Liber L., Cap. 1, vv. 60-66
NUIT
60 61 62 63 64 65 66
1-9 10-19 20-30 31-39 40-49 50-59
60. My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us. <The shape of my star is> The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red[.] My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a secret glory for them that love me.
Another verse outlining the various “cult details” in the worship of Nuit. These may be taken at several levels; for example, simply taken as definitions, which serve as “signs of recognition.” On the other hand, they are surely subject to vast, seemingly unlimited expansion. I will try to reach the essential idea of each.
“My number is 11.” This reaches beyond basic numerology, although NV = 56 —> 11. There is an essential idea here at stake. Prior to the dictation of Liber L., 11 was not a number of any major significance in magick. Although there are many secondary associations identifiable — for example, 11th Path = Aleph = Atu 0 — I think the primary idea here relates to the Sephiroth. The Sepher Yetzirah insists that the Holy Sephiroth are “ten and not nine, ten and not eleven;” but they are numbered, we now are clear, not from 1 through 10, but from 0 through 10. Nuit reasserts the Sacred Zero. This present chapter is about “The manifestation of Nuit,” her extension into Malkuth; but that manifestation subsumes eleven stages, 0 through 10.
Of comparable importance is that 11 is not two Ones side-by-side, but Twins (cf. Heru-Ra-Ha — twin Unities) brought forth from Her. That is, they are really 1 and -1, whose sum is 0. They express 0=2.
A curio: Eleven is written YA (Yod-Aleph) which, spelled in full, is 111 + 20 = 131 = Pan = “All.” She is the All, even as She is Zero.
“...11, as all their numbers who are of us.” A more complex phrase than it seems on superficial examination. It means far more than that someone’s motto reduces to 11! For someone’s “number” to be 11 is for their essential nature to conform to the idea of 11. (Compare the contemporary phrase, “I’ve got your number.”) I must take it that those “who are of us” — which I here take to be Thelemites in general, based on v. I:40 — intrinsically bear the attributes described in my analysis above relating Nuit to 11. They assert, by their nature, 0=2, and Zero = All. The word “all” in this phrase — “My number is 11, as all” — seems to confirm this. Also, whereas in Hebrew NV = 56 = 11 and AL = 31, in Latin Nu = 31 and AL (“all”) = 11.
“My number is 11=131, as All=Pan who are of us.”
“{The shape of my star is} The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red.” A hieroglyph subject to vast interpretation. I will resist the temptation to elaborate some of its subtleties (as in regarding it as 50), and focus on its essentials. The pentagram, with all of its many, many meanings, is especially a symbol of the Divine Feminine. Five is Heh, the Great Mother. Shekinah is the older Pentagrammaton than Yeheshua, and is equivalent (in the Qabalah) to Elohim, a name embodying the pentagram very fully. But at the heart of these maternal ideas is the perfection of the circle, her real emblem. Why red? Perhaps because it is the color of Shakti? Or, more likely, because it is the center of Nuit, i.e., Hadit.
Her color: A physical fact; but also especially to indicate that Her color is that of deep (nocturnal) space, which is a living and vibrant thing, not mere darkness. (And this is also the real living nature of the unconscious.) What we call “the dark” is filled with light!
The last sentence, then, is simply the real promise of Her worship. (4/3/95 EV)
61. But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me invoking me with a pure heart and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all: but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a single robe and covered with a rich headdress. I love you I yearn to you. Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous[,] I who am all pleasure and purple and drunkenness of the innermost sense desire you. Put on the wings and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me
[Thus we commence the seventh decade, attributed perhaps to A’ayin or, more likely, to Zayin. This is also the decade that crosses from Cap. I to Cap. II.]
I suspect this is the longest verse in Liber L. In great beauty and majesty, it discloses the essential method of the worship of Nuit. For the most part, it speaks for itself. Every time the Gnostic Mass is read, these words hold the attention of every participant. After over a hundred masses performed and many more witnessed, I cannot begin to give voice, in this narrow space, to all that has been stirred by this verse.
“But to love me is better than all things.” How true. The reward is intrinsic, instantaneous, and reciprocal.
Next follows an instruction for worship. It can be seen as metaphorical or symbolic; but I have always taken it literally, simply. The heart must be pure and aflame, and that flame of the risen kundalini. “For one kiss...” is literally true. The “one particle of dust” is Hadit, and its sentence is a beautiful promise.
We must remember that the Book was dictated in Egypt, within the context of the local group mind playing a roll in its imagery. The theology is Egyptian, the setting is the Sahara, and the ethics are reminiscent of Islam. This is helpful to our understanding of many parts of the Book, but especially of this verse. It is helpful again with the sentence beginning, “Ye shall gather....” It has often been pointed out that this sentence contains the one decisive sexism of the Book. “Women” are clearly lumped, in Islamic style, along with other property. Yet I also note that Nuit is neither encouraging nor discouraging this behavior. She is saying, “Surround yourself with anything you think matters, signs of wealth and pleasure or even pride — regardless of what the yogis might say — but do this always in the love of me.” It is a further statement of the “To me” of v. 51, ten verses earlier. The meaning is clear enough.
The “single robe” is the aura, and the “rich headdress” the golden cross of the raised Urĉus; or it may be taken literally, as the paraphernalia of a ritual act of worship.
She is intoxication of the innermost, not the outermost. Any inflaming of the outer is sanctified by its relationship to the innermost ecstasy. Thus does it become an act of worship.
“come unto me!” has at least two levels of interpretation.
(NB — The phrase “come unto me” occurs 26 times in The Bible, and would have been very familiar to AC. Some of the best known are in the Gospels, such as Matt. 11:28.) (4/3/95 EV)
62. At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say — and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my Secret Temple — To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant.
NOTE: I have capitalized "Secret Temple" to conform to the original manuscript.
AC, at least as a first layer, interprets this literally. Thus did he incorporate it into Liber XV.
"my meetings." Not, for example, general Thelemic meetings, but Nuit’s meetings — with one or more worshipper(s) ("you").
"the priestess." This can be taken literally, referring to the essential idea that the desire force is to be roused and directed. But at its primary level, this "priestess" is an inner agent — a representative of the Priestess Archetype (Gimel) — who stands within "my secret temple," i.e. within the inner adytum within the heart of the Adept (Gimel descends to Tiphereth). Nuit is infinite. She is inconceivable. Any manifestation to image of Her is not Her, but an emissary of Her. This verse speaks of that emissary. This priestess, ultimately, is the inner accessible image of Nuit, her eyes aflame with desire, bare, rejoicing, and chanting "To me!" to draw the flame of the worshipper unto her. (2/18/01 EV)
63. Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!
Literal and simple, reiterating prior verses. But remember that to MH = 418. [MH is a Greek word that — in Crowley’s time — was believed to be pronounced like the English "me." It means "not."] See Energized Enthusiasm for an instruction on this verse in practice. (4/3/95 EV)
64. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky
(A transparently Chesed verse!)
More beautiful imagery. Here she is not of the day, but of sunset and night. In the West, the essential formula is "death = ecstasy." She is Night receiving Tum into her bosom, the arched goddess who swallows and devours all that transverse the sky — having been borne (and born) from her womb in the East. (4/3/95 EV)
65. To me! To me!
Ecstasy. Proud and strong surrender. Ecstasy as superconsciousness.
GEMATRIA: TO MH = 418 = Abrahadabra (Greek pun on “to me,” and means “The Not”). 65 = ADNI, Adonai, &c.
AC wrote (Equinox of the Gods) that the words of this verse were spoken "diminuendo down to pianissimo, indicating the withdrawal of the goddess." (4/3/95 EV)
66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
Cf. v. 1. The object is attained, completed, fulfilled, concluded.
GEMATRIA: 66 = Sum(0-11), i.e. the idea of 11 (Nuit) expanded through all of its aspects and circumstances and thus now brought to fulfilled manifestation.