Liber 777 (revised) (pdf) - Holy Order of the Golden Dawn Canada

EXPLANATIONS OF THE ATTRIBUTIONS
25. See line 13. The perfume of Lignum Aloes intuitively suggests
horsemanship in an airy racecourse, as distinguished from charioteering,
as if one’s racecourse were a rainbow. One experiences the
intense amazon purity of Atalanta. One’s aspiration becomes winged.
It is therefore to Sagittarius, not as the house of Jupiter, but as the path
leading from Yesod to Tiphereth, that this perfume applies.
26. Musk and Civet are referred here on account of their sexual
origin, and of their effect upon the aura of the magician. The regular
Saturnian perfumes would only be employed in amefic work and in
other of the baser aspects of Capricorn.
28. See lines 11 and 22. This attribution is not very satisfactory.
There is more in Galbanum than the Saturnian and airy elements.
Galbanum is too exciting to be a truly Aquarian perfume; it is too
demonic, it lacks the element of humanity. In the humanitarianism of
Aquarius there is no magician to understand that “Love is the law, love
undew will.” It is the smug aloofness of the philanthropist. Certain
schools of late years have written very enthusiastically of Aquarius, but
their attitude may seem to adherents of the true Rosicrucian doctrine as
somewhat hypocritical and pharisaical. This is to be explained by the
fact that in Aquarius the Sun is in his detriment. People who wish to
reform the world (on a pattern of theoretical excellence totally
unconnected with human nature) are at the very antipodes of solar life
and light. They fear vitality.
29. See line 13. This Luna of ATU XVIII is to be contrasted
strongly with that of ATU II. The path of Gimel leads from Tiphereth
to Kether: it is the unswerving virginal aspiration of the human heart to
its divine Lord. The postulant at the gate of the Holy of Holies puts off
his pride of manhood and offers himself passively as a bride of his
sublime Master. His starting point is the perfection of his human self,
and his goal the unity of Absolute Truth, above all quantity or quality.
On the contrary, the path of Qoph leads from Malkuth to Netzach. It is
the fluctuating craving of the animal soul for the sensuous gratifications
of illusory victory. By the treacherous light of the waning Moon, the
wanderer stumbles through the swamps upon the edge of the black pool
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