21 July (Fire) Liber LXV, 4:23-24
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23. I who was the priestess of Ahathoor rejoice in your love. Arise, O Nile-God, and devour the holy place of the Cow of Heaven! Let the milk of the stars be drunk up by Sebek the dweller of Nile!
24. Arise, O serpent Apep, Thou art Adonai the beloved one! Thou art my darling and my lord, and Thy poison is sweeter than the kisses of Isis the mother of the Gods! -
"23. I who was the priestess of Ahathoor rejoice in your love. Arise, O Nile-God, and devour the holy place of the Cow of Heaven! Let the milk of the stars be drunk up by Sebek the dweller of Nile!"
This sounds like an invocation, with the intention of removing what is known, what is sensible, what is of Nature. The Lord of Universe is that whom nature hath not formed. And it is that which I believe to be being invoked (to state the obvious
) , fully, willingly, with joy and beauty and abandon."24. Arise, O serpent Apep, Thou art Adonai the beloved one! Thou art my darling and my lord, and Thy poison is sweeter than the kisses of Isis the mother of the Gods!"
The subsquent darkness that follows the invocation is welcomed and preferred over sensual nature which is now being usurped.
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93,
Ecstasy destroys the categories. The former priestess of Hathor delights in her goddess' holy place being destroyed. Hapy, the benign Nile-god, gives up his sinister "dweller," Sebek the crocodile, who devours the milk of the stars -that is, the celestial Nile (our Milky Way), anciently called Nuit or Nut. And there is no distinction any more made between Adonai and Apep.
Division is transcended, and the joy of dissolution is all.
93 93/93,
Edward -
23. I who was the priestess of Ahathoor rejoice in your love. Arise, O Nile-God, and devour the holy place of the Cow of Heaven! Let the milk of the stars be drunk up by Sebek the dweller of Nile!
I see the past tense of the phrase "was the priestess of Ahathoor". There has been a change of heart. This is not a one night stand, it is evidence of a serious relationship shift: I once loved Isis, but now I love Nephthys; I now give my love to that unmanifest perfection—the Betty Page of primeval goddesses, with hair dyed black to the roots.
So it makes sense that the Nile god would be implored to raise a flood that would destroy Philae! Mythologicaly, it is the inversion of the first dry place that emerged out of the waters of chaos in the beginning, that gave birth to the sun, and on which Amoun stood as opener of creation.
And the terrors of my childhood dreams and nightmares are now seen in a different light: Sebek, the eater of souls is a savior, is now a wished for fate.
24. Arise, O serpent Apep, Thou art Adonai the beloved one! Thou art my darling and my lord, and Thy poison is sweeter than the kisses of Isis the mother of the Gods!
Statement of fact, always true, just seen 'as if' for the first time by us: Adonai is the ultimate destroyer, withdrawing the soul and him/herself beyond the veils of manifestation.
Love and Will
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I think it important to include part of Crowley's commentary here, since it signals the start of a new direction which continues through the remainder of this chapter, beginning with v. 23:
"The remainder of this chapter concerns in great part the relation of this scribe [the human personality] with the Adept and the Angel, who complete and crown his personality. The following vrses describe the Equinox of the Gods and the Attainment of the Knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. They indicate the effect thereof upon the individual; for this chapter refers to Fire, the God of Tetragrammaton, that is, to the essence of the personality of the man concerned as a man. The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel represents the descent of the Element Spirit into the midst of his being, according to the regular formula of the formation of the Pentagram IHShVH from IHVH. The chief difficulty of interpretation lies in the complication introduced by teh Equinox of the Gods."
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