Sacred texts  Thelema 

The Cry of the 22nd Aethyr,
Which is Called LIN1

There comes first into the stone the mysterious table of forty-nine squares2. It is surrounded by an innumerable company of angels; these angels are of all kinds, --- some brilliant and flashing as gods, down to elemental creatures. The light comes and goes on the tablet; and now it is steady, and I perceive that each letter of the tablet is composed of forty-nine other letters, in a language which looks like that of Honorius; but when I would read, the letter that I look at becomes indistinct at once.

And now there comes an Angel, to hide the tablet with his mighty wing. This Angel has all the colours mingled in his dress; his head is proud and beautiful; his headdress is of silver and red and blue and gold and black, like cascades of water, and in his left hand he has a pan-pipe of the seven holy metals, upon which he plays3. I cannot tell you how wonderful the music is, but it is so wonderful that one only lives in one's ears; one cannot see anything any more.

Now he stops playing and moves with his finger in the air. His finger leaves a trail of fire of every colour, so that the whole Aire is become like a web of mingled lights. But through it all drops dew4.

(I can't describe these things at all. Dew doesn't represent what I mean in the least. For instance, these drops of dew are enormous globes, shining like the full moon, only perfectly transparent, as well as perfectly luminous.)

And now he shows the tablet again, and he says: As there are 49 letters in the tablet, so are there 49 kinds of cosmos in every thought of God. And there are 49 interpretations of every cosmos, and each interpretation is manifested in 49 ways. Thus also are the calls 495, but to each call there are 49 visions. And each vision is composed of 49 elements, except in the 10th Aethyr, that is accursed, and that hath 426.

All this while the dewdrops have turned into cascades of gold finer than the eyelashes of a little child7. And though the extent of the Aethyr is so enormous, one perceives each hair separately, as well as the whole thing at once8. And now there is a mighty concourse of angels rushing toward me from every side, and they melt upon the surface of the egg in which I am standing in the form of the god Kneph9, so that the surface of the egg is all one dazzling blaze of liquid light.

Now I move up against the tablet, --- I cannot tell you with what rapture. And all the names of God, that are not known even to the angels10, clothe me about.

All the seven senses are transmuted into one sense, and that sense is dissolved in itself ...11 (Here occurs Samadhi.) ... Let me speak, O God; let me declare it ... all. It is useless; my heart faints, my breath stops. There is no link between me and P . . .12 I withdraw myself. I see the table again.

(He was behind the table for a very long time13. O.V.)

And all the table burns with intolerable light; there has been no such light in any of the Aethyrs until now. And now the table draws me back into itself; I am no more.

My arms were out in the form of a cross, and that Cross was extended, blazing with light into infinity. I myself am the minutest point in it. This is the birth of form14.

I am encircled by an immense sphere of many-coloured bands; it seems it is the sphere of the Sephiroth projected in the three dimensions. This is the birth of death15.

Now in the centre within me is a glowing sun. That is the birth of hell16.

Now all that is swept away, washed away by the table. It is the virtue of the table to sweep everything away. It is the letter

I in this Aethyr that gives this vision, and L is its purity, and N is its energy17. Now everything is confused, for I invoked the Mind, that is disruption18. Every Adept who beholds this vision is corrupted by mind. Yet it is by virtue of mind that he endures it, and passes on, if so be that he pass on. Yet there is nothing higher than this, for it is perfectly balanced in itself. I cannot read a word of the holy Table, for the letters of the Table are all wrong. They are only the shadows of shadows. And whoso beholdeth this Table with this rapture, is light. The true word for light hath seven letters. They are the same as ARARITA, transmuted19.

There is a voice in this Aethyr, but it cannot be spoken. The only way one can represent it is as a ceaseless thundering of the word Amen. It is not a repetition of Amen, because there is no time. It is one Amen continuous20.

Shall mine eye fade before thy glory? I am the eye. That is why the eye is seventy21. You can never understand why, except in this vision22.

And now the table recedes from me. Far, far it goes, streaming with light. And there are two black angels bending over me, covering me with their wings, shutting me up into the darkness; and I am lying in the Pastos of our Father Christian Rosenkreutz, beneath the Table in the Vault of seven sides. And I hear these words:

The voice of the Crowned Child, the Speech of the Babe that is hidden in the egg of blue23. (Before me is the flaming Rosy Cross.) I have opened mine eye, and the universe is dissolved before me, for force is mine upper eye-lid and matter is my lower eye- lid24. I gaze into the seven spaces, and there is naught25.

The rest of it comes without words; and then again:

I have gone forth to war, and I have slain him that sat upon the sea, crowned with the winds26. I put forth my power and he was broken. I withdrew my power and he was ground into fine dust27.

Rejoice with me, O ye Sons of the Morning; stand with me upon the Throne of Lotus28; gather yourselves up unto me, and we shall play together in the fields of light. I have passed into the Kingdom of the West after my Father29.

Behold! where are now the darkness and the terror and the lamentation? For ye are born into the new Aeon; ye shall not suffer death30. Bind up your girdles of gold! Wreathe yourselves with garlands of my unfading flowers! In the nights we will dance together, and in the morning we will go forth to war; for, as my Father liveth that was dead, so do I live and shall never die31.

And now the table comes rushing back. It covers the whole stone, but this time it pushes me before it, and a terrible voice cries: Begone! Thou hast profaned the mystery; thou hast eaten of the shew-bread; thou hast spilt the consecrated wine32! Begone! For the Voice is accomplished. Begone! For that which was open is shut. And thou shalt not avail to open it, saving by virtue of him whose name is one, whose spirit is one, whose individuum is one, and whose permutation is one33; whose light is one, whose life is one, whose love is one. For though thou art joined to the inmost mystery of the heaven, thou must accomplish the sevenfold task of the earth, even as thou sawest the Angels from the greatest unto the least. And of all this shalt thou take back with thee but a little part, for the sense shall be darkened, and the shrine re-veiled. Yet know this for thy reproof, and for the stirring up of discontent in them whose swords are of lath34, that in every word of this vision is concealed the key of many mysteries, even of being, and of knowledge, and of bliss35; of will, of courage, of wisdom, and of silence36, and of that which, being all these, is greater than all these. Begone! For the night of life is fallen upon thee. And the veil of light hideth that which is.

With that, I suddenly see the world as it is, and I am very sorrowful.

Bou-Sada.
November 28, 1909. 4-6 p.m.

(Note. --- You do not come back in any way dazed; it is like going from one room into another. Regained normal consciousness completely and immediately.)

1. LIN = {Cancer}{Sagittarius}{Scorpio} {HEB:Nun-final}{HEB:Samekh} {HEB:Chet} is Chassan, ruler of Air; also, Strength. 118 = 2 x 59. 59 = Brethren (referred especially to Lilith and Samael). LIN declares therefore the Twins concealed in Heru-Ra-Ha. 118 is also "to change, pass, renew" and "to ferment"; indicating the Formula of Horus; His first Formula is that of BABALON, for He is as yet within Her womb. But see note on 10th Aire, regarding PARAOAN.
2. See The Equinox, I, VII, page 231. This table contains the names of the Angels of the Seven Planetary Spheres: Shabathiel, Tzedquiel, Madimiel, Shemashiel, Negahal, Kokabiel, and Levaniel. This seven-fold arrangement is of the Sigil of A{.·.} A{.·.} Babalon. See Book of Lies, Cap. 49. And she is the Mother of Heru-Ra-Ha.
3. This "Angel" is in fact PAN. See the 9th Aire "unto All hath she born him."
4. This "dew" is the Supernal Lion-Serpent in his Menstruum of liquid Pearl.
5. 42 is the number of the Demiurge (see Genesis I), of the Assessors of the Dead (see any book on Egyptian religion), of the Sterile Mother {HEB:Aleph}{HEB:Mem}{HEB:Aleph}, of Terror and Destruction {HEB:Heh} {HEB:Heh}{HEB:Lamed}{HEB:Bet}, of loss ({HEB:Yod} {HEB:Lamed} {HEB:Bet}), of the verb "to cease" ({HEB:Lamed}{HEB:Dalet}{HEB:Chet}), and of {HEB:Dalet}{HEB:Lamed}{HEB:Tzaddi-final}, the Earth of Malkuth. It is connected with the 10th Aethyr. See Equnox I, VII, pages 229-243, for the whole symbolism.
6. See Equnox I, VIII, pp. 99-128.
7. The Solar Child develops from the "Dew".
8. These violations of Normal Logic are stigmatic of most of the higher types of Spiritual Experience. There must be no muddle; that is the usual mistake made by most Mystics. Confused thought is the evil and averse image of the One Clear Light.
9. The winged Egg, the omniform Zero (0x) from which all positive manifestation comes.
10. This experience is perfectly clear and definite, to the peculiar type of higher consciousness which is aware of it.
11. These are those of the Table itself, read across or down, instead of diagonally, as is done to obtain the names given in note 5, p. 32. See also LXXXIV (page 231).
12. Perdurabo, the Motto (in the Outer Order) of the Seer. Even below the True Consciousness with the material and intellectual basis of him.
13. i.e. The Seer was in Samadhi; the Table had been a Veil of the Infinite.
14. Form is the conception of the Self in extension.
15. Death is the conception of the Self extended, not into the positive balanced cross, but into the negative circle (or sphere) of Nuit.
16. For Hell, see Liber Aleph. Hell, is the Secret Centre of the Self. One perceives one's Star as one's True Self.
17. {ENO:j} = {Sagittarius}. The Rainbow is connected with the Sevenfold projection. {ENO:l} = {Moon} decreasing in {Cancer}. Luna, when active, always purifies. It is the passive Moon that may be "evil"; i.e. when she reflects not the Sun, her Lord, but divers spectres of the Night. {ENO:n} = {Mars} in {Scorpio}, the type of energy which informs Vision. {Mars} in {Taurus} would cause action.
18. The Seer had begun to analyze the conceptions presented to him by the Vision. Instantly the internal coherence of its Unity was destroyed. The next two phrases show that this is a difficulty peculiar to this Vision.
19. {HEB:Resh}{HEB:Aleph}{HEB:Yod}{HEB:Aleph}{HEB:Vau}{HEB:Taw} {HEB:Aleph}{HEB:Yod} the essence of the Yod girt by Sun's tending inwardly upon it. {HEB:Resh}{HEB:Aleph}{HEB:Yod}{HEB:Aleph}{HEB:Resh} (?) = 412 = {HEB:Taw}{HEB:Yod}{HEB:Bet} = {HEB:Bet} = {Mercury}. For ultimately Kether and Sol are not Light. Light is a duplex vibration, energized by Them and is, therefore, of their Messenger, Mercury. (Alostrael's notebook has a different version from Yorke's "...energized by Them and is {.·.} of their Messenger Mercury." --- Copyist's note.)
20. AUMGN (See explanation in Book 4, Part III).
21. {HEB:Nun-final}{HEB:Yod}{HEB:Ayin} = an Eye = {HEB:Ayin} = 70.
22. The general idea is perhaps this: 70 = {HEB:Heh}{HEB:Samekh}{HEB:Heh} Hush! and {HEB:Lamed}{HEB:Yod}{HEB:Lamed}, NIght, and {HEB:Dalet} {HEB:Vau}{HEB:Samekh} The Secret. The Glory is so great that it cannot be manifested by any positive means.
23. Heru-Ra-Ha.
24. These ideas are complementary; when they combine they produce positive manifestation, which covers up the Glance of the Eye of Shiva, which annihilates all external existence.
25. The Seven spaces are the "Palaces" which contain the Sephiroth.
26. This is the foe of Horus, the Dweller of Nile. The winds which crown him are not the pure powers of Air of Libra, but the cloudy (mixed) forces of Aquarius, opposite in the Zodiac to Leo, the sign of Horus.
27. The Energy of Horus destroys indeed, but must be withdrawn to complete the work, for His rays, if left in their object, would keep it vitalized. The coherence of the broken matter must be withdrawn.
28. Harpocrates stands or sits upon the Lotus, his fortress against the malice of the Water-demon.
29. Osiris has been chased into Amennti by Horus, who follows him thither, that his reign may be established even in the realms of "Death". In the New Aeon, Death is become Life Triumphant, not through Resurrection, but in its own Essence.
30. See last note. The Thelemite does not "suffer death". He is eternal and perceives Himself the Universe, by virtue of the categories of Life and Death, which are not real but subjective forms of his artistic presentation.
31. Osiris, tricked into the belief in death, had to overcome it by Magick, the Formula IAO.
32. The Seer has erred, it seems, by translating the Doctrine into intelligible symbols. for this is likely to cause a new "Fall" into the barren kingdoms of Ratiocination.
33. ARARITA (--- a name of God, which is a Notariqon of the sentence: "One is His beginning; One is his Individuality; His Permutation One.") The use of this Name and Formula is to equate and identify every idea with its opposite; thus being released from the obsession of thinking any one of them as "true" (and therefore binding); one can withdraw oneself from the whole sphere of the Ruach. See Liber 813, vel Ararita. Contrast each verse of Cap. I with the corresponding verse of Cap. II for the first of these methods. Thus in Cap. III (stil verse by verse correspondence) the Quintessence of the ideas is extracted; and in Cap. IV they are withdrawn each one into the one beyond it. In Cap. V they have disappeared into the Method itself. In Cap. VI they reappear in the Form appointed by the Will of the Adept. Lastly, in Cap. VII they are dissolved, one into the next until all finally disappear in the Fire Qadosh, the Quintessence of Reality.
34. Those whose analytical methods are incapable of destroying Illusion. This insistence on the Virtue of the Vision is intended to encourage them to make greater efforts.
35. Sat-Chit-Ananda.
36. The Sphinx.