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Nº. XXII
CONCERNING THE “WORK OF POWER” (2)
YOU have asked me if the Work of Power
is a difficult one, and if it is open to all.
It is open to all potentially and
eventually, but not actually and in the present. In order to regain power and
the resurrection, a man must be a Hierarch; that is to say, he must have
attained the
magical age of thirty-three. This age is
attained by having accomplished the Twelve Labours, passed the Twelve Gates,
overcome the Five Senses, and obtained dominion over the Four Spirits of the
elements. He must have been born Immaculate, baptized with Water and with Fire,
tempted in the Wilderness, crucified and buried. He must have borne Five Wounds
on
the Cross, and he must have answered the riddle of
the Sphinx. When this is accomplished he is free of matter, and will never again
have a phenomenal body.
Who shall attain to this perfection?
The Man who is without fear and without concupiscence; who has
courage to be absolutely poor and absolutely chaste. When it is all one
to you whether you have gold or whether you have none, whether you have a house
and lands or whether you have them not, whether you have worldly reputation or
whether you are an outcast, – then you are voluntarily poor. It is not necessary
to have nothing, but it is necessary to care for nothing. When it is all one to
you whether you have a wife or husband, or whether you are celibate, then you
are free from concupiscence. It is not necessary to be a virgin; it is necessary
to set no value on the flesh. There is nothing so difficult to attain as this
equilibrium. Who is he who can part with his goods without regret? Who is he who
is never consumed by the desires of the flesh? But when you have ceased both to
wish to retain and to burn, then you have the remedy in your own hands, and the
remedy is a hard and a sharp one, and a terrible ordeal. Nevertheless, be not
afraid. Deny the five senses, and above all the taste and the touch. The power
is within you if you will to attain it. The Two Seats are vacant at the
Celestial Table, (1)
if you will put on Christ. Eat no dead thing. Drink no fermented drink. Make
living elements of all the elements of your body. Mortify the members of earth.
Take your food full of life, and let not the touch of death pass upon it. You
understand me, but you shrink. Remember that without self-immolation, there is
no power over death. Deny the touch. Seek no bodily pleasure in sexual
communion; let desire be magnetic and soulic. If you
indulge the body, you perpetuate the body, and the end of the body is
corruption. You understand me again, but you shrink. Remember that without
self-denial and restraint there is no power over death. Deny the taste first,
and it will become easier to deny the touch. For to be a
virgin is the crown of discipline. I have shown you the excellent way,
and it is the Via Dolorosa. Judge whether the resurrection
be
worth the passion; whether the kingdom be worth the obedience; whether the power
be worth the suffering. When the time of your calling comes, you will no longer
hesitate.
When a man has attained power over
his body, the process of
ordeal is no longer necessary. The Initiate
is under a vow; the Hierarch is free. Jesus, therefore, came eating and
drinking; for, all things were lawful to him. He had undergone, and had freed
his will. For the object of the trial and the vow is polarisation. When the
fixed is volatilised, the Magian is free. But before
Christ was Christ he was subject; and his initiation
lasted thirty years. All things are lawful to the Hierarch; for he knows the
nature and value of all.
When the elements of the body are
endowed with power, they are masters of the elemental spirits, and can overcome
them. But while they are yet under bondage, they are the slaves of the
elementals, and the elementals have power over them. Now,
Hephaistos
is a destroyer, and the breath of fire is a touch of death. The fire that passes
on the elements of your food, deprives them of their vital spirit, and gives you
a corpse instead of living substance. And not only so, but the spirit of the
fire enters into the elements of your body, and sets up in all its molecules a
consuming and a burning, impelling to concupiscence, and to the desire of the
flesh. The spirit of the fire is a subtle spirit, a penetrative and diffusive
spirit, and it enters into the substance of all matter upon which it acts. When,
therefore, you take such substance into your organism, you take with it the
spirit of the fire, and you assimilate it together with the matter of which it
has become a part.
I speak to you of excellent things.
If you would become a man of power, you must be master of the fire. The man who seeks to be a hierophant, must not dwell in cities.
He may begin his initiation in a city, but he cannot complete it there. For he must not breathe dead and burnt air. In a city you respire air upon which the flame has passed; you breathe
fire, and it consumes your blood. The man who seeks all power must be a
wanderer, a dweller in the plain and the garden and the mountains. He must seek
the sun, and the breath of night. He must commune with the moon and stars, and
maintain direct contact with the great electric currents of the unburnt air, and with the grass and unpaved soil of the
planet. It is in unfrequented places, or in lands such
as those of the East, in parts where the abominations of
The number of the human microcosm is
thirteen; four for
the outward body, four for the
sideral
body, four for the soul, and one for the Divine Spirit. For,
although the Spirit is Triune it is One, and can be but One; because it is God,
and God is One. At the Last Supper, therefore, in which the Magians symbolise the Banquet of the Microcosm, there are
twelve apostolic elements and one Christ. But if one of the
elements be disobedient and a traitor, the Spirit is quenched and death ensues.
Footnotes
(60:2)
(61:1) See No. XVIII, “Concerning the Greek Mysteries.”
Also, Dreams and Dream-Stories,
No. IX, “The Banquet of the Gods.”
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