Sacred texts
Thelema
Liber OS ABYSMI
vel
DAATH
sub figura CDLXXIV
A.·. A.·.
Publication in Class B.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.·. A.·.
- This book is the Gate of the Secret of the Universe.
- Let the Exempt Adept procure the Prolegomena of Kant, and study it, paying
special attention to the Antinomies.
- Also Hume's doctrine of Causality in his "Enquiry."
- Also Herbert Spencer's discussion of the three theories of the Universe
in his "First Principles," Part I.
- Also Huxley's Essays on Hume and Berkeley.
- Also Crowley's Essays: Berashith, Time, The Soldier
and the Hunchback, et cetera.
- Also the "Logik" of Hegel.
- Also the "Questions of King Milinda" and the Buddhist Suttas which
bear on Metaphysic.
- Let him also be accomplished in Logic. (Formal Logic, Keynes.) Further let
him study any classical works to which his attention may be sufficiently directed
in the course of his reading.
- Now let him consider special problems, such as the Origin of the World,
the Origin of Evil, Infinity, the Absolute, the Ego and the non-Ego, Freewill
and Destiny, and such others as may attract him.
- Let him subtly and exactly demonstrate the fallacies of every known solution,
and let him seek a true solution by his right Ingenium.
- In all this let him be guided only by clear reason, and let him forcibly
suppress all other qualities such as Intuition, Aspiration, Emotion, and the
like.
- During these practices all forms of Magick Art and Meditation are forbidden
to him. It is forbidden to hi to seek any refuge from his intellect.
- Let then his reason hurl itself again and again against the blank wall of
mystery which will confront him.
- Thus also following is it said, and we deny it not. At last automatically
his reason will take up the practice, sua sponte, and he shall have no rest
therefrom.
- Then will all phenomena which present themselves to him appear meaningless
and disconnected, and his own Ego will break up into a series of impressions
having no relation one with the other, or with any other thing.
- Let this state then become so acute that it is in truth Insanity, and let
this continue until exhaustion.
- According to a certain deeper tendency of the individual will be the duration
of this state.
- It may end in real insanity, which concludes the activities of the Adept
during this present life, or by his rebirth into his own body and mind with
the simplicity of a little child.
- And then shall he find all his faculties unimpaired, yet cleansed in a manner
ineffable.
- And he shall recall the simplicity of the Task of the Adeptus Minor, and
apply himself thereto with fresh energy in a more direct manner.
- And in his great weakness it may be that for awhile the new Will and Aspiration
are not puissant, yet being undisturbed by those dead weeds of doubt and reason
which he hath uprooted, they grow imperceptibly and easily like a flower.
- And with the reappearance of the Holy Guardian Angel he may be granted the
highest attainments, and be truly fitted for the full experience of the destruction
of the Universe. And by the Universe We mean not that petty Universe which
the mind of man can conceive, but that which is revealed to his soul in the
Samadhi of Atmadarshana.
- Thence may he enter into a real communion with those that are beyond, and
he shall be competent to receive communication and instruction from Ourselves
directly.
- Thus shall We prepare him for the confrontation of Choronzon and the Ordeal
of the Abyss, when we have received him into the City of the Pyramids.
- So, being of Us, let the Master of the Temple accomplish that Work which
is appointed. (In Liber CDXVIII. is an adequate account
of this Ordeal and Reception. See also Liber CLVI. for the preparation.)
- Also concerning the Reward thereof, of his entering into the Palace of the
King's Daughter, and of that which shall thereafter befall, let it be understood
of the Master of the Temple. Hath he not attained to Understanding? Yea, verily,
hath he not attained to Understanding?