Nuit sounds her call to worship with what we may call glad words: “Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love.”
Although stars is used in another context elsewhere in The Book, I think here we can safely say that she is calling us to come and be under the night time sky.
I feel “take your fill of love” means to receive the blessings of Nuit, the pure unadulterated love that pours cascading from her to wash over her adherents like a mighty flood.
She continues, “Invoke me under my stars. Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress and the great mystery of the House of God.” We are again called upon to invoke her under the stars. I take this to mean literally under the nighttime skies.
The serpent relates to kundalini and perhaps even to sex magick, the dove to emotional love. While raising the kundalini to unite with Nuit follows the injunction pertaining to the unity, the other form of love is required too; for Nuit is an unending cascade of pure emotional love, providing a great ecstasy to those who attain to her.
A fortress is only as strong as its weakest defense.<1> Therefore both the dove and the serpent are necessary to completely fortify the fortress, to have the full experience.
The key to the House of God is Initiation, and those who attain to Nuit using both the dove and the serpent have attained great Initiation (not the greatest Initiation perhaps, but at least great Initiation).“Let my servants be few & secret : they shall rule the many & the known.” Beyond those who are Thelemites because they seek to do their True Wills, are those who’ve sought to go further, and have become the servants of Nuit (it may even have been their True Wills to do so). These will be few and secret. These servants will be more important<2> than the many (the herd animals) and the known (those who are famous).
Crowley speculates that these servants may be adepts. He goes on to say that “[s]uch persons indeed consummate the marriage of Nuit and Hadit in themselves”.
Nuit continues this thought with “These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.” So the known are fools, and the gods that the many worship are fools. And the many that give adulation to the known are also fools. So they are all fools all around.“[D]o ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But whoso availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!” This is a chief command of Nuit. To fully realize the Unity we have to quit thinking in terms of this and that, here and there, or mine and not mine. There is only the Unity. Everything is reconciled in the Unity; and of course the Unity is Nuit herself. The more fully we recognize the Unity, the greater will be our spiritual accomplishment.
“[U]nite by thine art so that all disappear.” There is a sort of blissful oblivion with Nuit when the Unity occurs.“For these fools of men and their woes care not thou at all! They feel little; what is, is balanced by weak joys : but ye are my chosen ones. Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so : I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all.” This seems to be incredibly plain language. Any explanation would be mere paraphrase. Do not worry about the common herd of humanity. Their emotions are dead. Their joys are minor compared to those who have accepted Nuit as their goddess. Those of us who have accepted Nuit into are hearts have become her chosen ones. We are to follow the instructions of the prophet. We are to go through whatever we can to experience the love and communication of Nuit. We are to seek only her. Then the joys of her love will save us from all the miseries of the human condition. She promises this above all else. She promises this completely and utterly.
Further instructions follow: “Write unto us the ordeals write unto us the rituals write unto us the law. But she said the ordeals I write not the rituals shall be half known and half concealed : the Law is for all This that thou writest is the threefold book of Law”. The ordeals shall be secret.
I feel that ordeals here doesn’t apply to dramatic Initiation. But that events will happen that are indeed Initiation-like in the changes they cause to happen in our lives. And this of course will include events, or periods of time in which Ordeals (difficult periods in our lives) prepare us for our next step along the path. These Ordeals will sharpen us, hone us like a fine blade, and make us stronger as we advance as students of the mysteries.
The rituals will be half known—in the words of the gods we will see parts of rituals, hints or what rituals could be, maybe even skeletal outlines of the way the rituals will come together; and it will be up to us to fill in the missing pieces, to make of the event full rituals.
The Law is for everyone. There are those who want to believe that Thelema is some sort of elitist-religion. But those that we meet we are to share the Law with, and that Law is for everyone. Of course if they fail to catch the beauty of the New Æon and the promise of what comes with following one’s True Will ... oh well!
Nuit gives instructions for how we are to live out lives: “Be goodly therefore : dress ye all in fine apparel eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam.” In a way she is saying to adapt a lifestyle that is larger than life, to be outrageously bold.
The following passage seems to cover a lot of ground: “If this be not aright; if ye confound the space-marks, saying : They are one or saying They are many; if the ritual be not ever unto me : then expect the direful judgments of Ra Hoor Khuit.” To “confound the space-marks” would seem, to me, to not do things at the proper place and time. Some things are not to be done yet, and if we rush into them, it is a mistake. As discussed elsewhere, “if the ritual be not ever unto me” seems to definitely imply that every act of love is to be dedicated to Nuit. “[T]hen expect the direful judgments of Ra Hoor Khuit.” If we screw things up then the god who presides over the current æon will exact vengeance upon us.
Nuit promises that the New Æon will lead to a better world: “This shall regenerate the world, the little world my sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send this kiss.” Like the best day of a new spring, the New Æon will enrich the world, enrich our lives, and make everything seem newer and better.
Nuit tells us what incense she wants us to burn to her: “My incense is of resinous woods & gums and there is no blood therein : because of my hair the trees of Eternity.” Resinous woods and gums I get. What eludes me is this “trees of Eternity” jargon!
Anyone?
Nuit here describes her lamen or insignia: “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.”This phrase, “My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing,” seems to be describing the night time sky quite plainly.The one thing we are asked to do in return for the blessing of Nuit seems to be to love her: “Also I have a secret glory for them that love me.”
Nuit continues on this theme: “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.
“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.
“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!
“I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.”
“To me! To me!”
What is there to add to this. Nuit has stated this as clearly as possible. Her incense is of resinous woods and gums. “[T]he Serpent flame therein” refers to the kundalini. In the rest of this paragraph she commands us to live life largely. Notice that the “bare and rejoicing” part takes place in a “secret temple”.
<1> An analogy to chains and weakest links would not be out of place here.
<2> “Important” may not be the right word, though I doubt if they will literally rule the many and the known, but this verse certainly implies some sort of advantage over the herd animals and the celebrities.
Back to "Crowley's Law"