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

Religious Eclecticism in Thelema

Islam

* Liber AL I:49, "Abrogate are all rituals, all ordeals, all words and signs. Ra-Hoor-Khuit hath taken his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods; and let Asar be with Isa, who also are one. But they are not of me. Let Asar be the adorant, Isa the sufferer; Hoor in his secret name and splendour is the Lord initiating." [Isa is the Muslim name for Jesus in the Quran]
* Liber AL III:10, "Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple -- and that temple is already aright disposed -- & it shall be your Kiblah for ever."
* Liber AL III:41, "Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way."

* Liber Ararita, "Qol: Hua Allahu achad; Allahu assamad: lam yalid walam yulad; walam yakun lahu kufwan achad.'" [this is in Arabic, and is from 'the Chapter of Unity' in the Quran, chapter 112]. Crowley mentions this in Book 4, Eight Lectures on Yoga, Confessions ch.66, and the Cry of the 9th Aethyr in Vision and the Voice. He translates this passage as, "Say: / He is God alone! / God the Eternal! / He begets not and is not begotten! / Nor is there like unto Him any one!"]

Christianity

* LIber AL I:15, "Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men." [the Beast and the Scarlet Woman are images from Book of Revelations]
* Liber AL II:57, "He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still." [a direct quote from Book of Revelations]
* Liber AL III:14, "Ye shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the Scarlet Concubine of his desire!"

* Liber Cheth line 1 "This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast."
* Liber Cheth line 11, "For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do this despite thy will. So that thou attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations."

Hinduism

* Liber AL I:18, "Burn upon their brows, o splendrous serpent!" [a reference to the Ajna chakra between the eyebrows where the Kundalini, the sacred serpent power, arises and settles in enlightenment]
* Liber AL I:56, "Expect him not from the East, nor from the West; for from no expected house cometh that child. Aum! All words are sacred and all prophets true; save only that they understand a little; solve the first half of the equation, leave the second unattacked. But thou hast all in the clear light, and some, though not all, in the dark."
* Liber AL II:26, "I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one."
* Liber AL III:37, "...Appear on the throne of Ra! / Open the ways of the Khu! / Lighten the ways of the Ka! / The ways of the Khabs run through / To stir me or still me! / Aum! let it fill me!"
* Liber AL III:75. The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra. / The Book of the Law is Written / and Concealed. / Aum. Ha."

* Liber B vel Magi line 17, "Following which method, it shall be easy for Him to combine that rinity from its elements, and further to combine Sat-Chit-Ananda, and Light, Love, Life, three by three into nine that are one, in which meditation success shall be That which was first adumbrated to Him in the grade of Practicus (which reflecteth Mercury into the lowest world) in Liber XXVII, "Here is Nothing under its three forms." [Sat Chit Ananda are Being Consciousness and Bliss... three non-dual qualities of Brahman, the Godhead. Crowley often attributed them to Netzach Hod and Yesod on the Tree of Life]

* Liber A'ash line 17, "Also concerning vows. Be obstinate, and be not obstinate. Understand that the yielding of the Yoni is one with the lengthening of the Lingam. Thou art both these; and thy vow is but the rustling of the wind on Mount Meru." [the Lingam-Yoni is a Hindu symbol cognate with the Gnostic Father-Mother and many other symbols of the 2-in-1. Mount Meru is the central mountain, the Tree of Life, the World Tree, etc.]
* Liber A'ash lines 34-35, "Now therefore thou knowest when I am within Thee, when my hood is spread over thy skull, when my might is more than the penned Indus, and resistless as the Giant Glacier. / For as thou art before a lewd woman in Thy nakedness in the bazaar, sucked up by her slyness and smiles, so art thou wholly and no more in part before the symbol of the beloved, though it be but a Pisacha or a Yantra or a Deva." [the hood spreading over the skull is a reference to the Kundalini and perhaps Buddha's attainment. The Indus is the mighty river that runs through India. Pisacha, Yantras, and Devas are all sacred objects of worship/meditation]
* Liber A'ash line 40, "So therefore the beginning is delight, and the end is delight, and delight is in the midst, even as the Indus is water in the cavern of the glacier, and water among the greater hills and the lesser hills and through the ramparts of the hills and through the plains, and water at the mouth thereof when it leaps forth into the mighty sea, yea, into the mighty sea." [the Indus is taken as a symbol of the infinite]


Egyptian

* Liber AL I:7, "Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat." [Hoor-paar-kraat is a form of Harpocrates or Harparkrat]
* Liber AL I:14. Above, the gemmed azure is / The naked splendour of Nuit; / She bends in ecstasy to kiss / The secret ardours of Hadit. / The winged globe, the starry blue, / Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!" [this is a poetic transcription of the hieroglyphs found on the Stele of Revealing, an Egyptian artifact. They depict the characters on the Stele]
* Liber AL I:49, "Abrogate are all rituals, all ordeals, all words and signs. Ra-Hoor-Khuit hath taken his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods; and let Asar be with Isa, who also are one. But they are not of me. Let Asar be the adorant, Isa the sufferer; Hoor in his secret name and splendour is the Lord initiating." [Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Egyptian Rahorakthy, found on the Stele of Revealing. Asar is a name of Osiris; Hoor is a name of Horus, especially in his form as a child]
etc. etc. etc.

* Liber A'ash line 1, "Gnarled Oak of God! In thy branches is the lightning nested! Above thee hangs the Eyeless Hawk." [The Hawk-headed god Horus]
* Liber A'ash line 8, "For two things are done and a third thing is begun. Isis and Osiris are given over to incest and adultery. Horus leaps up thrice armed from the womb of his mother. Harpocrates his twin is hidden within him. SET is his holy covenant, that he shall display in the great day of M.A.A.T., that is being interpreted the Master of the Temple of A.'. A.'., whose name is Truth." [Isis, Osiris, Horus, Harpocrates, Set, and Maat are all Egyptian symbols/deities. Isis, Osiris, and Horus/Harpocrates form a triad of Mother, Father, Child...]

* Liber Stella Rubeae line 1, "Apep deifieth Asar." [Apep is the destroyer Apophis, personification of darkness and chaos and the one who battled with Ra each day; Asar is Osiris]
* Liber Stella Rubeae line 38, "I, Apep the Serpent, am the heart of IAO. Isis shall await Asar, and I in the midst." [Apep is, again the serpent destroyer; Isis is the prototypical mother and Asar is again Osiris. This is formed into a symbolic word I [Isis] - A [Apophis] - O [Osiris]. Apep as the serpent should be understood in the context of the Heart and the Serpent of Liber LXV]
* Liber Stella Rubeae line 48, "I am Apep, O thou slain One. Thou shalt slay thyself upon mine altar: I will have thy blood to drink."

* Liber LXV I:1, "...On the corpse of Osiris afloat in the tomb! / O heart of my mother, my sister, mine own, / Thou art given to Nile, to the terror Typhon!... / Behold! we are one, and the tempest of years / Goes down to the dusk, and the Beetle appears. / O Beetle! the drone of Thy dolorous note / Be ever the trance of this tremulous throat!..." [Osiris is mentioned and 'the Beetle,' which refers to Keph-Ra, the Beetle which holds the sun in its mandibles. Typhon is equated with Apep/Apophis and the inundation of the Nile river]
* Liber LXV IV:24, "Arise, O serpent Apep, Thou art Adonai the beloved one! Thou art my darling and my lord, and Thy poison is sweeter than the kisses of Isis the mother of the Gods!" [Apep is identified with Adonai here, and the 'poison' or malefic aspect is understood as sweetness. Isis again appears and is understood to be 'the mother of the Gods']
* Liber LXV V:50, "Let not the priest of Isis uncover the nakedness of Nuit, for every step is a death and a birth. The priest of Isis lifted the veil of Isis, and was slain by the kisses of her mouth. Then was he the priest of Nuit, and drank of the milk of the stars."


Greek

*Liber Tzaddi line 23, "Only if ye are sorrowful, or weary, or angry, or discomforted; then ye may know that ye have lost the golden thread, the thread wherewith I guide you to the heart of the groves of Eleusis." [The Eleusinian Mysteries were a popular form of the Greek Mysteries]
* Liber Tzaddi line 32, "Only your mouths shall drink of a delicious wine --- the wine of Iacchus; they shall reach ever to the heavenly kiss of the Beautiful God." [Iacchus was part of the procession at Eleusis; Crowley sees him as Kether/Tiphareth, the highest Part of man]

* Liber LXV I:1, "Thou art given to Nile, to the terror Typhon!" [Typhon was the personification of chaos and powerful forces, being the enemy of the gods of Olympus]
* Liber LXV I:54, "Then said Adonai: Thou hast the Head of the Hawk, and thy Phallus is the Phallus of Asar. Thou knowest the white, and thou knowest the black, and thou knowest that these are one. But why seekest thou the knowledge of their equivalence?"

The Mystic Interpretation of Liber AL vel Legis

Note: The Mystic Interpretation is always "All is One." It may be conceived in many forms - "Naught-One-Many-All" - but it always refers to the un-differentiated, non-dual substance that underlies and binds together all phenomena unto a Unity. As it is said in Liber Causae, "Now the Great Work is one, and the Initiation is one, and the Reward is one, however diverse are the symbols wherein the Unutterable is clothed." Also, it is said in Liber Ararita, "O my God! One is Thy Beginning! One is Thy Spirit, and Thy Permutation One!"

* * * * * *

AL I:1 -  Had! The manifestation of Nuit.

Had! is the first breath. H the beginning, A the breath (Air), and D is creation & love (Venus). By this breath, as the Taoist 'Tao' and the Hindu Purusha and Norse Ymir divided themselves up/were sacrificed, the 'world' is created by the unity being divided into duality. Nuit may only be known through her manifestations.

AL I:2 - The unveiling of the company of heaven.

This unveiling is the 'apocalypse,' the perception of Unity where all beings are seen to be 'the company of heaven.' This pronouncement underlies the message of the Book that will follow.

AL I:3 - Every man and every woman is a star.

In antiquity, heaven was understood to be the skies with the motions of the celestial bodies being perfect. We now know that Earth is in Heaven, and Heaven is understood by the manifestations of Earth. Just as the company of the ancient heaven were the stars, we have unveiled before us this new symbolic perspective: every man and every woman is a star and is therefore part of this company of heaven. This means also, every man and every woman has the potential for attaining to this consciousness of being a star - that is understanding the Self as the Monad... and it is an affirmation that every man and every woman is a manifestation of this Monad, created to know & love & enjoy Itself. (Transitive verbs are misleading; all things are the various modifications of a unified Subject in itself, and therefore as a whole it is never modified. Only when this unified Subject is divided, when 'things' and 'categories' arise and their bounds are felt as reality, do 'modifications' and 'change' seem to be apparent. All 'objects' are part of the unified Subject; the deed, the doer of the deed, and the situation which makes the deed possible are all parts of the unified Subject. The many change and pass, the One remains.)

After contemplating, I add this conception - Every man and every woman is a star, an aggregate or ganglion of force, and are naturally parts, the company, of the Whole of heaven. Again, it may also refer to the part's potential for abolishing its false selfhood in its immersion in the unified Subject.

AL I:4 - Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

Every number is some construing of the infinite. 2 is the number of the 1 expressed as 2, divided into yin & yang, up & down. 3 is the number of the 1 expressed as 3. 4 is 1 expressed in a four-fold manner, etc. etc. "Differences" are contrivances, and the apparent separation between "things" they point out is a fiction (but untruth doesn't rule out utility). Even the number '1' is a silly contrivance which means to our thinking a Unity, but One has the opposing idea of 'Many' and/or 'not-One' therefore some people take solace in 'Naught'/0. All of these are masks of the infinite. 

AL I:5 - Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

The asking of help is really a command to rise up and awaken to the truth of Unity, to assume an active role in the process. Further, an intermediary is necessary for the expression of Unity to the many; that is, a body which has the means of materially communicating the dialectics of thought through language.

AL I:6 - Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!

We are to assume the role of Hadit, the secret center of the Infinite, and a mode of its expression ('my tongue'). 

AL I:7 - Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.

We are made to expect a doctrine. Aiwass:Hoor-paar-kraat :: Mercury:Sun :: Tahuti:Ra-hoor. That is, Aiwass is the communicatory, active medium for the propagation of the Message of Hoor, the Silent Self, the Crowned & Conquering Child of Horus, the powerful Unity.

AL I:8 - The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.

This verse depends on an interpretation of 'is in.' I take the meaning to be 'is inside,' 'is concealed within/beyond,' 'is that which transcends.' This is the common spatial metaphor of the outside as exoteric & false as a sort of crust or mask, and the inside as the esoteric & true essence. 

The Khabs is the Starry Nature concealed within Man - that is, his knowledge of himself as truly the Silent Self, the unified Subject. The Khu is the entire cosmos as it is 'known' to man, i.e. through the representations of his nervous system. This includes all interior (emotions, thoughts, imagination, memory) and exterior (surroundings, the world, the universe) things. This is essentially the Jnana Yoga doctrine of the unreality of impermanent, constituent things - also the Buddhist teaching of anicca and anatta which are intrinsically bound up in one another. The only 'real' thing, is the Unity which is beyond change because it contains all change in Itself.

AL I:9 - Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!

We are then to penetrate beyond the veils of duality and worship (identify with) the Khabs... the inner 'light' of unity. "Light" is a common metaphor that can most likely be found in any religious text, especially when describing an encounter with god or some religious experience. This is the light that is beyond our notions of light & dark, but we ascribe the name light to it for various reasons (e.g. it disperses the darkness of ignorance, it has energy like the heat of light, etc.) It is by the worship of this 'inmost essence,' the 'quintessence' of the four elements, the Unity that transcends the impermanent constituents, that we come to know ourselves as Ourself.

AL I:10 - Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.

A law of nature as well as a command to the ordering of society & the psyche. We are to order our psyche & society according to a few dominant principles, which will influence and guide the many. The psyche is still 'servant' to the Self. 

An Etymological Take on Chapter III of Liber AL vel Legis

Many phrases and words in the Book of the Law, especially in the third chapter 'spoken' by Heru-Ra-Ha, cause natural aversions in readers. Is there a possible layer of interpretation of these tabu words approachable through their etymological roots?

Firstly, Crowley's commentary on this chapter should be mentioned:

The first two chapters of this Book describe Ideas without limit; the third concerns a fixed Event due to one union of them, namely the coming of

HERU-RA-HA.

The contents of the chapter are instructions to those who are to govern His Aeon in His Name; and these rulers will appeal to me The Beast 666 for a comment upon the text when need is.

Aum Ha.
He appears to be implying that the first two chapters refer to two ineffable Ideas (Nuit & Hadit) and the third is a conjunction of these two, applicable only to a certain Aeon (this falls in line with his Qabalistic mode of understanding Thelema which is apparent in the first chapter of Magick in Theory & Practice and elsewhere). This may make certain lines more intelligble (e.g. 'Fourties' refers to 1940s if this chapter is anchored temporally in 1904).
reward (III:1) - Etymologically, from 1300 the meaning of 'reward' meant, "a regarding, heeding, observation." In this sense, "Abrahadabra" is the observation, heeding, acknowledging of Ra Hoor Khut. " 'Ward' etymologically refers to, "a guarding, a watchman, a sentry," and so re-ward may mean "to guard, watch, etc. again."  Crowley writes, "Observe firstly the word "reward", which is to be compared with the words "hiding" and "manifestation" in the former chapters. To 're-ward' is to 'guard again'; this word Abrahadabra then is also to be considered as a Sentinel before the Fortress of the God."
hither homeward (III:2) - 'hither' suggests 'here' and 'homeward' suggests 'going in the direction of home'
defunct (III:2) - "The word 'defunct' is decidedly curious; the implication is 'no longer able to fulfil its function'." (A.C.) Etymologically, 'defunct' is from the Latin defunctus "dead," lit. "off-duty," which in turn is from  from pp. of defungi "to discharge, finish," from de- "off, completely," + fungi "perform or discharge duty."
War (III:3) - If we transliterate the letters of War into Hebrew we have Vav-Aleph-Resh, the enumeration of "Aur" (light) and "Ain Soph" (without limit). War also refers to the inherent conflict or agon of forces in all things (Heraclitus). Etymologically, cognates suggest the original sense of 'war' was "to bring into confusion," which has interesting implications when juxtaposed with the infamous quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche, "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."
Vengeance (III:3) - Etymologically, 'vengeance' comes from the Latin vindicare "to set free, claim, avenge." Traditionally, Horus is the 'Avenger' of his father Osiris, who was tricked and dismembered by Set. In Crowley's "Supreme Ritual," which he used as his invocation of Horus before the reception, he writes, "Strike, strike the master chord! / Draw, draw the Flaming Sword! / Crowned Child and Conquering Lord,  /  Horus,  Avenger!"
island (III:4) - Crowley writes in his commentary to ch.61 of Book of Lies, "Oe= Island, a common symbol of Nibbana [known more commonly as Nirvana]." Etymologically, 'island' comes from the Proto-Germanic aujo "thing on the water" + land. An Old English cognate was ealand "river-land, watered place, meadow by a river."
Fortify (III:5) - 'Fortify' originally comes from the Latin fortificare, which comes from fortis "strong" + facere "to make"... or simply "to make strong." It has also meant specifically, "to strengthen mentally or morally" since 1477. It has also been attested to mean, "add liquor or alcohol" since 1880...