Clouds without Water/Notes

by Rev. C. Verey (Aleister Crowley)

Notes

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THE AUGUR
I. 6.	They. — The Fates or Moirae.
III. 11.	The dog-faced god. — Anubis, the Threshold-Guardian of the 'Gods' of Egypt. Mantic means prophetic.
VI. 14.	Child. — The unhappy girl was at this time but 17 years old.
VIII. 5.	Justine. — The virtuous but victimized heroine of the infamous novel of the Marquis de Sade.
XI. 6.	Sabbath. — Consult Payne Knight: 'Essays on the worship of Priapus', Eliphas Levi: 'Dogme et rituel de la haute Magie' and others.
XIII. 12. 13.	Sigil. — Sign-manual.
THE ALCHEMIST
I. 8.	Wolfish queens. — Thus these wicked wretches dare to speak of their kind and godly relations.
II. 11.	Blind worms—pious swine. — The poor servants of God! Ah, well! we have our comfort in Him; like Our Blessed Lord, we can forgive. It is for our loving Lord to set His foot upon the necks of our enemies, and to cast them out into the blackness of darkness for ever.
V. 12. 13.	This is quite unintelligible to me.
XI.	I think this is what is called Echolalia, a sure sign of 'degeneracy'; or, as I prefer to think, a wickedness which has gone, dreadful as it sounds to write, beyond the Infinite Mercy of God. "I will send them strong delusion."
XIII. 9.	Oriflamme. — How obscene is all this symbolism!
THE HERMIT
IV. 7.	Myrrh—musk. — The perfumes of Sorrow and of Lust. Many prostitutes scent themselves strongly with musk, the better to allure their unhappy victims.
VI. 8.	Maid. — Proserpine, or Hecate. I think the latter, as Proserpine became wife of Hades.
VII.	This disgusting sonnet seems to refer to the wicked magical practice of travelling by the astral double.
IX.	Cannabis. — Indian hemp, a drug producing maniacal intoxication.
X. 12.	Verlaine! Zola! — These are the vampires that suck out the virtue from our young people, the foreign corrupters of our purer manners!
XII. 7.	Attis—Abelard. — 'Thirst' here clearly means unhallowed lust, since Attis and Abelard were both mutilated persons.
XIV. 13. 14.	What mad megalomania!
THE THAUMATURGE
I. 1.	Horrible blasphemy of this adaptation of Job to their vile purposes!
IV. 14.	Ten bob. — Vulgarity must always go with wickedness. Christ is not only a saving but a refining influence.
V. 6.	Wolf's tail. — The Zodiacal Light, seen before dawn.
XIV.	I suppose that such a mixture of ribaldry, blasphemy, vulgarity, and obscenity, as this series of sonnets has never been known. But worse is to follow!
THE BLACK MASS
XI. 6.	A reference to the Bacchae of Euripides.
THE ADEPT
I. 1.	Ra. — The 'Sun-God'
I. 5.	Horus. — The hawk, also a 'Sun-God'
II. 1.	Apollonius of Tyana, the notorious pseudo-Christ, used to cover himself in wool in order to meditate.
III. 7.	Fellatrix. — Only a Latin dictionary can unveil the loathsome horror of this filthy word.
IV. q. sqq.	— Impossible to comment on this shocking 'sin against the Holy Ghost' To compare the very Spirit or Breath of God to—Oh, Lord, how long?
VI. 11.	Basilisk. — a fabulous creature that slew all that it looked upon.
IX. 1.	Lingam. — The Hindu God (!) — the male organ of generation.
2.	Yoni — Its feminine equivalent. That the poor Hindus should worship these shameful things! And we? Oh how poor and inadequate is all our missionary effort! Let us send out more, and yet more, to our perishing brothers!
5.	Phædra was repulsed by her son Hipolytus; Semiramis receved the willing embraces of her son Ninus.
XI. 1.	Only Nothing is. — There is much metaphysical nonsense culled from German Atheistic philosophy, in these poems. A wicked philosopher is far more dangerous than a mere voluptuary.
10.	Doomisday. — An affected archaism for the Day of Judgment. How can the writer dare to speak of this great day, on which he shall be damned for ever? "For he that believeth not is condemned already."
XII. 6.	Mother. — Nature. How true would be these striking words, if only for "the love-taught magus, the hermaphrodite" with all its superstition, blasphemy, and obscenity, one were to write "The Christ-saved sinner, brought into the light".
XV. 10.	The arcanum in the adytum. — More classical affectation for "the secret thing in the holy place".
THE VAMPIRE
I. 8.	Savonarola. — An ascetic Florentine doctor.
V. 1-6.	For a good modern account of vampires and their habits, consult Mr Bram Stoker's Dracula.
IX. 3.	Kriss. — The Malayan dagger.
4.	Runs amok. — Maddened by drink, these wretches run wildly through the streets, slaying all they meet until they themselves are slain. Only the gospel of Christ can save such.
8.	Yataghan. — The Afghan sword.
XII. 12.	The writer is evidently thinking of the "Bessemer converter".
XIII. 1.	"The comedy is finished".
5-7.	A reference to Hamlet and the Players.
10. 11.	Reference to Keats' Belle Dame sans Merci.
XIV. 10.	Blood-bought bastards. — Christians! O Saviour! what didst Thou come to save?
6.	Quoted from Arnold's Song Celestial.
7. 8.	Quoted from a magical Coptic papyrus.
THE INITIATION
III.	This shocking sonnet awakes pity and disgust in equal proportions. If even then they had only turned to the "Great Physician!" But no! "God hardened Pharaoh's heart".
IV. 14.	Alas! no doubt that the reference is to our blessed Lord and Master, The barren fig-tree has been no doubt a stumbling-block to many weak souls. But the fig tree has here a deeper signification in its reference to certain loathsome forms of disease, and it is a symbol of lust. See Rosenbaum's "Plague of Lust"
V. 1.	Swollen neck. — A superstition of the ancients was that the neck swelled on the bridal night, and virginity was tested by the proportion of the skull and the neck. See Beverland "Draped Virginity".
VI.	Poor, poor deluded victims of Satan! If they only knew the holy joy of even the least of Jesu's lambs!
VII. 13.	Bull's blood. — Supposed to be a poison by the ancients. Thus Themistocles is said to have died.
IX. 9.	Cypress. — Symbol of death.
10.	Acacia. — Symbol of resurrection.
X. 1.	The poppy-fields. — They killed themselves with laudanum.
XII. 1.	Yahoos. — See Swift's Voyage to Laputa. It is feared that the mad Dean intended to satirize mankind, the race for which the Lord of Glory died!
XIII.	Rejoice, we conquer. It si really very extraordinary how Satan's blindness and fury possess them to the very end. Even as they died, maybe one fervent cry of repentence to the dear Saviour of all men would have been heard, and the gates of Paradise swung open as Satan, cheated of his prey, sank yelling into the Pit. But alas! there is no such word: nothing but a pagan Epicureanism even in the jaws of death.

A Prayer

Merciful and loving Father, almighty God, grant unto us Thy humble servants and ministers a double portion of Thy Spirit that our eyes may be opened to the wickedness of them that love Thee not, that by Thy grace our ministrations may be used to bring them out of darkness into Light, by the virtue of our crucified Lord, risen and ascended, Thine only-begotten Son, in Whose name we ask this Thy blessing. For Jesus Christ's sake, Amen.

The End