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Liber Legis
Liber Legis
1. | Nu! The hiding of Hadit. |
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. |
3. | In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found. |
4. | Yet she shall be known and I never. |
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. |
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. |
7. | I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the cirle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go. |
8. | Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper. |
9. | Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains. |
10. | O Prophet! Thou hast ill will to learn this writing. |
11. | I see thee hate the hand and the pen; but I am stronger. |
12. | Because of me in Thee which thou knewest not. |
13. | For why? Because thou wast the knower, and me. |
14. | Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and eat them up with blindness! |
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. |
16. | I am the Empress and the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
20. | Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us. |
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 and 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 and the Snake. |
22. | I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge and 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, and 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. |
23. | I am alone: there is not God where I am. |
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 Kng! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath. |
25. | Ye are against the people, O my chosen! |
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. |
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. |
28. | Now a curse upon Because and his kin! |
29. | May Because be accurséd for ever! |
30. | If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops and does nought. |
31. | If Power asks why, then is Power weakness. |
32. | Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite and unknown; and all their words are skew-wise. |
33. | Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog! |
34. | But ye, o my people, rise up and awake! |
35. | Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy and beauty! |
36. | There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times. |
37. | A feast for the first night of the prophet and his bride! |
38. | A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law. |
39. | A feast for Tahuti and the child of the prophet... secret, O Prophet! |
40. | A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods. |
41. | A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death! |
42. | A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture! |
43. | A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight! |
44. | Aye! Feast! Rejoice! There is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu. |
45. | There is death for the dogs. |
46. | Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart? |
47. | Where I am these are not. |
48. | Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled and the consoler. |
49. | I am unique and conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned and dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, and therein am I as a babe in an egg.) |
50. | Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; and my spangles are purple and green. |
51. | Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight. |
52. | There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, and 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, and I will reward you here and hereafter. |
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. |
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! |
55. | Thou shalt obtain the order and value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto. |
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. |
57. | He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still. |
58. | Yea! Deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, and 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. |
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. |
60. | Therefore strike hard and low, and to hell with them, master! |
61. | There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light undesired, most desirable. |
62. | I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body. |
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. |
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 and rapture! Come in our passionate peace, and write sweet words for the Kings! |
65. | I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One. |
66. | Write, and find ecstasy in writing! Work, and be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life and 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 and rejoice! We are one; we are none. |
67. | Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses! |
68. | Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! Breathe not so deep... die! |
69. | Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted? |
70. | There is help and 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! |
71. | But exceed! exceed! |
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. |
73. | Ah! Ah! Death! Death! Thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee. |
74. | The lenght of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long and desires death much is ever the King among the Kings. |
75. | Aye! Listen to the numbers and the words: |
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. |
77. | Oh! be thou proud and mighty among men! |
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. |
79. | The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing and worship to the prophet of the lovely Star! |