Hadit; the Winged Secret Flame

Referencing Liber AL vel Legis sub figura CCXX, the Old Comment (1912), the New Comment (c. 1921), and the Djeridensis Commentary (c.1923), I've identified verses from The Book of the Law I feel are of illumination when attempting to understand the nature of Hadit and including the commentary I found relevant.

3. In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.

6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.
7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go.
8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.

Chapter Two

1. Nu! the hiding of Hadit.

The Old Comment: "Cf." I. 1. [Had! the manifestation of Nuit.] As Had, the root of Hadit, is the manifestation of Nuit, so Nu, the root of Nuit, is the hiding of Hadit.
The New Comment: We see again set forth the complementary character of Nuith and Hadith. Nu conceals Had because He is Everywhere in the Infinite, and She manifests Him for the same reason. See verse 3. Every Individual manifests the Whole; and the Whole conceals every Individual. The Soul interprets the Universe; and the Universe veils the Soul. Nature understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her units; and the Consciousness loses its sense of separateness by dissolution in Her.
There has been much difficulty in the orthography (in sacred languages) of these names. Nu is clearly stated to be 56, ‪נו‬; but Had is only hinted obscurely. This matter is discussed later more fully; verses 15 and 16.
The Djeridensis Comment: Nu conceals Hadit, for she gives Form to That which is, shewing forth Its nature in all Ways that may be.

2. Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and Khabs is the name of my House.

The Old Comment: Nuit is Infinite Extension; Hadit Infinite Contraction. Khabs is the House of Hadit, even as Nuit is the house of the Khu, and the Khabs is in the Khu (I, 8). These theologies reflect mystic experiences of Infinite Contraction and Expansion, while philosophically they are the two opposing Infinites whose interplay gives Finity.
The New Comment: Khabs—'a star'—is an unit of Nuit, and therefore Nuit Herself. This doctrine is enormously difficult of apprehension, even after these many years of study.
Hadit is the 'core of every star,' verse 6. He is thus the Impersonal Identity within the Individuality of 'every man and every woman.'
He is 'not extended;' that is, without condition of any sort in the metaphysical sense. Only in the highest trances can the nature of these truths be realized. It is indeed a suprarational experience not dissimilar to those characteristic of the "Star-Sponge" Vision previously described that can help us here. The trouble is that the truth itself is unfitted to the dualistic reason of "normal" mankind. Hadit seems to be the principle of Motion which is everywhere, yet is not extended in any dimension except as it chances to combine with the "Matter" which is Nuit. There can evidently be no manifestation apart from this conjunction. A "Khabs" or Star is apparently any nucleus where this conjunction has taken place. The real philosophical difficulty about this cosmogony is not concerned with any particular equation, or even with the Original Equation. We can understand x = ab, x = a, b, & c; and also 0° = pa + qb, whether pa - qb = 0 or not. But we ask how the homogeneity of both Nuit and Hadit can ever lead to even the illusion of "difference." The answer appears to be that this difference appears naturally with the self-realization of Nuit as the totality of possibilities; each of these, singly and in combination, is satisfied or set in motion by Hadit, to compose a particular manifestation. 0° could possess no signification at all, unless there were diverse dimensions wherein it had no extension. "Nothing" means nothing save from the point of view of "Two," just as "Two" is monstrous unless it is seen as a mode of "Nothing."
The above explanation appears somewhat disingenuous, since there is no means whatever of distinguishing any Union H + N = R from another. We must postulate a further stage. R (Ra-Hoor-Khuit) Kether, Unity, is always itself; but we may suppose that a number of such homogeneous positive manifestations may form groups differing from each other as to size and structure so as to create the illusion of diversity.
The Djeridensis Comment: He summons all to learn the other half of the Secret Truth of Nature. She is one extreme without limit, he is the other. He hath no Nature of His own, for He is that to which all Events occur. His House, that is, the sphere of his action, is called Khabs, a Star. This is the Light which He conceals about Him through His Deeds of Love for Her, so that there may appear in glory the Record of those Works which pertain to any Point in Space.

3. In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.

The Old Comment: A further development of higher meaning. In phrasing this verse suggests an old mystical definition of God: "He Whose centre is everywhere and Whose circumference nowhere."
The New Comment: This is again interesting as throwing light on the thesis; Every man and every woman is a star. There is no place soever that is not a Centre of Light.
This Truth is to be realised by direct perception, not merely by intellection. It is axiomatic; it cannot be demonstrated. It is to be assimilated by experience of the Vision of the "Star-Sponge."
The Djeridensis Comment: Hadit is any Point that may be chosen; He is thus in all places alike; while She, being all that may be, hath no limit, and cannot be numbered.

4. Yet she shall be known & I never.

The Old Comment: The circumference of Nuit touches Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Kether; but her centre Hadit is for ever concealed above Kether. Is not Nu the "Hiding" of Hadit, and Had the "Manifestation" of Nuit? [I later, Sun in Libra, An VII., dislike this note; and refer the student to Liber XI. and Liber DLV.]
The New Comment: See later, verse 13, "Thou (i.e. the Beast, who is here the Mask, or "per-sona," of Hadit) wast the knower." Hadit possesses the power to know, Nuit that of being known. Nuit is not unconnected with the idea of Nibbana, the "Shoreless Sea," in which Knowledge is Not.
Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her, She being an object of knowledge; but He is not knowable, for He is merely that part of Her which She formulates in order that She may be known.
The Djeridensis Comment: She is known, as He goeth on His Way, and doth His Will; each Event adds to His Knowledge of Her Nature. He cannot be known, for He hath no parts whereby to define Him.

6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.

The Old Comment: Hadit is the Ego or Atman in everything, but of course a loftier and more secret thing than anything understood by the Hindus. And of course the distinction between Ego and Ego is illusion. Hence Hadit, who is the life of all that is, if known, becomes the death of that individuality.
The New Comment: It follows that, as Hadit can never be known, there is no death. The death of the individual is his awakening to the impersonal immortality of Hadit. This applies less to physical death than to the Crossing of the Abyss; for which see Liber 418, Fourteenth Aethyr. One may attain to be aware that one is but a particular 'child' of the Play of Hadit and Nuit; one's personality is then perceived as being a disguise. It is not only not a living thing, as one had thought; but a mere symbol without substance, incapable of life. It is the conventional form of a certain cluster of thoughts, themselves the partial and hieroglyphic symbols of an 'ego.' The conscious and sensible 'man' is to his Self just what the printed letters on this page are to me who have caused them to manifest in colour and form. They are arbitrary devices for conveying my thought; I could use French or Greek just as well. Nor is this thought, here conveyed, more than one ray of my Orb; and even that whole Orb is but the garment of Me. The analogy is precise; therefore when one becomes "the knower," it involves the 'death' of all sense of the Ego. One perceives one's personality precisely as I now do these printed letters; and they are forgotten, just as, absorbed in my thought, the trained automatism of my mind and body expresses that thought in writing, without attention on my part, still less with identification of the extremes involved in the process.
The Djeridensis Comment: Hadit resumes His account of His Nature. That Nature being what it is, it must be set forth in many symbols. He is the Fire-life behind the motion of living, and the Point about which every Star is centred. He is thus Any Point-of-View, any Centre to which all Events may be measured. He is life itself in its Essence, and He causes Life to appear to itself. For this reason is the knowledge of Him the knowledge of Death, since the meaning of Life implies death. Hadit saith "the knowledge of me": this is not against His former word that He shall be known never. It means only that death is one of the Events that must needs be known as soon as the nature of Life is known.

7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

The Old Comment: Hadit is both the Maker of Illusion and its destroyer. For though His interplay with Nuit results in the production of the Finite, yet His withdrawing into Himself is the destruction thereof.
"The axle of the wheel," another way of saying that He is the Core of Things.
"The cube in the Circle." "Cf." Liber 418, 'The Vision and the Voice', 30th AEthyr.
"Come unto me" is a foolish word; for it is I that go. That is, Hadit is everywhere; yet, being sought, he flies. The Ego cannot be found, as meditation will show.
The New Comment: "It is I that go." The Book Aleph must be consulted for a full demonstration of this truth. We may say briefly that Hadit is Motion, that is, Change or 'Love.' The symbol of Godhead in Egypt was the Ankh, which is a sandal-strap, implying the Power to Go; and it suggests the Rosy Cross, the Fulfilment of Love, by its shape.
The Wheel and the Circle are evidently symbols of Nuith; this sentence insists upon the conception of Lingam-Yoni. But beyond the obvious relation, we observe two geometrical definitions. The axle is a cylinder set perpendicularly to the plane of the wheel; thus Hadit supplies the third dimension to Nuith. It suggests that Matter is to be conceived as Two-dimensional; that is, perhaps, as possessed of two qualities, extension and potentiality. To these Hadit brings motion and position. The wheel moves; manifestation now is possible. Its perception implies three-dimensional space, and time. But note that the Mover is himself not moved. The "cube in the circle" emphasizes this question of dimensions. The cube is rectilinear (therefore phallic no less than the axle); its unity suggests perfection projected as a "solid" for human perception; its square faces affirm balance, equity, and limitation; its six-sidedness sets it among the solar symbols. It is thus like the Sun in the Zodiac, which is no more than the field for His fulfilment in His going. He, by virtue of his successive relations with each degree of the circle, clothes Himself with an appearance of "Matter in Motion," although absolute motion through space is a meaningless expression (Eddington, Op, cit.). None the less, every point in the cube -- there are 2 of them -- has an unique relation with every point in the circle exactly balanced against an equal and opposite relation. We have thus Matter that both is and is not, Motion that both moves and moves not, interacting in a variety of ways which is infinite to manifest individuals, each of which is unlike any other, yet is symmetrically supported by its counterpart. Note that even at the centre of gravity of the cube no two rays are identical except in mere length. They differ as to their point of contact with the circle, their right ascension, and their relation with the other points of the cube.
Why is Nuith restricted to two dimensions? We usually think of space as a sphere. "None ---- and two:" extension and potentiality are Her only projections of Naught. It is strange, by the way to find that modern mathematics says "Spherical space is not very easy to imagine" (Eddington, Op.cit.p.158) and prefers to attribute a geometrical form whose resemblance to the Kteis is most striking. For Nuit is, philosophically speaking, the archetype of the Kteis, giving appropriate Form to all Being, and offering every possibility of fulfilment of every several point that it envelops. But Nuith cannot be symbolized as three-dimensional, in our system; each unit has position by three spatial, and one temporal, coordinates. It cannot exist, in our consciousness, with less, as a reality. Each 'individual' must be a 'point-interval;' he must be the product of some part of the Matter of Nuit (with special energies) determined in space by his relations with his neighbours, and in time by his relations with himself.
It is evidently "a foolish word" for Hadit to say "Come unto me," as did Nuit naturally enough, meaning "Fulfil thy possibilities;" for who can "come unto" Motion itself, who draw near unto that which is in very truth his innermost identity?
The Djeridensis Comment: Hadit is the Magician: that is, one who causes phantoms to arise: for all His Works with Nuit are but emblems chosen to show forth His Nature as it takes this Form or that, at its pleasure. He is the Exorcist: His Oath hath this Virtue, to drive away those phantoms as soon as their work is done, lest they be taken for things real. For all events are but tokens of His Being, as it appears in union with one or other form of Nuit, and in themselves but symbols. Hadit is that about whom all Events move. He is the Real, straight, square, and solid, in the midst of Perfection, which is none the less curved (that is, of female nature) equal at all points from Him, and real to thought, not to sense. He, being moved by each Event, goeth ever, and saith not `Come unto me,' that Word of his Bride Nuit.

8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.

The Old Comment: He is symbolised by Harpocrates, crowned child upon the lotus, whose shadow is called Silence.
Yet His Silence is the Act of Adoration; not the dumb callousness of heaven toward man, but the supreme ritual, the Silence of the supreme Orgasm, the stilling of all Voices in the perfect rapture.
Hence we pass naturally and easily to the sublime optimism of Verse.
The New Comment: Harpocrates is also the Dwarf-Soul, the Secret Self of every man, the Serpent with the Lion's Head. Now Hadit knows Nuit by virtue of his 'Going' or 'Love.' It is therefore wrong to worship Hadit; one is to be Hadit, and worship Her. This is clear even from His instruction "To worship me" in verse 22 of this chapter. Confer, Cap.I, v.9. We are exhorted to offer ourselves unto Nuit, pilgrims to all her temples. It is bad Magick to admit that one is other than One's inmost self. One should plunge passionately into every possible experience; by doing so one is purged of those personal prejudices which we took so stupidly for ourselves, though they prevented us from realizing our true Wills and from knowing our Names and Natures. The Aspirant must well understand that it is no paradox to say that the Annihilation of the Ego in the Abyss is the condition of emancipating the true Self, and exalting it to unimaginable heights. So long as one remains "one's self," one is overwhelmed by the Universe; destroy the sense of self, and every event is equally an expression of one's Will, since its occurrence is the resultant of the concourse of the forces which one recognizes as one's own.
The Djeridensis Comment: Those who hold Silence worthy, and seek it, do err if they think to find therein the Truth of their Selves; for Hadit holdeth worthy, and seeketh, Nuit: and though He be Silence, is not be sought. The True Self is Silence, and seeketh Truth in all Ways of Event.

15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.

The Old Comment: I am perfect, being Not (31 LA or 61 AIN). My number is Nine, by the fools (IX, the Hermit, Virgo: Yod and Mercury). With the just I am Eight, VIII, Justice-Libra-Maat, Lamed and, One in Eight, Aleph. Which is vital, for I am None indeed. LA.
The Empress, Daleth III, the King, He, IV, are not of me, III plus IV = VII.
The Djeridensis Comment: See II:16

16. I am the Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.

The Old Comment: I am the Empress and the Hierophant (Vau) III + V = VIII, and VIII is XI, both because of the 11 letters in Abrahadabra (= 418 = ChITH = Cheth = 8), the Key Word of all this ritual and because VIII is not Leo, Strength, but Libra, Justice, in the Tarot. (see 777)
The Djeridensis Comment (15-16): Also, to distract and amuse my mind, to make me curious enough to be willing to proceed, He proposed a Riddle of the Nature of Hadit, so that I might know most surely beyond doubt that He was skilled in Knowledge of all secret marvels of letter and number in sacred tongues and scripts, lest I persuade myself that I myself had written this Book of my own motion. Therefore He shewed me Wisdom and Cunning beyond my wit to conceive, and marvels never yet known to any man that was of woman born. This Riddle, with its fellows, will I expound elsewhere, so that all men may know of a surety that not I, nor any man, but a Great Angel in very sooth, spake in mine ear the Words of His Book.

20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.

The New Comment: As soon as one realizes one's self as Hadit, one obtains all His qualities. It is all a question of doing one's Will. A flaming harlot, with red cap and sparkling eyes, her foot on the neck of a dead king, is just as much a star as her predecessor, simpering in his arms. But one must be a flaming harlot -- one must let oneself go, whether one's star be twin with that of Shelly, or of Blake, or of Titian, or of Beethoven. Beauty and strength come from doing one's Will; you have only to look at any one who is doing it to recognize the glory of it.
The Djeridensis Comment: Beauty and strength, the sense of the fitness of the object perceived as a symbol of the success of one's will, and the power of that will itself; leaping laughter and delicious languor, the rapture of joyous uprush in full freedom of spirit and the delight that follows the success of one's efforts, luring the victor to enjoy the pleasure of knowing himself worthy; force and fire, the ardour of motion, achieving one's will, and the light and heat evolved by the love under will of the Self and its desires: these are the marks of those who know their True Self to be Hadit. (Note that all these statements are hidden in the basic complex of thought which defines Hadit.)

22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.

The Old Comment: Hadit now identifies himself with the Kundalini, the central magical force in man.
This privilege of using wine and strange drugs has been confirmed; the drugs were indeed revealed.
Follows a curse against the cringing altruism of Christianity, the yielding of the self to external impressions, the smothering of the Babe of Bliss beneath the flabby old nurse Convention.
The New Comment: Drunkeness is a curse and a hindrance only to slaves. Shelley's couriers were 'drunk on the wind of their own speed.' Any one who is doing his true Will is drunk with the delight of Life.
Wine and strange drugs do not harm people who are doing their will; they only poison people who are cancerous with Original Sin. In Latin countries where Sin is not taken seriously, and sex-expression is simple, wholesome, and free, drunkenness is a rare accident. It is only in Puritan countries, where self-analysis, under the whip of a coarse bully like Billy Sunday, brings the hearer to 'conviction of sin,' that he hits first the 'trail' and then the 'booze.' Can you imagine an evangelist in Taormina? It is to laugh.
This is why missionaries, in all these centuries, have produced no conversions whatever, save among the lowest types of negro, who resemble the Anglo-Saxon in this possession of the 'fear-of-God' and 'Sin' psychopathies.
Truth is so terrible to these detestable mockeries of humanity that the thought of self is a realization of hell. Therefore they fly to drink and drugs as to an anaesthetic in the surgical operation of introspection.
The craving for these things is caused by the internal misery which their use reveals to the slave-souls. If you are really free, you can take cocaine as simply as salt-water taffy. There is no better rough test of a soul than its attitude to drugs. If a man is simple, fearless, eager, he is all right; he will not become a slave. If he is afraid, he is already a slave. Let the whole world take opium, hashish, and the rest; those who are liable to abuse them were better dead.
For it is in the power of all so-called intoxicating drugs to reveal a man to himself. If this revelation declare a Star, then it shines brighter ever after. If it declare a Christian -- a thing not man nor beast, but a muddle of mind -- he craves the drug, no more for its analytical but for its numbing effect. Lytton has a great story of this in 'Zanoni.' Glyndon, an uninitiate, takes an Elixir, and beholds not Adonai the glorious, but the Dweller on the Threshold; cast out from the Sanctuary, he becomes a vulgar drunkard.
"This folly against self;" altruism is a direct assertion of duality, which is division, restriction, sin, in its vilest form. I love my neighbour because love makes him part of me; not because hate divides him from me. Our law is so simple that it constantly approximates to truism.
"The exposure of innocence." Exposure means "putting out" as in a shop-window. The pretence of altruism and so-called virtue "is a lie;" it is the hypocrisy of the Puritan, which is hideously corrupting both to the hypocrite and to his victim.
To "lust" is to grasp continually at fresh aspects of Nuit. It is the mistake of the vulgar to expect to find satisfaction in the objects of sense. Disillusion is inevitable; when it comes, it leads only too often to an error which is in reality more fatal than the former, the denial of 'materiality' and of 'animalism.' There is a correspondence between these two attitudes and those of the 'once-born' and 'twice-born' of William James (Varieties of Religious Experience). Thelemites are 'thrice-born;' we accept everything for what it is, without 'lust of result,' without insisting upon things conforming with a priori ideals, or regretting their failure to do so. We can therefore 'enjoy' all things of sense and rapture' according to their true nature. For example, the average man dreads tuberculosis. The "Christian Scientist" flees this fear by pretending that the disease is an illusion in "mortal mind." But the Thelemite accepts it for what it is, and finds interest in it for its own sake. For him it is a necessary part of the Universe; he makes "no difference" between it and any other thing. The artist's position is analogous. Rubens, for instance, takes a gross pleasure in female flesh, rendering it truthfully from lack of imagination and analysis. Idealist painters like Bourgereau awake to the divergence between Nature and their academic standards of Beauty, falsify the facts in order to delude themselves. The greatest, like Rembrandt, paint a gallant, a hag, and a carcass with equal passion and rapture; they love the truth as it is. They do not admit that anything can be ugly or evil; its existence justifies itself. This is because they know themselves to be part of an harmonious unity; to disdain any item of it would be to blaspheme the whole. The Thelemite is able to revel in any experience soever; in each he recognizes the tokens of ultimate Truth. It is surely obvious, even intellectually, that all phenomena are interdependent, and therefore involve each other. Suppose a + b + c = d, a = d - b - c just as much as b = d - c - a. It is senseless to pick out one equation as 'nice', and another as 'nasty'. Personal predilections are evidence of imperfect vision. But it is even worse to deny reality to such facts as refuse to humour them. In the charter of spiritual sovereignty it is written that the charcoal-burner is no less a subject than the duke. The structure of the state includes all elements; it were stupid and suicidal to aim at homogeneity, or to assert it. Spiritual experience soon enables the aspirant to assimilate these ideas, and he can enjoy life to the full, finding his True Self alike in the contemplation of every element of existence.
The Djeridensis Comment: Hadit is now described as the snake whose virtue is to give knowledge, for all knowledge consists in the art to perceive events as each new marriage with a new part of Nuit takes place. He gives delight which is a function of such knowledge. He also gives bright glory, that is, he causes men to send forth rays of light. Man is in fact, as it were, a prism. In his dual machine the formless light is split into many colours which mingle in this way and that as the nature of each event requires. Hadit is the flame in every heart of man, and when he stirs that heart is shaken. We call this being inspired, or, in its most sacred sense, being drunken. Aiwass now flings his third great challenge at the world. He denies flatly the truth of all the teaching of the past. He tells us that to worship Hadit, that is, to cause him to stir, we should make ourselves drunk by the use of wine and certain strange drugs. So much is common knowledge. But he adds the startling statement "They shall not harm ye at all." One can but gasp; to argue in support of his statement would be beyond the power of any man. The proof must lie with time. Lest there be folly, let me say that this passage does not license reckless debauch. The use of drugs and drink is to be strictly an act of Magick. Compare what is said in the First Chapter with regard to the use of the functions of sex.
Headlong, after one challenge, Aiwass hurls forth the next. He does not even break up his phrases by the use of paragraphs. He takes it all in his stride. What is to us a huge and dreadful doctrine is to him the simple well-known truth. He tells us now that "this folly against self" "is a lie". By this he means that we must not be ashamed of our own point of view, of pretend that we ought to respect and be tender towards some other. Every true point is well able to take care of itself; if only let alone as it ought to be. Every time we try to put ourselves in the place of some other person we give up truth for fancy. We do not, and we never can, see the world except with our own eyes. The world of one's neighbour is not even the same world as one's own--even if we could assume his point of view. It is a deadly mischief to practise this form of falsehood; and to acclaim it as a virtue in the Christian fashion, both a crime and a blunder. Another lie is the "exposure of innocence." Most people pretend earnestly to be harmless. This not only blasphemes the God-head of the self but attempts to create falsehood. Deceit is always danger. The kindest, as the noblest, course is to nail one's colours to the mast, so that others can shelter beneath them or avoid the conflict, as their judgement counsels them. The social and moral code of shallow sham is the tactics of the pirate.
A further challenge now rings out. Aiwass insists that we shall use all our functions as fully as we can. We are to enjoy all things, to make them serve our Will and thrill us with rapture. We must dismiss that bogey of those who wish to treat mankind as children without spirit or wit, to frighten us into slavish service to codes of conduct which suit their own servile nature, allay their fears, or procure easy preys for their greed by the threat of some God who will make trouble for those who dare to be themselves and do their own True Wills.

23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.

The Old Comment: The Atheism of God.
"Allah's the Atheist! he owns No Allah." Bagh-i-Muattar.
To admit God is to look up to God, and so not to be God. The curse of duality.
The New Comment: This refers to the spiritual experience of Identity. When one realizes one's Truth there is no room for any other conception.
It also means that the God-idea must go with other relics of the Fear born of Ignorance into the limbo of savagery. I speak of the Idea of God as generally understood, God being 'something "not ourselves" that makes for righteousness,' as Matthew Arnold victorianatically phrased his definition. The whiskered wowser! Why this ingrained conviction that self is unrighteous? It is the heritage of the whip, the brand of the born slave. Incidentally, we cannot allow people who believe in this 'God;' they are troglodytes, as dangerous to society as any other thieves and murderers. The Christians to the Lions!
Yet, in the reign of Good Queen Victoria, Matthew Arnold was considered rather hot stuff as an infidel! Tempora mutantur, p.d.q. when a Magus gets on the job.
The quintessence of this verse is (however) its revelation of the nature of Hadit as a self-conscious and individual Being, although impersonal. He is an ultimate independent, and unique element in Nature, impenetrably aloof. The negative electron seems to be his physical analogue. Each such electron is indistinguishable from any other; yet each is determined diversely by its relations with various positive complementary electrons.
The verse is introduced at this juncture in order to throw light on the passage which follows. It is important to understand Hadit as the 'core of every star' when we come to consider the character of those stars, his 'friends' or sympathetic ideas grouped about him, who are 'hermits,' individualities eternally isolated in reality though they may appear to be lost in their relations with external things.
The Djeridensis Comment: Aiwass now takes the trumpet from his lips and returns for a moment to the nature of Hadit. It seems that the word God brought back into his mind one point not yet set forth. Hadit is said to be alone; there is no God where he is. This of course follows from the nature of Hadit as explained above. He is himself the centre of the Cosmos. There cannot be any other being to whom he should bow.

26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.

The Old Comment: The Kundalini again. The mystic Union is to be practised both with Spirit and with Matter.
The New Comment: The magical power is universal. The Free Man directs it as He Will. Leave Him alone, or He will make you sorry you tried to interfere!
There is here a reference to the two main types of the Orgia of Magick; I have already dealt with this matter in the Comment. Observe that in the "mystic" work, the union takes place spontaneously; in the other, venom is shot forth. This awakes the earth to rapture; not until then does union occur. For, in working on the planes of manifestation, the elements must be consecrated and made "God" by virtue of a definite rite.
The Djeridensis Comment: Once again, we return to Hadit. He is the Secret spring of Magick (Compare the Hindu Kundalini). He takes joy when he withdraws into himself which he does in order to prepare a new Event. These Events are of two kinds. One is the act of worship of Nuit, the other is the putting forth of his spirit into matter. We may call one the Mystic, the other the Magical Path.

46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?

47. Where I am these are not.

The Old Comment (II,47): Hadit knows nothing of these things; He is pure ecstasy.
The New Comment (II,47): Hadit is everywhere; fear, sorrow, and failure are only 'shadows'. It is for this reason that compassion is absurd.
It may be objected that "shadows" exist after all; the "pink rats" of an alcoholic are not to be exorcised by 'Christian Science" methods. Very true -- they are, in fact, necessary functions of our idea of the Universe in its dualistic 'shadow-show'. But they do not form any part of Hadit, who is beneath all conditions. And they are in a sense less real than their logical contradictories, because they are patently incompatible with the Changeless and Impersonal. They have their roots in conceptions involving change and personality. Strictly speaking, 'joy' is no less absurd than sorrow, with reference to Hadit; but from the standpoint of the individual, this is not the case. One's fear of death is removed by the knowledge that there is no such thing in reality; but one's joy in life is not affected.
The Djeridensis Comment (II,46-47): The Angel goes on to challenge me point blank as to my own soul. Failure, sorrow, and fear simply cannot exist in the presence of Hadit. His nature is to succeed, to rejoice, and to dare to cause event after event, sure of itself in any and every case.

48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler.

The Old Comment: Hadit has never defiled His purity with the Illusions of Sorrow, etc. Even love and pity for the fallen is an identification with it (sympathy, from συν παθειν), and therefore a contamination.
The New Comment: It is several times shewn in this Book that 'falling' is in truth impossible. "All is ever as it was". To sympathize with the illusion is not only absurd, but tends to perpetuate the false idea. It is a mistake to 'spoil' a child, or humour a malade imaginaire. One must, on the contrary, chase away the shadows by lighting a fire, which fire is: Do what thou wilt!
The Djeridensis Comment: We now return to those who are not Hadit. We are not to pity the fallen. The first fact about a `point-of-view' is that it keeps its place. It goes, true, but never can fall. To fall is to yield to a strain outside oneself; and that is to cease to maintain the "point-of-view" which is of the essence of Hadit. Hadit never knew the fallen. A real point-of-view cannot be shaken. Should we console such wretches? Useless. He is no better for one extra lie; and who tells that lie is false to his own Godhead.

49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg.)

The Old Comment: Continues the curse against the slave-soul. Amen. This is of the 4, i.e. should be spelt with 4 letters (the elements), אמתש not אמן. The fifth, who is invisible, is ע, seventy, the Eye. Now, אמתש = 741 + 70 = 811 = ΙΑΩ in Greek, and ΙΑΩ is the Greek form of יהוה, the synthesis of the 4 elements אמתש. (This ע is perhaps the O. in N.O.X., Liber VII. I. 40.)
The New Comment: We are to conquer the Illusion, to drive it out. The slaves that perish are better dead. They will be reborn into a world where Freedom is the Air of Breath. So then, in all kindness, the Christians to the Lions!
The "Babe in the Egg" is Harpocrates; it is his regular Image.
I am not very well satisfied with the old comment on this verse. It appears rather as if the Amen should be the beginning of a new paragraph altogether. Amen is evidently a synthesis of the four elements, and the invisible fifth is Spirit. But Harpocrates, the Babe in the Egg, is Virgo in the Zodiac indeed, but Mercury among the planets. Mercury has the Winged Helmet and Heels, and the Winged Staff about which Snakes twine, and it is He that Goeth. Now this letter is Beth whose numeration is 2, and Aleph-Mem-Nun is 91, which added to 2 makes 93. Amoun is of course Jupiter in his highest Form. To understand this note fully one must have studied "The Paris Working"; also one must be an initiate of the O.T.O.
The Djeridensis Comment: Hadit is "unique". Every point that exists is Hadit. Each one is without limit, and thus all are in the end alike in every respect. At the same time no two are in any way alike, if compared at any given point-moment. This is one of the statements of this book which involves a new view of nature--a view far beyond any yet set forth and one with the virtue to resolve every problem which the cosmos presents to our minds. I may explain the matter simply in this way. No two points on a line are the same. Their distance from all other points differs. Each line, AB, AC, etc., is unique, even though AB=A'B', they differ in respect of C'. AC' cannot be equal to A'C'. Lines drawn in two ways from a point are equal only in length; each point in each differs only in respect of any other point. At the same time, the line being supposed endless, the sum of what can be said about all points is the same. No point can claim that it is an unique distance from some other point.
Hadit is "conqueror." It is his function to make himself master of all that may be and every event that he causes is a victory. He denies kinship with "slaves that perish." These are wholly foreign to his nature. Unless one is active, one is damned and dead: and this is the curse on all slaves, on all those who yield to what they meet, that they are condemned to suffer the constraint of their Wills. The world becomes a prison for the self instead of a playground; and in a little the prison gates become the seal of the tomb.
It must be born in mind that all such beings are not real in any proper sense of the word. They are not stars at all. So far as they think of themselves as "I" they may be said to possess a point-of-view, but unless this is strong enough to persist through all Events, it is not truly a self but a phantom of Self thrown on a screen by the light of the events about it. The slave souls are in fact details of our device for looking at nature. They help us observe how a given set of events affects this or that conscious mind. They save our time by telling us what they feel and think. We may learn from them how to guide our own course.
This great curse is sealed with a solemn Amen; but the use of the word reminds Aiwass that this book must prove over and over again the wisdom and cunning, the knowledge and power of its author as of a degree beyond any yet possessed by any man. He therefore propounds a riddle about the word Amen. He suggests a secret way of spelling it which, when found, will give new life and life of a higher order to the Soul of the word. I expound this riddle elsewhere.

79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!

The Djeridensis Comment: Now there is no more "hiding of Hadit." He hath come forth in blinding light. Only one thing remains to say, "blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star" who by the "love under will" of his Holy Guardian Angel attained to break down his false self and cast it from him; thus become the Voice by which the light of truth could shine upon the night of the Slave-gods, and herald the dawn of the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child.

A∴A∴ Publication in Class D (for Winners of the Ordeal X.)
Imprimatur: {Neteru}..., V.V.V.V.V. ..., N. Fra A∴A∴, O.M. 7°= 4^□

10545. This is the Book of the Cult of the Infinite Within.
405. The Aspirant is Nuit. Nuit is the infinite expansion of the Rose; Hadit the infinite concentration of the Rood. (Instruction of V.V.V.V.V.)
15. First let the Aspirant learn in his heart the Second Chapter of the Book of the Law. (Instruction of V.V.V.V.V.)
1. Worship, i.e. identify thyself with, Nuit, as a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all-penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, and her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers, even as She is imaged in the Stele of Revealing.
   This is the first practice of Meditation (ccxx. I. 26).
2. Let him further identify himself with the heart of Nuit, whose ecstasy is in that of her children, and her joy to see their joy, who sayeth: I love you! I yearn to you. Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arose the coiled splendour within you: come unto me! ... Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you! I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky. To me! To me!
   This is the second practice of Meditation (ccxx. I. 13, 61, 63, 64, 65).
3. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as an unextended point clothed with Light ineffable. And let him beware lest he be dazzled by that Light.
   This is the first practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 2).
4. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as the ubiquitous centre of every sphere conceivable.
   This is the second practice of Intelligence (ccxx. I. 2).
5. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as the soul of every man, and of every star, conjoining this in his Understanding with the Word (cxx. I. 2). "Every man and every woman is a star." Let this conception be that of Life, the giver of Life, and let him perceive that therefore the knowledge of Hadit is the knowledge of death.
   This is the third practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 6).
6. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as the Magician or maker of Illusion, and the Exorcist or destroyer of Illusion, under the figure of the axle of the Wheel, and the cube in the circle. Also as the Universal Soul of Motion.
   (This conception harmonises Thoth and Harpocrates in a very complete and miraculous manner. Thoth is both the Magus of Taro (see Lib. 418) and the Universal Mercury; Harpocrates both the destroyer of Typhon and the Babe on the Lotus. Note that the "Ibis position" formulates this conception most exactly. ED.)
   This is the fourth practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 7).
7. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as the perfect, that is Not, and solve the mystery of the numbers of Hadit and his components by his right Ingenium.
   This is the fifth practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 15, 16).
8. Let the Aspirant, bearing him as a great King, root out and destroy without pity all things in himself and his surroundings which are weak, dirty, or diseased, or otherwise unworthy. And let him be exceeding proud and joyous.
   This is the first practice of Ethics (ccxx. II. 18, 19, 20, 21).
9. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as the Snake that giveth Knowledge and Delight and bright glory, who stirreth the hearts of men with drunkenness. This snake is blue and gold; its eyes are red, and its spangles green and ultra-violet.
   (That is, as the most exalted form of the Serpent Kundalini.)
   This is the sixth practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 22, 50, 51).
10. Let him further identify himself with this Snake.
    This is the second practice of Meditation (ccxx. II. 22).
11. Let the Aspirant take wine and strange drugs, according to his knowledge and experience, and be drunk thereof.
    (The Aspirant should be in so sensitive a condition that a single drop, perhaps even the smell, should suffice. ED.)
    This is the first practice of Magick Art (ccxx. II. 22).
12. Let the Aspirant concentrate his consciousness in the Rood Cross set up upon the Mountain, and identify himself with It. Let him be well aware of the difference between Its own soul, and that thought which it habitually awakes in his own mind. This is the third practice of Meditation, and as it will be found, a comprehension and harmony and absorption of the practices of Intelligence (ccxx, II. 22).
13. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as the Unity which is the Negative. (Ain Elohim. ED.)
    This is the seventh practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 23).
14. Let the Aspirant live the life of a strong and beautiful being, proud and exalted, contemptuous of and fierce toward all that is base and vile.
    This is the second practice of Ethics (ccxx. II. 24, 25, 45-49, 52, 56- 60).
15. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit according to this 26th verse of the Second Chapter of the Book of the Law. And this shall be easy for him if he have well accomplished the Third Practice of Meditation.
    This is the eighth practice of Intelligence (ccxx, II. 26).
16. Let the Aspirant destroy Reason in himself according to the practice in Liber CDLXXIV.
    This is the fourth practice of Meditation (ccxx. II. 27-33).
17. Let the Aspirant observe duly the Feasts appointed by the A∴ A∴ and perform such rituals of the elements as he possesseth, invoking them duly in their season.
    This is the second practice of Magick Art (ccxx. II. 35-43).
18. Let the Aspirant apply himself to comprehend Hadit as a babe in the egg of the Spirit (Akasha. ED.) that is invisible within the 4 elements.
    This is the ninth practice of Intelligence (ccxx. II. 49).
19. The Aspirant seated in his Asana will suddenly commence to breathe strangely, and this without the Operation of his will; the Inspiration will be associated with the thought of intense excitement and pleasure, even to exhaustion; and the Expiration very rapid and forceful, as if this excitement were suddenly released.
    This is the first and last Indication of the Sign of the Beginning of this Result (ccxx. II. 63).
20. A light will appear to the Aspirant, unexpectedly. Hadit will arise within him, and Nuit concentrate Herself upon him from without. He will be overcome, and the Conjunction of the Infinite Without with the Infinite Within will take place in his soul, and the One be resolved into the None.
    This is the first Indication of the Nature of the Result (ccxx. II. 61, 62, 64).
21. Let the Aspirant strengthen his body by all means in his power, and let him with equal pace refine all that is in him to the true ideal of Royalty. Yet let his formula, as a King's ought, be Excess.
    This is the third practice of Ethics (ccxx. II. 70, 71).
22. To the Aspirant who succeeds in this practice the result goes on increasing until its climax in his physical death in its due season. This practice should, however, prolong life.
    This is the second Indication of the Nature of the Result (ccxx. II. 66, 72-74).
23. Let the Adept aspire to the practice of Liber XI. and preach to mankind.
    This is the fourth Practice of Ethics (ccxx. II. 76).
24. Let the Adept worship the Name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, of the Beast, and the name of His house; and give blessing and worship to the prophet of the lovely Star.
    This is the fifth practice of Ethics (ccxx. II. 78, 79).
25. Let the Aspirant expand his consciousness to that of Nuit, and bring it rushing inward. It may be practised by imagining that the Heavens are falling, and then transferring the consciousness to them.
    This is the fifth practice of Meditation. (Instruction of V.V.V.V.V.)
26. Summary. Preliminaries.
    These are the necessary possessions.
    1. Wine and strange drugs.
27. Summary continued. Preliminaries. These are the necessary comprehensions.
    1. The nature of Hadit (and of Nuit, and the relations between them.)
28. Summary continued. Preliminaries.
    These are the meditations necessary to be accomplished.
    1. Identification with Nuit, body and spirit.
    2. Identification with Hadit as the Snake.
    3. Identification with Hadit as the Rood Cross.
    4. Destruction of Reason.
    5. The falling of the Heavens.
29. Summary continued. Preliminaries.
    These are the Ethical Practices to be accomplished.
    1. The destruction of all unworthiness in one's self and one's surroundings.
    2. Fulness, almost violence, of life.
30. Summary continued. Preliminaries.
    These are the Magick Arts to be practised.
    1. During the preparation, perform the Invocations of the Elements.
    2. Observe the Feasts appointed by the A∴ A∴
31. Summary continued. The actual Practice.
    1. Procure the suitable intoxication.
    2. As Nuit, contract thyself with infinite force upon Hadit.
32. Summary continued. The Results.
    1. Peculiar automatic breathing begins.
    2. A light appears.
    3. Samadhi of the two Infinites within aspirant.
    4. Intensification of 3 on repetition.
    5. Prolongation of life.
    6. Death becomes the climax of the practice.
33. Summary concluded.
    These are the practices to be performed in token of Thanksgiving for success.
    1. Aspiration to Liber XI.
    2. Preaching of Θελημα to mankind.
    3. Blessing and Worship to the prophet of the lovely Star.