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

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777 REVISED
of the Abyss, along the winding path beset by the hell-hounds, up
barren slopes to where two “squat turrets, blind as the fool’s heart,”
guard a pass leading he knows not where. His starting point is the
illusion of matter, his goal the sphere of external splendour and internal
corruption. The path leads away from the middle pillar, to the anarchy
of the unbalanced astral wilderness. It is the essence of error. He
should rather trust himself to the Bark of the Midnight Sun, the Winged
Beetle, to bear him to the Dawn. He should rather follow the path of
Tau, passing through the balanced Elements of the astral palne, despite
their darkness and their terror. The Menstrual Fluid is, however, the
medium for the one as for the other. But on the path of Qoph there is
no creative energfy to fertilize the ova, no light to purify and vitalize
their possibilities. The path of Qoph is that of witchcraft. The Great
Work is not accomplished. The Postulant is not the ecstatic bride who
knows that she will be endowed from on high with the great grace of
motherhood, but the hag who clutches at the false gratifications of
hysteria. Instead of the human consciousness being thrilled directly by
the pure light of its One Lord, the animal sensorium is agitated by the
confused jabberings of those demons who personate great souls, human
or divine. It is the difference between the Knowledge and Conversation
of the Holy Guardian Angel and the hideous intimacy with the débris of
decaying minds, momenetarily galvanized into manifestation by
imbecile of malignant entities.
COLUMN XLIII: VEGETABLE DRUGS
1. Elixir Vitae—the attribution to Kether is due to its omniform
virtue.
2. Cocaine pertains to Chokmah by its direct action on the deepest
nervous centres.
3. Soma is said to give understanding and was sacred to the highest
form of the Moon. Belladonna is here because of its virtue to dilate the
pupil, thus producing a Black Sea; but this attribution seems a little
fantastic.