The Forgotten Poets - Sister Agnes

SISTER AGNES – THE DIVINE
by Barry Van-Asten

St Peter, St Paul – Bugger you all!

INTROIT

It was the year of our Lord two-thousand-and-seven and Sister Agnes had been asked to attend the home of the Laird of Glencairne, in West London, on matters of ‘spiritual guidance’ (1). Sister Agnes was a little apprehensive as the Laird was a known diabolist and rumours persisted that he was also the ‘demon baby-eater of Kensal Green’ but there was no substantial proof to confirm this.
The good sister made many visits to the Laird’ and found his ‘beliefs’ distasteful and attempted to ‘turn him on to Christ’ – but the battle was long and arduous and the Laird budged not from his demonic practices, until finally, the sister agreed to the Laird’s terms: he would conform to the Christian way on one condition, and that was that the sister should send to him two young novice nuns to show him the errors of his ways and ‘put him right with God!’ At first the sister complied but after much thought and deliberation she sensed wickedness in the Laird’s terms and would not be tricked by the devil! She went back on her word and the novices were not forthcoming!
“You promised me young flesh! You are a liar!” the Laird would say, for he had lusted after the young novices or ‘strumpets of Christ’ as he referred to them, like a vampire, tired of devouring mutton suddenly hungers for spring lamb! And so, in the heat of spiritual battle, the Laird damned the sister and he forced his wicked lust upon her ‘unspoilt body’ at his home (2). The sister, shaken to her very core, was not only the victim of the Laird’s dreadful and sinister lusts but she found she had been awakened to the pains and pleasures of Sado-Masochism!
In the coming weeks the sister would make excuses to return to the Laird and he would implore upon her for the ‘young flesh’, to no avail.
She learnt more about the unnatural ways of sexual intercourse in those short weeks than a lifetime spent at the Vatican would teach her. In fact, the Laird invented some of his foulest deeds upon her God-curst body, for she was but a feather in his filthy bed of debauchery.
After many days of doubt and prolonged attacks upon the church from the Laird, the sister ceased her visits and the Laird could be heard, late into the night, wailing “you promised me young flesh, sister!”

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
PRAYERS OF PENITENCE

Sister Agnes was born Rosemary Mason in 1959, North Leigh in Oxfordshire. She was an only child and when her mother Violet died she went to live with her Aunt Joan, Uncle Selwyn and their daughter Cousin Dora. Rosemary became very close to her Cousin Dora and would later say that she was her first love.

TO DORA

Behold! the blossom of thy bruised lips, no less,
Find my own as sweet and soft… I bless
The perfection of thy lustfulness
As we embrace and as we undress –
Time ceases in the hour of our gentleness
As my lips to thy beating bosom, I press…
And by moments and measures, it seemed, I guess
I was soon nestling softly in thy darkness;
And here didst I tend the garden, kiss by kiss –
Yes, there is certain loveliness
That soothes the heart in all of this.
But to love thee, is beyond such bliss;
To drink the wine of thy nakedness
Like some Witch Queen or pale Princess,
Swan-soft and elegant in lunar caress!

Forgive and heal us.

ABSOLUTION

Rosemary’s love for Dora remained unrequited and at the age of sixteen, Rosemary entered the Eyes and Ears of God Convent as a novitiate and later took her vows – Rosemary was now Sister Agnes.

Amen.
LOURDES GLORIA

At the convent, Sister Agnes devoted her life to Christ and in her spare moments she wrote poetry. She became particularly fond of a young novice named Maria and so a relationship quickly formed. During this period of her life her poems begin to develop and speak less about the outside world of nature and more about the inner world of love, for her poems radiate with the joys of lesbian love –

Christ hath given thee to me,
Sweet child, in thine infancy!

[‘To a young novice’]

Gloria, Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria, Gloria in excelsis Deo.
THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

When Maria took her permanent vows she was given a position at a convent school and Sister Agnes was very unhappy to be parted from her. In fact, Agnes referred to this separation as a ‘death’ in her poems and in her ‘Mass for Maria’ her sadness is overwhelming:

Those young eyes hath yet to see
The horror of this hunger for thee!

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
HOLY GOSPEL

That the relationship between Sister Agnes and Maria was a physical one there is no doubt. In her poem ‘Night Tears’, Agnes describes the closeness that the two sisters shared:

A single tear rolls down your face
And down your perfect pale breast, my dear;
To be that tear, to find that place
That’s snug with warmth – that keeps me near!

Glory to you, O Lord. Alleluia!
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

During her time away from Maria, Agnes published her first poetry collection called ‘Of Foolish Ways I Hath Known’, under the pseudonym Eva Hoare. The introductory poem ‘Girl in a red dress’ seems to be her acceptance of her cruel desires –

Girl in a red dress – I know your name:
I want to fasten my lips to your feverish flame!
I want to dare in the silence of your shadow, that’s cast
Upon the road of my future and the road of my past!

I dream the long lashes and imagine your thighs
Wrapt in red silk… the ecstatic joys
Are mine, oh beautiful girl, I adore –
Kiss me for ever and hurt me no more!

Girl in a red dress – I secretly pray
For your sweet lips pressed to my lips all day!
To be bathed in your sweat and baptised by flame –
Girl in a red dress – I know your name!

Hear our prayer. Amen.

THE LITURGY OF THE SACREMENT

In her next collection ‘A Silent Love’ the voice of doubt and despair speak louder and her longing and loneliness whisper through her verse –

VERONIQUE

Soft was your hand in my hand,
As your lips parted gentle and red;
And our kisses were ecstasy, fanned
Beneath the bright moon of the dead;
Our embraces girdled a band, Veronique,
Beneath the bright moon of the dead!

And here the veil of long ago
Was drawn in the silvern surprise,
By fingers that flickered white as snow
Like the moonlight caught in your eyes...
And suddenly the song did grow, Veronique,
Like the moonlight caught in your eyes.

Silver-skirted, in the glade...
Your sweet lips towards September, flow
As your long pale legs dance in the shade
Where the light of moon fears to go -
You are ecstasy perfectly made, Veronique,
Where the light of moon fears to go!

All night in the woods, you danced -
I suffered your beauty, and sighed;
I was struck by your form and entranced,
O sweet maiden where moonlight died;
And I stood for all time as I glanced, Veronique,
O sweet maiden where moonlight died.

HYMN

Sister Agnes grew tired of her duties at the convent and entered the Convent of the Holy Heart of God and the Sacred Light of Christ, where she taught literature. But before long she found herself falling hopelessly in love with a young girl of fourteen named Angela Maltby-Jones. It is a dark time for Agnes and her doubts grow, but eventually Angela returns Agnes’ love and a physical relationship begins.

Amen.
EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

In her poem ‘Artemis’, Agnes describes her first sensual moment with Angela – ‘You slip your hand into my wetness; / we sigh and moan beneath the moon. / I kiss your hair and eyes with kindness; / I felt your soul begin to swoon. / And tenderness sang deep and deeper, / deeper than this love, new-born. / I kept you in my arms, my sleeper; / sleep and I’ll keep you safe till morn. / And you awoke to our caressing; / I kissed your lips and sang your name. / I kissed your neck as you sat dressing - / nothing shall ever be the same!’

And so it wasn’t!

Hosanna in the highest.
AGNUS DEI

Agnes was delirious with happiness and she wrote a series of fourteen sonnets (fourteen for Angela’s fourteen summers upon the earth) entitled ‘Sensual Songs for a Young Girl’. The first lines to the sonnets are:

I. I give thee all of this…
II. There in the darkness of your heart…
III. I want the ways of our love to unfold…
IV. I pray at the altar of your veiled joy…
V. In the name of our Lord, I adore you…
VI. In death, our bodies shall be one…
VII. Your flesh, like a flower, folds over me…
VIII. Our tongues trace time’s desires…
IX. Angel heart – my soul sings to your touch…
X. The Lord has blessed our love, and gives…
XI. Come dear child, rest upon my heart…
XII. This is sacred and secret, like the seasons swell…
XIII. And now you are here with me, this night…
XIV. I watch you sleep and kiss your pillow…

Lamb of God,
You take away the sin of the world:
Have mercy on us.
AFTER COMMUNION

Agnes is besotted with Angela and her obsession grows as she believes that Christ himself has rewarded this love –

And in that hour, you understood
That our baptism was blessed by blood!

This of course is a reference to Angela’s menstruation which Agnes sees as a divine sign that Angela is hers alone and that this ‘wine’ can heal the sick and perform miracles when taken during Communion.
In her private diary, Agnes talks about those ‘semen obsessed men in the church’ but fails to note her own stifling love for Angela as being anything less than pure and natural. In fact, she is falling into the black pit of insanity and her vows are but a vacant memory –

How sweet was the taste, how warm was the flow
That I drank down and near lost breath –
I sank into delicious death!

[‘Temptress in tights’]

To him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen
THANKSGIVING HYMN

I am bound to you by more than this
Dark departure and a kiss!
My insides tingle to your hand

And the cruel dimensions we command
Pulse like ghost lips, bubble blowing:
My vagina weeps with over-flowing…
…………………………………………
There is no other love as this –
Sweet sister of the clitoris!

THE DISMISSAL

Twelve months later and the relationship had soured. Angela left with her parents for France and Agnes was distraught. She eventually left the convent and went to London where she entered a convent school for the blind – The Son of the Blessed Lord, our God and the Un-Seeing, in Kensington. After her short affair with the Laird of Glencairne no more is heard of Sister Agnes. Her final poem seems to be repentance for her ways –

Wet with kisses – I shall come
And strike the lesbian heart that’s numb;
To rip the womb of false desire
And Christ shall brand my heart with ‘Liar!’
Let this lust of sisterhood burn with fire
For I have made my sorrows known –
To love the passion that you have shown;
To love with lust the awaiting grave;
To love with prayer all that I have,
All that I am, all that I can be…
I have awoken from the hell of my misery,
And ask forgiveness of my Lord. Amen.

Thanks be to God!

1. Sunday 7th January 2007.
2. Tuesday 20th November 2007.

Books by Sister Agnes:

‘Of Foolish Ways I Hath Known’. (Eva Hoare). Pirouet Press. Oxford. 1979.
‘A Silent Love’. (Eva Hoare). Pirouet Press. Oxford. 1981.

Further Reading:

‘Convent Dust – Limericks for Lunatics’. Clancy Press. Oxford. 1983.
‘Clitoris Blossom’. Virago. 1985.
‘A Mass for Maria and Other Poems’. Ed Sylvia Strongbower. Pan Books. 1989.
‘Collected Lesbian Poems’. Savage Tongue. Cambridge. 1990.
‘My Life with Sister Agnes’. Angela Maltby-Jones. Samson Small Press. 2008.

The Forgotten Poets - Lucien Taylor 1908-1998

LUCIEN TAYLORAN INTRODUCTION
by Barry Van-Asten

Unwilling of time and change – Heaven knows!
Why something strange and stupid grows!

Love Lyrics.

It was in that great year of nineteen-eighty-nine that I first became acquainted with the celebrated scholar and antiquarian Lucien Taylor. Born in 1908 in the Welsh town of Caerleon, the son of the Reverend Mckenzie Taylor, Lucien was a delicate boy and from an early age he was ‘seized by a religious awe and wonderment’, and thus he was destined for a promising career in the Church. In adolescence, Lucien was deemed ‘sickly’ and ‘not prepared to propel himself into sport!’ Instead, Lucien, a solitary boy with an enquiring mind read voluminously on all subjects and became an enthusiast of archaeology and all things ‘Egyptian’, later becoming a member of the British Archaeological Society. He also showed a great interest and aptitude for chemistry. In fact, History and Science were the two loves of his life and he went up to Cambridge to take his degree in these subjects. It was at Cambridge that he became ‘gripped by a spiritual mania’ and he joined the Christian organisation known as the Illuminated Order of Man, reaching the rank of Minister Superior in 1934. He then spent a year preaching to the ‘unenlightened inhabitants of Birmingham’ which caused within him a crisis of faith which became a great spiritual hiatus in his life, whereby in the following year, the year of his mother Constance’s death, with much dissatisfaction and disillusion, he became an agnostic. But it was not until he chanced upon a copy of Gerald Gardner’s ‘High Magic’s Aid’ (1949) that his eyes were opened to the true course of his life’s path – witchcraft!

I curse the eyes of Christ
And Hail the fornicating God!

A keen investigator of the paranormal, he had on many occasions accompanied the great ‘ghost hunter’ Harry Price on his ‘ghost watches’ and remained a loyal friend until Price’s death in 1948. He also became acquainted with James Turner, the ‘farmer poet’ who lived at Borley cottage in Suffolk, and ‘shared many an afternoon smoking and talking of the poets’.
After several attempts at marriage Lucien gave up its pursuit, declaring it a ‘grave and malevolent mistake made manifest by a monstrous and terrible God on mere mortals!’
He enjoyed playing the cello in his local chamber orchestra; was an amateur water-colourist and chess player and he described himself as a ‘profound sceptic awaiting proof of alien advancement!’ He lived a simple life and was a connoisseur of fine cigars and a collector of rare books on Science, poetry, alchemy and fly-fishing. In fact it was through my own love of the latter that I encountered Lucien in the Highlands of Scotland and I found him a charming and knowledgeable personality.
Many of the early poems were written while he was living the life of a ‘charmed ascetic’ in Paddington, questioning his existence, his sexuality and his spiritual journey. They were dark and dreadful days and madness seemed never to be far away! But Lucien crossed an abyss in that room he liked to refer to as the ‘hermitage’ and it was here that he wrote his ‘Sonnets to Sebastian’ that ‘drips with gloom, for the vacant tomb of Sebastian.’ The verse tells of the downfall of Oscar Wilde through the eyes of Sebastian Melmoth, with his

Tempest triumphant ‘twixt his thighs
That oft’ in secret sadness lies!

There has been much controversy over Lucien’s latter years and many misunderstandings, for it is said that he developed an ‘abnormal affection for Lillah McDonald, the thirteen year old daughter of his housekeeper, Mabel. The scandal haunted him until his death in 1998 at the age of ninety. But the truth is that he found a soul to love and ‘age was of no consequence’ for ‘it matters not, for she had already lived through centuries…’

Tonight, the shake of sadness shall take your love away;
The darkness grows upon my rose that blossomed through the day.
I pierce your Christ-like passion with my spear of wood:
That your glorious wound shall comfort me in this hour of blood!

Long-legged Lilith

The High Priest and his Priestess were later joined in the traditional way within the craft, and he referred to her as his ‘golden-haired Aphrodite’ and she coursed through his blood much as she coursed through his poems, for he adored her:

Our dreams were given to us
In this suffering and renown;
And my dark heart bleeds tears
At the sweet love you have shown;
Wrapt in the blissful energy of your ways:
I was iron forged in the Ancient of Days!

To Lillah

And again


A SONNET TO LILLAH

I have poured all my life’s love upon the mountainside,
That the temple’s wind should fan my mind this way;
My journey has been dark with no light upon the tide;
My shadow shifting silently from the lone night to the day…
And you in your soft honoured gaze gave all and more than this:
The parted perfection and sweet aroma of your youth unfolds to me
Your sanctity, your beauty, your blossom-blown forgiven kiss –
I was blinded in a wilderness and now am blessed to see!
My child, I have sworn, not from your side to stray
Nor hunger for the kiss of Hell in any known abyss…
The elements have formed this world, and in this world I pray
That this love divine between our souls shall never go amiss:
I have sought you in the pain of life, and our spirits now are set
To course this cursed earth of ours with no heartache or regret!

We disagreed on many things, but may his poems be a testament to his sweet and delicate genius, alas unrecognised in life and greatly misunderstood in death!

Rev. A. E. Dunn.

LIBER CCCXVI

I have created the following work as an aid to the magician - Liber S.U.A.T. shows some of the magical 'entities' connected to Thelema and the Great Work of the Prophet of the Aeon of Horus; it also assists in the organisation of Feast Days and other 'celebrations'.

My apologies for those 'stars' not mentioned who undoubtedly are also worthy - the list is endless and not fixed. Therefore, the work can be extended to each brother and sister's preference, and their own names and attainments added etc.

It is the bones on which to hang the robe of one's own Magick Light!

LIBER CCCXVI (1)

SUB UMBRA ALARUM TUARUM (2)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.


Very Illustrious and Illuminated Brethren! Before the Lord, our Father, the Sun, we Honour those who have gone before us; those who have delighted in the Joy and the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and those who have crossed the Abyss to reside in the City of the Pyramids, in the Night of Pan. We celebrate the lives and especially the works of these Great Lights of our Law of Liberty and Love; to Feast at their remembrance and to Honour those Great Ones who by their Devotion, Dedication and Strength have established the Law of Thelema upon Earth and assisted in the Sacred Work of the Prophet – the Priest of the Princes: Ankh-f-n-Khonsu, our Greatly
Honoured and Most Holy (who didst attain in the spring of the year 1921 e.v. the grade of Ipsissimus 10 = 1 )

To Mega Therion: The Beast 666; Magus 9 = 2 A . A . on 12th October 1915 e.v. who is the Word of the Aeon THELEMA; whose name is called Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici (V.V.V.V.V.) 8 = 3 A . A . in the City of the Pyramids on 3rd December 1909 e.v. OU MH 7 = 4 A . A . in 1909 e.v. OL SONUF VAORESAGI 6 = 5 A . A . in April 1904 e.v. and Christeos Luciftias 5 = 6 A . A . on 16th January 1900 e.v. in the Mountain of Abiegnus: but FRATER PERDURABO in the Outer Order on 18th November 1898 e.v. and in the world of men upon the Earth, Aleister Crowley, who entered the world on 12th October 1875 e.v. of Trinity College, Cambridge, who celebrated His Greater Feast on 1st December 1947 e.v. and thus also shall He be known as

BAPHOMET XI
The O.H.O.

And the Secret Master. Rex Summus Sanctissimus X O.T.O. of Ireland, Iona and all the Britains that are in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis, Lieutenant Commander of the Holy Order of the Temple unto the Very Illustrious Sir Knights Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Ancient and Accepted Rite and of the 95 of the Royal Rite of Memphis, Perfectly Illuminated of our sublime IX .

1. CCCXVI=316. Taking the initial letters SUAT which add to 316 we receive ‘to worship’ and ‘to bow down’.
2. Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum (Latin) ‘under the shadow of thy wings’.






Flowers and fruits I bring to bless you,
Cakes of corn, and wealth of wine;
With my crown will I caress you,
With my music make you mine.
Though I perish, I preserve you;
Through my fall, ye rise above;
Ruling you, your priest, I serve you,
Being life, and being love.

‘The Ship’ – Saint Edward Aleister Crowley 33 , 90 , 96 , X .

and let us remember

IEHI AOUR
Greatly Honoured Brother, Charles Henry Allan Bennett 1872-1923 e.v.
A member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn since 1894 e.v. and
Greatly Honoured Friend and Teacher of our Prophet!
His Buddhist name is Bhikku Ananda Metteya.

Frater D.D.S.
VOLO NOSCERE
Greatly Honoured Brother, George Cecil Jones.
He introduced our Prophet to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and
In 1906 e.v. founded the A . A . with our beloved Prophet the Beast 666
and became Praemonstrator.

DEO DUCE COMITE FERRO (D.D.C.F.) 7 = 4 G . D .
‘S Rhiogail Mo Dhream (S.R.M.D.)
Greatly Honoured Brother, Samual Liddell ‘MacGregor’ Mathers
8th January 1854-1918 e.v.
Cofounder and Head of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

OMNIA VINCAM
LAMPADA TRADAM 2 = 9 A .. A .. & VI O.T.O.
Greatly Honoured Brother, Victor Benjamin Neuburg 6th May 1883-30th May 1940 e..v.
Of Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a Neophyte in 1909 e.v. after His Great Magical Retirement with the Prophet at Boleskine House, and is remembered for His works with the Prophet: Liber CCCXXV ‘The Bartzabel Working’ of 1910 e.v. Liber CDXV, Opus Lutertianum (The Paris Working) of 1914 e.v. and Liber CDXVIII The Vision and the Voice. Also for His work in The Rites of Eleusis at Caxton Hall, London in 1910 e.v.



OMNIA PRO VERITATE
Greatly Honoured Brother, Norman Mudd M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge.
1889-1934 e.v.
Mathematician and Lecturer on Mathematics at Grays University, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He arrived at the Prophet’s Abbey of Thelema on 22nd April 1923 e.v. and on the Beast’s expulsion on 1st May 1923 e.v. O.P.V. was left to continue the Great Work there. His work done His light was extinguished and He took His own life on 15th June 1934 e.v. at Guernsey where His Earthly remains rest in plot No. 8, grave No. 1, New Cemetery, Forest.

OUARDA
Greatly Honoured Sister, Rose Edith Crowley (nee Kelly) 23rd July 1874-1932 e.v.
She became the Bride of the Prophet on 12th August 1903 e.v. at Dingwall in Scotland.
She was instrumental in the Cairo Working of 1904 e.v. whereby was delivered The Book of the Law unto our Prophet on April 8, 9 & 10th. She was thus given the office of the first Scarlet Woman. They were divorced in 1909 e.v.

ALOSTRAEL
31-666-31
The Ape of Thoth
Greatly Honoured Sister, Leah Hirsig 9th April 1883-22nd February 1975 e.v.
She became Scarlet Woman number seven and helped our Prophet found the Abbey of Thelema in the spring of 1921 e.v. She also witnessed and assisted the Beast in His acceptance of the grade of Ipsissimus 10 = 1 .

UNUS IN OMNIBUS (VIO)
ACHAD
ARTEON
OIVVIO
VIOOIV
PARSIVAL 5 = 6 & IX O.T.O.
TANTALUS LEUCOCEPHALUS X O.T.O.
Greatly Honoured Brother, Charles Stansfeld Jones 2nd April 1886-1950 e.v.
He became a Probationer of the A . A . on 24th December 1909 e.v. taking the motto VIO. As a Neophyte He took the name ACHAD. He was the Magical Child between the Prophet and Soror Hilarion when ACHAD was born as a Babe of the Abyss – He is the Child predicted in The Book of the Law I. 55-56 who verily discovered the ‘key of it All’.

SISTER AGATHA
SISTER CYBELE
LAYLAH 4 = 7 A . A . & Grand Secretary General IX O.T.O.
Greatly Honoured Sister, Leila Ida Nerrissa Waddell (nee Bathurst) 10th August 1880-13th September 1932 e.v. She became a Probationer of the A . A . on 1st April 1910 e.v. as Sister Agatha and was a founding member of The Rites of Eleusis.


AUD
ADONIS
Greatly Honoured Brother, Frederick Charles ‘Raoul’ Loveday 13th July 1900-16th February 1923 e.v. of St John’s College, Oxford. He arrived at The Abbey of Thelema on 26th November 1922 e.v. with His wife Betty May. His Greater Feast took place at The Abbey of Thelema.

PER ARDUA AD ASTRA
Greatly Honoured Brother, John Frederick Charles Fuller CB. CBE. DSO.
1st September 1878-10th February 1966 e.v.
He is chiefly remember for His critical study of the Prophet’s collected works – ‘A Star in the West’ of 1907 e.v. and for His work on The Equinox.

PROGRADIOR
Frater 176
Greatly Honoured Brother, Sir Frank Bennett VII O.T.O.
1868-23rd November 1930.
He became a Neophyte of A . A . on 25th February 1919 e.v. and arrived at The Abbey of Thelema on 17th July 1921 e.v. and thus received the grades of Zelator on 22nd July 1921 e.v. Practicus on 9th October 1921 e.v. Philosophus on 13th October 1921 e.v. Dominus Liminis on 15th October 1921 e.v. & Adeptus Minor on 23rd October 1921 e.v.

MERLIN
Greatly Honoured Brother, Theodor Reuss 28th June 1855-28th October 1923 e.v.
Founder and Grand Master of The O.T.O. and its O.H.O. – The Supreme and Holy King of Germany until 1922 e.v. when the Prophet became O.H.O. He helped the Prophet realise the Supreme Secret of The O.T.O. and therefore admitted the Prophet to the IX .

SATURNIS
Greatly Honoured Brother, Karl Johannes Germer 22nd January 1885-25th October 1962 e.v. He became an Adeptus Minor 5 = 6 in1927 e.v. and 8 = 3 in 1938 e.v. He became the Prophet’s successor as O.H.O. of The O.T.O. 1947-1962 e.v. He is also the Rich Man from the West as predicted in The Book of the Law.

VIRAKAM
Greatly Honoured Sister, Mary d’Este Sturges (nee Dempsey).
She became the second Scarlet Woman and was instrumental in Liber LX The Ab-ul-Diz Working of 1911 e.v. and thus helped with Book 4.

HILARION
Greatly Honoured Sister, Jean Robert Foster (nee Olivier).
She became the third Scarlet Woman and bore the ‘Child’ (ACHAD) referred to in The Book of the Law.


ACHITHA
The Camel
Greatly Honoured Sister, Roddie Minor.
She became the fourth Scarlet Woman and was instrumental in the Amalantrah Working of 14th January 1918 e.v.

METONITH
ESTAI
Greatly Honoured Sister, Jane Wolfe 21st March 1875-29th March 1958 e.v.
She was admitted as a Probationer of the A . A . by the Prophet at The Abbey of Thelema on 11th June 1921 e.v. She later helped found the AGAPE Lodge of The O.T.O. in South California where She became Lodge Master.

MERAL IX O.T.O.
Greatly Honoured Sister, Phyllis Evalina Seckler 18th June 1917-31st May 2004 e.v.
She took the aspirational name TENAX PROPOSTI and was admitted as a Probationer of the A .. A .. by Jane Wolfe on 3rd June 1940 e.v. and later attained The Knowledge and Conversation of Her Holy Guardian Angel on 1st July 1952 e.v. with the grade of Adeptus Minor 5 = 6 . She became the Master of 418 Lodge of The O.T.O. from its inception in 1979-2004 e.v. and was also the founder of The College of Thelema and co-founder of The Temple of Thelema in North California.

RHODON
Greatly Honoured Sister, Mary Francis Butts 13th December 1890-1937 e.v.
For Her assistance in Book 4.

ASTRID
Greatly Honoured Sister, Dorothy Olsen.
She became the eighth Scarlet Woman in 1924 e.v.

GENESTHAI
Frater 143
FIAT LUX
Greatly Honoured Brother, Cecil Frederick Russell.
In June 1918 e.v. He received IX & XI from the Prophet in New York City. He arrived at The Abbey of Thelema on 21st November 1920 e.v. and was initiated into the A . A . on 11th May 1921 e.v. by the Prophet Himself.

HYMENAEUS ALPHA 777 IX & X O.T.O.
Greatly Honoured Brother, Grady Louis McMurtry 18th October 1918-12th July 1985 e.v.
A member of The O.T.O. from 1971 e.v. The Propher Himself gave Him the name HYMENAEUS ALPHA in November 1943 e.v.





Frater 210
BELARION ARMILUSS AL DAJJAL ANTICHRIST
Greatly Honoured Brother, Marvel ‘John’ Whiteside Parsons 2nd October 1914-17th June 1952 e.v. He was initiated into The O.T.O. on 15th February 1941 e.v. and He was initiated into the A . A . by Jane Wolfe on 15th April 1942 e.v. and He is chiefly remembered for The Babalon Working of 1946 e.v.

GRIMAUD
Greatly Honoured Sister, Helen Parsons Smith 1910- 27th July 2003 e.v.
She was initiated into The O.T.O. on 15th February 1941 e.v. and the A . A . on the same day as Soror Grimaud.

There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.
A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!
A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law.
A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet – secret, O Prophet!
A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the gods.
A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!
A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!
A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight!

A.L. II. 36-43.

Some stars fell from the orbit of the Prophet and some remained to shine bright unto the end – it is well that they are remembered purely for their devotion towards the Great Work. The list of Illuminated Brothers and Sisters may be reduced or extended in accordance to thy will.

Audrarep

Love is the law, love under will.

Under The Moon Of Song

UNDER THE MOON OF SONG

BY

BARRY VAN-ASTEN

In attempting to split the atom (a minor miracle of scientific illuminism that had escaped the attentions of our dashing, well-bred anti-hero and young man about town) Abelard Fisher-Potts, caused the collision between a fine sea trout and a handsome young herring upon his kitchen table. The experiment, of which was quite unremarkable except for the copious and ‘mysterious’ volume of ‘fish-paste’ that appeared after each experiment, was yet another example of ‘the thin veil drawn between man and god’ as he would say; and how ‘science, correctly wielded, can unlock any so called miracle of nature’, yet alas, no atoms were rent asunder in the pulping of these fish; but let us not forget those brave creatures of the sea who have forged a long line of martyrs who have sacrificed their sweet souls to the name of Science!
After several weeks (and to date, the lives of 28917 heroic gilled warriors) Abelard declared the task futile and even went as far as to say that there was no such thing as the atom, it had all been dreamt up as some dreadful hoax, concocted no doubt by some long-haired barbarian with an Einstein complex and a hatful of neurosis to boot! And so Abelard washed his hands of science, saying ‘its pursuit is pure folly, and what’s the good of it anyway! – There is only one true philosophy where the finger of the Almighty rests, and that is medicine! – It is life itself and I shall dedicate my life to the fundamental and worthy art and science of medicine!’ And so he did.
We must now skip dear reader through several years of his study to a point in the future; or a point in the past, depending on time – but however, what happened, happened sometime after the inauguration of his birth and the dreadful anti-climax of his death – in fact, it was six years into his accepting a position of junior physician at some desperate and dreary hospital. And thus it was found and digested and talked about and generally nudged and winked all along the corridors that a small column in a small newspaper with a small readership in a small provincial town somewhere in the North of England that a man had attempted to re-create the minotaur legend by crossing the genes of a donkey with that of a man – the donkey’s name: Mary; the man’s name: Abelard Fisher-Potts!
The case went to the Medical Council where Abelard was stripped of his awards and struck-off for gross misbehaviour and medical misconduct. But he managed to escape a prison sentence by accepting psychiatric help. And during his psychiatric sessions it followed that since his birth Abelard had a strange and varied fascination for inter-human-species relations! In fact, he was very ‘enthusiastic’ on the subject. It was prized out of the good doctors lips that at the age of eight he was infatuated by a cow named Matilda and also a pig named Jemima on his parent’s farm in Sussex. It was a constant concern for his poor mother who frowned upon such things, being staunchly Catholic and opposed to the idea of ‘unprotected lust’ as she called it. It also came to pass that the young Abelard found his father one day pleasuring him self in the cowshed whilst milking Matilda. The jealous rage in Abelard boiled and seethed and in his despair he made ‘angry love to Jemima’ on the kitchen table, in front of his young sister Arabella, who to this day refuses to eat pork!
Matilda and Jemima were later slaughtered by demand of the Local Council as they were a ‘hazard to all young farmers in the district, so easily charmed by bovine bewitchment and swine lust!’ Abelard’s father, Mr Jonas Fisher-Potts, ashamed of his weird passions, took his own life and drowned in the fish pond. His mother, Albertina, saught solaces in the local nunnery after Jonas’ death and became Sister Albertina!
And so the young Abelard was left to the hands of his Uncle Jeremiah – a cruel man and a vicious lover! It was his Uncle who instilled in young Abelard a hatred for the British Monarchy; Catholicism and its fraudulent Pope; and the United States of America! He considered all three to be perpetrators against the Human Will, Spirit and Freedom of Thought and Action – the very apex of existence! So Jeremiah can be seen as a forward thinking man for his time! He was also a man of means and young Abelard was sent to Malvern to be educated as a gentleman. It was at Malvern that Abelard mastered the ‘nine graces’ taught at the school to make ‘hearty men of boys’! –

1. How to cheat, sneak and steal.
2. How to lie, snitch, and put the boot in proper to being a gentleman.
3. How to take advantage of the Law to increase one’s wealth and stature.
4. How to perform the gracious art of fellatio.
5. How to employ the subtle and sublime joy of anal intercourse.
6. How to masturbate for pleasure and profit.
7. How to smoke, drink, swear and indulge in drugs of all varieties.
8. How to bully those beneath one and be servile to those above one.
9. How and when to turn a blind eye and accept financial rewards for doing so.

Excelling in his studies he went up to Oxford where he took to wearing nuns’ vestments and smoking a pipe in his rooms; he also began to write poetry, unfortunately only one volume of his verse was published for he failed as a poet much as he failed as a human being. The volume – ‘Love lips for a lap dog’ quickly sank into obscurity; its subject matter was considered ‘vile and disturbing’, though in recent times it has been sought out with a new appraisal or ‘renaissance’ of his work. In his preface to the poems he describes his ‘dark, urgent calling, as if to defy nature herself and caress the depths of Hell’s abandoned carcase – to live it and love it; to breed from it and eat it!’ In his introductory poem, an autobiographical sketch, titled ‘The Whirlpool’ we find the transsexual Abelard torn between human and animal lust:

A young man of the woods fell in love, (what a bore)
With the clergyman’s daughter who lived next door;
He taught her rude songs and rude words by the score;
He taught her to dress like a slut and a whore!

But her father, the vicar, too oft’ spared the rod
As he dreamt of church things, cream cakes and God!
In his best pulpit pose: a face white as cooked cod!
To next door did he plod the ecumenical sod!

So he knocked on the door at two minutes to three,
Shouting ‘Sir, desist from your devilry…
You have shamed a House of God with your mockery!
Repent! There is life after sin in Christianity!’

And later that night the young man was bold
When for the vicar’s daughter his passions ran cold –
In the dim light of the bedroom, he looked ninety years old,
But he had things to say that had to be told!

‘My dear,’ said the young man, ‘I have to confess
That sometimes I take to wearing a dress!
The whole nine yards! Bra and pants, nothing less!
High heels and stockings – I’m just strange I guess!

A pale pink camisole, a ribbed basque in plum;
An apple blossom chemise that’s tight as a drum!
I’ve even shaved my legs, no less, and waxed my chest and bum:
Don’t you think I look a little like your dear departed mum?’

And the vicar’s daughter fumed with anger rising from the bed:
She screamed and she spat and she scratched at his head!
She called him a thousand things and wished the young man dead!
She stormed out like a whirlwind and nothing more was said!

And so it came to pass the once lovely vicar’s daughter
Grew tired of all the young man’s songs and the rude words he had taught her;
Her spirit sank, her heart broke, brain-washed on Holy Water:
And here she was once more a lamb being led to Christian slaughter!

And so the young man sat in French knickers on his oriental mat
Smoothing down his stockings, he said ‘that’s the end of that!’
While making his advances towards the fireside cat,
For on women it seemed his eccentric lusts ran tired and flat!

It was at Oxford that young Abelard proclaimed his pampered yet peculiar passions to be a positive paradise of pleasantry due to his prepossessing proclivity that pointed towards the paunchy and plump physique of a polite and pretty but pugnacious prized pig named Desmond! A prime porker indeed! Much to the chagrin of his young fag named ‘Mary’ who kept his bed warm! And it was also at Oxford that he formed a National Socialist Society which extolled the virtues of Eva Braun, whilst wearing ladies silk pyjamas and a matching ‘swastika bra and pant ensemble’. It was for this reason that Abelard was expelled from Oxford!
And so after eighteen months of therapy at the Happy Home for Lunatics and the Weak Minded in Kent, Abelard was deemed well enough to be released once more into the community. Once free of the straight-jacket regime Abelard changed his name to Abraham Phipps and studied veterinary science. After passing his exams he opened his own practice in the wilds of Maida Vale in London. But it wasn’t long before he was up to his old tricks and he was discovered ‘embracing a gold fish behind closed doors!’ There followed another name change to Abel Philpot and he turned to medicine once more and did ‘doctoring in his spare time’. Having exhausted all forms of human sexuality, where else but to the animal kingdom could he go to next?
He met an old ‘sod of the sea’ by the name of ‘Salty Walter’ who set about helping the young man’s strange affections. His name was changed once more to (Doctor) Ahab Philips.* Walter taught him to enjoy all things ‘salt water’ especially the art of fishing – but the good doctor still found it difficult not to propel the fish at great speed towards each other in the attempt of causing atoms to split, the which may or may not exist! The struggle continues!

May his gentle hand not rest from the toil of the pen upon the page! Amen!

Rev. Daniel Winterbottom-Lees.

Further reading:

‘Moon Song – the unpublished novel of Abelard Fisher-Potts’ by James Mogworthy.
‘The Science of my Life’, the unfinished autobiography of Ahab Philips.








* It was in the winter of the year two-thousand-and-six that a certain Dr Philips met a certain Laird of Glencairn and His good Lady wife, living in Maida Vale. The good Doctor treated Her good Ladyship for certain ailments and Her Ladyship, finding the Doctor lacking in a certain respect and manner, forbade him entrance into the home of the Laird and Lady and any further treatment or contact, and thus the Doctor was banished, into the arms of a certain African Priest named Arbar Nat, who practiced a certain ‘primitive magic’ against the Laird and His good Lady wife. A Hostile Current of Will was set in motion and thus swiftly despatched to the said African’s quarters to which no more has been heard nor seen of him – and thus the saga ended there!

Sudanenka - The Cup And The Cross

SUDANENKA
THE CUP AND THE CROSS
by
Barry Van-Asten

Notes on the nature of
SUDANENKA

The title The Cup and the Cross gives an explanation to the true meaning of the little tale of Sudanenka for they are the magical weapons associated with Mem; the element of water and ‘The Hanged Man’ in the Tarot. The name Sudanenka can be defined thus:

Sud is the secret eye, the intersecting ellipses that see beyond illusion. It is also known as the third eye, or the Ru = (), the oval between the eyes; this oval is also the origin of the Ankh which has the oval attached upon a cross (also note the similarity to the planetary sign of Venus, the planet of Love which has a circle with a cross at the bottom). The Ru can also be seen as a birth passage, a vagina, the kteis; a door and a mouth.

Sud is also the anus of the goat which is ceremonially kissed during the Sabbath rites; the obsculum obscoenum – the obscene kiss!
Sud relates to the Ru, for the sud is the secret eye that looks from the far side of the zodiac, from Capricorn to its opposite sign of Cancer, governed by the moon; Sud is then the third eye, the all-seeing eye – as Ru is the portal between two worlds – the gateway – birth!

SUD= 60+6+4= 70 = the letter Ayin (o); XV The Devil in the Tarot and Eye in Hebrew
which gives the number 70.

AN= 1+50= 51 = Pain. 1=O, the Fool in the Tarot.
50=XIII, Death in the Tarot.

EN= 5+50= 55 = Malkuth, the bride; (a mystic number).

KA= 20+1= 21 = Tiphereth, (a mystic number). The 21st Key of the Tarot = The
Universe. Also the letter Tau, the Phallus in manifestation.

In total SUDANENKA gives us 197, of which we can extract 156= Babalon, and 41=AM, the unfertile Mother. [also 197-111=86 which is ALHIM]





THE OPENING OF THE VEIL

OOO
AIN SOPH AUR
The sun in the arms of the moon.
The Beast & Babalon.
The Mother cradling the Child.
Isis Rejoicing.



OO
AIN SOPH




O
AIN

AIN=negative – the Yoni. 10 Sephira= positive (emanations of Unity) – the Lingam.

NUIT. The negative veils of existence.

The Limitless Light.

‘Man and tree were one’ =

Man=91 (also note AMN [Amen] =91).

Tree =91 (Tree in Hebrew is Aleph, Yod, Lamed, Nun =91).

One=Achad=Unity.
One also =Aleph=Pentagram. (Aleph is also O. The Fool in the Tarot).

Also

M=Sacrifice. The Hanged Man in the Tarot=XII.
A=Folly. The Fool in the Tarot=O.
N=Death. Death in the tarot=XIII.

XII+O+XIII=XXV (25) =5x5 The Pentagram in Action.

Also

Aleph Yod Lamed Nun = TREE (in Hebrew)
Fool Hermit Justice Death }= O+IX+VIII+XIII=XX (20).
Ox Hand Ox Goad Fish

20= IVD (Yod) The Letter of the Father.

.....

Come unto me not as the lamb,
But come unto me as the wolf.

It is the voice of Nuit singing ‘To me! To me!’ not Hadit, for it is His nature to go!

‘My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, and the circle is red. My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a secret glory for them that love me’.
AL.I.60

‘But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a single robe, and covered with a rich headdress. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am al pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!’
AL.I.61

‘At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say – and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple – To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant’.
AL.I.62

‘Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!’
AL.I.63

‘I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky’.
AL.I.64

‘To me! To me!’
AL.I.65


The wolf= Mars, 9, the war-like Ra-Hoor-Khuit (R-H-K): ‘As brothers fight ye’ [AL.III.59]. It is Horus in the aspect of R-H-K.
Mouth =(scarlet red) Ruby, vengeance and wrath.
Paths joining=7-8 Sephira.
Weapon=Sword.
Figure=Pentagram.
XVI (16) in the Tarot=The Tower=War, the letter Pe (mouth).
Mars symbolises the coming of a New Aeon which is destructive by fire; a cosmic energy in its grossest form. And so Life and Death are the two forms of desire.

‘Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God’.
AL.I.57

The lamb is the Agnus Deus, the lamb of God as taught in the old religion which was known as Christianity; it is the symbol of meekness and self-sacrifice; a powerful symbol of the ‘Dying God’, and of pity and forgiveness. In Thelemic terms it is the slave, the servant and the weak man of God punished for his sins; for his thoughts, words and actions and restricted in his every expression of love, and we are told therefore –

‘Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!’
AL.I.6

We are taught to be brave and fierce as the wolf; to lurk and withdraw and to fight for our honour; to despise weakness and compassion and lift up our heads as we stride the world with the light of love burning in our breasts.

‘Obey my prophet! Follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! Seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so; I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all’.
AL.I.32

‘I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice’.
AL.I.58

‘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’.
AL.II.5

‘Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us’.
AL.II.20

‘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 joys; 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’.
AL.II.24

‘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!’
AL.II.70

‘But exceed! exceed!’
AL.II.71

‘Strive ever to more! And if thou art truly mine – and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous! – death is the crown of all’.
AL.II.72

‘Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee’.
AL.II.73

‘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’.
AL.II.74

‘O be thou proud and mighty among men!’
AL.II.77

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

‘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’.
AL.III.17

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

‘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!’
AL.III.42

‘With my Hawk’s head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross’.
AL.III.51

‘I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him’.
AL.III.52

‘With my claws I tear at the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol and Din’.
AL.III.53

‘Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds’.
AL.III.54

‘Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste women be utterly despised among you!’
AL.III.55

‘Also for beauty’s sake and love’s!’
AL.III.56

‘Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but play: all fools despise!’
AL.III.57

‘But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers!’
AL.III.58

‘As brothers fight ye!’
AL.III.59

‘There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt’.
AL.III.60

‘Now, therefore, I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt’.
AL.I.22

‘The unveiling of the company of heaven’.
AL.I.2

‘Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!’
AL.I.5

‘The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs’.
AL.I.8

‘Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!’
AL.I.9

‘I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy’.
AL.I.13

‘With the God & the Adorer I am nothing: they do not see me. They are as upon the earth; I am Heaven, and there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit’.
AL.I.21

‘I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty’.
AL.I.24

‘Divide, add, multiply, and understand’.
AL.I.25

…..


The chapters in relation to Thelemic Gods:
000
00
0.. Nuit.
1.. Hadit.
2..Chaos.
3.. Babalon.
4.. Hoor-Par-Kraat.
5.. Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
6.. Heru-Ra-Ha.
7.. The Scarlet Woman.
8.. Baphomet.
9.. Therion.
10. Ankh-Af-Na-Khonsu



I

THE PRINCE

This chapter relates to the sephira called Kether. The God is Hadit (R-H-K). In the Tarot we find The Magus I, The Priestess II and The Fool O. Its magickal grade is the Ipsissimus [10=1]. The planet is Pluto.
Kether is formless because it exists above Binah on the Tree of Life where form is created. Binah = Time, and Chokhmah = Form.
Kether is one degree removed from non-existence; it is without reaction and it does not conform to any criteria. It is the cause of manifestation but is not manifested. It exists above duality – all sephira are extensions of Kether and Kether is the source of all Magickal energy!

‘Come! All ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the compliment of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and khabs is the name of my House’.
AL.II.2

‘In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found’.
AL.II.3

‘Yet she shall be known & I never’.
AL.II.4

‘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’.
AL.II.6

‘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’.
AL.II.7

‘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’.
AL.II.9

‘I am alone: there is no God where I am’.
AL.II.23

‘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’.
AL.II.26

‘Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my spangles are purple & green’.
AL.II.50

‘Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight’.
AL.II.51

In conjunction with this chapter one is recommended to read ‘The Vision and the Voice’ by Aleister Crowley; aethyrs: 1,4,15,16 & 21 in particular.

‘Sea of woe’ – a reference to Binah.
Sudanenka – one who has attained – Ipsissimus.
‘No name’ – nemo.
‘Tree long been at my side’- The tree is the Holy Guardian Angel [H.G.A]
‘I see all’ – I see Nuit.
‘Seen with ears, heard with eyes; seen/ hears eternity’ – a reference to the Powers of the Sphinx, especially ‘silence’.
‘More than now’ – numerically we can find: NOW= 50=70=6 =126.

126= Darkness in Hebrew, also a widow.
1+2+6=9 [Yesod, the moon]
9=AVB – witchcraft, the false moon.
Other permutations include: 9x14=126, 7x18=126, 6x21=126, 3x42=126.

N=Scorpio and Death in the Tarot (XIII)
O=Capricorn and The Devil in the Tarot (XV)
W=Taurus and The Hierophant in the Tarot (V)

XIII+XV+V=XXXIII (33)

33= Sorrow in Hebrew, also to mourn.
3x3=9 (IX) The Hermit in the Tarot. Also see 9 above.
3x11=33, perhaps a reference to the deities of Liber Al vel Legis: Nuit, Hadit, R-H-K.

9 is also important in the publication of The Book of the Law, because nine months before the first publication was the outbreak of the Balkan War, which broke up the Near East.
Nine months before the second publication was the outbreak of the first World War, which broke up the West.
Nine months before the third publication was the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War which broke up the Far East.
Nine months before the fourth publication – 6.22 A.M. Dec 22 1937 e.v. – nine months before the betrayal which stripped Britain of the last rags of honour, prestige and security, and will break up civilization in the second World War.

‘the event will establish the Kingdom of the Crowned and Conquering Child over the whole earth, and all men shall bow to the Law, which is love under will’.
Magick pp 112-113. 1922, published 1929.

Sanctuary/Restriction= Balance.
‘Egg of Reason’ –

‘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’.
AL.II.27

Babe of the Abyss/H.P.K.
The hard shell/soft yolk= equilibrium.
Thelemic doctrine=
Fool, all is one (nought) = Aleph (comedy of Pan).
Triangle= the outer robe of concealment (woman) = Kteis/Yoni – Binah (Time) = Understanding!
Inner light= the inner robe of glory (man) = Phallus/Lingam.
All things are many= O=2, the Thelemic equation (tragedy of Pan) = Chokhma (Form) = Wisdom – Man.

‘If this be not aright; if ye confound the space marks, saying: They are one; or saying, They are many; if the ritual be not ever unto me: then expect the direful judgement of Ra Hoor Khuit!’
AL.I.52

Cross + = the cross surmounted by a triangle, which is the Hanged Man; the descent
of Light in Darkness to redeem it.

2 figures= The Fool [O] and The Magus [I].
Fool: ‘Door shut in the House of Moons’= Yesod.
‘Thou art a jester’ – The magus to The Fool.
Love= Madness. (Fool) this also refers to the madness of Pan – see ‘The Hymn to Pan’.
‘Been here before sir?’ spoken by The Magus.
The Fool replies: ‘Aye, in merrier days, perhaps’ alluding to Kether and also the cycle of re-birth.
Apples - refer to the interference of the will.
Palace of Light= All matter is of Kether (Light).
Heart= Tiphereth.
Man, woman, child – Hadit, Nuit, Horus [Osiris, Isis, Horus].
Beast & Babalon= Therion/ Scarlet Woman.
Silence= Mystery. The inactive form of speech – see 1st aethyr in ‘The Vision and the Voice’.
This chapter relates to Mercury in Alchemy which acts as a flux; its nature is bisexual – it is the spirit. In Hindu: Sattvas; in Hebrew: Aleph, its element is Air. The Prince lives in adoration of Sudanenka as found in ancient Greece!

II

SUDANENKA’S SONG

This chapter relates to MAN. The sephira is Chokhmah, which is wisdom. We are wholly masculine – the seed, the Lingham (Phallus) +. The Father of Thought! Here is contained all things which are possible yet not manifested (such as Sudanenka’s song which has yet to be born as it were).
The God which rules this sephira is Chaos – Thoth (the Word). Chaos= the Dyad.
Its element is Air and in alchemy it represents sulphur; the fiery male soul; in Hindu: Rajas, in Hebrew: Shin, its element is fire (Shin by shape equals a flame).
Yod of Tetragrammaton (aspect of Nuit – unity) an Active and Positive force.

‘Twig’= Wand (club in Tarot) = Fire.

Birth words of a Magus – Wisdom (Chokhmah) beyond understanding (i.e. the song) Binah, the sephira below is ‘understanding’, so it actually is ‘beyond’.
Tarot= High Priestess or The Tower XVI (ejaculation).
Being and Not Being= CHAOS (Chokhmah) the conduit of energy from kether.
Hebrew letter= Gimel (camel), the Path of the Moon.
Planet= Neptune.
Grade= Magus 9=2. See also 6th Aethyr and Liber I B vel Magi.
Magickal Formula= CHAOS.
World= Atziluth (archetypal world)
Paths joining= The Fool O, The Empress III, The Hierophant V.

‘Poop’= 80+70+70+80= 300 = Khabs am Pekht (Light in Extension), also ‘Formation’ and ‘Separation’.
300= Letter Shin in Hebrew (tooth), triple flame by shape, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, Ruch Alhim= 300.
‘Poop poop’= 600= RED. The Star Ruby (precious stone of Chokhma).
600= Mem final (Mem= Water – this whole story is concerned with the Hebrew letter Mem).

‘and both were as stone’ – standing stone, the magical weapon relative to Chokhmah.

The ‘song’ is the ‘seeds’ yet to ‘flourish’ into perceivable ‘manifestation’.

Thoughts become Words!




III

THE PRINCE’S SONG

This chapter relates to that of WOMAN. The sephira is Binah (understanding), the wholly feminine – Yoni/Kteis (vagina): the egg O ()
The Goddess is Babalon (Isis).
The element is Water and the Planet= Saturn. In Alchemy it is Salt, the passive female body. In Hindu: Tamar and in Hebrew: Mem (the three mother letters: water).

‘Heart’= cup or chalice in Tarot. It also refers to Tiphereth and Beauty.

Here, all things are possible and begin their development. ‘Chaos’ in Chokhmah possesses the ‘seed’, and ‘Babalon’ in Binah possesses the ‘egg’ and womb of existence.
‘Serpent’ and the ‘dove’ – (Kundalini; Ra-Hoor-Khuit; dove… symbolism found in OTO etc).
‘Snake’ – ‘Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!’.
AL.I.57

Given ‘Beauty’= Tiphereth O – (Heart) its number is 6, the mystic number of Binah.
‘Eyes’= Ayin (eye in Hebrew) 70.
‘Mouth’= Pe (mouth in Hebrew) 80.
‘Hand’= Daleth (Hebrew letter) The Empress in the Tarot, the Path joining Chokhmah and Binah. The Gate of the Supernals. The letter of Venus – sexual symbolism= 4.
‘Camel’= (Hebrew letter Gimel meaning camel) 3. [3 is the mystic number of Chokhmah]. It is the Path that joins Kether and Tiphereth, the pathway through the Abyss.
Note: 70+80+6= 156 (Babalon) [5x31, and 26x6].
6+70+80+10+4+3=170 (wand).
70+80+10+4+3= 164 (the Pillars). Also 10+4+3= 17 & 80+10+4=94 (see 777).

‘water’= element of Binah – Mem.
‘Sand’ – earth.
‘Richer for the word’ – projected and made solid= a reference to Chokhmah and Binah polarities, the un-manifest beginning its manifestation – from ‘Chaos’ to ‘Order’.
‘A good one at that’= ‘One’, the value of Aleph, The Fool in the Tarot (0). Also see ‘The Book of Lies’ by Aleister Crowley for other symbolism specific to ‘that’.
8=3 Magister Templi.
Paths joining= Magus I, Empress III, Lovers VI, Chariot VII.
World= Briah (creative world).
Magical Formula= M.E.R.C.U.R.I.U.S and Babalon.
In conjunction read The Vision and the Voice aethyrs 2, 13, and 14. Also Liber VII (Lapiz Lazuli) especially chapter II.

IV

THE QUESTING BEAST

The sephira of this chapter is Chesed (mercy). Its God is Hoor-Par-Kraat (God of silence). Silence equates with Love in Magick.
The element is Water and the Planet is Jupiter.

The beginning explains the nature of Daath – ‘The Abyss’ (babe of the abyss) see 10th aethyr. The relative Planet is Uranus.
Magical Formula= N.O.X and T.A.R.O
‘Beast’= Cheva [ChIVA]: AChIHA [the beast] 666, in full:
A=111+Ch=418+I=20+H=6+A=111=666.
A=111 (x6= number of the sun – 666) also Beast of the Abyss= Choronzon (Dispersion) [see The Vision and the Voice].

Prince (unobserved) = sign of silence. H.P.K. Passive.
Sudanenka (observed) = sign of Horus (enterer). R.H.K. Active.

‘One God, fear of nought’ –
‘Then the priest answered & said unto the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows, and the dew of her light bathing his whole body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!’
AL.I.27
Also ‘nought’ of the Tarot= The Fool, also Ox (one).
‘Existence is nothing’ –
‘Nothing s a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred and eighteen’.
AL.I.46
‘Eight legs’= change in stability.
The Father degraded to animal reason. Intellect.
‘Holy Trinity/evil Dyad’.
333= the number of Choronzon.
Does ‘nought’, move ‘all’ in ‘nought’. [All= 61 – the negative, non-existence; not] also AL= 31 (The great number in Thelema, see Liber Al vel Legis).
Ends in ‘silence’= Hoor-Par-Kraat (H.P.K)

Sudanenka displays virtues relevant to Chesed – ‘mercy’ towards the beast.
Silence and Speech – The passive and active forms of Horus [Heru-Ra-Ha] –H.P.K & R.H.K – ‘Love’ and ‘Will’.

Grade= Exempt Afept 7=4.

In conjunction with this read Liber VII, chapter III and Liber CLVI.

V

KING DEATH

In this chapter the sephira is Geburah (Power). Its God is Ra-Hoor-Khuit, equilibrated with Chesed (H.P.K.) – R.H.K.= Will [H.P.K.= Love], both guard the gates of the Abyss – R.H.K. (serpent/kundalini).
In Alchemy it is the sun and its planet is Mars. The Magical Grade is Adeptus Major 6=5.
The Magical formula= S.U.L.P.H.U.R. and ABRAHADABRA.
Paths joining= Lust XI, Chariot VII, Hanged Man XII, Adjustment VIII.

‘This is not Being for this is Going’ –

‘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’.
A.L.II.7

‘Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper’.
A.L.II.8
Also see the Bornless Ritual:

Thee I invoke, the Bornless one.
Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens:
Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day.
………………………………………………..
I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the feet:
Strong, and the Immortal Fire!
I am He! the Truth!
I am He! who hate that evil should be wrought in the
World!
………………………………………………..
I am He; the Grace of the World:
“The Heart Girt with a Serpent” is My Name!

Also the Ankh is a symbol of ‘Going’ ( a sandal strap).

King Death is a Martial God of War and Death, also of Destruction.

‘Power’ – Geburah.

In conjunction read Liber VII, chapter I.




VI

THREE ORDEALS

The sephira in this chapter is Tiphereth (Beauty) a product of the union of Chaos (Chokhmah) with Babalon (Binah)= Balance. The God is Heru-Ra-Ha, the embodiment of the Holy Guardian Angel [H.G.A.], an aspect of Horus (as is R.H.K. & H.P.K.)
Its Planet is the sun [the Knowledge and Conversation of the H.G.A.]
The Magical grade is Adeptus Minor 5=6 and the Magical formulas are A.U.R.U.M. & L.U.X. & I.N.R.I.
Paths joining= Priestess II, StarXVII, Lovers VI, Hermit IX, Adjustment VIII, Art XIV, Death XIII, Devil XV.

Pyramid box= cube= Magical weapon of Tiphereth.
Tiphereth is the home of the sacrificial Gods.

‘ALL’, ‘NOTHING’.

Death attempts to lure Sudanenka from the path.
‘Palace’ – ‘good/evil’. All=one. No beginning, no end.

Holy shade of the tree [Tree= H.G.A.]
Extension of Light= L.V.X.
The tree also represents ‘crucifixion’ and the ‘Hanged Man’.

‘Unto all the worlds’= Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah, Chiah & Jechidah.

In conjunction with this see The Vision and the Voice, Aethyrs 15 & 18. Also Liber VII, chapter IV and Liber LXV.



VII

BLIND MAN

The chapter of the Blind Man is Netzach (Victory), emotion (Lust).
The Goddess is the Scarlet Woman – strength & lust. The element is Fire and the Planet is Venus. The Magical grade is Philosophus 4=7 and the Paths joining are Fortune X, Death XIII, Tower XVI, Emperor IV, Moon XVIII.

The Blind Man is the Scarlet Woman, an aspect of Babalon, the Dark Mother (of Binah).
‘has not two eyes’= IxI = II The Priestess in the Tarot.
II The Priestess (Gimel/Camel)= Moon reference. Feminine symbol, connecting the Father (Hadit/Kether) to the Son (Horus/Tiphereth).
She is clothed in luminous veils of Light. Death – (path of Death XIII) distorts Her beauty so that she appears as a Blind, frail, old Man. The notion of the ‘Blind Man’ is also associated with the ‘Old Aeon’ – (see the Vision and the Voice, Aethyr 30).

‘Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler’.
A.L.II.48

Gold coin= The Root of the Power of Earth. Coin= Pantacle. Circle is pure – the Scarlet Woman’s Light redeems.
Death XIII (XIII=13= Love, Unity).

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

‘These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk’.
A.L.II.18

‘Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us’.
A.L.II.20

‘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 and Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake’.
A.L.II.21

‘I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen’.
A.L.II.49

‘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’.
A.L.II.53

‘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’.
A.L.II.52

‘Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King thou canst not hurt him’.
A.L.II.59

‘Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!’
A.L.II.60

‘Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them!’
A.L.III.18

‘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!’
A.L.III.42

‘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 the dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered’.
A.L.III.43

‘But let her raise herself in 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!’
A.L.III.44

‘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’.
A.L.III.45

In conjunction with this read the Vision and the Voice, Aethyr 30 and Liber VII, chapter VII.



VIII

DREAM & SANCTUARY

Hod is the sephira in this chapter which is Intellect, Glory & Honour. The God is Baphomet and the element Water; the Planet is Mercury and the Magical grade is Practicus 3=8.
Paths joining are Tower XVI, Sun XIX, Hanged man XII, Devil XV, Aeon XX.

‘Division, addition, subtraction, multiply’ – (intellect):

‘Divide, add, multiply, and understand’.
A.L.I.25

‘Point of line at beginning’= nought.
‘Point of line at end’= 2 and infinity.

‘Then the priest answered & said unto the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows, and the dew of her light bathing his whole body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!’
A.L.I.27

‘None, breathed the light, faint and faery, of the stars, and two.
A.L.I.28

‘For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union’.
A.L.I.29

‘This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all’.
A.L.I.30

Vision beyond words –
‘Beginning’= beyond birth; the Light of the angles of a Cross= L.V.X.
‘Middle’= beyond life; the Darkness of the Sacred Eye and the Cross= 0T=T Ankh.
‘End’= beyond death; the Light of the Circle and the Cross= N.O.X.

Being – Going- Returning= The formula of I.A.O. (also A.U.G.M.N.) see Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley.

Baphomet= Union of opposites.
Devil in Tarot= Androgony/bisexuality.
Hod, reflection of Binah, filtered through Chesed, (all Water elements) balanced between Hod and Netzach (Intellect/Emotion or Science/Art).

In conjunction read the Paris Working – ‘De Mercurio’ and Liber VII, chapter V, also the Vision and the Voice, Aethyr 30.



IX

DESIRE IN DARKNESS

The sephira in relation to this chapter is Yesod (the moon). The God is Therion (Beast) and the Magical grade is Zelator 2=9.
The Paths joining are Art XIV, Emperor IV, Sun XIX, Universe XXI.

She is Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, the concubine of the Beast (Therion).
Death has impressed the vision of Her upon Sudanenka, and distorted Her.

Moved ‘not’= Nuit.

Tongue unfamiliar= the language of the moon (see the invocation of the infernal adorations of Oai in Liber LXVI Stellae Rubeae).

Serpent.
2nd Coin (pantacle) – mouth (Pe).
Old and ugly – witchcraft, the old crone, the sterile, dark mother; in the Tarot XVIII the Moon – ‘Vision of Sorrow’.

AMA (no Yod/Phallus, so is not AIMA) see Magick.

She is an aspect of Binah –

‘Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men’.
A.L.I.15

‘For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight’.
A.L.I.16

In conjunction with this read the Vision and the Voice, Aethyrs 11 and 15. Also Liber VII, chapter VI.


X

CLOSING OF THE VEIL

Malkuth is the sephira in this chapter and the God is Ankh-Af-Na-Khonsu. The Planet is Earth (Assiah, the material world) and the Magical grade is Neophyte 1=10.
Paths joining are Aeon XX, Universe XXI, Moon XVIII.

I am come
Into this darkness to attain the light:
To gain my voice I make myself as dumb:
That I may see I close my outer sight:
So, I am here. My brows are bent in
prayer;
I kneel already in the Gates of dawn;
And I am come, albeit unaware,
To the deep sanctuary: my hope is drawn
From wells profounder than the very sea.
Yea, I am come, where least I guessed it so,
Into the very Presence of the Three
That Are beyond all Gods. And now I know
What spiritual Light is drawing me
Up to its stooping splendour. I my soul
I feel the Spring, the all-devouring Dawn,
Rush with my Rising. There, beyond the
goal,
The Veil is rent!
Yes: let the veil be drawn.

[Collected Works of Aleister Crowley vol I. 1905.
III The Holy Place – ‘The Neophyte’ from The
Temple of the Holy Ghost.]


In conjunction with this read the Vision and the Voice, Aethyrs 9 and 15.

Sudanenka - Part Ten

SUDANENKA


X

THE CLOSING OF THE VEIL

And Death's laughter rang throughout the abyss as Sudanenka took the last remaining coin from the pyramid box, rolling it in his fingers and casting some enchantment over it. And he hurled it along the road, towards the gates of the palace. The coin grew in size and speed, doubling its diameter with each revolution until it grew far beyond the clouds in height. And it thundered into the palace, bringing down the stone walls of the damned, sealing its horror for evermore. And a radiant light shone forth over the abyss, and the air was silent of screams, and the trees did begin to blossom once more; and the birds dared once again, to open their beaks and sing!



Notes

1. Beyond Salvation Lies The Fool. (refers to The Tarot).
2. Camel: Ship of the Desert.
3. L.V.X. Light in Extension.
4. OT - The Egyptian Ankh, symbol of Life.
5. N.O.X. The Night of Pan in the City of the Pyramids.

Sudanenka - Part Nine

SUDANENKA


IX

THE DESIRE IN DARKNESS

On waking, Sudanenka found himself confronted by a beautiful woman, with large almond eyes and long black hair streaming over her naked body. And she was of savage strength; magnificent and proud. She moved in strange motions, as if she were part feline, shaping her form in never-ending angles of shameless desire, for she was the desire in darkness; the great adulteress of the abyss whose lusts are insatiable. And she spoke:


'I am the terror and the call within the heart of man,
And the transference of sorrow into joy by woman,
For I hath stained the holy cup of brute desire;
I hath defiled death with my breasts of fire.
I am the worldful whore and my scarlet kiss
Is the infernal blossom in the darkness.
For I am the core of sin that saps
In caressing the tomb... These purple paps
Hath long crusaded, for they ache with lust:
I hath turned the hearts of oaks to dust!
And the palace of my joy is found
Three-form, for I am bound
To take of flesh, for my flesh gives
To all that dies and all that lives!'


Sudanenka watched as she danced around the circle.

'Am I not desirable, master?' said the pale seductress, stroking Sudanenka's forehead.

'I am not of thy flesh, for thou art false: thou hast paraded virtue in the mud!' And the holy man closed his eyes. Her nakedness coiled about him, and she kissed him, yet he moved not. She whispered obscenity after obscenity in his ear, and yet he moved not. Then she opened her mouth and her sharp teeth glistened as she spoke in a tongue unfamiliar, yet known to Sudanenka. And she clasped her hands to his throat and writhed upon him as a serpent. Sudanenka reached for the pyramid box and thrust a coin into her mouth, and she turned many shades of the earth as her beautiful skin became old and ugly, hanging upon her in loose folds. Her screams of ecstasy and passion became the agonies of the damned; an abomination of filth and horror. And the ground opened up and swallowed her vile carcass.