@Aiwass said

"(v. 166) 21. Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image which I will show thee, especial, not unlike the one thou knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this."

On its surface, this appears to be only a physical detail of the mode of worship; and such it certainly is, though not exclusively.

To set up a deity’s image “in the East” is to place it at the focal point of worship. The east is the place of the rising sun, the Golden Dawn. From verse 1 of this chapter, we know that this god is Ra-Heru-Khuti, the splendid and golden Sun in His Rising. It is also, as previously stated, a generic image or “stand in” for the Holy Guardian Angel in each of us. All of this, the entire Tipheric archetype, is to enter into our understanding of this phrase as an inward positioning of the god of our worship.

In brief: Ra-Hoor-Khuit in general, and the HGA specifically, are to be inwardly equated with the rising Sun, the Golden Dawn.

The word “image” indicates a specific magical act, employing Yetziratic means to manifest a higher principle. “Set up” further emphasizes specific magical action.

The Tipheric implications of this verse are utterly clear. Establishing an “image” of Ra-Hoor-Khuit in the East is very Tipheric. This wonderfully confirms the enumeration of the verse, for it is both verse 166 of the entire Book - one of the “6” verses - and also verse 21 of this chapter, 21 being Σ(1-6), the Mystic Number of Tiphereth, and a number otherwise keyed to Kether. But it is more than this: 21 is Y.H.V., the Trigrammaton, and shows the Supreme Name manifest to the level of Vav, the Son, and to the World of Yetzirah, the World of Images. It shows the Central Light of Yod extended to the level of image.

"(v. 167) 22. The other images group around me to support me: let all be worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me. I am the visible object of worship; the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x. What is this? Thou shalt know.**"

Ra-Hoor-Khuit is “the visible object of worship.” This is a tremendously important sentence and concept in Thelemic religion. It has many concepts attached to it, including the following:

For the general populace - the public - our religion is to be consistently declared and enacted as a solar religion. This is the best and most suitable of blinds, for it is one that really communicates useful truth, summarizing the essential truthful doctrines of all faiths. But this is no longer a “rising and setting Sun” cult, but one centered upon the eternity of the Invisible Sun, the bright and beautiful Child of the Supernal Parents. The fact that there is a deeper mystery behind this - for example, that the Sun is but one example of a Star - may, of course, be apparent for those who know how to look. However, for the public, the Sun communicates the ideas much better.

This same thing is true, in a different sense, to the Man of Earth among initiates. Tiphereth is really about the highest reality a non-adept can conceive, as an ideal, to lead him or her forward. The average initiate, trying to think of the Supernals, reaches no better than Tiphereth, at least in the usual case.

RHK is the “stand in” for the Holy Guardian Angel, at least until the Adept replaces this projection with the real thing.

RHK is the visible object of worship. That is (perhaps because He manifests as a Khu), he reaches to the level of images, Yetzirah, and is capable of manifesting his Divine and Briatic aspects to that plane.

“the others are secret.” The “others” require direct spiritual apprehension, an awakened Briatic (samadhic) consciousness that can receive their impressions. By "the others," I understand the following meanings:

Nuit and Hadit: This gives a distinction between Nu and Had themselves vs. their images. The images may be accessible to all; but they, themselves, are secret, i.e., unknown, to the Man of Earth.

Or, the first sentence means that any gods whatsoever, any objects of worship whatsoever, are to be grouped around RHK. On the physical plane, this is a format of worship. The meaning is that what RHK represents is the same thing that every other god - every “object of worship” - ultimately represents. They “support” Him and “cluster to exalt” Him, for every avenue of sincere worship is a pathway to that central idea which He represents. (The worship of any deity may be a direct avenue of communion with the HGA, whom RHK represents.) These are to be grouped “around” RHK, i.e., at the circumference, while He is the center of them all, the heart and kernel of what they all represent. Nonetheless, “let all be worshipped” (emphasis added): at one extreme, an injunction to worship Nuit, the All, and all things soever through Her; at the other, leave and encouragement to worship any god one chooses, for the worship of any of them is, ultimately, the worship of RHK, or Ishvara, or Adonai - it’s all the same.

The “others” - Nuit and Hadit - “are secret.” They really are not even comprehensible to most folks. (There are, of course, lower octaves that the Yetziratic mind can grasp. Nuit, by Her image, as a form of the Great Mother, is certainly within reach of even the uninitiated. She can be seen in Mary &c. But this is not Her.) The worship of these “others” is reserved (by capacity, not by ordinance) to:

the Beast & his Bride (the 666 & 667 archetypes as real inner Officers of the Æon); and “the winners of the Ordeal x. ”

What is “the Ordeal x”? The clue is in the initials “O x.” This could mean many things; on many levels, the highest of which is an allusion to Aleph (“Ox”). Generally, though, it refers to Adepts. OX is a reference to the Rosy Cross. This seems true, and also seems to be what AC had in mind when he issued Liber NV and Liber H A D for use of the Adeptus Minor and designated them, “for the Winners of Ordeal X.“ At a higher level, of course, [the N.O.X. sigil] refers to the Magisteri, who are on a par with “the Beast & his Bride.” Yes, I think this is it. “Beast & his Bride” refers to Chokmah- and Binah-consciousness in general, and “winners of the Ordeal x” to that of Tiphereth. Yod, Heh, and Vav. “God” sends angels to communicate to those who cannot look directly upon Her face. (I should not fail to mention that O and X themselves refer to Nuit and Hadit as the circumference and the center point. The “knowing” intended in the last sentence is the gnosis arising from samadhi, whence these phenomena are self-evident.)

AC, in the N.C., blatantly said:

"There are to be no regular temples of Nuit and Hadit, for they are incommensurables and absolutes. Our religion therefore, for the People, is the Cult of the Sun, who is our particular star of the Body of Nuit, from whom, in the strictest scientific sense, come this earth, a chilled spark of Him, and all our Light and Life. His vice-regent and representative in the animal kingdom is His cognate symbol the Phallus, representing Love and Liberty. Ra-Hoor Khuit, like all true Gods, is therefore a Solar-Phallic deity. But we regard Him as He is in truth, eternal; the Solar-Phallic deities of the old Æon, such as Osiris, “Christ,” Hiram, Adonis, Hercules, &c., were supposed, through our ignorance of the Cosmos, to “die and rise again.” Thus we celebrated rites of “crucifixion” and so on, which have now become meaningless. Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Crowned and Conquering Child. This is also a reference to the “Crowned” and Conquering “Child” in ourselves, our own personal God. Except ye become as little children, said “Christ,” ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is Malkuth, the Virgin Bride, and the Child is the Dwarf-Self, the Phallic consciousness, which is the true life of Man, beyond his “veils” of incarnation. We have to thank Freud - and especially Jung - for stating this part of the Magical Doctrine so plainly, as also for their development of the connexion of the Will of this “child” with the True or Unconscious Will, and so for clarifying our doctrine of the “silent self” or “Holy Guardian Angel.”"

(I quoted this in The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'. with respect to the HGA. It has some chance of being misunderstood if people misinterpret “phallic.” Nonetheless, it discloses a great deal... a very great deal.)

@Aiwass said

"(v. 163) 18. Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them!"

The antithesis of Mercy (Chesed), on the Tree of Life, is Strength or Severity (Geburah). The initial wording is a little strange; but it clearly warrants a Geburan attitude, not that of Chesed.

This verse especially makes clear why we should not “quote scripture” out of context. The verses of this Book are connected and interrelated. The present verse is especially the antidote for the timorous and cowering behavior addressed by the prior verse: Act with Strength! Express your full aggressive vitality!

A fundamentalist reading of this verse would take it as an injunction to “Kill and torture,” and so forth. However, the more fundamental key of Thelema prescribes that none of us has the right to infringe another’s will, as by murder. Mostly, I just regard this as an injunction to let loose and ACT rather than brood in your timid closet.

"(v. 164) 19. That stélé they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718."

The end, which was so difficult for Crowley, is now easy for us. The only real name ever given to the “stélé of revealing,” to our knowledge, was its catalog number in the museum where the Crowleys found it: Στηλη 666 = 52 + 666 = 718.

To AC, this eventual discovery was a tremendous breakthrough. To us it is a commonplace. What else is in the verse for us?

The surface meaning of the first sentence (especially in context of verse 18) seems to be an image of warring Thelemites sweeping across the land - whether physically or ideologically is not clear - with Stélé 666 as their ensign, terrifying the atavists in their path. I think this is all a little dramatic; but it does alert us that the stélé should be our visible public ensign. It is the seed-image, the image which encapsulates all of the chief symbols of The Book of the Law. It is Chapter 0 of this Book.

I think this all sounds a bit too apocalyptic. Interesting, to be sure - but a little too apocalyptic.

It is clear that Στηλη 666 = 718. But there is also something elsewhere; for “it shall be to you as 718.” Why “as”? What else is meant by 718? 718 = חין : The Chariot (of the Crowned & Conquering Child?), the Hermit (Hadit?), and the finality of Death : Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio : VIII + IX + XIII = XXX. The chariot of war, the prophet, and death certainly paint an apocalyptic image; the populace could see them as an “Abomination of Desolation.”

Yet “Abomination of Desolation” is what it is to them; and 718 is what it is to us. These two modes of identification should not be confused, should not be cross-linked, I think. Perhaps (in the absence of any other meaning) it is to us to be simply Στηλη 666. For Hadit is the infinitesimal point of light (Yod contracted 10 → 1); and Nuit is the infinite circumference, the 0 of Aleph expanded to its utmost (Aleph = 111); and Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Hierophant and the solar Child of their union (Vav = 6): 1 x 111 x 6 = 666, IAO.

This verse, which characterizes the stélé of revealing, is verse 164 of the entire Book. “Stélé” means a stone or memorial post or pillar; and 164 is the value of the Hebrew phrase ehben ophel (אבן אפל), “the Hidden Stone” - as well as the secondary forms of ehben aleph, “the First Stone,” and ehben pelah, “the Wonderful Stone.” “Desolate,” meaning “devoid of inhabitants,” is related to “desert” or “deserted;” and the Greek word for “solitude, desert” is ‘ερημια.

"(v. 165) 20. Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there again."

This is verse 165 of the entire Book. 165 = NEMO (Nun Heh Mem A’ayin), a generic name for the Master of the Temple, 8=3. This is an appropriate verse for this number.

This verse especially goes with the preceding verse, and shows the frailty of logical exploration in the face of the elegant mystery of 718; solved eventually not by reason (despite its utterly rational nature) but by a seeming fluke such as startles by its inspiring electricity.

Because (by English Simplex = 56) was previously used in this Book as a variant name of Da’ath.

This present verse is a sublime ridicule of Reason. Even a child knows that the only answer to “Why” is “Because!” And here it is because Because ain’t good enough!

“Why” - Vav Heh Yod, by transliteration - is the Trigrammaton spelled qlippothically backwards. That is, it is an observation to the averse aspect of the Divine Name, manifest only to the plane of Yetzirah.

Why is Because a “he”? Why is “he” “not there”? Why “again”? The obvious answer is - Because!

Great meditation thoughts. They're very reflective of a lot of what I'm currently addressing about myself.

"if we are unwilling to step forward and stand as equals among their company. In brief, if we will not own and actualize our own power, it becomes (by its suppression) a projection, and we see nothing but the power of others and, in contrast, our own weakness."

It reminds me of the parable of the talents--where a master entrusts talents to 3 servants to invest while he is away. One is afraid of the master's judgment, and so hides his talent. And fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

My meditation for the day, to help me overcome fear, is to accept that I will fail and blunder often. And in the end, my individual incarnation is finite. It's going to get "used up" either way, so the only thing I can do is invest in things that really matter, and that really suit me. I will not worry about what rewards I can get out of it, or how miserable my failures might be.

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”--MLK

First understood - connects to Binah, understanding
God of War and of Vengeance - Chariot card connecting BInah comes to mind
Why War and Vengeance - conflict - two opposing factions - vengeance - retribution concerning a wrong - the mind as an engine for assessing and perceiving the 2 (lovers) - the dyad
I vs Them - the dyad again made clear

It seems to me that RHK here hasn't the same take on division that momma Nuit has.

Random aside: this verse (and maybe the book I've been pondering recently - I Am That) has me rethinking my previous attribution: Maybe it's 2=RHK, 1=NUIT, 0=HADIT whereas before I figured it would flow 0=NUIT, 1=HADIT, 2=RHK...

I'm excited for the next reading.
Giddy like a school girl.

I've begun to make sure I say Wow before the Moon everyday, just so ya know.

@Aiwass said

"(v. 156) 11. This shall be your only proof. I forbid argument. Conquer! That is enough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from the ill-ordered house in the Victorious City. Thou shalt thyself convey it with worship, o prophet, though thou likest it not. Thou shalt have danger & trouble. Ra-Hoor-Khu is with thee. Worship me with fire & blood; worship me with swords & with spears. Let the woman be girt with a sword before me: let blood flow to my name. Trample down the Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their flesh to eat!"

The numerical positioning of this verse in this Book overwhelms almost every other detail, and consumes the structural details of its words in a subsuming and purifying fire.

First, as the sixth verse in the present ten-verse series (vv. 151-160), it is a verse of Tiphereth: “Ra-hoor-Khu is with thee.” The Holy Guardian Angel is here, with you now. Horus is established as the governing spiritual force in the world.

But, beyond that, this is verse 11 of the present chapter, and verse 156 of the entire Book. Eleven is the characteristic number of Nuit; 156 is the value of “Babalon,” the name of “the Victorious Queen.” This verse, therefore, is the manifestation of Nuit in Her aspect as Babalon, the “secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me” (CCXX, 1:22).

The entire verse radiates with the characteristic qualities of Babalon. I know of no verse in the whole of Liber Legis that is so characteristic of the heart of The Vision & the Voice, or of Liber Cheth, or of the classic Babalon communications from the Dee and Kelly source works. Her mark - her actual scent - is all over this verse like civet on a cat in heat.

This being said, I am hesitant to peer too deeply into the verse, to try to explain it too concretely in rational terms. For a verse such as this, such rational opinions could be little more than the dung of Choronzon. It is the feeling that must saturate my being here, not the thoughts; and the image presented by Nesahamah to confront the babbling Ruach is like an impassioned woman who grabs her lover by the collar or throat and, pulling him to her, exclaims, “Shut up and come to me now,” then proceeds to explain to him - or, more likely, show him - what she can do.

Having rested a long time in Her embrace, and with my Chiah still worshiping before Her Areopagus (which is that temple of Ares upon a certain hill of Athens), I now record what reason is presently given to know.

“This shall be your only proof.” The antecedent is whatever was meant by “proof to the world” in the verse preceding. I believe it to be the result of Thelemic worship, both in terms of inner aspiration and outer living, which are necessarily linked. The true “proof to the world” is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and its reflection into the other microcosm which is human society, regenerated by the Word Thelema. (Yet this latter transformation can only occur as a consequence of individuals perfecting the former.)

This “only proof” is the “conquering” which “is enough.” The conquest is of onself. (The word “Conquer,” very martial in style, ultimately means only to be victorious, to win; especially to gain or secure control or dominion.) The word comes from the Latin conquierere, “to search for, procure, win,” from quaerere, “to seek.” That is, “conquest” is a quest (cf. “question”), the chief metaphor of the Great Work.

The God of Conquest, however, forbids argument. Thelema is not a proselytizing religion. Verbal and intellectual disputes are especially foreign to the whole idea. (Although the Latin arguere meant “to make clear, assert, prove,” the English cognate is derived through the intermediary of the French arguer which means, “to blame!” This is idea that Aiwass forbids through the persona of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.”)

(I tap very old diary entries for this one - somewhat edited - because I think they are relevant to this entire processof worship.)

These six verses form an apparent set. Like much of this Book, and especially like the first three verses of the present chapter, they are subject to simultaneous interpretation on several levels; that is, the essential principles here enunciated may exteriorize to various extents, in diverse areas of life, giving an apparency of multiple meanings.

I believe it is a waste of time for political science majors to scour the headlines for a geopolitical interpretation of these verses. Even if a clear “fit” were to be identified, it would be more or less irrelevant. The real and essential meaning must be the inmost; and any geopolitical consequence would be merely the working out of one particular example of a general principle.

The primary meaning, I believe, is very close to that which Fra. O.M. gave as his “mystical meaning” in the Old Comment (O.C.), to wit:

[Choose] one of the Cakkrams or nerve-centers in the spine. Concentrate the mind upon it. Prevent any impressions from reaching it. I will describe a new method of meditation by which - Ye shall easily suppress invading thoughts. May mystically describe this method (e.g. Liber HHH, Section 3).

The deep meaning is a yogic meaning - with several possible variations on a theme. The battle being waged is not of Britain, but is fought within oneself over the integrity and fulfillment of Will.

The “island” may be a chakra, as AC speculated. Even more deeply, being a dry protrusion from a surrounding sea, it is a symbol of Hadit, a point of view within the Great Sea of Nuit. Here is the emergence, or coming forth, of a discrete individual. On a lower plane, it is the formulation of a distinctive ego on similar principles. It basically says, “Determine who you are.”

Translated into life, this also gives practical instruction in getting on. In a particular situation it says to get clear on what you want, what is your point of view or desired outcome or position; and stick to your guns! If it is in accord with True Will, Ra-Hoor-Khuit will fortify you with everything you need to succeed!

“Fortify it!” The ego must be strongly formulated - otherwise, it is a dysfunctional vehicle for the True Will.

The “enginery of war” (which - see verse 3 - especially means “enginery of Light”) is the strength, Light, fortification, power, and all other sources necessary to prosecute the objective. In a major way, we are each the “war-engine” - we are each, with our successive layers or vehicles, complex constructions, “wired” to execute when empowered by adequate energy.

v. 7: Again, “I will give you a LIGHT-engine.” (I also find it curious that 152, the number of this verse with respect to the entire Book, is the value of Concilio Firmata Dei, “Strengthened by God’s Counsel,” the motto of Jeanne d’Arc.)

v. 8: “The peoples” - not “The people” - at first implies a race war. The extra letter is no accident. Still, it clearly represents “the voice of the multitude,” the reactive and invading thoughts and idle thought-formations of which AC spoke. These are the more superficial aspects of our psyches. Our yoga must certainly take us deeper than this!

Ra-Hoor-Khuit (the Holy Guardian Angel) gives all of this help to those who persevere in the way of True Will. His “war-engine” is that inner aid which is best represented by the unfettered majesty of the Sun, before which Sempiternal Splendor the superficial and transient cannot stand.

Verse 9 may indeed describe the method - but it is more likely Liber Turris than Liber H. The “thus” in verse 9 is critical: it confirms that whatever the preceding verses mean, they are the explication of Ra-Hoor-Khuit’s worship “about [His] secret house.” What is that “secret house” if not the heart, the inner and true Vault of the Adepts, the only true “sovereign sanctuary.”

It has been a week and a half since I have worked on the verses of Chapter III of Liber Legis. There is an adjustment taking place. These verses are of an entirely different nature than those of either Cap. I or Cap. II. They are like nothing we have encountered before. And, despite my years of familiarity with this Book, and the particular advantage I might expect from the inner relationship I have forged or found with the Horus archetype, there is no great assistance.

It will, perhaps, be necessary for me to formally invoke Horus for assistance in this. Perhaps the Supreme Ritual will be helpful? [N.B. This was done on the following day, a Tuesday.]

Nuit and Hadit have, so to speak, formulated the two mating triangles; but in Cap. III we encounter Him who is their union in the Sacred Hexagram; and He is immeasurably different than these components. In this archetype of the Holy Guardian Angel there is a distinctive manifestation of one particular illimitable yet unextended aspect of Identity of Self-consciousness (Hadit) experiencing the universe (Nuit); and in doing so, it is both immeasurably limited by its discrete manifestation, and immeasurably empowered to fulfill its distinctive and irreplicable function or destiny.

So much in this Third Chapter seduces its witness to a literal interpretation. Furthermore, AC actualized, i.e., materialized, many of these “prophecies” in his own life. Yet, even knowing this, I continue to be inwardly counseled that I am to view every part of this Book primarily at an archetypal level; and that its outward actualizations are to be valued merely as particular cases of a general meaning. Scanning forward, I find that this is difficult to do, in the verses immediately ahead, without feeling forced or artificial. Artifice is the last thing I want to bring to this particular work. It will be necessary for me to progress step by step, verse by verse; and my intellectual powers often will be the least useful of my tools until the point of actually framing what I learn into expressible language. This has been true frequently in the first two chapters; but I suspect it is to be considerably more so now. This path before me has very much the feeling of an initiation; of entering anew the Path of Darkness - the unknown and unguessed, the “undesired and most desirable.” May I walk this Path under the Shadow of the Wings of that One who goest ever before me, bearing the Light even when I know it not.

In verse 4, “island” has the broader and subtler meaning previously suspected. The word is used broadly in English to mean anything completely isolated in the way that an island is isolated. As such, it means any object of meditation whatsoever, and also is a distinctive metaphor of Hadit’s nature. Interestingly, the Indo-European root is akwa- (the Latin aqua) meaning “water.” All objects of attention, as all individual beings, are isolations within an infinite ocean of consciousness, the Qabalistic Great Sea.

The use of “dung” in verse 6 is interesting. If this is a conventional military usage, the dictionary does not reflect it. The word, of course, refers to feces; and its use as a verb means to pack manure around the base of a thing, as to fertilize a plant. (Its old root means “heap.”) From the Egyptian context of the Book’s dictation, we cannot fail to note the metaphor of the dung beetle, divinized as Khephra, God of Resurrection; and even without this metaphor, we certainly are led to see in this verse the employment of “excrement” - old and outworn forms and energies, qlippothic residue, dead and excreted patterns; in short, any of the refuse or “old shit” of our psyches — as protection, sustenance, fortification, and fertilizer for each new reality we are building. The Sword of Horus has come to sweep away the old; but every bit of the old has its use in tending the garden of new growth, the garden of the future. Nothing is lost but old forms; the essence is reconverted to new “plantings,” to new growth.

An “engine” is a special kind of “machine” - from Doric Greek machos, “contrivance or means.” A “machine” is thus something contrived - intentionally devised, as by a human mind - to be the “means” to make something happen. Its basic definition is, “any system, usually of rigid bodies, formed and connected to alter, transmit, and apply directed forces in a predetermined manner to accomplish a specific objective, such as the performance of useful work.” From the de-structed old patterns we are to draw raw resources to build up a new, more functional (and thus “better” structure which will serve our present ends in a far superior way.

An “engine” is a particular kind of machine which translates or converts energy into mechanical motion; or, more broadly, any agent, instrument, or means of accomplishment. Its purpose is accomplishment, movement, action. And, again, it is the result of intentional human contrivance, the use of our minds to formulate it; for the root of “engine” is ingenium.

It is a “war” engine = aur engine; so the raw stuff of which this is being built is L.V.X. (“War” comes from the Indo-European root wers-, meaning “to confuse,” i.e., to create a state of chaos and confusion. This brings the added meanings of a force that disables, for a time, the ordering and orderly function of the intellect; which, like the forces depicted in Atu XVI, The Tower, displaces our rigid control of definition for a time, so that we actually can experience what is before us and create or distill a new and superior Order. This is certainly a good description of the effect of this chapter’s construction on my mind. Briah must guide if we are to Understand.)

This “mechanism of confusion” (or “engine of Light”) is to be aimed at the general populace. The instruction is not only to shake up one’s own reality, but also, and perhaps especially, that of the world. Note that this is not by violence except violence of thought, not letting the comfortable rest in their comfort (I am a great believer in the traditional job description of a priest - which I apply to any such spiritual guide - which says that the chief duty is to bring comfort to the discomfitted, and discomfort to the comfortable.), but shaking their foundation a little so that they come awake on their own. The word “stand” in verse 8 means “withstand.”

“Lurk” is to lie in wait, to be still, to be concealed (a meditative method aspiring to Hadit). “Withdraw” is its complement, the pulling out of the concealed; but it also means to retire or isolate oneself. Thus, these two words again describe the basic practice of the yoga of stillness (even as they subtly describe a somewhat more active if esoteric methodology). They are the methods that depict what is really meant by Ra-Hoor-Khuit’s “Battle of Conquest.”

In Nomine Adonai AMEN.

The Tiphereth verse within the Samekh decanate of verses begins the third chapter. If we did not already know that all expressions of Horus in this book are veils for the Holy Guardian Angel, the numeric symbolism of the first verse might tell us that. In this I remember, throughout my day, that Name by which He made Himself known to me.

@CCXX said

"(v. 146) 1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut."

These five (or seven) words have several simultaneous interlocking meanings.

Chapters I and II opened with identifying (or caption) verses declaring the former to be "the manifestation of Nuit" and the latter "the hiding of Hadit" (Greek ΑΔ = Hebrew אדם). Nuit and Hadit represent the two great complementary polarities of infinity. She "bends down;" He "lifts up" himself. Their union is in the Hexagram, the ensign of love, union, and the fulfillment of the Great Work. All of this is represented by the word "Abrahadabra."

"Abrahadabra" - as we learned in 1:20 (120!) - is "The key of the rituals," a sobriquet of the Rosy Cross. It would be perfectly correct, I believe, to read this verse as "The Rosy Cross; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut."

Abrahadabra is especially a word of eleven letters which unites the 5 with the 6, the Microcosm with the Macrocosm, ΑΓΑΠΗ with ΘΕΛΗΜΑ. ("Had" in the midst of 11 letters = Had as the "secret centre" of Nuit.) In Abrahadabra is the completion and fulfillment of the Great Work. consummata est, "It is finished," and סוף, "end, limit."] It is especially the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (Abrahadabra is especially a symbol of the 5=6 equilibration.) The Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is "the reward of Ra Hoor Khut." Horus is an exterior image, or "visible object of worship," of the Holy Guardian Angel, the Child (of the Great Mother and Great Father) who is part of the Magical Image of Tiphereth.

The exact form here - Ra Hoor Khut - is different from the form encountered previously, in Cap. I. For one thing, its numerical value is 10 less, 453. This is also the value of Behemoth (BHMVTh), the great land-monster of Hebrew mythology; and of nephesh chiah (NPhSh ChYH) "breath of life," a term for the Animal Soul in its fullness, i.e., including the Creative Will (Chiah).

I also suspect that this orthography is intended to point us in a particular direction. The name "Ra-Hoor-Khuit" does not appear, as such, in any of the old Egyptian records; but there are some very similar names, especially Ra-Heru-Khuti or Ra-Heru-Khut. I think the Author of this Book is directing our attention to that particular archetype.

Heru-Khuti is a very common name in the old writings. It is the Horakhte of which Fagan especially wrote, properly translated "Horus of the Horizon." Heru-Khuti or Horakhte (the Greek Hrumachis) is an especially mighty and wondrous manifestation of the Sun, virtually a Redeemer God. This name usually appears in combination with other names which specify the exact aspect of the Sun which is intended; for example, Tum-Heru-Khuti is the setting Sun.

Ra-Heru-Khuti (or Ra Hoor Khut) is, then, especially the rising Sun, the inner and natural experiences alike which can at once be represented by a Golden Dawn and the Rosy Cross. The newborn Sun, rapturously rising at dawn, is a stupendous emblem of this "reward." When the "i" is added in the next verse, returning the value to 463, this symbol is again identified with Sushumna. It especially represents the translation of the nephesh chiah (453) into Sushumna (463). Here, in verse 1, the name is more specifically telling us that, in the dawning of this new Aeon of the Child, Hrumachis hath arisen (cf. verse 34).

I also recall Crowley’s observation that "reward" may have a double meaning; i.e., it may mean to "re-ward," to set the wards again.

Thus, in this great Ritual of the Equinox of the Gods, the knell of the new Utterance hath sounded, the new Hierophant hath been seated upon His throne in the East ("throne" implies Binah as well; thus, His is a Supernal office of super-consciousness), and the universal temple is now to be re-warded - purified, consecrated, and sealed upon the reception of all the officers into their stations. The dictation (and verily the reading!) of this Third Chapter is a ritual whose guardians are now securely posted so that we may hear the promulgation of the Aeon - so to speak, the Hierophant’s lection of the occasion.

@CCXX said

"(v. 147) 2. There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!"

There is a clean, clear start at the beginning of this new chapter. The first two or three verses are setting up what is to follow. The function of this verse 2 is parallel the function of Chokmah in the Tree of Life, and it commences by declaring a fundamental duality: "There is division."

In this verse, as well, there seem to be multiple simultaneous meanings (although only one primary current, which I shall get to in a bit). For example, "division" reflects that the God of this chapter is a Twin-God. The path of the Twins, Zayin, opens from the Sphere of Tiphereth just acknowledged (in verse 1) unto the Sphere of Binah, "home." Whereas Nuit in Cap. I is the foundation or basis of nihilism, and Hadit in Cap. II of monism, so is Heru-Ra-Ha in Cap. III the foundation of a philosophy of dualism. Within Thelema, all three of these rivers of philosophy coexist, and our Qabalah shows how they are necessarily interrelated and coexistent.

But the primary meaning here, I am sure, is along other lines. "...the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all" (1:30). This verse, this entire chapter, simultaneously displays the Next Step for humanity collectively, and the Next Step for each of us individually. The enthroning of Horus is for the world what the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is for the individual. Throughout Chapter 3, we will see this parallel, repeatedly and (I think) exactly.

The "division" is the fundamental duality within us each, and especially the separation from the Holy Guardian Angel, the "wound" that is to be healed - the mystery of the Divine Twins in many lands, especially as treated by Jung and Hillman. The pain of this division "is as nothing," yet, "the joy of dissolution" is "all." It is unto the Reality that is Heru-Ra-Ha that the world must turn, that it must embrace; and it is unto the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, "the joy of dissolution," that each must turn. This division is "hither homeward," i.e., between "here" and "home," the final goal (which, perhaps due to equations of "home" and "mother," keeps appearing to me as Binah).

"there is a word not known." Every word of this is pregnant with rich meaning! "there is a word" may mean only "a word exists;" but I believe it means "there is a word." It is "there," in or at the state called "home." This "word" is a teaching, a doctrine, a key - not, perhaps, literally verbal; in fact ("Spelling is defunct"), I am pretty sure no literal word (one made up of actual letters) is meant. It is silent Truth, Will in motion. It may be the "word not" (LA), as one of the ubiquitous "31" keys to this Book; but it is clearly "not known." We do not have "knowledge" of it, in the sexual (union) sense. It is "there," at "home," and we have not yet united ourselves with this Logos of our being.

Note also that this is not a "Lost Word." It would have been the easiest thing for Aiwass to have dictated, "the word is lost." But this new Word has never yet been found! It is still unknown, unembraced, "undesired, most desirable."

Again, the doctrine is very explicitly that of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

"Spelling is defunct." At one level, this warns us that we should not play word games in trying to find this "word not known." But I also agree with AC that the double use of "spelling" and "spell" in this verse is a clue, that the "spelling" which is defunct is the old way of executing spells.

"Spelling is defunct." The old ways of composing letters and words (ideas, themes, forms) is outdated. "Defunct," as AC suggested, means, "no longer able to function." New modes of magical working, new formulae, now emerge.

"all is not aught." I think I will skip this sentence for the rest of this lifetime! The word "aught" has the damnable quality (useful, however, in the metaphysics of Nuit) of meaning both "everything" (all) and "nothing." In English this sentence either means "All is not all," or "All is not nothing." By Qabalah it gets even more confusing, with such equations as all = 61 = AYN ("nothing"), both equal to "aught" in meaning. The problem with this sentence is that it means so much - virtually everything! - that it means nothing at all. (God, I didn't mean to do that!) Astounding! The sentence itself, by its very character of complex simultaneous meanings, enacts by the process of the sentence the literal meaning(s) of the sentence. Four words. Thirteen letters. A tremendously, marvelously complete and multilevel summation of Chapter I’s doctrine. But why is it here? What has it to do with this verse in this chapter? My guess is that (by its incomprehensibility and simultneous internal self-contradiction and self-affirmation, if nothing else) it is intended to lift the mind out of Ruach into Neshamah, expanding on the effect of the immediately proceeding sentence, "Spelling is defunct."

"Beware," though expressed as a warning, simply means, "Be wary!" or "Be alert!" Aiwass is hollering, "Heads up!" It is an instruction in attentiveness, concentration, and mindfulness. "Hold" probably refers to self-discipline more than to halting or groping. Together, "Beware! Hold!" are an instruction in the method of yoga.

And the consequence - which is also our "assignment" - is the "raising" of "the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit." Among all its other interlocking meanings, this especially refers to the raising of the kundalini in the attainment of the K&C of the HGA, pictured in terms of this solar-phallic-Self-GOD (Ra-Hoor-Khu-it).

Ra-Hoor-Khuit (RA-HVVR-KVYT) = 463. This is the value of the Middle Pillar of the Tree of Life (Th = 400, S = 60, G = 3) and of Sushumna (SVShVMNA). This solar-phallic-Self-GOD is the Sushumna, who is our Middle Pillar.

This, then, is the fulfillment - and the uttering of the Word (this verse 2) - of which the redemptive and effulgent rising Sun of verse 1, Ra Hoor Khut, is the seed of promise.

"there is a word not known." Compare this to the corresponding verse in Cap. II, "Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed." In Cap. I, the corresponding verse is, "The unveiling of the company of heaven." They are very similar, but with a progressive withdrawal from naked disclosure.

(On a "day off" for these, I'm catching up posting diary entries that I didn't get added to these threads over the summer.)

"22. Even as the diamond shall glow red for the rose, and green for the rose-leaf; so shalt thou abide apart from the Impressions.
23. I am thou, and the Pillar is 'stablished in the void."

The metaphor is from Patanjali. We are reflections of impressions, which dance upon our surface without altering what we inherently are. The least part of this verse pair is the important drawing of attention to the withn rather than the without, and the familiar instruction that what one is can be discerned by intimate knowledge of that which lies within. (My remarks are badly stated, but I think the point is made.)

(On a "day off" for these, I'm catching up posting diary entries that I didn't get added to these threads over the summer.)

"14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus."

Most years I simply take this as a poetic description of the way the Angel penetrates and interpenetrates - the description strikes extremely familiar chords for me, even down to many of the specifics. And, of course, the correspondence of the "blades" to the four letters of the Name ADNI.

This year, because of something else I was working on, I was reminded that a four-bladed sword - a sword that has four blades all set at right angles to each other - must exist in four dimensions. The Angel is piercing us not only in 3D space, but in 4D. (It slices reality into 8 segments.)

"15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken."

This was before Liber ARARITA was dictated - but the idea of that book (all 7 chapters of it, climaxing in the dissolution description of the 7th) seems the idea that AC had in mind all those years. Or, putting it more simply, the very meaning of the notariqon A.R.A.R.I.T.A. declares that The ONE is singular in the beginning of His Unity, the beginning of His uniqueness, and in His permutation. This way of viewing reality can lead to the experience described in the verse.

"12. Thou shalt be lovely and pitiful toward them; thou shalt heal them of the unutterable evil."

The very presence of the Adept - the impact of his or her aura - agitates and energies the psyche of all with whom he or she comes in contact. Here the Angel is saying that even those who hate or despite the Adept will be affected by his or her presence, will be healed (made more whole) by the contact. It matters no whit how they feel about the Adept - the Light that flows through the Adept will impact them, energizing whatever is salient in their character.

A day for witnessing and being mindful of the impact my presence has on those with whom I have even negligible contact...

"**9. But I have burnt within thee as a pure flame without oil. In the midnight I was brighter than the moon; in the daytime I exceeded utterly the sun; in the byways of thy being I flamed, and dispelled the illusion.

Therefore thou art wholly pure before Me; therefore thou art My virgin unto eternity. Therefore I love thee with surpassing love; therefore they that despise thee shall adore thee.**"

I've known these passages for decades. I've written them into rituals, uttered them in recitations, meditated taking them into me... and, year in and year out, on August 16 when I come around to these verses, they leave me stunned beyond remark.

Few passages of anything have ever seemed, to me, so to articulate the experience of intimacy with the Holy Guardian Angel.

@LXV said

"8. Thou hast come hither, O my prophet, through grave paths. Thou hast eaten of the dung of the Abominable Ones; thou hast prostrated thyself before the Goat and the Crocodile; the evil men have made thee a plaything; thou hast wandered as a painted harlot, ravishing with sweet scent and Chinese colouring, in the streets; thou hast darkened thine eyepits with Kohl; thou hast tinted thy lips with vermilion; thou hast plastered thy cheeks with ivory enamels. Thou hast played the wanton in every gate and by-way of the great city. The men of the city have lusted after thee to abuse thee and to beat thee. They have mouthed the golden spangles of fine dust wherewith thou didst bedeck thine hair; they have scourged the painted flesh of thee with their whips; thou hast suffered unspeakable things."

The Angel reviews for the Adept that the life which led to their Knowledge & Conversation has been "grave paths." The various phrases provide a collage of events (a form of "one's whole life passing before one's eyes") and, more importantly, of the meanings of those events in the Adept's eyes.

He has had to eat a lot of shit along the way! He surrendered his will to his lusts and automatic reactions. He suffered a range of experiences at the hands of people who didn't have a clue who he really was, constantly adapting himself to (psychological, more than physical) survival. He has celebrated his own passions in his own way, through every passage and entryway, exploring every avenue of penetration into his own center. And he has "suffered unspeakable things," life-events that have an impact on the individual almost unrelated to the actual event.

Or whatever. The interpretation doesn't matter, I think. Each reader can find his or her own relationship to the images. The key idea, though, I think, is that each of us lives through "grave paths" en route to the goals of our aspirations, and, ultimately, they are "simply what got us there."

@Jim Eshelman said

"5. Now is the Pillar established in the Void; now is Asi fulfilled of Asar; now is Hoor let down into the Animal Soul of Things like a fiery star that falleth upon the darkness of the earth.
6. Through the midnight thou art dropt, O my child, my conqueror, my sword-girt captain, O Hoor! and they shall find thee as a black gnarl'd glittering stone, and they shall worship thee."

The verses are sublime. They stun me on nearly every reading, no matter how many years I revisit them. I have never found any way to worthily meditate them other than direct invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

The usual interpretation is well known: Horus is "let down," words that imply it is a controlled, easy, soft descent - but the impact is "like a fiery star that falleth upon... the earth." The most gentle touch of the infinite strikes with the fury of a lightning strike or a meteor impact, etc. No matter how ready and open and expanded, nothing finite can ever be prepared for the penetration of the infinite.

The initial image reminds me of that from 4:58 where the pillar stood upon the Great Sea - here it is "established in the Void." They are distinct but related. The imagery serves me well in my worship of that Single Thing of which these verses speak to me.

"3. Yea, cried the Holy One, and from Thy spark will I the Lord kindle a great light; I will burn through the great city in the old and desolate land; I will cleanse it from its great impurity."

In the prior verse, the Adept identified himself as a spark. In this verse, the Angel says that He will kindle that into a great light.

This is the usual consequence of the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: The contact fills and expands the essence of the Adept. (That essence, or spark, is connected to an infinite source of a like thing.)

This was the focus of my practice yesterday: The resting in the reality of how the touch of the Angel enkindles and infinitely expands what is essentially true of us.

This burns through the old gray city - an image of the old gray form of the psyche, etc.

"4. And thou, O prophet, shalt see these things, and thou shalt heed them not."

😂

(Which means: Sometimes, no matter how much I see the hand of the Angel, I won't necessarily be smart enough to pay attention!)

(I'm taking this morning to post some diary entries from the summer that never made it here.)

@Jim Eshelman said

"62. At thy right hand a great lord and a comely; at thy left hand a woman clad in gossamer and gold and having the stars in her hair."

I hadn't consciously registered until this morning that this image affirms the p.o.v. of the Adept rather than the Angel - Chokmah on one's left and Binah on one's right is the oriention of looking up the Tree, advancing toward the Supernals wherein the Adept is told (in the following sentence) that he will "meet with" the Angel.

"Ye shall journey far into a land of pestilence and evil; ye shall encamp in the river of a foolish city forgotten; there shall ye meet with Me."

What marvelous and unusual symbolism for the journey far through Binah and toward Chokmah. (Through Liber LXV, Adonai as Yod is most consistently represented in Chokmah, primarily I think to put Him in polar juxtaposition to Binah.) The "foolish city forgotten," toward which a river leads. Wow.

There is much more in these verses, of course. I guess I had to sleep on the imagery for it to get fully conscious. As usual, for these verses in this particular Bhakti practice, it is the painted visual images that I find especially useful to act as catalyst to the meditation flow.

(I'm using a "day off" to catch up posting diary entries from the summer that never made it here.)

"59. Thou dost faint, thou dost fail, thou scribe; cried the desolate Voice; but I have filled thee with a wine whose savour thou knowest not."

The scribe is the human personality, the Ruach level of the recipient. The desolate Voice (de- + sōlus: that which comes from the space that is solitary, alone, void of all else) is the Voice in the Silence, the Holy Guardian Angel. Here, near the end of this chapter of Fire, the personality is tiring, falling back from its conscious illumination. Yet the Angel reminds that the ripened time-ripened (i.e., aged) intoxicant has already been planted with the aspirant's soul even when he falls back from it consciously.

This is extremely familiar, and comforting in what otherwise might be an hour of self-recrimination. One thing that differs the Knowledge & Conversation from earlier stages of conscious interpenetration of some aspect of the Angel into the mortal psyche is that the link has been made. It is permanent. The Angel is present and the union is secured. Even when the Adept is sent forth "upon the earth to do his pleasure among the living," the Angel is there, even when the Adept is unmindful, even when no one seems there.

"60. It shall avail to make drunken the people of the old gray sphere that rolls in the infinite Far-off; they shall lap the wine as dogs that lap the blood of a beautiful courtesan pierced through by the Spear of a swift rider through the city."

The marks of Adepthood are evident even in such an "off" day in such an "off" person. They contagiously spread, they give a "contact high" to people around the Adept, the spill-over. It is a reminder that the Adept no longer has the leisure to unmindfully interact with others because the Adept is the Philosopher's Stone, and his or her contact with another, by default, sets in motion a process of transmutation. This is not always a gift, and may be a cruelty to those who have not requested it.

(On a "day off" for these, I'm catching up posting diary entries that I didn't get added to these threads over the summer.)

"53. That they may swim, O my beloved, swim far in the warm honey of Thy being, O blessed one, O boy of beatitude!"

This passage seems the best actual visualization, the most practical part for the particular practice summarized above: Visualize yourself swimming serenely through warm honey - golden-amber, translucent light, a slight thickness, essence of sweetness, nurturing and nutritious - all of these ideas - serene in the embrace of the essence of the heart (Tiphereth) of the Holy Guardian Angel, the "boy of beatitude."

The task of the Adeptus Minor is to attain to the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and then to abide therein. The task of the other Adept Grades (whatever their seeming outer divergence)boil down to deepening and strengthening that union. This verse speaks of that actuality.

"52. I have a little son like a wanton goat; my daughter is like an unfledged eaglet; they shall get them fins, that they may swim."

The first verse of the two is more intellectual-dogmatic, but inspection of it helps a bit to set the expectations of one's progress. The son and daughter are Vav and Heh-final, the lower aspects of the psyche. As goat and eaglet, they represent A'ayin and Nun, thus showing the extension of these down from Tiphereth. They have various marks of immaturity, under-development, short-comings. Yet the Adept, speaking from the place in Tiphereth, declares that these faculties shall grow what they need in order to join the rest of the psyche in the sea described in v. 53.

"48. O day of Eternity, let Thy wave break in foamless glory of sapphire upon the laborious coral of our making!"

This is quite a spectacular image. I recommend simply visualizing yourself, in meditation, beneath an incessant falling wave of sapphire-colored "foamless glory," and with the understanding that it is the braeking in upon your reality of the "day of Eternity."

Coral - fascinating! It is the result of communal world. This is a rare and fascinating look at the shared, communal, even species-level unconscious collaboration in the Great Work. In some other year I really should explore that one symbol more fully.

(I'm taking advantage of a "day off" on these meditations to catch up posting diary entries from the summer that never made it here.)

"42. There is a deep taint beneath the ineffable bliss; it is the taint of generation."

At the touch of the sublime, the mortal part of our minds - not surrendered in the Adept (for whom they, in fact, are essential) - feels our smallness, imperfection, and unworthiness - whatever "favorite bad feelings" we habitually horde. Part of the sweet, bitter, painful, fulfilling union with the infinite is the magnification of our smallness. The initial feeling I get from this verse is the restirring of every personal sense of smallness and inadequacy we bear, comingled with the bliss and truth of union with the Angel.

...And thus are those feelings of smallness and inadequacy sanctified.

This is not the only place that Liber LXV uses "taint" in this way. In 3:8-9 we find, "But I beheld in thee a certain taint, even in that wherein I delighted. I beheld in thee the taint of thy father the ape, of thy grandsire the Blind Worm of Slime." It does seem linked to unredeemed Nephesh but, even more (in the context of Chapter 3), to mortality and transiency within the field of time. ("I gazed upon the Crystal of the Future, and I saw the horror of the End of thee" [3:10] - and see the surrounding verses.) The "taint" of which this speaks is mortality itself.

Taint, though having moral implications of degeneracy and corruption, is simply tint or tinge. The verse above, therefore, is saying that the experience of the union with the Holy Guardian Angel is deeply tinged with recollection of one's mortality. (The "corruption" or "decay" is simply the natural breaking down of that which is born, lives, and dies.)

My attention directed by this verse, today I experience this "ineffable bliss" as seasoned with the actuality of mortality. Not imperfection, certianly not unworthiness (not in the embrace of the Angel), but certainly smallness - so long as I continue to identify with my mortal self.

"43. Yea, though the flower wave bright in the sunshine, the root is deep in the darkness of earth."

Adepthood is a union and equilibrium of the mortal and immortal. Neither is surrendered and both are essential to the equation of 5=6. Tiphereth exactly equilibrating Kether and Malkuth. Neither human nor God alone, but God-Human.

This coexistence - this taint, tint, tinge, seasoning - is, in fact, part of its sweetness. Verse 43 declares this single dual-truth. At the specific level called Adepthood, the attainment is the fruit of mortal roots.

"44. Praise to thee, O beautiful dark earth, thou art the mother of a million myriads of myriads of flowers."

Praise to thee, O beautiful dark earth, thou art the mother of a million myriads of myriads of flowers.

The essence of this particular practice is simply the continuing awareness of, and abiding within, the interminable Love of the Holy Guardian Angel.