Dear friends, beautiful and happy people,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Some time ago, Frater Sicariōn asked me about verses 30 to 33 of Chapter 4 of The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent — These verses completely freak him out in relation to his soon-to-be-celebrated marriage, but I believe he’s mostly looking for excuses…
My word! I may well be “a mixture of Hannibal Lecter, Rasputin, and Dracula” (as graciously declared in 2023 by Judge Vignon, President of the Court of Appeal of Riom), but I am a mixture of Hannibal Lecter, Rasputin, and Dracula who does NOT leave his students moaning in doubt and suspense — So I read:
30. I came to the house of the Beloved, and the wine was like fire that flieth with green wings through the world of waters.31. I felt the red lips of nature and the black lips of perfection. Like sisters they fondled me their little brother; they decked me out as a bride; they mounted me for Thy bridal chamber.32. They fled away at Thy coming; I was alone before Thee.33. I trembled at Thy coming, O my God, for Thy messenger was more terrible than the Death-star.
I. Pshat
This reminds me of the following: the context of this pericope once suggested to me — on a day in August 1995 when I had to go to Bordeaux to attend a grand ultra-traditionalist wedding — the idea of taking verses 30 and 31 as a mantra for the entire journey, so that the day would not be completely wasted on the mystical plane.
I had chanted them non-stop throughout the trip, much to the dismay of my immediate entourage — And it was precisely at that wedding that the groom — my unfortunate cousin H. (a Saint-Cyrien, perhaps a tad psychorigid) — was shamefully betrayed, deceived, and mocked by his young wife (the now very dignified matriarch A-M) : Right after the religious ceremony in Latin, she got herself thoroughly fucked by her ex (who had the physique of a late-90s boy-band member) in a sacristy corridor, without even taking off her dress!...
Note that H., noticing his wife’s sudden disappearance at the time of the photos on the church steps, had sent us out looking for her in all directions — And it was I who found her, getting properly railed against a typical Romanesque dressed-stone wall.
Of course, I should have energetically interrupted the adulterous lovebirds — but alas! I was very young, the scene was really hot, and I preferred to watch discreetly from a distance while furiously masturbating, then go back outside and tell H. that I hadn’t seen anyone, all while laughing up my sleeve (he never suspected a thing about the affair, despite our heavy, mocking insinuations) — Those were the good times — But really: after that, how could anyone doubt the Magical Power of the Holy Verses!
II. Remez
The more I think back on this incident — which an astrologer would call a collision between the 5th House and the 7th House — the more I find a profound meaning in this Erotic Rite where the Leo emerging from the past ruins the Work of Libra with great thrusts of the Sacred Phallus.
This meaning is, of course, also found in the flamboyant epistle powerfully sprung from the fevered pen of Sir Shumule addressed to Judge Aurélie Mahé, and it constitutes a Universal Symbolism: that old, super-strong desire that the great summer holidays (St-Tropez, the sea, the girls, etc.) should never give way to the start of the school year…
May Babalon ride the Lion, but may Maat (whom the Coffin Texts teach us is, in reality, Tefnut) never again become an irascible lioness in the eastern desert of Nubia!
May our summer loves know no September!
May no Karma punish our dear Days of Carefreeness: on the contrary, may our dear Days of Carefreeness punish Karma! (This desire was doubtless unconsciously expressed by the permutation of Atu VIII and XI in the old Golden Dawn system.)
III. Derash
It is the Mystery expressed by the confrontation of “Beloved” and “Death-star”, the two words each bearing an incongruous capital letter at either end of our pericope.
I take this very personally, since David literally means “Beloved” — and David (Beloved in Hebrew) has a gematria of 14, which is 1+4 = 5 = 1+2+2 = 122 = B(2)+e(5)+l(30)+o(70)+v(6)+e(5)+d(4) = Beloved.
And since “Death-star” has a gematria of 294, which is ChVRP, “autumnal”, we once again have the bizarre meeting of the 5th and 7th Houses, of Leo and Libra, through that of David, the Lion of Judah, and the September Equinox.
Now, since Leo is Teth (9) and Libra is Lamed (30), this bizarre meeting is 39, the proclamation of Divine Unity (IHVH AChD) and a temurah of 93 — i.e., the mirror reflection of THELEMA — so true is it that the only man who is “the image and likeness of GOD” is the Thelemite.
This brings us back to the immortal words of Marcello Ramos Motta (of blessed memory): “We have not come to save men. We are the men. Outside of us there are only apes and the Blind Creature of the Mire.”
IV. Sod
The magical verses therefore provoke the union of impossible lovers beyond any logical or moral consideration: the reconciliation of the Carefreeness of the 5th House (loves, childhood, games…) and the Karmic Rigor of the 7th House (Legality), in spite of the 6th House (Discipline) that stands in the way.
The qabalistic exegesis reveals, as we have seen, that this scandalous union manifests Divine Unity (39), of which the Thelemite is the image on Earth (93).
GOD is therefore the ultra-passionate union of two Thelemite soul-mates, as it is written: “there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit” (AL I, 21).
Meditate upon this, dear friends, and go your gorgeous ways under the protection of that spiritual sphere whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere, and which we call GOD.
Warm kisses from the Bahamas.
Love is the law, love under will.
— ☉︎ in 23° ♈︎ : ☽︎ in 0° ♓︎ : ☽︎ : Ⅴⅹⅰⅰ.
𓄿𓎛𓂧 𓇋𓈖𓏌
