Liber CXI vel Aleph
The Book of Wisdom or Folly.


       Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

1 {alpha }  A P O L O G I A

I have begotten thee, o my Son, and that strangle, as thou
knowest, upon the Scarlet Woman called Hilarion, as it was
mysteriously foretold unto me in "The Book of the Law."  Now
therefore that thou art come to the Age of Understanding, do
thou give ear unto my Wisdom, for that therein lieth a simple
and direct Way for every Man that he may attain to the End.
      
Firstly, then, I would have thee to know that Spiritual
Experience and Perfection have no necessary connection with
Advancement in our Holy Order.  But for each Man is a Path:
there is a Constant, and there is a Variable.  Seek ever
therefore in thy Work of the Promulgation of the Law to
discover in each Man his own true Nature, that he may in due 
Season accomplish it not only for himself, but for all who 
are bound unto him.  There are very many for whom in their 
present Incarnations this Great Work may be impossible; 
since their appointed Work may be in Satisfaction of some 
Magical Debt, or in Adjustment of some Balance, or in
Fulfilment of some Defect.  As is written:  Suum Cuique.
(Jedem das Seine.)
      
Now because thou art the Child of my Bowels, I yearn
greatly towards thee, o my Son, and I strive strongly with my
Spirit that by my Wisdom I may make plain thy Way before thee;
and thus in many Chapters will I write for thee those things
that may profit thee.
  
Sis benedictus.

          
2 {beta } DE ARTE KABBALISTIKA.

Do thou study most constantly, my Son, in the Art of the
Holy Qabalah.  Know that herein the Relations between Numbers,
though they be mighty in Power and prodigal of Knowledge, are
but lesser Things.  For the Work is to reduce all other
conceptions to these of Number, because thus thou wilt lay
bare the very Structure of thy Mind, whose rule is Necessity
rather than Prejudice.  Not until the Universe is thus laid
naked before thee canst thou truly anatomize it.  The
Tendencies of thy Mind lie deeper far than any Thought, for
they are the Conditions and the Laws of Thought; and it is
these that thou must bring to Nought.
      
This Way is most sure; most sacred; and the Enemies thereof
most awful, most sublime.  It is for the Great Souls to enter
on this Rigour and Austerity.  To them the Gods themselves do
Homage; for it is the Way of Utmost Purity.

                  
3 {gamma }  DE VITA CORRIGENDA.

Know, son, that the true Principle of Self-Control is
Liberty.  For we are born into a World which is in Bondage to
Ideals; to them we are perforce fitted, even as the Enemies to
the Bed of Procrustes.  Each of us, as he grows, learns
Repression of himself and his true Will.  "It is a lie, this
folly against self.":  these Words are written in "The Book of
the Law".  So therefore these Passions in ourselves which we
understand to be Hindrances are not part of our True Will, but
diseased Appetites, manifest in us through false early
Training.  Thus the Tabus of savage Tribes in such matter as
Love constrain that True Love which is born in us; and by this
Constraint come ills of Body and Mind.  Either the Force of
Repression carries it, and creates Neuroses and Insanities; or
the Revolt against that Force, breaking forth with Violence,
involves Excesses and Extravagances.  All these Things are
Disorders, and against Nature.  Now then learn of me the
testimony of History and literature as a great Scroll of
Learning.  But the Vellum of the Scroll is of Man's Skin, and
its Ink of his Heart's Blood.

                 
4 {delta } LEGRENDA DE AMORE.

The Fault, that is Fatality, in Love, as in every other
Form of Will, is Impurity.  It is not the Spontaneity there-of
which worketh Woe, but some Repression in the Environment.
In the Fable of Adam and Eve is this great Lesson taught by
the Masters of the Holy Qabalah.  For Love were to them the
eternal Eden, save for the Repression signified by the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Thus their Nature of Love was
perfect; it was their Fall from that Innocence which drove
them from the Garden.
      
In the Love of Romeo and Juliet was no Flaw; but family
Feud, which imported nothing to that Love, was its Bane; and
the Rashness and Violence of their Revolt against that
Repression, slew them.
      
In the pure Outrush of Love in Desdemona for Othello was no
Flaw; but his Love was marred by his consciousness of his Age
and his Race, of the Prejudices of his Fellows and of his own
Experience of Woman-Frailty.

           
5 {epsilon } GESTA DE AMORE.

Now as Literature overfloweth with the Murders of Love, so
also doeth History, and the Lesson is ever the same.
      
Thus the Loves of Abelard and of Heloise were destroyed by
the System of Repression in which they chanced to move.
      
Thus Beatrice was robbed of Dante by social Artificialities; 
and Paolo slain on account of Things external to his Love of 
Francesca.
      
Then, per contra, Martin Luther, being a Giant of Will, and
also the Eighth Henry of England, as a mighty King, bent them
to overturn the whole World that they might have satisfaction
of their Loves.
      
And who shall follow them?  For even now we find great
Churchmen, Statesmen, Princes, Dramamakers, and many lesser
Men, overwhelmed utterly and ruined by the conflict between
their Passions and the Society about them.  Wherein which
Party errs is no matter of Moment for our Thought; but the
Existence of the War is Evidence of Wrong done to Nature.

               
6 {digamma } ULTIMA THESIS DE AMORE.

Therefore, o my Son, be thou wary, not bowing before the
false Idols and ideals, yet not flaming forth in Fury against
them, unless that be thy will.
      
But in this Matter be prudent and be silent, discerning
subtly and with acumen the nature of the Will within thee; so
that thou mistake not Fear for Chastity, or Anger for Courage.
And since the fetters are old and heavy, and thy Limbs
withered and distorted by reason of their Compulsion, do thou,
having broken them, walk gently for a little while, until the
ancient Elasticity return, so that thou mayst walk, run, and
leap naturally and with Rejoicing.
      
Also, since these Fetters are as a Bond almost universal,
be instant to declare the Law of Liberty, and the full
Knowledge of all Truth that appertaineth to this Matter; for
if in this only thou overcome, then shall all Earth be free,
taking its Pleasure in Sunlight without Fear or Phrenzy. Amen.

              
7 {zeta } DE NATURA SUA PERCIPIENDA.

Understand,o my Son, in thy Youth, these Words which some
wise One, now nameless, spake of old; except ye become as
little Children ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven.  This is to say that thou must first comprehend thine
original Nature in every Point, before thou wast forced to bow
before the Gods of Wood and Stone that Men have made, not
comprehending the Law of Change, and of Evolution Through
Variation, and the independent Value of every living Soul.
      
Learn this also, that even the Will to the Great Work may
be misunderstood of Men; for this Work must proceed naturally
and without Overstress, as all true Works.  Right also is that
Word that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence, and the
violent take it by Force.  But except thou be violent by
Virtue of thy true Nature, how shalt thou take it?  Be not as
the Ass in the Lion's Skin; but if thou be born Ass, bear
patiently thy Burdens, and enjoy thy Thistles; for an Ass
also, as in the Fables of Apuleius and Matthaiss, may come to
Glory in the Path of his own Virtue.


8 {eta }  ALTERA DE VIA MATURAE.

Sayest thou (methinks) that here is a great Riddle, since
by Reason of much Repression thou hast lost the Knowledge of
thine original Nature?
      
My son, this is not so; for by a peculiar Ordinance of
Heaven, and a Disposition occult within his Mine, is every Man
protected from this Loss of his own Soul, until and unless be
be by Choronzon disintegrated and dispersed beyond power of
Will to repair; as when the Conflict within him, rending and
burning, hath made his Mind utterly desert, and his Soul
Madness.
      
Give Ear, give Ear attentively; the Will is not lost;
though it be buried beneath a life-old midden of Repressions,
for it persisteth vital within thee (is it not the true Motion
of thine inmost Being?)  and for all thy conscious Striving
cometh forth by Night and by Stealth in Dream and Phantasy.
Now is it naked and brilliant, now clothed in rich Robes of
Symbol and Hieroglyph; but always travelleth it with thee upon
thy Path, ready to acquaint thee with thy true Nature, if thou
attend unto its Word, its Gesture, or its Show of Imagery.

             
9 {theta } QUO MODO NATURA SUA EST LEGENDA.

Therefore deem not that thy lightest Fancy is
insignificant.  Thy most unconscious Acts are Keys to the
Treasure-Chamber of thine own Palace, which is the House of
the Holy Ghost.  Consider well thy conscious Thoughts and
Acts, for they are under the Dominion of thy Will, and moved
in Accord with the Operation of thy Reason; this indeed is a
necessary work, enabling to comprehend in what manner thou
mayst adjust thyself to thine Environment.  Yet is this
Adaptation but Defence for the most Part, or at the best
Subterfuge and Stratagem in the Tactics of thy Life, with but
an accidental and subordinate Relation to thy true Will,
whereof by Consciousness and by Reason thou mayst be ignorant,
unless by Fortune great and rare thou be already harmonized in
thyself, the Outer with the Inner, which Grace is not common
among Men, and is the Reward of previous Attainment.
      
Neglect not simple Introspections, therefore; but give yet
greater Heed unto those Dreams and Phantasies, those Gestures
and Manners unconscious, and of undiscovered Cause, which
betoken thee.


10a {kappa } DE SOMNISS. {alpha } CAUSA PER ACCIDENS.

As all diseases have two conjunct causes, one immediate,
external and exciting, the other constitutional, internal, and
predisposing, so it is with Dreams, which are Dis-Eases, or
unbalanced States of Consciousness, Disturbers of Sleep as
Thoughts are of Life.
      
This exciting Cause is commonly of two kinds: videlicet,
imprimis, the physical Condition of the Sleeper, as a Dream of
Water caused by a shower without, or a Dream of Strangulation
caused by a Dyspnoea, or a Dream of Lust caused by the seminal
Congestions of an unclean Life, or a Dream of falling or
flying caused by some unstable Equilibrium of Body.
      
Secundo, the psychic condition of the Sleeper, the Dream
being determined by recent Events in his Life, usually those
of the Day previous, and especially such Events as have caused
Excitement of Anxiety, the more so if they be unfinished or
unfulfilled.
      
But this exciting Cause is of a superficial Nature, as it
were a Cloke or a Mask; and thus it but lendeth Aspect to the
other Cause, which lieth in the Nature of the Sleeper himself.

10b {kappa } DE SOMNIIS.  {beta } CAUSA PER NATURAM.

The deep, constitutional, or predisposing Cause of Dreams
lieth within the Jurisdiction of the Will itself.  For that
Will, being alway present, albeit (it may be) latent,
discovereth himself when no longer inhibited by that conscious
Control which is determined by Environment, and therefore oft
times contrary to himself.  This being so, the Will declareth
himself, as it were in a Pageant, and showeth himself thus
apparelled, unto the Sleeper, for a Warning or Admonition.
Every Dream, or Pageant of Fancy, is therefore a Shew of Will;
and Will being no more prevented by Environment or by
Consciousness, cometh as a Conqueror.  Yet even so he must
come for the most Part throned upon the Chariot of the
exciting Cause of the Dream, and therefore is his Appearance
symbolic, like a Writing in Cipher, or like a Fable, or like a
Riddle in Pictures.  But alway does he triumph and fulfil
himself therein, for the Dream is a natural Compensation in
the inner World for any Failure of Achievement in the outer.

       
10c {lambda } DE SOMNIIS. {gamma } VESTIMENTA HORRORIS.

Now then if in a Dream the Will be always triumphant, how
cometh it that a Man may be ridden of the Nightmare?  And of
this the true Explanation is that in such a case the Will is
in Danger, having been attacked and wounded or corrupted by
the Violence of some Repression.  Thus the Consciousness of
the Will is directed to the sore Spot, as in Pain, and seeketh
comfort in an Externalisation, or shew, of that Antagonism.
And because the Will is sacred, such dreams excite an Ecstacy
or Phrenzy of Horror, Fear or Disgust.  Thus the true Will of
Oedipus was toward the bed of Jocasta, but the Tabu, strong
both by Inheritance and by Environment, was so attached to
that Will that his Dream concerning his Destiny was a Dream of
Fear and of Abhorrence, his Fulfilment thereof (even in
Ignorance) a spell to stir up all the subconscious Forces of
all the People about him, and his Realization of the Act a
madness potent to drive him to self-inflicted Blindness and
fury-haunted Exile.

      
10d {mu } DE SOMNIIS. {delta } SEQUENTIS.

Know firmly, o my son, that the true Will cannot err; for
this is thine appointed course in Heaven, in whose order is
Perfection.
      
A Dream of Horror is therefore the most serious of all
Warnings; for it signifieth that thy Will, which is Thy Self
in respect of its Motion, is in Affliction and Danger.  Thus
thou must instantly seek out the Cause of that subconscious
Conflict, and destroy thine Enemy utterly by bringing thy
conscious Vigour as an Ally to that true Will.  If then there
be a Traitor in the Consciousness, how much the more is it
necessary for thee to arise and extirpate him before he wholly
infect thee with the divided Purpose which is the first Breach
in that Fortress of the Soul whose Fall should bring it to the
shapeless Ruin whose Name is Choronzon!


10e {nu } DE SOMNIIS. {epsilon } CLAVICULA.

The Dream delightful is then a Pageant of the Fulfilment of
the true Will, and the Nightmare a symbolic Battle between it
and its Assailants in thyself.  But there can be only one true
Will, even as there can be only one proper Motion in any Body,
no matter of how many Forces that Motion be the Resultant.
Seek therefore this Will, and conjoin with it thy conscious
Self; for this is that which is written; "Thou hast no right
but to do thy Will.  Do that, and no other shall say nay."
Thou seest, o my Son, that all conscious Opposition to thy
Will, whether in Ignorance, or by Obstinacy, or through Fear
of others, may in the end endanger even thy true Self, and
bring thy Star into Disaster.
      
And this is the true Key to Dreams; see that thou be
diligent in its Use, and unlock therewith the secret Chambers
of thine Heart.

               
11 {xi } DE VIA PER EMPYRAEUM.

Concerning they Travellings in thy Body of Light, or
Astral journeys and Visions so-called, do thou lay this Wisdom
to thy Heart, o my Son, that in this Practice, whether Things
Seen and Heard be Truth and Reality, or whether they be
Phantoms in the Mind, abideth this Supreme Magical Value,
namely:  Whereas the Direction of such Journeys is consciously
willed, and determined by Reason, and also unconsciously
willed, by the true Self, since without It no Invocation were
possible, we have here a Cooperation of Alliance between the
Inner and the Outer Self, and thus an Accomplishment, at least
partial, of the Great Work.
      
And therefore is Confusion or Terror in any such Practice
an Error fearful indeed, bringing about Obsession, which is a
temporary or even it may be a permanent Division of the
Personality, or Insanity, and therefore a defeat most fatal
and pernicious, a Surrender of the Soul to Choronzon.

                 
12 {omicron }  DE CULTU.

Now, o my Son, that thou mayst be well guarded against thy
ghostly Enemies, do thou work constantly by the Means
prescribed in our Holy Books.
      
Neglect never the fourfold Adorations of the Sun in his
four Stations, for thereby thou doest affirm thy Place in
Nature and her Harmonies.
      
Neglect not the Performance of the Ritual of the Pentagram,
and of the Assumption of the Form of Hoor-pa Kraat.
      
Neglect not the daily Miracle of the Mass, either by the
Rite of the Gnostic Catholic Church, or that of the Phoenix.
      
Neglect not the Performance of the Mass of the Holy Ghost,
as Nature herself prompteth thee.
      
Travel also much in the Empyrean in the Body of Light,
seeking ever Abodes more fiery and lucid.
      
Finally, exercise constantly the Eight Limbs of Yoga., And
so shalt thou come to the End.

             
13 {pi } DE CLAVIGULA SOMNIORUM.

And now concerning Meditation let me disclose unto thee
more fully the Mystery of the Key of Dreams and Phantasies.
      
Learn first that as the Thought of the Mind standeth before
the Soul and hindereth its Manifestation in consciousness, so
also the gross physical Will is the Creator of the Dreams of
common Men, and as in Meditation thou doest destroy every
Thought by mating it with its Opposite, so must thou cleanse
thyself by a full and perfect Satisfaction of that bodily will
in the Way of Chastity and Holiness which has been revealed
unto thee in thy Initiation.
      
This inner Silence of the Body being attained, it may be
that the true Will may speak in True Dreams; for it is written
that He giveth unto His Beloved in Sleep.
      
Prepare thyself therefore in this Way, as a good Knight
should do.

                        
14 {koppa } DE SOMNO LUCIDO.

Now know this also that at the End of that secret Way lieth
a Garden wherein is a Rest House prepared for thee.
      
For to him whose physical Needs of whatever Kind are not
truly satisfied cometh a Lunar or physical Sleep appointed to
refresh and recreate by Cleansing and Repose; but on him that
is bodily pure the Lord bestoweth a Solar or Lucid Sleep,
wherein move Images of pure Light fashioned by the True Will.
And this is called by the Qabalists the Sleep of Shiloam, and
of this doeth also Porphyry make mention mention, and Cicero,
with many other Wise Men of Old Time.
      
Compare, o my Son, with this Doctrine that which was taught
thee in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis concerning the Death of
the Righteous; and learn moreover that these are but
particular Cases of an Universal Formula.


15 {rho }  DE VENEMIS.

My Son, if thou fast ahwile, there shall come unto thee a
second State of physiological Being, in which is a delight
passive and equable, without Will, a contentment of Weakness,
with a Feeling of Lightness and of Purity.  And this is
because the Blood hath absorbed, in its Need of Nutriment, all
foreign Elements.  Such also is the Case with the Mind which
hath not fed itself on Thought.  Consider the placid and
ruminent Existence of such Persons as read little, are removed
from worldy Struggle by some sufficient Property of small and
unexciting Value, stably invested, and by Age and Environment
are free from Passion.  They live, according to their own
Nature, without Desire, and they oppose no Resistance to the
Operations of Time.  Such are called Happy, and in their Way
of Vegetable Life it is so; for they are free of any Poison.


16 {sigma } DE MOTU VITAE.

Learn then, o my Son, that all Phenomena are the effect of
Conflict, even as the Universe itself is a Nothing expressed
as the Difference of two Equalities, or, an thou wilt, as the
Divorce of Nuith and Hadith.  So therefore every Marriage
dissolveth a more material, and createth a less material
Complex; and this is our Way of Live, rising ever from Ekstacy
to Ekstacy.  So then all high Violence, that is to say, all
Consciousness, is the spiritual Orgasm of a Passion between
two lower and grosser Opposites.  Thus Light and Heat result
from the Marriage of Hydrogen and Oxygen; Love from that of
Man and Woman, Dhyana or Ekstacy from that of the Ego and the
non-Ego.
      
But be thou well grounded in this Thesis corollary, that
one or two such Marriages do but destroy for a Time the
Exacerbation of any Complex; to deracinate such is a Work of
long Habit and deep Search in Darkness for the Germ thereof.
But this once accomplished, that particular Complex is
destroyed, or sublimated for ever.


17 {tau } DE MORBIS SANGUINIS.

Now then understand that all Opposition to the Way of
Nature createth Violence.  If thine excretory System do its
Function not at its fullest, there come Poisons in the Blood,
and the Consciousness is modified by the conflicts or
Marriages between the elements heterogeneous.  Thus if the
Liver be not efficient, we have Melancholy; if the Kidneys,
Coma; if the Testes or Ovaries, loss of Personality itself.
Also, an we poison the Blood directly with Belladonna, we have
Delirium vehement and furious; with Hashish, Visions
phantastic and enormous; with Anhiolonium, Ekstacy of colour
and what not; with diverse Germs of Disease, Disturbances of
Consciousness varying with the Nature of the Germ.  Also with
Ether, we gain the Power of analysing the Consciousness into
its Planes; and so for many others.
      
But all these are, in our mystical Sense, Poisons; that is,
we take two Things diverse and opposite, binding them together
so that they are compelled to unite; and the Orgasm of each
Marriage is an Ekstacy, the Lower dissolving in the Higher.

                       
18 {upsilon } DE CURSU AMORIS.

I continue then,  o my son, and reiterate that this Formula
is general to all Nature.  And thou wilt note that by repeated
Marriage cometh Toleration, so the Ekstacy appeareth no more.
Thus his half grain of Morphia, which first opened his Gates
of Heaven, is nothing worth to the Self-poisoner after a Year
of dayly Practice.  So too the Lover findeth no more Joy in
Union with his Mistress, so soon as the original Attraction
between them is satisfied by repeated Conjunctions.  For this
Attraction is an Antagonism; and the greater this Antinomy,
the more fierce the Puissance of the Magnetism, and the
Quality of Energy disengaged by the Coition.
      
Thus in the Union of Similars, as of Halogens with each
other, is no strong Passion of explosive Force, and the Love
between two Persons of the like Character and Taste is placid
and without Transmutation to higher Planes.

                   
19 {phi } DE NUPTIIS MYSTICIS.

O my Son, how wonderful is the Wisdom of this Law of Love!
How vast are the Oceans of uncharted Joy that lie before the
Keel of thy Ship!  Yet know this, that every Opposition is in
its Nature named Sorrow, and the Joy lieth in the Destruction
of the Dyad.  Therefore, must thou seek ever those Things
which are to thee poisonous, and that in the highest Degree,
and make them thine by Love.  That which repels, that which
disgusts, must thou assimilate in this Way of Wholeness.  Yet
rest not in the Joy of the Destruction of each complex in thy
Nature, but press on to that ultimate Marriage with the
Universe whose Consummation shall destroy thee utterly,
leaving only that Nothingness which was before the Beginning.
      
So then the Life of Non-Action is not for thee; the
Withdrawal from Activity is not the Way of the Tao; but rather
the Intensification and making universal every Unit of thine
Energy on every Plane.

                 
20 {chi } DE VOLUPTATE POENARUM.

Go forth, o my Son, o Son of the Sun, rejoicing in thy
Strength, as a Warrior, as a Bridegroom, to take thy Pleasure
upon the Earth, and in every Palace of the Mind, moving ever
from the crass to the subtle, from the coarse to the fine.
Conquer every Repulsion in thy self, subdue every Aversion.
Assimilate all Poison, for therein only is there Profit.  Seek
constantly therefore to know what is painful and to cleave
thereunto, for by Pain cometh true Pleasure.  Those who avoid
Pain physical or mental remain little Men, and there is no
Virtue in them.  Yet be thou ware lest thou fall into the
Heresy which maketh Pain, and Self-sacrifice as it were Bribes
to corrupt God, to secure some future Pleasure in an imagined
After-life.  Nay, also of the other Part, fear not to destroy
thy Complexes, thinking dreadfully thereby to lose the Power
of creating Joy by their Distinction.  Yet in each Marriage be
thou bold to affirm the spiritual Ardour of the Orgasm, fixing