DE HERBO SANCTISSIMO ARABICO
Recall, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the
City Babylon, how Nebuchadnezzar the Great King, being afflicted in his
Spirit, did depart from among Men for Seven Years' Space, eating Grass
as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth
whose Number is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the
Vulture, the All-Mother, being an Image of Our Lady Nuit, but also it is
called the Fool, who is Parsifal, "der reine Thor", and so referreth to
him that walketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Harpocrates, the
Child Horus, walking, (as saith David, the Badavi that became King in
his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with
his own secret Nature, as I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the
Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should
eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof
behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine Eyes.
Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the Mystery
of the Transcending of Time, so that in One Hour of our terrestrial
Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Æon, and in Ten Lives I could not
declare it.
Yet even as a Man may set up a Memorial or Symbol to import Ten Thousand
Times Ten Thousand, so may I strive to inform thine Understanding by
Hieroglyph. And here shall thine own Experience serve us, because a
Token of Remembrance sufficeth him that is familiar with a Matter, which
to him that knoweth it not should not be made manifest, no, not in a
Year of Instruction. Here first then is one amid the uncounted Wonders
of that Vision; upon a field blacker and richer than Velvet was the Sun
of all Being, alone. Then about Him were little Crosses, Greek,
over-running the Heaven. These changed from Form to Form geometrical,
Marvel devouring Marvel, a Thousand Times a Thousand in their Course and
Sequence, until by their Movement was the Universe churned into the
Quintessence of Light. Moreover at another Time did I behold All Things
as Bubbles, iridescent and luminous, self-shining in every Colour,
Myriad pursuing Myrad until by their perpetual Beauty they exhausted the
Virtue of my Mind to receive them, and whelmed it, so that I was fain to
withdraw myself from the Burden of that Brilliance. Yet, o my Son, the
Sun of all this amounteth not to the Worth of one Dawn-Glimmer of Our
True Vision of Holiness.
Now for the Chief of that which was granted unto me, it was the
Apprehension of those willed Changes or Transmutations of the Mind which
lead into Truth, being as Ladders unto Heaven, or so I called them at
that Time, seeking for a Phrase to admonish the Scribe that attended on
my Words, to grave a Balustre upon the Stele of of my Working. But I
make Effort in vain, o my Son, to record this matter in Detail; for it
is the quality of the Grass to quicken the Operation of Thought it may
be Thousandfold, and moreover to figure each Step in Images complex and
overpowering in Beauty, so that one hath no Time wherein to conceive,
much less to utter, any Word for a Name or any of them. Also, such was
the multiplicity of these Ladders, and their Equivalence, that the
Memory holdeth no more any one of them, but only a certain Comprehension
of the Method, wordless by Reason of its Subtility. Now therefore must I
make by my Will a Concentration mighty and terrible of my Thought, that
I may bring forth this Mystery in Expression. For this Method is of
Virtue and Profit, by it mayst thou come easily and with Delight to the
Perfection of Truth, it is no Odds from what Thought thou makest the
first Leap in thy Meditation, so hat thou mayst know how every Road
endeth in Monsalvat, and the Temple of the Sangraal.
I believe generally, on Ground both of Theory and Experience, so little
as I have, that a Man must first be initiate, and established in Our
Law, before he may use this Method. For in it is an Implication of our
Secret Enlightenment, concerning the Universe, how its Nature is utterly
Perfection. Now every Thought is a Separation, and the Medicine of that
is to marry Each One with its Contradiction, as I have shewed formerly
in many Writings. And thou shalt clap the one to the other with
Vehemence of Spirit, swiftly as Light itself, that the Ecstasy be
spontaneous. So therefore it is Expedient that thou have travelled
already in this Path of Antithesis, knowing perfectly the Answer to
every Griph or Problem, and thy Mind ready therewith. For by the
Property of this Grass all passeth with Speed incalculable of Wit, and
an Hesitation should confound thee, breaking down thy ladder, and
throwing back thy Mind to receive Impression from Environment, as at thy
first beginning. Verily; the nature of this Method is Solution, and the
Destruction of every Complexity by Explosion of Ecstasy, as every
Element thereof is fulfilled by its Correlative, and is annihilated
(since it loseth separate Existence) in the Orgasm that is consummated
within the Bed of thy Mind.
Thou knowest right well, o my Son, how a Thought is imperfect in two
Dimensions, being separate from its Contradiction, but also constrained
in its Scope, because by that Contradiction we do not (commonly)
complete the Universe, save only that of its Discourse. Thus if we
contrast health with Sickness, we include in their Sphere of Union no
more than one Quality that may be predicated of all Things. Furthermore,
it is for the most Part not easy to find or to formulate the true
Contradiction of any Thought as a positive Idea, but only as a Formal
Negation in vague Terms, so that the ready Answer is but the Antithesis.
Thus to "White" one putteth not the Phrase "all that which is not
White", for this is void, formless; it is neither clear, simple, nor
positive in Conception; but one answereth "Black", for this hath an
Image of his Significance. So the Cohesion of Antitheticals destroyeth
them only in Part, and one becometh instantly conscious of the Residue
that is unsatisfied or unbalanced, whose Eidolon leapeth in thy Mind
with Splendour and Joy unspeakable. Let not this deceive thee, for its
Existence proveth its Imperfection, and thou must call forth its Mate,
and destroy them by Love, as with the former. This Method is continuous
and proceedeth ever from the Gross to the Fine, and from the Particular
to the General, dissolving all Things into the One Substance of Light.
Lean now that Impression of Sense have Opposites readily conceived, as
long to short, or light to dark; and so with Emotions and Perceptions,
as Love to Hate, or false to true; but the more violent is the
Antagonism, the more is it bound in Illusion, determined by Relation.
Thus the Word "Long" hath no Meaning save it be referred to a Standard;
but Love is not thus obscure, because Hate is its Twin, partaking
bountifully of a Common Nature therewith. Now, hear this; it was given
unto me in my Visions of the Æthyrs, when I was in the Wilderness of
Sahara, by Tolga, that above the Abyss, contradiction is Unity, and that
Nothing could be true save by Virtue of the Contradiction that is
contained in itself. Behold, therefore, in this method thou shalt come
presently to Ideas of this Order, that include in themselves their own
Contradiction, and have no Antithesis. Here then is thy Lever of
Antinomy broken in thine Hand; yet, being in true Balance, thou mayst
soar, passionate and eager, from Heaven to Heaven, by the Expansion of
thine Idea, and its Exaltation, of Concentration as thou understandest
by thy Studies in The Book of the Law, the Word thereof concerning Our
Lady Nuit and Hadit that is the Core of every Star. And this last Going
upon thy Ladder is easy, if thou be truly Initiate, for the Momentum of
thy Force in Transcendental Antithesis serveth to propel thee, and the
Emancipation from the Fetters of Thought that thou hast won in that
Praxis of Art maketh the Whirlpool and Gravitation of Truth of
Competence to Draw thee unto itself.
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/aleph/tbwf4.html
