Comment on Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente – Chapter II

COMMENT ON LIBER CORDIS
CINCTI SERPENTE
SVB FIGVRA
ADNI

Frater Alion∴
Frater Aureus∴

CHAPTER II

1. I passed into the mountain of lapis-lazuli, even as a green hawk between the pillars of turquoise that is seated upon the throne of the East.

Crystal clear awareness, as a true nature of Adept.

The initiation mountain is in a heavenly blue color, which reflects Adonai. He is the green hawk, green as air and active like the hawk; in the East where the throne of the Sun, the Provider of Illumination, between the pillars of polarity. The Adept is “in shape” of the green hawk, the most sacred shape of air, and therefore in the image of the Sun that controls the world from the East (the place where the Sun is “born”).

 

2. So came I to Duant, the starry abode, and I heard voices crying aloud.

Duant, the starry abode is Chokmah, every Soul-Star, either a man or woman, has his own voice, his word and the proclamation of Truth.

 

3. O Thou that sittest upon the Earth! (so spake a certain Veiled One to me) thou art not greater than thy mother! Thou speck of dust infinitesimal! Thou art the Lord of Glory, and the unclean dog.

The idea under the veil, the Veiled One, is Isis, she addresses the Adept’s soul, who is incarnated on Earth – she is the celestial “He” of Tetragrammaton, as his body is “He” of the Kingdom. In that “way,” he cannot be greater or “more important” than Binah as Understanding – the whole structure of the Universe has its meaning, a stone from the earth cannot be thrown further than the sky.

This verse also shows three pairs of duality. There is a relationship of “Goddess” and the initiate, a comparison of her “size” and his material “insignificance,” as well as the relation of the glory of the spirit and animality of crude human qualities.

 

4. Stooping down, dipping my wings, I came unto the darkly-splendid abodes. There in that formless abyss was I made a partaker of the Mysteries Averse.

He “descended” consciously from the sphere of the supreme triad below the boundary of Abyss, grasping the attributes of the created Universe. In this, everything is inverted in relation to the Consciousness that resides above the Abyss. The material is “inversion” and opposition of the Spiritual, as one more concept of duality relations.

 

5. I suffered the deadly embrace of the Snake and of the Goat; I paid the infernal homage to the shame of Khem.

Snake and Goat are paths of Ayin and Nun – “ON” – a dual relationship between a “male” and “female” cosmic principle.

Khem is “black earth,” a manifest world in which spiritual incarnates in a single “human” carrier.

Suffering is one of the features of burning in the fire of the world, infernal homage refers to Geburah – and gives a specific indication of the Great Magical Operations of the Adeptus Major who performs Magick that empowers and realizes His Great Work.

 

6. Therein was this virtue, that the One became the all.

One of the descriptions of Tiphareth.

From One – Kether – all was manifested and created – Pan – whose center is the Sun.

 

7. Moreover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little boat thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. Also the river was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream.

The Grade of the Babe of the Abyss that does not have a Robe, that loves Binah, the Great Mother.

Netzach; the river of life, carries the soul (a little boat) which inspires and guides by the image of the Goddess of Understanding – Asi – Isis. The girdle is the Circle that surrounds the identity of a man – by freeing himself from limited personal attachments he yields himself to the Flow.

 

8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many days and nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.

Hod; conscious and thoughtful loyalty to the guiding idea, which is empowered by the incense of the inspiration of the mind.

Here, also, is the relationship between the Adept and Adonai; the small boat that sails the river is Adonai’s support for the great Love of Adept towards him.

 

9. Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.

Yesod – the flower of energized enthusiasm.

The ideal of the Spirit; Adonai himself is the focus of Adept’s worship.

 

10. But she stirred not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to blackness before me.

Adonai is not a changeable form or idea, “it” is the complex of the Spiritual Force and therefore it “stirred not” because it is behind, outside the elements. “It” can be worshipped so immensely to shape his character and figure so “it” can get a “material” form in Malkuth, but it is a “dirty” and unreal image which is not the reality of the spiritual essence of God.

 

11. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of the flower of my youth.

The Fool worships God without distinction, both on “higher” levels, and in the Kingdom of matter. The Fool does not make the difference between the “figures” of God he worships because he “knows” that God is present in every “part” and every element of the Universe.

 

12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream.

He possesses the potentials and attributes of Magus Wisdom, while “she” is Understanding. He surrendered so much to the relationship between “him” and “God” that it becomes corrupted, and strengthened duality. This enchants and binds the Adept.

 

13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of the midmost sun.

Gimel; the High priestess of the Silver Star – this is a “description” of her appearance in the Light.

The appointed end is the Crown, with her light and her qualities she is reflecting “herself” through the Sun in its “positions” during the day. She is the connection between Kether and Tiphareth.

 

14. Then rose she up from the abyss of Ages of Sleep, and her body embraced me. Altogether I melted into her beauty and was glad.

Daleth – the Great Babalon – this also is one of the “images” of Adonai.

 

15. The river also became the river of Amrit, and the little boat was the chariot of the flesh, and the sails thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me, that beareth me.

Heh – The Star; the Trinity of connected dualities that represent the “overflow” of Aquarius, where the river becomes Amrit, the boat becomes a chariot, the sails are the blood of the heart, they are identical to the “functions” and features of Adonai, which is comprehended by releasing the flow of Aquarius.

The river is, for some, the force which drives a man, for the others is pleasure and blessing of ecstasy of the immortal perception of life; the boat is the soul-body as well as the chariot of the flash which are more apparent kinds of soul’s physical carrier; the wind of the mind empowers the sails of the boat, and in this way man governs his life by intelligence, the blood of the heart is, in fact, a force that maintains the presence of the soul within the body.

The Will is the Self. It is very hard to define, except as a form of living Enthusiasm. The Will is the Spirit itself within, as well as without. The outward projection is perceived as an Angel, while inward it is the Will.

 

16. O serpent woman of the stars! I, even I, have fashioned Thee from a pale image of fine gold.

He addresses to Adonai realizing him as Nuit – which he showed to himself on the other plane as a pale image of fine gold, therefore, as the solar light of Adonai.

 

17. Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue.

The Holy One is, of course, Adonai, and here Adept conceives him as the white swan which floating in the blue – on the heights of the Spirit.

This Vision is suitable for the indicated plane, which is dispersed through the element of the Air (the attribute of the entire chapter of this book).

 

18. Between its wings I sate, and the aons fled away.

Adonai always carries the Soul, the existence of consciousness embodied in the life force always “relies” on Divine support.

Cheth (“Chariot” which conveys Adept).

 

19. Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went.

There is no beginning or end; there is no determinant of flight for a series of incarnations; the serpentine movement, the waves of incarnations in which the soul resides in the world. The continuum is so “long” that it goes into infinity, and thus the meaning of existence cannot be seen. The Adept does not understand the meaning of existence as a “man” (but it will understand it as a Magister when he realizes the oneness and inseparability with Adonai).

  

20. A little crazy boy that rode with me spake unto the swan, and said:

Yod, the Mercurial human intelligence of Ruach, is a “child” regarding the Spiritual “greatness” of God. He continues to persist in a “relationship” with God and still does not go beyond the separation of duality.

 

21. Who art thou that dost float and fly and dive and soar in the inane? Behold, these many aons have passed; whence camest thou? Whither wilt thou go?

Kaph; Dynamics of the Universe – he is surprised by “nonsense” of the Universe’s existence, because Ruach cannot understand the Spiritual – it comprehends activities, occurrences, events, space and time of the Universe, he tries to come closer by desire to understand the meaning of the mind – therefore asks Adonai for instruction and Gnosis, for explanation of Adonai’s nature.

 

22. And laughing I chid him, saying: No whence! No whither!

Non-action. Removing attributes, with the remaining of pure nouns. Here the Aspirant’s mind uses the essential form of Tathāgata – the true nature of Buddha.

It is true that Adonai, in its “purest” and “most meaningful” sense, is actually Nothing – AIN/Nuit. The Adept is “rebuked” because his mind should already understand the structure of the Universe, and that he has agreed on the meaning of existence through the Qabalah and observing the manifested nature (below the Abyss), and thus he may already have the realization that “this” highest Spiritual, essentially and above All, only interpreted as “Nothing” – is the furthermost, so-called “third” veil of the “negative existence” above the Tree of Life.

 

23. The swan being silent, he answered: Then, if with no goal, why this eternal journey?

Maim gives a certain impression of the “purpose of existence,” or the eternal journey – and that is the idea about how the Deity creates the world in its own intention and that the human souls are bearers of the inner Light, which are incarnated for the Mystery of that Creation.

 

24. And I laid my head against the Head of the Swan, and laughed, saying: Is there not joy ineffable in this aimless winging? Is there not weariness and impatience for who would attain to some goal?

For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

The one who does not know where he goes always arrives on the destination, for him, there is no difference between right and the wrong way. An arrow which is not released always hits the target.

“They” are very close by their essence at this moment, yet only “leaning” to each other, there are still not One; he surrendered to the flight of the Lover.

The one who “wishes” to achieve the Aim lives in the fixation on the “wrong” ideal since the only true ideal is inside the understanding of Oneness with Adonai. It is impossible to predict the time of fulfillment that goal; it brings restlessness, concern, suffering, a multitude of mental suppression of life circumstances which do not attain the real goal – residing in Divine Spirit.

 

25. And the swan was ever silent. Ah! but we floated in the infinite Abyss. Joy! Joy! White swan, bear thou ever me up between thy wings!

Adonai dwells in Silence, while shapes and visions shifts in the mind of Adept.

Path of the Arrow going upward – a pillar by which consciousness raises from the Kingdom and Foundation to the Sun that receives the Light of the Crown.

In the heavens, the constellation of Swan is very similar to the appearance of the Cross, between thy wings is an allusion to the center in relation to the cross of the Element – that is, the Spirit.

 

26. O silence! O rapture! O end of things visible and invisible! This is all mine, who am Not.

It seems that here Adept also, carried by ecstasy, reaches the perception and experience that he is the Highest Nothingness – one with Nuit, who appears to him (occasionally) as Adonai.

It is now evident that the earlier statement of the Swan, which floats in the blaze of Abyss, is Adeptus Exemptus, the Liberated Adept.

 

27. Radiant God! Let me fashion an image of gems and gold for Thee! that the people may cast it down and trample it to dust! That Thy glory may be seen of them.

Torched tower of man’s elemental and transient materiality shines upon the Eye of Illumination. The tower is a fantastic and powerful construction (as well as the image of gems and gold – which are symbols of the quality of the soul), but it must fall like an “egoism” (that the people may cast it down and trample it to dust – dust is thoughts of the mind, ideas by which the mind tries to explain the beauty of an image, certain feelings that appear in the soul when it comes to comprehension of Adonai.

 

28. Nor shall it be spoken in the markets that I am come who should come; but Thy coming shall be the one word.

He is the Emperor, the ruler, the Prophet of the Ancient Gods, as the carrier and emitter of Divine Providence, he is not “important” – important is the Word which is the vibration of the Truth of the Universe and the Human Soul.

This is also the Word of Æon of every incarnated Magus, who announces his conception of the Cosmic Gnosis of Adonai.

And how few truly understand this comment – yet enjoying the happy circumstance that such a beautiful Gnosis came into the world through it.

 

29. Thou shalt manifest Thyself in the unmanifest; in the secret places men shall meet with thee, and Thou shalt overcome them.

Secret places are from the path of Qoph, the hidden places, and the twelfth house of the zodiac of man’s incarnation.

 

30. I saw a pale sad boy that lay upon the marble in the sunlight, and wept. By his side was the forgotten lute. Ah! but he wept.

200 – the Sun; mysteries of the path of Resh. Adonai now shows vision to Adept in which there is a relation of a boy lying on the earth; above him is the Sun, and the lute is not played because personal work stops as we are enjoying in the beauty of the Sun’s light. He cries out of happiness and excitement of such beauty.

 

31. Then came an eagle from the abyss of glory and overshadowed him. So black was the shadow that he was no more visible.

The vision of Æon; Eagle of Lagash – LGSh is 333, which overlaps by shadow, the Divinity of the Fire of Logos and the Ruler of Æon. The air (of this whole chapter) is a gathering of infinite thoughts that hide the true Vision of Adonai – so that the Adept does not see his Glory or Light.

 

32. But I heard the lute lively discoursing through the blue still air.

Lute, a wind instrument, an instrument of air. Lively discoursing – an Adept who is in possession of the name of his Angel, and the living Word of Æon. Through the blue still air – so he advances through the blue spheres of Chesed, becoming the Adeptus Exemptus.

The sound penetrates through the Kingdom. The sound is the thought; the lute is the Mind, the air is the Soul/Spirit.

 

33. Ah! messenger of the beloved One, let Thy shadow be over me!

Adonai is the messenger of Nuit. The Adept realizes that His Love is directed to Nuit, but his soul must first grasp all peculiarity of the Universe, as well as the divine manifestation called Adonai – so with the hierarchy of achievement he could reach the Oneness with Her.

 

34. Thy name is Death, it may be, or Shame, or Love. So thou bringest me tidings of the Beloved One, I shall not ask thy name.

He tries to understand Adonai – giving him various characteristics, depending on how he “tries” to think of him and to understand his endless possibilities of appearance for the assigned soul. He realizes that Adonai is like Metatron, the messenger, the “archangel” of the Crown and the Light, by which the Goddess of Eternity, who is Nothing, is covered. He gives him epithets, he thinks about him but refuses to dare to define him as a constant – a Name.

 

35. Where is now the Master? cry the little crazy boys. He is dead! He is shamed! He is wedded! and their mockery shall ring round the world.

The Magister is wedded to Adonai, which means he has understood the Oneness with him and the essential inseparability.

He is dead – the Man of Earth (because he does not realize the Spirit in matter); He is shamed – the Lover (because he resides in separation, duality); He is wedded – the Hermit – He is One, there is no Him and God, he is a Magister who is both Man and God, without difference.

 

36. But the Master shall have had his reward. The laughter of the mockers shall be a ripple in the hair of the Beloved One.

Master’s reward is the Spiritual Understanding and the Peace that arises from the realization of Oneness with Adonai. Magister is Adonai.

 

37. Behold! the Abyss of the Great Deep. Therein is a mighty dolphin, lashing his sides with the force of the waves.

Again, Adonai is shown in Vision; a powerful thought “swims” in the depths of the Abyss – Adonai is not a powerful thought or force that “swims” through Ruach, he is the energy of the Spiritual Consciousness that “swims” over Infinite Abyss (of Chaos).

 

38. There is also an harper of gold, playing infinite tunes.

A new vision of Adonai – he plays infinite tunes – always inspiring the soul of Adept.

 

39. Then the dolphin delighted therein, and put off his body, and became a bird.

Adonai’s vision changes itself by shifting the plain of perception of him and the world. Streaming of water visions.

 

40. The harper also laid aside his harp, and played infinite tunes upon the Pan-pipe.

Adonai produces sounds – the vibrations of the existence of Everything – Pan.

 

41. Then the bird desired exceedingly this bliss, and laying down its wings became a faun of the forest.

The vision changes, an Adept seizes the appearances of Adonai looking meaningful to him, in everything “seen.”

42. The harper also laid down his Pan-pipe, and with the human voice sang his infinite tunes.

Evolution of the Vision, after the symbols of beings and animals, Adonai appears to him as a Man indicating that Adonai is a Man, Adonai is Him. That is what he sees in the vision. An Adept sees himself, sees Adonai.

 

43. Then the faun was enraptured, and followed far; at last the harper was silent, and the faun became Pan in the midst of the primal forest of Eternity.

Vibrations of the elements are the consistency of the Universe, of All (which is Pan). All this “exists” within the Body of Goddess Nuit.

 

44. Thou canst not charm the dolphin with silence, O my prophet!

Adonai cannot be decorated with silence when he is already a silent Self. Silence is only a method by which his nature is perceived and nothing more.

 

45. Then the adept was rapt away in bliss, and the beyond of bliss, and exceeded the excess of excess.

The vibration of Adonai impregnates every part of Adept’s being, covering him by the light of Nuit.

 

46. Also his body shook and staggered with the burden of that bliss and that excess and that ultimate nameless.

The body shook is Kriya, energetic layoffs and flows of Pra-Nua whose nameless consciousness carries Kundalini.

 

47. They cried He is drunk or He is mad or He is in pain or He is about to die; and he heard them not.

He is drunk – deviation of the Water element; he is mad – the distortion of Air; he is in pain – the burden of Earth; he is about to die – the lack of Fire of life. He heard them not – this is the “positive” attribute of limitlessness expressed by the negation of the Spiritual part.

 

48. O my Lord, my beloved! How shall I indite songs, when even the memory of the shadow of thy glory is a thing beyond all music of speech or of silence?

Both speech and silence are just concepts that represent an idea that, by its very nature, is neither loud nor silent, nor is the speech an idea opposite to silence. Logos itself is “just” at the plane of Chokmah.

How to compose a “song” as the vibration of the Spirit, when Adonai is perfect than the “sound,” he is above the vibration of “sound,” i.e., thought; he is the Spirit, he is a Silence.

 

49. Behold! I am a man. Even a little child might not endure Thee. And lo!

Man is 666, he is the bearer of the Light of the Sun, and therefore of Adonai; and even the child Hoor-Paar-Kraat as the Silent form of the Sun God is not his “real” transmitter.

 

50. I was alone in a great park, and by a certain hillock was a ring of deep enamelled grass wherein green-clad ones, most beautiful, played.

He tries to explain it with the next vision; he is looking for a hillock – inspiration in a new way; he tries to explain Adonai to himself differently.

 

51. In their play I came even unto the land of Fairy Sleep. All my thoughts were clad in green; most beautiful were they.

Green is the color of Air and the Venus; Fairy Sleep is delirium of the mind’s rapture, which however is silent, and the thoughts that appear reflect a higher meaning; they are not mere and randomly occurrence, but represent the harmony of thoughts about the nature of Adonai.

 

52. All night they danced and sang; but Thou art the morning, O my darling, my serpent that twinest Thee about this heart.

Everything that a man can do alone is nothing compared to what Adonai does through him.

  

53. I am the heart, and Thou the serpent. Wind Thy coils closer about me, so that no light nor bliss may penetrate.

Participation in the act leads to spiritual impotence. There is no place even for joy. Every Adept’s action and interaction with Reality is a particular coil of the serpent around the heart.

The Invocation of the Adonai must be done from the heart and should be such that it connects the mind with any possible idea of Adonai, that no external influence would divert Adept from loving relationship with God.

Even further, is there anything “outward,” is there anything “further” that it is not from Adonai?

 

54. Crush out the blood of me, as a grape upon the tongue of a white Doric girl that languishes with her lover in the moonlight.

Personal identity must be released, so the soul could be receptive to “something” that is not an Ego, but “something” which is Invoked by vibration of the thoughts and words – which does not seek to understand “itself” but Adonai, because “it” is an inferior reflection – the image of Adonai.

 

55. Then let the End awake. Long hast thou slept, O great God Terminus! Long ages hast thou waited at the end of the city and the roads thereof. Awake Thou! wait no more!

The End is the orgasm of reaching the Crown where Death is the gate through which the soul transforms into One Light; spiritual Phallos has long been a “dormant” – Adept now understands the energy of the active principle of God’s nature.

 

56. Nay, Lord! but I am come to Thee. It is I that wait at last.

The man actively strives for the knowledge of Adonai; at the same time, he must be calm and passive in order to sense Adonai’s presence. The Adept presented the approach to work through the form of Hexagram.

The Holy Hexagram is blue erect; it is the only accurate method of an Adept. Every ritual or meditation is a form of passive expectation for loved Adonai, with attention and joy, like a child playing hide and seek and now waiting to be revealed. And the more it waits, the more joyous and ecstatically it will be. In the same time, a joy to be hidden and a Will to be revealed – that is the whole point of Abramelin’s work.

 

57. The prophet cried against the mountain; come thou hither, that I may speak with thee!

He sees himself, now, as the Prophet, and Adonai is a mountain – but God will not respond to those who suppose they are separate from “him.”

 

58. The mountain stirred not. Therefore went the prophet unto the mountain, and spake unto it. But the feet of the prophet were weary, and the mountain heard not his voice.

The Adept continues to dwell in duality, he sees itself as the minister of Adonai, the emissary, the transmitter of Gnosis, the Logos of Æon, but does not yet experience inseparability, therefore went unto the mountain; he thinks he is closer to Adonai if he is able to speak to him.

 

59. But I have called unto Thee, and I have journeyed unto Thee, and it availed me not.

As long as the Adept thinks he should call or “invoke” Adonai, he will not reach the “result” – the only true “result” and the real goal is to understand that Man is God.

 

60. I waited patiently, and Thou wast with me from the beginning.

The mere invocation and desire are evidence of separation. The invocation of Angel is the same as banishing Him. In case you fail to invoke the Angel, it is good as long as you fail to invoke Him.

The Adept thinks that he should “go” to God, or he should “wait” for God to call him – he has to understand that Adonai is always here – he is Adonai himself.

 

61. This now I know, O my beloved, and we are stretched at our ease among the vines.

Confirms His Gnosis – the Knowledge, He “Knows” (Daath); He is very “close” to the union, for he approached the vines, to the legacy of the Generation that cannot disappear, to the Pneumatics.

 

62. But these thy prophets; they must cry aloud and scourge themselves; they must cross trackless wastes and unfathomed oceans; to await Thee is the end, not the beginning.

The man is constructed in a way that in the “beginning” he does not understand that Adonai is in him, that he is a manifestation of Adonai and that he only needs to awaken those dormant and forgotten capacities that give him the impression of separation in the first place. So the Aspirant “goes” on that Spiritual path, continually endeavoring to perceive Adonai, until, in the end, it happens. The concept of the end is different than from the beginning of the Spiritual (Inner) quest.

 

63. Let darkness cover up the writing! Let the scribe depart among his ways.

Only Darkness covers the Light – LVX. This writing, as Liber LXV. Darkness covers Everything. The Fall of the Night of Pan. The number of the verse – 6 and 3, Tiphareth and Binah, or Samekh and Gimmel. Sun and the Moon, LVX, and NOX.

 

64. But thou and I are stretched at our ease among the vines; what is he?

There is a loving relationship between God and Man; the union and the marriage between them are not the subjects of this Mystery (this is described in the Book of Lapidis Lazuli).

 

65. O Thou beloved One! is there not an end? Nay, but there is an end. Awake! arise! gird up thy limbs, O thou runner; bear thou the Word unto the mighty cities, yea, unto the mighty cities.

There is an end to the rule of animal qualities over spiritual – by the man’s entry into the Adeptship; there is the end of Ego – by crossing the Abyss on the Tree of Life; there is the end of the Spiritual – by Incarnation in One Light (LVX) from which the Word (air) of Wisdom of Æon is emanated. Each end is the negation (“No”) of previous “state,” each end is the awakening and rising into the new “reality.” However, a certain “vibration,” or Word, is a sign of Achievement – this Word is the mark of Incarnated Divine Spirit of Light.

In Tiphareth, the work is still forthcoming. And very close to that is Geburah intimidation over Tiphareth. Mars is above the Sun, but as a projection of specific kind of action which, until then, the Aspirant has never experienced in his Being. We should not try to seek plain planetary aspects in this, but a particular type of Change that expresses through the Adept’s Enthusiasm. For it has been said: even if everyone gathered to harm you, they would harm you only as much as God has prescribed.