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THE NATIVITY OF FRA. P. THE FIRST INITIATION OF FRA. P.

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THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS THE ANNIHILATION OF FRA. P.

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
THE KING
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
THE KING
NEMO
IN the year 1909 we find the drawing together of the Paths
by which Frater P. had been travelling.
First (March 21), the conscious personal work of his life
was crystallized in the thorough establishment of his system
of Scientific Illuminism or Sceptical Theurgy through the
publication of Number I of the Equinox;
Second (October 27), he accomplished his purely human
duty without which he had no right to become Sannyasin ;
Third (April), another purely human side of his life
reached a proper climax;
Fourth (December), he was relieved of his last human
responsibility ;
Fifth(June), he was brought back completely, in full freedom,
into the work laid down in Liber Legis.
All these things were doubtless necessary as a winding-up
of his business with Earth. The result is the final Initiation
of December 3.
There is a very curious entry in his diary for January 1—
“Having left the Juggler (Standard Music-hall), ate
12 oysters=I crab=Abrahadabra, a small bottle of
N 0. III (cost 231 pence), invoked and banished
Mercury in P. Circus, opened message from Adonai.
Folly: Aleph.”
95
 THE EQUINOX
This was the way in which he would divine the forth-
coming year. He did various things of a quite ordinary
nature with an intense magical intention. He had asked a
disciple to write him a message to be opened at midnight.
The disciple, being a fool, wrote a foolish message, but none
the less inspired.
The diary continues thus——
“Sought accidental symbols while looking for a black
woman to represent Binah ” (to which he was aspiring).
“Entered by chance, firstly, Queen’s Hotel [can this.
refer to Binah ?] and Leicester.” (Leicester was the town
whose hospitality had temporarily relieved him of his thorn
in the flesh. Permanent relief followed in the course of the
year.) He did not see any black woman, but a woman came
to him and asked for alms, telling her sad story—which was
that she had been a servant who was now a fertilized free-
woman with a young male child. He took this as a symbol
of Binah in her form of Aima, the Rejoicing Mother. Further,
she was dressed in grey, the colour of Chokmah, which he
took to imply that she was the right kind of Mother, being
covered by the Father.
There is no record of any importance in the diary until
the Vernal Equinox, when the “Word of the Equinox,”
which is given out by the Masters to govern the events of
the six months, was Perduméo; and we find, in fact, that
during this six months were some of the most important
events of our history, those which finished Perdurabo.
On June I 5, he was at his Sacred House, and there con-
ferred the Initiation of Neophyte upon his first probationer.
The event of June 28 is so important that a little pre-
(96
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
liminary explanation is required. It has been explained with
what reluctance he moved to the obtaining of ”‫שש‬,!? Legis.
We have seen how he tried to avoid carrying out the instruc-
tions; how he tried to give up Magick altogether; how he
tried to take up Buddhism ; how he tried any and every Path
to escape the task laid upon him. He even attempted to
publish ζῶ” Legis and the 30th and 29th fEthyrs which
he had obtained in Mexico, with sceptical commentary. We
find him driven inch by inch into the Path appointed by the
Masters. We have seen him stripped Of all that he had and
of all that he was. We know, too, that he made the obtaining
of Samadhi a condition of his taking up the work, on the
ground that no one without that experience could possibly
carry it out, and we have seen this demand granted. We
have seen him hailed by the Adepts of the Great White
Brotherhood in England, as not only one of themselves, but
as their Master, nay, as the Logos 01 the Aïon. We have seen
him refuse to admit it. Ultimately, when every obstacle had
been cleared away, when the Adepts themselves urged him to
take up the work, his will refused assent, and that with
finality. “For,” said he, “ it is impossible. In my copy of the
Book of the Law I find it written ‘This book shall be trans-
lated into all tongues, but always with the original in the
writing 01 the Beast, for in the chance shape 01 the letters and
their positions to one another, in these are mysteries that no
Beast shall divine,’ and this original has been lost. Ihave
not seen it for five years.”
With this he dismissed the matter from his mind. He
would continue with scientific illuminism. He would publish
various scholarly studies 01 such works as Dr. Dee’s. What
Η
2: 97
 THE EQUINOX
he would not do was—what he was told !
It was impossible,
and there was an end of the matter. '

However, he was obliged to go to his house in Scotland

on business, and he arrived there on June I 5. Two days
later he was joined by two disciples. One of these was
interested in mountaineering, and had asked him for a pair of
his ski. Several pairs were discovered in the loft. Some
days later he determined to look, for four large canvases, on
which, nine years earlier, he had painted in their proper
colours the Four Watch Towers of the universe given by
Dr. Dee. The house was ransacked by the three men and
by the servants; no trace was discovered, and the search
was abandoned.
On June 28, we find this entry——
“Glory be to Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit in the
Highest! A little before midday I was impelled
mysteriously (though exhausted by playing fives,
billiards, etc. till nearly six this morning), to make
a final search for Elemental Tablets. And 10!
when I had at last abandoned the search, I cast
mine eyes upon a hole in the loft, where were ski,
etc., and there, O Holy, Holy, Holy! were not
only all that I sought, but the manuscript of Liber
Legis/"
It was the last straw. For the next two days he remained
in meditation, as in his previous Samma Sati meditation
in Burma and China, where his marvellous escape from death
supplied the last factor in the equation, and brought him to
the understanding of who he was and what his work. So
98
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
this strange finding robbed him of his last excuse for not
taking up the work. Here was the reason for the years spent
by him in climbing mountains. Because he had climbed
mountains he desired ski ; because he had climbed mountains
he had gone to Cumberland in the winter previous, and there
found the disciple K. M. W., whose request for the ski had
brought him to the loft. Here, too, was the reason of his
life-tragedy, for without that he would not have gone to
Cumberland at that time or gone to his house in Scotland
that summer. There was no further escape. He must take
up the terrible Karma, which he had evaded, in spite of the
tremendous pressure brought to bear upon him by the
Masters, for five years. It is Their silent dealings with him
which fill Volume O of the Equinox.
Broken at last, he went to the topmost point of the hill
which crowns his estate, at midnight, and there, as we read
in the diary, “1 once more solemnly renounced all that I
have or am. On departing, instantly shone the moon, two
days before her fullness, over the hill among the clouds.” A
pencil note in the diary, written much later, underlines the
words “two days before her fullness,” and notes: “And I
attained two quarters of year later approximately.”
The traces of this decision are now apparent when, from
August 22 to 25, we find him at Maidenhead writing
Aka! In this poem he gives a complete account of all
that had occurred to him. Beginning with some hint of the
aspiration to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel, it continues with an account of the method
of meditation, culminating in that same Knowledge and Con-
versation. The agony of the Passing of the Abyss is then
Η2
99
 THE EQUINOX
described, and the tearing away of all that he has or is,
ending in Shivadarshana. This passage is quoted fully in
the section “The Babe,” supra. Further instruction is then
given in meditation.
MARsts. There are seven keys to the great gate,
Being eight in one and one in eight.
First, let the body of thee be still,
Bound by the cerements of will,
Corpse—rigid ; thus thou mayst abort
The fidget—babes that tease the thought.
Next, let the breath—rhythm be low,
Easy, regular, and slow;
So that thy being be in tune
With the great sea’s Pacific swoon.
Third, let thy life be pure and calm
Swayed softly as a windless palm.
Fourth, let the will-to—live be bound
To the one love of the Profound.
Fifth, let the thought, divinely free
From sense, observe its entity.
Watch every thought that springs; enhance
Hour after hour thy vigilance
!

Intense and keen, turned inward, miss

No atom of analysis!

Sixth, on one thought securely pinned,

Still every whisper of the wind I

So like a flame straight and unstirred

Burn up thy being in one word!
Next, still that ecstasy, prolong
Thy meditation steep and strong,
ΙΟΟ
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
Slaying even God, should He distract
Thy attention from the chosen actl
Last, all these things in one o’erpowered,
Time that the midnight blossom flowered!
The oneness is. Yet even in this,
My son, thou shalt not do amiss
If thou restrain the expression, shoot
Thy glance to rapture’s darkling root,
Discarding name, form, sight, and stress
Even of this high consciousness ;
Pierce to the heart!
I leave thee here:
Thou art the master. I revere
Thy radiance that rolls afar,
0 Brother of the Silver Star!
Yet, immediately following this, comes the Method of
Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and an account of
the attainment of that knowledge.
MARSYAS. I teach the royal road of light.
Be thou, devoutly eremite,
Free of thy fate. Choose tenderly
Α place for thine Academy.
Let there be an holy wood
Of embowered solitude
By the still, the rainless river,
Underneath the tangled roots
Of majestic trees that quiver
In the quiet airs: where shoots
Of the kindly grass are green,
Moss and ferns-asleep between,
ΣΟ!
 THE EQUINOX
Lilies in the water lapped,
Sunbeams in the branches trapped——
Windless and eternal even I

Silenced all the birds of heaven

By the low insistent call
Of the constant waterfall!
There, to such a setting be
Its carven gem of deity,
Α central flawless fire, enthralled
Like Truth within an emerald l
Thou shalt have a birchen bark
On the river in the dark:
And at the midnight thou shalt go
To the mid-stream’s smoothest flow,
And strike upon a golden bell
The Spirit’s call ; then say the spell :
“Angel, mine angel, draw thee nigh " !

Making the Sign of Magistry

With wand of lapis lazuli.
Then, it may be, through the blind dumb
Night thou shalt see thine angel come,
Hear the faint whisper of his wings,
Behold the starry breast begemmed
‘With the twelve stones of the twelve kings!
His forehead shall be diademed
With the faint light of stars, wherein
The Eye gleams dominant and keen.
᾽

Thereat thou swoonest; and thy love

Shall catch the subtle voice thereof.
He shall inform his happy lover;
My foolish prating shall be over l
102
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
OLYM PAS. O now I burn with holy haste.
This doctrine hath so sweet a taste
That all the other wine is sour.
MARSYAS. Son, there’s a bee for every flower.
Lie open, a chameleon cup,
And let Him suck thine honey up !

Ah, boy, all crowns and thrones above

Is the sanctity of love.
In His warm and secret shrine
Is a cup of perfect wine,
Whereof one drop is medicine
Against all ills that hurt the soul.
Α flaming daughter of the Jinn
Brought to me once a winged scroll,
\Vherein I read the spell that brings
The knowledge of that King of Kings.
Angel, I invoke thee now!
Bend on me the starry brow !

Spread the eagle wings above

The pavilion of our love . . .
!

Rise from your starry sapphire seats !

See, where through the quickening skies

The oriflamme of beauty beats
Heralding loyal legionaries,
Whose flame of golden javelins
Fences those peerless paladins.
There are the burning lamps of them,
Splendid star-clusters to begem
The trailing torrents of those blue
Bright wings that bear mine angel through !

103
 THE EQUINOX
O Thou art like an Hawk of Gold,
Miraculously manifold,
For all the sky’s aflame to be
A mirror magical of Thee !

The stars seem comets, rushing down

To gem thy robes, bedew thy crown.
Like the moon-plumes of a strange bird
By a great wind sublimely stirred,
Thou drawest the light of all the skies
Into thy wake. The heaven dies
In bubbling froth of light, that foams
About thine ardour. All the domes
Of all the heavens close above thee
As thou art known of me who love thee.
Excellent kiss, thou fastenest on
This soul of mine, that it is gone,
Gone from all life, and rapt away
Into the infinite starry spray
Of thine own onn. . . . Alas for me!
I faint. Thy mystic majesty
Absorbs this spark.
OLYMPAS. All hail! all hail!
White splendour through the viewless veil 1

I am drawn with thee to rapture. . . .

Yet no sooner is this attained than he utters the new

doctrine declared in Liber Legis.
MARSYAS. I bear a message. Heaven hath sent
The knowledge of a new, sweet way
Into the Secret Element.
104
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
OLY M PAS. Master, while yet the glory clings
Declare this mystery magical !

MA RSYAS. I am yet borne on those blue wings

Into the Essence of the All.
Now, now I stand on earth again,
Though, blazing through each nerve and vein,
The light yet holds its choral course,
Filling my frame with fiery force
Like God’s. Now hear the Apocalypse
New—fledged on these reluctant lips!

OLYMPAS. I tremble like an aspen, quiver

Like light upon a rainy river !
MARSYAS. Do what thou wilt is the sole word
!

Of law that my attainment heard.

Arise, and lay thine hand on God !
Arise, and set a period
Unto Restriction That is sin:
!

To hold thine holy spirit in!

O thou that chafest at thy bars,
Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
With a pure heart (Her incense burned
Of gums and woods, in gold inurned),
And let the serpent flame therein
A little, and thy soul shall win
To lie within her bosom. Lo!
Thou wouldst give all—and she cries : ΝΟ!
Take all, and take me Gather spice
!

And virgins and great pearls of price !

Worship me in a single robe,

Crowned richly! Girdle of the globe,
105
 THE EQUINOX
I love thee. I am drunkenness
Of the inmost sense, my soul’s caress
Is toward thee! Let my priestess stand.
Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon
Mine iridescent altar-stone,
And in her love-chaunt swooningly
Say evermore: To me! To me!
I am the azure-lidded daughter
Of sunset ; the all-girdling water;
The naked brilliance of the sky
In the voluptuous night am I !

\!\/71111
song, with jewel, with perfume,
Wake all my rose’s blush and bloom I

Drink to me! Love me I love thee,

!

My love, my lord—to me! to me!

OLYMPAS. There is not harshness in the breath
Of this—is life surpassed, and death ?
MARSYAS. There is the Snake that gives delight
And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright
W ith drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine,
Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine!
These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell
Not in the cold secretive cell,
But under purple canopies
With mighty-breasted mistresses
Magnificent as lionesses—
Tender and terrible caresses 7
1

Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes;

And massed huge hair about them lies.
106
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
They lead their hosts to victory:
In every joy they are kings ; then see
That secret serpent coiled to spring
And win the world O priest and king,
!

Let there be feasting, foining, fighting,

A revel of lusting, singing, smiting!
Work ; be the bed of work! Hold! Hold!
The stars’ kiss is as molten gold.
Harden! Hold thyself up! now die-—
Ah Ah Exceed Exceed
! ! ! !

OLYM PAS. And I?

MARSYAS. My stature shall surpass the stars :
He hath said it !
Men shall worship me
In hidden woods, on barren scaurs,
Henceforth to all eternity.
OLYMPAS. Hail! I adore thee! Let us feast.
MARSYAS. Ι am the consecrated Beast.
I build the Abominable House.
The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse-—
OLYM PAS. What is this word?
MARSYAS . Thou canst not know
Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
OLYM PAS. I worship thee. The moon-rays flow
Masterfully rich and real
From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns
Chanting before the Holy Ones ‫?־‬

Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons!

MARSYAS. The last spell
!
The availing word !
The two completed by the third l
The Lord of νων, of Vengeance
107
 THE EQUINOX
That slayeth with a single glance!
This light is in me of my Lord.
His Name is this far-whirling sword.
I push His order. Keen and swift
My Hawk’s eye flames ; these arms uplift
The Banner of Silence and of Strength—
Haill Hail! thou art here, my Lord, at lengthl
Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I :
My nemyss shrouds the night—blue sky.
Hail ye twin warriors that guard
!

The pillars of the world! Your time

Is nigh at hand. The snake that marred
Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
Is slain ; I bear the Wand of Power,
The Wand that waxes and that wanes;
I crush the Universe this hour
In my left hand ; and naught remains I

Ho! for the splendour in my name

Hidden and glorious, a flame
Secretly shooting from the sun.
Aum !
Ha l—my destiny is done.
The Word is spoken and concealed.
OLYMPAIVS. Ι am stunned. What wonder was revealed?
MARSYAS. The rite is secret.
OLYMPAS. Profits it?
MARSYAS. Only to wisdom and to wit.
OLYMPAS. The other did no less.
MARSYAS. Then prove
Both by the master-key of Love.
The lock turns stiffly? Shalt thou Shirk
108
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
To use the sacred oil of work?
Not from the valley shalt thou test
The eggs that line the eagle’s nest!
Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice,
The sheer wall of the precipice!
Master the cornice, gain the breach,
And learn what next the ridge can teach !
Yet—not the ridge itself may speak
The secret of the final peak.
OLYM PAS. All ridges join at least.
MARSYAS. Admitted,
O thou astute and subtle-witted !

Yet one—loose, jagged, clad in mist!

Another—firm, smooth, loved and kissed
By the soft sun Our order hath
!

This secret of the solar path,

Even as our Lord the Beast hath won
The mystic Number of the Sun.
OLYMPAS. These secrets are too high for me.
MARSYAS. Nay, little brother!
Come and see!
Neither by faith nor fear nor awe
Approach the doctrine of the Law !

Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout,

And those three others be cast out.
Lead me, Master, by the hand
᾽

OLYMPAS.
Gently to this gracious land!

Let me drink the doctrine in,

An all-healing medicine !

Let me rise, correct and firm,

Steady striding to the term,
109
 THE EQUINOX
Master of my fate, to rise
To imperial destinies ;
With the sun’s ensanguine dart
Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
And my being’s basil-plant
Bright and hard as adamant l
MARSVAS . Yonder, faintly luminous,
The yellow desert waits for us.
Lithe and eager, hand in hand,
We travel to the lonely land.
There, beneath the stars, the smoke
Of our incense shall invoke
The Queen of Space; and subtly She
Shall bend from Her infinity
Like a lambent flame of blue,
Touching us, and piercing through
All the sense—webs that we are,
As the aethyr penetrates a star!
Her hands caressing the black earth,
Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers,
She calls my name—she gives the sign
That she is mine, supremely mine,
And clinging to the infinite girth
My soul gets perfect joy thereof
Beyond the abysses and the hours;
So that—I kiss her lovely brows;
She bathes my body in perfume
Of sweat . . . O thou, my secret spouse,
Continuous One of Heaven illume
!

ΙΙΟ
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
My soul with this arcane delight,
Voluptuous Daughter of the Night I

Eat me up wholly with the glance

Of thy luxurious brilliance !

OLYMPAS. The desert calls.

MARSYAS. Then let us go I

Or seek the sacramental snow,

Where like an high-priest I may stand
With acolytes on every hand,
The lesser peaks—my will withdrawn
To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
Changing that rosy smoke of light
To a pure crystalline white ;
Though the mist of mind, as draws
A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun
A lemon-pale medallion !

Thence leap we leashless to the goal,

Stainless star-rapture of the soul.
So the altar-fires fade
As the Godhead is displayed.
Nay, we stir not. Everywhere
Is our temple right appointed.
All the earth is faery fair
For us. Am I not anointed?
The Sigil burns upon the brow
At the adjuration —here and now.
OLYMPAS. The air is laden with perfumes.
MARSYAS. Behold! it beams—it burns—it blooms.
OLYMPAS. Master, how subtly hast thou drawn
 THE EQUINOX
The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold
Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold ;
Until I saw, flashed from afar,
The Hawk’s Eye in the Silver Star!
MARSYAS. Peace to all beings. Peace to thee,
Co-heir of mine eternity!
Peace to the greatest and the least,
To nebula and nenuphar !

Light in abundance be increased

On them that dream that shadows are!
OLYMPAS. Blessing and worship to The Beast,
The prophet of the lovely Star!
It will be seen that these various methods of attainment
are all harmonious. The Method of Meditation and that of
Abramelin are not superseded by the new onn, but made
subsidiary to it, and easier to employ in virtue of it.
It is indeed abundantly clear that these three paths are one.
The best and greatest of the antinomies, that between
Magick and Mysticism, is transcended in the Method of the
New onn.
But to return to the effect upon Fra. P. of the Finding of
the Lost Book. There is no longer any hesitation or
dissipation; as an Arrow from the Bow he flies to the mark
of his high calling.
We now find him, therefore, attempting to carry out the
work, and finding it as difficult to do so as he had previously
found it to avoid doing so; yet doing so successfully, since
he was working in accordance with the Will of the Masters,
and this Tamp/e of Solmzwz Me King was now intended to
lead up to the point which it has at last attained.
112
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
However, this account in Τhe Tamp/e (3f Solomon the King
is too clumsy, too overloaded with matter irrelevant to the
main purpose, to serve as the book referred to in Liber
Legis 111. 39. It will form a book of reference for students,
but not a popular treatise. Frater Perdurabo was conscious
of this difficulty. A further revelation through another
messenger was necessary before the matter could be brought
to asatisfactory conclusion. It is unnecessary in this place to
detail how this came about, as it is quite recent and of too
great importance in itself to deal with in any casual manner.
It must suffice that this instruction is now being fully obeyed,
as will be evident upon the publication of Part IV of Book 4.
We now return to the diary. On September 24 we
find a new password for the forthcoming Equinox—Audio.
Its sublime meaning was not yet suspected by Frater Perdu-
rabo. On November 9‘ we find the entry “ Here endeth
this diary, for I write now in a Holy Book of my Holy
Pilgrimage to the Sun.” In fact, he left London for Paris
on November 10, attended only by a single Chela. He
arrived at Algiers on the 17th, and on the next day took the
tram to Arba, from which point they started to walk to Bou-
Saada.
At Aumale he took up again the work of obtaining the
Cries of the 30 fEthyrs, to which he had not paid attention
since August 1900. It is evident that he was stopped from
going beyond that point at that time.
A study of these Crieswill explain to students of intelli-
gence the details of this Initiation, and it will be seen from the
remarks at the end of the I 3th [Ethyr that it is not possible
to proceed beyond the 16th for any one who is not a Master of
the Temple. In the 19th ZEthyr is the beginning of this
X I ΙΙ3
 THE EQUINOX
Initiation, and it will be noticed that even in the 22nd ZEthyr
the Samahdi of Atmadarshana occurs, while in the zrst XEthyr
is the vision of Kether, and in the 20th Shivadarshana,
although not perfect.
In the 19th, then, the Angel of Initiation appears, and in
the 18th, Shivadarshana, in its new and higher form—" Shiva”
being replaced by “Horus ”——takes place. In the 17th the
Initiation continues.
The Angel took him into the Pylon of the threshold in
the 19th. In the 17th he is balanced. In the 16th is the
first dim dawn of the Great Ones of Liber Legis as Lords
of the Initiation, and something of the nature of the ceremony
is foreshadowed. In the I 5th the Adept is examined, and
permission is given to pass him fully to the grade of Magister
Templi, but admission to any further grade refused.
It will be noticed, further, that this all takes place in a
Temple of the Rosy Cross.
In the 14th fEthyr 'we get the initiation itself. Fra. P.
and his Chela, who was acting as his scribe, were upon
Da’leh Addin, a mountain in the desert a few miles from
Bou-Saada. It was found impossible to reach that Aithyr,
and the Angel said, “Depart, for thou must invoke me only
in the darkness, for the mystery cannot be spoken in sight of
the sun.” Frater Perdurabo therefore withdrew from the
Vision. ᾽

It was then that a strange thing happened. Impelled by

some instinct or inspiration, it came to them that they must
then and there build a Temple to the Most Holy Exalted
One, and in this Temple invoke Him. The top of the
mountain was covered with large loose stones entirely suitable
for this purpose. In the course of an hour or so it was built,
114
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
and the invocation made, after which an inscription recording
the result was built.
This invocation was of a very remarkable character.
There had been a bar to the progress of Frater Perdurabo, a
dualism in his conception of the Cosmos. He had not fully
understood that the Universe was One, that one might in
very truth eat and drink to the glory of God. He knew that
by eating and drinking one did not necessarily detract from
the glory of God, but had not fully understood the sacra-
mentalism of the simplest actions. Now he knew that the
huddling together of unhewn stones might build a better
Temple than that of Luxor or of Karnak. He had still the
old illusion that to succeed on one plane you must fail on
another; still thought the mind more than the body, the soul
more than the mind ; did not see that these three must be one
in exactly the same sense as the Christian Trinity (as under-
stood by the truest Christians) is One. It was in the course
of this illumination that the Truth was ceremonially conveyed
to him on the Magical plane, although it was not for three
years later that it fully illuminated his mind.
This illusion, of which it is here spoken, is a most neces-
sary step for the beginner, because to the beginner his
ordinary life is not a sacrament. To him things are really
common and unclean. He must, therefore, cut them out
of his life, and hence to him the name of the Path is Renum-
ciation. But to him who would be a Master of the Temple,
the reverse applies. He wishes to remain perpetually in
Samadhi, and it is therefore his renunciation to descend
further and further into matter. He has volatilized the fixed :
now he must fix the volatile. He has ascended from his par-
ticular body to the Universal Soul. That Universal Soul
12 II 5
 THE EQUINOX
must now incarnate itself ever more completely in that body,
and in the bodies and minds of all men. He has made his
darkness light; that light must illuminate the darkness of all.
Having then received this last Initiation, this destruction
of. the opposition between One and the Many, he descended
from the mountain, and awaited nightfall.
The nature of the Initiation itself—its climax and com-ple;
tione—can only be given in the sublime words of the Angel of
the Aithyr itself. We therefore quote it in full—
᾽

T!26 Auge! reappears.

The blackness gathers about, so thick, so clinging, so
penetrating, so oppressive, that all the other darkness that
I have ever conceived would be like bright light beside it.
His voice comes in a whisper: O thou that art master of
the fifty gates of Understanding, is not my mother a black
woman? Ο thou that art master of the Pentagram, is not the
egg of Spirit a black egg? Here abideth terror, and the blind
ache of the Soul, and 10! even I, who am the sole light, a
spark shut up, stand in the sign of Apophis and Typhon.
I am the snake that devoureth the spirit of man with the
lust of light. I am the sightless storm in the night that
wrappeth the world about with desolation. ’Chaos is my
name, and thick darkness. Know thou that the darkness
of the earth is ruddy, and the darkness of the air is grey, but
the darkness of the 'soul is utter blackness.
The egg of the spirit is a basilisk egg, and the gates of
the understanding are ”fifty, that is the sign of the Scorpion.
The pillars about the neophyte are crowned with flame, and
the vault of the Adepts is lighted by the Rose. And in the
116
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
abyss is the Eye of the Hawk. But upon the great sea shall
the Master of the Temple find neither star nor moon.
And I was about to answer him: “The light is Within
me.” But before I could frame the words, he answered me
with the great word that is the Key of the Abyss. And he
said: Thou hast entered the night; dost thou yet lust for
day? Sorrow is my name, and affliction. I am girt about
with tribulation. Here Still hangs the Crucified One, and
here the Mother weeps over the children that she hath not
borne. Sterility is my name, and desolation. Intolerable
is thine ache, and incurable thy wound. I said, Let the
darkness cover me; and behold, I am compassed about with
the blackness that hath no name. 0 thou, who hast cast
down the light into the earth, so must thou do for ever. And
the light of the sun shall not shine upon thee, and the moon
shall not lend thee of her lustre, and the stars shall be hidden,
because thou art passed beyond these things, beyond the need
of these things, beyond the desire Of these things.
What I thought were shapes of rocks, rather felt than
seen, now appear to be veiled Masters, sitting absolutely still
and silent. Nor can any one be distinguished from the
others.
`

.
.

And the Angel sayeth: Behold where thine Angel hath

led thee! Thou didst ask fame, power and pleasure, health
and wealth and love, and strength, and length of days. Thou
didst hold life with eight tentacles, like an octopus. Thou
didSt seek‘the four powers and the seven delights and the
twelve emancipations and the two and twenty privileges and
the nine and forty Manifestations, and lo! thou art become as
one of These. Bowed are their backs, whereon resteth the
117
 THE EQUINOX
Universe. Veiled are their faces, that have beheld the glory
.Ineffable.
These adepts seem like Pyramids—~their hoods and robes
are like Pyramids.
And the Angel sayeth: Verily is the pyramid a Temple
of Initiation. Verily also is it a tomb. Thinkest thou that
there is life within the Masters of the Temple, that sit
hooded, encamped upon the sea? Verily, there is no life in
them. ,.

Their sandals were the pure light, and they have taken
them from their feet and cast them down through the abyss,
for this fEthyr is holy ground.
Herein no forms appear, and the vision of God face to
face, that is tfansrnuted in the Athanor called dissolution, or
hammered into one in the forge of meditation, is in this place
but a blasphemy and a mockery.
And the Beatific Vision is no more, and the glory of the
Most High is no more. There is no more knowledge. There
is no more bliss. There is no more power. There is no
more beauty. For this is the Palace of Understanding: for
thou art one with the Primeval things.
Drink in the myrrh of my speech, that is bruised with the
gall of the roc, and dissolved in the ink of the cuttle-fish,
and perfumed with the deadly nightshade.
This is thy wine, who wast drunk upon the wine of
Iacchus. And for bread shalt thou eat salt, O thou on the
corn of Ceres that didst wax fat! For as pure being is pure
nothing, so is pure wisdom pure . . . 1 and so is pure
understanding silence, and stillness, and darkness. The eye
1 I suppose that only a Magus could have heard this word.
118
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
is called seventy, and the triple Aleph, whereby thou perceivest
it, divideth into the number of the terrible word that is the
Key of the Abyss.
I am Hermes, that am sent from the Father to expound
all things discreetly in these the last words that thou shalt
hear before thou take thy seat among these whose eyes are
sealed up, and whose ears are stopped, and whose mouths are
clenched, who are folded in upon themselves, the liquor of
whose bodies is dried up, so that nothing remains but a little
pyramid of dust.
And that bright light of comfort, and that piercing sword
of truth, and all that power and beauty that they have made
of themselves, is cast from them, as it is written, “ I saw
Satan like lightning fall from Heaven.” And as a flaming
sword is it dropt through the abyss, where the four beasts
keep watch and ward. And it appeareth in the heaven of
Jupiter as a morning star, or as an evening star. And the
light thereof shineth even unto the earth, and bringeth hope
and help to them that dwell in the darkness of thought, and
drink of the poison of life. Fifty are the gates of under-
standing, and one hundred and six are the seasons thereof.
And the name of every season is death.
During all this speech, the figure of the angel has
dwindled and flickered, and now it is gone out.
And I come back in the body, rushing like a flame in a
great wind. And the shew-stone has become warm, and in it
is its own light.
Bou-saaa'a, ‫?!)»ששמ‬ 3, 1909. 9. 50—1 1.15 ?.(/!.
Comment on this cry can but profane it, yet it is
necessary to emphasize the very peculiar nature of the attain-
119
 THE EQUINOX
ment of this grade. In all previous grades the nature of‘ the
Initiation has been light through darkness.’ In this it is dark-
ness through light. The word of the Adept was L V X,
Light. The word of the Master of the Temple is N OX,
Night. This is the Night of Pan. The direction of the Path
is definitely changed. The Master of the Temple cannot go
to the Magus unless bringing the Neophyte himself in his
hand, and in this task there is no consolation, as there has
always been before. The visions are no more. Silence and
stillness and darkness rule the grade. The Adept has through-
out his progress been unifying himself. As it is written in
Lz'ber CCCXXXIII, Chapter III, the Brothers of A
women ; the Aspirants to A A are men.
A
The Master
are

of the Temple has given birth to a child, which child appears

as an Adept among men. But that which was the Adept
is but a little pile of dust. Samadhi has been attained once
and for all. The process is complete and permanent. The
Great Work is accomplished. The new Great Work is pro—
claimed. He has finished with Solve. He must begin
Coagula.
In the I 3th fEthyr the Initiation continues. The Initiate
obtains his reward, and that reward is to understand all, yet
to labour in the darkness without hope of reward. Now,
however, we come to the 12th ZEthyr, wherein is the second
mystery of the reward, of which the key is the word N Ο Χ.
BABALON, the Lady of the City of the Pyramids, is
revealed. ,

In Liber VH is the first utterance of the Master of the

Temple, and this book should be studied by those who seek a
further understanding.
r20
 ΓΗΕ TEMPLE OF SOLOMON ΤΗΕ KING
Such15 the first part of the Ritual of Initiation.
In the second part the Master15 made to understand what
is that Abyss which he has passed.
In the 11th fEthyr he comes to the fortress upon the
frontier of the Abyss, and is there prepared for the crossing of
the Abyss. Every drop of his blood is taken for the cup of
BABALON. The Candidate asks, “Is there not the Holy
Guardian Angel ? " And the answer is given, “ My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It is the last word of
the fEthyr. And of all the horror of the Abyss, that
is the one word that yet chills his blood as he
remembers it
Now then, in the 10th ‫ ?!שתכמב‬is given the Abyss. The
Candidate is identified with the horror of that Abyss. Had
not the Master already passed the Abyss, as it were, un-
officially, he could not have endured this crystallization of it
into name and form.
In the 9th fEthyr comes a further ”reward a further under-
standing of the task. And the first indication that he has
really passed the Abyss on all planes is that there is no
longer any curse. All is blessing. There is a secret
meaning, a blessing in everything- And this is his reward—-
the Daughter of BABALON the beautiful. She is the pure
soul, glorified by virtue of his attainment.
᾽

.In the 8th !Ethyr this is continued. The Master becomes

a Holy Guardian Angel unto another, the Bridegroom of
his Bride. This marriage is now'accomplished in the 7th
Aithyr.
There is Samadhi, but now no longer from below, but
from above.
I21
 THE EQUINOX
The reward of Understanding is further granted in the
remaining fEthyrs.
In the 6th there is a shadowing forth of the Grade of
Magus. And with this closes this part of the Initiation.
Now then, in the 5th AEthyr, comes the final reception.
And after this reception among the Brothers of the Silver Star
comes the Vision of the Arrow.
In the 4th AEthyr, the nature of the Great Work which
the Master of the Temple must accomplish is shown more
fully. The Holy Guardian Angel presents his Bride to the
Mother, who presents her to the Father. One may remark that
it is necessary to be a Master of the Temple before anything
like a full understanding of these mysteries can be attained.
In the 3rd [Ethyr the Guards to the further Grades are
exhibited.
Now it may be asked, “What has become of the blood of
the Adept which was put into the cup of BABALON, for
that bloodis his life?” In this supreme Initiation narrated
in the 2nd AEthyr the answer to this question is given. The
word “ Samadhi ” is now deep down, “ an old unhappy far-off
thing.” By so much does this exceed that. In this supreme
marriage of Infinite with Infinite comes the key to the Grade
of Ipsissimus, which Grade is shadowed forth—but oh, how
dimly l-—-in the Ist Ethyr.
It— will be noticed
by those who understand this AEthyr
that when all is done there is a complete identification (on the
very last page) of that highest thing with that lowest. The
Master of the Temple is not only the dust in the Pyramid,
and the Blood in the Cup, but he is also that which was cast
down through the Abyss into the Heaven of Jupiter. The
122
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
brain reels before such a conception. And the human brain
of the Master of the Temple is but little more fitted to under-
stand this in his life as a man than if he had never entered on
the Path at all. For the Ego has been totally destroyed, and
he has nothing wherewith to bind together these things. He
is not any of these things, for there is no He. Those things
are. And of the results of this, and of how it may bear upon
the question of his advancement to the Grade of Magus, who
can say? It is not the Master of the Temple even who could
answer such a question. For, in relation to his advancement,
he is but that little pile of dust which is to burn up, and from
which shall be prepared a white ash by Hermes the Invisible.
And in relation to his true life, it is mixed with the blood of
all his fellows in the Cup of BABALON. And in relation to
his body and mind he is but a vehicle of the forces that are
beyond the Abyss. He will therefore speak, but as a man
among men, of that which he has seen and heard. But he
will not claim authority. He will not proclaim dogma. For
all that in him from which such things proceed is no more.
He will remain in the darkness of the City of the Pyramids
under the Night of Pan, sitting silent through 106 seasons,
the name of every one of which is Death, ever seeking to
make his understanding perfect, until the time comes for him
to seek that yet more fearful ordeal which must evidently 1 be
involved in the attainment of the Grade of Magus. That such
a time should arrive in this present life would probably seem
to him unthinkable. One would imagine that the Magus
must be born, not made. It would seem that no human body
unglorified by an absolutely perfect harmony with the whole
1
It was always ‘ evidently.’ And he was always wrong in his anticipationsl
123
 THE EQUINOX
of the being of which it issuch a small part could confront
.

even the Guardian of the Threshold of that Ordeal. One

would imagine that in order to be suitable for such Initiation,
the body and mind must be completely representative of the
whole of the Cosmos, a perfect microcosm. The Mind of such
an one must perfectly comprehend every phase of the Universe
without exception. It must, in the most real intellectual
sense, be equally “The buffet and the ear.” As it is written,
“A man of like passions as we are.”
It is not possible here or elsewhere, nor is it particularly
desirable, to enlarge upon such a subject. Such discussions
are as unprofitable as those Sterile controversies about the
nature of Nirvana, that have done more harm to Oriental
thought than all the rest of it has done good.
For that which is requisite for every man is the next
step, and Frater P. has concentrated His message into this
one phrase,
“ATTAIN TO THE KNOWLEDGE AND
CONVERSATION OF THE HOLY
GUARDIAN ANGEL."
All beyond that is useless till that has been done. Here,
then, the task of the writers of this book. Tlze Temf/e of
Solomon the King, may end. _

The progress of a man has been described in detail with

the documents reproduced verbatim. It is of no concern to,
any man, least of all to him, whether that account of his
attainment is accepted. What is urgent for each man is that
the message should be accepted. And this message, whether
it be interpreted in Tiphareth, the attainment of the Heart, or
124
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
in Daath, the attainment of the Mind, or in Kether, the
attainment of that which includes and transcends all, the
message itself is simple. It involves no reference to facts.
Frater Perdurabo may be a myth. The methods are experi-
mental. Faith, in the conventional sense, is a condition of
failure, not of success.
The Word has been proclaimed. It is of no avail Without
the Work.

125
 SCANS FROM ALEISTER CROWLEY’S

THE EQUINOX
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