The Starry Gnosis

The half that the Jews have includes a record of the original testimony of the stars, known to the ancient Chaldean and Babylonian astronomers. This is at the core of the Qabalistic mystery. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Abel & Cain, Abraham; these were all important historical figures whom would be claimed as their own by a Rabbinical usurpation of the Hebrew tradition. They would ultimately create a nation called Judea and mythologized as Israel. The Rabbinal uprising was set in motion by Hebrew clerics with more politically oriented goals. They would build a tradition that fosters an idea of Israel as the chosen state and the Jews as the chosen people of Jehovah. But Israel, Isis-Ra-El was actually known to the original Hebrew priests as the sky itself with its moon and sun and the ‘Universal Mind’ that was God (El).

It’s become clear to anthropologists that Akhenaten was the exiled Egyptian king whom would become known to the Jews (a renegade Egyptian sect) as Moses (the Pharoah was the historical ‘messah’ or ‘sacred dragon’ as per the Starry Gnosis) as they settled in the region of ancient Greece; later known as Heliopolis. The Rabbis essentially completely changed the nature of the oral tradition that they practiced by re-writing the Torah and committing it to ‘canon’ in order to suit their political ambition. This required an interpretation of the text by way of Talmudic law, which ultimately served to turn the attention away from the Starry Gnosis and towards secular authority that claimed a divine right to rule by force. There are known to exist, some fragments of documents that have survived yet really don’t contribute too much to any further exegesis about this once very living theurgy as it existed up to this point in history.

Adam Kadmon as the archetypal human is a reflection of ‘Universal Mind’ and thus intimately connected with the stars in the heavens. He is a reflection of what the Gnostics would later call the Pleroma. From this evolves a race of beings that has a bloodline that the Hebrews would call the ‘House of David’ and the ‘Inheritance of Abraham’, known also to the renegade tribe that would later become known as the Arab line after the Rabbinical usurpation. But the record of the stars and its heritage also moves to the East and into India as an ancient prophecy of human evolution.

Ancient prophets revealed the Starry Gnosis by drawing signs and constellations around a carefully measured sky. They calculated an ecliptic based on what Pythagorus would later bring to us as Geometry. This ring in the sky included twelve signs with three constellations or decans for each along the path of the Sun as it was measured in relation to the north pole of the earth. Each of these constellations told a story of its own nature with the Sun, Moon, Seven Sacred Planets along with other Fixed Stars of the stationary Sidereal Zodiac transiting through them in the more fluid Tropical Zodiac. But the stories of the constellations were told by the meanings of principle stars included in them.

This knowledge was received by the ‘First Ones’ who would originate a lineage that has now become known as the Great White Brotherhood. This has come through prophecy by a priestly class of holy men, about whom some say are the Nephilim, these enigmatic beings of light were the benefactors of a ‘Starry Gnosis’. These were the ‘Sons of God’ or evolved beings who had ‘become’ or evolved to a higher development in their starry nature. Indeed, they were the stars communicating directly with humanity and living amongst us as a primordial race. But much of their now extinct history has been lost to time. Still, Starry Gnosis is known through the ancient Mesopotamic cultures and is even hidden in the religions of the present day. Bullinger’s The Witness of the Stars along with Frances Rolleston’s Mazzaroth provides a thorough compendium of this ancient knowledge as developed below and developed in relation to that Gnosis that Aleister Crowley appended and furthered in his facilitation of the energies of the present aeon or manifestation of this Gnosis.

The Starry Gnosis seems also to be at least a reference source for Zecharia Sitchin’s and Sir Laurence Gardner’s research as the unique work of these two separate theorists certainly stems from the same paradigm, revealed through Hebrew, Egyptian, Chaldean and Arabic scripture. And this exegesis clearly has a message that is playing itself out in our present time and into the future as well as the past. The unfolding of the revelation of this science is made possible by the fact that we ourselves are also the stuff that stars are made of. Our electro-magnetic relationship as a race to the very stars in the sky that we see at night is intimately integrated and potently plays itself out in human history.

Therefore, true prophecy is the revelation of the impending and unfolding Gnosis told in a sky, which is of the body of the Pleroma or the ‘Universal Mind’. Its earliest prophets were the mathematicians and astronomers, philosophers and artists. As per Liber AL vel Legis, the Hebrews called it 61; the Master, Lord, Adon; the Sun or Aten. But they would begin to reduce the Pleroma to an anthropomorphic god as they began to discover the personality of this ‘Universal Mind’ through the discourse of their prophets. This would easily be perverted by politically motivated Rabbis whom would then turn the Adon into the jealous and turbulent Jehovah.

"Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen." AL I.46

These Gnostics that came together through the Roman conquest of Greece and Jerusalem and even Egypt would rediscover the Starry Gnosis; finding it also encoded into Hebrew scripture. And new prophecy was emerging across the cultural lines of these diverse groups now under Roman conquest. The Arabs would later, also pull together a strong nation from this Gnosis into the time when Europe was entering the ‘Dark Ages’. Yet they also would succumb to this decadent process that seems a natural tendency in human affairs. This Second Testament that initially restored a living theurgical culture to these people along with the early Gnostic Christians was later distorted for political purposes by a corrupted group of statesmen-clerics; Constantine and Iraneus for the Christians and the immediate successors of Mohammed for the Arabs. This sets up an astral force in the field of human consciousness, that becomes an egregore as it coalesces and takes on its own power; manifesting as a vampiric shell and holds a yoke over its creators; humanity itself.

The Gnostics would conceptualize this egregore as having taken on a personality to eclipse that of the Pleroma and they would call this being the ‘demiurge’. Its envoys were called ‘Archons’. They also recognized that the political corruption of these clerics is supported by this psychic force, which is capable of hiding the true starry gnosis from the human race. The force and auger of its personality insulates our lower astral bodies from contact with the electro-magnetic menstruum that is the ‘Cosmic Mind’ of the Pleroma…its Logos. This corrupt psychic current is termed by Thelemites as ‘Christism’ with its emissaries as ‘dupes of the Black Lodge’. The demiurge would then be as aspect of Choronzon as the great confounder, the false god and destroyer.

Thelemic prophecy holds the Pleroma as 8 or the number of the Abra-Melin sub-princes whom are the servants of Orion (Light breaking forth in the Redeemer) or the stars found in the first constellation of Taurus. 80 is also integral in this prophecy and denotes the Hebrew word for union, suggesting a union with the Holy Guardian Angel or Redeemer and with 418 (indicative of ‘The Great Work’) also being integral, and which completes this idea as it’s the value of the Hebrew letters in the translation of the English phrase: “The Word of the Aeon” (which is as Abrahadabra a union of two equivalent hierarchies; ‘abra and abra’ surrounding ‘had’ or even ‘al and la’ surrounding ‘sht’; the formula of Lashtal) and is then a direct allusion to the Universal Mind or Pleroma.

"Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen.” AL I.46

Our antediluvian ancestors bring us from antiquity, the Zodiac and the names for all the signs and constellations. This is factually beyond dispute and remains in every celestial atlas to this day. Prophecy involves learning to read this message in the skies as other moving bodies transit through it (planets and most importantly, the cherubic stars also known as the ‘Watchers’) and the fixed bodies themselves angling to differing locations on the earth in relation to the Precession of the Equinox and the earth’s dynamic relationship with the course of the Sun along the ecliptic as well as the Sun, Moon and planets in their orbit. The names themselves tell the story and the principal stars of each sign and constellation provide the details for this epic myth.

So the prophets are the ‘mouth’ (Peh-Tower of Babel) that utters the ‘Logos’ of the stars by which the sonnets of the Pleroma are sung to human race. We are the stuff that stars are made of and the stars in the sky reveal to us the story of our own journey of becoming; realized by virtue of our identification with and connection to the Pleroma. That means, we are the ‘Universal Mind’ becoming aware of itself in its constant becoming, which happens through our own evolving nature. The first half of David’s 19^th Psalm sums up this harmonic relationship quite eloquently:

The second half of the psalm radically departs from the tone of the first. In the first, we see essentially the poetic rendering of a solar worship in an astrological revelation. The second half is far more austere and righteous. It is suggested in Bullinger’s work that this psalm might have been a collation of two separate fragments of ancient Hebrew literature. We can see quite clearly, the change of tone in the remaining verses that reflects the changing of the Hebrews cultural allegiance from the Adon to Jehovah.

In this second half, they are ruled by the Lord and submit to him, fear him and need to make effort to please him. The sun in the heavens has been anthropomorphosized to a violent, angry and vindictive god that demands adulation and capitulation to its laws. And as supplicants to this ‘Christism’, their descendants to this day, are kept from the knowledge of their starry nature. The story is not any different for the Christians and Muslims, just the cultures are different. Ultimately, we come to the revelation of Liber AL vel Legis to bring again, new prophecy of the ancient and future Gnosis.

That this Starry Gnosis was known throughout all the world was eloquently delineated by Bullinger:

“If we turn to history and tradition, we are at once met with the fact that the Twelve Signs are the same, both as to the meaning of their names and as to their order in all the ancient nations of the world. The Chinese, Chaldean, and Egyptian records to back to more than 2,000 years BC. Indeed, the Zodiacs in the Temples of Denderah and Esneh, in Egypt, are doubtless copies of Zodiacs still more ancient, which, from internal evidence, must be placed nearly 4,000 BC, when the summer solstice was in Leo.”

“Josephus hands down to us what he gives as the traditions of his own nation, corroborated by his reference to eight ancient Gentile authorities, whose works are lost. He says that they all assert that ‘God gave the antediluvians such long life that they might perfect those things which they had invented in astronomy.’ Cassini commences his History of Astronomy by saying ‘It is impossible to doubt that astronomy was invented from the beginning of the world; history, profane as well as sacred, testifies to this truth.’ Nouet, a French astronomer, infers that the Egyptian Astronomy must have arisen 5,4000 BC!”

“Ancient Persian and Arabian traditions ascribe its invention to Adam, Seth, and Enoch. Josephus asserts that it originated in the family of Seth; and he says that the children of Seth, and especially Adam, Seth, and Enoch, that their revelation might not be lost as to the two coming judgments of Water and Fire, made two pillars (one of brick, the other of stone), describing the whole of the predictions of the stars upon them, and in case the brick pillar should be destroyed by the flood, the stone would preserve the revelation (Book 1, chapters 1-3).”

One problem with the interpretation of ancient philosophy today is that the presumption is that it must somehow be closer to the truth. In my study of the Starry Gnosis, I've come to see how that ancient story of the stars has always been interpreted in the midst of unfolding events within other prevailing paradigms that are as much socio-cultural-political as they are egocentrically based from religion to religion and state to state. But the story of the Stars overall reveals a dynamic Alchemical interplay of a man destroying a woman and a woman destroying a man and the serpent consistently appearing between them. It starts with Orion and ends with the revelation of the Cross, switching a plane to the Watcher Stars.

The correlation of particular stars as outlined in the study of Parans and Heliacal Risings in Astrology with relations between fixed stars both of the Watcher class and of those particularly indicative of specific constellations, reveals the synchronistic correlations that the ancients wrote to suit paradigms that they already had set in to place from their evolving mythology. For example, the Sethians and Christians read a 'Redeemer' motif into the stars to reflect their concept of the earth as dark, frozen and ugly with a spark of light trapped and in need of rescue before a human being could be 'saved'. Or the later Apocalyptics with their theology and the visionary way they presented their prophecy that was very shamanistic.

Modern events can also be interpreted. And it seems necessary to restructure the story of the stars to suit our own paradigms. If we accept the theorum that the three prophecied temples have their play in the script in the sky, and we accept that these temples were seen by different cultures in different ways. In particular, the Jews egocentricity saw specific buildings housing the Ark of the Covenant. But in this theorum, we're going to accept the idea that Egypt, Rome and the United States of America are those three temples. And further, we'll accept that there's no specific time date for the Age of Aquarius to have started. For the Rosicrucians, that age started in 1602ev and for others its still 300 years away.

This then is a view we could only possibly have at this time. Even such seeming brilliant prophets as Nostradamus could not really see what we are capable of seeing. But he could read those special movements of the stars (eclipses and sunspots as well for that matter) and developed a sensitivity to the astral plane through this work. Yet his prophecy reveals itself to us as the events they portain to unfold. This is not unlike interpreting as astrological chart or doing a Tarot card reading, it's just taking place on a higher plane, prophecy as contrasted with divination.

Now, as time is cyclic as well as linear, we have the circle squared; as per AL III.47

"This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all.

Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it."

Because of the cyclic nature of things, we can take these ancient prophecies and assume that they have relevance today, “Jesus is coming [in an Apocalypse]”, the newage predicts that humanity is somehow going to evolve on a mass scale, et al. But this is all fantasy based on ancient myth. And it is not today, reasonable to make such an assumption based on what seems the prevalence of the Judeo-Christian 20th Centuryev thought, which is the myth of our day, yet a dead myth. The living mythology is in the 'Marlboro Man' and 'Go West Young Man', the 'Rugged Individualist' and 'Social Darwinism', Technology and a dream of the Stars and of Egalitarianism. That's the living myth.

There may be many other components that the reader might come up with, but if you read the stars as an Alchemical Gnosis with that man and woman appearing repeatedly in the sky and killing each other (le petit morte) and in light of the Emerald Tablet that conceals this Gnosis, the Stars become a living seed, a eucharist. The other theme is in the serpents that enshroud the whole sky, forming the Egg within which the dwells the Serpent-Seed, the rod or branch that is the L.V.X. And the interplay of above and below needs to be told in the light of the ‘Now’. From this wisdom should spring. We are at a time where the new religions are being invented; those interesting times of an ancient curse.

Remember, we are the stuff stars are made of. We move our consciousness towards the contemplation of the Starry Gnosis. We develop the practices of our asana and the study of the Holy Books. Then we work the real energy manipulation of the Star Ruby, Liber Reguli, HHH, Resh and Will and build to the point of raising the Kundalini. We learn to sensitize ourselves and gain the power to feel it physically, handle it emotionally and intellectually as well as enrich the electro-magnetic menstruum that provides the Khu for our Khabs. From this, we are closer to the stars in actuality, burning brighter like the 'brightly shining ones', the 'Nephilim'. and we begin to attain the Starry Gnosis; the Knowledge & Conversation of our Holy Guardian Angel.

Crowley’s prophecy of the Starry Gnosis includes more than Liber AL vel Legis as it is further revealed in The Vision and the Voice and The Book of Thoth. But to be able to recognize this fact we need to learn for ourselves, the story of the stars. This starts with the four Cherubic Stars; Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut. Their primary importance over the other ‘fixed’ stars is due to the fact that at the time of the initial revelation, fixed in the Age of Taurus, they rose heliacally with the Sun at the four Cardinal points of the seasons, both Equinoxes and Solstices. As well, they form a ‘Grand Cross’ in the sky and they are identified in the sky as follows:

These Cherubic Stars have been anthropomorphosized as the Archangels by the Hebrews and characterized as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in the New Testament as well as being considered the living part of the Holy Tarot (the Major Arcana). Their portents in the sky not only mark the calendar but provide insight into the nature of events in human society as they travel through the Zodiac. Other important fixed stars include: Altair, Pollux, Capella, Spica, Arcturus, Sirius, Serpentis, Betelgeuse and Rigel. As per the Cherubic Stars, their names are derived from the constellations that they are found in. The effect that these stars have on human events has been encoded into the Major Arcana of the Tarot and is dynamic in nature. Crowley writes:

"These twenty-two cards acquire a personality of their own: a very curious personality. It would be quite wrong to say that they represent a complete universe. They do not seem essential factors in the structure of the universe. They change from time to time in their relation to current events." And he also writes: "They are rather hieroglyphs of peculiar mysteries connected with each. One may begin to suspect that the Tarot is not a mere straight forward representation of the Universe in the impersonal way of the system of the Yi King. The Tarot is beginning to look like Propaganda. It is as if the Secret Chiefs of the Great Order, which is the guardian of the destinies of the human race, had wished to put forward certain particular aspects of the Universe; to establish certain especial doctrines; to declare certain modes of working, proper to the existing political situations.

The constellations themselves are composed of stars of differing magnitudes of brightness, which are classified as (a) for brightest and with the subsequent gradations corresponding to the ensuing letters of the alphabet. We are concerned with those brightest stars as their names provide the meaning for the particular constellation that they are found in. But before we can list them we have to understand the central secret of the Starry Gnosis. This is known as the riddle of the Sphinx and is solved by understanding that the woman’s head on the lion’s body indicates that the Zodiacal wheel begins with the constellation of Virgo and ends with Leo. We learn this immediately with the 30^th Enochian Aethyr as per Liber CDXVIII (which is inserted below with my comments).

The attributions of the three letters in order are Leo, Virgo and Spirit.  It’s apparent t

hat this aethyr is revealing the ancient ’Riddle of the Sphinx’ unto the Prophet.

I AM in a vast crystal cube in the form of the Great God Harpocrates.

This cube is surrounded by a sphere.

About me are four archangels in  black robes, their wings and armour

lined out in white.  In the North is a book on whose back and front are

A.M.B.Z. in Enochian characters.
These four Enochian characters are each attributed to one of the four Cherubic signs;

Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and Leo, respectively.

The robed archangels are the four Guardians; the four Watchers; the Nephilim or

Secret Chiefs.

Within it is written:

I AM, the surrounding of the four.  Lift up your heads, O Houses of Eternity:

for my Father goeth forth to  judge the World.  One Light, let it become a

thousand, and one sword ten  thousand, that no man hide him from my

Father's eye in the Day of Judgment  of my God.  Let the Gods hide

themselves:  let the Angels be troubled and  flee away: for the Eye of My

Father is open, and the Book of the Aeons is  fallen.

As shall be shown below, we have an astrological assertion that the new (mundane)

aeon has begun.  And Bullinger faithfully preserves the data of the ancient Starry

Gnosis; though in his comments he clings to the sophistry of the Roman Heresy.  Here,

we have the judgment at the start of this new aeon; that the old gods are no longer

viable.  Translated into what can be observed, notice how in the 20th Century ev

(the astrological start of this new aeon), our religious institutions have begun to fail a

growing number in human society.  This is said by the Pleroma that is even greater

than the four Watchers, Lucifer-the Light Bringer.

Arise!  Arise!  Arise!  Let the Light of the Sight of Time be extinguished: let

the Darkness cover all things:  for my Father goeth forth to seek a spouse

to replace her who is fallen and defiled.

The seed is that which cometh from Our Lady Babalon and the Cup of her fornication.

Seal the book with the seals of the Stars Concealed: for the Rivers  have

rushed together and the Name IHVH is broken in a thousand pieces

(against the Cubic Stone).

This is a prophecy to overthrow the demiurge Jehovah (IHVH)

Tremble ye, O Pillars of the Universe, for Eternity is in travail of a Terrible

Child; she shall bring forth an universe of Darkness, whence shall leap

forth a spark that shall put his father to flight.

And the Son awakens the Eld of the older King.  The spark is Lucifer Rising as the

Terrible Child issued from the Dark Goddess.  The issue is of revenge and not

redemption as per the old aeon.

The Obelisks are broken; the stars have rushed together: the Light hath

plunged into the Abyss:  the Heavens are mixed with Hell.  My Father shall

not hear their Noise:  His ears are closed:  His eyes  are covered with the

clouds of Night.

The demiurge managed to steal a small piece of the universe to aggrandize its wicked nature and has hidden it from the eyes and ears of the Pleroma of which we are. It has blinded us. This shall be avenged…and the truth is revealed by the stars themselves in the Night Sky are difficult to interpret as Choronzon has confounded them. As per Liber AL vel Legis: "Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your time is nigh at hand." AL III.71

The End!  the End!  the End:  For the Eye of Shiva He hath opened:  the

Universe is naked before Him:  for the Aeon of Saturn leaneth toward the

The Aeon of Saturn would be the Aeon of Ma’at that is to come.  But the error that alone

can prevent this happened when the Hebrews forsook the Adon in fear of the

destructive (Shiva) jealousy of Jehovah (Saturn).  Therefore, the modern revelation is

to correct that error.

The Angel of the East hath a book of red written in letters of Blue

A.B.F.M.A. in Enochian.  The Book grows before my eyes and filleth the

Whole Heaven.  Within:  "It is Written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy

The attributions of these Enochian letters are in order:  Taurus, Aries, Cauda

Draconis, Aquarius, Taurus.  I think a key to understanding this vision is to note that

the book fills the ‘Whole Heaven’ and is therefore circular; beginning and ending with

Taurus as per the R.O.T.A. or T.A.R.O.  Thus, the stellar mysteries that were known in

the aeons of Taurus and Aries were trodden on (the meaning of the word Draco; dragon

or fallen one) in Pisces only to be restored in the present Aeon of Aquarius.  But there

is a hint of a two-fold nature to the revelation of these mysteries as there are two

inaugural constellations; Taurus and Aries.  This may be a reference to pre and post

I see above the Book a multitude of white-robed Ones from whom

droppeth a great rain of Blood; but above them is a Golden Sun, having an

eye, whence a great Light.

The Gnostic Mass makes the following conjuration:  Let the light crystallize itself in

thy blood, fulfilling us of resurrection.  So we find here a restoration of the ancient

Typhonian formula of the Cult of Shaitan.  Cf.  Scholion for Liber Sameck.

I turned me to the South: and read therein:

Seal up the Book!  Speak not that which thou seest and reveal it unto

none: for the ear is not framed that shall hear it: nor the tongue that can

This is the ineffable mystery that must be sung to the heart that is Ra Hoor Khu.

     O Lord God, blessed, blessed, blessed be Thou for ever!

     Thy Shadow is as great Light.

     Thy Name is as the Breath of Love across all Worlds.

     (A vast Svastika is shewn unto me behind the Angel with the Book.)

     Rend your garments, O ye clouds!  Uncover yourselves!  for the Love of

     Who are they that trouble thee?

     Who are they that slew thee?

This seems an overt reference to the mythical story of the Zodiac as will be shown

below.  For the Sons of Light were defeated and need to be avenged.

      O Light!  Come thou, who art joined with me to bruise the Dragon's

      head. We, who are wedded, and the Earth perceiveth it not!

Those who don’t look to the Starry Gnosis will not be able to recognize the destruction

of the Destroyer when the hour comes.  They are distracted by the weak joys of

mundane life and hold themselves in blindness.

     O that Our Bed were seen of Men, that they might rejoice in My

     Fertility: that My Sister might partake of My Great Light.

     O Light of God, when wilt thou find the heart of man --- write not!  I

     would not that men know the Sorrow of my Heart, Amen!

In Egypt, it was the political cult of Amen that exiled the cult of the Aten (the Adon)

failing the ordeal as later did the Hebrews; whom descended from

them.  Thus Amen is the “Sorrow of my Heart”.

I turned me to the West, and the Archangel bore a flaming Book,

on which was written AN in Enochian.  Within was drawn a fiery scorpion,

yet cold withal.

The formula of ON (AN)  is the formula of the crystallization of the light in the blood.

And it pertains to the mystery of sex (Scorpio) and the paradox of the cold passion that

is central to the nature of the formula.

     Until the Book of the East be opened!

     Until the hour sound!

     Until the Voice vibrate!

     Until it pierce my Depth;

     Look not on High!

     Look not Beneath!

     For thou wilt find a life which is as Death:  or a Death which should

     For Thou art submitted to the Four: Five thou shalt find, but Seven is

     O Lord God, let Thy Spirit hither unto me!

     For I am lost in the night of infinite pain:  no hope:  no God:  no

       resurrection:  no end:  I fall:  I fear.

The South book is open, the ancient religion of the desert Cult of Shaitan.  But there

comes to us the Cult of the Sun, the Cult of the Adon, which had failed to flourish in

the time of the great Egyptian empire and their spawn, the Hebrews.

     O Saviour of the World, bruise Thou my Head with Thy foot to save the

       world, that once again I touch Him whom I slew, that in my death I feel

       the  radiance and the heat of the moving of Thy Robes!

     Let us alone!  What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth?

Crowley wrote very aptly: “ Jesus is a Black God”.  And rightly so as Jesus is not ‘of

us’; Children of the Light.

     If I keep silence --- Or if I speak each word is anguish without hope.

     And I heard the Aethyr cry aloud "Return!  Return!   Return!  For the

work is ended; and the Book is shut; and let the glory be to God the

Blessed for ever in the Aeons, Amen."  Thus far is the voice of TEX and no

The attributions of these two letters are to Pisces and Sagittarius, respectively.  As the

Sagittarian is about getting to the 'truth', thus the lie of the Aeon of Osiris is to be

corrected.  Crowley skryed these two aethyrs in Mexico in 1900ev.  This is almost four

years before he would receive Liber AL vel Legis.  He would do the remainder in

Algeria in 1909ev; more than five years after his reception of The Book of the Law.  But

what is really fascinating is that in both places, he was in a desert under the night sky.

This method of prophecy involves direct communication with the stars.  Just knowing

the names of the constellations won’t do at all.

The sky appears covered with stars of gold; the background is of green.

But the impression is also of darkness.  An immense eagle-angel is before

me.  His wings seem to hide all the Heaven.

This seems like a perfect description of the Hawk-headed, Mystical Lord; Horus.  That

his nemyss shrouds the night sky (as per AL) points to the idea that he comes to

interrupt the wickedness of the earth that evolved during the aeon as it capitulated to

He cried aloud saying:  The Voice of the Lord upon the Waters:  the Terror

of God upon Mankind.  The voice of the Lord maketh the Skies to tremble:

the Stars are troubled: the Aires fall.  The First Voice Speaketh and saith:

Cursed, cursed be the Earth, for her iniquity is great.  Oh Lord!  Let Thy

Mercy be lost in the great Deep!  Open thine eyes of Flame and Light, O

God, upon the wicked!  Lighten thine Eyes!  The Clamour of Thy Voice, let

it smite down the Mountains!  Let us not see it!  Cover we our eyes, lest

we see the End of Man.  Close we our ears, lest we hear the cry of Woman.

This woman is Babalon also known as Gaia.  She has returned to wickedness in toying

with old sweetnesses.  This can certainly be seen as relating to the symbolism of Eve

tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden.  There was no error committed in eating the fruit

of the Tree of Life.  The error was in failing to take responsibility for that and trying to

turn the Adon into a consoler god.

Let none speak of it: let none write it: I, I am troubled, my eyes are moist

with dews of terror:  surely the Bitterness of Death is past.

Death is the symbol of the mystery of Initiation in the Aeon of Pisces.  Horus is

declaring this to be abrogate.  But he has not yet conquered these forces as he would

later claim when Liber AL is transmitted to the Prophet.

And I turned me to the South and lo!  a great lion as wounded and

perplexed.  He cried: I have conquered!  Let the Sons of Earth keep

silence; for my Name is become as That of Death!  When will men learn the

Mysteries of Creation?  How much more those of the Dissolution (and the

The Watcher of the South, Fomalhaut, is the Fish; primary symbol of the Aeon of Pisces

and the region of the desert Cult of Shaitan.  But these mysteries have been perverted

by politicians who sold out the earth to the demiurgic forces.  Therefore, it has become

nigh, impossible for humanity to learn about the Mysteries of Creation.

I turned me to the West and there was a great Bull; White with horns of

White and Black and Gold.  His mouth was scarlet and his eyes as

Sapphire stones.  With a great sword he shore the skies asunder, and amid

the silver flashes of the steel grew lightnings and deep clouds of Indigo.

It is interesting to note that Aldebaran is the red star in the eye of the bull.  Here, the

Watcher of the East appears in his full glory…but in the West?  It seems the order of

the Temple, once located in the East is now to find its place in the West.

He spake:  It is finished!  My mother hath unveiled herself!  My sister hath

violated herself!  The life of things hath disclosed its Mystery.  The work

of the Moon is done!  Motion is ended for ever!  Clipped are the eagle's

wings: but my Shoulders have not lost their strength.

Note that later in The Book of the Law, Ra Hoor Khuit becomes the vigor of the arms;

bearing the strength of the shoulders.  The gods are no longer to fly in myth, but to

wield swords in actuality.  They are no longer to be volatile; ignoring the events of

the earth.  But they are fixed or even transfixed as they are above the sight in the

ultra-violet and lower astral.  The Eagle is of course, the Watcher of the West;

I heard a Great Voice from above crying:  Thou liest!  For the Volatile hath

indeed fixed itself; but it hath arisen above thy sight.  The World is desert:

but the Abodes of the House of my Father are peopled; and His Throne is

crusted over with white Brilliant Stars, a lustre of bright gems.

This is as much an allusion the East, the place of Sol that all the other stars are

In the North is a Man upon a Great Horse, having a Scourge and Balances

in his hand (or a long spear glitters at his back or in his hand).  He is

clothed in black velvet and his face is stern and terrible.

A man upon a horse here…a woman upon a lion in another place.  It seems these are

two aspects of the one Watcher of the North; Regulus.

He spake saying: I have judged!  It is the end:  the gate of the beginning.

Look in the Beneath and thou shalt see a new world!

A new order of the Temple.

I looked and saw a great abyss and a dark funnel of whirling waters or

fixed airs, wherein were cities and monsters and trees and atoms and

mountains and little flames (being souls) and all the material of an

universe.  And all are sucked down one by one, as necessity hath ordained.  For below is a glittering

jewelled globe of gold and azure, set in a World of Stars.

And there came a Voice from the Abyss, saying: "Thou seest the Current

of Destiny!  Canst thou change one atom in its path?  I am Destiny.  Dost

thou think to control me?  for who can move my course?"

What is ordained in the Stars will come to pass.  Though we can alter our own

individual destinies, the Will of God has also its own fiat.

And there falleth a thunderbolt therein: a catastrophe of explosion: and

all is shattered.  And I saw above me a Vast Arm reach down, dark and

terrible, and a voice cried:  I AM ETERNITY.

And a great mingled cry arose:  "No!  no!  no!  All is changed; all is

confounded; naught is ordered:  the white is stained with blood:  the black

is kissed of the Christ!  Return!  Return!  It is a new chaos that thou findest

here: chaos for thee: for us it is the skeleton of a New Truth!"

The changing of the guard; the old aeon dying with the new one birthing, brings with it

its new order.  And in order to establish this, the old order must be confounded.

I said:  Tell me this truth: for I have conjured ye by the Mighty Names of

God, the which ye cannot but obey.

The voice said:  Light is consumed as a child in the Womb of its Mother to

develop itself anew.  But pain and sorrow infinite, and darkness are

invoked.  For this child riseth up within his Mother and doth crucify

himself within her bosom.  He extendeth his arms in the arms of his

Mother and the Light becometh fivefold.

Christus in Cruce;

Tarot and Mezla.

And be the glory for ever and ever unto the Most High God, Amen!

Then I returned within my body, giving glory unto the Lord of Light and of

the Darkness.  In Saecula Saeculorum.  Amen!

(On composing myself to sleep, I was shewn an extremely brilliant

[Daleth]  in the Character of the Passing of the River, in an egg of white

light.  And I take this as the best of Omens.  The letter was extremely

vivid and indeed apparently physical.  Almost a Dhyana.)

Daleth is the door, which has been opened.  And the story of the Stars is now made

available to the Prophet.

This constellation is drawn as a woman holding a branch in her right hand and two ears of corn in her left hand. The Hebrew name for this Sign is ‘Bethulah’, meaning ‘a virgin’ and which in Arabic, means ‘branch’. The Arabic name is actually ‘Sunbula’, which means ‘who bears’ or ‘carry’ and comes from the word ‘Sunbul’-‘ear of corn’. The Coptic name is ‘Aspolia’, meaning ‘station of the desired, the branch’ and the Greeks called it ‘Parthenos’-‘the virgin’.

The brightest star (a) in the ear of corn is called in Hebrew ‘Tsemech’, which means ‘the branch or shoot’. Its modern name is the Latin term ‘Spica’, which means ‘an ear of corn’ and is intimately involved in the founding of the United States of America as shown towards the end of this essay. Note also the fact that ‘Maze’ or corn is a part of the symbolism of our ‘Thanksgiving’ myth. Other stars attributed to this Sign are: ‘Subilah’, meaning ‘who carries; ‘Aziman’, meaning ‘two ears of corn’; ‘Al Azal’, meaning ‘the branch’ and ‘Subilon’, meaning ‘the spike of corn’.

Crowley writes of the Hermit Atu (attributed to Virgo, which is ruled by Mercury):

This card recalls the Legend of Persephone, and herein is a dogma. Concealed within Mercury is a light which pervades all parts of the Universe equally; one of his titles is Psychopompos, the guide of the soul through the lower regions. These symbols are indicated by his Serpent Wand, which is actually growing out of the Abyss, and is the spermatozoon developed as a poison, and manifesting the foetus. Following him is Cerberus, the three-headed Hound of Hell whom he has tamed. In this Trump is shewn the entire mystery of Life in its most secret workings. Yod=Phallus=Spermatozoon=Hand=Logos=Virgin.

Virgo is the ‘Maiden’ giving us the idea of fertility. She holds Spica in her hand; a shaft of wheat that is in itself the symbol of a seed and the bounty of nature. The three constellations that compose this Sign are:

This constellation is drawn as a woman with a child in her arms. Persian legend has it that she is a pure virgin, sitting on a throne and nourishing an infant boy. This could also be seen as the seed being fertilized in the womb. The Egyptians called her ‘Shes-nu’; the desired son. The second brightest star (b) of the Sign of Virgo is found in this Constellation (and in the part of this Constellation that delineates the infant) and is called ‘Zavijaveh’, which means ‘the gloriously beautiful’. The star (e) is found in the arm that holds the branch and is called ‘Al Mureddin’, which means ‘who shall come down’ or ‘who shall have dominion’. It’s modern name is the Chaldean term ‘Vindematrix’, which means ‘the son or branch who cometh’. Other names of stars included for the infant in this Constellation are: ‘Coma’- ‘the desired, the longed for’; ‘Al Thaum’-‘the twin, or united’; ‘Prometheus’-‘the deliverer who cometh or the branch who cometh’. Prometheus is also that seed of light; that fire placed in the heart of humanity; stolen of the gods. The names of the significant stars for the woman in this Constellation include: ‘Subilah’-‘who carries’; ‘Adarah’-‘a pure virgin, separated’; ‘Astrea’-‘the starry, the bright’.

This constellation is located the farthest south from the northern center of constellations and is situated directly over the constellation called the ‘Southern Cross’. Its Chaldean and Arabic name is ‘Bezeh’; a Hebrew word that means ‘despised’. The brightest star (a) in this constellation appears in the horse’s fore-foot and is named ‘Toliman’, which means ‘the heretofore and the hereafter’ (note the Rosicrucian’s concern with ‘whither thou comest and whither thou goest’). Another Hebrew name for this star is ‘Asmeath’, which means ‘a sin offering’.

The Greeks called this star ‘Chiron’, which means ‘the pierced who pierces’. And their fables attribute to Chiron great skill in hunting, medicine, music, athletics and prophecy. He would go on to give up his immortality for the sake of Prometheus (Lucifer/Venus-the morning star) by accepting a poisoned arrow not intended for him for the sake of Prometheus during his battle with a wild boar. The Greeks also called this star ‘Pholas’, which means ‘the mediator’. The Centaur goes forth as a hunter with a spear to slay the beast, but is himself slain.

This constellation is drawn as a man walking rapidly with a spear in his right hand and a sickle in his left hand. The Greek term ‘Bootes’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘Bo’, which means ‘to come’ and has the equivalent Egyptian term ‘Bau’. But the Egyptians called the constellation ‘Smat’, which means ‘one who rules, subdues and governs’. Its brightest star (a) is ‘Arcturus’, which means ‘he cometh; the guardian, keeper’. There is also the star called ‘Mirach’-‘the coming forth as an arrow’ and the star (e) ‘Mizar’ or ‘Izar’, meaning ‘guarding, the preserver’ along with the star (h) called ‘Muphride’ and means ‘who separates’. This is followed by ‘Aramech’, meaning ‘being sent forth, as a dart’ along with ‘Merga’, meaning ‘who bruises’ and ‘Nekkar’ (b), meaning ‘the pierced’; both located just below the waist on the right side of the walking man. Stars that then follow include: ‘Al Katurops’ (m) found in the spear-head and meaning ‘the branch, treading under foot’ and ‘Arctophylax’-‘the guardian of Arctos’.

In summary, this Sign as revealed by the story of the decans, begins as follows: The gloriously beautiful who shall come down and have dominion is the deliverer or branch who is desirous of being united with the twin who carries the virgin, separated from the starry bright. This is a perfect description of the creative process if you compare it with the theory of the Court Cards from Crowley’s ‘Naples Arrangement’. The branch and seed in the Mother carries the Son who unites with the Daughter; waking the Eld of the King. That the organic process of life is revealed and that it starts from a seed that is perfected and renewed (the Great Work of Immortality) is at the core of Alchemical teaching.

The Hebrew name for this constellation is 'Mozanaim', meaning 'the Scales, weighing'. And in Arabic, it is 'Al Zubena', which means 'purchase or redemption'. This is the Coptic ‘station of propitiation’, which suggests a reconciliation to deity. The Coptic name is quite interesting in Thelemic terms as it is 'Lambadia', which derived from the roots 'Lam', meaning 'graciousness' and 'badia' meaning branch. It is the curious drawing of ‘Lam’ that Crowley left to Kenneth Grant and is hailed by him to be the archetype of humanity's consciousness of its starry nature.

Delineation of this Sign continues with the Hebrew ‘Graphias’, meaning ‘swept away’ and the brightest star (a), which is found in the lower scale with the Arabic name 'Zuben al Genubi', meaning 'the purchase or price which is deficient'. It is the complement of another bright star (b) found in the upper scale named 'Zuben al Chemali', which means 'the purchase which covers' or ‘rainment’. Following this is 'al Gubi', which means 'heaped up or high' and the star (g) 'Zuben Akrabi', which means 'redemption of the conflict' or ‘battle’ and in Syrian, means ‘buying or gaining’. This lies in the lower part of the Sign just above Centaurus and the Victim slain.

The equilibrium of all things is hereby symbolized. It is the final adjustment in the formula of Tetragrammaton, when the daughter, redeemed by her marriage with the Son, is thereby set up on the throne of the mother; thus, finally, she 'awakens the Eld of the All-Father…This woman-goddess is Harlequin; she is the partner and fulfillment of The Fool. She is the ultimate illusion which is manifestation; she is the dance, many-coloured, many-wiled, of Life itself. Constantly whirling, all possibilities are enjoyed, under the phantom show of Space and Time: all things are real, the soul is the surface, precisely because they are instantly compensated by this Adjustment. All things are harmony and beauty; all things are Truth: because they cancel out.

The recursive theme of regeneration is reiterated here. The Atu for this constellation is called ‘Adjustment’, which might be also ‘Alignment’. This is itself the formula of regeneration. The immediate inference that we can draw from this is that something must have been considered lost. This leads us to contemplate the three constellations that compose this Sign; Crux (the Southern Cross or limit); an allusion to the depths or the dark and lowly world of slime, Lupus; the Beast that is sacrificed or transformed, and Corona Borealis; the Northern Cross or limit that is an allusion to the heights or heavens. Jim A. Cornwell in his work, The Alpha and the Omega, describes with greater insight the nature of the Alchemical immortality that Libra (Adjustment) is hinting at.

First is the possibility that through crossbreeding with cavewomen, man as we know him shortened his life span. This would mean that Noah's three sons brought with them wives, who were not pure descendants of Adam but those of the Anakim (Heb. ‘anaqim, sons of Anak, Heb. ‘anaq, long-necked) or possibly the Canaanites. The early Sumerian texts called them Anunnaki, “those who came from heaven to earth.” The Anakim as in Genesis 6:4 they are the sons of the sons of God, they are called the Nephilim (uncertain etymology, fallen ones), or giants (Heb. rapha, raphah, Heb. gibbor, mighty, Rephaim of Canaan ancestor of Og, king of Bashan, Emims of the Moabites, Zamzummims of Ammonites Heb. murmurers, Zuzites in Gen. 14:5) who were of old, men of renown. This crossbreeding may be the reason why the ancestors believe that sexual relations could affect one's health. One might even suspect that the Anakim were possibly the Greek Gods of mythology “fallen angels” the original Hebrew “B’nai Elohim” who did not survive the Flood.

The second possibility is the atmospheric change of the ozone layer. If this layer had been denser, then the immense radiation of ultraviolet rays was less also. Radiation is the possible cause of aging directly or indirectly in humans or animals. So when the change in the atmosphere came allowing more radiation to strike the earth's surface it also caused more rapid aging. Little is known about the factors involved in aging. The process seems to be correlated with specialization of cells for one or a few highly specific functions. The cells of these ancients were potentially immortal. Furthermore, the amount of radiation damage would be proportional to the chronological age. I do not think man's nervous system could take the strain his complex and fast modern world exerts on him in a thousand years, so in that sense man is better off with a shorter life span.

Apparently the dense clouds kept the radiation from affecting the water and prevented any variations in the atmosphere's temperature. Water to the ancients was believed to have extraordinary chemical and medical properties, as if it were a universal solvent ensuring longevity. This Tradition is in harmony with modern science, which takes the view that water is a strongly reactive and highly complex mixture. Researchers study oligo-elements and observe that all metals are soluble in water in the presence of certain catalyzers such as glucose at certain temperatures. Some biologists think that old age is due to the accumulation of heavy water in the organism. Before the flood the atmosphere contained 30 percent oxygen compared to 21 percent today and the atmospheric pressure has decreased by 12 pounds per square inch. More oxygen could cause longer growth, vegetarian verses meat eating may have added to the aging process. Some scientist believe that certain glands in the human body that no longer function may have caused the increase in the aging process.

[1]”The branch of medicine that deals with the diseases of old age is called geriatrics. The study of the aging process itself is called gerontology. Overcoming aging. No one completely understands the aging process. Some scientists doubt that human aging will ever be controlled. But others believe it can be conquered. They note that several species of fish continue to grow until death, without ever appearing to age. Also, single-celled animals seem to lose all signs of age after each of the many times they reproduce. Normal human cells can be kept alive in a laboratory for only a limited time. But abnormal cells, such as various kinds of cancer cells, can be sustained indefinitely. In these cells, scientists search for the secret of overcoming aging."

The elimination of heavy water may prolong life, and such substance may exist in evaporated water, which could cause a reproducing of cells for centuries. Water then may be capable of prolonging life to a considerable extent by rejuvenating the tissues. The answers may lie in the woody perennials, of which the Giant Sequoia and Redwoods are extreme examples. They may live for thousands of years, always continuing to grow. Maybe trees such as these contain a function incomprehensible to us in which water is transformed or unaffected by something that causes a rejuvenation of its cells. [2]"Redwoods are among the world's tallest living trees. They grow 200 to 275 feet high and are 8 to 12 feet in diameter. In a typical redwood forest, these massive trees grow close together, shutting out most of the sunlight, leaving a cool, dim atmosphere. The Sequoia tree ranks among the largest and oldest living things on earth. Millions of years ago these trees grew in large forest throughout the world. Many of these trees are several thousand years old. Some present day trees are estimated to be 3,500 years old, around 1,305 B.C."

In recent years it was discovered that the Redwoods and Sequoia trees had excess lime deposits at the base of these trees. Is it possible that these trees have evolved the technique to remove the lime from their water before it is taken in? [3] "Lime is a coarse, white, solid substance that has many industrial uses. It is very caustic (strongly alkaline), and can rapidly destroy animal and plant tissues. It is often used to treat waste materials. It has a strong chemical action when mixed with water, and may become hot enough to boil the water. Manufacturers use it in gas welding, glass, steel, refining sugar, bleaching powder, fungicides, fertilizers, cement, mortar, and whitewash."

Note that Crowley connects the Atu of Adjustment with the Fool (who as the initial impulse that ushers forth in Arien fashion). This is a depiction of the opposition of Aries and Libra on the zodiacal wheel. We can also find a sublime allusion to the fool to Lupus; the Beast. This should be compared with the complimentary Atus of Art and the Lovers; that are also opposite each other on the zodiacal wheel. Here, we have the Royal Marriage and its Consummation, which is easy to attribute to the King or Crown as we’ve discussed above. Notice also, these four Signs draw a hard ‘X’ (as contrasted with +) that not only can we attribute to the Ordeal ‘X’ that is purported by the Book of the Law, but with the Cross that ends the story of the stars, which brings us to the constellations of this sign:

The Hebrews named this constellation ‘Adom’ fixing it to the name of the South Polar constellation, which in the ancient tradition was presented in the form of a cross upon which was a pole by which the serpent is lifted up. Adom means 'cutting off' and corresponds with the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, Tau, which translates as and was originally written in the form of a cross. A more thorough translation of the word, Tau, is 'a mark; especially a boundary mark, a limit or finish'. In Egypt, the cross was a symbol of life, which would be perverted by the Roman Heresy when they employed it as a symbol of death.

Crux is drawn as a lion with his tongue hanging out of his mouth as an expression of thirst along with a female figure holding a cup out to him. And under the fore feet of the Lion is the hieroglyphic symbol of running water. The Egyptian name for this lion is 'Sera', which means 'victory'. The waters of life and the flow is this water is a consistent theme which runs throughout the myth of the Starry Gnosis as we shall see.

The Hebrew name for this constellation is 'Asedah', which means ‘to be slain’ and the Arabs called it 'Asedaton', which means 'the same'. This constellation is drawn as a little child with its finger on its lips who is named 'Sura', which means 'a lamb', but in Thelemic doctrine, would be the child Horus; the ‘Babe in the Egg’. He is also pictured as having the horn of a goat on one side of his head. It is from this that the Western Mystery Tradition developed the 'Sign of Silence'. The Greeks called it ‘Thera’-‘beast’ and ‘Lycos’-‘wolf’; coming to the Romans as ‘Victima’ or ‘Bestia’, meaning ‘the victim, the animal’. The Master Therion (5^◦=6^▫; Tipareth) took his motto from the Greek word that means ‘a wild animal of no specific kind’. Note that this constellation has no named stars; consistent with the theme of silence. No word has ushered forth for it is the father that speaks through the vehicle of the sun as told in one of the Priest’s orations in the Gnostic Mass.

The Hebrews named this constellation 'Atarah', which means 'a kingly crown' and today it is called 'Ataroth' in the East. Its Arabic name is 'Al Iclil', which translates as 'an ornament or jewel'. Its brightest star (a) is named 'Al Phecca', which means 'the shining'. The Crown is the attainment of the Prince to the Throne; having awakened the eld of the King. Liber LXV I.9:

“Debate not of the image, saying Beyond! Beyond! One mounteth unto the Crown by the moon and by the Sun, and by the arrow, and by the Foundation, and by the dark home of the stars from the black earth.” [Reference to the “black earth” may also be attributed to the outer darkness that is the story of the constellations of Corvus, Crater and Hyrdra; that is the 3-headed (trident) serpent that enshrouds one-third the sky. This is the doctrinal ‘Sea of Binah’, which manifests as the Seed in the depths of the earth.]

Into the stone there first cometh the head of a dragon, and then the Angel Madimi. She is not the mere elemental that one would suppose from the account of Casaubon. I enquire why her form is different.

She says: Since all things are God, in all things thou seest just so much of God as thy capacity affordeth thee. But behold! Thou must pierce deeply into this Aethyr before true images appear. For TAN is that which transformeth judgment into justice. BAL is the sword, and TAN the balances.

It is Baal whom the Hebrews rejected in favor of the demiurge. And it is Baal who will restore the proper balance of the universe.

A pair of balances appears in the stone, and on the bar of the balance is written: Motion about a point is iniquity. And behind the balances is a plume, luminous, azure. And somehow connected with the plume, but I cannot divine how, are these words: Breath is iniquity. (That is, any wind must stir the feather of truth.)

The wind refers to the intellect and thus, ‘Because’, which as per Liber AL, is to be damned for a dog. The seemingly rational excuse of the politicians in subverting the mysteries is that they were not practical in securing a nation. This is the principal deception of the demiurge. It is called an ‘urge’ or ‘partial urge’ as it compels us; tricking us with this seemingly rational precaution.

And behind the plume is a shining filament of quartz, suspended vertically from the abyss to the abyss. And in the midst is a winged disk of some extremely delicate, translucent substance, on which is written in the "dagger" alphabet: Torsion is iniquity. (This means, that the Rashith Ha-Gilgalim is the first appearance of evil.)

And now an Angel appears, like as he were carven in black diamonds. And he cries: Woe unto the Second, whom all nations of men call the First. Woe unto the First, whom all grades of Adepts call the First. Woe unto me, for I, even as they, have worshipped him. But she is whose paps are the galaxies, and he that never shall be known, in them is no motion. For the infinite Without filleth all and moveth not, and the infinite Within goeth indeed; but it is no odds, else were the space-marks confounded.

The second is the demiurge that has been mistaken for the first of whom is really ‘Not’. “She” is Nuit whom shall never be known and Hadit is “the infinite Within” that “goeth indeed”. As the old space-marks were confounded, so this is now restored to its proper relation.

And now the Angel is but a shining speck of blackness in the midst of a tremendous sphere of liquid and vibrating light, at first gold, then becoming green, and lastly pure blue. And I see that the green of Libra is made up of the yellow of air and the blue of water, swords and cups, judgment and mercy. And this word TAN meaneth mercy. And the feather of Maat is blue because the truth of justice is mercy. And a voice cometh, as it were the music of the ripples of the surface of the sphere: Truth is delight. (This means that the Truth of the universe is delight.)

Another voice cometh; it is the voice of a mighty Angel, all in silver; the scales of his armour and the plumes of his wings are like mother-of-pearl in a framework of silver. And he sayeth: Justice is the equity that ye have made for yourselves between truth and falsehood. But in Truth there is nothing of this, for there is only Truth. Your falsehood is but a little falser than your truth. Yet by your truth shall ye come to Truth. Your truth is your troth with Adonai the Beloved one. And the Chymical Marriage of the Alchemists beginneth with a Weighing, and he that is not found wanting hath within him one spark of fire, so dense and so intense that it cannot be moved, through all the winds of heaven should clamour against it, and all the waters of the abyss surge against it, and all the multitude of the earths heap themselves upon it to smother it. Nay, it shall not be moved.

And this is the fire of which it is written: "Hear thou the voice of fire!" And the voice of fire is in the second chapter of The Book of the Law, that is revealed unto him that is a score and half a score and three that are scores, and six, by Aiwass, that is his guardian, the mighty Angel that extendeth from the first unto the last, and maketh known the mysteries that are beyond. And the method and the form of invocation whereby a man shall attain to the knowledge and conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel shall be given unto thee in the proper place, and seeing that the word is deadlier than lightning, do thou meditate straightly thereupon, solitary, in a place where is no living thing visible, but only the light of the sun. And thy head shall be bare. Thus mayest thou become fitted to receive this, the holiest of the Mysteries. And it is the holiest of the Mysteries because it is the Next Step. And those Mysteries which lie beyond, though they be holier, are not holy unto thee, but only remote. (The sense of this passage seems to be, that the holiness of a thing implies its personal relation with one, just as one cannot blaspheme an unknown god, because one does not know what to say to annoy him. And this explains the perfect inefficiency of those who try to insult the saints; the most violent attacks are very often merely clumsy compliments.)

Now the Angel is spread completely over the globe, a dewy film of silver upon that luminous blue. And a great voice cries: Behold the Queen of Heaven, how she hath woven her robes from the loom of justice. For as that straight path of the Arrow cleaving the Rainbow became righteousness in her that sitteth in the hall of double truth, so at last is she exalted unto the throne of the High Priestess, the Priestess of the Silver Star, wherein also is thine Angel made manifest. And this is the mystery of the camel that is ten days in the desert, and is not athirst, because he hath within him that water which is the dew distilled from the night of Nuit. Triple is the cord of silver, that it may be not loosed; and three score and half a score and three is the number of the name of my name, for that the ineffable wisdom, that also is of the sphere of the stars, informeth me. Thus am I crowned with the triangle that is about the eye, and therefore is my number three. And in me there is no imperfection, because through me descendeth the influence of TARO. And that is also the number of Aiwass the mighty Angel, the Minister of Silence.

And even as the shew-stone burneth thy forehead with its intolerable flame, so he who hath known me, though but from afar, is marked out and chosen among men, and he shall never turn back or turn aside, for he hath made the link that is not to be broken, nay, not by the malice of the Four Great Princes of evil of the world, nor by Chorozon, that mighty Devil, nor by the wrath of God, nor by the affliction and feebleness of the soul.

Yet with this assurance be not thou content; for though thou hast the wings of the Eagle, they are vain, except they be joined to the shoulders of the Bull. Now, therefore, I send forth a shaft of my light, even as a ladder let down from the heaven upon the earth, and by this black cross of Themis that I hold before thine eyes, do I swear unto thee that the path shall be open henceforth for evermore.

There is a clash of a myriad silver cymbals, and silence. And then three times a note is struck upon a bell, which sounds like my holy Tibetan bell, that is made of electrum magicum.

Our summary continues with the story of these last three decans: The mark of boundary or limitation is the animal, held by the Centaur (who is also slain; an allusion to the self-slain Ankh-af-na-Khonsu); the lower crown transforming into the kingly crown that is the shining jewel. This is also a perfect allusion to the Seed putrefying in the soil and ultimately becoming the vine that sprouts fruit. Of course, this fruit is the grape that becomes the ‘Wine of Iachus’. But our story of the stars begins with Orion; the first decanate or constellation in Taurus, which is the age from which the story of the stars was recorded for posterity.

Taurus, opposite Scorpio on the zodiacal wheel, has as its first decan, the constellation of Orion; the Glorious One; He Who Cometh Forth as Light; the Brilliant; the Swift. He was the lover of Eos; Goddess of the Dawn (an allusion to the ‘Morning Star’; Lucifer/Venus; Pan/Nuit) and his belt was the Pleiades, which in Chaldean was ‘Chimera’. These sister stars were a cluster of stars on the shoulder of the Bull (Taurus) that were used by sailors in navigation as they were considered to be the center of the universe and the hub of the wheel about which revolve the four Watcher stars. These sailing stars are seven goddesses or the seven stages of the Alchemical operation. From this was probably drawn the stories of ‘Sinbad, the Sailor’. The river is the next decan; the constellation of Eridanus. This is the ‘Water of Life’ and the ‘Alchemical Bath’ as well as the ‘Great Sea of Binah’. Auriga completes the triad of constellations; a human figure holding a goat and possibly the place where the ancient mystery of Baphomet is drawn from. Betelgeuse and Rigel are the two principal stars that will figure prominently in the American Revolution as we’ll detail later.

But for our purposes here, Rigel is the educator and Betelgeuse is Osiris; the benefactor or King. As Orion was also depicted in Greek mythology to be an impious Giant; slain and chained to the sky, so Orien was said to be the resting place that Osiris soul traveled to after his death. Remember that Osiris was called Dionysus by the Greeks (also Dithryambos; ‘doublebirth’—an easy allusion to this regeneration or being ‘born-again’ as a star in the sky; we can see how Mohammed saw the virgins awaiting the elect of heaven.). And so again, the Serpent is present (Ophion of the sub-order of Ophidia Serpents) and our story is folding in on itself; recursively. So the Giants, these brilliant, shining and glorious beings were also known as ‘men of renown’ or as the Elohim. And here we have this seeming superior and evolved beings known as the Nephilim, who may have been but a renegade set of the Elohim; both called ‘Sons of God’.

Hercules, the one who wins his immortality from the gods, appears next in the story of the stars. This is an allusion to the ascendancy of the Prince to the throne; the lower ego to the higher ego. Horus was an alien falcon-god out of Arabia; who would succeed Osiris and become King of Egypt. ‘Horus the Hawk’ as a solar deity, was synonymous with the sky and the King of Egypt. The king became king by virtue of becoming the ‘living Horus’; and he was only this when ascending to and making physical contact with the Throne. Cornwell informs us that the Egyptian throne was described as the ‘mother of the king’ and that the Queen was the one through whom the royal bloodline descended. The throne was in this way, infused with the powers of Horus and we could speculate that the seven daughters of the Pleiades may also represent seven specific royal bloodlines.

Interestingly, the ancient Greek myth of royal descendency is clearly described in Aeschylus tale of Oedipus through the rubric of the ‘Riddle of the Sphinx’. Crowley describes this clearly in his lecture on the Atu of the Fool in the Book of Thoth as he describes the difference between the matriarchal age and the later age of chivalry:

It is necessary, in order to understand the Tarot, to go back in history to the Matriarchal (and exogamic) Age, to the time when succession was not through the first-born son of the King,but through his daughter. The king was therefore not king by inheritance, but by right of conquest. In the most stable dynasties, the new king was always a stranger, a foreigner; what is more, he had to kill the old king and marry that king's daughter. This system ensured the virility and capacity of every king.

To ensure the succession, it was therefore devised: firstly, that the blood royal should be really be the royal blood, and secondly, that this strain should be fortified by the introduction of the conquering stranger, instead of being attenuated by continual in-breeding.

Note that the European aristocracy later continued the practice of avoiding in-breeding by intermarrying and intermixing the royal bloodlines of the European states. Of course, the line was by this point, reversed and carried through the male; an exact inverse of the Egyptian idea as told by Aeschylus. However, Sir Laurence Gardner lectures with some revelation of his own research into bloodlines:

Many books talk about the hermetic school of Tuthmosis III of Egypt, who reigned about 1450 BC. But it is not generally known that the school he originally inherited was the Royal Court of the Dragon. This had been founded by the priests of Mendes in about 2200 BC and was subsequently ratified by the 12th dynasty Queen Sobeknefru.

This sovereign and priestly Order passed from Egypt to the Kings of Jerusalem; to the Black Sea Princes of Scythia and into the Balkans - notably to the Royal House of Hungary, whose King Sigismund reconstituted the Court just 600 years ago. Today it exists as the Imperial and Royal Court of the Dragon Sovereignty, and after some 4,000 years it is the oldest sovereign Court in the world.

But what were the earliest aims and ambitions of the Order back in Pharaonic times? They were to perpetuate and advance the alchemical strength of the Royal Bloodline from Lord Enki, the Archetype.

Both Enki and Nin-khursag (along with their brother Enlil, the later Jehovah) belonged to a pantheon of gods and goddesses referred to as the Anunnaki, meaning 'Heaven came to Earth'. In fact, the Grand Assembly of the Anunnaki (later called the 'Court of the Elohim') is mentioned in Psalm 82 wherein Jehovah makes his bid for supreme power over the other gods.

We can now progress our story by considering the oldest Grant of Arms in sovereign history - a Grant of Arms which denoted the Messianic Dragon Bloodline for all time. The Sumerians referred to this insignia as the Gra-al. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? From biblical history, however, we know it better as the 'Mark of Cain'.

So, what was this Sumerian Gra-al which the Bible calls 'the Mark of Cain'? It was an emblem dignified as the 'Cup of the Waters' or the Rosi-Crucis (the 'Dew Cup'), and it was identified in all records (including those of Egypt and Phoenicia and in the Hebrew annals) as being an upright, centred red cross within a circle. Throughout the ages it was developed and embellished, but it has always remained essentially the same and is recognised as being the original symbol of the Holy Grail.

In order to further enhance the succession from Cain, he was married to his half-sister - a pure-bred Anunnaki princess, Luluwa. Her father was Enki and her mother was Lilith, a granddaughter of Enlil. Although not giving the name of Cain's wife, the Bible does name their younger son Enoch, while the Sumerian records cite his elder son and kingly successor, Atûn, who is perhaps better known as King Etana of Kish.

Etana was said to have 'walked with the gods', and to have been fed from the 'Plant of Birth' (or the 'Tree of Life', as it is called in Genesis). Henceforth, the kings of the line were designated as being the twigs of the Tree - and the ancient word for 'twig' was klone (clone). In later times this 'Plant' or 'Tree' was redefined as a 'Vine', and so the Gra-al, the Vine and the Messianic Bloodline became conjoined as one in the literature of subsequent ages.

By virtue of their contrived breeding, this kingly succession was modelled specifically for leadership, and in all aspects of knowledge, culture, awareness, wisdom and intuition they were highly advanced against their mundane contemporaries. In order to keep their blood as pure as possible, they always married within a close kinship.

It was fully recognised that the prominent gene of the succession was carried within the blood of the mother. Today we call this the 'mitochondrial DNA'. And so was born a tradition inherited by their kingly descendants in Egypt and by the later Celtic rulers of Europe. True kingship, it was maintained, was transferred through the female, and so kingly marriages were strategically cemented with maternal half-sisters or first cousins.

Having reached the point where the Plant of Birth is first mentioned in the records, we are at about 3500 BC; and it is at this point that we begin to learn how the kingly succession was orally fed with bodily supplements from the early days. This practice continued for more than 1,000 years until the nourishment program became wholly scientific and alchemical.

The blood extract in question was, in the first instance, not human but from the sacred Anunnaki lunar essence - that of Enki's sister Nin-khursag, the designated Lady of Life. It was defined as the most potent of all life-forces and was venerated as being 'Star Fire'. It was from the womb of Nin-khursag that the kingly line was born, and it was with her blood, the divine Star Fire, that the Dragon succession was supplementally fed.

In ancient Egypt, Nin-khursag was called 'Isis', and by either name she was the ultimate Mother of the Messianic line, for hers was the matriarchal gene which constituted the 'Beginning', the 'Gene-Isis', or, as the Greeks identified it, the Genesis.

It is worth reminding ourselves, then, that the biblical edict to abstain from blood came not from Enki the Wise but from Enlil-Jehovah - the God of Wrath who had instigated the Flood, had wrought havoc in Ur and Babylon, and had endeavoured to deceive Adam by saying that he would die if he ate from the Tree of Knowledge. This was not a god who liked people, and the Sumerian records are very clear in this regard. Hence, if he forbade the taking of blood, this was not likely to have been an edict for the benefit of Noah and his descendants - it was most probably to their detriment.

In strict terms the original Star Fire was the lunar essence of the Goddess, but, even in an everyday mundane environment, menstruum contains the most valuable endocrinal secretions, especially those of the pineal and pituitary glands. The brain's pineal gland in particular was directly associated with the Tree of Life, for this tiny gland was said to secrete the very essence of active longevity, called soma, or, as the Greeks called it, ambrosia.

In mystic circles, the menstrual 'flow-er' ('she who flows') has long been the designated 'flower' and is represented as a lily or a lotus. Indeed, the definition 'flow-er' is the very root of our modern word 'flower'. In ancient Sumer, the key females of the Dragon succession were all venerated as lilies, having such names as Lili, Luluwa, Lilith, Lilutu and Lillette.

In pictorial representation, the Messianic Dragon bore little relation to the winged, fire-breathing beast of later Western mythology. It was, in essence, a large-jawed serpent with four legs, very much like a crocodile or a monitor. This was the sacred Messeh whose name was 'Draco'. Draco was a divine emblem of the Egyptian Pharaohs, a symbol of the Egyptian Therapeutate, of the Essenes at Qumran, and was the Bistea Neptunis (the sea serpent) of the descendant Merovingian Fisher-Kings in Europe.

Serpents, in one form or another, were always associated with wisdom and healing, and the Trees of Life and Knowledge are customarily identified with serpents. Indeed, the insignia of many of today's medical associations is precisely this image of a serpent coiled around the Plant of Birth (Tree of Life) - a depiction shown in the clay reliefs of ancient Sumer to be Enki's personal emblem.

The combination of the central pineal and its lateral wings has long been referred to as the 'Swan', and in Grail lore (as in some yogic circles) the Swan is emblematic of the fully enlightened being. This is the ultimate realm of consciousness achieved by the mediaeval Knights of the Swan, as epitomised by such chivalric figures as Perceval and Lohengrin.

Most of you are probably quite familiar with the functions of the pineal and other glands of the endocrinal system. But for those who are perhaps not, the pineal is a very small gland, shaped like a pine cone and about the size of a grain of corn. It is centrally situated within the brain, although outside the ventricles and not forming a part of the brain-matter as such.

The pineal gland was thought by the 17th-century French optical scientist René Descartes to be the seat of the soul - the point at which the mind and body are conjoined. The ancient Greeks considered it likewise, and in the 4th century BC Herophilus described the pineal as an organ which regulated the flow of thought. This gland has long intrigued anatomists because, while the rest of the brain is 'double', the pineal has no counterpart.

In the days of ancient Sumer, the priests of Anu (the father of Enlil and Enki) perfected and elaborated a ramifying medical science of living substances, with menstrual Star Fire being an essential source component. In the first instance, this was pure Anunnaki lunar essence called 'Gold of the Gods', and it was fed only to the Kings and Queens of the Dragon succession. Later, however, in Egypt and Mediterranea, menstrual Star Fire was ritually collected from sacred virgin priestesses who were venerated as 'Scarlet Women'. Indeed, the very word 'ritual' stems from this practice, and from the word ritu - which defined the sacred ceremony of the 'Red Gold'.

We now turn back to our story of the stars and to Scorpio; the complement of Taurus and the next in our journey through the zodiacal wheel that we started up top with Virgo.

This Sign is drawn as a gigantic scorpion endeavoring to sting the heel of a mighty man whom is struggling with a serpent that is crushed by the man as he also has his foot placed on the scorpion's heart. The Hebrews named this constellation 'Akrab', which means 'the scorpion, or the conflict' further explained by the Arabic 'Al Akrab', which means 'wounding him that cometh'. The Coptic name is 'Isidis', which means 'attack of the enemy’ or ‘oppress'. The Greek ‘Scorpios’ and the Latin ‘Scorpio’ mean ‘cleaving in conflict’ or ‘battle’. This seems to foreshadow the phrase from Liber AL III.59: "As brothers fight ye!"

The Hebrews named a star in the stinger 'Lesath', which means 'the perverse'. Another star is called by the Arabs, ‘Al Kalb’, meaning ‘the cleaving as in conflict, the enemy’ or ‘dog’. The brightest star (a) is found in the heart of the scorpion and is given the Arabic name of 'Antares', one of the Cherubic stars, which means 'the wounding' or ‘cutting’. The star itself shines with a deep red light.

He is the elemental nature of all things which is not destroyed by ordinary changes which occur in the operations of Nature. Furthermore, he is crowned with the crown of Osiris; he represents Osiris in the Waters of Amennti. Yet more, he is the original secret male creative God: see Atu XV. 'Redeunt Saturnia regna.' It was only the corruption of the Tradition, the confusion with Set, and the Cult of the dying god, misunderstood, deformed and distorted by the Black Lodge, that turned him into a senile and fiendish symbol.

This is the serpent that is crushed by the man's bare hands. Its effort is to reach forth and seize his crown located just above it. One star named by the Hebrews is called 'Alyah', which means 'the accursed'. The brightest star (a) in this constellation is found in the neck and is named 'Unuk', which means 'encompassing'. And a third star is named in Arabic, 'Al Hay', which means 'the reptile'.

This is the man whose heel is being stung by the scorpion. He is the Serpent (connected to Serpens Cauda and Serpens Caput—tail and head of the snake; Draco, which spans one-third of the constellations from Sagittarius to Virgo) that has been depicted as tempting Eve to eat of the Tree-of-Knowledge. Note the prophesy by Isaiah, that in the future age, the cobra and viper will become the harmless companions of children.

His Latin name is 'Serpentarius' and he is depicted as seizing the serpent with two hands while treading on the heart of the scorpion. The Greek name of this man is derivative of the Hebrew and Arabic name 'Afeichus', which means 'the serpent’ or ‘held'. The second brightest star (b) in this constellation is found in the jaw and is named in Arabic, 'Cheleb or Chelbalrai', which means 'the serpent enfolding'. Next comes ‘Triophas’, which means ‘treading under foot’. ‘Saigh’ is found in the foot and means ‘bruised’. And ‘Carnebus’ means ‘the wounding’ followed by ‘Megeros’, which means ‘contending’. The brightest star (a) in this constellation is found in the head and is called 'Ras al Hagus' in Arabic, which means 'head of him who holds'.

In Greek myth, Ophiuchus is referred to as Aesculapius, the son of Apollo. He is credited with having restored Hippolytus to life and was subsequently worshipped as the god of health. It is from this that the Cadeucus is derived as a symbol of the practice of medicine. The Serpent then is that rod, held with both hands, that brings redemption or regeneration to the earth. This theme is recursively embedded in the story of the stars several times as the story keeps folding in on itself.

A human figure, holding a branch with one foot over the head of Draco, this constellation occupies a large part of the heavens an is drawn as a man bending on one knee with his right heel lifted up as if it had been wounded. The left foot is set directly over the head of the great dragon and in his right hand he wields a great club with the left hand grasping a triple-headed hydra called the Cerberus. He is depicted with the skin of a lion, which was slain by him and is now thrown about him. Hercules is depticted as holding Cerberus, the three-headed monster that guards Hades. In Greek mythology, he is the hero who won his own immortality from the gods.

The Arabs called him ‘El Giscale’, which means ‘the strong, wounded’ as the Hebrews called him ‘Marsic’ (k)-‘the wounding, sword’. His name is 'Bau' in the ancient Zodiac, which means 'who cometh'. The star (w) found in the lower part of his right arm is named 'Caiam' or 'Guiam', which means 'punishing' or ‘chastening’ and in Arabic, 'treading under foot'. The star (l) found in the upper part of his left arm is named 'Ma'asyn', which means 'the sin-offering'. Next is the second brightest star (b) is found in his right arm-pit and is named 'Kornephorus', which means 'the branch, kneeling'. The brightest star (a) in this constellation is found in his head and is named 'Ras al Gethi', which means 'the head of him who bruises' or ‘press’. Then comes ‘Al Rai’-‘who bruises, breaks’ and the Greek ‘Engonasin’-‘who kneels, goeth’. Finally, comes the star named by the Greeks that also names the Constellation.

We continue our summary with the story of these latest three decans: The reptile (or serpent) is wholly accursed and trampled as it contends for the crown of the man who possesses him. It is the chastening punishment that reconciles the humbled crown by way of the yoke unto vigorous labor (or discipline). Hercules is a reflection of Osiris in the Egyptian mythology, who was called Dionysus by the Greeks and Tiphareth in the Qabalah. He is at the center of the mystery of the transformation or regeneration unto immortality. Osiris was also known to the Greeks as Ophion; the snake coiled about the world; a member of the sub-order Ophidia.

The Hebrew name for this Sign is ‘Kesith’, which means ‘the Archer or the bow’ and the Arabic name is ‘Al Kaus’, meaning ‘the arrow’. Notice how the Arabic and Hebrew names are seemingly always complementary or identical. These two peoples really were once, one people. And with Christianity as an aberrant hybrid off these two cultures, the children of the Fertile Crescent are very inter-connected underneath all their apparent diversity. The Coptic name is ‘Pi-maere’, meaning ‘the going forth’. And in Greek, the Archer is called ‘Toxotes’. The Latin name Sagittarius means ‘the archer, who sends forth the arrow’.

According to Greek Mythology, the Sagittarius is Cheiron; who is the chief Centaur, being noble in character, righteous in his dealings and divine in his power. The brightest stars are named in Hebrew, ‘Haim’, which means ‘the gracious, the delighted in’ and ‘Nehushta’, meaning ‘the going or sending forth’ or ‘went about’. And a third star in Arabic is called ‘Al Naim’, meaning ‘the gracious or pleasant’ along with ‘Al Shaula’-‘the dart’; ‘Al Warida’-‘who comes forth’ and ‘Ruchba’ or ‘Rami’, meaning ‘the riding of the bowman’ along with “Urkab’ or ‘Rami’, meaning ‘the bowman’ or ‘the rider’. And finally there is ‘A Naim, Al Sadira’-‘the Gracious, who strives’ and ‘labored’ along with ‘Terebellum’-‘sent forth, swiftly’ or ‘hasty’ and ‘Croton’-‘the purchaser’ (referring to Libra) or ‘bought’.

The Sign is drawn as a Centaur and expresses a dual nature in his outward form. For the Archer is actually Diana the Huntress and a form of Isis.

The connection between the Moon and the Huntress is shewn by the shape of the bow, and the occult significance of Sagittarius is the arrow piercing the rainbow; the last three paths of the Tree of Life make the word Qesheth, a rainbow, and Sagittarius bears the arrow which pierces the rainbow, for his path leads from the Moon of Yesod to the Sun of Tiphareth.

This constellation is drawn in the figure of a hawk or an eagle (the natural enemy of the serpent) in triumph. Its second brightest star (b) is ‘Shelyuk’, meaning ‘the fishing eagle’. Next comes ‘Sulaphat’-‘the springing up’ and ‘Al Nesr’-‘the eagle’. This is followed by the brightest star (a) named ‘Vega’, meaning ‘he shall be exalted’ or ‘triumph’ and ‘Lyra’-‘the lyre or harp’. Frances Rolleston notes that this decan in the Persian sphere, had a man with a crooked beak on his head like eagle god Nisroch of Assyrian sculptures and reminiscent of Horus to Thelemites. She goes on to speculate that the eagle named Nesir, might have been confounded with ‘Shir’-music, which could have been the reason that a lyre was drawn into the constellation.

This constellation is drawn as an altar or burning pyre, placed upside down with its fires pointing towards the lower regions called ‘Tartarus’, the abyss of ‘outer-darkness’. It lies just south of the Scorpion’s tail. But in the more ancient Zodiac of Denderah, it is drawn as a man enthroned with a flail in his hand and it is named ‘Bau’, the same name given to Hercules (who was half mortal and half divine), meaning ‘he cometh’. Its Arabic name is ‘Al Mugamra’, which means ‘the completing, finishing’ or ‘perfect’. And an interesting note is that the Greeks used the term ‘Ara’ in the sense of imprecation or cursing.

Bullinger points out that no one has ever seen a dragon, but its legend is a part of the mythological art of all nations; especially China and Japan. Draco as the Serpent is ‘the deceiver’ and as the Dragon, is ‘the destroyer’. From the Thelemic viewpoint, the Serpent represents wisdom and the Dragon represents transformation. Its Greek name means ‘trodden on’ and the Hebrew name is ‘Dahrach’, which means ‘to tread’. The constellation is drawn in the Zodiac of Denderah as a serpent under the fore-feet of Sagittarius and is named ‘Her-fent’, which means ‘the serpent accursed’.

The star (g) in the head is named ‘Ethanin’, which means ‘the long serpent or dragon’. Other stars in Hebrew are named ‘Grumian’, ‘the subtle’ and ‘Giansar’, ‘the punished enemy’. The next star is found in one of the later coils of the serpent and is named ‘Thuban’ in Hebrew, which means ‘the subtle’ with Arabic references to the Serpent and to Wisdom. Bullinger states: “It is still a very important star in nautical reckonings, guiding the commerce of the seas, and thus “the god of this world” is prepresented as winding in his contortions round the pole of the world, as if to indicate his subtle influence in all worldly affairs.” The next brightest star (b) is found in the head of the serpent and is named in Hebrew, ‘Rastaban’, which means ‘the head of the subtle, or serpent’. Then comes the star named by the Arabs, ‘Al Dib’-‘the reptile’ followed by the brightest star (a) ‘Al Waid’, which means ‘who is to be destroyed’. Other stars include: ‘El Athik’, ‘the fraudful’ and ‘El Asieh’, ‘the bowed down’.

There is an angel with rainbow wings, and his dress is green with silver, a green veil over silver armour. Flames of many-coloured fire dart from him in all directions. It is a woman of some thirty years old, and she has the moon for a crest, and the moon is blazoned on her heart, and her sandals are curved silver, like the moon.

And she cries: Lonely am I and cold in the wilderness of the stars. For I am the queen of all them that dwell in Heaven, and the queen of all them that are pure upon earth, and the queen of all the sorcerers of hell. I am the daughter of Nuit, the lady of the stars. And I am the Bride of them that are vowed unto loneliness. And I am the mother of the Dog Cerberus. One person am I, and three gods.

This is the daughter that is as yet unfulfilled. “Them that are vowed unto loneliness” are those who have found the Pleroma and have become true stars; piercing the Veil of Qesheth and seeing beyond the scheme of the demiurge.

And thou who hast blasphemed me shalt suffer knowing me. For I am cold as thou art cold, and burn with thy fire. Oh, when shall the war of the Aires and the elements be accomplished? Radiant are these falchions of my brothers, invisibly about me, but the might of the aethyrs beneath my feet beareth me down. And they avail not to sever the Kamailow. There is one in green armour, with green eyes, whose sword is of vegetable fire. They shall avail me. My son is he, ---and how shall I bear him that have not known man?

All this time intolerable rays are shooting forth to beat me back or destroy me; but I am encased in an egg of blue-violet, and my form is the form of a man with the head of a golden hawk. While I have been observing this, the goddess has kept up a continuous wail, like the baying of a thousand hounds; and now her voice is deep and guttural and hoarse, and she breathes very rapidly words that I cannot hear. I can hear some of them now.

The Prophet is being wrapped in the effulgence of Ra Hoor Khu; the Universal Mind and manifestation of the One True God; Adonai, the Adon.

UNTU LA LA ULULA UMUNA TOFA LAMA LE LI NA AHR IMA TAHARA ELULA ETFOMA UNUNA ARPETI ULU ULU ULU MARABAN ULULU MAHATA ULU ULU LAMASTANA.

Crowley footnotes this with a translation of “The Lunar language”: "Ye hounds! Ho! Ho! Tally-ho! sent the poison of the path --- Here! There! Bark! Sweep around! There goes the quarry down the glade of mossy rock. The foremost has caught him. Tally ho! Tally ho! Tally ho! pull him down! Tally-ho boys! Wind the mort! Tally ho! Tally ho! The hunt is ended." ULU = "Hail" plus "come" = very nearly "Ahoy!"

And then her voice rises to a shriek, and there is a cauldron boiling in front of her; and the flames under the cauldron are like unto zinc flames, and in the cauldron is the Rose, the Rose of 49 petals, seething in it. Over the cauldron she has arched her rainbow wings; and her face is bent over the cauldron, and she is blowing opalescent silvery rings on to the Rose; and each ring as it touches the water bursts into flame, and the Rose takes new colours.

49 is a reference to Babalon; the Scarlet Whore. And her love chant is her life’s blood and a central secret of the House of David (originating long before the Jews even suspect) that has been hunted and feared by the demiurge.

And now she lifts her head, and raises her hands to heaven, and cries: O Mother, wilt thou never have compassion on the children of earth? Was it not enough that the Rose should be red with the blood of thine heart, and that its petals should be by 7 and by 7?

She is weeping, weeping. And the tears grow and fill the whole stone with moons. I can see nothing and hear nothing for the tears, though she keeps on praying. "Take of these pearls, treasure them in thine heart. Is not the Kingdom of the Abyss accurst?" She points downward to the cauldron; and now in it there is the head of a most cruel dragon, black and corrupted. I watch, and watch; and nothing happens.

The redemption of ‘the witch’ is by virtue of her fornication; that the entirety of one’s life force be wholly devoted to the ‘Grail’, which serves mankind. The children of the demiurge have erred in mistaking the redeemer for a witch; explaining why women are so defiled in the cultures of the religions that have sprung from such worship.

And now the dragon rises out of the cauldron, very long and slim (like Japanese Dragons, but infinitely more terrible), and he blots out the whole sphere of the stone. Then suddenly all is gone, and there is nothing in the stone save brilliant white light and flecks like sparks of golden fire; and there is a ringing, as if bells were being used for anvils. And there is a perfume which I cannot describe; it is like nothing that one can describe, but the suggestion is like lignum aloes. And now all these things are there at once in the same place and time.

Now a veil of olive and silver is drawn over the stone, only I hear the voice of the angel receding, very sweet and faint and sorrowful, saying: Far off and lonely in the secret stone is the unknown, and interpenetrated is the knowledge with the will and the understanding. I am alone. I am lost, because I am all and in all; and my veil is woven of the green earth and the web of stars. I love; and I am denied, for I have denied myself. Give me those hands, put them against my heart. Is it not cold? Sink, sink, the abyss of time remains. It is not possible that one should come to ZAA. Give me thy face. Let me kiss it with my cold kisses. Ah! Ah! Ah! Fall back from me. The word, the word of the aeon is MAKHASHANAH. And these words shalt thou say backwards: ARARNAY OBOLO MAHARNA TUTULU NOM LAHARA EN NEDIEZO LO SAD FONUSA SOBANA ARANA BINUF LA LA LA ARPAZNA UOHULU.

The Prophet translates this as: "Hither, O Holy one/ whose burden pulls at thy spine/ Ho! Ho! Ho! The two-headed God (Janus) ploughs thy back/ sows habitations upon thy back/ thou many-phallused queen/ of princely loves/ which are all sodomies/ so that the holy ones laugh and shake

with laughter/ while the lords of mischief/ spend upon thee/ TUTULU (this word cannot be translated. See _Liber VII_). down bounces from thy back/ the merry mad foetus-faces/ an emission/ Gather ye sun-roses, sun-roses gather ye from the split backside of the Virgin (Earth).

When thou wilt call my burden unto appearance, for I who am the Virgin goddess am the pregnant goddess, and I have cast down my burden even unto the borders of the universe. They that blaspheme me are stoned, and my veil is fallen about me even unto the end of time.

Now there arises a great raging of thousands and thousands of mighty warriors flashing through the aethyr so thickly that nothing is to be seen but their swords, which are like blue-gray plumes. And the noise is confused, thousands of battle-cries harmonizing to a roar, like the roar of a monstrous river in flood. And all the stone is dull, dull gray. The life is gone from it.

An angel comes forward into the stone like a warrior clad in chain-armour. Upon his head are plumes of gray, spread out like the fan of a peacock. About his feet a great army of scorpions and dogs, lions, elephants, and many other wild beasts. He stretches forth his arms to heaven and cries; In the crackling of the lightning, in the rolling of the thunder, in the clashing of the swords and the hurling of the arrows: be thy name exalted!

Streams of fire come out of the heavens, a pale brilliant blue, like plumes. And they gather themselves and settle upon his lips. His lips are redder than roses, and the blue plumes gather themselves into a blue rose, and from beneath the petals of the rose come brightly coloured humming-birds, and dew falls from the rose- honey-coloured dew. I stand in the shower of it. And a voice proceeds from the rose: Come away! Our chariot is drawn by doves. Of mother-of-pearl and ivory is our chariot and the reins thereof are the heart-strings of men. Every moment that we fly shall cover an aeon. And every place on which we rest shall be a young universe rejoicing in its strength; the meadows thereof shall be covered with flowers. There shall we rest but a night, and in the morning we shall flee away, comforted.

Now, to myself, I have imagined the chariot of which the voice spake, and I looked to see who was with me in the chariot. It was an Angel of golden hair and golden skin, whose eyes were bluer than the sea, whose mouth was redder than the fire, whose breath was ambrosial air. Finer than a spider's web were her robes. And they were of the seven colours.

All this I saw; and then the hidden voice went on low and sweet: Come away! The price of the journey is little, though its name be death. Thou shalt die to all that thou fearest and hopest and hatest and lovest and thinkest and art. Yea! thou shalt die, even as thou must die. For all that thou hast, thou hast not; all that thou art, thou art not!

NENNI OFEKUFA ANANAEL LAIADA I MAELPEREJI NONUKA AFAFA ADAREPEHETA PEREGI ALADI NIISA NIISA LAPE OL ZODIR IDOIAN.

And the voice answered and said unto me: Hearing is of the spirit alone. Thou art a partaker of the five-fold mystery. Thou must roll up the ten divine ones like a scroll, and fashion therefrom a star. Yet must thou blot out the star in the heart of Hadit. For the blood of my heart is like a warm bath of myrrh and ambergris; bathe thyself therein. The blood of my heart is all gathered upon my lips if I kiss thee, burns in my fingertips if I caress thee, burns in my womb when thou art caught up into my bed. Mighty are the stars; mighty is the sun; mighty is the moon; mighty is the voice of the ever-living one, and the echoes of his whisper are the thunders of the dissolution of the worlds. But my silence is mightier than they. Close up the worlds like unto a weary house; close up the book of the recorder, and let the veil swallow up the shrine, for I am arisen, O my fair one, and there is no more need of all these things.

As per the revelation of the myth of Abel and Cain, blood is intimately involved in the Mystery of Initiation that is also called Immortality. And the ‘Starfire’ is the menstrual blood that is the ‘seed of the woman’.

If once I put thee apart from me, it was the joy of play. Is not the ebb and flowing of the tide a music of the sea? Come, let us mount unto Nuit our mother and be lost! Let being be emptied in the infinite abyss! For by me only shalt thou mount; thou hast none other wings than mine.

All this while the Rose has been shooting out blue flames, coruscating like snakes through the whole Aire. And the snakes have taken shapes of sentences. One of them is: Sub umbra alarum tuarum Adonai quies et felicitas. And another: Summum bonum, vera sapientia, magnanima vita, sub noctis nocte sunt. And another is: _Vera medicina est vinum mortis. And another is: Libertas evangelii per jugum legis ob gloriam dei intactam ad vacuum nequaquam tendit. And another is: Sub aqu lex terrarum. And another is: Mens edax rerum, cor__umbra rerum; intelligentia via summa. And another is: Summa via lucis: per Hephaestum undas regas. And another is: Vir introit tumulum regis, invenit oleum lucis.

And all round the whole of these things are the letters TARO; but the light is so dreadful that I cannot read the words. I am going to try again. All these serpents are collected together very thickly at the edges of the wheel, because there are an innumerable number of sentences. One is: _tres annos regimen oraculi. And another is: terribilis ardet rex Nun Vau Yod Lamed Ayin. And another is: Ter amb (amp?) (can't see it) Rosam oleo(?). And another is: Tribus annulis regna olisbon. And the marvel is that with those four letters you can get a complete set of rules for doing everything, both for white magic and black.

And now I see the heart of the rose again. I see the face of him that is the heart of the rose, and in the glory of that face I am ended. My eyes are fixed upon his eyes; my being is sucked up through my eyes into those eyes. And I see through those eyes, and lo! the universe, like whirling sparks of gold, blown like a tempest. I seem to swell out again into him. My consciousness fills the whole Aethyr. I hear the cry NIA, ringing again and again from within me. It sounds like infinite music, and behind the sound is the meaning of the Aethyr. Again there are no words.

All this time the whirling sparks of gold go on, and they are like blue sky, with a lot of rather thin white clouds in it, outside. And now I see mountains round, far blue mountains, purple mountains. And in the midst is a little green dell of moss, which is all sparkling with dew that drips from the rose. And I am lying on that moss with my face upwards, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking of the dew.

I cannot describe to you the joy and the exhaustion of everything that was, and the energy of everything that is, for it is only a corpse that is lying on the moss. I am the soul of the Aethyr. Now it reverberates like the swords of archangels, clashing upon the armour of the damned; and there seem to be the blacksmiths of heaven beating the steel of the worlds upon the anvils of hell, to make a roof to the Aethyr. For if the great work were accomplished and all the Aethyrs were caught up into one, then would the vision fail; then would the voice be still.

In this constellation, a goat is drawn with a fishes tail; bowing its head with its right leg folded underneath it. This is clearly an hermaphroditic symbol that is also dualistic like the preceding Sign. Its Hebrew and Coptic name is 'Gedi', meaning 'the kid or cut off' as does the Arabic is 'Al Gedi'. The Latin name Capricornus, translates as ‘the goat, the atonement, sinking down’ or ‘bowed’.

Bullinger notes five are remarkable stars, (a) and (b) in the horn and head with three (g), (d) and (e) in the fishy tail. But first comes the star with the Syriac name of ‘Dabih’, meaning ‘the sacrifice slain’, followed by ‘Al Dabih’ and ‘Al Dshabeh’, both meaning ‘the sacrifice slain’. Next comes ‘Ma'asad’-‘the slaying, destroying’ and ‘Sa'ad al Naschira’, meaning ‘the record of the cutting off’. And the last star is ‘Deneb’, meaning ‘the Lord or Judge cometh’.

…in the Zodiac, Capricornus occupies the Zenith. It is the most exalted of the signs; it is the goat leaping with lust upon the summits of earth…representing the god Pan upon the highest and most secret mountains of the earth…it is divinely unscrupulous, sublimely careless of result.

This constellation is drawn as an arrow in flight; moving towards an eagle. Its Hebrew name is 'Sham', which means 'destroying or desolate'. The ancients noted that this is the arrow that slew the eagle.

This constellation is drawn as an eagle with its head pointing downwards. The names of the stars describe this eagle eloquently. The first star (g) is found in the back of the eagle and is called 'Tarared', meaning 'wounded or torn, he cometh down'. This is followed by the brightest star (a), found in the eagle's neck and called 'Al Tair' in Arabic, meaning 'the wounding' along with (d) ‘Al Cair’-‘the piercing’ and (e) ‘Al Okab’-‘wounded in the heel’. The second brightest star (b) follows and is found in the throat being called 'Al Shain', meaning 'the bright', which is a word with a Hebrew root that means 'scarlet colored'.

This constellation is drawn as a dolphin with its head pointing upwards as if rising up and leaping out of the sea. The Hebrew name for this is 'Dalaph', which means 'pouring out of water' or ‘dropping’ along with the same term in Arabic, which means 'coming quickly'. Also, we find the star named by the Arabs, 'Scalooin', which means 'swift (as the flow of water)'. There are also Syriac and Chaldean terms that mean 'swiftly running (as water in the trough)'.

This Sign is depicted as a man pouring water out from an urn and down into the open mouth of a fish. The Coptic name for this Sign is ‘Hupei Tirion’, which means ‘the station of pouring out’ with the Hebrew name ‘Deli’, ‘the water urn’ or ‘bucket’ compared with the Arabic word ‘Delu’. Note that Crowley entitled his record of crossing the Abyss ‘The Urn’. The Greeks called it ‘Hydrokoeus’-‘the pourer forth of water’ and the Latin Aquarius translates as ‘the rising up and pouring forth of water’.

It is interesting to note that in the Holy Tarot, Aquarius is depicted as a woman. She is handling the two streams of the water of life that were separated by the first day of creation in Genesis. Aquarius is known as the water or the sea and its symbol is the Phoenix that rises from the ashes (ash being the product of calcination in the Alchemical process. Several of the stars in this sign portend to good luck.

In the lower part of the right leg we find star (d) with the Hebrew name ‘Scheat’, meaning ‘who goeth and returneth (went about)’. This is followed by the brightest star (a), found in the right shoulder and called ‘Scheat er Schad’ along with (b) ‘Saad al Suud’ found in the other shoulder, which together mean ‘who goeth and returneth, the pourer out, stream’. We then find ‘Ancha’, meaning ‘the vessel of pouring out, the urn’ or ‘bowl’ and ‘Sa’ad al Melik’, which means ‘the record of pouring forth’. And the bright star in the urn has the Egyptian name, ‘Mon’ or ‘Meon’, meaning ‘urn’.

This picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars…she is definitely personified as a human-seeming figure; she is represented as bearing two cups, one golden, held high above her head, from which she pours water upon it…From the golden cup she pours this ethereal water, which is also milk and oil and blood, upon her own head, indicating the eternal renewal of the categories, the inexhaustible possibilities of existence…the left hand, lowered, holds a silver cup, from which also she pours the immortal liquor of her life…She pours it upon the junction of land and water. This water is the water of the great Sea of Binah; in the manifestation of Nuith on a lower plane, whe is the Great Mother.

The brightest star (a) in this constellation was named by the Arabs as ‘al Haut’, meaning ‘mouth of the fish’ or ‘mouth’. It was greatly venerated by the Egyptians and Ethiopians. The Zodiac of Denderah names it ‘Aar’, which means ‘a stream’. Dagan was the Babylonian god of the earth; depicted as half-man and half-fish. Is this yet an allusion to the scientific evidence that we have in the modern world, which proves humanity came from the sea? Or, we could have yet another strong allusion to the Alchemical process; even equating the sea with the amniotic fluid.

Pegasus as a name is an amalgamation of two Hebrew terms: ‘Pega’, which means ‘chief’ and ‘Sus’, which means ‘horse’. He is the winged horse that resides over the head of Aquarius in the sky and a stroke of his hoof was said to have caused the fountain of Hippocrene to spring forth from Mount Helicon.

AL I.61: "But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a single robe, and covered with a rich headdress. 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 arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!"

Its brightest star (a) is found on the neck of the horse at the junction of the wing and is named by the Hebrews as ‘Markab’, meaning ‘returning from’ followed by the next brightest star (b), found in the near shoulder and is called ‘Scheat’, which again means ‘who goeth and returneth’ or ‘went about’. The star (e) follows and is located in the nostril and is named by the Arabs, ‘Enif’, meaning ‘the branch’. Next comes the star (g), located at the wingtip and is called in Arabic, ‘Al Genib’, which means ‘who carries’ followed by ‘Homan’-‘the water’ and finally, the star (h) found in the near leg has the Arabic name ‘Matar’, which means ‘who causes to overflow’. The star that names this constellation ‘Pegasus’ translates from both the Greek and Latin as ‘coming quickly, joyfully’.

This constellation is called ‘Tes-ark’ in the Zodiac of Denderah and translates as ‘from afar’. The layout in the sky makes a perfectly formed cross and the constellation is referred to as the ‘King bird of the stars’. The Swan is an important symbol in our psyche and was once connected with Aquila; the eagle. It is the Pelican[4] in Alchemy and also the tuxedo in western dress. Crowley notes in The Book of Lies that the swan is motionless; a seeming allusion to the swan in chapter two of Liber LXV. This is the silent swan that is the Hamsu of the Hindus that is the ‘bird out of space and time’. In the lower mysteries, it lies at the portal of death and it is from this that we get the colloquial phrase “swan song”; always seen in battle with Aquila and always winning that battle in the northern hemisphere.

It is said to resemble Venus and Mercury and related to success in the arts and sciences. And Bernadette Brady writes in Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars: “Krishna, from the Hindu tradition, became a swan-knight through this process, and the story of Zeus and Leda is thought to be a Greek update on the story of Krishna and “Lady,” whose union created the World Egg.” And with its principle star being Deneb, Brady goes on to say: “Deneb adige is a very subtle star associated with the strength and hostility of the swan, but at the same time holding within its symbolism the mystic, transcendental qualities of shamanistic legends of the creation of the World Egg.”

First, there are two stars in the tail named ‘Azel’ and ‘Fafage’, meaning ‘who goes and returns’ or ‘gaddest about’ and ‘glorious, shining forth’, respectively. The star (g) is found in the body of the bird; named by the Hebrews as ‘Sadr’, ‘who returns, as in a circle’ or ‘round about’. Next comes ‘Adige’-‘flyingswiftly’ and ‘Arided’-‘he shall come down’. The second brightest star (b) follows and is found in the beak with the Arabic name ‘Al Bireo’, meaning ‘flying quickly’ followed by the brightest star (a), located between the body and the tail; named ‘Deneb’, which means ‘the Lord or Judge cometh’ as also in the Sign of Capricornus. Finally, we have ‘Cycnos’-‘the swan, circling, returning’ and ‘Cygnus’-‘who comes and goes, circles’.

There cometh an Angel into the stone with opalescent shining garments like a wheel of fire on every side of him, and in his hand is a long flail of scarlet lightning; his face is black, and his eyes white without any pupil or iris. The face is very terrible indeed to look upon. Now in front of him is a wheel, with many spokes, and many tyres; it is like a fence in front of him.

And he cries: O man, who art thou that wouldst penetrate the Mystery? for it is hidden unto the End of Time.

And I answer him: Time is not, save in the darkness of Her womb by whom evil came.

And now the wheel breaks away, and I see him as he is. His garment is black beneath the opal veils, but it is lined with white, and he has the shining belly of a fish, and enormous wings of black and white feathers, and innumerable little legs and claws like a centipede, and a long tail like a scorpion. The breasts are human, but they are all scored with blood; and he cries: O thou who hast broken down the veil, knowest thou not that who cometh where I am must be scarred by many sorrows?

And I answer him: Sorrow is not, save in the darkness of the womb of Her by whom came evil. I pierce the Mystery of his breast, and therein is a jewel. It is a sapphire as great as an ostrich egg, and thereon is graven this sigil:

[Figure: This is in the form of two "U" shapes, very elongated in the risers. The one to the right is lower than the first, and its left riser extends 2/3's of the way up inside the center of the one to the left. The left "U" turns back down to the far left, ending 1/5th the way down in a tiny circle. The right bends abruptly horizontally left across the other and also ends there in a tiny circle.]

But there is also much writing on the stone, very minute characters carved. I cannot read them. He points with his flail to the sapphire, which is now outside him and bigger than himself; and he cries: Hail! warden of the Gates of Eternity who knowest not thy right hand from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father is a god with clasped hands wherein he holdeth the universe, crushing it into the dust that ye call stars.

Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right eye from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is but one light.

Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right nostril from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is neither life nor death.

Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right ear from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is neither sound nor silence.

Whoso hath power to break open this sapphire stone shall find therein four elephants having tusks of mother-of-pearl, and upon whose backs are castles, those castles which ye call the watch-towers of the Universe.

This of course is a direct reference to the four Watcher Stars of which, the red star Regulus, is the brightest. And perhaps this alludes to the idea that Regulus holds a peculiar importance over the other three in the inauguration of the Aeon of Horus.

Let me dwell in peace within the breast of the Angel that is warden of the aethyr. Let not the shame of my Mother be unveiled. Let not her be put to shame that lieth among the lilies that are beyond the stars.

O man, that must ever be opening, when wilt thou learn to seal up the mysteries of the creation? to fold thyself over thyself as a rose in the embrace of night? But thou must play the wanton to the sun, and the wind must tear thy petals from thee, and the bee must rob thee of thy honey, and thou must fall into the dusk of things. Amen and Amen. Verily the light is hidden, therefore he who hideth himself is like unto the light; but thou openest thyself; thou art like unto the darkness that bindeth the belly of the great goddess.

OLAHO VIRUDEN MAHORELA ZODIREDA! ON PIREDA EXENTASER; ARBA PIRE GAH GAHA GAHAL GAHALANA VO ABRA NA GAHA VELUCORSAPAX.

And the voice of the aeon cried: Return, return, return! the time sickeneth, and the space gapeth, and the voice of him that is, was and shall be crowned rattles in the throat of the mighty dragon of eld. Thou canst not pass by me, except thou have the mystery of the word of the abyss.

Now the angel putteth back the sapphire stone into his breast; and I spake unto him and said, I will fight with thee and overcome thee, except thou expound unto me the word of the abyss.

Regulus is the heart of the lion (Leo) which is directly opposite Aquarius in the Zodiac and equally as important in understanding the nature of the Aeon of Horus. That the sapphire is put into the breast overtly alludes to the heart and seems to corroborate my comment above.

Now he makes as if to fight with me. (It is very horrible, all the tentacles moving and the flail flashing, and the fierce eyeless face, strained and swollen.) And with the Magic sword I pierce through his armour to his breast. He fell back, saying: Each of these my scars was thus made, for I am the warden of the aethyr. And he would have said more; but I cut him short, saying: expound the word of the Abyss.

And he said: Discipline is sorrowful and ploughing is laborious and age is weariness. Thou shalt be vexed by dispersion. But now, if the sun arise, fold thou thine arms; then shall God smite thee into a pillar of salt. Look not so deeply into words and letters; for this Mystery hath been hidden by the Alchemists. Compose the sevenfold into a fourfold regimen; and when thou hast understood thou mayest make symbols; but by playing child's games with symbols thou shalt never understand. Thou hast the signs; thou hast the words; but there are many things that are not in my power, who am but the warden of the 28th Aethyr.

The angel here seems to be saying, forget the prophecies of the seven planets and return to the wisdom of the four Watcher Stars. In this way, the making of symbols is the note that in examining these four stars, one will gain the magick of prophecy and determine the proper course to navigate oneself as the aeon unfolds.

Now my name thou shalt obtain in this wise. Of the three angels of the Aethyr, thou shalt write the names from right to left and from left to right and from right to left, and these are the holy letters: The first 1, the fifth 2, the sixth 3, the eleventh 4, the seventh 5, the twelfth 6, the seventeenth 7. Thus hast thou my name who am above these three, but the angels of the 30th Aethyr are indeed four, and they have none above them; wherefore dispersion and disorder.

Now cometh from every side at once a voice, terribly great, crying: Close the veil; the great blasphemy hath been uttered; the face of my Mother is scarred by the nails of the devil. Shut the book, destroy the breaker of the seal!

And I answered: Had he not been destroyed he had not come hither, for I am not save in the darkness in the womb of Her by whom came evil into the world.

And this darkness swallows everything up, and the angel is gone from the stone; and there is no light therein, save only the light of the Rose and of the Cross.

We’ve now completed one half of the journey through the story of the stars and the zodiacal wheel. Frances Rolleston writes of the Galactic Circle:

Twelve of the decans, or extra-zodiacal constellations, are on this circle or way, in the order here given. The first six having meaning referring to the first coming of the promised seed of the woman, descend from Cepheus, the branch, to the Southern Cross. Thence the Galactic Circle re-ascendes to Cepheus, whose other character, the crowned king, becomes peculiarly appropriate, the six ascending emblems having meanings applicable to the return of Him, whose second coming in glory to receive His kingdom is the theme of unfulfilled, as the first is of accomplished prophecy.

This Sign is drawn as two large fishes bound together by a band, which fastens to each of their tails. One fish is drawn with its head facing upwards and pointing to the North Star and the other is shown at a right angle to the former; swimming along the ecliptic. The western fish is stationed below Pegasus with the eastern fish being below Andromeda. Known as the Sea, the Coptics called this Sign ‘Pi-cot Orion’, which means ‘fishes of him that cometh’ or ‘beast’. And the Hebrews called it ‘Dagim’, meaning ‘the fishes’ or ‘multitude’. The Syriac name is ‘Nuno’, meaning ‘the fish, lengthened out (as posterity)’ with the Latin ‘Pisces’, meaning ‘fish, multiplying’. The two principal stars of this Sign are ‘Okda’, which is a Hebrew term meaning ‘united’ and ‘Al Samaca’, Arabic for ‘the upheld’.

Pisces is the last of the Sign; it represents the last stage of winter. It might be called the Gateway of Resurrection (the letter Qoph means the back of the head, and is connected with the potencies of the cerebellum). In the system of the old Aeon, the resurrection of the Sun was not only from winter, but from night; and this [sign depicts] midnight.

This constellation is the band that binds the two fishes. Its Egyptian name was ‘U-or’, meaning ‘He Cometh’ with the Arabs calling it ‘Al Risha’, meaning ‘ the band or bridle’. Besides being connected to the two fish, this band also binds Cetus (the sea monster) by collaring its neck. Cetus is the enemy of the fishes; the Serpent, Whale (reminiscent of Jonah) and Sea Monster. Its head is drawn in the sky; starting at Taurus and ending at Aquarius. And it’s linked to the Ophis serpent of the Egyptians. In Babylonian lore, we know Cetus as Tiamat, the cosmic dragon slain by Marduk. And so immediately in the second half of the story of stars, do we again find the recursive embedding of a repeating theme.

The name Greek name of Cepheus (the father of Andromeda whose husband was Perseus) comes from a Hebrew term that means ‘the branch’ or ‘branches’. He is depicted as a bearded man who wears a crown and is called the King or Crowned King. The Egyptian name for this constellation is ‘Pe-ku-hor’ (reminiscent of Ra Hoor Khu), which means one who cometh to rule. And the Ethiopian name for this constellation was ‘Hyk’, meaning ‘a king’. We first find the star ‘Cheicus’ or ‘Caucus’, which means ‘comes as in a circle’ and ‘Regulus’ (one of the Cherubic stars, which means ‘treading under foot’). Then comes it’s brightest star (a) is located in the right shoulder and is given the Arab name of ‘Al Deramin’, which means ‘coming quickly, as in a circle’ or ‘round’ followed by the next brightest star (b), found in the girdle and is given the Arabic name of ‘Al Phirk’, meaning ‘the redeemer’. Then comes the star (g), located in the left knee and called ‘Al Rai’ or ‘Errai’, which means ‘who bruises, breaks’.

Cepheus is also called the Redeemer and spans across the sky; beginning in Pisces and through Capricorn. And so we have another recursive allusion to the branch and Spica. Only now, we are presenting this as the father of Andromeda and husband of Cassiopeia; those important constellations in Rosicrucian lore.

This A-shaped constellation is found just above Cetus and is drawn as a woman sitting in a chair with chains fastened to her feet and arms. The Egyptians called her ‘Set’, which means ‘set or set up as a queen’. Her name means ‘man-ruler’ and the constellation is the closest constellation to our own Milky Way galaxy.

The Hebrews called her ‘Sirra’, meaning ‘the chained’. We then find ‘Persea’-‘the stretched out’; ‘Adhil’-‘the afflicted’; the second brightest star, which the Hebrews named ‘Mirach’, meaning ‘the weak’; ‘Mizar’-‘the bound’ and the Arabic ‘Al Mara’, meaning ‘the afflicted’. Next comes ‘Al Moselsalah’, meaning ‘from the grave, Sheol, Hades’ and ‘delivered’ or ‘let go’. This is followed by the brightest star (a), found in the head and is called ‘Al Phiratz’ by the Arabs, which means ‘the broken down’ or ‘breaketh’ followed by the star (g), in the left foot; called ‘Al Maach’ or ‘Al Amak’ by the Arabs, meaning ‘struck down’. We then find ‘Misam al Thuraiya’ (a nebula), meaning ‘the assembled’ or ‘the abundance’ and ‘Andromeda’, meaning ‘the set free’ or ‘liberty’ as well as ‘from death’ or ‘death’. Finally, we find the star ‘Desma’, meaning ‘the bound’.

The Egyptians named this Sign ‘Tametouris Ammon’, meaning ‘the reign, dominion, or government of Ammon’. The Sign is drawn as a ram or a lamb without horns and whose head is crowned with a circle. The Hebrew name was ‘Taleh’, which means ‘the lamb, sent forth’ and a clear reference to ‘the sacrifice of the lamb’ both in ancient Hebrew sacrificial rituals and in the Christian story of Jesus upon the cross. The Arabs called it ‘Al Hamal’, meaning ‘the sheep, gentle, merciful’. The Akkadian name is ‘Bara-ziggar’, which has two roots. ‘Bar’ means ‘altar’ or ‘sacrifice’ and ‘ziggar’ means ‘right making’. The altar is of course, the summit of the earth. And the Greek and Latin terms translate as ‘the ram’.

Stars in this Sign, include: (g) ‘Messartim’-‘the bound, or binding’ and the second brightest star (b), found in the left horn and named ‘Al Sheratan’, meaning ‘the bruised, wounded’. Next comes its principle star (a), found in the forehead and named ‘El Nath’ or ‘El Natik’, which means ‘wounded, slain’ followed by ‘Shalisha’-‘the triangle over the head of captains, Aries-the exalted, chief’. Then comes the Arabic for (a), ‘Ras al Thalitha’, meaning ‘head of the triangle, head’. Other Greek and Arab names translate as triangle, high and lifted or drew up.

This sign is ruled by Mars, and therein the Sun is exalted…for the ram, by nature, is a wild and courageous animal, lonely in lonely places, whereas when tamed and made to lie down in green pastures, nothing is left but the docile, cowardly, gregarious and succulent beast.

The Hebrew name for this decan means ‘the enthroned, the beautiful’; used in their scripture as ‘throne’, ‘beauty’ and ‘liberty’. She is the ‘Daughter of Splendor’ and represents the entombment leading to the germination of the seed in Alchemy as she ‘kills’ her man. And as such, she is the one who rides the beast; the killer of Osiris and the bride of the Ram. Therefore, she was the matriarch of the Age of Taurus and prophecy. Aries, the Ram is then the patriarchal age that follows and complements this.

These two together are a part of the symbolism of the Knight and Queen of the Tarot. And they’re followed by the ages of Pisces for the Prince and Aquarius for the Daughter; Cassiopeia!

The brightest star (a) ‘Shedar’, found in the left breast, means ‘the freed’ followed by the second brightest star (b) located in the top of the chair or throne, Caph, ‘the branch in the hand’. The Egyptians called it ‘Set’ which is the same term given to Andromeda in the sign of Pisces and of whom was consequently, the chained woman. Again, it translates as ‘set or set up as Queen’. Note the Chaldean and Arabic name ‘Dat al Cursa’, means ‘the set, enthroned’. Another Arabic name for this constellation is ‘Ruchba’, meaning ‘the enthroned or seated’. She is seated on the Arctic Circle by the side of Cepheus (the King); reminiscent of Babalon and the Beast conjoined in Thelemic doctrine.

This constellation is the largest of all the constellations and is drawn as a great sea monster. It is the natural enemy of the fishes, which are bound to it and underneath Andromeda as noted above. It is pictured in the Zodiac of Denderah with a monstrous head trodden under foot by the swine (or pig); the natural enemy of the serpent (another natural enemy [tamer, disciplinarian] of the serpent is the hawk). It is crowned with a mortar, denoting a bruising. And its Egyptian name is ‘Knem’, which means ‘subdued’.

The brightest star (a) is located in the upper jaw and is named ‘Menkar’, which means ‘the bound or chained enemy’. Then comes (o)‘Mira’ (the changeable star in the neck), meaning ‘the rebel’. This is followed by the second brightest star (b), found in the tail and is called ‘Diphda’ or ‘Deneb Kaitos’; ‘overthrown’ or ‘thrust down’, respectively.

The Greeks derived the name Perseus from the Hebrew ‘Peretz’-‘the breaker’. The Egyptian name for this constellation is ‘Kar Knem’ or ‘he who fights and subdues’. The first star is ‘Athik’, meaning ‘who breaks’ followed by the brightest star (a) ‘Mirfak’, meaning ‘who assists’ or ‘leaning on’. The star (g), found in the right shoulder is anmed ‘Al Genib’, meaning ‘who carries away’.

In his left hand he carries the head that the Hebrews and Greeks called ‘Medusa’, which was ‘trodden under foot’; a reference to the sea monster. The star ‘Rosh Satan’ appears, meaning ‘the head of the enemy’ or ‘head’ followed by ‘Al Oneh’ and ‘Al Ghoul’, meaning ‘the subdued, weakened’ and ‘the evil spirit’, respectively. The second brightest star (b) found in the head is the changeable star called ‘Al Gol’, which means ‘coming and going, rolling round’ or ‘rolled’ and in Hebrew, ‘head’.

This Sign is drawn as a bull rushing forward. The Hebrews named it 'Shur', which means ‘the Bull, coming’ as well as ‘bullock’, ‘step’ and ‘rule’. But the Hebrew word for bull is 'Reem', meaning 'loftiness, exaltation, power and pre-eminance' and from which the name Abram is derived, which means 'high father'. The Coptic name is ‘Isis’, which means ‘who saves mightily’ or ‘salvation’ with the stars ‘Apis’, meaning ‘who cometh’ or ‘pass’ and one called the ‘Station of Horus’, meaning ‘the coming’ or ‘wayfaring’.

The first star is the Hebrew ‘Chima’, meaning ‘the heap, accumulation’ and in Arabic is the ‘Pleiades’-‘congregation of the judge, or ruler’. This is followed by ‘Hyades’ and “Palilicium’, which means ‘the congregated’ or ‘congregation’ and ‘belonging to the judge’ or ‘judge’; respectively. We then find ‘Wasat’-‘the center, or foundation’ and ‘Al Thuraiya’-‘the abundance’. Finally, there’s the Latin ‘Vergiliae’-‘the center’ and the Arabic ‘Vertex’-‘turned on, rolling round’.

The brightest star (a) is found in the Bull's eye and is named by the Chaldeans, 'Al Debaran', meaning 'the leader, governor' or ‘counsellor, subduing’. The second brightest star (b), located in the northern horn, has the Arabic name 'El Nath', meaning 'wounded, slain' as in the Sign of Aries. This is followed by ‘Al Cyone’ in the Pleiades, translated as ‘the center’, ‘base’, ‘foundation’ or ‘established’.

Taurus…the throne of the Hierophant…is itself the Bull Kerub; that is, Earth in it strongest and most balanced form.

This constellation is drawn as a man. His foot is lifted up and placed immediately over the head of an enemy that he is crushing. The Egyptians called him 'Ha-ga-t', which means 'this is he who triumphs'. The name Orion comes from the Hebrew root 'Oar', which means 'light' and ‘Orion’ meaning ‘coming forth as light’. The ancient Akkadian name for this constellation was 'Ur-ana', meaning 'the light of heaven'.

The stars begin with ‘Al Giauza’-‘the branch’; ‘Al Gebor’-‘the mighty’ (corresponding with ‘Geburah’ in the Sepher Yetzirah); ‘Al Mirzam’-‘the prince, the ruler’ and ‘Al Nagjed’-‘the prince’. Next comes the star (d), first of the three in his belt, called "Al Nitak', 'the wounded' followed by the brightest star (a) is found in the right shoulder and is named 'Betelgeuz', which means 'coming’ or ‘of the branch, stock'. The second brightest star (b) then follows and is found in the left foot, called 'Rigel' or 'Rigol', meaning 'the foot, or who treadeth under foot'. Then comes ‘Al Rai’-‘the bruising and the star (g), located in the left shoulder, called 'Bellatrix', which means 'hastily coming' followed by the star (z), found in the belt, and called 'Mintaka', which means 'dividing, the belt'. This is followed by ‘Heka’-‘the coming’ and ‘Niphla’-‘the mighty’ (with a seemingly obvious connection to the praeter-human Nephilim). From there we get ‘Meissa’-‘the coming forth’; ‘Nux’-‘the strong’; ‘Thabit’-‘treading on’ or ‘kick’ followed by the star (k) in the foot, called 'Saiph', meaning 'bruised'. Finally, there is ‘Chesil’, the nebula, meaning ‘bound together’ or ‘constellations’.

This river emanates from the down-coming foot of Orion and is named by the Egyptians, 'Peh-ta-t', which means 'the mouth of the river’. The first star (b), found at the source of the river is called ‘Cursa’, meaning ‘bent down’ followed by its brightest star (a), found at the mouth of the river and named 'Acharnar', meaning 'after part of a river' followed by ‘Phaet’-‘mouth (of the river); ‘Theemin’-‘the water’ and ‘Ozha’-‘the going forth’. Finally, the star (g) is found at the second bend in the river, is called 'Zourac', which is an Arabic word that means 'flowing'.

This word comes from a Hebrew root that means 'the shepherd'. The Arabic name is ‘Aiyuk’, meaning ‘wounded in the foot’ or ‘lame’. Stars include ‘El Nath’-‘wounded in the heel (also reckoned in the horn of Taurus, as in Aries)’ and ‘Maaz’-‘flock of goats or ewes’ The second brightest star (b) is found in the shepherd's right arm and is called 'Menkilinon' in Chaldean, which means 'the band or chain of the goats'. Also, there are two stars named by the Hebrews: ‘Gedi’-‘the kid (following Auriga)’ and ‘Alioth’-‘she goat, or ewe’. And the constellation's brightest star (a) is found in the body of the goat and given the Latin name 'Capella', which means 'the goat, atonement'.

However, in the Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah, the man (shepherd) was instead of carrying a goat, he was carrying a sceptre that was called 'Trun' (Sceptre of Power). On the top of this was the head of a goat and at the bottom was a cross, which meant life in Egyptian symbolism.

The Egyptian name for this Sign is ‘Clusus’ or ‘Claustrum Hor’, which means ‘the place of Him who cometh’. It is drawn as two human figures walking; one a woman and one a man with a tail. The Coptics called it ‘Pi-Mahi’, meaning ‘the united’, which is also the meaning of the Hebrew name ‘Thaumim’, which also translates as ‘twined’. And I have to wonder; repeatedly, the symbols keep referring to ‘him who cometh’ and the Egyptian gods are always going forth with their hands extended forward in all their depictions. With the idea of ejaculation being termed ‘coming’ in the vernacular usage of the English language, perhaps it’s the erection of the lingham itself that is ‘light in extension’ or the L.V.X. in the heart of N.O.X. (the yoni). With this in mind, the hurt or affliction is in the genital arousal, which is the only organ of the body that brings pleasure when agitated. But there is also a unity and reference seems pretty strong to the ‘Magickal Childe’ is what is really alluded to by him who ‘binds’. This seems a unifying force of energy; especially with reference to the ‘river’, which could also be the ‘stream of consciousness’.

The star ‘Propus’ translates as ‘the branch, spreading’ followed by the star (e) found in her knee, called ‘Mebsuta’, meaning ‘treading under feet’. The star (e) is in the center his body, is called ‘Waset’, which means ‘set’ (as in determined or appointed); followed by ‘Al Giauza’, meaning ‘the palm branch, stem’. The star (g) is found in the left foot of the man and is called ‘Al Henah’, which means ‘hurt, afflicted’ or ‘sorrow’. And the next star is ‘Al Dira’, meaning ‘the seed (or branch)’. The brightest star (a) is found in the head of the woman and is called ‘Apollo’, meaning ‘ruler or judge’. The second brightest star (b) is found in the head of the man and is called ‘Hercules (bearing a branch or club)’, meaning ‘coming to suffer’ or ‘to suffer grief’.

There is an Assyrian legend of a woman with a fish, and also there is a legend of Eve and the Serpent, for Cain was the child of Eve and the Serpent, and not of Eve and Adam; and therefore when he had slain his brother, who was the first murderer, having sacrificed living things to his demon, had Cain the mark upon his brow, which is the mark of the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse, and is the sign of Initiation. The shedding of blood is necessary, for God did not hear the children of Eve until blood was shed. And that is external religion; but Cain spake not with God, nor had the mark of initiation upon his brow, sothat he was shunned of all men, until he had shed blood. And this blood was the blood of his brother.

The ancient Persian Zodiac draws this constellation as a serpent. And the Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah draws it as an unclean bird standing on the serpent, which is under the feet of Orion. They give it the name of ‘Bashti-beki’ with ‘Bashti’ meaning ‘confounded’ and ‘Beki’ meaning ‘failing’.

The brightest star (a) in this constellation has the Hebrew name ‘Arnebo’, which means ‘the enemy of him that cometh’ with a similar meaning for the Arabic phrase ‘Arnebeth’, which means ‘the hare, enemy of what cometh’. The names of other stars include: ‘Nibal’, meaning ‘the mad’; ‘Rakis’, meaning ‘the bound (as with a chain)’; and ‘Sugia’, which means ‘the deceiver’.

In the Egyptian Zodiac, this constellation is called ‘Apes’, which means ‘the head’ and he is pictured as a hawk (which again, is the natural enemy of the serpent), which has a pestle and mortar on its head. This seems consistent with the ‘Ape of Thoth’. (And I wonder here; is this the commingling of the seed or blood of the man and the woman?) It was also called by them, ‘Seir’, meaning ‘the prince’. For the Persians, this was drawn as a wolf called ‘Zeeb’, which means ‘coming quickly’; in Hebrew this meant ‘this shall come’. The Arabs called this constellation ‘Al Shira Al Jemeniya’-‘the prince, or chief of the right hand’.

The star in the head (a) is the brightest in all the heavens and is called ‘Sirius’ or ‘Prince’. Sirius is also the word from which we get our English word ‘Sir’. And the star was always associated with great heat; giving us the phrase: ‘the dog days of summer’ as the word ‘Canis’ is clearly the etymological root of the word ‘Canine’. Then comes ‘Aschere’, meaning ‘who shall come’ followed by the star (e) in the right hind leg and named ‘Adhara’-‘the glorious’. The second brightest star (b) is found in the left foot and called ‘Mirzam’, meaning ‘the prince or ruler’. Finally comes the star (d) in the body, is called ‘Wesen’, meaning ‘the bright, shining’.

The Egyptian name for this constellation is ‘Sebak’, which means ‘conquering or victorious’. It is drawn as a hawk’s head with the appendage of a tail. The brightest star (a) is in the body and is named ‘Procyon’, which means ‘redeemer’. Then comes ‘Al Shira, Al Shemeliya’, meaning ‘the prince, or chief of the left hand’ followed by ‘Al Mirzam’, which means ‘the prince or ruler’; and ‘Al Gomeyra’, which means ‘who completes, perfects’. Finally, we find the second brightest star (b) found in the neck and named ‘Al Gomeisa’, which means ‘the burthened, loaded, bearing for others’.

In the first place, there is again the woman riding on the bull, which is the reflection of BABALON, that rideth on The Beast. And also there is an Assyrian legend of a woman with a fish, and also there is a legend of Eve and the Serpent, for Cain was the child of Eve and the Serpent, and not of Eve and Adam; and therefore when he had slain his brother, who was the first murderer, having sacrificed living things to his demon, had Cain the mark upon his brow, which is the mark of the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse, and is the sign of initiation.

It is reasonable to surmise that the blood of Cain is the sperm that he let, which is also called his brother. The beasts of the field that his brother harvested and were originally pleasing to god, were the sperm cells. Cain had finally to let this blood upon the earth (Babalon). The prophet relates that the sign upon Cain’s brow is the ‘third eye’ and the Eye of Shiva; inidicating the pineal gland, which is of paramount importance in the Sexual Magick of the Cult of Shaitan.

The shedding of blood is necessary, for God did not hear the children of Eve until blood was shed. And that is external religion; but Cain spake not with God, nor had the mark of initiation upon his brow, so that he was shunned by all men, until he had shed blood. And this blood was the blood of his brother. This is a mystery of the sixth key of the Taro, which ought not to be called The Lovers, but The Brothers.

The true nature of ‘the bloody sacrifice’ is not in letting the blood of beasts on an altar; creating scape-goats. That’s a part of the deception of the demiurge. Rather, it is the letting of the blood of the phallus into a satisfied woman. The Prophet notes this in his own footnotes to this aethyr and delineates the fact that Seth is Baal, which is also the Adon.

In the middle of the card stands Cain; in his right hand is the Hammer of Thor with which he hath slain his brother, and it is all wet with his blood. And his left hand he holdeth open as a sign of innocence. And on his right hand is his mother Eve, around whom the serpent is entwined with his hood spread behind her head; and on his left hand is a figure somewhat like the Hindoo Kali, but much more seductive. Yet I know it to be Lilith. And above him is the Great Sigil of the Arrow, downward, but it is struck through the heart of the child. This Child is also Abel. And the meaning of this part of the card is obscure, but that is the correct drawing of the Taro card; and that is the correct magical fable from which the Hebrew scribes, who were not complete Initiates, stole their legend of the Fall and the subsequent events. They joined different fables together to try and make a connected story, and they sophisticted them to suit their sociall and political conditions.

All this while no image hath come unto the Stone, and no voice hath been heard. I cannot get any idea of the source of what I have been saying. All I can say is, that there is a sort of dew, like mist, upon the Stone, and yet it has become hot to the touch. All I get is that the Apocalypse was the recension of a dozen or so totally disconnected allegories, that were pieced together, and ruthlessly planed down to make them into a connected account; and that recension was re-written and edited in the interests of Christianity, because people were complaining that Christianity could show no true spiritual knowledge, or any food for the best minds: nothing but miracles, which only deceived the most ignorant, and Theology, which only suited pedants.

So a man got hold of this recension, and turned it Christian, and imitated the style of John. And this explains why the end of the world does not happen every few years, as advertised. There is nothing whatever in the Stone but a White Rose. And a voice comes: there shall be no more red roses, for she hath crushed all the blood of all things into her cup. It seemed at one time as if the rose was in the breast of a beautiful woman, high-bosomed, tall, stately, yet who danced like a snake. But there was no subsistence in this vision.

And now I see the white Rose, as if it were in the beak of a swan, in the picture by Michael Angelo in Venice. And that legend too is the legend of BABALON. But all this is before the veil of the Aethyr. Now will I go and make certain preparations, and I will return and repeat the call of the Aethyr yet again. It is not a question of being unable to get into the Aethyr, and trying to struggle through; but one is not anywhere near it.

A voice comes: When thy dust shall strew the earth whereon She walketh, then mayest thou bear the impress of Her foot. And thou thinkest to behold Her face! The Stone is become of the most brilliant whiteness, and yet, in that whiteness, all the other colours are implicit. The colour of anything is but its dullness, its obstructiveness. So is it with these visions. All that they _are_ is falsity. Every idea merely marks where the mind of the Seer was too stupid to receive the light, and therefore reflected it. Therefore, as the pure light is colourless, so is the pure soul black. And this is the Mystery of the incest of CHAOS with his daughter.

There is nothing whatever visible. But I asked of the Angel that is at my side if the ceremony hath been duly performed. And he says: Yes, the Aethyr is present. It is thou that canst not perceive it, even as I cannot perceive it, because it is so entirely beyond thy conception that there is nothing in thy mind on to which it can cast a symbol, even as the emptiness of space is not heated by the fire of the sun. And so pure is the light that it preventeth the formation of images, and therefore have men called it darkness. For with any lesser light, the mind responds, and makes for itself divers palaces. It is that which is written: "In my Father's house there are many mansions"; and if the house be destroyed, how much more the mansions that are therein! For this is the victory of BABALON over the Magician that ensorcelled her.

For as the Mother she is 3 by 52, and as the harlot she is 6 by 26; but she is also 12 by 13, and that is the pure unity. Moreover she is 4 by 39, that is, victory over the power of the 4, and in 2 by 78 hath she destroyed the great Sorcerer. Thus is she the synthesis of 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, which being added are 10, therefore could she set her daughter upon her own throne, and defile her own bed with her virginity.

And I ask the Angel if there is any way by which I can make myself worthy to behold the Mysteries of this Aethyr. And he saith: It is not in my knowledge. Yet do thou make once more in silence the Call of the Aethyr, and wait patiently upon the favour of the Angel, for He is a mighty Angel, and never yet have I heard the whisper of his wing.

And the "Beast" is he upon whom BABALON rideth, and the "Field" is the supernal Eden.) Confound her understanding with darkness. (This sentence is explained by what has been said concerning Binah.) For why, it rejoiceth me concerning the Virgin and the Man. (Kelly did not understand this Call at all, and he would not believe this sentence was written so, for it seemed to contradict the rest of the Call, so he altered it.) One while let her be known and another while a stranger, (that is, the Mystery of the Holy One being at the same time identical with everything and apart from it), because she is the bed of an harlot, and the dwelling of him that is fallen. (That is that Mystery which was revealed in the last Aethyr; the universe being, as it were, a garden wherein the Holy Ones may take their pleasure.) O ye heavens, arise; the lower heavens beneath you, let them serve you. (This is a command for the whole of things to join in universal rapture.) Govern those that govern; cast down such as fall; bring forth those that increase; and destroy the rotten.

(This means that everything shall take its own pleasure in its own way.) No place let it remain in one number. ("No place" is the infinite Ain . . . "Let remain in one number"; that is, let it be concentrated in Kether.)

Add and diminish until the stars be numbered. (It is a mystery of the Logos being formulated by the Qabalah, because the stars, are all letters of the Holy Alphabet, as it was said in a former Aethyr.) Arise! Move! and Appear! before the covenant of his mouth which he hath shewn unto us in his Justice. ("The Covenant" is the letter Aleph; "His mouth", pe'; "His Justice", lamed; and these add up again to Aleph, so that it is in the letter Aleph, which is zero, thus symbolizing the circles of the Aethyrs, that he calleth them forth. But men thought that Aleph was the initial ARR, cursing, when it was really the initial of AChD, unity, and AHBH, love. So that it was the most horrible and wicked blasphemy of the blackest of all the black brothers to begin Barashith with a beth, with the letter of the Magician. Yet, by this simple device, hath he created the whole illusion of sorrow.) Open the mysteries of your creation, and make us partakers of the undefiled knowledge. (The word here is "IADNAMAD" is not the ordinary word for knowledge. It is a word of eight letters, which is the secret name of God, summarized in the letter cheth; for which see the Aethyr which correspondeth to that letter, the twelfth Aethyr.)

Now from time to time I have looked into the Stone, but never is there any image therein, or any hint thereof; but now there are three arrows, arranged thus:

[Figure here: Three arrows intersecting in the common centers of the three shafts. Two are diagonal, forming an "X" with points to top and fledging to bottom. The third is vertical, bisecting the "X" with point below and fledging to the top.]

This is the letter Aleph in the Alphabet of Arrows. (I want to say that while I was doing the translation of the Call of the Aethyrs, the soles of my feet were burning, as if I were on red hot steel.) And now the fire was spread all over me, and parches me, and tortures me. And my sweat is bitter like poison. And all my blood is acrid in my veins, like gleet. I seem to be all festering, rotting; and the worms eating me while I am yet alive. A voice, neither in myself nor out of myself, is saying: Remember Prometheus; remember Ixion.

Prometheus is Lucifer; the Great Watcher that governs the four Watcher Stars. As the demiurge took his place after causing him to fall from the skies, we have been subject to a great deception. And Lucifer is bound to the cliff with his liver (blood) being ripped from him daily. It would take Chiron to sacrifice himself that Lucifer would be free. Chiron is Sagittarius, the path to Tiphareth that pierces the Veil of Qestheth. This is a strong allusion to the true bloody sacrifice.

I am tearing at nothing. I will not heed. For even this dust must be consumed with fire. And now, although there is no image, at last there is a sense of obstacle, as if one were at length drawing near to the frontier of the Aethyr.

But I am dying. I can neither strive nor wait. There is agony in my ears, and in my throat, and mine eyes have been so long blind that I cannot remember that there ever was such a thing as sight. And it cometh to me that I should go away, and await the coming of the veil of the Aethyr; not here. I think I will go to the Hot Springs.

Bullinger notes that the Egyptian Zodiac draws this Sign as a Scarabaeus or sacred beetle and that this beetle passes its early existence as a worm of the earth and then comes forth with wings. Rolleston writes, “The Scarabaeus is thought to have been the original emblem in Cancer. Sartan, who holds, would well apply to the ‘sacred beetle’ of the Egyptians, who holds its ‘prgeny’ fast even in death.”. Bullinger goes on to note that the Egyptians held this as an emblem of the resurrection of the body. And he relates that the more ancient Egyptians placed Hermanubis, or Hermes as the emblem here and with the head of an ibis or hawk. It would be the later Greeks who would draw it as a crab with Jupiter being the one who placed it in the Zodiac; naming it ‘Karkinos’-‘holding, encircling the possession’. The Coptic name for this sign is ‘Klaria’ or ‘the cattle-folds’ or ‘folds’. And the Arabic name is ‘Al Sartan’, which means ‘who holds or binds’ as does the Hebrew ‘Sartan’, which seems interestingly enough, the etymological root of the word Satan, which Crowley calls the Self-Awareness or Becoming of the Universe (“Thou Eye!” with the word Thou being ‘of the Universe’ and Eye being the ‘Self-Awareness’) and the multitude of seed or stars (“Thou Lust!” with Lust being the product of the union of male and female or left and right hands) in his knowledge lecture on Liber Sameck.

The first star is ‘Praesepe’, a nebula whose name means ‘a multitude, offspring’ or ‘young’. This is followed by the brightest star (a) in the lower large claw, called ‘Acubene’, which is a Hebrew and Arabic term that means ‘the sheltering, or hiding place’. Another named star is ‘Ma’alaph’, meaning ‘assembled thousands’ followed by ‘Al Himarein’-‘the kids, or lambs’ and called by the Greeks, ‘Nepa’, meaning ‘grasping’ or ‘lifted up’; and also called by the Latin phrase ‘Asellus Boreas, and Asellus Australis’ commonly translated as ‘she-ass’. This seems to refer back to Satan as Venus-the falling star. Finally we have the star (z), found in the tail and called ‘Tegmine’, meaning ‘holding’. And here there seems an allusion to the holding of the sacred fire by Prometheus; who is Lucifer-the falling star.

Cancer…represents…the Supernals descending through the Veil of Water (which is blood) upon the energy of man, and so inspires…the Holy Grail…In the centre is radiant blood; the spiritual life is inferred; light in the darkness.

There is nothing in any of the ancient Zodiacs to point to this constellation being drawn as a bear; nor in its complementary constellation, Ursa Major. That it is drawn as a bear with a tail is not explained by Bullinger. He only notes the absurdity of this. It is interesting to note however, that as the Qabalah evolves from the Starry Gnosis, the Hebrews called the books of the Sepher Yetzirah, ‘The Greater Assembly’ and ‘The Lesser Assembly’. And here, they examine every last feature of the face of God; right down to each strand of hair on his beard. Rolleston notes that ‘Dub’ in Hebrew means ‘bear’ and ‘Dubhe’ is strength in both Hebrew and Chaldean. And from this, she deduces that the bear was probably so named because of its strength.

The first brightest star (b) is named ‘Kochab’, which means ‘waiting Him who cometh’, followed by ‘Al Pherdadain’-‘the calves, young’ used in Hebrew scripture to be ‘the redeemed assembly’ and ‘Al Gedi’, meaning ‘the kid’ as is a star in the Sign of Capricornus found exactly opposite in the zodiac. The next brightest star is found at the the point of the tail and is named ‘Al Ruccaba’, which means ‘the pole-star, the turned, or ridden on’, and is the most important star in the heavens as it is the polar or central star. This star doesn’t revolve in a circle as the other stars, but remains fixed in its position. Yet Bullinger does note that the star is very slowly moving (which suggests to me a recession of the stars and the gradual change in the prophecy of the Starry Gnosis) as it was once the star (a) in Draco. Other stars are named ‘Al Kaid’-‘assembled’, as in Ursa Major and (a) ‘Cynosura’, meaning ‘center, or base of the constellations. Mazzaroth’. And finally ‘Arcas’ or ‘Arctos’, which means ‘traveling company’ and from which we get the term ‘arctic’ in English.

The Arabs call this constellation ‘El Naish’-‘the bier, or funeral assembly’. And the Hebrews called it ‘Ash’-‘the assembled’. The brightest star (a) in the back is called ‘Dubhe’, which means ‘a herd of animals’ and translates from the Chaldean as ‘wealth’. Then comes ‘El Acola’-‘the sheepfold’ and (g) ‘Benet Naish’ or ‘Al Kaid’ (located at the end of the tail), meaning ‘the daughters of the assembly’ and ‘the assembled’, respectively, followed by ‘Cab’d al Asad’, meaning ‘wealth or multitude’ or ‘many assembled’. The star (b) located just below (a) is named ‘Merach’, which in Hebrew means ‘the flock’ and in Arabic, means ‘purchased’. Then comes ‘Megrez’-‘separated, as the flock in the fold’ or ‘cut off’ and the star (g), which is to the left of (b) and is called ‘Phacad’ or ‘Phacda’, meaning ‘visited, guarded, numbered’. We then have the star (e) in the middle of the tail and called ‘Mizar’, meaning ‘separate’ and ‘Alioth’, meaning ‘the she goat or ewe’ as in the constellation of Auriga. The star (i) in its right foot is called ‘Talita’-‘the lamb’ followed by ‘Al Cor’-‘the lamb’ and ‘El Kaphrah’, which in Arabic means ‘protected, covered’ and in Hebrew, ‘redeemed, ransomed’. The next star is ‘Dubheh Lachar’-‘the latter herd, or flock’ followed by (n) ‘Al Kaiad’-‘the assembled’ or ‘together’. We then have the Greek ‘Helike’-‘company of travelers, walking’ or ‘companies’ followed by ‘Amaza’-‘coming and going’ and ‘Arctos’-traveling’ or ‘company’. Finally, there’s ‘Calisto’, meaning ‘the sheepfold, set or appointed’.

Bullinger tells us that this constellation is the ship of the Argonauts, celebrated in the Homeric epic. It may also be the origin of the story of Noah’s Ark. Bullinger writes: “All that is clear, when divested of mythic details, is that the sailors in that ship, after all their dangers, and toils, and battles were over, came back victorious to their own shores. The ‘golden fleece,’ for which the Argonauts went in search, tells of a treasure that had been lost. ‘Jason,’ the great captain, tells of Him who recovered it from the Serpent, which guarded it with ever-watchful eye, when none else was able to approach it…This is the return of the great emigrant-ship (Argo) and all its company of travelers…”

Bullinger also notes that in the Egyptian Zodiac, this constellation is drawn as a ship with two galleys, whose prows are surmounted by ram’s heads. The stern of one has a fish’s tail. One of the two ships encompasses the planisphere from Taurus to Virgo and the other from Leo to Capricornus. Thus, both ships overlap at Leo and Virgo (the Riddle of the Sphinx!) and both don’t touch Aquarius, Pisces and Aries (The aeons of Horus, Osiris and Isis, respectively!). We can then deduce that as the Argo is a ship that holds a company of travelers so great in number that “no man can number”, we have the clear vision of the immensity of this constellation and the enormity of the ‘Universal Mind’.

Moreover, it seems that the Riddle of the Sphinx is the prophecy that covers these three specific aeons and perhaps even the larger cycle of the stars groups human cycles in units of three aeons with the Aeon of Ma’at to come, being the renewal of this cycle and requiring the fresh fever from the skies; prophesied in Liber AL vel Legis. Yet there is also the idea of the one (shown in the first six signs as the virgin or boy becoming or even bearing the all as per Liber Cordis Cincte Serpente). The bearing of the all would be an allusion to the womb that contains the stars of the sky and Nuit/Babalon; depending on the perspective of the all or the one.

The first star we come across is ‘Sephina’, listed as possibly a nebula by Rolleston and meaning ‘the multitude’ or ‘abundance’ (from which it seems the Gnostics might have got the term ‘Sophia’ referring to the Hebrew ‘Shekinah’ and being the ‘bridegroom’; representing the human race). This is followed by ‘Tureis’, meaning ‘the possession’ and the brightest star (a) found near the keel, is named ‘Canopus’ or ‘Canobus’, meaning ‘the possession of him who cometh’. Other stars are ‘Asmidiska’-‘the released who travel’; ‘Soheil (Arabic), meaning ‘the desired’; and ‘Subilon’-‘the Branch’. These names clearly suggest that the possession or prize spoken of throughout this essay is the human race itself and that’s who the conflict is for!

And so for our summary of the constellations in this half, we continue with: The Scarab who binds the daughters (shekinahs) of assembly on their journey is him who cometh to possess them and who is much desired by them.

It is interesting to note that the second half begins with Pisces and ends with Leo. Pisces is the aeon that we are just completing with Leo being connected to the Aeon of Aquarius-Leo that we are just beginning.

The gloriously beautiful virgin (Babalon as Ama or the mother unfulfilled) who shall come down and have dominion is the deliverer or branch who is desirous of being united with her twin who carries her; separated from the starry bright. The mark of boundary or limitation is the animal (the Beast who is to be conjoined to Babalon), held by the Centaur to be redeemed before the kingly crown that is the shining jewel. The reptile (or serpent) is wholly accursed and trampled (yoked and disciplined—the subtle force--Kundalini) as it contends for the crown of the man by the man who possesses him. It is the wounding from the chastening conflict that reconciles the humbled crown to strength by way of vigorous labor (The Great Work). The fishing eagle, springing up shall be exalted in triumph being perfected on the altar (summit of the earth—Babalon riding the Beast). The wisdom of the serpent is destroyed by the fraudful and bowed down (cowards—the inteference of the demiurge). The arrow wounding the eagle pierces the heel of the bright (scarlet) or the goat (the original error is in the age of the prophets—the Aeon of Capricorn the goat, which preceded Pisces). The redeeming water pours forth; quickly flowing (the first attempt to repair the error is in the Aeon of Pisces). The mouth of the fish drinks in the water that overflows (Mouth refers to Air—the element of attributed to Aquarius; telling us of the work of the present age). The Winged horse returns joyfully with the branch as a swan circling overhead and coming down (Babalon and the Beast conjoined).

The bridle is the branch that comes as in a circle and treading under foot (through the subtle wisdom of the Serpent). Coming quickly is the redeemer who breaks the branch; freeing the afflicted and stretched out woman from the grave that binds the multitude. The beautiful, enthroned woman of liberty (a fascinating allusion to the American Statue of Liberty) has freed the branch that was the opposed Serpent (Rosh Shatan—Lucifer held down by the demiurge and accursed of the daughters of the multitude); the bound head of the enemy, going and coming around. A man comes forth as light; he is the branch, the prince, the mighty ruler. Secretly (treading under foot), he comes swiftly, bending upon the river; to bind the separated with his fiat (mouth of the river and alluding to the bud-will). The madness (the fever of orgiastic ecstasy) of the subtile serpent unites the left hand that perfects as it has been burdened with the glory of the right hand that is the bright and shining who shall come. The Scarab who binds the daughters (shekinahs) of assembly on their journey is him who cometh to possess them and who is much desired by them (a seemingly obvious reference to the Nephilim). The lion (the perfected man as king--lingham) is he who is the judge, who comes shining forth as a leaping flame, seizes the separated and pierces the raven (yoni); joining them together into the abhorred cup (the blood of the saints; the scarlet water, red flame or spilled menstrual blood and semen that is the life force poured into the Cup of Babalon).

Now there comes an Angel with bright wings, that is the Angel of the 25th Aire. And all the aire is a dark olive about him, like an alexandrite stone. He bears a pitcher or amphora. And now there comes another Angel upon a white horse, and yet again another Angel upon a black bull. And now there comes a lion and swallows the two latter angels up. The first angel goes to the lion and closes his mouth. And behind them are arrayed a great company of Angels with silver spears, like a forest. And the Angel says: Blow, all ye trumpets, for I will loose my hands from the mouth of the lion, and his roaring shall enkindle the worlds.

Then the trumpets blow, and the wind rises and whistles terribly. It is a blue wind with silver specks; and it blows through the whole Aethyr. But through it one perceives the lion, which has become as a raging flame. And he roareth in an unknown tongue. But this is the interpretation thereof: Let the stars be burnt up in the fire of my nostrils! Let all the gods and the archangels and the angels and the spirits that are on the earth, and above the earth, and below the earth, that are in all the heavens and in all the hells, let them be as motes dancing in the beam of mine eye!

I am he that swalloweth up death and victory. I have slain the crowned goat, and drunk up the great sea. Like the ash of dried leaves the worlds are blown before me. Thou hast passed by me, and thou hast not known me. Woe unto thee, that I have not devoured thee altogether! On my head is the crown, 419 rays far-darting. And my body is the body of the Snake, and my soul is the soul of the Crowned Child. Though an Angel in white robes leadeth me, who shall ride upon me but the Woman of Abominations? Who is the Beast? Am not I one more than he? In his hand is a sword that is a book. In his hand is a spear that is a cup of fornication. Upon his mouth is set the great and terrible seal. And he hath the secret of V. His ten horns spring from five points, and his eight heads are as the charioteer of the West. Thus doth the fire of the sun temper the spear of Mars, and thus shall he be worshipped, as the warrior lord of the sun. Yet in him is the woman that devoureth with her water all the fire of God.

Alas! my lord, thou art joined with him that knoweth not these things. When shall the day come that men shall flock to this my gate, and fall into my furious throat, a whirlpool of fire? This is hell unquenchable, and all they shall be utterly consumed therein. Therefore is that asbestos unconsumable made pure. Each of my teeth is a letter of the reverberating name. My tongue is a pillar of fire, and from the glands of my mouth arise four pillars of water. TAOTZEM is the name by which I am blasphemed. My name thou shalt not know, lest thou pronounce it and pass by.

And now the Angel comes forward again and closes his mouth. All this time heavy blows have been raining upon me from invisible angels, so that I am weighed down as with a burden greater than the world. I am altogether crushed. Great millstones are hurled out of heaven upon me. I am trying to crawl to the lion, and the ground is covered with sharp knives. I cut myself at every inch.

And the voice comes: Why art thou there who art here? Hast thou not the sign of the number, and the seal of the name, and the ring of the eye? Thou wilt not.

And the voice said: Thy fear is known; thine ignorance is known; thy weakness is known; but thou art nothing in this matter. Shall the grain which is cast into the earth by the hand of the sower debate within itself, saying, am I oats or barley? Bond slave of the curse, we give nothing, we take all. Be thou content. That which thou art, thou art. Be content.

And now the lion passeth over through the Aethyr with the crowned beast upon his back, and the tail of the lion goes on instead of stopping, and on each hair of the tail is something or other --- sometimes a little house, sometimes a planet, at other times a town. Then there is a great plain with soldiers fighting upon it, and an enormously high mountain carved into a thousand temples, and more houses and fields and trees, and great cities with wonderful buildings in them, statues and columns and public buildings generally. This goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on all on the hairs of this lion's tail.

And then there is the tuft of his tail, which is like a comet, but the head is a new universe, and each hair streaming away from it is a Milky Way. And then there is a pale stern figure, enormous, enormous, bigger than all that universe is, in silver armour, with a sword and a pair of balances. That is only vague. All has gone into stone-gray, blank.

(There were two voices in all this Cry, one behind the other --- or, one was the speech, and the other the meaning. And the voice that was the speech was simply a roaring, one tremendous noise, like a mixture of thunder and water-falls and wild beasts and bands and artillery. And yet it was articulate, though I cannot tell you what a single word was. But the meaning of the voice --- the second voice --- was quite silent, and put the ideas directly into the brain of the Seer, as if by touch. It is not certain whether the millstones and the sword-strokes that rained upon him were not these very sounds and ideas.)

The first voice that was of speech was the manifestation of the work of the formula of ON in Malkuth by the Lion. The silent voice was the silence of the Scarlet Whore taking the energy to Tiphareth. Virgo is atop Leo; Babalon astride the Beast as the constellations have inverted themselves from the times of the Aeon of Leo when the Starry Gnosis was first revealed.

[1] The World Book Encyclopedia "AGING"

[2] The World Book Encyclopedia "REDWOOD" and "SEQUOIA"

[3] The World Book Encyclopedia "LIME"

[4] In a footnote to Stanza 3 line 8 of the Book of Dzyan, Blavatsky writes: Whether the genus of the bird by Cygnus, answer, or pelicanus, it is no matter, as it is an aquatic bird floating or moving on the waters like the Spirit, and then issuing from those waters to give birth to other beings. The true significance of the symbol of the Eighteenth Degree of the Rosecroix is precisely this, though it was later on poetized into the motherly feeling of the pelican rending its bosom to feed its seven little ones with its blood.