CHAPTER VIII

Behold me then returned to Thebai!  So scarred and altered was I, 
though not yet thirty years of age, that they knew me not.  so I 
offered myself as a serving-man in the temple of Osiris, and I pleased 
the priests mightily, for by my magic power -- though they thought it 
to be natural -- I sang songs unto the god, and made hymns. Therefore 
in less than a year they began to speak of initiating me into the 
priesthood.  

Now the High Priest at this time was a young and vigorous man, black-
bearded in the fashion of Osiris, with a single square tuft beneath 
the chin.  Him had they chosen after my departure in the whirlwind. 
And the High Priestess was a woman of forty and two years old, both 
dark and beautiful, with flashing eyes and stern lips.  Yet her body 
was slim and lithe like that of a young girl.  Now, as it chanced, it 
was my turn to serve her with the funeral offerings; flesh of oxen and 
of geese, bread, and wine. And as she ate she spake with me; for she 
could see by her art that I was not a common serving-man.  

Then I took out the consecrated Wand of Khem that I had from my 
father; and I placed it in her hand.  At that she wondered, for that 
Wand is the sign of a great and holy initiation: so rare that (as 
they say) no woman but one has ever attained unto it.  Then she 
blessed herself that she had been permitted to look upon it, and 
prayed me to keep silence for a little while, for she had somewhat in 
her mind to do.  And I lifted up the wand upon her in the nine-and-
forty-fold benediction, and she received illumination thereof, and 
rejoiced.  Then I fell at her feet -- for she was the High Priestess 
-- and kissed them reverently, and withdrew.
   
Then three days afterwards, as I learnt, she sent for a priestess who 
was skilled in certain deadly crafts and asked of her a poison. And 
she gave it, saying: "Let the High Priest of the God of the dead go 
down to the dead!"  

Then that wicked High Priestess conveyed unto him subtly the poison 
in the sacraments themselves, and he died thereof.  Then by her 
subtlety she caused a certain youth to be made high priest who was 
slovenly and stupid, thinking in herself "Surely the god will reject 
him."  But at his word the Image of the god glowed as was its wont.  
And at that she knew -- and we all knew -- that the glory was 
departed; for that the priests had supplanted the right ceremony 
by some trick of deceit and craft.
   
Thereat was she mightily cast down, for though wicked and ambitious, 
she had yet much power and knowledge.
   
But instead of using that power and that knowledge she sought to 
oppose craft with craft.  And suspecting (aright) whose cunning had 
done this thing she bribed him to reverse the machinery, so that the 
High Priest might be shamed.  But shamed he was not; for he lied, 
saying that the God glowed brighter than the Sun; and he lied 
securely, for Maat the Lady of Truth had no place in that temple. To 
such foulness was all fallen by my first failure to assume the god-
form, and their priestly falsehood that my sanctity had rapt me into 
heaven.  Nor had the wealth they lied to obtain availed them aught; 
for Pharaoh had descended upon Thebai, and laid heavy hand upon the 
coffers of the temple, so that they were poor.  Even, they sold good 
auguries for gold; and these were a very destruction to them that 
bought.  Then they sold curses, and sowed discord in the city.  
Wherefore the people grew poorer still, and their gifts to the temple 
waxed even less.
   
For there is no foolishness like the hunger after gain.
   
Of old the gods had given blessing, and the people offered freely of 
their plenty.
   
Now the priests sowed chaff, and reaped but barrenness.
   
So I waited patiently in silence to see what might befall.  And this       
foolish priestess could think of no better expedient than formerly.  
But this young stupid man had guessed how his predecessor was dead, 
and he touched not the sacraments; but feigned.
   
Then she called for me -- and I was now ordained priest -- to take 
counsel of me; for she was minded to put me in his place.
   
Thus she made a great banquet for me; and when we were well drunken 
she laid her head upon my breast and said marvellous things to me of 
love, to me, who had loved the Veiled One!  But I feigned all the 
madness of passion and made her drunk thereon, so that she talked 
great words, frothing forth like dead fishes swollen in the sun, of 
how we should rule Thebai and (it might be) displace Pharaoh and take 
his throne and sceptre.  Yet, foolish woman! she could not think now 
she might remove this stupid high priest, her own nominee!  

So I answered her "Assume the Form of Osiris, and all will be well in 
the Temple of Osiris." Mocking her, for I knew that she could not. Yet 
so drunken was she upon love and wine that there and then she 
performed the ritual of Adoration and Assumption.
   
Then I in merry mood put out my power, and caused her in truth to 
become Osiris, so that she went icy stark,and her eyes fixed....
   
Then she tried to shriek with fear, and could no; for I had put upon 
her the silence of the tomb.
   
But all the while I feigned wonder and applause, so that she was 
utterly deceived. And being tired of mocking her, I bade her return.  
This she did, and knew not what to say.  At first she pretended to 
have received a great secret; then, knowing how much higher was my 
grade initiation, dared not.  Then, at last, being frightened, she 
flung herself at my feet and confessed all, pleading that at least 
her love for me was true.  This may well have been; in any case I 
would have had compassion upon her, for in sooth her body was like a 
flower, white and pure, though her mouth was heavy and strong, her 
eyes wrinkled with lust, and her cheeks flaccid with deceit.
   
So I comforted her, pressing her soft body in mine arms, drinking the 
wine of her eyes, feeding upon the honey of her mouth.
   
Then at last I counselled her that she should bid him to a secret 
banquet, and that I should serve them, disguised in my old dress as a 
serving-man.
   
On the next night after this he came, and I served them, and she made 
open Love (though feigned) to him. Yet subtly, so that he thought her 
the deer and himself the lion.  Then at last he went clean mad, and 
said: "I will give thee what thou wilt for one kiss of that thy 
marvellous mouth."  Then she made him swear the oath by Pharaoh -- the 
which if he broke Pharaoh would have his head -- and she kissed him 
once, as if her passion were like the passion of Nile in flood for the 
sandy bars that it devoureth, and then leaping up, answered him, "give 
me thine office of High Priest for this my lover!"  With that she took 
and fondled me.  He gaped, aghast; then he took off the ring of office 
and flung it at her feet; he spat one word in her face; he slunk away.
   
But I, picking up the ring of office, cried after him: "What shall be 
done to who insulteth the High Priestess?"
   
And he turned and answered sullenly: "I was the High Priest." "Thou 
hadst no longer the ring!" she raged at him, her face white with fury, 
her mouth dripping the foam of her anger -- for the word was a vile 
word!
   
Then she smote upon the bell, and the guard appeared. At her order 
they brought the instruments of death, and summoned the executioner, 
and left us there.  Then the executioner bound him to the wheel of 
iron by his ankles and his waist and his throat; and he cut off his 
eyelids, that he might look upon his death.  Then with his shears he 
cut off the lips from him, saying, "With these lips didst thou 
blaspheme the Holy One, the Bride of Osiris."  Then one by one he 
wrenched out the teeth of him, saying every time: "With this tooth 
didst thou frame a blasphemy against the Holy One, the Bride of 
Osiris."  Then he pulled out the tongue with his pincers, saying: 
"With this tongue didst thou speak blasphemy against the holy One, 
the Bride of Osiris."  Then took he a strong corrosive acid and 
blistered his throat therewith, saying: "From this throat didst thou 
blaspheme the Holy One, the Bride of Osiris."  Then he took a rod of 
steel, white-hot, and burnt away his secret parts, saying: "Be thou 
put to shame, who hast blasphemed the Holy One, the Bride of Osiris."  
After that, he took a young jackal and gave it to eat at his liver, 
saying: "Let the beasts that devour carrion devour the liver that 
lifted itself up to blaspheme the Holy One, the Bride of Osiris!" With 
that the wretch died, and they exposed his body in the ditch of the 
city, and the dogs devoured it.
   
Now all this while had my lady dallied amorously with me, making such 
sweet moan of love as never was, yet her face fixed upon his eyes who 
loved her, and there glared in hell's torment, the body ever striving 
against the soul which should exceed.
   
And, as I judge, but the favour of Set the soul gat mastery therein.
   
Also, though I write it now, coldly, these many thousand years 
afterward, never had I such joy of love of any woman as with her, and 
at that hour, so that as I write it I remember well across the mist of 
time every honey word she spoke, every witching kiss (our mouths 
strained sideways) that she sucked from my fainting lips, every 
shudder of her soft strong body.  I remember the jewelled coils of 
hair, how they stung like adders as they touched me; the sharp rapture 
of her pointed nails pressing me, now velvet-soft, now capricious-
cruel, now (love-maddened) thrust deep to draw blood, as they played 
up and down my spine.  But I saw nothing; by Osiris I swear it!  I saw 
nothing, save only the glare in the eyes of that lost soul that 
writhed upon the wheel.
   
Indeed, as the hangman took out the corpse, we fell back and lay there 
among the waste of the banquet, the flagons overturned, the napery 
awry, the lamps extinct or spilt, the golden cups, chased with obscene 
images, thrown here and there, the meats hanging over the edge of 
their bejewelled dishes, their juice staining the white luxury of the 
linen; and in the midst ourselves, our limbs as careless as the wind, 
motionless.   

One would have said: the end of the world is come.  But through all 
that fiery abyss of sleep wherein I was plunged so deep, still stirred 
the cool delight of the knowledge that I had won the hand for which I 
played, that I was High Priest of Osiris in Thebai.
   
But in the morning we rose and loathed each other, our mouths awry, 
our tongues hanging loose from their corners like thirsty dogs, our 
eyes blinking in agony from the torture of daylight, our limbs 
sticky with stale sweat.
   
Therefore we rose and saluted each other in the dignity of our high         
offices; and we departed one from the other, and purified ourselves.
   
Then I went unto the Ceremony of Osiris, and for the last time the 
shameful farce was played.
   
But in my heart I vowed secretly to cleanse the temple of its 
chicanery and folly.  Therefore at the end of the ceremony did I 
perform a mighty banishing, a banishing of all things mortal and 
immortal, even from Nuit that circleth infinite Space unto Hadit the 
Core of Things; from Amoun that ruleth before all the Gods unto Python 
the terrible Serpent that abideth at the end of things, from Ptah the 
god of the pure soul of aethyr unto Besz the brute force of that which 
is grosser than earth, which hath no name, which is denser than lead 
and more rigid than steel; which is blacker than the thick darkness 
of the abyss, yet is within all and about all.
   
Amen!
   
Then during the day I took counsel with myself, and devised a cunning 
to match the cunning of them that had blasphemed Osiris, who had at 
last become my God.
   
Yea! bitterly would I avenge him on the morrow.  

CHAPTER IX

Now this was the manner of my working, that I inspired the High 
Priestess to an Oracle, so that she prophesied, saying that Osiris 
should never be content with his servants unless they had passed the 
four ordeals of the elements.  Now of old these rituals had been 
reserved for a special grade of initiation.  The chapter was therefore 
not a little alarmed, until they remembered how shamefully all the 
true magic was imitated, so that the rumour went that this was but a 
device of the High Priestess to increase the reputation of the temple 
fore sanctity.  And, their folly confirming them in this, they agreed 
cheerfully and boasted themselves.  Now then did I swathe them one by 
one in the grave-clothes of Osiris, binding upon the breast and image, 
truly consecrated, of the god, with a talisman against the four 
elements.
   
Then I set them one by one upon a narrow and lofty tower, balanced, so 
that the least breath of wind would blow them off into destruction.
   
Those whom the air spared I next threw into Nile where most it foams 
and races. Only a few the water gave back again. These, however, did I 
bury for three days in the earth without sepulchre or coffin, so that 
the element of earth might combat them. And the rare ones whom earth 
spared I cast upon a fire of charcoal. 
   
Now who is prepared for these ordeals (being firstly attuned to the 
elements) findeth them easy.  He remains still, though the tempest 
rage upon the tower; in the water he floats easily and lightly; 
buried, he but throws himself into trance; and, lastly, his wrappings 
protect him against the fire, though all Thebai went to feed the 
blaze.
   
But it was not so with this bastard priesthood of Osiris.  For of the 
three hundred only nine were found worthy.  The High Priestess, 
however, I brought through by my magic, for she had amused me 
mightily, and I took great pleasure in her love, that was wilder than 
the rage of all the elements in one.
   
So I called together the nine who had survived, all being men, and 
gave them instruction and counsel, that they should form a secret 
brotherhood to learn and to teach the formula of the Osiris in its 
supreme function of initiating the human soul. That they should keep 
discipline in the temple only for the sake of the people, permitting 
every corruption yet withdrawing themselves from it.  Is not the body 
perishable, and the skin most pure?  So also he ancient practice of 
embalming should fall into desuetude, and that soon; for the world was 
past under the rule of Osiris, who loveth the charnel and the tomb.
   
All being sworn duly into this secret brotherhood I appointed them, 
one to preside over each grade, and him of the lowest grade to 
select the candidates and to govern the temple.
   
Then did I perform the invoking Ceremony of Osiris, having destroyed 
the blasphemous machinery; and now at last did the God answer me, 
glittering with infinite brilliance. Then I disclosed myself to the 
Priests, and they rejoiced exceedingly that after all those years the 
old lie was abolished, and the master come back to his own.
   
But the god uttered an Oracle, saying: "This last time shall I glitter 
with brilliance in My temple; for I am the god of Life in Death, 
concealed.  Therefore shall your magic henceforth be a magic most 
secret in the heart; and whoso shall perform openly any miracle, him 
shall ye know for a liar and a pretender to the sacred wisdom.
   
"For this cause am I wrapped ever in a shroud of white starred with 
the three active colours; these things conceal Me, so that he who 
knoweth Me hath passed beyond them."
   
Then did the god call us each separately to him, and in each ear did 
he whisper a secret formula and a word of power, pertaining to the 
grade to which I had appointed him.
   
But to me he gave the supreme formula and the supreme word, the word 
that hath eight-and-seventy letters, the formula that hath five-and-
sixty limbs.
   
So then I devoted myself there and then to a completer understanding 
of Osiris my God, so that I might discover his function in the whole 
course of the Cosmos.
   
For he that is born in the years of the power of a God thinketh that 
God to be eternal, one, alone. But he that is born in the hour of the 
weakness of the God, at the death of one and the birth of the other, 
seeith something (though it be little) of the course of things. And 
for him it is necessary to understand fully that change of office (for 
the gods neither die nor are reborn, but now one initiates and the 
other guards, and now one heralds and the other sanctifies) its purpose 
and meaning in the whole scheme of things. 
   
So I, in this year V of the Equinox of the Gods (1908) wherein Horus 
took the place of Osiris, will by the light of this my magical memory 
seek to understand fully the formula of Horus -- Ra Hoor Khuit -- my 
god, that ruleth the world under Nuit and Hadit.  Then as Ankh-f-na-
khonsu left unto me the stele 666 with the keys to that knowledge, so 
also may I write down in hieroglyph the formula of the Lady of the 
Forked Wand and of the Feather, that shall assume his throne and 
place when the strength of Horus is exhausted.
   
So now the service of the Gods was to be secret and their magic 
concealed from men. They were to fall before the eyes of men from 
their place, and little sewer-rats were to come and mock at them, no 
man avenging them, and they utterly careless, not striking for 
themselves.  Yet was there knowledge of them which an initiate might 
gain, though so much more difficult, immeasurably higher and more 
intimate.
   
My life from this moment became highly concentrated upon itself. I had 
no time either for ascetic practices or for any pleasures; nor would I 
take any active part in the service of the temple which, purified and 
regenerated, had become both subtly perfect and perfectly subtle.
   
It was not all of the people who did at all comprehend the change that 
had occurred; but the others obeyed and made believe to understand, 
lest their fellows should despise them. So it happened that the more 
ignorant and stupid any person was the more he feigned understanding; 
so that the least devout appeared the most devout -- as it is unto 
this day.
   
But for me all these things were as nothing; for I studied ever the 
nature of Osiris, concentrating myself into mysterious pure symbols.  
I understood why it was said that Isis had failed to discover the 
Phallus of Osiris, and thus perceived the necessity of Horus to follow 
him in the great succession of the Equinoxes.  Moreover I fashioned 
talismans of pure light concerning Osiris, and I performed in light 
all the ceremonies of initiation into his mysteries.
   
These were interpreted by wise men and translated into the language 
of the twilight and graven on stone and in the memories of men.
   
Yet was I even more intrigued in that great struggle to apprehend the 
course of things, as it is seen from the standpoint of Destiny.  So 
that I might leave true and intelligible images to enlighten the mind 
of him (whether myself or another) that should come after me to 
celebrate the Equinox of the Gods at the end of the period of Osiris.
   
As now hath come to pass.
   
Thus then three-and-thirty years I lived in the temple of Osiris a 
High Priest; and I subdued all men under me.  Also I abolished the 
office of priestess, for had not Isis failed to find that venerable 
Phallus without which Osiris must be so melancholy a god?  Therefore 
was Khemi to fall, and the world to be dark and sorrowful for many 
years.
   
Therefore I made mine High Priestess into a serving-maid, and with 
veiled face she served me all those many years, never speaking.
   
Yet they being accomplished, I thought fit to reward her. So magically 
I renewed about her the body of a young girl, and for a year she 
served me, unveiled and speaking at her pleasure.
   
And her time being come, she died.
   
Then I looked again into my destiny, and perceived that all my work   
was duly accomplished. Nor could any use or worth be found in my body.
So therefore I determined to accept my great reward, that was granted 
unto me as the faithful minister of the god F.I.A.T. that is behind 
all manifestation of Will and of Intelligence, of whom Isis and Osiris 
and Horus are but the ministers.
   
Of this, and of my death, I will speak on another occasion.
   
But first I will discourse of the inhabitants of the kingdom that 
encircleth the world, so that they who fear may be comforted.

CHAPTER X

But of these matters I am warned that I shall not now become aware, 
for that there be great mysteries therein contained, pertaining to a 
degree of initiation of which I am as yet unworthy.