The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley. Aleister Crowley
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of his mind he will come to understand that its whole structure is so faulty that it is quite incapable, even in its most exalted moods, of truth.
He will recognize that any thought merely establishes a relation between the Ego and the non-Ego.
Kant has shown that even the laws of nature are but the conditions of thought. And as the current of thought is the blood of the mind, it is said that the Magick Cup is filled with the blood of the Saints. All thought must be offered up as a sacrifice.
The Cup can hardly be described as a weapon. It is round like the pantacle -- not straight like the wand and the dagger. Reception, not projection, is its nature.38
So that which is round is to him a symbol of the influence from the higher. This circle symbolizes the Infinite, as every cross or Tau represents the Finite. That which is four square shows the Finite fixed into itself; for this reason the altar is foursquare. It is the solid basis from which all the operation proceeds. One form 39 of the magical cup has a sphere beneath the bowl, and is supported upon a conical base.
This cup (crescent, sphere, cone) represents the three principles of the Moon, the Sun, and Fire, the three principles which, according to the Hindus, have course in the body.40
This is the Cup of Purification; as Zoroaster says:
"So therefore first the priest who governeth the works of fire must sprinkle with the lustral water of the loud-resounding sea."
It is the sea that purifies the world. And the "Great Sea" is in the Qabalah a name of Binah, "Understanding."
It is by the Understanding of the Magus that his work is purified.
Binah, moreover, is the Moon, and the bowl of this cup is shaped like the moon.
This moon is the path of Gimel through which the influence from the Crown descends upon the Sun of Tiphereth.
And this is based upon the pyramid of fire which symbolizes the aspiration of the student.
In Hindu symbolism the Amrita or "dew of immortality"41 drips constantly upon a man, but is burnt up by the gross fire of his appetites. Yogis attempt to catch and so preserve this dew by turning back the tongue in the mouth.
Concerning the water in this Cup, it may be said that just as the wand should be perfectly rigid, the ideal solid, so should the water be the ideal fluid.
The Wand is erect, and must extend to Infinity.
The surface of the water is flat, and must extend to Infinity.
One is the line, the other the plane.
But as the Wand is weak without breadth, so is the water false without depth. The Understanding of the Magus must include all things, and that understanding must be infinitely profound.
H. G. Wells has said that "every word of which a man is ignorant represents an idea of which he is ignorant." And it is impossible perfectly to understand all things unless all things be first known.
Understanding is the structuralization of knowledge.
All impressions are disconnected, as the Babe of the Abyss is so terribly aware; and the Master of the Temple must sit for 106 seasons in the City of the Pyramids because this coordination is a tremendous task.
There is nothing particularly occult in this doctrine concerning knowledge and understanding.
A looking-glass receives all impressions but coordinates none.
The savage has none but the most simple associations of ideas.
Even the ordinary civilized man goes very little further.
All advance in thought is made by collecting the greatest possible number of facts, classifying them, and grouping them.
The philologist, though perhaps he only speaks one language, has a much higher type of mind than the linguist who speaks twenty.
This Tree of Thought is exactly paralleled by the tree of nervous structure.
Very many people go about nowadays who are exceedingly "well-informed," but who have not the slightest idea of the meaning of the facts they know. They have not developed the necessary higher part of the brain. Induction is impossible to them.
This capacity for storing away facts is compatible with actual imbecility. Some imbeciles have been able to store their memories with more knowledge than perhaps any sane man could hope to acquire.
This is the great fault of modern education -- a child is stuffed with facts, and no attempt is made to explain their connection and bearing. The result is that even the facts themselves are soon forgotten.
Any first-rate mind is insulted and irritated by such treatment, and any first-rate memory is in danger of being spoilt by it.
No two ideas have any real meaning until they are harmonized in a third, and the operation is only perfect when these ideas are contradictory. This is the essence of the Hegelian logic.
The Magick Cup, as was shown above, is also the flower. It is the lotus which opens to the sun, and which collects the dew.
This Lotus is in the hand of Isis the great Mother. It is a symbol similar to the Cup in the hand of OUR LADY BABALON.
There are also the Lotuses in the human body, according to the Hindu system of Physiology referred to in the chapter on Dharana.42
There is the lotus of three petals in the Sacrum, in which the Kundalini lies asleep. This lotus is the receptacle of reproductive force.
There is also the six-petalled lotus opposite the navel -- which receives the forces which nourish the body.
There is also a lotus in the Solar plexus which receives the nervous forces.
The six-petalled lotus in the heart corresponds to Tiphereth, and receives those vital forces which are connected with the blood.
The sixteen-petalled lotus opposite the larynx receives the nourishment needed by the breath.
The two-petalled lotus of the pineal gland receives the nourishment needed by thought, while above the junction of the cranial structures is that sublime lotus, of a thousand and one petals, which receives the influence from on high; and in which, in the Adept, the awakened Kundalini takes her pleasure with the Lord of All.
All these lotuses are figured by the Magick Cup.
In man they are but partly opened, or only opened to their natural nourishment. In fact it is better to think of them as closed, as secreting that nourishment, which, because of the lack of sun, turns to poison.
The Magick Cup must have no lid, yet it must be kept veiled most carefully at all times, except when invocation of the Highest is being made.
This cup must also be hidden from the profane. The Wand must be kept secret lest the profane, fearing it, should succeed in breaking it; the Cup lest, wishing to touch it, they should defile it.
Yet the Sprinkling of its water not only purifies the Temple, but blesseth them that are without: freely must it be poured! But let no one know your real purpose, and let no one know the secret of your strength. Remember Samson! Remember Guy Fawkes!
Of the methods of increasing Understanding those of the Holy Qabalah are perhaps the best, provided that the intellect is thoroughly awake to their absurdity, and never allows itself to be convinced.43
Further meditation of certain sorts is useful: not the strict meditation which endeavours to still the mind, but such a meditation