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O Fool! begetter of both I and Naught, resolve this Naught-y Knot!
O! Ay! this I and O — IO! — IAO! For I owe "I" aye to Nibbana's Oe.[1]
I Pay — Pé, the dissolution of the House of God — for Pé comes after O — after Ayin that triumphs over Aleph in Ain, that is O.[2]
OP-us, the Work! the OP-ening of THE EYE![3]
COMMENTARY (ΞΑ)
The number of this chapter refers to the Hebrew word Ain, the negative and Ani, 61.
The "fool" is the Fool of the Tarot, whose number is 0, but refers to the letter Aleph, 1.
A fool's knot is a kind of knot which, although it has the appearance of a knot, is not really a knot, but pulls out immediately.
The chapter consists of a series of complicated puns on 1 and I, with regard to their shape, sound, and that of the figures which resemble them in shape.
Paragraph 1 calls upon the Fool of the Tarot, who is to be referred to Ipsissimus, to the pure fool, Parsifal, to resolve this problem.
The word Naught-y suggests not only that the problem is sexual, but does not really exist.
Paragraph 2 shows the Lingam and Yoni as, in conjunction, the foundation of ecstasy (I)!), and of the complete symbol I A O.
The latter sentence of the paragraph unites the two meanings of giving up the Lingam to the Yoni, and the Ego to the Absolute.
This idea, "I must give up", I owe, is naturally completed by I pay, and the sound of the word "pay" suggest the Hebrew letter Pé (see Liber XVI), which represents the final dissolution in Shivadarshana.
In Hebrew, the letter which follows O is P; it therefore follows Ayin, the Devil of the Tarot.
AYIN is spelt O I N, thus replacing the A in A I N by an O, the letter of the Devil, or Pan, the phallic God.
Now AIN means nothing, and thus the replacing of AIN by OIN means the completion of the Yoni by the Lingam, which is followed by the complete dissolution symbolised in the letter P.
These letters, O P, are then seen to be the root of opus, the Latin word for "work", in this case, the Great Work. And they also begin the word "opening". In Hindu philosophy, it is said that Shiva, the Destroyer, is asleep, and that when he opens his eye the universe is destroyed — another synonym, therefore, for the accomplishment of the Great Work. But the "eye" of Shiva is also his Lingam. Shiva is himself the Mahalingam, which unites these symbolisms. The opening of the eye, the ejaculation of the lingam, the destruction of the universe, the accomplishment of the Great Work — all these are different ways of saying the same thing.
The last paragraph is even obscurer to those unfamiliar to the masterpiece referred to in the note; for the eye of Horus (see 777, Col.
XXI, line 10, "the blind eye that weeps" is a poetic Arab name for the lingam).
The doctrine is that the Great Work should be accomplished without creating new Karma, for the letter N, the fish, the vesica, the womb, breeds, whereas the Eye of Horus does not; or, if it does so, breeds, according to Turkish tradition, a Messiah.
Death implies resurrection; the illusion is reborn, as the Scythe of Death in the Tarot has a crosspiece. This is in connection with the Hindu doctrine, expressed in their injunction, "Fry your seeds". Act so as to balance your past Karma, and create no new, so that, as it were, the books are balanced. While you have either a credit or a debit, you are still in account with the universe.
(N.B. Frater P. wrote this chapter — 61 — while dining with friends, in about a minute and a half. That is how you must know the Qabalah.)
NOTE
[1] Oe = Island, a common symbol of Nibbana.
[2] אין Ain. אין Ayin.
[3] Scil. of Shiva.
[4] Cf. Bagh-i-Muattar for all this symbolism.
[5] Death = Nun, the letter before O, means a fish, a symbol of Christ, and also by its shape the Female principle.