Marcelo Motta - The Commentaries of AL.doc

The Commentaries of AL

Marcelo Motta's comment on
Liber AL vel Legis
(along with some of Aleister Crowley's)

This work extracted from Equinox Vol. V, #1,
by
Marcelo Motta

INTRODUCTION

As all those interested in the A.’. A.’. must know, the Order alternates Five Years of Speech with Five Years of Silence. The last published Number of THE EQUINOX was Vol. III, No. vi. Lay bibliophiles must not waste time seeking for Vol. IV, which was a Volume of Silence.
 

Readers must not, under any circumstances, take this present publication of the Commentaries too seriously. The Publication is in Classes A, B and C, which means, "in whiter words":
 

Class A: These are Utterances from above the Abyss, from Initiates of the Collegium Summum, of which must not be changed even the style of a letter. Only the original text of AL and The Comment, signed Ankh-f-n-khonsu, are in this Class here. (Exceptions, such as quotes from other Holy Books, are duly noted.)

Such texts are in bold type.

(The weak in intellect, the automatic rebel, and even some earnest seeker may ask: "Why must one not change even the style of a letter of such texts?" The answer is simply that even the style of a letter has meaning in them. It is not a matter of Respect for Authority. It is a matter of keeping the records straight, lest the Utterance of a Master become smeared by the Confusion of a Follower, or several Followers, a thing which, unless we mistake, has happened all too often in the past.)
 

Class B: These are utterances of High Initiates of the A.'. A:., or of people recognized as High Initiates by the A.'. A:., considered of sufficient value to be published under the aegis of the Order.

Publications in Class B are recommended for serious study by Brethren and Aspirants. Only the Commentaries by Aleister Crowley himself are here in this Class. They are in standard type.

(Readers may well ask why even the Utterances of past Magi are, when published under the Imprimatur of the A:. A:., classified only up to B. Is it because the A.'. A.'. considers all past Initiates, or Initiates of other Orders, inferior to those who underwent Its Discipline? Certainly not. Such terms as "inferior" or "superior" have little or no meaning above the Abyss. The Utterance of Helena Blavatsky, for instance, although she was Master of the Temple, cannot be put in Class A, because it was printed by Theosophists, who cannot be trusted to reproduce straight that which may offend their prejudices. The Utterance of Dionysus is hopelessly mingled with the ravings, the cries of fear, the sectarian condemnations of unbalanced mystics or all too-balanced politicians who wrote under the collective pseudonyms of John, Mark, Luke, Matthew, Paul, Peter, etc. The Utterance of Mohammed can never be had in its purity because, as any scholar knows, he wrote nothing. What we have was written by his followers, purporting to have been dictated by him. The same is true of Gautama and others. The Utterances of Our Brethren who were above the Abyss, when published under the Imprimatur, can be trusted as being reproduced exactly as they were produced. That is why they are in Class A. The Utterances of other and friendly Stars which did not come to us in their pristine purity, these we publish with our warmest commendation, but warning the reader that they may not be what those Stars intended. That is why they are in Class B.)
 

Class C: These are writings that the Order considers of sufficient interest to be included in Its Curriculum, but which are not by High Initiates, or even, sometimes, by Initiates. The Commentaries "by another" are here in this Class. They are in italics.

Readers may well ask what are "High Initiates". According to the System of the A.'. A:., High Initiates are Brethren of the A.'. A:. belonging at least to the Collegium Internum, or members of other Orders who the A.'. A.'. consider have reached an equivalent level of insight. As a rule, writings by such are always in Class B. Writings in Class C may not always be for study; sometimes they are for recreation, as well. In any case, the fact that they are in Class C means that the Order warns readers that, although It considers such writings useful, they must be suspected of confusion, prejudice and error to a much greater degree than writings in Class B.
 

Writings in Class A are not subject to confusion, prejudice or error at all. Whenever they seem to produce confusion, prejudice or error, the fault is the reader's. Such Writings are like mirrors in which each one sees his or her face, and no other. If thou dislikest what is seen, change thyself.

Marcelo Ramos Motta, 1975 e.v.

THE TITLE

LIBER
AL
vel
LEGIS
sub figura
CCXX
as delivered by
XCIII = 418
to
DCLXVI

Title:
 

In the first edition, this Book was called L. L is the sacred letter in the Holy Twelvefold Table which forms the triangle that stabilizes the Universe. See Liber 418. L is the letter of Libra, Balance, and 'Justice' in the Taro. This title should probably be AL, "El", as the 'L' was heard of the Voice of Aiwaz, not seen. AL is the true name of the Book, for these letters, and their number 31, form the Master Key to its Mysteries.
 

With regard to the above note by A.C., serious students should consult
Liber V vel Reguli, the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast, for a more thorough analysis of the Word AL.

THE FIRST CHAPTER

1. Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
 

The theogony of our Law is entirely scientific: Nuit is Matter, Hadit is Motion, in their full physical sense. They are the Tao and Teh of Chinese Philosophy; or, to put it very simply, the Noun and Verb in grammar. Our central Truth—beyond other philosophies—is that these two infinities cannot exist apart. This extensive subject must be studied in our other writings, notably Berashith, my own Magical Diaries, especially those of 1919, 1920 and 1921, and Liber Aleph, the Book of Wisdom or Folly. See also "The Soldier and the Hunchback". Further information concerning Nuit and Hadit is given in the course of this Book; but I must here mention that the Brother quoted in connection with the "Wizard Amalantrah", etc. (Samuel bar Aiwaz) identifies them with ANU and ADAD, the supreme Mother and Father deities of the Sumerians. Taken in connection with the AIWAZ identifications, this is very striking indeed.

(This last sentence was added because A.C. was convinced that Aiwass was the Being worshipped under this name by the ancient Sumerians.)
 

2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.

This verse is to be taken with the next. The 'company of heaven' is Mankind, and its 'unveiling' is the assertion of the independent godhead of every man and every woman!
 

Further, as Khabs (see verse 8) is "Star", there is a further meaning: this Book is to reveal the Secret Self of a man, i.e., to initiate him.

(Or of a woman, and initiate her. As to the meaning of the verses, there are at least four Great Meanings, one for each of the Four Ordeals mentioned in the Chapter Three, vv. 64-67. Besides these, there are subsidiary meanings which depend on the Grade of the Commentator, or the Grade of the reader. This is one of the reasons why this matter of commentaries is so difficult, and why any commentary must not be taken too seriously. The Four Great Meanings, of course, are beyond any danger of being confused, since they are experienced in Trance, and independent of Reason. They cannot be communicated through the intellect. Even the most accurate attempt to do so misleads.)

3. Every man and every woman is a star.

4. Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

This is a great and holy mystery. Although each star has its own number, each number is equal and supreme. Every man and every woman is not only a part of God, but the Ultimate God. "The Centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere." The old definition of God takes new meaning for us. Each one of us is the One God. This can only be understood by the initiate; one must acquire certain high states of consciousness to appreciate it. Each 'Star' is connected directly with every other star, and the Space being Without Limit (Ain Soph), the Body of Nuit, any one star is as much the Centre as any other. Each man instinctively feels that he is the Centre of the Cosmos, and philosophers have jeered at his presumption.

But it is right. Each simple elemental Self is supreme,Very God of Very God. Aye, in this Book is Truth almost insufferably splendid, for Man has veiled himself too long from his own glory: he fears the abyss, the ageless Absolute. But Truth shall make him free!

The reader will assimilate this more easily, on the intellectual plane, by considering the Theory of Relativity. From the point of view of Initiation, the difference between a Magister Templi and a 'Black Brother' is that the Magister knows that He is the Center of the Universe for himself, but understands that the same is simultaneously true of any other human being. The 'Black Brother' knows that he is the center of the universe, but does not understand that the same is true of others. Of all others. What is more, he does not want to understand. He interprets any manifestation of autonomy as an attempt against his authority.
The reader must not think that a 'Black Brother' is necessarily a 'mean' person. On the contrary, his intentions are usually of the best. He wants your happiness. But since his definition of your happiness is based on what he thinks you should be happy with, he may cause you much harm by trying to help you. A Magister, as a rule, will not try to help you at all. The Magister is selfish. He minds His own business, and no other.
 

Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth had a very amusing tale of a man who approached two 'Black Brethren' and challenged them. "What does he say?" the second 'Black Brother who was somewhat hard of hearing, asked the first. "He says we are not God," the first explained. At once, the second snapped: "Atheist!" The utter lack of sense of humor is a characteristic of 'Black Brotherhood'. A Magister might have said the same thing —but with a twinkle.
 

There are certain analogies between 'Black Brotherhood' and paranoia, but while paranoia is a mental disorder, 'Black Brotherhood' is of Dadth, and much more dangerous. Religious persecutions, throughout history, were always the result of a man reaching the threshold of the Abyss through the discipline of a particular faith, and then fearing to jump. His disease would then affect, telepathically and magically, those of his faith, with results such as Holy Inquisitions, Crusades, and others.

5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

Here Nuit appeals, simply and directly, recognizing the separate function of each Star of her Body. In addressing me as warrior lord of Thebes, it appears as if She perceived a certain continuity or identity of myself with Ankh-f-n-khonsu, whose Stele is the Link with Antiquity of this Revelation.
 

The unveiling is the Proclamation of the Truth previously explained, that the Body of Nuit occupies Infinite Space, so that every Star thereof  is Whole in itself, an independent and absolute Unit. They differ, as Carbon and Calcium differ, but each is a simple, "immortal" Substance, or at least a form of some simpler Substance. Each soul is thus absolute, and 'good' or 'evil' are merely terms descriptive of relation between destructible combinations. Thus, Quinine is 'good' for a malarial patient, but 'evil' for the germ of the disease. Heat is 'bad' for ice-cream and 'good' for coffee. The indivisible essence of things, their 'souls', are indifferent to all conditions soever, for none can in any way affect them.

Although this last sentence is grammatically wrong, we left it as written as proof of how hard it is to discuss certain Truths on the plane of the intellect. Aleister Crowley was a Master of the English Language;yet, in trying to express something that transcends Reason, he committed an error of syntax that any modern secretary would avoid! The problem was that he was caught in the quandary that the "indivisible essence" is simultaneously One and Many! Hence the 'error'
 

Lay readers should understand that when A.C. writes "here Nuit appeals "what he actually means is "Here Aiwass, speaking as Nuit, appeals," etc. Aiwass, being an lpsissimus, can of course speak in name of Infinite Space.
 

The fact that Children is with C capital indicates a hidden technical meaning in the verse. Those Children are rather big Children! They are Giants, Titans, Gargantuas or Pantagruels of legend—in short, they are Babes of the Abyss. This is the "Grade", or rather, the "Going" in which the Veil is Rent and the mind receives the first impact of the Infinite. In this sense, therefore, Nuit is appealing to 666 to become the Hierophant of the Greater Mysteries—that is to say, the Magus of the Aeon, the Initiator of the Masters of the Temple. Obviously, He must be in Chokhmah.
 

6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!

Aleister Crowley is being 'chosen and the choice is specifically declared: He is to be Hadit, that is, simultaneously Kether (the centre), Chokhmah (the tongue) and Binah (the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the seat of intelligence).
In short, in order to do the job for which he was chosen—Nuit's Helpmeet—he must reach the highest Initiations possible to man. Which, of course, he did.
 

7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar kraat.

Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer as that of the Intelligence communicating. See note to Title. Why is Aiwass spelt thus, when Aiwaz is the natural transliteration of  ? Perhaps because He was not content with identifying Himself with Thelema, Agape, etc. through the number 93, but wished to express His nature by six letters (Six being the number of the Sun, the God- Man, etc.) whose value in Greek should be A = 1, I = 10, F =6, A = 1, S =200,5=200: total 418, the number of Abrahadabra, the Magical Formula of the new Aeon! Note that I and V are the letters of the Father and the Son, also of the Virgin and the Bull (see Liber 418), protected on either side by the letter of Air, and followed by the letter of Fire twice over.

He declares Himself, in this verse 7, the "minister of Hoor-paar kraat." Hoor-paar-kraat, or Harpocrates, the "Babe in the Egg of Blue", is not merely the God of Silence in the conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. The connection is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is unmanifested. See Chapter Two, verse 8.
 

He is the First Letter of the Alphabet, Aleph, whose number is One, and his card in the Tarot is The Fool, numbered Zero. Aleph is attributed to the "Element" (in the old classification of things) of Air.
 

Now, as One, or Aleph, he represents the Male Principle, the First Cause, and the free breath of Life, the sound of the vowel A being made with the open throat and mouth.
 

As Zero, he represents the Female Principle, the Fertile Mother.

(An old name for the card is Mat, from the Italian 'Matto', fool, but earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-Mother-Goddess.) Fertile because the 'Egg of Blue' is the Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuit, and it contains the Unborn Babe, helpless, yet protected and nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on a lotus, the yoni, which floats on the 'Nile', the amniotic fluid.
 

In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is "The Fool"; he is the 'Saviour', being the Son who shall trample on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris. Thus we see him as the "Great Fool" of Celtic legend, and "Pure Fool" of Act I of Parsifal, and, generally speaking, the insane person whose words have always been taken for oracles.
 

But to be 'Saviour' he must be born and grow to manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of virility. He usually wears the 'Coat of many colours' like Joseph the 'dreamer'; so he is also now the Green Man of spring festivals. But his 'folly' is now not innocence but inspiration of wine: he drinks from the Graal, offered to him by the Priestess.
 

So we see him fully armed as Bacchus Diphues, male and female in one, bearing the Thyrsus-rod, and a cluster of grapes or a wineskin, while a tiger leaps up by his side. This form is suggested in the Taro card, where 'The Fool' is shown with a long wand and carrying a sack; his coat is motley. Tigers and crocodiles follow him, thus linking this image with that of Harpocrates.
 

Almost identical symbols are those of the secret God of the Templars, the bi-sexual Baphomet, and of Zeus Arrhenothelus, equally bi-sexual, the Father-Mother of All in One Person. (He is shown in this full form in the Tarot Trump XV, "The Devil".) Now, Zeus being lord of Air, we are reminded that Aleph is the letter of Air.
 

As Air, we find the "Wandering Fool" pure wanton Breath, yet creative. Wind was supposed of old to impregnate the Vulture, which therefore was chosen to symbolize the Mother-Goddess.
 

He is the Wandering Knight of Fairy Tales who marries the Kings Daughter. This legend is derived from certain customs among exogamic tribes, for which see The Golden Bough.

Thus, once Europa, Semele and others claimed that Zeus--Air*

[Inserted footnote: * Zeus obtained Air for his kingdom in the partition with Hades, who took Fire, and Poseidon, who took Water. Shu is the Egyptian God of the Firmament. There is a great difficulty here, etymologically. Zeus is connected with IAO, Abrasax, and the Dental Sibilant Gods of the Great Mysteries, with the South and Hadit, Adad, Set, Saturn, Adonai, Attis, Adonis; he is even the "Jesus", slain with the Lance, whose blood is collected in a Cup. Yet he is also to be identified with the opposite party of the North and Nuit, with the "John" slain with the Sword, whose flesh is placed upon a Disk, in the Lesser Mysteries, baptizing with Water as "Jesus" with Fire, with On, Qannes, Noah, and the like.
It seems as if this great division, which has wrought such appalling havoc upon Earth, was originally no more than a distinction adopted for convenience. It is indeed the task of this Book to reduce Theology to the interplay of the Dyad Nuit and Hadit, these being themselves conceived as complementary, as Two equivalent to Naught, "divided for love's sake, for the chance of union."]-

had enjoyed them in the form of a beast, bird, or what not; while later Mary attributed her condition to the agency of a Spirit—Spiritus, breath, or air—in the shape of a dove. (Simple-minded readers must not think for one moment that A. C. is here "admitting the historical existence of the Virgin Mary"; on the contrary, he is obviously putting her on the same footing with Europa, Semele and others. The Virgin Birth, like the Dying God, is a much older myth than Christianity; and the Virgin was usually seeded by a God under the form of a Beast. Far from being original, Christian Theology is a pot-pourri of stolen goods.)
 

But the "Small Person" of Hindu mysticism, the Dwarf insane, yet crafty, of many legends in many lands,is also this same "Holy Ghost", or Silent Self of a man, or his Holy Guardian Angel.
 

He is almost the "Unconscious" of Freud, unknown unaccountable, the silent Spirit, blowing "whither it listeth, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth". It commands with absolute authority when it appears at all, despite conscious reason and judgment.
 

Aiwass is then the "minister" of this Hoor-paar-kraat, that is, of the Saviour of the World in the larger sense, and of mine own "Silent Self' in the lesser. A "minister" is one who performs a service, in this case evidently that of revealing: Aiwass was the intelligible medium between the Babe God—the New Aeon about to be born—and myself. This Book of the Law is the Voice of the God's Mother, His Father, and Himself. But on appearing, the God assumes the active form twin to Harpocrates, that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The Concealed Child becomes the Conquering Child, the armed Horus avenging his father Osiris. So, also, our own Silent Self, helpless and witless, hidden within us, will spring forth, if we have craft to loose him to the Light, spring lustily forward with his Cry of Battle, the Word of our True Wills.

This is the Task of the Adept, to have the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel, to become aware of his nature (the Adept's) and his purpose (the Adept's), fulfilling them.

(The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel produce this result. It is not "the Angel's nature" or "the Angel's purpose" that are to be done by the Adept! For instance, Aiwass was the Holy Guardian Angel of A.C.; but Aiwass goes on doing His job, that of being minister of Hoor-paar-kraat, while A. C.—now 666— does His. Suum cuique.)
 

8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.

Khabs, 'star', or 'Inmost Light', is the original individual, eternal essence in us. The Khu is the magical garment which it weaves for itself, a 'form' for this Being Beyond Form, by use of which it can gain experience through self-consciousness, as explained in the note to verses 2 and 3. The Khu is the first veil, far subtler than mind or body, and truer; for its symbolic shape depends on the nature of its Star.
 

Why are we told that the Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs? Did we then suppose the converse? I think we are warned against the idea of a Pleroma, a flame of which we are Sparks, and to which we return when we 'attain'. That would indeed make the whole curse of separate existence ridiculous, a senseless and inexcusable folly. It would throw us back on the dilemma of Manicheism. The idea of incarnations "perfecting" a thing originally perfect by definition is imbecile. The only sane solution is as given previously, to suppose that the Perfect enjoys experience of (apparent) Imperfection.

(There are deeper resolutions of this problem appropriate to the highest grades of initiation; but the above should suffice the average intelligence.)
 

We are not to regard ourselves as base beings, without whose sphere is Light or "God". Our minds and bodies are veils of the Light within. The uninitiate is a "Dark Star ", and the Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent by 'purifying' them. This 'purification' is really 'simplification'; it is not that the veil is dirty, but that the complexity of its folds makes it opaque. The Great Work therefore consists principally in the solution of complexes. Everything in itself is perfect, but when things are muddled, they become 'evil'. This Doctrine is evidently of supreme importance, from its position as the first 'revelation' of Aiwass.
 

When A.C. says, above, second paragraph, "Did we then suppose the converse?" he is speaking with his tongue in his cheek. He knows perfectly well that all religions, without one single solitary exception, suppose the converse. He, himself, had once supposed the converse.
 

This central mystery revealed by Aiwass was the darkest secret of most Initiatic Schools. All religions start as Methods of Theurgy; as Met hod degenerates into Routine, Blind Faith becomes more virtuous than Experience, and Dogma is born. Then God is put on a pedestal, where He, or She, or It, is less uncomfortably present when you indulge your basest appetites such as Preaching and Saving Souls.
 

The formidable nature of the Book of the Law becomes apparent when we see that this "Dark Mystery" is the first and simplest of its revelations. No wonder organized religions everywhere fought it! No wonder "Initiatic Orders" which had only this "Awful Truth"— "Os iris is a Black God"—to mask their financial and political maneuvers clamored that Aleister Crowley was a very wicked man.

9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!
 

We are to pay attention to this Inmost Light; then comes the answering Light of Infinite Space. Note that the Light of Space is what men call Darkness; its nature is utterly incomprehensible to our uninitiated minds. It is the 'veils' mentioned previously in this comment that obstruct the relation between Nuit and Hadit.
 

We are not to worship the Khu, to fall in love with our Magical Image. To do this—we have all done it—is to forget our Truth. If we adore Form, it becomes opaque to Being, and may soon prove false to itself. The Khu in each of us includes the Cosmos as he knows it. To me, even another Khabs is only part of my Khu. Your own Khabs is your one sole Truth.
 

10. Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.
 

"My servants"; not those of the Lord of the Aeon. "the Law is for all"; there can be no secrecy about that. The verse refers to specially chosen 'servants'; perhaps those who, worshipping the Khabs, have beheld Her light shed over them. Such persons indeed consummate the marriage of Nuit and Hadit in themselves; in that case they are aware of certain Ways to Power.
 

There is also a mystical sense in this verse. We are to organize our minds thoroughly, appointing few and secret chiefs, serving Nuit, to discipline the varied departments of the conscious thought.

 

11. These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.

This verse establishes uncompromisingly that all Gods—G capital, that is to say, 'true Gods'—and all men deified by legend or deceit — that is to say, 'false gods'—are fools. How come? It is a key. Distinction is clearly made between the two types: one are Gods; the other is men. The key is that both types are adored, which, as verses 7-9 established, is wrong. Wrong for Aspirants, of course.
 

The 'Gods 'are fools—that is, they reached the Plane of Consciousness of the Fool of the Tarot. The 'men' are also fools—the common, abundant variety.
 

Technically, an Initiate can be called a God only after crossing the Abyss. However, Masters of the Temple do not become known, therefore cannot be adored. It is Those of the Grade following, the Magi, who become known. It is the Curse of Their Grade that They must speak Truth—so that the Falsehood contained in that Truth may enslave the souls of men. See Liber I vel Magi. Their Sphere of Consciousness, Chokhmah, receives the Influx from the Crown through the Path of Aleph, The Fool.

The 'men', in order to become adored, must be sufficiently powerful, magically speaking, to impress the consciousness of a sufficient number of weaker fools. No hard task for a Magician, but one that only a "Black Brother" would undertake. Now, although both cases result in enslavement, there is a difference in motivation and in effect. The Magus must speak, though He like it not; the 'Black Brother' ought to shut up (in order to become a Magister Templi), but he will not. The Magus fulfils the Law; the 'Black Brother' rebels against it. The enslavement prod...