{"collection":"Ordo Templi Orientis","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/oto/aba/chap4.htm","path":"oto/aba/chap4.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/oto/aba/chap4.htm","text":"\"Gods\" are the Forces of Nature; their \"Names\" are the Laws of \n Nature. Thus They are eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent and so on; and thus their \n \"Wills\" are immutable and absolute.\nIt represents Sakti,or Teh; femininity always means form, manifestation. \n The masculine Siva, or Tao, is always a concealed force.\nThe Elements are all represented, as in Tetragrammaton, but there is no development from one into the others. They are, as it were, thrown together --- untamed, only sympathising by virtue of their wild and stormy but elastically resistless energy. The Central letter is \"He\" --- the letter of breath --- and represents Spirit. The first letter \"Aleph\" is the natural letter of Air, and the Final \"Mem\" is the natural letter of Water. Together, \"Aleph\" and \"Mem\" make \"Am\" --- the mother within whose womb the Cosmos is conceived. But \"Yod\" is not the natural letter of Fire. Its juxtaposition with \"He\" sanctifies that fire to the \"Yod\" of Tetragrammaton. Similarly we find \"Lamed\" for Earth, where we should expect Tau --- in order to emphasize the influence of Venus, who rules Libra.\n\"ALHIM\", therefore, represents rather the formula of Consecration than that of a complete ceremony. It is the breath of benediction, yet so potent that it can give life to clay and light to darkness.\nIn consecrating a weapon, \"Aleph\" is the whirling force of the thunderbolt, the lightning which flameth out of the East even into the West. This is the gift of the wielding of the thunderbolt of Zeus or Indra, the god of Air. \"Lamed\" is the Ox-goad, the driving force; and it is also the Balance, representing the truth and love of the Magician. It is the loving care which he bestows upon perfecting his instruments, and the equilibration of that fierce force which initiates the ceremony.\nThe letters Aleph and Lamed are infinitely important in this Aeon \n of Horus; they are indeed the Key of the Book of the Law. No more can be said \n in this place than that Aleph is Harpocrates, Bacchus Diphues, the Holy Ghost, \n the \"Pure Fool\" or Innocent Babe who is also the Wandering Singer who impregnates \n the King's Daughter with Himself as Her Child; Lamed is the King's Daughter, \n satisfied by Him, holding His \"Sword and Balances\" in her lap. These weapons \n are the Judge, armed with power to execute His Will, and Two Witnesses \"in whom \n shall every Truth be established\" in accordance with whose testimony he gives \n judgment.\nIn the symbolism above outlined, Yod is the Mercurial \"Virgin \n Word\", the Spermatozoon concealing its light under a cloke; and Mem is the amniotic \n fluid, the flood wherein is the Life-bearing Ark. See A. Crowley \"The Ship\", \n Equinox I, X.\nThe letter He is the formula of Nuith, which makes possible the \n process described in the previous notes. But it is not permissible here to explain \n fully the exact matter or manner of this adjustment. I have preferred the exoteric \n attributions, which are sufficiently informative for the beginner.\nThe word ALIM may in fact be considered as neuter. By a rather absurd convention, neuter objects are treated as feminine on account of their superficial resemblance in passivity and inertness with the unfertilized female. But the female produces life by the intervention of the male, while the neuter does so only when impregnated by Spirit. Thus we find the feminine AMA, becoming AIMA,\nAMA is 42, the number of sterility; AIMA, 52, that of fertility, \n of BN, the SON.\nThis being so, how can we describe ALIM as containing a Magical Formula? Inquiry discloses the fact that this formula is of a very special kind.\nThe word adds up to 81, which is a number of the moon. It is thus the formula of witchcraft, which is under Hecate.\nSee A. Crowley \"Orpheus\" for the Invocation of this Goddess.\nNo true Magical operation can be performed by the formula of ALIM. All the works of witchcraft are illusory; and their apparent effects depend on the idea that it is possible to alter things by the mere rearrangement of them. One must not rely upon the false analogy of the Xylenes to rebut this argument. It is quite true that geometrical isomers act in different manners towards the substance to which they are brought into relation. And it is of course necessary sometimes to rearrange the elements of a molecule before that molecule can form either the masculine or the feminine element in a true Magical combination with some other molecule.\nIt is therefore occasionally inevitable for a Magician to reorganize the structure of certain elements before proceeding to his operation proper. Although such work is technically witchcraft, it must not be regarded as undesirable on that ground, for all operations which do not transmute matter fall strictly speaking under this heading.\nThe real objection to this formula is not inherent in its own nature. Witchcraft consists in treating it as the exclusive preoccupation of Magick, and especially in denying to the Holy Spirit his right to indwell His Temple.\nThe initiate of the XI Degree of O.T.O. will remark that there \n is a totally different formula of ALIM, complementary with that here discussed. \n 81 may be regarded as a number of Yesod rather than of Luna. The actual meaning \n of the word may be taken as indicating the formula. Aleph may be referred to \n Harpocrates, with allusion to the well-known poem of Catullus. Lamed may imply \n the exaltation of Saturn, and suggest the Three of Swords in a particular manner. \n Yod will then recall Hermes, and Mem the Hanged Man. We have thus a Tetragrammaton \n which contains no feminine component. The initial Force is here the Holy Spirit \n and its vehicle or weapon the \"Sword and Balances\". Justice is then done upon \n the Mercurial \"Virgin\", with the result that the Man is \"Hanged\" or extended, \n and is slain in this manner. Such an operation makes creation impossible --- \n as in the former case; but here there is no question of re-arrangement; the \n creative force is employed deliberately for destruction, and is entirely absorbed \n in its own sphere (or cylinder, on Einstein's equations) of action. This Work \n is to be regarded as \"Holiness to the Lord\". The Hebrews, in fact, conferred \n the title of Qadosh (holy) upon its adepts. Its effect is to consecrate the \n Magicians who perform it in a very special way. We may take note also of the \n correspondence of Nine with Teth, XI, Leo, and the Serpent. The great merits \n of this formula are that it avoids contact with the inferior planes, that it \n is self-sufficient, that it involves no responsibilities, and that it leaves \n its masters not only stronger in themselves, but wholly free to fulfil their \n essential Natures. Its abuse is an abomination.","title":"Magick in Theory and Practice - Chapter 4","type":"page"}