|
Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Monday, 1 August 1921
I was late in sleeping, being busy in thinking out the principles of my comment on CCXX "lest there be folly". Arctaeon [Charles Stansfeld Jones] has certainly gone completely off the rails of common sense by applying his "Key of Reversal" indiscriminately, and by failing to distinguish the Truths of the Infinite Calculus from those of Relation. Thus, he is liable to reject the plain meeting of a phrase such as "Refuse not thy wife" and interpret it thus: 'Refuse—garbage; also, fuse again—'not'—LA; 'thy'—tua, TAU; 'wife'—RUBINA, UR—BINA. Meaning—"by the wisdom of Ra-hoor-khuit" alias Jones!—"Burn once more the garbage of the Negative, Tau (Thou Achad [Charles Stansfeld Jones] Unus!) You're Binah! Similarly, The BEAST; "Be Aleph, Stansfeld!" Further, as there is "no difference", between Jones and Jesus, all Christendom has always worshipped Jones.
The principles of exegesis must then be clearly laid down; as here follows.
1. It is "my scribe Amkh-f-na-khonsu" (CCXX.I.36) who "shall comment" on "this book" "by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit"; that is, Aleister Crowley shall write the comment from the point of view of the manifested positive Lord of the Aeon, in plain terms of the finite and not in those of the infinite.
2. "Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen" (CCXX.III.40). My own inspiration, not any alien advice or intellectual consideration, is to be the energizing force of this work.
3. Where the Text is simple straightforward English, I shall not seek, or allow, any interpretation at variance with it. I may admit a Qabalistic or cryptographic secondary meaning when such confirms, amplifies, deepens, intensifies, or clarifies the obvious common sense significance; but only if it be part of the general plan of the "latent light" and self-proven by abundant witness. For example: "To me!" (I.65) is to be taken primarily in its obvious sense as the Call of Nuith to us Her stars. The transliteration "To MH" may be admitted as the "signature" of Nuith, identifying Her as the speaker because these Greek Words mean "The Not", which is Her Name. The Gematria of To MH may be admitted as further confirmation, because their number 418 is elsewhere manifested as that of the Aeon. But To MH is not to be taken as negating the previous verses, or 418 as indicating the formula of approach to Her, although in point of fact it is so, being the Rubrick of the Great Work. I refuse to consider mere appropriateness as conferring title to authority, and to read my own personal theories into the Book. I insist that all interpretation shall be incontestably authentic, neither less, more, or other than was meant in the Mind of Aiwas.
4. I lay claim to be the sole authority competent to decide disputed points with regard to the Book of the Law, seeing that its Author, Aiwas, is none other than mine own Holy Guardian Angel, to Whose Knowledge and Conversation I have attained, so that I have exclusive access to Him. I have duly referred every difficulty to Him directly, and received His answer; my award is absolute without appeal.
5. The verse, III, 47, "one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the key of it all" has been fulfilled by "one" Achad discovering the number 31 as the key in question. But the work of Achad is not said to extend beyond this single exploit; Achad is nowhere indicated as appointed or even authorized to relieve The Beast of His task of the Comment. Achad has proved himself, and proved the Book, by his one achievement; and this shall suffice.
6. Wherever
(1) the words of the Text are obscure in themselves; where
(2) The expression is strained; where
(3) the syntax,
(4) grammar,
(5) spelling or
(6) the use of capital letters present peculiarities; where
(7) non-English words occur; where the style suggests
(8) Paronomasia,
(9) ambiguity or
(10) obliquity; or where
(11) a problem is explicitly declared or exists; in all such cases I shall seek for a meaning hidden, by means of Qabalistic correspondences, cryptography, or literary subtleties. I shall admit no solution which is not at once simple, striking, consonant with the general plan of the Book, and not only adequate but necessary.
Examples
(1) I.4. Here the obvious sense of the text is nonsense; it therefore needs intimate analysis.
(2) II.17. line 4. The natural order of the words is distorted by placing "not" before "know me"; it is proper to ask what object is attained by this peculiarity of phrasing.
(3) I.13. The text as it stands is unintelligible; it calls attention to itself; a meaning must be found which will not only justify the apparent error, but prove the necessity of employing that and no other expression.
(4) II.76. "to be me" for "to be I". The usual grammar invites enquiry; it suggests the "me" is a concealed name, perhaps MH, "Not", Nuith, since to be Nuith is the satisfaction of the formula of the speaker, Hadith.
(5) III.1. The omission of the "i" in 'Khuit' is indicative that some concealed doctrine is based upon the variant.
(6) II.27. The spelling of "Because" with a capital B suggests that it may be a proper name, and possibly that its Greek or Hebrew equivalent may identify the idea Qabalistically with some enemy of our Hierarchy; also that such word may demand a capital value for its initial.
(7) III.11. "Abstruction" suggests that an idea otherwise inexpressible is conveyed in this manner. Paraphrase is here inadmissible as a sufficient interpretation; there must be a correspondence in the actual structure of the word with its etymologically-deduced meaning.
(8) III.74. The words "sun" and "son" are evidently chosen for the identity of their sound-value; the inelegance of the phrase therefore insists on some such adequate justification as the existence of a hidden treasure of meaning.
(9) III.73. The ambiguity of the instruction warrants the supposition that the words must somehow contain a cryptographic formula for so arranging the sheets of the MS than an Arcanum becomes manifest.
(10) I.26. The apparent evasion of a direct reply in "Thou knowest!" suggests that the words conceal a precise answer more convincing than their openly expressed equivalent could be.
(11) II.15. The Test explicitly invites Qabalistic analysis.
7. The Comment must be consistent with itself at all points; it must exhibit the Book of the Law as of absolute authority on all possible questions possible to Mankind, as offering the perfect solution to all problems philosophical and practical without exception.
8. The Comment must prove beyond possibility of error that the Book of the Law
(1) bears witness in itself to the authorship of Aiwas, and Intelligence independent of incarnation; and
(2) is warranted worthy of its claim to credence by the evidence of external events. For example, the first proposition is proved by cryptography connected with 31, 83, 418, 666, π, etc; and the second by the concurrence of circumstance with various statements in the text such that the categories of time and causality forbid all explanations which exclude its own postulates, while the law of probabilities makes coincidence inconceivable as an evasion of the issue.
9. The Comment must be expressed in terms intelligible to the minds of men of average education, and independent of abstruse technicalities.
10. The Comment must be pertinent to the problems of our own times, and present the principalities of the Law in a manner susceptible of present practical application. It must satisfy all types of intelligence, neither revolting to rational, scientific, mathematical, and philosophical thinkers, nor repugnant to religious and romantic temperaments.
11. The Comment must appeal on behalf of the Law to the authority of Experience. It must make Success the proof of the Truth of the Book of the Law at every point of contact with Reality.
The Word of Aiwaz must put forth a perfect presentation of the Universe as Necessary, Intelligible, Self-subsistent, as Integral, Absolute, and Immanent. It must satisfy all intuitions, explain all enigmas, and compose all conflicts. It must reveal Reality, reconcile Reason with Relativity, and resolving not only all antimonies in the Absolute, but all antipathies in the appreciation of Aptness, assure the acquiescence of every faculty of mankind in the perfection of its plenary propriety.
Releasing us from every restriction upon Right, the Word of Aiwaz must extend its empire by enlisting the allegiance of every man and every woman that puts its truth to the test. On these principles, to the pitch of my power, will I The Beast 666 who received the Book of the Law from the Mouth of mine Angel Aiwaz, make my comment thereon; being armed with the word: "But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen."
|