The Cry of the 2nd Æthyr, Which is Called ARN

(2nd attempt)

 

 

It is not a question of being unable to get into the Æthyr, and trying to struggle through; but one is not anywhere near it.

     

A voice comes: When thy dust shall strew the earth whereon She walketh, then mayest thou bear the impress of Her foot. And thou thinkest to behold Her face!

     

The Stone is become of the most brilliant whiteness, and yet, in that whiteness, all the other colours are implicit. The colour of anything is but its dullness, its obstructiveness. So is it with these visions. All that they are is falsity. Every idea merely marks where the mind of the Seer was too stupid to receive the light, and therefore reflected it. Therefore, as the pure light is colourless, so is the pure soul black.

     

And this is the Mystery of the incest of CHAOS with his daughter.

     

There is nothing whatever visible.

     

But I asked of the Angel that is at my side if the ceremony hath been duly performed. And he says: Yes, the Æthyr is present. It is thou that canst not perceive it, even as I cannot perceive it, because it is so entirely beyond thy conception that there is nothing in thy mind on to which it can cast a symbol, even as the emptiness of space is not heated by the fire of the sun. And so pure is the light that it preventeth the formation of images, and therefore have men called it darkness. For with any lesser light, the mind responds, and makes for itself divers palaces. It is that which is written: "In my Father's house there are many mansions"; and if the house be destroyed, how much more the mansions that are therein! For this is the victory of BABALON over the Magician that ensorcelled her. For as the Mother she is 3 by 52, and as the harlot she is 6 by 26; but she is also 12 by 13, and that is the pure unity. Moreover she is 4 by 39, that is, victory over the power of the 4, and in 2 by 78 hath she destroyed the great Sorcerer. Thus is she the synthesis of 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, which being added are 10, therefore could she set her daughter upon her own throne, and defile her own bed with her virginity.

     

And I ask the Angel if there is any way by which I can make myself worthy to behold the Mysteries of this Æthyr.

     

And he saith: It is not in my knowledge. Yet do thou make once more in silence the Call of the Æthyr, and wait patiently upon the favour of the Angel, for He is a mighty Angel, and never yet have I heard the whisper of his wing.

 

This is the translation of the Call of the Æthyr.

     

O ye heavens which dwell in the first Aire, and are mighty in the parts of the earth, and execute therein the judgment of the highest, to you it is said: Behold the face of your God, the beginning of comfort, whose eyes are the brightness of the heavens which provided you for the government of the earth, and her unspeakable variety, furnishing you with a power of understanding, that ye might dispose all things according to the foresight of Him that sitteth on the Holy Throne, and rose up in the beginning, saying, The earth, let her be governed by her parts (this is the prostitution of BABALON to Pan), and let there be division in her (the formation of the Many from the One), that her glory may be always ecstasy and the irritation of orgasm. Her course let it round with the heavens (that is, let her way be always harmonious with heaven), and as an handmaid let her serve them (that is, the Virgin of Eternity climbing into the bed of CHAOS). One season let it confound another (that is, let there be unwearying variety of predicates), and let there be no creature upon or within her the same (that is, let there be an unwearying variety of subjects). All her members let them differ in their qualities, and let there be no one creature equal with another (for if there were any duplication or omission, there would be no perfection in the whole). The reasonable creatures of the earth and men, let them vex and weed out one another (this is, the destruction of reason by internecine conflicts in the course of redemption). And their dwelling places, let them forget their names. (This is, the arising of Nemo.) The work of man and his pomp, let them be defaced. (That is, in the Great Work man must lose his personality.) His building, let it be a cave for the Beast of the Field. ("His building" means the Vault of the Adepts, and the "Cave" is the Cave of the Mountain of Abiegnus, and the "Beast" is he upon whom BABALON rideth, and the "Field" is the supernal Eden.) Confound her understanding with darkness. (This sentence is explained by what has been said concerning Binah.) For why, it rejoiceth me concerning the Virgin and the Man. (Kelly did not understand this Call at all, and he would not believe this sentence was written so, for it seemed to contradict the rest of the Call, so he altered it.) One while let her be known and another while a stranger, (that is, the Mystery of the Holy One being at the same time identical with everything and apart[1] from it), because she is the bed of an harlot, and the dwelling of him that is fallen. (That is that Mystery which was revealed in the last Æthyr; the universe being, as it were, a garden wherein the Holy Ones may take their pleasure.) O ye heavens, arise; the lower heavens beneath you, let them serve you. (This is a command for the whole of things to join in universal rapture.) Govern those that govern; cast down such as fall; bring forth those that increase; and destroy the rotten. (This means that everything shall take its own pleasure in its own way.) No place let it remain in one number. ("No place" is the infinite Ain . . . "Let remain in one number"; that is, let it be concentrated in Kether.) Add and diminish until the stars be numbered. (It is a mystery of the logos being formulated by the Qabalah, because the stars, are all letters of the Holy Alphabet, as it was said in a former Æthyr.) Arise! Move! and Appear! before the covenant of his mouth which he hath shewn unto us in his Justice. ("The Covenant" is the letter aleph; "His mouth", pe; "His Justice", lamed; and these add up again to aleph, so that it is in the letter aleph, which is zero, thus symbolizing the circles of the Æthyrs, that he calleth them forth. But men thought that aleph was the initial ARR, cursing, when it was really the initial of AChD, unity, and AHBH, love. So that it was the most horrible and wicked blasphemy of the blackest of all the black brothers to begin Barashith with a beth, with the letter of the Magician. Yet, by this simple device, hath he created the whole illusion of sorrow.) Open the mysteries of your creation, and make us partakers of the undefiled knowledge. (The word here is "IADNAMAD" is not the ordinary word for knowledge. It is a word of eight letters, which is the secret name of God, summarized in the letter cheth; for which see the Æthyr which correspondeth to that letter, the twelfth Æthyr.)

     

Now from time to time I have looked into the Stone, but never is there any image therein, or any hint thereof; but now there are three arrows, arranged thus:

 

This is the letter aleph in the Alphabet of Arrows.

     

(I want to say that while I was doing the translation of the Call of the Æthyrs, the soles of my feet were burning, as if I were on red hot steel.)

     

And now the fire was spread all over me, and parches me, and tortures me. And my sweat is bitter like poison. And all my blood is acrid in my veins, like gleet. I seem to be all festering, rotting; and the worms eating me while I am yet alive.

     

A voice, neither in myself nor out of myself, is saying: Remember Prometheus; remember Ixion.

     

I am tearing at nothing. I will not heed. For even this dust must be consumed with fire.

     

And now, although there is no image, at last there is a sense of obstacle, as if one were at length drawing near to the frontier of the Æthyr.

     

But I am dying.

     

I can neither strive nor wait. There is agony in my ears, and in my throat, and mine eyes have been so long blind that I cannot remember that there ever was such a thing as sight.

     

And it cometh to me that I should go away, and await the coming of the veil of the Æthyr; not here. I think I will go to the Hot Springs.

     

So I put away the Stone upon my breast.

 

Biskra

10:15-11:52 a.m. 

 

 

1—The MS has "and yet absolutely apart."

 

 

[68]