Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men – Liber AL vel Legis I:5
This line, from early in Chapter 1 of Liber AL, has fascinated me for a while now. It intrigues me. It seems to challenge me to understand it. It tells me it has something personal for me. Just what exactly is Aiwass, through the person of Aleister Crowley, trying to say to us here?
I have on several occasions claimed that Crowley’s own interpretations of his channelled work are by no means the deepest level of meaning available. Whilst undoubtedly a huge figure is the Western esoteric scene, and deserving of immense respect, nevertheless I feel that he was rather more outward-facing than inward. And to be like that is only half the story. As this line will show us.
Who is this warrior lord of Thebes?
Who is being unveiled?
Who are these Children of men?
Let’s take a crack at those Q’s.
The person speaking is clearly Nu, or Nuit, who is essentially the totality of the manifested world that we experience. In Tarot, I think she is best represented by Key 17 – the Star.
The woman pours out two vessels of experience, one unconscious, from her left hand, which creates ripples in the pool. The other conscious – 5 streams of sensory experience – which fall upon the land, though one (hearing) flows back to the pool.
This “Star Goddess” is the force behind manifest creation and the first chapter of Liber AL is all about her. She is the source of our experience right at this moment.
Okay. Now this “warrior lord of Thebes.” I think that he is best represented by the Emperor.
He is the force who creates order, who on his deepest level renders sensible our experience, such that it can be meaningful to us. We have Nu, the Star Goddess, the source of experience. Then we have the Emperor, an aspect of our rational mind, who renders this material into something that we can relate to. This emperor also wears armour and in the Key faces symbolic North, the direction of the unknown.
So these two forces, working together, provide us with conscious experience. And yet they may be seen as somewhat in opposition too. The Emperor is vigilant and controlling. He is charged with not allowing us to be overwhelmed by the forces of the unknown or the irrational. The Star Goddess, Nu, however, longs to be seen naked, in all her glory – an ecstatic experience oft called samadhi in the East.
This is the classic male-female antagonism. The fluidity of the female side of the mind coming up against the rigidity of the male. Finally, all Nu can do is to plead – Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men. She needs to get him on board, to convince him to let down some of his guard.
And who are these “Children of men?”
Many interpretations of Liber AL focus on the idea of there coming a “Child of the New Aeon” – a prophet who will light the way for humanity. Over the years, various individuals have been proposed as this messaianic figure, not least of them one of Crowley’s former associates, Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones). Indeed, Achad’s real name, when rendered into numbers by one of the two famous ciphers that emerged from the Liber AL, gives a value 418 – the number associated with this Child of the New Aeon.
However, the assumption that this Child must be an actual person, whilst not unreasonable, is also the result of focusing on the outward-facing interpretation of the book. The inward-facing viewpoint would be that this Child is instead a regenerated state of consciousness that we can attain – a Horus, a child born within us, reminiscent of Jesus’ claim that unless you become “as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
So now our interpretation is complete. Nu, the Star Goddess, begins her exhortation with a plea to our conscious mind:
Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
The unveiling of the company of heaven.
Every man and every woman is a star.
Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!
Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!
Help me, she is saying, as she tries to speak directly to the Emperor within us. Slacken off some of the nuts and bolts of your rational mind, and allow me to enter you better.
I will do my best.
Thank you for reading.