[Friday, Jan. 2, 1914 e.v.]
The Temple was opened at about midnight (the clock had been purposely removed); at 12.27 a.m. die Saturni, the Quia Patris was ended. During the Versicle Fra. O.S.V. approached the state of ecstatic possession, seeing the Triple Cross of the Grand Hierophants, and then Hermes Himself, comprehending also that the t.... t.... b.... were the twin serpents that writhe upon his wand. But, mastering the tendency, the Versicle was quietly concluded.
A great deal of information and counsel was thus obtained, the full account of which is in the esoteric record.
The Temple was closed at 2.15 a.m.
In the morning the suggestion of O.S.V. that L.T. should arise, move and appear to transcribe the record led to two fine fights, a sign of the excess of magical force developed. During the previous day the Art-Bachelor W.D. came with what may prove to be good news of two matters, both of a Juppiterian nature. Also came a letter promising a valuable introduction.
The Esoteric Record [of the Third Working]
Die Saturni: 1.58 a.m. Hermes as Force
L.T.: He is essentially phallic, but he has a book in his hand, the book II which has 106 pp. On the last page, as a colophon, is a four-pointed star, very luminous, and this is to be identified with the Eve of Shiva, and the book pertains to the grade of 7° = 4□. The sub-title of the book is BIA, which is said to mean 'force'.
Every drop of semen which Hermes sheds is a world. The technical term for this semen is KRATOS. Those worlds are held in chains, but invisibly. People upon the worlds are like maggots upon an apple — all forms of life bred by the worlds are in the nature of parasites. Pure worlds are flaming globes, each a conscious being. Number of worlds ejected, 7,482,135.
The name of this Phallus is Thoth, Hermes or Ma. Ma is the god who seduced the Phallus away from the Yoni; hence the physical Universe. All worlds are excreta; they represent wasted semen. Therefore all is blasphemy. This explains why man made god in his own image.
The feminine side of Ma is Pan, which explains why Pan is a devil. The only way to be really born is by annihilation — to be born into Chaos, where Pan is the Saviour.
I may say no more because the process is secret.
With regard to Genesis; when Adam died, Heva became masculine, in order to escape the temptations of the serpent; but she failed. Her failure cut the serpent in two; hence the Caduceus: because if there were only one serpent, Hermes could not be the messenger of the gods. It is the quality of this serpent business that gives Him power to travel. This again is blasphemy; but lawful, because the law of the Jews is founded upon it.
It is the fixed Mercury, of which the physical form of the god is made. This fixed Mercury is the result of the mind.
Semen itself is Mercury, the river of life flowing throughout the generations. That is fluid Mercury. What is (from the point of view of life) waste, is knowledge. Hence the opposition between knowledge and life. One is homo- and the other hetero-sexuality. Those are reconciled in Mercury, who is wisdom.
O.S.V.: I am making a silent prayer to the god, and thanksgiving. You can get magic force from either women or men; but to use the former is more dangerous to the career of the magician, and there is the danger of impregnation, which, however, can be guarded against in the obvious way.
In order to get this god more perfectly, a cock should be slain in his honour, and the blood drunk, as a sacrament. The throat of the cock should be cut over the great image that is upon the altar; the image should be placed in a vessel so as to catch the blood.
He should be invoked on 8 consecutive nights, beginning with Wednesday. He says we should feed in greater abundance: he will protect us. There is a gate to knock down between us and mastery of the Universe; and Frater L.T. has a fault, which is introspection. The point is that he is a man of thought, rather than of action. O.S.V. has also faults; his chief fault is contradiction. Whenever he gets into a state of hopelessness he may renew his strength by this Rite; and this will be good for always.
[1]
The nature of this god is to go blindly ahead. The semen that he sheds is Kether, and not his own. He is only responsible for ejecting it, and he cares nothing what may come to it. He despises intensely all these correspondences, identifications, and the like. He despises intelligence; for he is the supreme wisdom; so fully in accord with destiny, that interpretation is beneath him. If we need pure magical force, he is to be invoked. He says that tomorrow night we are to ask questions by Geomancy, without doing any rite. We are to invoke Juppiter on Monday. Had it not been that we first invoked him, we could not invoke Juppiter successfully. We shall probably have to invoke Juppiter for 4 nights running, reaching a climax on Thursday. We shall get not so much information as aid from Juppiter. It is very important to have Banquets.
L.T.: Will he help to this end?
O.S.V.: he doesn't know and doesn't care.
He says "Don't be such an ass as to think how you are going to do a thing: just do it". The man in the parable who counted the cost had the slave-spirit. He also says that in the rites of Luna and Venus, O.S.V. should have a woman; in that of Luna a menstruating woman. He refuses to tell me when I am to have this woman; He says it is a question of common sense. He says do it; don't ask me about it.
I am now lost in contemplation of him, in his great aspect of vehicle of the energy of the highest. He is that which fertilizes the luminiferous ether, the strain in it that produces what is called matter.
He is the creative energy of the artist, in particular, and one should invoke him unless one wants the 'drawing-room songs of Apollo'.
[2]
I see it all now; the virile force of Mars is far beneath him. All of the other gods are merely aspects of Juppiter formulated by Hermes. He is the first of the Aeons. He wants us not to invoke the other forms of Mercury. He says that we have more knowledge than we know what to do with. Julius Caesar did not know the Qabalah, but he did better than the pair of you in the matter of husbands and wives. He, moreover, subdued Gaul and Germany, and would not have been killed if he had not gone to a talking shop.
I am praying Him to fill us with magick force for this invocation of Juppiter.
He says it depends principally upon the banquets. This is the great preparation to make. And he says "What fools to bother about the room, you don't think I am in the room, do you?" He wants us to overcome shame generally, and says "There is no shame about me, is there?"
He suggests an obvious method which I blush to repeat.
The sense of humour of this god is very strong. He is not sentimental about his principal function; he regards the Universe as an excellent practical joke; yet he recognizes that Juppiter is serious, and the universe is serious, although he laughs at them for being serious. His sole business is to transmit the force from Juppiter, and he is concerned with nothing else. The message is life, but in Juppiter the life is latent; he says that we can do everything if we will only act as he does.
He again exhibits his contempt for the art of conversation, by making a suggestion, with which, owing to the lateness of the hour, we comply only in symbolic form.
