voice begins again.
He is like one's idea of Sappho and Calypso, and all seductive and deadly things; heavy eye-lids, long lashes, a face like ivory, wonderful barbaric jewellery, intensely red lips, a very small mouth, tiny ears, a Grecian face. Over the shoulders is a black robe with a green collar; the robe is spangled with golden stars; the tunic is a pure soft blue.
Now the whole Aethyr is swallowed up in a forest of unquenchable fire, and fearlessly through it all a show-white eagle flies. And the eagle cries: the house also of death. Come away! The volume of the book is open, the Angel waiteth without, for the summer is at hand. Come away! For the Aeon is measured, and thy spans allotted. Come away! For the mighty sounds have entered into every angle. And they have awakened the Angels of the Aethyrs that slept these three hundred years.
For in the Holy letter Shin, that is the Resurrection in the Book of Thoth, that is the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, that is three hundred in the tale of the years, hath the tomb been opened, so that this great wisdom might be revealed.
Come away! For the Second Triad is completed, and there remaineth only the Lord of the Aeon, the Avenger, the Child both Crowned and Conquering, the Lord of the Sword and the Sun, the Babe in the Lotus, pure from his birth, the Child of suffering, the Father of justice, unto whom be the glory throughout all the Aeon!
Come away! For that which was to be accomplished is accomplished, seeing that thou hadst faith unto the end of all.
In the letter N the Voice of the Aethyr is ended.
Biskra, Algeria.
December 20, 1909. 8:35 - 9:15 p.m.