4 January (Hadit) Liber CCXX, 2:66-68
-
(v. 132) 66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none.
(v. 133) 67. Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses!
(v. 134) 68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep — die! -
@CCXX said
"(v. 132) 66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none."
Ecstatic worship from the living, continuing act of doing one's WIll: That' the worship of the day!
This verse is a continuation of previous verses, and shows a flooding-in of communication, or realization or understanding, as the mind returns from samadhi to its normal state.
The first two sentences are closely synonymous, especially since it was AC’s “work” to “write.” In thus fulfilling his Will he would find the ecstasy from being the “bed” of the copulations of Nuit and Hadit, the throne of their ecstasy. (By the way, these verses are very useful for some kinds of talismans dealing with work.) These Gods do not separate him from his work in the world, but rather are fulfilled in his fulfillment, Their ecstasy and his being coeval. So it is with each of us.
“Thrill with the joy of life & death!“ Life and death, the movement of this infinite serpent through every bend and twist of its coils. This begins a lengthy section discussing death and the ecstasy thereof.
"(v. 133) 67. Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses!
(v. 134) 68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep — die!"These verses are a powerful expression of the torrential storms of rapture which the advanced mystic must endure. The sexual allusion is obvious, and actually becomes a useful technique in producing parallel results through sexuality.
Liber A’ash provides an extension of this teaching; but in no place is it so wonderfully expressed at a feeling level as in these verses.
Orgasm is the organism’s mechanism for terminating its pleasure when a certain threshold is reached. By training and practice, one can learn to accept higher and higher thresholds of pleasure. This training serves one well in the course of aspiration.
This gives a second practice of the day: Being mindful of those times when we would cut off pleasure, cut off energy flow in different ways by our actions, thoughts, body position, or whatever, and relaxing through it.
Crowley's comment on v. 68 should serve as encouragement to aspirants:
@AC in NC said
"It is remarkable that this extraordinary experience has practically no effect upon the normal consciousness of the Beast. “Intoxicate the inmost, o my God” Liber LXV, 1:64] - and it was His Magical Self, 666, that was by this ecstasy initiated. It needed years for this light to dissolve the husks of accident that shrouded his true seed."
-
@Jim Eshelman said
"(By the way, these verses are very useful for some kinds of talismans dealing with work.)"
Love your teasers. Care to elaborate?
-
@gmugmble said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"(By the way, these verses are very useful for some kinds of talismans dealing with work.)"Love your teasers. Care to elaborate?"
Oh, nothing meant to be obscure there. - When making a talisman, a traditional method is to find a scriptural or other inspirational phrase to paint around the outside rim. I only meant by the above that, once upon a time, I used "Work, & be our bed in working!" for this purpose on a talisman to get employment.