Axiomatic- Theological Edition
The Magus is the spider. He senses all that touches his web of gold, and he spins it unto the four corners of the earth. In his mouth is a sharp, two-edged sword, for his word is division. His word is a lie, for the truth is one, but except by passage of that sword, none shall come upon the truth. The spider is a creature with eight limbs, and so it is a master of yoga. The spider has eight eyes, to behold and record its progress in each practice. The spider has venom, which is cultivated by self-creation into the poison of Eld instructed by Liber LXV. The purpose of the spider’s venom is to dissolve the body of its prey so that it may feast, “even as acid eats into steel” to dissolve the soul of man, transmuting the essence of the adept into a substance that is at once the bread of nourishment and the wine of intoxication. The spider’s silk is woven from protein strands within its body, which is also the substance from which the magus spins his webs.
We analyse our successes and failures with magick by employing the method described to us by Crowley, which demands objective standards of judgement and scientific method. When we collect this data, what “substance” are we really looking at? Crowley defined magick as “creating change in accordance with Will.” For this reason, the study of magick is very much a study of causality: of cause and effect. In another place, Crowley calls it “the underlying principle in accordance with which all the operations of nature, and therefore of science, are performed.” This is the reason that magicians, if successful, are suited to be kings, whatever their clothing. Understanding this most fundamental principle allows all kinds of unnecessary difficulties, the kind of which have presently buggered the planetwide geopolitical situation, to be avoided.
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
-Rev 3:12
People use cliches like “you can use science to measure the height, depth, and chemical composition of a thing, but you can’t use science to measure the impact of a piece of art on the human soul” and other such nonsense. This allows them to hold to their myopic view that there’s no point using science to talk about spirituality, investments of identity, or our emotional responses. Although “there is a factor both infinite and unknown,” this does not mean that we should stop the search, or avoid using science to measure and evaluate spiritual experience. This indeterminate factor is a CHALLENGE to catalogue everything that we can, so that we might cross the border to the infinite in our aspiration as a species. Intellect alone cannot carry us across this boundary, but intellect is the vehicle that will carry us to the edge.
Throughout Motta’s commentaries on Crowley’s commentaries, he refers back to the reception of Liber AL in sexual terms, likening the communion as much to rape as anything else. One gets the impression that he considered Crowley as a kind of astral cocktease. In truth, Crowley would not perfect and detail that particular method of invocation until later, but the metaphor seems apt.
The most appropriate response to criticism of any kind is “where’s the challenge?” If the critic is offering an alternative that is less demanding, less defined, or less judgemental, their criticism is worthless. All of these critics are basically asking “What’s the point?” and “Why bother?” People who actively seek out challenges are people who have figured out the answer to these questions, and are ready to take the next step. At this point, the only useful critique is one that gives worry and trouble, and therefore the potential for joy and victory.
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
-Rev 21:7
In Liber 418, we are told that the adepts are the children of Cain. The curse that God laid upon Cain stated that he could not profit from working the earth. The adept, then, must look to hir own body and blood for nourishment. While learning to accomplish this task, it is not uncommon for life to appear barren, once one has dedicated oneself to the path. This is because, out of habit, the adept is trying to build hir wealth and resources by mundane means. We do not build our lives upon our environment or according to our circumstances. People doing this are reacting to reality. The adept seeks to create change using hirself as a model, and this is action upon reality.
The murder of Cain is cursed to have God’s vengeance visited upon him sevenfold. The Oedipus complex, for Cain’s children, therefore presents something of a difficulty. Then again, if one difficulty imparts to us great power, imagine the power that we could derive from seven times that curse!
"In shitting yes'day I did know
The sess I to my arse did owe:
The smell was such came from that slunk,
That I was with it all bestunk:
O had but then some brave Signor
Brought her to me I waited for,
In shitting!
I would have cleft her watergap,
And join'd it close to my flipflap,
Whilst she had with her fingers guarded
My foul nockandrow, all bemerded
In shitting."
-Francios Rabelais