The Sphinx in Liber Aleph

June 4, 2002 at 3:34 am 
Filed Under Esoteric, Spirituality
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I’m contemplating the Sphinx, it’s riddle and meaning today.
From Liber Aleph, a few chapters where the Sphinx is mentioned…

Et

DE SPHINGE AEGYPTIORUM
It is now expedient that I instruct thee concerning the Four Powers of the Sphinx, and firstly, that this most arcane of the Mysteries of Antiquity was never at any Period the Tool of the Slavegods, but a Witness of Horus through the dark Æon of Osiris to His Light and Truth, His Force and Fire. Thou canst by no means interpret the Sphinx in Terms of the Formula of the Slain God. This did I comprehend even when as Eliphas Levi Zahed I walked up and down the Earth, seeking a Reconciliation of these Antagonisms, which was a Task impossible, for in that Plane they have Antipathy. (Even so may no Man form a Square Magical of Four Units.) But the Light of the New Æon revealeth this Sphinx as the true Symbol of this our Holy Art of Magick under the Law of Thelema. In Her is the equal Development and Disposition of the Forces of Nature, each in its Balanced Strength; also Her True Name has the Digamma for Phi, and endeth in Upsilon, not in Xi, so that Her Orthography is SFINUwhose Numeration is Six Hundred and Three Score and Six. For the Root thereof is S F,which signifieth the Incarnation of the Spirit; and of Kin are not only the Sun, Our Father, but Sumer, where Man knew himself Man, and Soma, the Divine Potion that giveth Men Enlightenment, and Scin, Light Astral, and Scire also, by a far Travelling. But especially is this Root hidden in Sus, that is of the Sow, Swine, because the Most Holy must needs take its Delight under the Omphalos of the Unclean. But this was hidden by Wisdom in Order that the Arcanum should not be profaned during the Æon of the Slain God. But now it has been given unto me to understand the Heart of Her Mystery, wherefore, o my Son, by Right of the Great Love that I bear unto thee, I will inform thee thereof.

Eu
DE NATURA SFINU

Firstly, this Sphinx is a Symbol of the Coition of Our Lady B A B A L O N with me T H E B E A S T in its Wholeness. For as I am of the Lion and the Dragon, so is She of the Man and the Bull, in our Natures, but the Converse thereof in our Offices, as thou mayst understand by the Study of the Book of The Vision and the Voice. It is thus a Glyph of the Satisfaction and Perfection of the Will and of the Work, the completion of the True Man as the Reconcilor of the Highest with the Lowest, so for our Convenience conventionally to distinguish them. This then is the Adept, who doth Will with solid Energy as the Bull, doth dare with fierce Courage as the Lion, doth know with swift Intelligence as the Man, and doth keep Silence with soaring Subtlety as the Eagle or Dragon. Moreover, this Sphinx is an Eidolon of the Law, for the Bull is Life, the Lion is Light, the Man is Liberty, the Serpent Love. Now then this Sphinx, being perfect in true Balance, yet taketh the Aspect of the Feminine Principle that so She may be partner of the Pyramid, that is the Phallus, pure Image of Our Father the Sun, the Unity Creative. The Signification of this Mystery is that the Adept must be Whole, Himself, containing all Things in true Proportion, before he maketh himself Bride of the One Universal Transcendental, in its most Secret Virtue. And now therefore, o my Son, comprehending this Mystery by thine Intelligence, I will write further unto thee of these Four Beasts of Power.

Fa

DE DRACONE, QUAE EST AQUILA
SERPENS SCORPIO
Threefold is the Nature of Live, Eagle, Serpent, and Scorpion. And of these the Scorpion is he that, having no Lion of Light and of Courage within him, seemeth to himself encircled by Fire, and, driving his Sting into himself, he dieth. Such are the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I, they that deny Love, restricting it to their own Nature. But the Serpent is the secret Nature of Man, that is Life and Death, and maketh his Way through the Generations in Silence. And the Eagle is that Might of Live which is the Key of Magick, uplifting the Body and its Appurtenance unto high Ecstasy upon his Wings. It is by Virtue thereof that the Sphinx beholdeth the Sun unwinking, and confronteth the Pyramid without Shame. Our Dragon, therefore, combining the Natures of the Eagle and the Serpent, is our Love, the Organon of our Will, by whose Virtue we perform the Work and Miracle of the One Substance, as saith thine Ancestor Hermes Trismegistus, in his Tablet of Smaragda. And this Dragon, is called thy Silence, because in the Hour of his Operation that within thee which saith “I” is abolished in its Conjunction with the Beloved. For this Cause also is its Letter Nun, which in our Rota is the Trump Death; and Nun hath the value of Fifty, the Number of the Gates of Understanding.

Fb

DE QUATTUOR VIRTUTIS SFINU
See now our Sphinx, with what Subtility and Art is She made Whole! Here is thy Light, the Lion, the Necessity of thy Nature, fortified by thy Life, the Bull, the Power of Works, and guided by thy Liberty, the Man, the Wit to adapt Action to Environment. These are three Virtues in One, necessary to all proper Motion, as I may say in a Figure, the Lust of the Archer, the propulsive Force of his Arm, and the equilibrating and directing Control of his Eye. Of these three if one fail, the Mark is not hit. But hold! Is not a Fourth Element essential in the Work? Yea, soothly, all were vain without the Engine, Arrow and Bow. This Engine is thy Body, possessed by thee and used by thee for thy Work, yet not Part of thee, even as are his Weapons to this Archer in my Similitude. Thus is thy Dragon to be cherished of thy Lion, but if thou lack Energy and Endurance of thy Bull, thy Tools lie idle, and if Cunning and Intelligence, with Experience also of thy Man, thy Shaft flight crooked. So then, o my son, do thou perfect thyself in these Four Powers, and that with Equity.

Fg

DE LIBRA, IN QUA GUATTUOR VIRTUTES AEQUIPOLLENT
By Gñana Yoga cometh thy Man to Knowledge; by Karma Yoga thy Bull to Will; by Raja Yoga is thy Lion brought to his Light; and to make perfect thy Dragon, thou hast Bhakti Yoga for the Eagle therein, and Hatha Yoga for the Serpent. Yet mark thou well how all these interfuse, so that thou mayst accomplish no one of the Works separately. As to make Gold thou must have Gold (it is the Word of the Alchemists), so to become the Sphinx thou must first be a Sphinx. For naught may grow save to the Norm of its own Nature, and in the Law of its own Law, or it is but Artifice, and endureth
not. So therefore is it Folly, and a Rape wrought upon Truth to aim at aught but the Fulfilment of thine own True Nature. Order then thy Workings in Accord with thy Knowledge of that Norm as best thou mayst, not heeding the Importunity of them that prate of the Ideal. For this Rule, this Uniformity, is proper only to a Prison, and a Man Liveth by Elasticity, nor endureth Rigor save in Death. But whoso groweth bodily by a Law foreign to his own Nature, he hath a Cancer, and his whole Œconomy shall be destroyed by that small Disobedience.

Fd

DE PYRAMIDE
Now then at last art thou made ready to confront the Pyramid, if thou art established as a Sphinx. For It also hath the foursquare Base of Law, and the Four Triangles of Light, Life, Love and Liberty for its Sides, that meet in a Point of Perfection that is Hadit, poised to the Kiss of Nuit. But in this Pyramid there is no Difference of Form between the Sides, as it is in thy Shinx, for these are wholly One, save in Direction. Thou art then an Harmony of the Four by Right of thy Attainment of Adeptship, the Crown of thy Manhood, but not an Identity, as in Godhead. Therefore may it be said from one Point of Sight that thine Achievement is but a Preparation, an Adornment of the Bride for the Temple of Hymen, and his Rite. Verily, o my Son, I deem in my Wisdom that this whole Work of thy Development to Sphinxhood cometh before the Work of Theurgy, for the Lord descendeth not upon a Temple ill-conceived, and builded wry, nor abideth in a Shrine unworthy. Accomplish then this Task in Patience, with Assiduity, not hasting furiously after Godliness. For this is most sure, that to the Beauty of a Maiden answereth the Lust of her Lord, spontaneous and without Effort or Appeal of her Contriving.

Ft

DE HERBO SANCTISSIMO ARABICO
Recall, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the City Babylon, how Nebuchadnezzar the Great King, being afflicted in his Spirit, did depart from among Men for Seven Years’ Space, eating Grass as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth whose Number is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the Vulture, the All-Mother, being an Image of Our Lady Nuit, but also it is called the Fool, who is Parsifal, “der reine Thor”, and so referreth to him that walketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Harpocrates, the Child Horus, walking, (as saith David, the Badavi that became King in his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with his own secret Nature,
as I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in One Hour of our terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Æon, and in Ten Lives I could not declare it.

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