Thelemic Upanishads - pt.3: The Book of Six Questions

The Hindu Upanishads represent the true esoteric knowledge of the Self being one with Brahman, the un-differentiated boundless substance of Being, Consciousness, and Bliss (sat-chit-ananda). Their wisdom is timeless although the names and forms which they refer to are continually uprooted, interchanged, and transformed. They have been re-translated (based on Easwaran) to be pertinent to the New Aeon of the Crowned & Conquering Child, Horus.
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The Prashna Upanishad
The Book of Six Questioins

"There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason. Now a curse upon Because and his kin! May Because be accursed for ever! ...Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog! But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!" - Liber AL II:27-29, 32-34



Six children of earth sought endlessly for Self-realization. Eventually they approached with love a sage - the prince-priest the Beast - for his guidance on the spiritual path. The Beast-sage told them: "Live with me for one year, practicing control of the senses and mind. Ask me questions at the end of the year, and I will answer them."

Question I

After a year, the first child asked the sage: "Master, who created the universe?"

The Beast replied, "The Boundless Lord, the giver of name and form, meditated on Himself and brought forth Energy (prana) with Matter (arayi), Male and Female, so that they would bring forth innumerable creatures for Him.

Energy is the sun; Matter is the moon. Matter is solid, Energy is subtle; the Supreme Self therefore is present everywhere.

The Sun gives Light and Life to all who live. East and west, north and south, above and below: It is the Energy of the universe. The wise see the Hawk-headed Lord of Love in the Sun, rising in all Its golden radiance to give Its warmth and Light and Life to all.

The wise see the Supreme Master in the year, which has two paths, the northern and the southern. Those who seek the Self through meditation, self-discipline, wisdom, and persistence travel after death by the Unitive Path. The path of Energy, to the solar world, supreme refuge, beyond the reach of fear and free from the multiplicity of birth and death.

"...This Lion came forth to proclaim the Aeon of Horus, the crowned and conquering child, who dieth not, nor is reborn, but goeth radiant ever upon His Way. Even so goeth the Sun: for as it is now known that night is but the shadow of the Earth, so Death is but the shadow of the Body, that veileth his Light from its bearer."
- The Heart of the Master, part III

Some look upon the Sun as our Father who makes life possible with heat and rain and divides time into months and seasons. Others have seen him riding in Wisdom on his Chariot, with seven colors as horses and six wheels to represent the whirling spokes of time.

The wise see the Supreme Magus of Love in the month: Matter corresponds to the dark half, and Energy to the bright half. The wise rejoice in the Light of Wisdom, while others suffer in the darkness of ignorance (avidya).

The wise see this Lord of Love in the span of a day: Matter corresponds to the dark night, and Energy the daylight. Those who use their days solely for sexual pleasure consume Energy needlessly, the very stuff of life. But mastered, sex becomes a spiritual force as a weapon of the True Will. They who live solely for sensual pleasures like sex take the lunar path, but those who are self-controlled and truthful to themselves will go to the Bright Regions of the Sun. The Bright World of Ra-Hoor-Khuit can be attained only by those whose will is pure and true, only by those whose will is pure and true."


Question II

Then another child approached the Beast and asked: "Master, what powers support this body? Which of the powers are manifested in it? And among them all, which is the greatest power?"

The sage replied: "The powers are space, fire, water, air, earth, speech, mind, vision, and hearing. All these powers boasted, 'We support this body,' but Will, vital energy, supreme over them all, said, 'Don't deceive yourselves. It is I, dividing myself fourfold, who hold this body together.'

"Hoor hath a secret fourfold name: it is Do What Thou Wilt. / Four Words: Naught-One-Many-All. / Thou-Child! / Thy Name is holy. / Thy Kingdom is come. / Thy Will is done. / Here is the Bread. / Here is the Blood. / Bring us through Temptation! / Deliver us from Good and Evil! / That Mine as Thine be the Crown of the Kingdom, even now. / ABRAHADABRA. / These ten words are four, the Name of the One."
- Book of Lies, ch.2

All the powers including speech, mind, vision, and hearing then sang this song: "The Supreme Will burns as fire; It shines as the sun; It rains as the clouds; It blows as the wind; It crashes as the thunder in the sky. It is the earth, It has form and no form; the Crowned & Conquering Will is immortality.

Everything rests in the Will, as spokes rest in the hub of the wheel: all the holy texts, all our rituals & daily movements, all the merchants and warriors and kings.

O Supreme Will, you move in the mother's womb as life to be manifested again. All creatures pay their homage to you: you carry offerings, bring war, and allow sages to master their senses. All depends upon you for their function.

"Come forth and dwell in me; so that every my Spirit, whether of the Firmament, or of the Ether, or of the Earth or under the Earth; on dry land or in the Water, or Whirling Air or of Rushing Fire; and every spell and scourge of God the Vast One may be THOU. Abrahadabra!"
- Invocation of Horus, used in 1904

You are the creator and destroyer, and our protector. You shine as the sun in the sky; you are the source of all light. When you pour yourself down as rain on earth, every living creature is filled with joy and knows food will be abundant for all.

You are pure and master of everything, O Supreme Will. As fire you receive our acts of love under will: it is You who gives us the breath of life.

O Divine Will, which invisibly pervades the voice, the eye, the ear, and the mind: let our motion be One. O Supreme Will, all the world depends on you. As a mother looks after her children, give us health and strength. Grant us wealth and wisdom: the accomplishment of our True Motion."


Question III

Then a third child approached the sage and asked: "Master, from what source does the Will come? How does It enter the body, how does It support all that is without and all that is within?"

The Beast replied: "You ask searching questions. Since you are a devoted aspirant seeking the Boundless Godhead, I shall answer them.

The Will is born of the Supreme Self. As a man casts a shadow, the Self casts its Will into the body at the time of birth so that the mind's desires may be fulfilled.

"I am Omniciscient, for naught exists for me unless I know it. I am Omnipotent, for naught occurs save by Necessity, my soul's expression through my Will to be, to do, to suffer the symbols of itself. I am Omnipresent, for naught exists where I am not, who fashioned Space as a condition of my consciousness of myself, who am the centre of all, and my circumference the frame of mine own fancy. I am the All, for all that exists for me is a necessary expression in thought of some tendency of my nature, and all my thoughts are only the letters of my Name."
-Liber V vel Reguli

As a king appoints officers to do his work in all the villages, so the Will employs the various energies, each a part of himself, to carry out different functions in the body. As the distributor of energy, it moves through the myriad vital currents radiating from the heart, where lives this Self.

The Sun is the outward form of Energy in the universe, and it rises to bring light to our eyes. The Supreme Self is the source of inner and outer Energy that pervades all things. Those who realize this go beyond death. Those who perceive how the Will rises, enters the body, and serves the Self... they die not; they die not.


Question IV

Then the fourth children approached the prince-priest the Beast and asked him: "O Sage, when a man is sleeping, who is it that sleeps in him? Who sees the dreams he sees? When he wakes up, who in him is awake? When he enjoys, who is enjoying? In whom do all these faculties rest?"

The sage replied: "The dreaming mind recalls past impressions. It sees again what has been seen, it hears again what has been heard, and it enjoys again what has been enjoyed in many places. Seen and unseen, heard and unheard, enjoyed and unenjoyed, the real and the unreal: the mind experiences all these things in a dream-filled sleep.

When the mind is stilled in dreamless sleep, it brings rest and repose to the body. Just as birds fly to the tree for rest, all things in life find their rest in the Supreme Boundless Self. All the gross and subtle elements, what can be sensed, the mind and what it thinks, the intellect and what it knows, the ego and what it grasps, the heart and what it loves, the light and what it reveals: all things in life find their rest in the Supreme Self in dreamless sleep.

"Say thou that He God is one; God is the Everlasting One; nor hath He any Equal, or any Son, or any Companion. Nothing shall stand before His face."
- Liber Ararita, III:0

It is the Lord of Silence & Strength, the Supreme Self, who sees, hears, smells, touches, tastes, thinks, acts, and is pure consciousness. The Self is the Crowned & Conquering Child: changeless and supreme.

Those who know the Supreme Self as formless, without shadow, without impurity, know all and live in all. Those who know this Self, the seat of consciousness, in whom the breath and all the senses live, know all and live in all."


Question V

A fifth approached the sage and asked: "Those who have become established in the Double Word of Power ABRAHADABRA, what happens to them after death?"

The Beast replied: "ABRAHADABRA is both immanent and transcendent. Through it one can attain the personal and the impersonal.

These five syllables when they are separated cannot lead one beyond mortality; but when the whole mantra - indivsible, interdependent - goes on reverberating in the mind, one is freed from fear, awake or asleep.

Established in this cosmic vibration, the awakened child-sage goes beyond fear, decay, and death to enter into infinite peace."

"I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice. My incense is of resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity."
- Liber AL I:58-59


Question VI

Then the final child-student approached the Beast and said: "Master, the prince of a great kingdom once asked me, 'Do you know the Self with its multifaceted forms?' 'I don't,' I replied. 'If I did, I would certainly tell you.' That prince mounted his chariot and went away silent. Now may I ask you, where is that Self?"

The Beast-sage replied: "Within this body dwells the Self with his multifaceted forms, gentle child. The Self asked himself, 'What is it that makes Me go if I cannot go from myself?' So he created Will, and from it the various urges of Energy; and from this Energy he made space, air, fire, water, the earth, the senses, the mind, and food; from food came strength, austerity, innumerable books, rituals, and all the worlds. Everything was given name and form.

"None, breathed the light, faint & faery, of the stars, and two. For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all."
- Liber AL I:28-30

As rivers lose their private name and form when they reach the sea, so that people speak of the sea alone, so all these multifaceted forms disappear when the Supreme Self is realized. Then there is no more name and form for us, and we attain immortality.

This True Self is the hub of the wheel of life, and the multifaceted forms are only the spokes. This Self is the paramount goal of life: attain this goal and go beyond death into Eternity!"

"I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is theknowledge of me the knowledge of death. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go."
- Liber AL II:7-8

The Beast concluded: "There is nothing more to be said of the true Self, nothing more."

The students adored their teacher and said: "You are our father; you have taken us across the sea to the other shore." Let us adore the illumined sages! Let us adore ourselves and all things as our Supreme Self!

"The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!"
- Liber AL II:79