[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
VI
Physical limitations
It is desirable that you should discover for yourself your physical limitations.
To this end ascertain for how many hours you can subsist without food or drink before your working
capacity is seriously interfered with.
Ascertain how much alcohol you can take, and what forms of drunkenness assail you.
Ascertain how far you can walk without once stopping; likewise with dancing, swimming, running, etc.
Ascertain for how many hours you can do without sleep.
Test your endurance with various gymnastic exercises, club swinging, and so on.
Ascertain for how long you can keep silence.
Investigate any other capacities and aptitudes which may occur to you.
Let all these things be carefully and conscientiously recorded; for according to your powers will it be
demanded of you.
VII
A Course of Reading
The object of most of the foregoing practices will not at first be clear to you; but at least (who will deny
it?) they have trained you in determination, accuracy, introspection, and many other qualities which
are valuable to all men in their ordinary avocations, so that in no case will your time have been wasted.
That you may gain some insight into the nature of the Great Work which lies beyond these elementary
trifles, however, we should mention that an intelligent person may gather more than a hint of its
nature from the following books, which are to be taken as serious and learned contributions to the
study of Nature, though not necessarily to be implicitly relied upon.
The Yi King (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.)
The Tao Teh King (S.B.E. Series.)
Tannhauser, by A. Crowley.
The Upanishads.
The Bhagavad-Gita.
The Voice of the Silence.
Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda.
The Shiva Sanhita.
The Aphorisms of Patanjali.
The Sword of Song.
The Book of the Dead.
Rituel et Dogme de la Haute Magie.
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
The Goetia.
The Hathayoga Pradipika.
The Spiritual Guide of Molinos.
Erdmann s History of Philosophy.
The Star in the West (Captain Fuller).
The Dhammapada (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press).
The Questions of King Milinda (S.B.E. Series).
777 vel Prolegomena, etc..
Varieties of Religious Experience (James).
Kabbala Denudata.
Konx Om Pax.
Careful study of these books will enable the pupil to speak in the language of his master, and facilitate
communications with him.
The pupil should endeavour to discover the fundamental harmony of these very varied works; for this
purpose he will find it best to study the most extreme divergencies side by side.
He may at any time that he wishes apply for examination in this course of reading.
During the whole of this elementary study and practice he will do wisely to seek out and attach himself to,
a master, one competent to correct him and advise him. Nor should he be discouraged by the difficulty
of finding such a person.
Let him further remember that he must in no wise rely upon, or believe in, that master. He must rely
entirely upon himself, and credit nothing whatever but that which lies within his own knowledge and
experience.
As in the beginning, so at the end, we here insist upon the vital importance of the written record as the
only possible check upon error derived from the various qualities of the experimenter.
Thus let the work be accomplished duly; yea, let it be accomplished duly.
(If any really important or remarkable results should occur, or if any great difficulty presents itself, the A.·.
A.·. should be at once informed of the circumstances.)
LIBER O
VEL
MANVS ET SAGITTAE
SVB FIGVR
VI
A. . A. . Publication in Class B.
Imprimatur:
D.D.S.Praemonstrator
O.S.V.Imperator
N.S.F.Cancellarius
These are all halftone photos of a single human in a black Tau robe, barefoot with hood completely closed
over the face. The hood displays a six-pointed figure on the forehead presumably the radiant eye of Horus
of the A. . A. ., but the rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant over the heart. The ten panels
are numbered in white in the upper left, but the numerals are very dim even in the Ist edition (some blurred
out entirely in the Weiser edition).
The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the left and 7 to 10 to the right. The
description is bottom to top and left to right:
1. Earth: the god Set fighting. Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and angled slightly outward with
weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel touching Rt. heel and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right
above head and in line with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fingers outstretched and together.
Head erect.
2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky. Frontal. Heels together and slightly angled apart to the front, flat
on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on either side of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked
as if supporting a ceiling just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of the
hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight and together.
3. Water: the goddess Auramoth. Same body and foot position as #2, but head erect. Arms are brought
down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The
fingers meet below the heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water.
4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith. Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arms are angled so that the
thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer
side facing. Fingers meet above head, forming
between thumbs and fingers the ascending
triangle of fire.
5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil.
Head erect in both. #5 has the same body
posture as #1, except that the left and right feet
are countercharged and flat on the floor. Arms
and hands are crooked forward at shoulder level
such that the hands appear to be clawing open a
split veil hands have progressed to a point
that the forearms are invisible, being directly
pointed at the front. Upper arms are flat and
horizontal in the plain of the image. #6. has the
same body posture as #1, feet in same position
as #1 but flat to the floor. The arms are elbow
down against abdomen, with hands forward over
heart in claws such that the knuckles are
touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is
done by motion of shoulders and rotation of
wrists. This is different from the other sign of
opening the veil, the Sign of the Enterer, with
is done with hands flat palm to palm and then
spread without rotation of wrists.
7-10. The L V X signs.
7. + Osiris slain the cross. Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms directly horizontal from the
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]