THE-BOOK-OF-LIES-Aliester-Crowley

of failure. As it is written: In the hour of successsacrifice that which is dearest to thee unto theInfernal Gods!The Englishman lives upon the excrement of hisforefathers.All moral codes are worthless in themselves; yet inevery new code there is hope. Provided always thatthe code is not changed because it is too hard, butbecause if is fulfilled.The dead dog floats with the stream; in puritanFrance the best women are harlots; in viciousEngland the best women are virgins.If only the Archbishop of Canterbury were to gomake in the streets and beg his bread!The new Christ, like the old, it the friend of publicansand sinners; because his nature is ascetic.O if everyman did No Matter What, provided that itis the one thing that he will not and cannot do![130]COMMENTARY ({Xi})The title is explained in the note.The number of the chapter may refer to the letterSamech ({Samech}), Temperence, in the Tarot.I paragraph 1 the real chastity of Percivale orParsifal, a chastity which did not prevent his dippingthe point of the sacred lance into the Holy Grail, isdistinguished from its misinterpretation by moderncrapulence. The priests of the gods were carefullychosen, and carefully trained to fulfill the sacrament offatherhood; the shame of sex consists in the usurpationof its function by the unworthy. Sex is a sacrament.The word virtus means "the quality of manhood".Modern "virtue" is the negation of all such qualities.In paragraph 3, however, we see the penalty ofconservatism; children must be weaned.In the penultimate paragraph the words "the newChrist" alluded to the author.In the last paragraph we reach the sublime mysticdoctrine that whatever you have must be abandoned.Obviously, that which differentiates your consciousnessfrom the absolute is part of the content of that consciousness.NOTE(27) Chapter so called because Amfortas waswounded by his own spear, the spear that had made him