11
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΙΑ
THE GLOW-WORM
Concerning the Holy Three-in-Naught.
Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, are only to be understood
by the Master of the Temple.
They are above The Abyss, and contain all contradiction
in themselves.
Below them is a seeming duality of Chaos and
Babalon; these are called Father and Mother, but
it is not so. They are called Brother and Sister,
but it is not so. They are called Husband and
Wife, but it is not so.
The reflection of All is Pan: the Night of Pan is the
Annihilation of the All.
Cast down through The Abyss is the Light, the Rosy Cross,
the rapture of Union that destroys, that is The Way.
The Rosy Cross is the Ambassador of Pan.
How infinite is the distance from This to That! Yet
All is Here and Now. Nor is there any there or Then;
for all that is, what is it but a manifestation, that is,
a part, that is, a falsehood, of THAT which is not?
Yet THAT which is not neither is nor is not That
which is!
Identity is perfect; therefore the Law of Identity is
but a lie. For there is no subject, and there is no
predicate; nor is there the contradictory of either
of these things.
Holy, Holy, Holy are these Truths that I utter,
knowing them to be but falsehoods, broken mirrors,
troubled waters; hide me, O our Lady, in Thy
Womb! for I may not endure the rapture.
In this utterance of falsehood upon falsehood, whose
contradictories are also false, it seems as if That
which I uttered not were true.
Blessed, unutterably blessed, is this last of the
illusions; let me play the man, and thrust it from
me! Amen.
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COMMENTARY (ΙΑ)
"The Glow-Worm" may perhaps be translated as
"a little light in the darkness", though there may be a
subtle reference to the nature of that light.
Eleven is the great number of Magick, and this
chapter indicates a supreme magical method; but it is
really called eleven, because of Liber Legis, I, 60.
The first part of the chapter describes the universe
in its highest sense, down to Tiphareth; it is the new
and perfect cosmogony of Liber Legis.
Chaos and Babalon are Chokmah and Binah, but
they are really one; the essential unity of the supernal
Triad is here insisted upon.
Pan is a generic name, including this whole system
of its manifested side. Those which are above the Abyss
are therefore said to live in the Night of Pan; they are
only reached by the annihilation of the All.
Thus, the Master of the Temple lives in the Night of Pan.
Now, below the Abyss, the manifested part of the
Master of the temple, also reaches Samadhi, as the
way of Annihilation.
Paragraph 7 begins by a reflection produced by the
preceding exposition. This reflection is immediately
contradicted, the author being a Master of the Temple.
He thereupon enters into his Samadhi, and he piles
contradiction upon contradiction, and thus a higher
degree of rapture, with ever sentence, until his armoury
is exhausted, and, with the word Amen, he enters the
supreme state.
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XCthulhu's Commentary
I disagree with Karl Germer as to his interpretation of
The Night of Pan, because he couldn't be any less
cryptic about the true message. The Night of Pan is the
apocalypse, The Night of The Living Dead, whatever.
Pan is the original
pagan name of the being which was indoctrinated into
Christianity as the
Devil, so the
Abyss is there for
Hell. To Crowly,
samadhi is a form of
Death Worship, so if one were to judge the entire religion based on this one chapter, one could conclude that
the Masters of the Temple are worshipers of apocalypse. This is unlikely, I personally would conclude that it is just
Aliester Crowley scaring people.
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Original text by Aleister Crowley
Commentary by Karl Germer
I need your help! This stuff is very cryptic, feel free to provide your own commentary.