CONCERNING DEATH
By Aleister Crowley
This issue published for
Hymenaeus Alpha
October 18, 14 e.n. (1918 e.v.)
July 12, 81 e.n. (1985 e.v.)
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702
(C) COPYRIGHT O.T.O.
JULY 14, 1985 e.v.
Sun in Cancer
Moon in Gemini
AN 81 e.n.
*
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[From the "International" December 1917]
An Epistle of Baphomet to the Illustrious Damozel Ana Wright,
Companion of the Holy Graal, Shining Like the Moon.
CONCERNING DEATH
That She and Her Sisters May Bring Comfort to All Them That Are
Nigh Death, and Unto Such as Love Them.
Beloved Daughter and Sister,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
It is written in the Book of the Law; Every man and every woman
is a Star. It is Our Lady of the Stars that speaketh to thee, O
thou that art a star, a member of the Body of Nuit. Listen, for
thine ears are become dulled to the mean noises of the earth; the
infinite silence of the Stars woos thee with subtle musick.
Behold her bending down above thee, a flame of blue, all-
touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth
and her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting
the little floweres, and think that all thy grossness shall
presently fall from thee as thou leapest to her embrace, caught
up into her love as a dewdrop into the kisses of the sunrise. Is
not the ecstacy of Nuit the consiousness of of the continuity of
existence, the omnipresence of her body? All that hath hurt thee
was that thou knewest it not, as that fadeth from thee thou shalt
know as never yet how all is one.
Again she saith: I give unimaginable joys on earth,
certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death. This thou hast
known. Time that eateth his children hath not power on them that
would not be children of Time. To them that know themselves
immortal, that dwell always in eternity, conscious of Nuit,
throned upon the chariot of the sun, there is no death that men
call death. In all the universe. darkness is only found in the
shadow of a gross and opaque planet. as it were for a moment; the
universe itself is a flood of light eternal. So also death is but
through accident; thou hast hidden thyself in the shadow of thy
gross body, and taking it for reality, thou hast trembled. But
the orb revolveth anon; the shadow passeth away from thee. There
is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu! For
inasmuch as thou hast made the Law of Freedom thine, as thou hast
lived in Light and Liberty and Love, thou hast become a Freeman
of the City of Stars.
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Listen again to thine own voice within thee. Is not Hadit
the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of
every star? Is not He Life, and the giver of Life? And is not
therefore the knowledge of Him the knowledge of Death? For it
hath been shown unto thee in many other places how Death and Love
be twins. Now art thou the hunter, and Death rideth beside thee
with his horse and spear as thou chasest thy Will through the
forests of Eternity, whose trees are the hair of Nuit thy
mistress! Thrill with the joy of life and death! Know, hunter
mighty and swift, the quarry turns to bay! Thou has but to make
one sharp thrust, and thou hast won. The Virgin of Eternity lies
supine at thy mercy, and thou art Pan! Thy death shall be the
seal of the promise of our age-long love. Hast thou not striven
to the inmost in thee? Death is the crown of all. Harden! Hold up
thyself! Lift thine head! breath not so deep --- die!
Or art thou still entangled with the thorny plaits of wild
briar rose that thou hast woven in thy magick dance on earth? Are
not thine eyes strong enough to bear the starlight? Must thou
linger yet awhile in the valley? Must thou dally with the shadows
in the dusk? Then, if it be thy will, thou hast no right but to
do thy will! Love still these phantoms of the earth; thou has
made thyself a king; if it please thee to play with toys of
matter, were they not made to serve thy pleasure? Then follow in
thy mind the wondrous word of the Stele of Revealing itself.
Return if thou wilt from the abode of the stars: dwell with
mortality, and feast thereon. For thou art this day made Lord of
Heaven and of Earth.
The dead man Ankh-f-na-Khonsu
Saith with his voice of truth and calm:
O thou that hast a single arm!
O thou that glitterest in the moon!
I weave the in the spinning charm;
I lure thee with the billowy tune.
The dead man Ankh-f-na-Khonsu
Hath joined the dwellers of the light,
Opening Duant, the star abodes,
Their keys receiving.
The dead man Ankh-f-na-Khonsu
Hath joined the dwellers of the light,
His pleasure on the earth to do
Among the living.
Love is the law, love under will.
The Benediction of the All-Begetter, All-Devourer be upon thee.