INVOCATION TO ISIS

1.  This poem is not only useful as an Invocation unto That which we call Isis (among other names), but it is most important as a blueprint for the proper working of a special Magical Ritual of Western Tantra.

2.  The Veil covers the Door, or Gate, and beyond it lies the true aspect of All (i.e. all which we call real and unreal).  This symbolism of the Veil, which can obviously refer to clothing, is most important as that which represents the hymen of the virgin, or simply the yoni itself.  Line 2 then asks permission for the ritual to begin and for the right to enter, if it be an auto-sexual working, through trained and willed imagination, the yoni of Isis; and if it be a heterosexual working, the words are spoken to the Scarlet Woman (Priestess), the earthly vehicle of Isis (Nuit).

3.  The Beast (Priest) calls to the Goddess to inhabit the Magick Circle and/or the Scarlet Woman.

4.  The magician calls on the Goddess to grant him the vision of the Light, L.V.X.  Emerald is here used to imply that the working is through the aspect of the Goddess known as Venus and Aphrodite, whose colour is Emerald Green to symbolize, among other things, the fertility of the Earth.  By the use of Venus/Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, the formula of "Love Under Will" is implied.

5.  The name or names of the Goddess are called upon.  These are the so-called "Barbarous Names of Evocation".  (More or less - Frater M.E.D.)

6.  The mind and will should be trained to remain fixed upon the symbol or object which represents that for which the work is being done.  All that pertains to this symbol should be part of the concentration.

7.  The magician is calling on the Goddess not merely to stand before him as another individual, but to enter him so that he may become Her, and so that She may become him.  In a sense, this is termed the "Assumption of the God Form". This becomes more clear later on.  (In a very wide sense - Frater M.E.D.)

8.  All impurities, falsehood, and such are to be banished from the sphere of the magician so that he, the Temple, so to speak, is pure and ready for the entry of the Goddess.

9.  Here Isis is hailed as the Great Mother, i.e. the true archtypal Goddess of which all other Goddesses are but aspects, facets of the Jewel that She is.

10.  Again the Archtypal Goddess is referred to, the Mother, that is, Binah of the Tree of Life, the Supernal Mother, the Giver of Form, the Great Sea from which all Life springs and unto which all Life must some day return.

11.  For most, this working is best done at night, though some may not agree with me here.  It is a moot point.  However, to alter this line would disturb my poem...

12.  The circle is a feminine symbol, that of the yoni.  It also represents infinity and is Nuit (Isis) the Circumference!  (See Liber AL vel Legis, Chapter II, Verse 3).

13.  Aside from the Ceremonial aspect of this, which is merely used poetically here, the Wand, which represents the Will, the True Will that is, also represents the lingam, the erection is here implied.

14.  This working is not to be a casual one-night stand, if you will excuse the pun, but a very lengthy, exhausting one.  (See Energized Enthusiasm by Aleister Crowley).

15.  The charms are mantras appropriate to the working, said either verbally or mentally during the working.  These charms may also be simply the rhythmic sounds of such things as the heart beats of the practitioner or practitioners.  Mystical is spelled with a K to represent the work; K = Kaph = KPh, כף = Kteis and Phallus, etc.

16.  The actual Love Feast, Agape. The numeration of Agape in Greek is 93 the same as that of Thelema; Love = Will, or "Love Under Will", the formula of the present Æon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child.

17.  The Cup, or Chalice, is the representation of the yoni; the liqueur thus being obvious.

18.  During the ceremony, the woman (or image of the Goddess) is sexually consumed, devoured.  A parallel can be found in a debased form in the Christian rite of Bread and Wine.

19.  The uniting of the lingam and yoni.

20.  Real passion must be put into this ritual!  A dull, listless mechanical act will have no effect at all ... at least, not the desired effect.  One must "inflame thyself with prayer".  One must be thoroughly immersed in passion!  Remember, it is not mere imagination nor some earthly woman that you mate with, it is the Goddess Herself!  It is the Infinite!

21.  When the union reaches it's climax Samadhi should be reached.  The death of the personal, at least for a moment, should be attained and submersion in the Infinite should occur.

22.  Forgive the form of death chosen here, it rings smartly of the Christian formula of suffering and sacrifice--but note the symbolism of the cross, penetrating the mount of Calvary, or the cross surmounting the globe on the Hierophant's staff in most old æon tarot packs.  It is also symbolically pinning the magician to the Tree of Life, joining him with the Universe, the All.  The magician here becomes the Hierophant of the taro(t), to which is attributed the Hebrew letter of Vau, V, (ו) which means "nail", that which crucifies the man to the Tree. Should the man be nailed to an equal-armed cross of the 4 elements he is placed at the cross' centre, thus making him one with the Spirit, uniting him with his Holy Guardian Angel.

23.  The Whore is the Whore of Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, (an Office), representative of Nuit.  The Beast, (an Office, like the S.W.) is the representative of Hadit.  She is the Circle, or Circumference, and He the Point, or the Centre.

24.  Again Agape and the formula of the present Æon is implied.

25-26.  +1 (Male, Yang, etc.) plus -1 (Female, Yin, etc.) = 0 (the Child, Tao, etc.).  The Child, by the way, represents the desired result worked for.  It is a Magical Child.

Thus 2 = 0.  The two opposites cancel each other out and they become None, or Nought (No, Not -- Nu, Nuit).  Through "Love Under Will" Infinity may be reached.  The knowledge of All may be gained by Becoming All (or Nought by cancelling out the contradictory aspects of the false self), but here I am getting ahead of myself.

By the way, Ananda is a word common to Buddhism which means Bliss--a symbol of Nirvana; this term having drawn a most unwholesome amount of misconception about it.  It is not to be a form of escapism, but rather a deeper submersion in All by Becoming Not.

27.  Pan is All.  He is not simply a God of Lust and Sheep.  Pan represents All that is, and All that is not.  Thus He is rightly called The Great God Pan!

28.  The Veil again being the yoni; the Hand, it should be noted, is Yod, the Secret Seed of the Hebrew alphabet.  Yod represents Fire in the Tetragrammaton, Yod He Vau He (IHVH - יהוה), and the Wand, thus the Phallus but also spermazota (the secret seed), the hand merely being a polite disguise.  It is the flame atop the candle.

29-30.  The magician affirms that the Goddess has come (and here is an accidental pun), and that She has parted the Veil of Mystery and revealed the Secret of Existance as it was worked for.

31-32.  And here the poem must end for nothing can be said of the Secret itself.  Words are inadequate.  Only the Aspirant, each for him- and herself can understand this secret after following the methods of the ritual and attaining to Nuit, the Infinite.