Liber AL vel Legis

sub figura CCXX

as delivered by
XCIII = 418
to
DCLXVI

Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III

Chapter II

II,1: Nu! the hiding of Hadit.

II,2: Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and Khabs is the name of my House.

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

II,4: Yet she shall be known & I never.

II,5: 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.

II,6: 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.

II,7: 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.

II,8: Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.

II,9: 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.

II,10: O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing.

II,11: I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger.

II,12: Because of me in Thee which thou knewest not.

II,13: for why? Because thou wast the knower, and me.

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

II,15: For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.

II,16: I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.

II,17:

Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.
II,18: These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.

II,19: Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.

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

II,21: 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 & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake.

II,22: I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.

II,23: I am alone: there is no God where I am.

II,24: 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 joy; 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.

II,25: Ye are against the people, O my chosen!

II,26: 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.

II,27: There is 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.

II,28: Now a curse upon Because and his kin!

II,29: May Because be accursèd for ever!

II,30: If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.

II,31: If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.

II,32: Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.

II,33: Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!

II,34: But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!

II,35: Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!

II,36: There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.

II,37: A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!

II,38: A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law.

II,39: A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet—secret, O Prophet!

II,40: A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods.

II,41: A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!

II,42: A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!

II,43: A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight!

II,44: Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.

II,45: There is death for the dogs.

II,46: Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?

II,47: Where I am these are not.

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

II,49: I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg.)

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

II,51: Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight.

II,52: 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.

II,53: 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.

II,54: Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall reveal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of because: They are not of me. The stops as thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style or value!

II,55: Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto.

II,56: Begone! ye mockers; even though ye laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: then when ye are sad know that I have forsaken you.

II,57: He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.

II,58: Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

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

II,60: Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!

II,61: There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light undesired, most desirable.

II,62: I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body.

II,63: Thou art exhaust in the voluptuous fullness of the inspiration; the expiration is sweeter than death, more rapid and laughterful than a caress of Hell's own worm.

II,64: Oh! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all over thee: hail! hail: prophet of Nu! prophet of Had! prophet of Ra-Hoor-Khu! Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings!

II,65: I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.

II,66: Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none.

II,67: Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses!

II,68: Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep—die!

II,69: Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?

II,70: 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!

II,71: But exceed! exceed!

II,72: 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.

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

II,74: 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.

II,75: Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:

II,76: 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chosen one, to be me; to follow the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tell them this glad word.

II,77: O be thou proud and mighty among men!

II,78: Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men or among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy stature shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and the name of thy house 418. 44

II,79: The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!