The Vision and the Voice with Commentary and Other Papers

468 Pages·1998·130.52 MB·English

by  Aleister Crowley

?tleister Crowlty
WITH
Victor B. Neuburg & Mary Desti
qhtJ t&)
VISION
qhtJ
VOICE
with Commentary
AND OTHER PAPERS
THE COLLECTED DIARIES OF ALEISTER CROWLEY
VOLUME II • 1909-1914 E.V.
THE EQUINOX
VOLUME NUMBER
IV II
SAMUEL WEISER; INC.
York Beach, Maine
This edition first published in 1998 e.v. by
Samuel Weiser, Inc.
P.O. Box 612
York Beach ME 03910-0612
Copyright ©1998 Ordo Templi Orientis, International Headquarters, P.O. Box
684098, Austin, TX 78768 USA.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or
by any means, including photocopy and digital reproduction, without permission
in writing from the copyright proprietor. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN 0-87728-887-9 (Hardcover)
ISBN 0-87728-906-9 (Paper)
ISSN 1050-2904
MV
Cover illustration: j.Ee. Fuller, painting for the Temple of Ordo A:. A:. entitled
"Portal of the Abyss,» Harry Price Collection, University of London, used by per
mission of the Mary Evans Picture Library, London.
Design by Spirit Vision, Inc.
Typeset in Adobe Sa bon with Monotype Fairfield.
Printed in the United States of America.
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
10 9 8 9 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Amer
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Z39.48-1984.
Contents
Figures and Tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
Vll
Editor's Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
Abbreviations and Editorial Conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Xlll
Liber CDXVIII. The Vision and the Voice with Commentary 1
Foreword. . . . ... . . ... .. . . . .. . . . . . . .. .. . .. .... . 3
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Call or Key of the Thirty .tEthyrs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 27
Synopsis of the Contents of the Vision and the Voice,
and a Comment upon the Natures of the .tEthyrs . . . . . . . 31
Liber CDXVIII with Commentary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Liber CCCXXV. The Bartzabel Working . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 257
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 259
The Bartzabel Working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 261
Liber LX. The Ab-ul-Diz Working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 287
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 289
The Ab-ul-Diz Working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 297
Liber CDXV. Opus Lutetianum, The Paris Working. . . . . .. 343
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 347
The Paris Working .............................. 351
A Brief Summary of the Paris Working ............... 396
Grimorium Sanctissimum ......................... 399
The Holy Hymns to the Great Gods of Heaven . . . . . . .. 405
v
vi THE EQUINOX
Appendix I: Algerian Diary, 1909 E. v. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 411
Appenaix II: Diary Fragment, 1910 E.V• ..•...•......•.. 421
Editorial Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 423
Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 431
Index .......................................... 443
Figures and Tables
Table 1. The Grades of the A:.A:., Parts of the Soul,
Sephiroth, Yetziratic and Hebrew Attributions
XIV
Table 2. The Titles of the Thirty lEthyrs. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 35
Table 3. The Enochian Alphabet and its Attributions. . .. 36
Figure 1. The Holy Sevenfold Table ................. 79
Figure 2. The Alphabet of Honorius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 79
Figure 3. Agnus Dei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 94
v.v.v.v.v. ...............
Figure 4. The Pentagram of 99
Figure 5. The Alphabet of Daggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 101
Figure 6. Egyptian Deities and the Icthus Formula ..... 107
Figure 7. The Holy Twelvefold Table .... ........... 132
Figure 8. The Circle and Triangle .................. 161
Figure 9. The Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 201
Figure 10. The Alphabet of Arrows and the Trigrams .... 229
Figure 11. The Alphabet of Arrows ................. 230
Figure 12. The Sigil or Seal of the A:.A: .............. 252
Figure 13. The Sigillum Dei lEmeth ................. 252
Figure 14. The Tree of Life, with A:.A:. Grades, Formulre,
and the Hebrew, Yetziratic and Tarot Trump
Attributions of the Paths ................. 253
Figure 15. The Sephiroth Explained by the 30 lEthyrs ... 254
Figure 16. lEthyrs 30-25 on the Tree of Life .......... 255
vii
viii THE EQUINOX
Figure 17. The Thirty lEthyrs on the Tree of Life . . . . . .. 256
Figure 18. The Circle and Triangle of Art (reconstruction) 263
Figure 19. The Lamen of the Chief Magus ............ 264
Figure 20. The Lamen of the Material Basis ........... 264
Figure 21. The 1st Talisman of Mars ................ 264
Figure 22. The 3rd Talisman of Mars ................ 264
Figure 23. The 5th Talisman of Mars ................ 264
Figure 24. The Altar of the Bartzabel Working. . . . . . . .. 265
Figure 25. The Three Magi at the Altar ............... 274
Figure 26. The Ab-ul-Diz Working .................. 298
Figure 27. The Nativity of Aleister Crowley. . . . . . . . . .. 299
Figure 28. The Neophyte Initiation of Perdurabo . . . . . .. 299
Figure 29. The Equinox of the Gods ................. 299
Figure 30. The Magister Templi Initiation. . . . . . . . . . . .. 299
Figure 31. The Temple of the Ab-ul-Diz Working . . . . . .. 304
Figure 32. The Astral Setting of the Ab-ul-Diz Working 305
Figure 33. Aleister Crowley in his A:.A:. Robe with
the Shew-Stone used in Liber 418 .......... 339
Figure 34. Mary Desti, Soror Virakam (in later life
in her New York studio) .................. 340
Figure 35. Victor B. Neuburg, Frater Lampada Tradam .. 341
Figure 36. Aleister Crowley as Baphomet, with the Robe,
Crown, Cross and Chain of a Supreme and
Holy King XO O.T.O. .....•............... 342
Figure 37. The Route of the Vision and the Voice Working 415
Editor's Introduction
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
T
HIS COLLECTION OF PAPERS contains documentary
accounts of several of Crowley's major magical workings.
They deal--explicitly or tacitly-with the attainment of
high degrees and grades in both the o. T. o. and the A:. A: ..
Crowley considered Liber 418, The Vision and the Voice to
be second in importance only to The Book of the Law. It docu
ments Crowley's initiation as a Master of the Temple (Magister
Templi 8°=3"), with a foreshadowing of his initiation to the
grade of Magus. This edition presents his extensive technical
commentary-an important work that has been unavailable in a
reliable edition for nearly fifty years. It is published here with
new material taken from the original manuscript notebooks of
the working, the original typescript of its commentary, and anno
tated copies of its first edition in The Equinox 1(5) (1911). Many
notes and illustrations have not appeared in print before.
"The Ab-ul-Diz Working" led to the writing of Book 4. The
A:.A:. requires that each Exempt Adept 7°=4° publish an orig
inal thesis on the universe. While Crowley claimed to have satis
fied this in his previous incarnation as the French author Eliphas
Levi, he clearly confirmed his right to this grade by producing his
brilliant original thesis on mankind and the universe, Book 4.
"Liber 415, The Paris Working" served to confirm Crowley's
innovative magical theories about the traditional teachings of the
O.T.O., in which he was fully initiated in 1912. It is a hybrid
ix
x THE EQUINOX
paper or fiber, as its magical techniques pertain to both the grade
of Adeptus Major in A:.A:., and the IXO and XIO of O.T.O.; for
this reason it belongs in the canonical literature of both Orders,
whose systems, though distinct and independent, closely intersect
at this grade and these degrees in matters of magical technique.
This 1914 working, and the earlier "Bartzabel Working" of
1910, show Crowley at the height of his powers as a full Major
Adept 6°=5° A:.A: ..
The Vision and the Voice and "The Paris Working" are both
in A:.A:. Class AB, designating a combination of revealed and
scholarly material. Also, both were fruit of Crowley's relation
ship with his early A:.A:. student, the poet Victor Benjamin
Neuburg (Frater Omnia Vincam or Lampada Tradam).
Neuburg also participated in the ritual work connected with
"Liber 325, The Bartzabel Working" of 1910 E. v., published
here for the first time. Another important working is also given
its first publication, "Liber 60, The Ab-ul-Diz Working." 1 This
working, conducted in 1911 E. v. by Crowley with Mary Desti
(Soror Virakam), led to the writing of Book 4.
The Vision and the Voice is a primary scriptural source for
the theogony of the Supernal Triad of the Crowned and
Conquering Child, Chaos, and Babalon. Crowley taught that
these, with their associated doctrines, were central to the work of
the A:.A:. in the New JEon of Horus. He therefore adopted
them as the essential religious theogony of its allied order, the
O.T.O., in "Liber XV" (the Gnostic Catholic Mass) and else
where. Liber 418 should be studied in connection with two other
Holy Books, "Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli sub figura VII,"
received two years before Liber 418, and "Liber Cheth vel
Vallum Abiegni sub figura CLVI," received two years after Liber
418. Crowley's dramatic poem Liber 242, Aha! is another
important account of the Master of the Temple.
As the best introductions to the history and import of these
workings are Crowley'S own accounts in his Confessions, these
have been excerpted and adapted to introduce each working.2
I These works have been given numerical titles and placed in A:.A:.
Class C for their first formal publication in this number.
2 The typescript was used; an unabridged edition is in preparation.
Editor's Introduction xi
The papers published here are generally much more advanced
than those published in The Equinox IV ( 1), Commentaries on
the Holy Books and Other Papers. Crowley's commentary to
Liber 418 assumes a much higher degree of familiarity with
magical and Qabalistic technical terminology on the part of the
reader. Due to limitations of space, this edition makes the same
assumption, with this editor's annotations kept to a useful
minimum. Tables giving Qabalistic and Enochian attributions,
and numerous new illustrative figures, have been provided.
The editorial work on Liber 418 was complicated by the
wealth of source material. Sources and editorial procedures are
discussed in the Editorial Notes at the end of the book.
The listing of Works Cited gives bibliographic information
for books and papers cited in the text; works cited in footnotes
are by Crowley, unless noted otherwise. The Index is not exhaus
tive, but includes works cited, proper names, and technical terms
with a particular bearing on the subjects of the papers.
I wish to thank the Harry Ransom Humanities Research
Center, University of Texas at Austin, for making available note
books and papers relating to Liber 418, the "Holy Hymns to the
Great Gods of Heaven," "The Bartzabel Working," and the
diary entry for May, 1910. The George Arents Research Library
at Syracuse University kindly made available their typescript of
portions of "The Paris Working." The War burg Institute at the
University of London made available a typescript of Liber 418
with its commentary, and the previously-unpublished photo
graph of a painting of Crowley wearing the crown, robe and
jewel of a Supreme and Holy King of o. T. 0.1 Peter and Linda
Macfarlane, the founders of 93 Publishing, kindly donated type
scripts of "The Ab-ul-Diz Working" and "The Paris Working" to
the o. T.O. Archives. R. Russell Maylone, Curator of the Charles
Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern
University Library, Evanston, Illinois, made available Crowley'S
1 This portrait (a miniature painted in a locket) was possibly the work
of Crowley'S friend and O.T.O. colleague, the portrait painter Leon
(or Lionel) Engers-Kennedy Ixo-perhaps even done during "The
Paris Working." The locket's present whereabouts are unknown, but
a photograph survives in Crowley's O.T.O. diary Rex de Arte Regia.