Beat the drums and don the paint! Weave the spell that I have taught thee! My word shall explode the world in its vocalization; as a mantra it is destructive to the dragon of death. – 718,3:27
Is there no end to the falling and climbing? This is the secret of Sisyphus, that angelic beast. That the climbing and falling is ever a joyous task, that this life and death is truly an unearned reward. – 77,3:16
The Book of the Law and its comment, the Book of Codes – Liber 718, provide much of the basis for this article. They are both contained in Liber 440, The Book of Perfection. The Book of the Law introduces the term “Ordeal x” and, as the letter X is represented by the Tarot major arcanum The Emperor, the corresponding initiation shares the name of the card. An emperor is just a king of group of kingdoms. Most of the symbolism found in the writings of Aiwass can only be understood in light of the qabalistical attributes of the Tarot. Most of the references you will find in this article are to the Book of Perfection (it is best to download the PDF and view it locally with Adobe Reader) and to Aleister Crowley’s qabalah, best documented in his popular book on Tarot The Book of Thoth.
It would be difficult to overestimate the value of Aleister Crowley’s own on the Book of the Law. Although it leaves many verses un-commented, it well portrays a pro-active approach to further study. This personal commentary of the Great Beast is not to be confused with Aiwass’s commentary, Liber 718.
religion
Verses 51 to 53 of the third chapter of the Book of the Law compare Abrahamic religions to Dharmic religions and find them both wanting. The metaphysics of Dharmic religions, their world view, is essentially accurate but the fatalistic approach sucks the life out of their otherwise useful practices, their flesh. The attitude that man can change his world and affect the outcome, which invigorates the practices of Abrahamic religions, is also essentially accurate. However, the fear of death and ignorance of nature support a world view (the eyes) in which humans must appease a supernatural god—in accord with the tenets of the sect in question—or face eternity as victims of torture, or at best, banishment from the presence of that god and the company of His loyal servants. With old-aeon religions, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The Book of the Law, and its comment, merge the mysticism of the East with the magic of the West in a synergy named Thelema. We learn to express the Word through cycles of initiation and ordeal. Thelemic metaphysics describes these cycles of awakening in some detail. Thelemic practices change our experience of the world and affect the outcomes of our lives. We awaken not to a set of predetermined beliefs but to our own awareness of the truth of things. Thelema is not religion. It is the science and technology of practical immortality. It is spirituality without bondage and love without shame.
scripture
In The Initiation of the King and the Ordeal X we shall explore the initiation cycle in general, and in particular the initiation which begins the ordeal named X. The ‘Ordeal x’ is the only ordeal named in Liber Al vel Legis, the Book of the Law. The Book of the Law forms the first part of the Book of Perfection. The second part of the Book of Perfection is a commentary or expansion on the first part. It is named the Book of Codes, Liber 718. The third part, the Book of Oz, Liber 77, is essentially the child of the first part of the Book of Perfection, just as its amanuensis was the spiritual child—the reincarnation—of the prophet of the Book of the Law. At heart, the subject matter of the Book of Perfection is a practical technique to contact the consciousness that has continuity from lifetime to lifetime, that transcends the death/birth threshold.
identity
Since the body and brain dissolve after death, the reasoning capacity and intellect do not survive the transition. The spiritual impetus, which does survive, motivates the new incarnation to connect with the levels of awareness inherited from previous lifetimes. After many incarnations of incremental progress, the inherited patterns of awareness have enough form and substance that they become available to waking consciousness. In that moment, the world we thought we knew may be contrasted by a world we always knew deep down inside. A choice appears. Will we ignore the eternal truth in favour of that which our senses show us? Or will we seek out that truth which is so real but so difficult to grasp?
Aleister Crowley wrote, in the Confessions on page 469, “Initiation consists in identifying the human self with the divine, and the man who does not strain constantly to this end is simply a brute made wretched and ashamed by the fact of self-consciousness.” In his comment on he wrote, “Our minds and bodies are veils of the Light within. The uninitiate is a ‘Dark Star’, and the Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent by ‘purifying’ them. This ‘purification’ is really ‘simplification’; it is not that the veil is dirty, but that the complexity of its folds make it opaque. The Great Work therefore consists in the solution of complexes.” The more we simplify the folds of personality the more we can identify, each with his or her own divine self.
holy guardian angel
The star is the Holy Guardian Angel. It is also known as the True Self, Higher Self or Eternal Self, and was described as a ‘tutelary deity’ by James Beck in his 1983 c.e. introduction to Liber 440, the Book of Perfection. Initiation is conferred by one’s own Holy Guardian Angel. Thelemic initiations challenge us to clarify and strengthen the links between our material selves and our spiritual selves.
ladder of initiation
One Star in Sight portrays a ladder of initiation. Its lowest echelon is the Neophyte, or ‘new growth’, a fool. Its highest is the Ipsissimus, at once God incarnate and the Great Fool. Each ascending step on the ladder indicates a greater sharing of consciousness between the incarnation and the star within, which is progressively unveiled by the initiations.
To the Neophyte, the Holy Guardian Angel is a belief. Communication between the two states of being cannot be distinguished from products of the imagination.
At the mid-point of the system of initiation, the Adeptus Minor’s task is to make overt and explicit contact with the Angel. Here, the Holy Guardian Angel is perceived as an objective entity whose reality is beyond question.
At the top of the ladder, the Ipsissimus is so completely identified with the Holy Guardian Angel that the incarnation can no longer distinguish Angel from material-world self.
Each of the ten initiations, represented by the sephiroth of the Tree of Life, begins a cycle of learning or change in consciousness. Each of the ten initiations has a corresponding ordeal which implements or completes the shift in awareness begun by the initiation. Some of the ten ordeals are experienced in groups, much like those groups mentioned in Aleister Crowley’s One Star In Sight.
