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Correspondence from Phyllis Seckler to Karl Germer
Rt. 1, Box 122 Livermore, Calif.
Oct. 9, 1956
Dear Karl
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have read with interest your last letter and find much to comment on which seems to be bursting to get out. You caused quite some thinking.
Now—on the problem of Kundry. At first what you seemed to say seemed to be an insult to my sex. It is true I am getting (no have been) very tired of the old Aeon ideas concerning the feminine half of the world which I encounter at every turn. They are so deeply entrenched because of the fact that the last aeon was paternal and it may take a few hundred years to get over them. Meanwhile I shall strike a blow or two for liberty.
It does seem to be an observed fact that a woman now and then turns some aspiring Aspirant away from the true Path. Why does this happen? Who tells us the root of the matter? Why? Why?
Dion Fortune in her book The Mystical Qabalah gave me a clue here. Correct me if there is a better source which can refute what she says. She says that the true occult tradition is that man is positive on the physical plane, feminine, or negative on the next plane—that of the astral, or emotional; positive on the next—the intellectual; and negative again on the spiritual. Conversely, a woman reverses this; she is negative in the physical; positive on the astral or emotional; negative on the intellectual; and positive on the spiritual plane.
So then, it this be true she is already stronger than the man spiritually and so could sway him through this fact. The old fairy tales seem to point to this when the Prince goes seeking for the Princess. She is meant to represent the Soul or the spiritual part of life and once he has united with that principle he is happy ever after. The Book of the Law also points this way when Nuit says "To love me is better than all things." Nuit represents the feminine principle of nature and she promises all riches in her worship. Through various other passages the Aspirant is exhorted to "come ever unto me" and "if the ritual be not ever unto me: then expect the direful judgment of Ra Hoor Khuit!" and many other passages which indicate the above matter. We are not exhorted to worship Hadit—but only as referring to his relationship to Nuit. Hadit is the point within us that goes—that accomplishes the act of Union.
Now back to man and woman. Any woman might possibly be placed by the magician on the throne of Nuit—spiritually, that is, and worshiped as one manifestation of that Great Infinite. Or other aspects of Nuit might be worshiped "I am above you and in you", for example. If She is worshiped there is no danger. Where then does the danger lie? Not I woman—for she could be the representative of Nuit. If the magician is powerful enough he could make her so. The answer then lies in the magician himself. Nuit says—"There is no bond that can unite the divided but love." We are divided from realization of her omnipresence by taking a mortal body.
If a man can still love his wife and put her on the Throne—as is done in the Mass—she represents to him no danger of stumbling on the Path. To do this he must have controlled sex—must have controlled the Astral—or the emotional life within himself and must put every action to the service of the highest of ideals—the love of Hadit. Can woman help it if he does not do all these things? If he stumbles because of his inability should she be vilified, avoided, enslaved, reduced to the lowest animal life as she has been in a past Aeon?
Women have enough of Nuit in themselves to rebel against the man who is weak. She will turn and devour him because he does not love her enough. He can't—if he has no control. She knows this intuitionally. Many a woman dreams of the strong man—the Knight on a charger—the King among men. She would give all she possessed her soul even, to be associated with such a man. But she is sometimes merciless if he is not spiritual. She is positive spiritually—and that causes her reactions to the weakling. A man must strengthen his spiritual and emotional side.
Kundry does not like her position. The Magician she serves is at least strong—even if a Black Magician. She waits for the real Strong Man—and she tests every comer. She hopes she will find one who can exert real control—who has the real strength to love. No weakling (she knows) can really love. And when Parsifal leaves his wandering—when he grows up into the Magician—she becomes allied with him and, as a representative of the most spiritual in life she becomes invaluable.
Again—as to marriage. "There is no bond that can unite the divided but love. All else is a curse." Now if the marriages we have discussed do not come up to this rigid standard they should be abolished and he or she involved is particularly weak to allow such a situation to go on. We are in the Aeon of Horus—the child—and no longer can we blame one sex or another exclusively for what happened. Both are responsible—but each within his or her function. This throws further light on the passage "Oh lover, if thou wilt, depart." The middle stage deals in particular with love and so all passages in The Book of the Law which talk of this subject ought to be referred to.
The very heart of the Lilith problem is that the Magician is bound to her through moral love. He finds is sweeter than anything else in the world. But he has failed to put Lilith on the throne of Nuit and so she remains Lilith and the very nature of mortal love has the fact involved in it that must die and fade out. It has a systole and diastole, also a death and rebirth and is subject to all the laws of duality that everything manifest on is subject to, and in the same way.
However, should this First Matter be transformed into the pure matter of the soul and its aspiration—in definite instructions as given by Nuit—the curse is lifted from mortal love. In actuality it is really a reflection of the love of the mortal for the Angel, or for the Divine, and the love of the Angel for the mortal which he has created.
What a sin then, that love should be put to such uses—as happens and is the temptation in marriage. One partner may seek to use or enslave the other. One of the two may hope to hold and keep something which by its very nature is not stable. One could may seek to own another. And yet love is the bridgeway to Nuit—she says so herself. But it can't be restricted nor retrained in any way. "The word of sin is restriction." Probably 90 percent of marriages are rifled with this sin.
There—it is very sketchily presented. If you have any pros and cons I would be glad to hear them. Some of my own confused thoughts on the subject are finally falling into place—only to be stirred up by the next event. Jean [Jean Sihvonen] will witness that I have been interested in the problem for a long time. You perhaps can guess from my history why it should be. But woman was not made to be a shadow of man, nor a slave, nor an Osiris woman—a helper. She does it, true—but it is not her only function. She is herself and too few men know or realize it. You are the only one so far that I have met who had an inkling of this simple fact.
My letter is too long and has taken too many days to finish. I shall close and send it to you.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
Phyllis
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