:

LIBER
HHH
SVB FIGVRÂ

CCCXLI
CONTINET CAPI-
TVLA TRIA : MMM,
AAA, ET SSS
V AA
Publication in Class D
 “Sunt duo modi per quos homo fit Deus: Tohu et Bohu.
“Mens quasi flamma surgat, aut quasi puteus aquæ quiescat.
“Alteri modi sunt tres exempli, qui illis extra limine collegii
sancti dati sunt.
“In hoc primo libro sunt Aquæ Contemplationis.”
Two are the methods of becoming God: the Upright and the Averse.
Let the Mind become as a flame, or as a well of still water. Of each
method are three principal examples given to them that are without
the Threshold.
In this first book are written the Reflexions.1
“Sunt tres contemplationes quasi halitus in mente humana
abysso inferni. Prima, Νεκρος; secunda, Πυραµις; tertia, Φαλλος
vocatur. Et hæ reflexiones aquaticæ sunt trium enthusiasmorum,
Apollonis, Dionysi, Veneris.
“Total stella est Nechesh et Messiach, nomen hyha cum hwhy
conjunctum.”
There are three contemplations as it were breaths in the human mind,
that is the Abyss of Hell: the first is called Νεκρος,2 the second
Πυραµις,3 and the third Φαλλος.4 These are the watery reflexions of
the three enthusiasms; those of Apollo, Dionysus, and Aphrodite.5
The whole star is Nechesh and Messiach, the name hyha joined
with hwhy.6

1
2 LIBER HHH

I
MMM
“I remember a certain holy day in the dusk of the Year, in the dusk of the
Equinox of Osiris, when I first beheld thee visibly; when first the dreadful issue was
fought out; when the Ibis-headed one charmed away the strife. I remember thy first
kiss, even as a maiden should. Nor in the dark byways was there another: thy kisses
abide.”—LIBER LAPIDIS LAZULI. VII. 3.

0. Be seated in thine āsana, wearing the robe of a

Neophyte, the hood drawn.
1. It is night, heavy and hot; there are no stars. Not one
breath of wind stirs the surface of the sea, that is thou. No fish
play in thy depths.
2. Let a Breath rise and ruffle the waters. This also thou
shalt feel playing upon thy skin. It will disturb thy meditation
twice or thrice, after which thou shouldst have conquered in.
But unless thou first feel it, that Breath hath not arisen.
3. Next, the night is riven by the lightning-flash. This
also shalt thou feel in thy body, which shall shiver and leap
with the shock, and that also must both be suffered and
overcome.
4. After the lightning-flash, resteth in the zenith a minute
point of light. And this light shall radiate until a right cone be
established upon the sea, and it is day. With this thy body shall
be rigid, automatically; and this shalt thou let endure,
withdrawing thyself into thine heart in the form of an upright
Egg of blackness; and therein shalt thou abide for a space.
 SVB FIGVRÂ CCCXLI 3
5. When all this is perfectly and easily performed at will,
let the aspirant figure to himself a struggle with the whole
force of the Universe. In this he is only saved by his
minuteness.
But in the end he is overthrown by Death, who covers
him with a black cross.
Let his body fall supine with arms outstretched.
6. So lying, let him aspire fervently unto the Holy
Guardian Angel.
7. Now let him resume his former posture.
Two-and-twenty times shall he figure to himself that he is
bitten by a serpent, feeling even in his body the poison thereof.
And let each bite be healed by an eagle or hawk, spreading its
wings above his head, and dropping thereupon an healing
dew. But let the last bite be so terrible a pang at the nape of
the neck that he seemeth to die, and let the healing dew be of
such virtue that he leapeth to his feet.
8. Let there be now placed within his egg a red cross, then
a green cross, then a golden cross, then a silver cross; or those
things which these shadow forth. Herein is silence; for he that
hath rightly performed the meditation will understand the
inner meaning hereof, and it shall serve as a test of himself and
his fellows.
9. Let him now remain in the Pyramid or Cone of Light,
as an Egg, but no more of blackness.
10. Then let his body be in the position of the Hanged
Man, and let him aspire with all his force unto the Holy
Guardian Angel.
4 LIBER HHH
11. The grace having been granted unto him, let him
partake mystically of the Eucharist of the Five Elements7 and
let him proclaim Light in Extension; yea, let him proclaim
Light in Extension.8

II
AAA
“These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the feet of Osiris, so that
the flaming God may rage through the firmament with his fantastic spear.”—LIBER
LAPIDIS LAZULI. VII. 15, 16.

0. Be seated in thine āsana, or recumbent in śavāsana,9 or

in the position of the dying Buddha.
1. Think of thy death; imagine the various the various
diseases that may attack thee, or accidents overtake thee. Picture
the process of death, applying always to thyself. (A useful
preliminary practice is to read text-books of Pathology, and to
visit museums and dissecting-rooms.)
2. Continue this practice until death is complete; follow
the corpse through the stages of embalming, wrapping and
burial.
3. Now imagine a divine breath entering thy nostrils.
4. Next, imagine a divine light enlightening the eyes.
5. Next, imagine the divine voice awakening the ears.
6. Next, imagine a divine kiss imprinted on the lips.
7. Next, imagine the divine energy informing the nerves
and muscles of the body, and concentrate on the phenomenon
which will already have been observed in 3, the restoring of the
circulation.
 SVB FIGVRÂ CCCXLI 5
8. Last, imagine the return of the reproductive power; and
employ this to the impregnation of the Egg of light in which
man is bathed.
9. Now represent to thyself that this egg is the Disk of the
Sun, setting in the west.
10. Let it sink into blackness, borne in the bark of heaven,
upon the back of the holy cow Hathor. And it may be that
thou shalt hear the moaning thereof.
11. Let it become blacker than all blackness. And in this
meditation thou shalt be utterly without fear, for that the
blackness that will appear unto thee is a thing dreadful beyond
all comprehension.
And it shall come to pass that if thou hast well and
properly performed this meditation that on a sudden thou shalt
hear the drone and booming of a Beetle.
12. Now then shall the Blackness pass, and with rose and
gold shalt thou arise in the East, with the cry of an Hawk
resounding in thine ear. Shrill shall it be and harsh.
13. At the end shalt thou rise and stand in the midheaven,
a globe of glory. And therewith shall arise the mighty Sound
that holy men have likened unto the roaring of a Lion.
14. Then shalt thou withdraw thyself from the Vision,
gathering thyself into the divine form of Osiris upon his
throne.
15. Then shalt thou repeat audibly the cry of triumph of
the god rearisen, as it shall have been given unto thee by the
Superior.10
16. And this being accomplished, thou mayest enter again
into the Vision, that thereby shalt be perfect in thee.
6 LIBER HHH
17. After this shalt thou return into the body, and give
thanks unto the Most High God IAIDA; yea, unto the Most
High God IAIDA.11
18. Mark well that this operation should be performed if it
be possible in a place set apart and consecrated to the Works of
the Magic of Light. Also that the Temple should be ceremon-
ially open as thou hast knowledge and skill to perform, and
that at the end thereof the closing should be most carefully
accomplished.
But in the preliminary practice it is enough if thou cleanse
thyself by ablution, by robing, and by the rituals of the
Pentagram and Hexagram.
0-2 should be practiced at first, until some realisation is
obtained; and the practice should always be followed by a
divine invocation of Apollo or of Isis or of Jupiter or of Serapis.
Next, after a swift summary of 0-2, practise 3-7.
This being mastered, add 8.
Then add 9-13.
Then being prepared and fortified, well fitted for the
work, perform the whole meditation at one time. And let this
be continued until perfect success be attained therein. For this
is a mighty meditation and holy, having power even upon
Death; yea, having power even upon Death.12
(Note by Fra. O.M. At any time during this meditation, the concentration may
bring about samādhi. This is to be feared and shunned, more than any other
breaking of control, for that it is the most tremendous of the forces which threaten
to obsess. There is also some danger of acute delirious melancholia at point 1.)
 SVB FIGVRÂ CCCXLI 7

III
SSS
“Thou art a beautiful thing, whiter than a woman in the column of this vibration.
“I shoot up vertically like an arrow, and become that Above.
“But it is death, and the flame of the pyre.
“Ascend in the flame of the pyre, O my soul! Thy God is like the cold emptiness
of the utmost heaven, into which thou radiatest thy little light.
“When Thou shalt know me, O empty God, my flame shall utterly expire in Thy
great N.O.X.”—LIBER LAPIDIS LAZULI. I. 36-40.

0. Be seated in thine āsana, preferably the Thunderbolt. It

is essential that the spine be vertical.
1. In this practice the cavity of the brain is the Yoni; the
spinal cord is the Lingam.
2. Concentrate thy thought of adoration in the brain.
3. Now begin to awake the spine in this manner.
Concentrate thy thought of thyself in the base of the spine, and
move it up gradually a little at a time.
By this means thou wilt become conscious of the spine,
feeling each vertebra as a separate entity. This must be
achieved most fully and perfectly before the further practice is
begun.
4. Next, adore the brain as before, but figure to thyself its
content as infinite. Deem it to be the womb of Isis, or the body
of Nuit.
5. Next, identify thyself with the base of the spine as
before, but figure to thyself its energy as infinite. Deem it to be
the phallus of Osiris, or the being of Hadit.
6. These two concentrations 4 and 5 may be pushed to the
point of samādhi. Yet lose not control of the will; let not
samādhi be thy master herein.
8 LIBER HHH
7. Now then, being conscious both of the brain and the
spine, and unconscious of all else, do thou imagine the hunger
of the one for the other; the emptiness of the brain, the ache of
the spine, even as the emptiness of space and the aimlessness of
Matter. And if thou hast experience of the Eucharist in both
kinds,13 it shall aid thine imagination herein.
8. Let this agony grow until it be insupportable, resisting by
will every temptation. Not until thine whole body is bathed in
sweat, or it may be in sweat of blood, and until a cry of intol-
erable anguish is forced from thy closed lip, shalt thou proceed.
9. Now let a current of light, deep azure flecked with
scarlet, pass up and down the spine, striking as it were upon
thyself that art coiled at the base as a serpent.
Let this be exceeding slow and subtle; and though it be
accompanied with pleasure, resist; and though it be
accompanied with pain, resist.
10. This shalt thou continue until thou art exhausted, never
relaxing the control. Until thou canst perform this one section
9 during a whole hour, proceed not. And withdraw from the
meditation by an act of will, passing into a gentle prānāyāma
without kumbhakha, and meditating on Harpocrates, the silent
and virginal God.
11. Then at last being well-fitted in body and mind, fixed
in peace, beneath a favourable heaven of stars, at night, in calm
and warm weather, mayst thou quicken the movement of the
light until it be taken up by the brain and the spine,
independently of thy will.
If in this hour thou shouldst die, is it not written: “Blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord”14? Yea, blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord!15
 SVB FIGVRÂ CCCXLI 9
Note to the Celephaïs Press edition.
Liber HHH was first published in The Equinox vol. I no. 5 (1911). It was
reprinted in Appendix VII of Magick in Theory and Practice with no
substantial changes. Key entry, formatting, and endnotes by Frater T.S. for
Celephaïs Press / Nu Isis Working Group. This e-text last revised
07.02.2018.
1
This is not quite a literal translation of the Latin but gives the gist of it well enough. In
contrast to the “waters of contemplation,” the “flames of enthusiasm” were supposedly
treated of in “Liber IAO” (17) which is unpublished and believed lost, if indeed it was
ever actually written.
2
Grk., “corpse.” Refers to cap. II, AAA, which parallels “Liber Cadaveris” (120).
Compare also the meditations on various kinds of corpses in the Māhasatipatthāna Sutta.
3
Grk., “pyramid.” Refers to cap. I, MMM, which parallels “Liber Pyramidos” (671).
4 Grk., “phallus.” The reference is to cap. III, SSS.
5
The four kinds of “enthusiasm” or “divine madness” (the first being poetic inspiration
from the nine Muses) are discussed in Plato’s Phaedrus and treated of by Renaissance
writers such as Ficino in his commentary on the Symposium, Agrippa in De occulta
philosophia lib. III cap. 45-49, and Giordano Bruno in De gli eroici furori. See also
Crowley’s essay “Energised Enthusiasm” (Liber 811). Crowley’s few references indicate
that “Liber IAO” was intended to contain meditation or magick practices based on these
three “enthusiasms.”
6
To explain this piece of Qabalistic analogic: the Divine Names hyha and hwhy, having as
they do the letter-pair hy in common, may be combined to give a single six-letter name
hwhyha, which is said to unite Microprosopus and Macroprosopus (it enumerates to 32,
the total number of Paths and Sephiroth, the number of the “paths of wisdom”
mentioned in the Sepher Yetzirah). Next, since h is the letter of the Mother, we substitute
for the three h’s the three “Mother letters” of the Hebrew alphabet, a, m and c, giving
awmyca (or some permutation thereof), which enumerates to 358, the number of cjn,
nechesh, a serpent (e.g. in Gen. iii), and jycm, Messiach, the Anointed One. The three
Mother letters are referred to the three chapters of Liber HHH as indicated, and its
number, 341, is the sum of these letters. The other three letters, aleph, yod and vau, re-
arranged, give way, a Hebrew spelling of IAO, which adds to 17. There is evidence in
other Crowley MSS. that he referred the letters of IAO to the “three Enthusiasms” as I =
Iacchus (Dionysus), A = Aphrodite, O = `Orus (as a cognate of Apollo: a permissible
fudge since the aspirate is not a letter in Greek).
7
See Magick in Theory and Practice¸ chapter XX (p. 180 of first edition). The “incense and
wine and fire and bread” of the closing of 671 is on the face of it an example of the four-
element eucharist described in that chapter, unless the “perfection of the oil” itself is taken
as the fifth element.
8
This whole section parallels “Liber Pyramidos” fairly closely and is the “meditation
practice corresponding to Ritual DCLXXI” mentioned in Liber XIII. The versified solo
version of Liber 671 which has been published (e.g. in Equinox IV (1)) is adequate for the
10 LIBER HHH
purposes of exploring the parallels, although one suspects the meditation-practice will be
more effective for one who has gone through the ritual ceremonially and imprinted the
appropriate symbols. “Proclaim Light in Extension” alludes to the conclusion of the
ritual, which uses the barbarous phrase “Konx Om Pax” or “Khabs Am Pekht,” the latter a
supposed Egyptian original of the former, interpreted “Light in extension” in the Golden
Dawn Neophyte ritual.
9
Approx, “corpse-position.” The “corpse” and “dying Buddha” āsanas (along with the
“Hanged Man” posture mentioned in cap. I v. 10) were depicted in a supplement to
“Liber E” which was printed at the start of Equinox I (7), and also in the 1994 and 1997
Weiser “Blue Brick” edition of Magick (see also the Celephaïs Press e-text of Liber E).
10
This possibly refers to something communicated in the Zelator initiation (see note
below).
11
IAIDA or “the Highest” is a name or title of God appearing in the Angelic Keys of Dee
and Kelly. See Casaubon (ed.), A True and Faithful Relation.
12
This section is the “meditation practice corresponding to Ritual CXX” referred to in
Liber XIII. The only known extant form of Ritual CXX, the Ritual of Passing through
the Tuat, which has been published after a fashion, has some parallels with this, though
has nothing obvious to explain the “cry of triumph of the god re-arisen” (one
commentator has suggested that should be taken as the “I am he” section from the
Bornless One ritual (see the Mathers-Crowley Goëtia or Crowley’s “Liber Samekh”)
which occurs at the climax of Ritual CXX). In any case, it is based on Egyptian texts
describing the nightly journey of the Sun through twelve divisions of the Underworld.
See for example Budge, The Egyptian Heaven and Hell.
13
I am not entirely sure what Alice is talking about here, but can take a guess.
14
Apocalypse XIII. 14.
15
H.B. in an editorial note to the “Blue Brick” demonstrates that this is one of the
“methods of Sabhapaty Swami” referred to in “Liber O,” being derived from a rājayoga
practice described in a book by said author; a summary by Crowley survives in his
diaries.