6 December (Nuit) Liber CCXX, 1:58-60
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58. I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.
59. My incense is of resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity.
60. My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red. My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a secret glory for them that love me. -
@Jim Eshelman said
"58. I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice."
The method of approach of this one is sublimely easy. Mindful recollection of the above through the day provides me an ecstatic communion with the Angel.
The single best key IMHO is the word "certainty." That was the standard I set in my Abramelin working as a 5=6, and the gift carried therefrom. Here is an excerpt from my diary (a kind of confessional and purgatory) on the last night before the successful dawn working that climaxed the operation. Nothing in what follows should be taken as anything more than my state of mind on that one particular crucial night:
"Coming to the climax of this Operation, I am very ambivalent emotionally. I have been building my entire life to this point. It’s "pass-fail." Some things are hard to assess. I want to pour every bit of my psychic and spiritual force, unreservedly, into tomorrow - but, the fear of failure says that to do so is to set myself up for a horrible emotional blow if I fail. A second point of view says that I have already succeeded, have already obtained the particular result here sought - that anything further is mere elaboration. This second point of view, however, diffuses the emotional and other psychic force I am mobilizing to this Task. A third point of view is very detached from the result - there is a part of me that is completing this without concern for outcome, que sera sera. It is, furthermore, the Angel who is performing this Work....
Still, a part of the method seems to require the anxiety, the "performance anxiety," the fear of failure, the lust of result that characterizes this personality. Could I succeed without it? Shall I succeed with it?
A very large part of the 5=6 experience is this CERTAINTY. CERTAINTY of the Angel's presence &c. Certainty, not faith, while in life, as upon death. I know this Knowing; yet my training is in skepticism. Our entire A.'.A.'. system is founded on skepticism. 'Tis far better to doubt until Doomsday than to erroneously affirm the certainty which "stirs & stills" the deep soul. It is very hard to approach this passionately and without lust of result. I don't feel where that balance is. I pray that I live that balance in the morning.
I am tiring. Sometime tonight I should sleep. I still have preparations to make."
Some have debated the punctuation of "certainty, not faith," &c. Certainty (not requiring faith) is given both "while in life" and "upon death." Everything here applies continuously. Continuity is the essential characteristic of Nuit, after all. This is the certainty, love, peace, joy, &c. of the HGA. I rest contented in the arms of She whose Wings encompass me.
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V. 58 is the most significant passage for me on the whole book. Certainty, not faith, has been the goal of my spiritual aspiration all my life. But apparently you don't get the certainty unless you come through ordeals, and to undertake the ordeals requires a big leap of faith after all. Unfortunately, faith isn't possible to me, and the emotional strength to act as though I had faith waxes and wanes. (I can believe six impossible things before breakfast, but in the evenings I'm too tired.) so I'm gambling everything I have on Thelema because, well, eventually I'll lose everything I have anyway, so I might as well stake it on something. The promises of Nuit are beautiful, but sometimes I feel cheated.
So the next most significant passage for me is the one about lust of result. Certainty is the result I want. (Some of that ecstasy wouldn't be bad, either.) But paradoxically, it seems I can't have it till I stop wanting it.
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I am certain of my faith in peace unutterable upon death.