The blood is the life.
similia said:
What exactly are the cakes of light for in Thelema? Some kind of sacrement that contains blood, so presumably from this line nothing to do with Nuit, rather Hadit or Heru-ra-ha?
If you take a look at 3:23-24 you'll notice the recipe for the cakes of light is also the perfume of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. As such the cakes represent the Child of Nuit and Hadit.
Liber XV:
In my mouth be the essence of the life of the Sun!
In the Christian Mass, the host (from the Latin Hostia - victim, sacrifice) and wine represent the flesh and blood of Christ. It's the simplest form of magick.
Consume that which you wish to embody. Or in simpler terms, you are what you eat.
(In this context read Lon Milo Duquette's introduction to the Gnostic Mass in chapter 13 of his book,
The Magick of Aleister Crowley.)
In Liber 44 (44 - DM, Blood) The Mass of the Phoenix, two cakes are used. One is the host, which is eaten. The other is burned as incense.
I'm not sure if I agree with Ravenest on the burnt ash issue. The relevant verses are open to interpretation in two distinct ways. But I can understand why the OTO has to protect itself.
Back to the verse in question. There is no blood in Nuit's incense. Why? Blood suggests mortal, living things. But the absence of blood might point to the infinite, continuous nature of Nuit. On top of that the shedding of blood was the central mystery of the Osirian formula, and therefore does not relate to Isis.