Book of Law Study Group 1.40

Aeon418

Liber 418 - 13th Aethyr:
And he says to me, quite disconnectedly: The man of earth is the adherent. The lover giveth his life unto the work among men. The hermit goeth solitary, and giveth only of his light unto men.

And I ask him: Why does he tell me that?

And he says: I tell thee not. Thou tellest thyself, for thou hast pondered thereupon for many days, and hast not found light. And now that thou art called NEMO, the answer to every riddle that thou hast not found shall spring up in thy mind, unsought. Who can tell upon what day a flower shall bloom?
Bit short of time at the moment. Will comment later.
 

Aeon418

Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades,
This part of the verse appears to be saying that it is ok to call followers/practitioners of Thelema, Thelemites. But it should be recognised that there are different kinds (or different levels) of Thelemite.

Crowley attributed the A.'.A.'. grades to the "Three Grades" like this:

Man of Earth - Zelator

Lover - Adept

Hermit - Magister Templi

The OTO grade division is more symbolic of these grades because the OTO is merely an outer order. A.'.A.'. grades are a seal of attainment. OTO grades are not. In an A.'.A.'. sense the entire OTO corresponds to Man of Earth.

Liber 418 tells us that the Man of Earth is the adherent. An adherent is a follower, a supporter. I see this level as the regular man or woman who tries to follow the principles of Thelema as best they can and aspires upward to union with the HGA. The formula of this grade is essentially Phallic. (The OTO is a Phallic cult, and therefore highly visible. It's an Outer order.)

The Lover seems to suggest Union. One who has attained to the K&C of HGA may be considered to be a Lover. Their life is now identified will Will.

The Hermit corresponds to the Supernal Triad on the Tree of Life. They only give their light because their life has been drained into the Cup of Babalon. The formula of the Hermit is not the Phallic aspiration of the Man of Earth, nor the (sexual) union with the HGA. The Hermits formula is Feminine because he/she births the light of the supernal triad (through the path of Daleth/The Empress.) This is why the A.'.A.'. is called the "invisible order".

Without being too literal a pattern emerges. Arousal/Erection - Coition - Birth.
THE OYSTER

The Brothers of A.'.A.'. are one with the Mother of
the Child.
The Many is as adorable to the One as the One is to
the Many. This is the Love of These; creation-
parturition is the Bliss of the One; coition-
dissolution is the Bliss of the Many.
The All, thus interwoven of These, is Bliss.
Naught is beyond Bliss.
The Man delights in uniting with the Woman; the
Woman in parting from the Child.
The Brothers of A.'.A.'. are Women: the Aspirants
to A.'.A.'. are Men.
 

RLG

Dwtw

Since Thelema is a Greek word, it is possible to consider the word 'Thelemites' as a Greek word also. In this case it would be spelled Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Iota-Tau-Eta-Sigma, having the meaning of 'a follower of Thelema'.

This is a singular word, not a plural, and has a gematria value of 610.
The 9 letters of this word may be broken into three parts, representing the Three Grades.

Litlluw
RLG
 

RLG

Dwtw

I realize this thread is almost exactly 5 years old, but I was recently meditating on this verse again, and it struck me that there is a rather simple explanation for it. I'm probably not the first to notice this, but since it hasn't been mentioned, I'll set down an explanation here.

The Three Grades of Thelemites are represented in the three horizontal paths of the G.D. Tree of Life:

• The Lover is the path of the Empress - Dalet - Venus, connecting Chokmah and Binah;
• The Hermit is the path of Lust - Tet - connecting Chesed and Geburah;
• The man of Earth is the path of the Tower - Peh - connecting Netzach with Hod.

These three letters are 4 + 9 + 80 = 93, which is identical to the value of Thelema. This is in accord with the instructions in Liber AL to 'look but close into the word' Thelema:

39. The word of the Law is ΘΕΛΗΜΑ

40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth.


Despite the obvious connection of the term Lover with the tarot trump called the Lovers, (which Crowley noted in his Old Comment to this verse), it is just as easy to connect the Lover grade with the card of the Empress, attributed to Venus, the goddess of Love. This also finds support in the verse immediately following the listing of Grades:

41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse.

In this sentence, the 'divided' that love unites can be symbolized by the spheres of Chokmah and Binah, (and their associated pillars), which are united by the path of Dalet. The identification of this path with Love is also made in Liber B del Magi:

0. Yet the Magus hath power upon the Mother both directly and through Love.

The 'Mother' is the sphere Binah, and the Magus affects it directly, through the path of Bet - (The Magus trump) from Keter to Binah, and through the path of Dalet (The Empress trump) from Chokmah to Binah.


Also obvious is the connection with the Grade of Hermit with the Tarot trump of the same name - an association that Crowley makes in his Old Comment on AL. But when we refer to Liber AL for support, we find an entirely different connotation. The hermit of Thelema is defined rather specifically:

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.

This characterization fits very well wit the Lust trump, depicting the Scarlet Woman astride the Beast. She is certainly a 'magnificent beast' of a woman, well described in this verse. The point is that the hermit of Thelema is not isolated like an ascetic in the wilderness, but is fully engaged in the thrill of life and lust embodied in the card of the same name.


The Grade of man of Earth was attributed by Crowley to the Tower trump in his Old Comment to Liber AL. This coincides with the present thesis, and we can find justification for this attribution in the second chapter of AL:

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.

Here is Hadit, identifying with the kundalini, and saying that when the power is brought downward, he becomes united with 'the earth'. This is the use of the 'fire snake' for sexual purposes, entirely in line with the very phallic nature of the Tower trump, which traditionally shows people falling to the Earth as the lightning (of orgasm) strikes the Tower.


Identifying the Three Grades with the three horizontal paths makes it elementary to see the nature of these grades as they ascend the Tree of Life. Each Grade represents the mastery of one of the three Triads above Malkut. In between the Grades are the two veils - of Paroket and the Abyss.

A related set of concepts is my thesis that AL I:57 identifies the same three Tarot trumps. Although too lengthy to enter into here, in brief it can be said that the two kinds of love - the dove and the serpent - are represented by Venus and Mars - i.e., the Empress and the Tower (House of God) cards, while 'the fortress' refers not to the Tower but to the Strength/Lust card, whose original Italian name 'fortezza' means 'fortress'.

The main thrust of AL I:57 is to elucidate the formula of 'love is the law, love under will'. Obviously, love/agape and will/thelema are both equal to 93, so from the perspective of Will, we have the Three Grades; the types of thelemites doing their will. From the perspective of Love we have the means whereby this will is accomplished, as symbolized in the Tarot trumps. The law of Love is the connecting force that binds the two side Pillars together via the horizontal paths. The 'word' of that law, its manifestation, is by way of actual human activity, the Thelemites doing their Will, who are exemplified in each of the Grades.

Thus, each of these three paths is dual in nature, and they each make manifest the principle of 'love under will'.

Litlluw
RLG