22 December (Hadit) Liber CCXX, 2:27-33
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(v. 93) 27. There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.
(v. 94) 28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
(v. 95) 29. May Because be accursèd for ever!
(v. 96) 30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
(v. 97) 31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.
(v. 98) 32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.
(v. 99) 33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog! -
We have reached verse 93 of The Book of the Law. Happy Holidays, everyone!
Being fond of irony, I will remark on the Because verses entirely in terms of intellect.
@CCXX said
"(v. 93) 27. There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason."
"great danger": This is true at several levels. For one, it would be an error to presume any moral mandate in the two prior verses; they merely indicate a menu of choices. Also, in a practical sense, there may be "great danger" for one who would ignorantly attempt to unleash this "serpent" - in either direction - without proper discipline and skill.
But beyond this is the fact that these verses have been describing, in more or less accessible terms, a Reality that is superconscious and beyond any reasonable assessment. On the plane of reason, Hadit cannot be understood. Such is the trap of Da'ath, a further name of which is Because. All of this chapter's seemingly common descriptions of Hadit are but interpolations of a higher Truth into a language not built to house it! Intuition must be used to follow the threads to this Truth.
In fact, the word "runes" discloses that a secret meaning is hidden in the words, only accessible by the trained, the initiated, and the intuitive. It is this I have sought to bring forth; but even then, there is an inherent constraint in one's ability to give it expression.
"the pit called Because" is the Abyss. The rest is clear enough. If you cannot get past the limits of reason, and into actual spiritual perception, then you are stuck where you are.
@CCXX said
"(v. 94) 28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
(v. 95) 29. May Because be accursèd for ever!
(v. 96) 30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
(v. 97) 31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.
(v. 98 ) 32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.
(v. 99) 33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!"In a system such as Thelema, it is all but impossible to find a Devil (thank Had!). Devils result from the supppression of acceptability and the fear of a taboo aspect of divinity. (They also come from the dark labeling of a defeated enemy’s gods, so "Christ" comes close to filling the bill for thelemites. AC preempted this disaster by so clearly labeling him a fiction that he would not become quite a bogey man; and by allowing Osiris and the entire solar-cycle theogeny a valid place in the overall scheme of things. Even this Book of the Law cites a role for Isa, i.e., Jesus, in 1:49.
But the one great Thelemic "devil" is Choronzon. This is a devil worthy of the name! Thelemic mothers can tell their children horror stories of him at night that make the blood chill. Though Fra. O.M. confronted him directly, it was only by the gravest necessity; and this great demon is still the night-terror used to snap little adepts into the right way of thinking - uh, make that, of not thinking.
This is pretty impressive in a system that otherwise tolerates anything and everything. It seems that the dispersion factor of Choronzon and the Abyss runs so contrary to the focus, certainty, and natural precision of the Will that he becomes the Anti-Will, the Great Beast 333 which atavistic door-to-door fundamentalist Thelemites can put on the cover of their Enochian Watchtower Magazine in the year 2011 A.L. (3915 EV) in their obsessive resistance to the continued march of the Aeon of Maat.
(Have I a sick imagination, or what?)
I suppose my point here is that sometime we have to do something to counter this devilizing trend and, for all of its pragmatic karmic dangers, de-Devilize the old "Demon of the Black Pit of Because." This is the only real alternative to giving Choronzon a disporportionate handicap on the green.
Which brings me to the word "curse" in v. 28.
@Liber Librae, v. 8 said
""Therefore fear not the Spirits, but be firm and courteous with them; for thou hast no right to despite or revile them; and this too may lead thee astray. Command and banish them, curse them by the Great Names if need be; but neither mock nor revile them, for so assuredly wilt thou be led into error [emphasis added]."
I do not think the attitude of "cursing" the "accurséd Because" has been rightly understood. It is purely a technical process. A thing may be censured, bounced, or cast out, the way a lout can be expelled from a fine restaurant, efficiently and dispassionately; and, if done well, it will not disturb too much of the dining experience of the other patrons. A curse is a scourge used in strength, not a shield of avoidance or the buckshot of a scatter gun. Nor must we empower its demonic hold by getting all in a fuss and generating all sorts of projections.
The foregoing applies to all sorts of recalcitrant spirits - as the evocationist should know.
The messages in these verses are predominantly that each thing should be kept on its own plane. Rational argument (an aspect of the Yellow Ray) is incompatible with the purity of Power and Will (the Red Ray). It does not fit into magick per se. Choronzon is dispersal and infinite multiplicity and the shadowy phantasms of unchained thought-patologies that must be healed, must be made whole.
The attack upon reason and "words" is in the Hod verse of the present set. The instruction concerning Power is in the Netzach verse. Verse 99 finishes with the whole subject, and 99 is the value of the transliteration of "because" into Hebrew leters, BHKAVSH.
The verses have other small matters to address. In v. 28, who or what are the kin of Because? Presumably this means "all related mental intrusions." Verses 30-31 are simply good psychology. Verse 32 also asserts a psychological truism, that Truth lies inviolable in Neshamah, and thei ntellect is but a tool that attempts - perhaps never adequately - to mirror it.
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"Thelemic mothers can tell their children horror stories of him at night that make the blood chill."
"It seems that the dispersion factor of Choronzon and the Abyss runs so contrary to the focus, certainty, and natural precision of the Will that he becomes the Anti-Will, the Great Beast 333 which atavistic door-to-door fundamentalist Thelemites can put on the cover of their Enochian Watchtower Magazine in the year 2011 A.L. (3915 EV) in their obsessive resistance to the continued march of the Aeon of Maat.
(Have I a sick imagination, or what?)"
It certainly chilled my blood.
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I love these verses,
because,
They make me stop in my tracks
Because,
I feel empowered and righteous
Because
I am happy.
And I don't need a reason,I am a mutant and proud of it.
Happy Holy days!!
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93
@Veronica said
"Happy Holy days!!"
Neat! I never saw that before!
93, 93/93