\n
This Formula is the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the Redemption of Mankind.\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0is Isis, Nature, ruined by\u00a0A<\/em>, Apophis the Destroyer, and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris.\u00a0The same idea is expressed by the Rosicrucian formula of the Trinity:<\/p>\n Ex Deo nascimur.<\/em> This is also identical with the Word\u00a0Lux<\/em>, L.V.X., which is formed by the arms of a cross. It is this formula which is implied in those ancient and modern monuments in which the phallus is worshipped as the Saviour of the World.<\/p>\n The doctrine of resurrection as vulgarly understood is false and absurd. It is not even \u201cScriptural\u201d. St. Paul does not identify the glorified body which rises with the mortal body which dies. On the contrary, he repeatedly insists on the distinction.<\/p>\n The same is true of a magical ceremony. The magician who is destroyed by absorption in the Godhead is really destroyed. The miserable mortal automaton remains in the Circle. It is of no more consequence to Him that the dust of the floor.<\/p>\n But before entering into the details of I.A.O. as a magick formula it should be remarked that it is essentially the formula of Yoga or meditation; in fact, of elementary mysticism in all its branches.<\/p>\n In beginning a meditation practice, there is always<\/strong>\u00a0a quiet pleasure,<\/strong>\u00a0a gentle natural growth; one takes a lively interest in the work; it seems easy; one is quite pleased to have started. This stage represents Isis. Sooner or later\u00a0it is succeeded by depression<\/strong>\u2014the Dark Night of the Soul, an infinite weariness and detestation of the work. The simplest and easiest acts become almost impossible to perform. Such impotence fills the mind with apprehension and despair. The intensity of this loathing can hardly be understood by any person who has not experienced it. This is the period of Apophis.<\/p>\n It is followed by the arising not of Isis, but of Osiris. The ancient condition is not restored, but a new and superior condition is created, <\/strong>a condition only rendered possible by the process of death.<\/p>\n The Alchemists themselves taught this same truth. The first matter of the work was base and primitive, though \u201cnatural\u201d. After passing through various stages the \u201cblack dragon\u201d appeared; but from this arose the pure and perfect gold.<\/p>\n Even in the legend of Prometheus we find an identical formula concealed; and a similar remark applies to those of Jesus Christ, and of many other mythical god-men worshipped in different countries.<\/p>\n A magical ceremony constructed on this formula is thus in close essential harmony with the natural mystic process. We find it the basis of many important initiations, notably the Third Degree in Masonry, and the 5\u25cb<\/sup>\u00a0= 6\u25a1<\/sup>\u00a0ceremony of the G. D. described in Equinox I, III. A ceremonial self-initiation may be constructed with advantage on this formula. The essence of it consists in robing yourself as a king, then stripping and slaying yourself, and rising from that death to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.<\/p>\n There is an etymological identity between Tetragrammaton and\u00a0I A O<\/strong>, but the magical formul\u00e6 are entirely different, as the descriptions here given have schewn.<\/p>\n Professor William James, in his\u00a0Varieties of Religious Experience<\/em>, has well classified religion as the \u201conce-born\u201d and the \u201ctwice-born\u201d; but the religion now proclaimed in\u00a0Liber Legis<\/em>\u00a0harmonizes these by transcending them. There is no attempt to get rid of death by denying it, as among the once-born; nor to accept death as the gate of a new life, as among the twice-born. With the A\u2234 A\u2234 life and death are equally incidents in a career, very much like day and night in the history of a planet. But, to pursue the simile, we regard this planet from afar.\u00a0A Brother of A<\/strong>\u2234<\/strong> A<\/strong>\u2234<\/strong> looks at<\/strong>\u00a0(what another person would call)\u00a0\u201chimself\u201d, as one\u2014or, rather, some\u2014among a group of phenomena. He is that \u201cnothing\u201d whose consciousness is in one sense the universe considered as a single phenomenon in time and space, and in another sense is the negation of that consciousness.<\/strong>\u00a0The body and mind of the man are only important (if at all) as the telescope of the astronomer to him. If the telescope were destroyed it would make no appreciable difference to the Universe which that telescope reveals.<\/p>\n It will now be understood that this formula of I A O is a formula of Tiphareth. The magician who employs it is conscious of himself as a man liable to suffering, and anxious to transcend that state by becoming one with god. It will appear to him as the Supreme Ritual, as the final step; but, as has already been pointed out, it is but a preliminary. For the normal man today, however, it represents considerable attainment; and there is a much earlier formula whose investigation will occupy Chapter VI.<\/p>\n THE MASTER THERION, in the Seventeenth year of the \u00c6on, has reconstructed the Word I A O to satisfy the new conditions of Magick imposed by progress. The Word of the Law being Thelema, whose number is 93, this number should be the canon of a corresponding Mass. Accordingly, he has expanded I A O by treating the\u00a0O<\/em>\u00a0as an\u00a0Ayin<\/em>, and then adding\u00a0Vau<\/em>\u00a0as prefix and affix. The full word is then<\/p>\n \u05d5 \u05d9 \u05d0 \u05e2 \u05d5<\/strong><\/p>\n whose number is 93. We may analyse this new Word in detail and demonstrate that it is a proper hieroglyph of the Ritual of Self-Initiation in this \u00c6on of Horus. For the correspondence in the following note, see\u00a0Liber 777<\/em>. The principal points are these:<\/p>\n\n
\nIn Jesu Morimur.
\nPer Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus.<\/em><\/p>\n