ALEISTER CROWLEY - Ch III - Liber AL vel Legis - Verse Commentary

© Copyright Peter Crawford 2014
LIBER AL vel LEGIS
© Copyright Peter Crawford 2014
(sub figura CCXX as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI)

VERSE COMMENTARY - CHAPTER III

Thelema is not a dogma, but a process of exploration and human evolution.
It is essentially an ever-spreading meme, a meta-program of self-creation, which has been wrapped and disguised in the mystery and romance of ancient gods, using deeply magical poetic images that move us on many levels, from the erotic to the intellectual to the sacred, to draw us out of our shells and provide new mythic archetypes to expand our horizons.

The Third Chapter

1. Abrahadabra ! the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.

ABRAHADABRA is a key word of power totaling 418, the formula of the Age and of cosmic consciousness.
The seed-name of HAD appears in the center, and the twin ABRAs, appearing on each side like the wings of the solar orb, are likely derived from the gnostic deity Abraxas or Abrasax, whose essential nature is not unlike that of Hadit.
The reward of these practices is thus the transfiguration of the Self.
Reward (re-ward: to guard again?) joins the quintessential Words of Manifestation and Hiding in the first verses of each chapter. 

2.There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware ! Hold ! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit !

The phrase ‘division hither homeward‘ is rather odd; perhaps it implies the cleaving of an original unity as the creation of the universe, and its reversal by reuniting as the completion of the quest to return; perhaps to the necessary divisions of nature, society, and reality.
The word unknown may be that of Creation, or of the lost word of the master mason, or the holy unspeakable name of God, or more likely the truer name which has superseded that now obsolete formula.
Could ‘spelling’ really mean ‘to make spells’, and that Old Age techniques are defunct and must be rejuvenated ?
Crowley notes “this is characteristic of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, that He demands not words, but acts.” ‘all is not aught‘ may be a criticism of monotheism, or perhaps ‘One is not Zero’ ?
Had & Nu, AL & LA again ? ‘Beware !’ or ‘be aware’ is usually good advice.

3. Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them.

Declares the nature of Horus as a god of battle, ruthless in the pursuit of victory.
The Third Chapter is usually the hardest to accept for most people, as much of the tone is violent, raging, and even bloodthirsty.
We cannot excuse this as mere rhetoric.
This martial Warrior aspect of the reigning 'god-form' hardly seems an improvement on all of previous history, but merely a continuation.
How then can we view it ?
As a clear reflection of humanity itself in a mirror of the terrible events of our age ?
Or as the violence necessary to overthrow grotesquely tyrannical systems.
To fight the powers that be, must we become them.
History is a nightmare from which we are trying to awaken”.
We must acknowledge that an estimated 160 million people perished in the wars of the 20th century, and that more violence, disease and famine define countless lives today.
We stand as always between the moment of final disaster and the cusp of unknown Utopias, dancing on the razor edge of the Sword Bridge that crosses the Abyss.
The Justice of the Age of Maat must balance the inevitable War promised by the Age of Horus. It is Time for a Change. 
Progress has been made, but our civilizations still have a long way to go.
Here is the true war of the Magical Child: the merging of the Dual Ages, where the Warrior Hawk-God serves Liberty and Truth in the cause of Justice.
This is the tidal wave of our time, when we all finally learn to think for ourselves.

4.  Choose ye an island!
5.  Fortify it !
6.  Dung it about with enginery of war !

This speaks to the establishment of a place of power, to be physically impregnable and unassailable.
It is quite possible that this 'enginery' is something other than mere fire-power.
Crowley defines verses 4-8 as a new method of meditation: by choosing a chakra, concentrating upon it, preventing outside impressions from affecting it, thus forming a mechanism that will overcome and still the hordes of unsteady or invading thought-forms.

7.  I will give you a war-engine.
8.  With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you.

There have been several nominations for this device: in light of the history of the 20th century, the atomic bomb must certainly be considered, as must the ubiquitous flying saucer. In terms of Thelemic magick, the sexual drive is certainly an option, but some suggest the computer and the new structures of the Internet may be more likely.
If knowledge is power, then information is a weapon; and the Stele of Revealing strongly resembles a computer screen above, while the lines of hieroglyphics below look very like a keyboard.
As for the World Wide Web, ‘www’ as three 6’s (Vau, the Hierophant trump) would be 666!

9. Lurk! Withdraw ! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle of Conquest: thus shall my worship be about my secret house.

For formulae of battle, read Sun-Tzu’s Art of War.

10. Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple - and that temple is already aright disposed - & it shall be your Kiblah for ever. It shall not fade, but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close it in locked glass for a proof to the world.

The Stele of Revealing is the primary icon of the Thelemic Cultus; and should be placed upon the altar.
The prophecies regarding colour may refer to a deepening sense of meaning, or be a physical phenomenon of miraculous nature.
Locked in glass would be typical of the museum environment where it currently resides.
In Islam the Kiblah is the niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction towards the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba where prayers are directed; it strongly resembles the ‘false door’ found in ancient Egyptian tombs, which served as a gateway for spirits.
Crowley describes the temple of his original invocation as octagonal with mirrors on each wall, entrances at each quarter, an altar flanked by twin obelisks, with a lamp hanging over it.
The Golden Dawn and Freemasonry also employ two columns, often seen in the Atus of the Priestess and Hierophant.
The link between the Beast or Aiwaz and the Maatian concept of N'Aton begins with Ankh-f-n-Khonsu as the representative of humanity on the Stele of Revealing, where he is depicted along with the company of heaven (Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khu).
All three may be avatars of the world-spirit or zeitgeist, first at the in-betweeness-point of the Age of Isis/Age of Osiris juncture; then Therion sparks the contemporary Age of Osiris/Age of Horus changeover; and then we all manifest as the awakened N'Aton when Age of Horus/Age of Maat occurs.
These are the silences in-between the sequence of Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, and the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of my personal continuum, the link with the Nameless Aeons beyond...

11. This shall be your only proof. I forbid argument. Conquer ! That is enough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from the ill ordered house in the Victorious City. Thou shalt thyself convey it with worship, o prophet, though thou likest it not. Thou shalt have danger & trouble. Ra-Hoor-Khu is with thee. Worship me with fire & blood; worship me with swords & with spears. Let the woman be girt with a sword before me: let blood flow to my name. Trample down the Heathen; be upon them, O warrior, I will give you of their flesh to eat !

Unfortunately, it appears that Crowley was unable to loot the (ill-ordered then, and apparently still rather cluttered to this day) Cairo Museum in his lifetime (Al-Kahira is the victorious city), although one strongly suspects he must have tried bribery at some point.
No doubt he would have made efforts to acquire the original, but he had to settle for a copy, stating: “Abstruction'.
It was thought that this meant to combine abstraction and construction, i.e. the preparation of a replica, which was done.”
The true goal of Conquest is to master one’s Self.
Judging others is futile.
Fire & blood, swords & spears, still seem to be remarkably accurate depictions of current conditions in the Middle East. Swords represent Intellect and the Mind, while Spears unite the Wand and Sword as a symbol of the Magical Will.
Aspirants should understand that to Thelemites the verb 'to worship' means 'to identify with'.
It is 'love under will'.
The woman girt with a sword might be Maat as the atu Justice with sword & scales of balance; contrasted to Babalon, with her cup or grail.
flesh to eat !’ suggests the very primal ritual.
It was believed that one could absorb the courage of a slain foe by devouring his heart, for instance, and the theme appears in many cultures.
Weapons are among the earliest artefacts seen as inherently magical, holding the power of life & death, of battle and of sacrifice, and are still used in many arcane rites worldwide.
It should be noted that “HEATHEN=5+5+1+9+5+5+50=80, is one of the Holy Numbers.
The Heathen are all those who do not accept the Law of Thelema: Do what thou wilt.
It does not mean "people who are not of our religion".
Thelema is not a religion. 
It is a Method of Theurgy - or of Parapsychoanalysis.

12. Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child.

The widespread incidents of mysterious cattle mutilations are rather disquieting in this context; one hopes fundamentalist Crowleyites are not taking things too literally, and it really is cute little aliens in shiny UFOs with a taste for hamburgers. The reference to a child is even more disturbing, but see below. ‘after a child’, in honor of a child?

13. But not now.

A divine exhortation to joyous procrastination.
This verse can be written as a magical square:
B U T
N O T
N O W

14. Ye shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the Scarlet Concubine of his desire!
15. Ye shall be sad thereof.

Returning to the subject of the sacrificial child, Crowley sadly endured the deaths of two of his children (by Rose and by Leah).
This was far more common even in developed countries and very recent times than we tend to realize in our era of more advanced medicine.
The constant death toll of children in much of the world today makes a hideous mockery of progress and of any notion of compassion among nations.
Crowley was actually very fond of children in general.

16. Deem not too eagerly to catch the promises; fear not to undergo the curses. Ye, even ye, know not this meaning all.

Any preconceptions limit one’s possibilities; and the 'Book of the Law' clearly still has encoded mysteries to reveal. ‘know not this meaning all’ is obviously LA and AL again.

17. Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor anything. Money fear not, nor laughter of the folk folly, nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth or under the earth. Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am the strength, force, vigour, of your arms.


Fear kills, courage triumphs.
The phrase ‘in heaven or upon the earth or under the earth‘ echoes the ritual refrain of Liber Samekh s.f. LX (often called the Ritual of the Bornless One), and the traditional tripartite division of Indo-European cosmology into the upper or celestial realm of the gods, the human level of earthly nature, and the daemonic underworld of the dead.

18. Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them !

In the last analysis, victory is survival and defeat is death.
We in the western democracies like to assume that human progress is inevitable, but this simply ignores the fact that large portions of the globe are currently falling into warfare and famine, and that there are no sure bets in history: all empires do eventually fall.
Darwinian evolution implies natural and unnatural selection.
To pity another person implies a condescending attitude of superiority over them.
Also, there may also be an alchemical element to this, as descriptions of the fiery process of purifying and refining the 'Philosopher’s Stone' use metaphors of torture, death and incest to describe some phases of the Great Work.
The initiation experiences of shamans and mystics often recount visions of dismemberment, seething in cauldrons, and being reborn and reassembled with magical changes like bones of gold or flesh of crystal or new eyes or heart.
“There is a practical aspect to this whole question that had better be mentioned, and it consists of the Ordeal that might be called 'Invoking Mercy'.
Aspirants will occasionally try to blackmail Heru-ra-ha, or Aiwass, or 666, into 'saving them'. 
Such Aspirants will deliberately get themselves into dangerous situations, into desperate straits, hoping for a last minute 'rescues by "the Gods".
Such Aspirants usually die.
When they do not die, they go insane.
Let this be a warning. Heru-ra-ha shows no mercy.
What He has to say to anybody in a desperate situation is this: "Success is your proof; courage is your armour. There is no law beyond 'Do what thou wilt'."

19. That stele they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718.

In the old testament the phrase 'Abomination of Desolation' seems to refer to pagan idolatry, and the desecration and eventual destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, while it later also became part of the overwrought biblical symbolism of the 'Antichris't in 'End Times' fundamentalism based upon the Revelation of St. John.
Now it may seem that the Great Beast of the Apocalypse is ourselves.
After much research Crowley found the Greek word for Stele as CYHAH = 52; the exhibit catalog description in the Boulak museum is Stele 666, and 52+666 =718= STELE 666.
Half of 718 is 359, SHaiTaN or Satan. To be ‘desolate’ is to be utterly alone.

20. Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there again.

Very significant in the light of quantum physics, which now seems to have effectively kissed causality in any absolute sense goodbye.
This is a very sharp axe at the very roots of much of Western philosophy.

21. Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image which I will show thee, especial, not unlike the one thou knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this.

A possible reference to the god Set ?
The altar should usually face the rising sun in the east, although it is occasionally oriented otherwise for special purposes (Norse and Wiccan altars usually face north).
Every adept who is fully aligned to the 93 current of energy may find that the appropriate image of the Deity who best expresses the quest of their individual Self will indeed mysteriously find them.
Magick is applied synchronicity.

22. The other images group around me to support me: let all be worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me. I am the visible object of worship; the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x. What is this ? Thou shalt know.

These ‘other images’ are suggestive of the personal practice of a universal or pantheist or syncretistic Paganism, with all gods drawn into the orbit of the New Age.
Horus is the central focus, but the key of Thelema reconciles many belief systems.
Most mages tend to intuitively discover their own personal patron deities who act to guide and expedite their evolution.

There are to be no regular temples of Nuith and Hadit, for They are incommensurables, and absolutes.
Our religion therefore, for the People, is the Cult of the Sun, who is our particular star of the Body of Nuit, from whom, in the strictest scientific sense, come this earth, a chilled spark of Him, and all our Light and Life.
His vice-regent and representative in the animal kingdom is His cognate symbol the Phallus, representing Love and Liberty.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit, like all true 'Gods', is therefore a Solar-Phallic deity.
But we regard Him as He is in truth, eternal; the Solar-Phallic deities of the old Age, such as Osiris, "Christ", Hiram, Adonis, Hercules, &c., were supposed, through our ignorance of the Cosmos, to 'die' and ‘rise again'.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the 'Crowned and Conquering Child'.
This is also a reference to the 'Crowned' and Conquering 'Child' in ourselves, our own personal God.”
The ‘ordeal X’ has a rather ominous ring to it.
It is probably be a different challenge for every individual; we will not know what it may be until the moment it leaps at our throats with great grinning teeth.
The process of initiation is like that.
As a symbol of crossing ‘X’ may well refer to the 'Abyss', or the 'Throne of the Siege Perilous' in Arthurian myth.
And the Abyss must be crossed far more than once !
Religions, it should be noted, are simply 'dead magicks', and world events show clearly that monotheism has passed its time and begun to decay.

23. For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine: then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften & smooth down with rich fresh blood.

A very specific formula for the Cakes of Light, used as a sacrament in the Gnostic Mass and other rites.

24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a child, or dropping from the host of heaven: then of enemies; then of the priest or of the worshipers: last of some beast, no matter what.

Crowley suggests either menstrual blood (for much more on that consult the works of Kenneth Grant) or dragon’s blood (an herbal substance common in magical incenses, definitely not recommended for taste). We enter the realm of sex-magick: the Child is the union of Babalon and the Beast, of the sperm fertilizing the ovum, traditionally depicted as a serpent coiled around an egg, a symbol of the mysteries.

25. This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also another use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of beetles as it were and creeping things sacred unto me.
26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you.

Regarding the use of the cakes for burning, Crowley remarks “This incense was made; and the prediction most marvellously fulfilled.

27. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof.

Crowley remarks “These experiments, however, were not made.”

28. Also ye shall be strong in war.
29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my force. All before me.

This whole sequence would appear to be a formula for an altar full of swarming beetles, which may be sacrificed to destroy one’s enemies or eaten to increase the libido.
The god Khephra is represented by the scarab-beetle as a symbol of endless becoming, transformation and regeneration.
A profane slew a beetle before Ra-Hoor-Khuit, naming a person he considered his enemy; and soon after, the profane went mad. An Initiate slew a beetle before Ra-Hoor-Khuit, naming a person he considered his enemy; and soon after, this person fell before him. An Exempt Adept slew a beetle before Ra-Hoor-Khuit, naming the person he considered his worst enemy, that is, himself and soon after, he became a Master of the Temple.”

30. My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold !

A specific ritual instruction for the burning of incense and offerings.
Silver for Woman and Moon, Gold for Man and Sun.

31. There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon thee.

In Egypt and elsewhere the West is the Land of the Dead, the setting sun.

32. From gold forge steel!
33. Be ready to fly or to smite !

A very alchemical reference.
The path of Lamed or Balance sacred to Maat connects the Sun, gold, the flight of the hawk and Mars, iron or steel, battle, and this movement from the golden solar center (the Augoeides) to the warrior-sphere of action and Horus seems to be a key of the third chapter; from Hadit to Ra-Hoor, personal initiation to external commitment to change in the world.
The Falcon God soars as the Sun, smites as the Warrior.

34. But your holy place shall be untouched throughout the centuries: though with fire and sword it be burnt down & shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and shall stand until the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis shall arise and the double-wanded one assume my throne and place. Another prophet shall arise, and bring fresh fever from the skies; another woman shall awake the lust & worship of the Snake; another soul of God and beast shall mingle in the globed priest; another sacrifice shall stain the tomb; another king shall reign; and blessing no longer be poured To the Hawk-headed mystical Lord !

This is often seen as a prophecy of the future Age of Maat, the Double-Wanded One, and the Age of the Daughter to follow that of the Son.
Quotes from Crowley in his Comment summarize this event:
This prophecy, relating to centuries to come, does not concern the present writer at the moment. Yet he must expound it.
The Hierarchy of the Egyptians gives us this genealogy: Isis, Osiris, Horus.
Now the 'pagan' period is that of Isis; a pastoral, natural period of simple magic.
Next with Buddha, Christ, and others there came in the Equinox of Osiris; when sorrow and death ware the principal objects of man's thought, and his magical formula is that of sacrifice. 
Now, with Mohammed perhaps as its forerunner, comes in the Equinox of Horus, the young child who rises strong and conquering (with his twin Harpocrates) to avenge Osiris, and bring on the age of strength and splendour.
His formula is not yet fully understood.
Following him will arise the Equinox of Ma, the Goddess of Justice, it may be a hundred or ten thousand years from now; for the Computation of Time is not here as There.”
Hrumachis is the Dawning Sun; he therefore symbolizes any new course of events.
The "double-wanded one" is "Thmaist of dual form as Thmais and Thmait", from whom the Greeks derived their Themis, goddess of Justice.”

35. The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khut.

This may indicate that half of the word of Horus is concealed in Maat.
It might also show the dual nature of Horus, who in Egyptian myth had a younger (Hoor-pa-kraat, Horus the child, the babe in the lotus, son of Isis & Osiris) and an older form (Horus as god of kingship, linked to Ra, present in the original Ennead of the primal gods).
These are the passive, inward-turning, silent-meditation and active, outward-facing, word-speaking aspects of the god, the paths of mysticism and gnostic magick respectively.
They are our internal and external experiences.
Heru-ra-ha unites both and as HeRU-RA-HA equals 418, and may well be the ultimate name of the Lord of the Age.

36. Then said the prophet unto the God:
37. I adore thee in the song –

This song consists of the remaining verses of Crowley’s poetic translation of the text of the 'Stele of Revealing', which was used as part of the invocation that led to the transmission, and which began with the first verse back in c.I, v.14:

Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!)

and now continues:

I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
For me unveils the veiled sky,
The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
Thy presence, O Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

These are the names of the gods worshipped by the priest Ankh-af-na-khonsu, who dwelt in the city of Thebes and apparently served Mentu (the warrior-god Montu, who is armed with a spear) and revered Ra and Horus.

Unity uttermost showed !
I adore the might of Thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee: -
I, I adore thee !

The Egyptian transliteration of this potent mantra is allegedly:
“A ka dua, tuf ur biu, bia chefu, dudu ner af an nuteru !”

Appear on the throne of Ra !
Open the ways of the Khu !
Lighten the ways of the Ka !
The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me !
Aum ! let it fill me !

He invokes the solar power to awaken the various parts of his soul.
The Ka is the double, sometimes identified as the 'True Will', or the astral body.
The ancient Egyptians had several other components of the soul, including the Akh, the Shadow and the Ba.

38. So that thy light is in me; & its red flame is as a sword in my hand to push thy order. There is a secret door that I shall make to establish thy way in all the quarters, (these are the adorations, as thou hast written), as it is said:
The light is mine; its rays consume
Me: I have made a secret door
Into the House of Ra and Tum,
Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.
I am thy Theban, O Mentu,
The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu !

This solar energy is adored at the four quarters of the world (space) and four times daily (time), establishing the 93 current both in the adepts and in their surroundings.
These are the four names of the sun god used in the daily salutations at sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight in 'Liber Resh vel Helios'.
Ra or Re is the ‘Sun’ god, Tum or Atum is the ‘Complete One’, Khephra is the scarab-beetle and the principle of eternal transformation (‘the Being, the Extant’) and was originally ascribed to the dawn rather than midnight as Crowley has it.
Ahathoor is the golden goddess Hathor, the ‘House (or womb) of Horus’, the mother, sister, bride and daughter of the supreme deity.
She is the Sky in daytime, as Nuit is in the night.

By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!
Bid me within thine House to dwell,
O winged snake of light, Hadit!
Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

Bes is a grotesque dwarf-god, a musician and protector much invoked in ancient magick, and like another phallic god named Min he is sometimes linked to Pan.
Maut is a vulture-goddess, perhaps connected to Maat.
Of Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit we have already spoken.
(Bes-na-Maut and Ta-Nech are probably the parents of Ankh-f-n-Khonsu; it was common to identify yourself with them in formal inscriptions.)
This is all, of course, Crowley’s paraphrase of the Stele.
A modern translation of the original hieroglyphics on the front reads:

Hadit, the great god, lord of the sky.
Ra-Hoor-Khut, chief of the gods.
The deceased, prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, the one for whom the doors of the sky are opened in Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu.
Bread, water, cattle and fowl."

(These are the names of the gods on the upper section.
Bread, water, cattle and fowl’ is a common offering formula, referring to the table of offerings being made by the deceased, who will be sustained by them in the afterlife.
Such spells from the funerary 'Book of Coming Forth by Day' have been called passports to eternity.)

"The deceased, the prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O sublime one! I adore the greatness of your spirits, o formidable soul, who inspires terror of himself among the gods. Appearing on his great throne, he travels the path of the soul, of the spirit, and of the body, having received the light, being equipped, I have made my path towards the place in which Ra, Tum, Khephra, and Hathor are; I, the deceased priest of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, son of a person of the same rank, Bes-n-Maut, and of the priestess of Amoun-Ra, the mistress of the house Ta-Nech."

And on the often neglected reverse of the stele:

The deceased, the prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O my heart of my mother, O heart which I had while I was on earth, do not rise up against me in witness, do not oppose me as a judge, do not charge me in the presence of the great god, lord of the West, because I have joined the land to the great West when I was flourishing on earth!" The deceased, priest of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O, you who only has one arm, who shines in the moon, the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has left the multitudes and rejoined those who are in the light, he has opened the dwelling-place of the stars (the Duaut); now then, the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has gone forth by day in order to do everything that pleased him upon earth, among the living."

In Crowley’s hands this verse became:

Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother?
Who was master of Thebes from his birth:
O heart of me, heart of my mother!
O heart which I had upon earth!
Stand not thou up against me a witness!
Oppose me not, judge, in my quest!
Accuse me not now of unfitness?
Before the Great God,
the dread Lord of the West!?
For I fastened the one to the other?
With a spell for their mystical girth,
The earth and the wonderful West,
When I flourished, o earth, on thy breast!

The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu?
Saith with his voice of truth and calm:
O thou that hast a single arm!
O thou that glitterest in the moon!
I weave thee in the spinning charm;
I lure thee with the billowy tune.

The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu?
Hath parted from the darkling crowds,
Hath joined the dwellers of the light,
Opening Duaut, the star-abodes,
Their keys receiving.
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu?
Hath made his passage into night,
His pleasure on the earth to do?
Among the living.”

39. All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a reproduction of this ink and paper for ever - for it is in the word secret & not only in the English - and thy comment upon this the Book of the Law shall be printed beautifully in red ink and black upon beautiful paper made by hand; and to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine or to drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do this quickly !

This spreading of the Word continues.
The Equinox of the Gods is Crowley’s official account of these stellar events, and is supplemented by the autobiographical 'Temple of Solomon the King', his 'Confessions' and other writings, and touched upon by later biographies.

40. But the work of the comment ? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen.

Actually, Crowley laboured over his comments for many years and reveal both his intellect and devotion.

41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way.

Professional organization is very practical advice, not always followed.
A mage must be competent in the material as well as spiritual realms.
The Kaaba is the site of the black stone fallen from heaven, worshipped in Pagan times and preserved by Islam as the goal of pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca.
The Palladium was a similar meteoric stone sacred to Athena.

42. The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind ones. Refuse none, but thou shalt know & destroy the traitors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to protect my servant. Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk not overmuch! Them that seek to entrap thee, to overthrow thee, them attack without pity or quarter; & destroy them utterly. Swift as a trodden serpent turn and strike! Be thou yet deadlier than he ! Drag down their souls to awful torment: laugh at their fear: spit upon them !

The blind ordeals are those presented by life’s random events, rather than planned by any structured initiatory scheme.
There is more rather savage rhetoric, which we must assume serves a real purpose for the survival and dissemination of this message and its adherents.
Clearly the Hawk-God does not suffer fools gladly.

43. Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and tenderness visit her heart; if she leave my work to toy with old sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from men; as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered.

A dire prophecy concerning those who take a solemn oath to complete this work and then break it.
Unfortunately, fates not unlike this befell some of Crowley’s working partners, a very clear demonstration of the extreme volatility of these forces and practices.
Magical oaths are serious things, and tend to work out in very unexpected and occasionally explosive ways.

44. But let her raise herself with pride ! Let her follow me in my way ! Let her work the work of wickedness ! Let her kill her heart ! Let her be loud and adulterous ! Let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men !

These are some very specific formulas for the Scarlet Woman.

45. Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I breed from her a child mightier than all the kings of the earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit.

‘Joy’ and ‘force’ again suggest the move from consciousness to action.
There is also the notion of the magical child as the manifestation of occult workings or encoded sigils.
The Crowned & Conquering Child is Horus, and now we are all Horus.

46. I am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower before me, & are abased. I will bring you to victory & joy: I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any !

‘Warrior Lord of the Forties‘ is a clear prediction of WWII; ‘the Eighties cower‘ is a pretty accurate depiction of a spineless and venal decade.

47. This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it.

The Key which he discovered is the formula of AL/LA: AL or EL is an ancient Semitic name of God, while the reversal LA is naught or night; one is Had or All, the other Nu or Not.
This interplay of existence and emptiness runs throughout the text of the Book as a whole.
The ‘line drawn’ is an oddity of the original manuscript, which on page 16 of the third chapter is overlaid by a mysterious grid (1-10 vertically, A to H horizontally), where Crowley was clearly trying to figure it all out; there has been much effort expended in attempts to find codes in the letters which this line connects by the various experts.
‘this circle squared in its failure’ is a circle with an equilateral cross within, the Mark of the Beast ? 
Abrahadabra is discussed under c.III, v.1.
“In The Book of the Law (ch. 3, v. 47) “this circle squared in its failure is a key also.” By “in its failure” is implied, as Aiwaz knew, that the figures were not fully correct.
But in the concealed collocation of letters on that page is found the figure 3.141593, which is the correct value of p to six places of decimals.
It will be noted that this figure begins with 31 – the secret “Key of it all” – and ends with 93, the esoteric key of the whole book.“
Crowley says: “I note that the letters of the Book are the letters of the Book of Enoch; and are stars, or totems of stars.” 

48. Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on to the holier place.
49. I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of men.

The fourfold word may be ‘Do What Thou Wilt!’ 
The ‘blasphemy against all gods of men’ is that now we become gods, instead of worshipping them.
We are our own secrets.

50. Curse them ! Curse them ! Curse them !

Cursing, reviling, and rejecting past imposed beliefs and false idols may be a necessary stage of freeing yourself from them.
Changing old habits takes time and energy, but Magick is the formula of Change.
Much of what we think we are is just social programming; to become fully human we must finally think for ourselves.
No small task.
Freedom must be fought for.

51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross.

A blow against Christianity. The viewpoint and theology (as it has now decayed and devolved) of Jesus in incorrect.
It is not unfair to say that this particular movement has set back human progress by 2,000 years and been a disaster for the world.
As Nietzsche said, "Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity." Organized religion is a contradiction in terms, and seldom works out well.

52. I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.

Another blow against Islam.
Religions tend to deteriorate into nonsensical dogma and self-serving hierarchies over time, and Islam as a younger movement may still be closer to its “sell-by date”; Crowley did have some admiration for it.
There was a time when Islam was the light of civilization and culture, and preserved the precious books of Classical literature, mathematics and philosophy that the Christians were burning as rapidly as possible.
Now, sad to say, most Islamic countries seem to be rancid theocratic dictatorships; perhaps a doctrine of submission is incompatible with freedom.
Fundamentalisms are the desperate death-throes of religions.
The mystics, ecstatics and visionaries of most traditions are usually quite remarkable, hence often persecuted for heresy by their brethren.

53. With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol and Din.

Note that the first and most virulent pair of religions are referred to by their prophets, and their eyes (viewpoints, perspective) rather than their flesh (or people, adherents ?).

54. Bahlasti! Ompehda ! I spit on your crapulous creeds.

A curse formula. So much for organized religions  ! I much prefer joyously disorganized cults.
All Hail Eris ! Praise Discordia ! 

55. Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste women be utterly despised among you !
56. Also for beauty's sake and love's !

Medieval psychotherapy featured tying the insane to wheels and spinning them until their demons flew out.

57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but play; all fools despise !

....and equally the contempt for life of men.

Of women, Crowley says “She is Sakti, the Magical Door between the Way and the Manifested World.
The great Obstacle than is if that Door be locked up.

58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers !
59. As brothers fight ye !

Vigorous competition of ideas leads to progress. Crowley says:
There is perhaps a magical second-meaning in this verse, a reference to the Ritual of which we find hints in the legend of Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Set and Osiris, et cetera.
The "Elder Brother" within us, the Silent Self, must slay the younger brother, the conscious self, and he must be raised again incorruptible.
Note that there are also many myths of combat and slaying by brother or twin gods: Horus & Set, Baldur & Hod, Llew & Goronwy for examples.
These are often interpreted as the changing halves of the year, summer & winter, life & death.

60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.

This verse again asserts the sovereignty of the individual genius.
See also the monosyllabic manifesto Liber OZ s.f. LXXVII.

61. There is an end of the word of the God enthroned in Ra's seat, lightening the girders of the soul.

Horus as Heru-Ra-Ha is the god; he releases the inherent bonds (’girders’) of incarnation that limit the growth of the soul, the genetic and cultural structures of our being, the habits and compulsions.
The Throne of the falcon-god is the ever-moving horizon.
Compare this to ‘The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.’
0 = 2.

This means that any psychological or alchemical union of opposites… any pair of dualities, light & dark, male & female, subject & object, innocence & experience, idealism & cynicism, faith & doubt, wrong & right, whatever... when you combine, resolve, and understand them, both releases a burst of magical energy and take awareness up to the next level.
Paired concepts are often the way our minds work, how we each create our own universe; but taking that step beyond them, to where they complement and complete rather than conflict with each other, is a wider view.

62. To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of ordeal, which is bliss.

‘To me !’ is the refrain of Nuit.
‘tribulation of ordeal’ is the confrontation and integration of the Shadow, in the process of initiation and individuation, of growth and awakening, ‘which is bliss’.

63. The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he understandeth it not.

Again, coded references regarding Fool/fools and Nuit/not. 

64. Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as silver.

Verses 64-67 appear to be an alchemical process of evolving and transforming the human into a perfected form. First is the lunar sphere, linked to witchcraft and the goddess Hekate, the astral plane and the generative organs.
One must traditionally strengthen the aura and the subtle Body of Light.

65. Through the second, gold.

 “It is fatally false to form an astral image of our Guardian Angel, instead of to perceive that He is equally manifested in all things. See LXV, iii, 25-39.”

66. Through the third, stones of precious water.

The Stone of the Philosophers, and the cosmic ocean of Nuit.
Crossing the Abyss, the waters of Nun or None.
The throat, the Word of Silence.
Again, it is notable that Crowley seems to have been the mage who in modern times really pioneered Crossing the Abyss.
Is it possible to journey to other worlds or new dimensions ?
Can we transcend time?

67. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.

The soul of Hadit.
Crowley seems to regard ‘stones of precious water’ as the ‘ultimate sparks of the intimate fire’.

68. Yet to all it shall seem beautiful. Its enemies who say not so, are mere liars.
69. There is success.

Accepting this may be the point of becoming a Thelemite.
Despite the paradoxes, challenges and oddities, something in this book truly speaks to the soul.
Thelema is not a dogma, but a process of exploration and human evolution.
It is essentially an ever-spreading meme, a meta-program of self-creation, which has been wrapped and disguised in the mystery and romance of ancient gods, using deeply magical poetic images that move us on many levels, from the erotic to the intellectual to the sacred, to draw us out of our shells and provide new mythic archetypes to expand our horizons.
It initiates the process of awakening within us, as it opens the visions and omens, the dreams and desires that live latent at our cores.
The beauty of these words and images enthralls us, and then liberates us.
The darkness and blood and violence and darkness that accompany them is no less a part of our human existence, shocking contrasts and shadowed ambiguity, meaning and emptiness. 
The infinite ever-changing beauties of Nuit, the shining beacon of Hadit, inspire us and nurture the seeds of the universal Child who grows into an absolutely unique individual, a perfect Star. 
There has never been anyone like you before, and in all of eternity there never will be again. Dare to be great, strive to be strong, live as everything that you can possibly become, no matter how wild and strange…
In many religious traditions the initiate takes a new Name to bring about change, and in magical careers many of us find more than a few.
The creation of new identities, serial reincarnation in the living flesh, multiple facets of change and being, are our birthright and art.
We can always discover new gods and new meaning in ourselves.
"By names and images are all powers awakened and reawakened."

70. I am the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength; my nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.

Heru-Ra-Ha combines the aspects of both Harpocrates and Horus.
The ‘night-blue sky’ of Nuit is a shade that you will instinctively know when you see it.
It may also imply the colours beyond the visible spectrum that humans can perceive.
The nemyss is a form of head covering worn by the Egyptian gods, often combined with the diadem or crown of the Royal Uraeus Serpent.

71. Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your time is nigh at hand.

In Egyptian cosmology the Two Pillars of Heaven are Mount Bakhau in the east and Mount Manu in the west, and the feet and hands of Nut the sky goddess rest upon them.

72. I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the Force of Coph Nia -- but my left hand is empty, for I have crushed an Universe; & nought remains.

The Double Wand of Power might represent the dual functions of Creation and Destruction. 
The Egyptian gods generally carried the Uas scepter, which had the head of the Set-beast on top and a fork at the lower end, derived from forked sticks used by snake-catchers, an interesting correlation to the Serpent Power.
The Golden Dawn’s Lotus Wand was used the same way, but it included the spectrum of colours in-between the black and white ends, the concept being that you would hold the wand by the coloured segment that corresponded to the sphere you were invoking.
As for the formula of Coph Nia, it is interesting to note that this is the last of the interpolations provided by Rose and the only one in her own hand; her contributions to Liber AL cannot be overlooked.
Crowley also ruminates further:
"The Double Wand of Power" is a curious variant of the common "Wand of Double Power"; the general meaning is "I control alike the Forces of Active and Passive".
The Egyptian Gods are usually represented as bearing an Ankh, or sandal-strap, in the left hand, the wand being in the right.
This ankh signifies the power to go, characteristic of a god.
But apparently Ra Hoor Khuit had an Universe in his left hand, and crushed it so that naught remains.
I think this "Universe" is that of monistic metaphysics; in one hand is the "Double Wand", in the other "naught".
This seems to refer to the 'None and Two' ontology outlined in previous notes.”
The well-known symbol of the Ankh or ‘Life’ has many meanings in addition to sandal-strap, which refers to the power of Going.
It is also related to a very similar amulet called the Knot of Isis (knots and binding have a long history in magical methods), is an image of the hand-mirror sacred to Hathor or Venus (which were sometimes in pairs, gold for sun and silver for moon), and has also been interpreted as a bouquet of flowers, a sweet-scented offering to the gods.

73. Paste the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom: then behold !

Rather a mysterious instruction. 

74. There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the sun of midnight is ever the son.

The sun of midnight is the dark or invisible phase, the sun on the opposite side of the earth, essentially the nightly journey of the solar barque in its circuit through the underworld of Amenta, when Osiris dies and is born anew as Ra each dawn.
In the more biological form of the earliest mythos the sun god is swallowed by the sky goddess at dusk and passes through her body to be reborn with each sunrise.
Crowley associates the scarab-beetle form of Khephra with midnight, but originally he represented daybreak, transformation and endless becoming.

75. The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.

This is the final Word that completes Liber AL and also the Work of the previous prophets who uttered aeonic Words… until the next Age of Maat, when we find Ipsos, ‘By that same Mouth’. Nothing is Forever.

The Book of the Law is Written
and Concealed.
Aum. Ha.

That is to say that it is both manifested (Horus) and contains hidden meanings for each individual (invisible, as Harpocrates). 

A final Crowley quote, to give him the last word:

"The Love of Liber Legis is always bold, virile, even orgiastic.
There is delicacy, but it is the delicacy of strength.
Mighty and terrible and glorious as it is, however, it is but the pennon upon the sacred lance of Will, the damascened inscription upon the swords of the Knight-monks of Thelema."


- Aleister Crowley

The God wisely refrains from clear expression, so that the event, as it occurs, may justify His word.
This progressive illumination of that word has served to keep it alive as no single revelation could have done.
Every time that I have dulled to Liber Legis something has happened to rekindle it in my heart.”
- Aleister Crowley


© Copyright Peter Crawford 2014



ALEISTER CROWLEY - Ch II - Liber AL vel Legis - Verse Commentary

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

VERSE COMMENTARY - CHAPTER II

There are many reasons why Aleister Crowley remains relevant culturally and magically.
From his writings, to his work, Crowley remains a figure that continues to intrigue the masses and influence occultists around the globe.

The Second Chapter

1. Nu ! the hiding of Hadit.

The opposite or completion of c.I, v.1: concealment rather than manifestation.
The divine spark of life and consciousness is hidden in the physical world as a mystery sub-atomic and internal, subjective rather than objective.
Suggestive of the Egyptian High Ã†on Amoun, the 'Invisible' or 'Hidden One'.
Invisibility is an attribute of Hoor-par-kraat, the newborn Horus, who was hidden among the papyrus rushes in the swamplands of the Nile by his mother Isis when he was a child.
This landscape intermediate between earth and water is similar to the First Hill or primeval mound that emerges from the waters of space at the beginning of time at the Creation.
The Babe in the Egg is hidden in Darkness, the womb of the Goddess.
Crowley defines Hadit as “the Impersonal Identity within the Individuality”, and also says: 
Every Individual manifests the Whole; and the Whole conceals every Individual.
The Soul interprets the Universe; and the Universe veils the Soul.
Nature understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her units; and the Consciousness loses its sense of separateness by dissolution in Her.”

2. Come ! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and Khabs is the name of my House.

Come !’ implies a sacred gathering, the result of the marriage of Had and Nu.
The Khabs is the Star, first discussed under c.I, vs.8-9.
The House is the meaning of Beth/2, which is ascribed to the Atu of the Magus (Magician or Juggler) in the tarot; the physical human body is the dwelling-place of consciousness and the true temple of spiritual practice (and many forms of ancient temples are based upon the proportions of the human body). Hadit is the sub-atomic point, hence unextended but of infinite potential. It therefore seems that the House of Nuit must be the Khu, or Manifestation.

3.  In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.
4.  Yet she shall be known & I never.

Nu-Isis is the expanding universe spread out before us, constantly revealing Herself; yet Hadit, the nucleus of the invisible human soul, remains mysterious and unknowable. ‘Nowhere’ is where She is found, and ‘no-when’.
The sphere is considered the perfect form, and a word with many meanings.
Crowley says: “Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her, She being an object of knowledge; but He is not knowable, for He is merely that part of Her which She formulates in order that She may be known.”

5. Behold! the rituals of the old time are black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the good ones be purged by the prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright.

The old gods are over and done with, and their more useful practices must be realigned with the 93 current.
Knowledge in this sense is Gnosis: direct experience of wisdom, power and ecstasy. 
 nd indeed, reviewing world events, many religious forms seem to have passed their useful span and are in serious moral decay.

6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.

Hadit is frequently identified with flame, and in many cosmologies (such as that of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who stated that “Fire is All”) this fire is the original creative element of the primordial Big Bang: the energy before matter, the light in the darkness.
To be fully and consciously alive implies the awareness of impending death.
Life and death, like all polarities, each contain their own opposites.
Hadit is seen in Egyptian terms as the falcon-winged sun.
Yet another image for him in sacred art might be the human skull, implying both life and death: when individuality is stripped away with the flesh, this becomes an almost universal symbol of eternity, emptiness and ultimate reality.
The skull of a horned beast is also holy.

7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

The Magician is the Creator, and the Exorcist is the Destroyer.
Hadit is the omnipresent centre of manifestation.
See the 30th Aethyr of The Vision & The Voice, which opens with the words:
I AM in a vast crystal cube in the form of the Great God Harpocrates.
This cube is surrounded by a sphere.”
In much of ceremonial magick, the cube might be the altar in the centre of the circle, or might be seen as an unfolding geometry in space.
Nuit is the Sphere, Hadit the Cube, whose six sides imply the six directions of space and the sixth and central sphere of the Sun.
Squaring the Circle is also a philosophical paradox.
To me !’ is the call of Nuit; Hadit is motion, she is matter; he the spirit, she the matrix of forms emitted from the formless.
TIME is the reversal of EMIT; both equal 64 or 8x8, the number of squares on the chessboard.

8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.

Heru-pa-kraath is a child form of Horus, here identified with Hadit.
The proper attitude of Thelema is never just one of passively worshipping the gods, but of actually becoming or manifesting them through communion or overshadowing or trance or possession; magick is defined as the making of willed changes in our state of consciousness. 
By identifying ourselves with cosmic or cultural archetypes we take on their powers and aspects, the disguise becoming a reality.
We contain every thing within our selves.
We are all the Magical Child.
Therefore we do not worship Hadit, we are Hadit, and worship only Nuit.
As Crowley says: “It is bad Magick to admit that one is other than One's inmost self.

9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.

As ever, ecstasy is the theme of AL; and apparently the immortality of the soul may again be implied.
There are a number of references to transitory shadows, which occur when material object occlude the Light.

10. O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing.
11. I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger.
12. Because of me in Thee which thou knewest not.
13. for why ? Because thou wast the knower, and me.

Crowley often spoke of his early resistance to this book, which considering his background may not be surprising; while the declaration that he was the prophet of a new epoch may have been quite flattering, his belief structures at the time were not precisely aligned to those expressed herein, and the peculiar leaps of grammar and concepts apparently drove him crazy. 
Hadit is the Knower, and Knowledge is the meaning of the word Gnosis.
Gnostics were a very diverse variety of both late Pagan and early Judeo-Christian sects who employed extremely magical visionary techniques, and sought direct experience of God rather than faith.

14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and eat them up with blindness!

Revealing and re-veiling, manifesting and concealing, are frequent themes in AL; they reflect the hide & seek love-play of Had & Nu.
One form of the ordeals is termed ‘the blind ones”, and there are other references to the word ‘blind’. In Egyptian temples the shrine and image of the patron god were hidden away in a secret chamber at the very heart of the structure.
Light as blindness is also an interesting paradox.

15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.
16. I am the Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.

“Hadit here clearly says he is Not, or BEING-NOT (a combination of Nuit and Hadit as the Perfect and Perfect, which, be it remembered are One, nay None.)
We have considered His particular aspect as AL rather than LA, but the previous verse indicates a blind.
He is the shrine veiled by Not, for AL is the manifestation of LA, and LA is the hiding of AL (See first verse of Chapters I and II).

17. Hear me, ye people of sighing !
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.
18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.

Sorrow and despair are self-defeating in both organized theologies and personal life.
All we can really be sure of is our present lifetime, and to waste it by overindulgence in useless misery or sordid escapism is pathetic.
The poor and the sad are the un-awakened, those oblivious to the joys and opportunities of life. These dead might be seen as merely biologically alive drones or zombies (or slaves?).
Crowley is quite harsh with the general public: “Those who sorrow are not real people at all, not 'stars' - for the time being. The fact of their being "poor and sad" proves them to be 'shadows', who 'pass and are done'. The "lords of the earth" are those who are doing their Will.”
The lords of the earth are those who have control over their surroundings, over the material site of their 'existence'. That is, the true men. The others are asleep, and being asleep are merely animals walking on two legs - the "unfeathered bipeds" of Diogenes.”

19. Is a God to live in a dog ? No ! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.

This reversal of god/dog may conceal, in the highest, an astronomical secret.
In the esoteric tradition our Sun is the heart of the solar system, but the dog-star Sirius or Sothis is the third eye; it may indeed be the ‘One Star In Sight’ or ‘Silver Star’ of the magical order of the Astrum Argentum.
This star is associated with Isis and signaled the annual flooding of the Nile inundation that made life and agriculture possible in ancient Egypt.
Alternatively, the dog/god polarity may imply a choice between being and behaving as either a mindless animal or a fully aware human.

20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.

‘Beauty and strength‘ are are linked elsewhere in AL; while ‘leaping laughter and delicious languor’ celebrate both active and passive pleasure.
It is quite refreshing to see laughter and languor celebrated as positive values.
Force and fire’ are repeated as aspects of Horus, and Crowley relates them to the titles of priest, prince and prophet through the initial letters PR: Pe/80 is linked to Mars or force - See also c.III, vs. 32-33.

21. We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit ! Ra-Hoor-Khuit ! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake.

Clearly some rather harsh words; Nietzsche might be proud.
Perhaps they reflect the debris of the huge amounts of self-righteousness and hypocrisy that have resulted from two thousand years of Christianity; and anyone who has been involved in the works of social welfare has probably noticed that many people are in fact their own worst enemies.
Perhaps this is merely some recognition of the simple and harsh reality of the Darwinian bottom line: some people are just not functional, and only drain the resources of society.
Nature can, of sheer necessity, be extremely cruel in her judgements.
We must look very closely at the clear statement that ‘Compassion is the vice of kings’.
In fact, it may be that only kings can truly know compassion, as the common herd tends towards an excess of blood-thirst and is all too easily led into hatred and warfare.
People who lack empathy are frequently dangerous.
We must seek a clear definition of our values.
Who is strong ?
The man who delights in the suffering of other humans, or who needlessly hurts an animal
Or, on the other hand, the man who condemns scientists who experiment on animals to learn how to cure diseases, and is always eager to intervene between his neighbour and his private grief ? - Who is strong ?
The man who allows the existence and prosperity of others who think differently from him, who refuse to serve him or his ideals, or the man who interprets every demonstration of autonomy as an affront of his ego ? - Who is weaker ?
Who is stronger ? The man who daily scatters fish among the hungry, or the man who teaches the hungry how to fish for themselves ?
We do not know the nature of Time or the origin of all things, but it seems much more likely to mean Something than merely Nothing, and our memories may indeed be immortal.
We are told that energy changes forms but is never lost, and who really knows the true nature of Eternity and it’s recording ?
Some magical cultures believe that immortality is not for everyone: the Egyptians were famous for the elaborate rituals, offerings and embalming believed to guarantee eternal bliss, while other traditions maintain that the soul must be individually awakened and evolved if it is not to simply dissipate into the elements along with the body.
Perhaps this is among the secret teachings of AL: that practices such as enlightenment, cohesion of and communion with the soul, astral travel and union with one’s highest aspects may “strengthen the flames of our true being” to insure survival beyond.

22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof ! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.

The identification of Hadit as a snake has many dimensions; in Egyptian myth the gods themselves begin and end in the form of serpents in the dark primordial ocean of the Nun, and the great magical power (Heka) may be portrayed either as or with a serpent. Any reading of AL must clearly link the multiple references to serpents with the Kundalini snake which lies coiled at the base of the spinal column and ascends when awakened.
Serpents have an ancient history as symbols of mystery, wisdom, and phallic vitality; of chthonic energies rising from the underworld and celestial forces writhing like lightning through the heavens.
How many cultures still remember their ancient dragons ?
Serpents hatch from eggs like birds, yet live invisibly underground.
They shed their skin, like the chrysalis of the butterfly a symbol of metamorphosis.
They produce venom, which is sometimes used as a healing medicine; the protective cobra-goddess or uraeus-serpent crowns many of the Egyptian gods, the circular Oroboros who devours his own tail is a symbol of both wholeness and the emptiness of Zero, the norse Midgard-serpent encircles the world… they are the rainbow spectrum, they entwine in spiralling coils upon the hermetic wand or caduceus.
Despite bourgeois respectability, it is quite clear that psychedelic entheogens are sacraments and that many other intoxicants are very close to the core of the Dionysian practices of Thelemic magick.

23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.

In an infinite and unbounded Universe every single point is the Center.
To stand alone in the cosmos, taking full responsibility for one’s own experiences, is a powerful meditation fully in harmony with the spirit of AL.
To accept the notion that you are the opening centre of the universe is thrilling.
That you are the sole and universal consciousness is liberating.
This can be seen as a statement that there is no other God than the Self.
God, in my sensorium, should clearly be understood as internal as much as external, since a transcendent rather than immanent deity seems to be one of the major diseases of our civilization.
It is essential to understand that if there is a God, it is not and never can be in any way separate from the entire cosmos that it incarnates; and really, even if there is not a God it still may be wonderful and useful to assume that there is and that we are It.
God is one of those big open-ended conceptions that serve to expand our horizons.
Alone’ may be ‘All One’ ? ‘No God’ is Nuit ?

24. Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King ! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath.

Asceticism is not the way of Thelema, nor is non-action considered anything but cowardice.
To live, and yet not to participate in life, is pointless.
To avoid ecstasy on any imposed dogmatic principle is even worse.
The true path is one of action.
The pleasures of Paradise are withheld from the poor in spirit and all ascetics, because they would not understand them.”
The ‘low men’ are simply those who are unaware.
Strengthening of self-awareness is not to be achieved through isolation and meditation, as in the Hindu and Buddhist systems, but through exposure and expression of the self.”

25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!

In many ways the masses are foolish, and their leaders are even worse, while what passes for human culture is very often so utterly vile, oppressive, destructive and dysfunctional that a moral stance of complete opposition to what is accepted as normal is the only form of decency left.
In other ways the very existence of humanity is still miraculous… ‘the people’ may also be seen as the masses of random thoughts, inchoate desires, dreams and sensory impressions that rattle around inside our primate brains.

26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.

This must again refer to the great magical power or Kundalini, which does have its dangers and both positive and negative aspects; or to an even wider view of the chosen interaction of consciousness with all otherness.
Venom and nectar are two different forms of internal energy and external experience.
The distinction made seems to be between mystical energy devoted to Nuit in the heavens and magical force directed to the fulfilment of desire upon the earth, without any moral difference between them.
Spirit and Matter are equally educational.
In general the magical path, like life itself, can be both volatile and perilous; one is dealing with forces, entities, complexes, and aspects of ‘reality’ and ‘self’ that cut very close to the core of being. Choose your desires wisely.

27. There is a great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.

The use of the word ‘runes’ is very significant in light of c.II, v.55 and its comments on the english alphabet.
The Nordic system of poetic runic word-sorcery (Galdra) is extremely potent, and Odin is very clearly another name for Hadit (both having winged and serpent forms), and Freya has much in common with Babalon.
Ragnarok is very likely the Age of Horus. 
This one of the great secrets of this chapter, and in recent decades Asatru and Runelore have seen a considerable revival.
Freya, in her chariot drawn by cats, has been associated in at least one academic study with middle-eastern love & war goddesses such as Qatesh and Astarte who, like Babalon, stand upon or ride lions; and an alternate name for the atu Lust or Strength is the Enchantress, while Freya is also a lady of magick (Seidhr).
We could certainly include Odin’s wife with Freya in many ways, and some of their aspects frequently overlap (depending on the location, Freya being more widespread in Scandinavia and Frigg better-known among the Germans) but Queen Frigg seems likely to be more closely related to Fate (Wyrd) and to the sky, so I ascribe her to Nuit.
Thor and Hoor have warrior aspects in common, and two of Odin's other sons who survive the fires of Ragnarok (the new aeon) are Vali the Avenger and Vidar the Silent: Ra-hoor-khuit and Hoor-par-kraat ?
There are Norse and Celtic elements in The Vision & the Voice and the other Holy Books, and Thelema unites all.

28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin !
29. May Because be accursed for ever !

Warns of addiction to the notion of causality, and the limitations of merely rational thought when faced with the random vicissitudes of life, synchronicity, and a quantum universe.

30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: ‘Thou hast no right but to do thy will’.
Somewhere, Nietzsche is finally happy now.

32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.

Modern physics and semantics have discovered the near-impossibility of perfectly observing and explaining the ultimate nature of reality.
Reason and knowledge have limitations (we can never predict all unknown factors), and paradoxes are useful shocks for breaking down the barriers of the mind.
Most official codes of human morality are made up by those with serious control issues and a sick need to dominate other people’s lives with false laws.
What exactly is a “victimless crime” ?
Crowley, on the other hand, states: “All this talk about 'suffering humanity' is principally drivel based on the error of transferring one's own psychology to one's neighbour.”

33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog !

See my remarks on c.II, vs.28-29 above; but let us not forget Sirius the Dog Star. DOG, GOD, also equal 77.

34. But ye, o my people, rise up & awake !

Awakening and ascent are both frequent themes.
It is safe to say that the goals of magick and mysticism include awakening or enlightenment.

35. Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty !

Joy and beauty are attributes of the solar sphere, where the Knowledge & Conversation of the True Will  takes place, and Cosmic Consciousness and the True Will are found.

36. There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.

These are workings of fire, water, earth, air and spirit for the elements, while the times referred to form the sacred calendar of the Thelemic year, especially the solstices and equinoxes. Rituals are acts of Will that focus, encode and transmit energy, while Feasts are nourishing and revitalizing celebrations of Love.

37. A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride !

Commemorates the wedding of Crowley and his first wife Rose on August 12th, 1903.

38. A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law.

Celebrated at Noon on April 8th, 9th, and 10th with readings of the Three Chapters of Liber AL vel Legis: The Book of the Law.
The full ritual Crowley used in preparation may be found in his book 'The Equinox of the Gods'. 

39. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet - secret, O Prophet !

Tahuti is the ibis-headed Egyptian god of magick and writing better known as Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus.
Crowley is quite secretive about this feast, which might be celebrated on January 18th.
The magickal childe is an ongoing theme in Crowley’s later work and life, in a sense a code for the results of magical and alchemical operations.

40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods.

“The Supreme Ritual is the Invocation of Horus which brought about the Opening of the New Age.
The date is March 20.
The 'Equinox of the Gods' is the term used to describe the 'Beginning of a New Age', or a New Magical Formula.
It should be celebrated at every Equinox, in the manner known to Neophytes of the A.'.A.’.”
The A.’.A.’. is the Astrum Argentum or Silver Star, while the O.’.T.’.O.’. is the Order of Oriental Templars.

41. A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death !

“The feasts of fire and water indicate rejoicings to be made at the puberty of boys and girls respectively.”
For life celebrate birthdays, for death the departures of your heroes and saints. 

42. A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture !
43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight !

Customs devoted to union with Had & Nu respectively: joyously awakening in the morning, entering sleep and dream in full awareness at night.

44. Aye ! feast ! rejoice ! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.
45. There is death for the dogs.

Again the question of unending bliss as the afterlife - ecstasy, or oblivion ?
Perhaps implies that genuine adepts, with subtle bodies strengthened by practices such as astral travel, and genuine self-awareness, can hold themselves together long enough to reincarnate, while lesser souls just eventually disintegrate.
Note that many of the Pagan systems predicate multiple souls and astral or aetheric bodies of various kinds, and that the Star-Seed may survive while some other aspects of the personality fade away over time.
More unkind words about dogs as well, perhaps implying the vast and obvious superiority of cats ?

46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?
47. Where I am these are not.
48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler.

Hadit is essentially immortal ecstasy, whose flame is beyond sorrow and hence rejects all fear, doubt, sentimentality and weakness as essentially useless and soul-destroying.
To fear Death is in some sense to reject the very nature and pattern of joyous and anarchic and Dionysian Life.

49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg.)

Hadit is declared to be beyond such sordid limitations by virtue of divine nature.
A slave is one who surrenders to coercion or fate or dogma, rather than creating their own destiny.
The 4 refers to the occult and material elements of earth, water, air and fire or solid, liquid, gas and energy, while the fifth is spirit.
The invisible babe is Hoor-par-kraat, the egg a symbol of Akasha or spirit or the womb.

50. Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my spangles are purple & green.
51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight.

These color-codes may reveal methods of evoking Hadit (as also described in Liber Had) and to me also recall serpent symbolism.
Blue and gold are the colours of Nu and Had.
Red is the base colour of the visible spectrum, and purple or violet the highest, with green found at the centre.
Purple beyond purple’ again suggests spirit, and the ultraviolet that extends beyond the rainbow that arises out of infra-red.
Infrared may be seen as Horus and ultraviolet as Maat, the two outermost extremes of visible light.

52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me. Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are my service; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.

Another blow against the black dharmas of the monotheist era, which have caused so much social and psychological damage.
As for modesty, recent anthropology draws a distinction between the simple Pagan ‘shame’ and the more insidious Christian ‘guilt’ cultures in terms of their severity and internal conflicts.
Freedom is celebrated, also honesty; and vice again hailed as a path to enlightenment as well as pleasure.

53. Fear not, o prophet, when these words are said, thou shalt not be sorry. Thou art emphatically my chosen; and blessed are the eyes that thou shalt look upon with gladness. But I will hide thee in a mask of sorrow: they that see thee shall fear thou art fallen: but I lift thee up.

Few people accept radical new prophets when they first appear.
Crowley in many ways did have a rather hard life, faced with a fundamentalist family, the early deaths of his own children, the difficulties of sustaining romantic relationships, years of poverty after a life of affluence, serious health problems, the struggle to make his voice heard.
However, he always did persevere, and his work is now better known and much more influential than at any period during his lifetime.

54. Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall reveal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of because: They are not of me. The stops as thou wilt; the letters ? change them not in style or value !

Indeed, his posthumous stature seems to easily exceed that of his shrillest critics.
His remarkable life and spirit has undeniably inspired many of the basic techniques and much of the ethos of modern magick.
There is also a strong element of courage in his personality.
In response to an unspoken question, he is kindly given full latitude as to the punctuation of AL, but again warned to leave the actual words untouched.

55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto.

An ongoing project for many, and a variety of new english qabalas have been tentatively proposed. While new symbols, order & numerical values are prophesied, I still maintain the belief that the Runes are key to the English alphabet; it is, after all, arguably Anglo-Saxon, hence respectably British. Again, there has been a considerable Norse revival of Asatru in recent years, a parallel to the more Celtic influences in Wicca, which is fast becoming a major world religion.

56. Begone ! ye mockers; even though ye laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: then when ye are sad know that I have forsaken you.
57. He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.

Aiwaz here asserts the authority, integrity, and inevitable victory of Liber AL over the carping of its detractors; and also affirms the essential stability of human nature: by serious effort we may change ourselves, but the hard truth is that it is almost impossible to impose change on others. 

58. Yea ! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

The individual’s rights and true nature are paramount; by doing one’s true will one becomes a king.
Destiny or fate appears to take a hand: we are what we are. Clearly, ‘the slaves shall serve‘ may mean that many are prisoners of their own natures: slaves to each other, or to obsessions, addictions, ideologies or institutions.
People must ultimately liberate themselves.
"Fear created Gods; Audacity created Kings.”
And as for these kings in disguise, we all play many roles and assume many personas in life; one should not be bound by any one illusion in particular.
The poor in spirit, however, really are with us always.
The reference to ‘masked ones’ is very significant in light of the later system of Magick involving Masks and Dances.
 Nietzsche once said, "All profound spirits love a mask."

59. Beware therefore ! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed !
Say you so ? Fool ! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him.
60. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master !

A world without competition or victory, without genius, art, science, struggle or the possibility of excellence, is eternally condemned to mediocrity.
Unconditional love is just cheap emotion, unearned forgiveness is moral vanity, and the free ride of “vicarious atonement” is one of the very worst things in Christianity’s so-called theology.

61. There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light undesired, most desirable.
62. I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body.

The inner and outer manifestations of Hadit and Nuit.

63. Thou art exhaust in the voluptuous fullness of the inspiration; the expiration is sweeter than death, more rapid and laughterful than a caress of Hell's own worm.

We return again to the exultations of ecstasy: each breath drawn an orgasm, each exhale a dissolution: life and death.
The mention of Hell should probably not be seen as referring to any particular culture or religious tradition, but to the depths of the subconscious.
Note that there is no devil in any Christian sense to be found in Thelemic eschatology; he always was an unfortunate concept.

64. Oh ! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all over thee: hail ! hail: prophet of Nu ! prophet of Had ! prophet of Ra-Hoor-Khu ! Now rejoice ! now come in our splendour & rapture ! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings !

The result of the practice of Thelemic invocation is often a high pitch of ecstasy, which may be translated into magical power or earthed in Art.

65. I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.

The symbolism of the word ‘Master’ recalls the whole guru/disciple relationship central to many religious traditions; also, of course, the Knowledge & Conversation of the True Will experience essential to Crowleyan magick.
A common name for the True Will is Adonai or ‘lord’, which shares this verse’s numeration of 65, and 6+5=11.
This is also the 131st verse of the Book as a whole, the number of the Great God PAN.

66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working ! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah ! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age-long love. Come ! lift up thine heart & rejoice ! We are one; we are none.

The Great Work is doing your own will, expressing your own art, your being.
This is the only truly meaningful game in life.
In terms of AL as a sexual Gnosis, death must be seen as orgasm - one of the peak experiences of magick, as well as in sexuality.
Much of this chapter appears devoted to redefining the techniques of arcane empowerment and questions of personal morality, while the first chapter established the outlines of Thelemic cosmology and ritual structure.

67. Hold ! Hold ! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses!
68. Harder ! Hold up thyself ! Lift thine head ! breathe not so deep - die !

Crowley notes a memory that the word may actually have been ‘Harden’, not ‘Harder’; both may be seen as phallic.
In some forms of sex-magick prolonged intercourse with delayed orgasm is often practiced. The ‘head’ may again be a phallic reference. Here is the entire essence of sexual magick:
Although a jealously guarded secret for many centuries, allegedly because the powers unleashed are too dangerous to be revealed to all, the technique is simple enough to be revealed in a single sentence: Orgasm should be avoided for as long as possible, by always slowing down or altering position when it seems imminent, and each partner should visualize/idealize the other as some specially meaningful deity – e.g., in Thelemic magick the male usually identifies the female with Nuit, the sky goddess, and the female usually identifies the male with Pan.”

69. Ah ! Ah ! What do I feel ? Is the word exhausted ?

As the mouth speaks the word, so the phallus emits semen.
Crowley happily defined his cult as ‘solar-phallic’.

70. There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong ! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture ! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein !

Again, sage advice on the usage of sensuality and intoxication as keys to success.
One may fortify oneself by many means.
We therefore employ various magical means to increase the vigour of our bodies and the energy of our minds, to fortify and to sublime them.
The result is that we of Thelema are capable of enormously more achievement than others, even in terrestrial matters, from sexual matters to creative Art. Even if we had only this one earth-life to consider, we exceed our fellows many-fold.”

71. But exceed! exceed !

William Blake said, “The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom.”

72. Strive ever to more ! and if thou art truly mine - and doubt it not, and if thou art ever joyous ! - death is the crown of all.
73. Ah ! Ah ! Death ! Death ! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, O man, unto thee.
74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings.

More on the question of death; and we must not forget the close connection of Eros and Thanatos, sex and death.
What this rather obviously seems to say is that a long life of struggling toward self-perfection is far better than surrender to entropy.
Life is extended foreplay and Death becomes the Ultimate Orgasm.

75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:
76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chosen one, to be me; to follow the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tell them this glad word.

The most complex of the conundrums of Liber AL; a cipher many have laboured to interpret, including Crowley, and I doubt if he would have expended the effort if Liber AL was actually a fraud.
Could Y & X refer to our human chromosomes ?
The runic Futhark or alphabet consists of 24 letters.
89 reverses the “eight and ninety rules of art” just mentioned.
RPSTOVAL equals 696, the same number as the Maatian Mahamantra IPSOS, if both are spelled using Shin/300 for ‘S’ and Vau/6 for the ‘O’ in IPSOS.

77. O be thou proud and mighty among men !

Proud is the Sun and mighty is Mars, again associated with the Age of Horus.
This implies transition from Inspiration to Action.

78. Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men or among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy stature shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and the name of thy house 418.

418 is the numeration of the word ABRAHADABRA.
Liber 418 is 'The Vision & The Voice', Crowley’s account of his marathon Enochian working in the desert.
It chronicles his initiation and the transformation of the world by the Word of Thelema, and includes many insights upon Liber AL.

79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star !

The theme of hiding or concealment which opened the second chapter is repeated, as manifestation was in the first and last verses of the first chapter.
Liber Had sub figura DLV contains the magical and meditation practices for achieving Hadit. 
To the beginner I would offer this programme.
1. Furnish your mind as completely as possible with the knowledge of how to inspect and to control it.
2. Train your body to obey your mind, and not to distract its attention.
3. Control your mind to devote itself wholly to discover your true Will.
4. Explore the course of that Will till you reach its source, your Silent Self.
5. Unite the conscious will with the true Will, and the conscious Ego with the Silent Self. You must be utterly ruthless in discarding any atom of consciousness which is hostile or neutral.
6. Let this work freely from within, but heed not your environment, lest you make difference between one thing and another. Whatever it be, it is to be made one with you by Love.

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