:

LIBER
X I I I
VEL
GRADVVM
MONTIS
ABIEGNI
A S Y LL A B U S
O F T HE S T E P S
UPON THE
PATH
 V AA
Publication in Class D

Issued by Order :
D.D.S. 7° = 4° Præmonstrator
O.S.V. 6° = 5° Imperator
N.S.F. 5° = 6° Cancellarius
 Let not the failure and the pain turn aside the worshippers. The
foundations of the pyramid were hewn in the living rock ere sunset;
did the king weep at dawn that the crown of the pyramid was as yet
unquarried in the distant land?
There was also an humming-bird that spake unto the horned
cerastes, and prayed him for poison. And the great snake of Khem
the Holy One, the royal Uræus serpent, answered him and said:
I sailed over the sky of Nu in the car called Millions-of-Years,
and I saw not any creature upon Seb that was equal to me. The
venom of my fang is the inheritance of my father, and of my father’s
father; and how shall I give it unto thee? Live thou and thy children
as I and my fathers have lived, even unto an hundred millions of
generations, and it may be that the mercy of the Mighty Ones may
bestow upon thy children a drop of the poison of eld.
Then the humming-bird was afflicted in his spirit, and he flew
unto the flowers, and it was as if naught had been spoken between
them. Yet in a little while a serpent struck him that he died.
But an Ibis that meditated upon the bank of Nile the beautiful
god listened and heard. And he laid aside his Ibis ways, and became
as a serpent, saying Peradventure in an hundred millions of millions
of generations of my children, they shall attain to a drop of the
poison of the fang of the Exalted One.
And behold! ere the moon waxed thrice he became an Uræus
serpent, and the poison of the fang was established in him and his
seed even for ever and for ever.
—Liber LXV, ch. V. vv. 51-56.
 versation of the HO
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thy

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Leads to the Grade
of Adeptus Major

ADEPTUS

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, Ev w e . Ra of ru
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ans y
The lready acquired. Liber M Lamp
ana
al ism DO INIS etc.
The Qabalah T lightinMINUS LIM agic
g of the M Devotion to the
Liber DCCLXXVII Order
Gnana Yoga Bhakti Yoga
Control of Speech Control of Action
PRACTICUS Ritual & Meditation Practice to Destroy Thoughts PHILOSOPHUS
Liber XXVII Liber DCCCXIII
The Casting of the
the Planes

The Cutting of the

Rising on

Magic Cup M Magic Wand

val editat on ess
tice ciousn
NO NO
R ITU A L ent ion c R ITU AL
to R Pra ra s
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XX Posture Mexpans
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Control of Breathing
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ZELATOR
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atio

Liber CCXX
The Forging of the
in
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Magic Sword
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R IT
U A L CX X
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Control of Astral Plane

Me
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Rit
ua
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X

The Four Powers

of The Sphinx
NEOPHYTE
Liber VII
The Building of the
Magic Pentacle
RI
TU XI
PORTA A L DCLX PORTÆ
PROBATIONER
Liber LXI and LXV
[In certain cases Ritual XXVIII]
 1. The Probationer. His duties are laid down in Paper A, Class D.1
Being without, they are vague and general. He receives Liber LXI and
LXV.
[Certain Probationers are admitted after six months or more to
Ritual XXVIII.2]
At the end of the Probation he passes Ritual DCLXXI3 which
constitutes him a Neophyte.

2. The Neophyte. His duties are laid down in Paper B, Class D. He

receives Liber VII.
Examination in Liber O, Caps I.–IV., Theoretical and Practical.
Examination in The Four Powers of the Sphinx. Practical.
Four Tests are set.4
Further, he builds up the magic Pentacle.5
Finally he passes Ritual CXX,6 which constitutes him a Zelator.

3. The Zelator. His duties are laid down in Paper C, Class D. He

receives Liber CCXX, XXVII, and DCCCXIII.
Examinations in Posture and Control of Breath (see Equinox vol. I
No. 1). Practical.
Further, he is given two meditation-practices corresponding to the
two rituals DCLXXI and CXX.7
(Examination is only in the knowledge of, and some little practical
acquaintance with, these meditations. The complete results, if attained,
would confer a much higher grade.)
Further, he forges the Magic Sword.
No ritual admits to the grade of Practicus, which is conferred by
authority when the task of the Zelator is accomplished.

3
4 LIBER XIII

4. The Practicus. His duties are laid down in Paper D, Class D.

Instruction and Examination in the Qabalah and Liber 777.
Instruction in Philosophical Meditation (Gnana-Yoga).*
Examination in some one mode of divination: e.g. Geomancy,8
Astrology,9 the Tarot.10 Theoretical.
He is given a meditation-practice on Expansion of Consciousness.11
He is given a meditation-practice in the destruction of thoughts.12
Instruction and examination in Control of Speech. Practical.13
Further, he casts the magic Cup.
No ritual admited to the grade of Philosophus, which is conferred
by authority when the Task of the Practicus is accomplished.

5. The Philosophus. His duties are laid down in Paper E, Class D.

He practices Devotion to the Order. Instruction and Examination
in Methods of Meditation by Devotion (Bhakti-Yoga).14
Instruction and Examination in Construction and Consecration of
Talismans, and in Evocation.15 Theoretical and Practical.
Examination in Rising on the Planes (Liber O, Caps V., VI.).
Practical.
He is given a meditation-practice on the Senses, and the Sheaths of the
Self, and the Practice called mahāsatipaṭṭhāna.16
(See The Sword of Song, “Science and Buddhism.”)
Instruction and Examination in Control of Action.17
Further, he cuts the Magic Wand.
Finally, the Title of Dominus Liminis is conferred upon him.18
He is given meditation-practices on the on the Control of
Thought,19 and is instructed in Raja-Yoga.
He receives Liber Mysteriorum20 and obtains a perfect under-
standing of the Formulæ of Initiation.

* All these instructions will be issued openly in The Equinox in due course, where
this has not already been done.
 GRADVVM MONTIS ABIEGNI 5
He meditates upon the diverse knowledge and power that he has
acquired, and harmonises it perfectly.
Finally, he lights the Magic Lamp.
At last, Ritual VIII admits him to the grade of Adeptus Minor.21

6. The Adeptus Minor. His duty is laid down in Paper G, Class D.

It is to follow out the instruction given in the Eighth Æthyr for the
attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel.

[NOTE. This is in truth the sole task; the others are useful only as
adjuvants to and preparations for the One Work. Moreover, once this
task has been accomplished, there is no more need of human help or
instruction; for by this alone may the highest attainment be reached.
All these grades are indeed but convenient landmarks, not
necessarily significant. A person who had attained them all might be
immeasurably the inferior of one who had attained none of them; it is
Spiritual Experience alone that counts in Result; the rest is but Method.
Yet it is important to possess knowledge and power, provided that
it be devoted wholly to that One Work.]

*** ***** ***

Key entry and notes by Frater T.S. for Nu Isis Working Group /
Celephaïs Press. This e-text last revised
18.09.2019
6 LIBER XIII

Transcriber’s notes.
This electronic text of Liber XIII was transcribed from that printed in Equinox I (3), with
one textual emendation made as noted below. The figure “The Slopes of Abiegnus” has
been redrawn rather than scanned; rubrication has been used in the hopes of making it a
bit more comprehensible. Liber XIII was reprinted in the compilation Gems from the
Equinox and in Equinox IV (1), Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers. In
the notes below I endeavour to identify the rituals and instructions alluded to in the text.
1
Papers A to G in Class D collectively comprise Liber 185, “Liber Collegii Sancti.”
Each bears on one side the Task of one of the AA grades from Probationer to Adeptus
Minor, on the other side the oath of the grade in question. They were first generally
published in Gems from the Equinox in 1974 and later in Equinox IV (1), Commentaries
on the Holy Books and other papers.
2
That is, those who were deemed to be slacking in their Task, or specifically being „idle
or luxurious.‟ Ritual XXVIII, the Ceremony of the Seven Holy Kings (“Liber Septem
Regum Sanctorum”) has not been generally published (it has been printed in a limited
edition) but what appears to be a draft version survives in typescript; I have only seen
electronic copies of doubtful provenance and integrity but the general intent seems to be
to teach the victim candidate to not be completely full of themselves.
3
Two rituals (not counting minor variants) with this number are extant. “Liber
DCLXXI vel oart,” a scripted ritual with two officers and a candidate survives in a
typescript with some MS emendations, dated 1908. It has not been generally published.
A versified adaptation of the above for solo use written in October 1908 (see “John St.
John”) is extant in various TS. and MS. Versions and is popularly known as “Liber
Pyramidos”; Crowley‟s illuminated MS as prepared during the “John St. John” magical
retirement was published in colour facsimile in Equinox IV (1) as Liber 671 in Class D.
The statement in Liber 185 that the Probationer shall keep himself free from all other
engagements for one whole week at the end of the year‟s probation is consistent with
the former ritual.
4
Comparing this with Liber 185 suggests that “Four Tests are set” refers to the “Exam-
ination in the Four Powers of the Sphinx” referred to above. It should not be assumed
that this refers to any kind of formal theoretical or practical examination: some hint as
to what might have been intended may be found in Letter 74 of Magick Without Tears,
although there the four tests are glyphed using the Tarot suits.
5
Instructions—though not always clear and helpful or indeed useable—for construction
of the Magical Weapons of the grades from Neophyte to Dominus Liminis are in “Liber
A vel Armorum” (412).
6
In one of Crowley‟s notebooks preserved in the Warburg institute (MS. notebook
OS26, Yorke Collection) is found “Ritual CXX, called Of Passing through the Tuat.” It
 GRADVVM MONTIS ABIEGNI 7
was published as poor quality photocopies in How to Make your own McOTO and
transcripts (mostly based on a typescript with a number of lacunæ originally prepared
ca. 1984) are in Internet circulation. While the seal of AA appears at the head of the
MS. of this ritual, internal evidence casts grave doubt on whether that form was a
finalised version of the AA Zelator initiation, or whether it was ever worked at all
as written. In particular, that text contains nothing to explain the statement in Liber 185
that the Neophyte shall keep himself free from all other engagements for four whole
days from the date when the sun shall next enter the sign 240° to that under which he
hath been received. According to a 2013 article by Crowley scholar William Breeze, no
other version of that ritual (that Crowley had any hand in) is known to be extant.
7
The reference is to sections AAA and MMM of “Liber HHH” (341).
8
See “Liber Gaias, a Handbook of Geomancy” (96).
9
There was no official instruction in Astrology at this period. About 1915 Crowley
collaborated with the New York astrologer Evangeline Adams on a comprehensive
astrological textbook, designated by Crowley Liber 536, “A complete treatise on
Astrology.” Crowley and Adams fell out in a row over money after the bulk of the
work had been written but before it could be published. Much of the surviving material
was published by Adams under her name alone in the 1920s in two volumes, Astrology:
Your Place in the Sun and Astrology: Your Place among the Stars. A smaller part of the
work (an introductory chapter and chapters on Uranus and Neptune) was published in
1972 under Crowley‟s name as The Complete [sic] Astrological Writings, edited by John
Symonds and Kenneth Grant. The entire work, bound up with some shorter writings on
astrology by Crowley, was printed in 2003 as The General Principles of Astrology,
edited by William Breeze.
10
See “A Description of the Cards of the Taro” (later designated Liber 78; published in
Equinox I (8) and reprinted as Tarot Divination with a questionable author credit to
Crowley—it is a very slight adaptation of a Golden Dawn instruction), and Equinox III
(5), The Book of Thoth, a largely original work of Crowley‟s (sometimes also designated
Liber 78).
11
Liber 536, “Batracoboofrenokosmomacia.”
12
“Liber Turris vel Domus Dei” (XVI).
13
See “Liber III vel Jugorum,” § I.
14
See “Liber Astarte vel Berylii” (175)
15
No published AA instruction treats directly of talismans or evocation; “Liber O”
touches on the subject in the most general terms, and ritual outlines (in the Golden
Dawn Z2 paper) and two examples were printed in The Equinox in the “Temple of
Solomon the King” serial; much suggestive material may be found in part III of Book 4.
16
Some of the practices in “Liber Yod (formerly called Vesta)” (831) may be here
referred to. The “Sheaths of the Self” are the five skandhas (or kandhas, approx. “cate-
gories” or “aggregates”) described in Buddhist literature, and are mentioned in passing
by Crowley in “The Wake World” (Liber 95). In addition to the citation of “Science
8 LIBER XIII
and Buddhism,” there are references in slightly later works (“Liber R V vel Spiritus”
and “Liber Viarum Viæ”) to a Liber XXV treating of mahāsatipaṭṭhāna (approx. “great
steadfast mindfulness”); this work is not believed extant, although ingenious
explanations have been advanced in some quarters as to how it could refer to the Star
Ruby, ostensibly a banishing pentagram ritual. The practice is also, of course, described
in canonical Buddhist texts, principally the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
17
See “Liber III vel Jugorum,” § II.
18
While there was doubtless a mystical or Qabalistical reason for not giving the
Dominus Liminis a distinct numbered section, it might be worth noting that the duties of
this grade are given in Paper F, Class D. The print edition of Liber XIII referred Paper
F to the grade of Adeptus Minor; this has here been corrected.
19
See “Liber III vel Jugorum,” § III.
20
“Liber Mysteriorum” is unpublished, was presumably not intended for publication,
and may be no longer extant in its original form, but the context in which it is cited,
together with the statement in Liber 185 that the Dominus Liminis must learn a part in a
Temple of Initiation, suggests that it may be in part administrative, and concerned with
the theory and practice of running a Magical Order.
21
As far as anyone can tell, Ritual VIII and “the instruction given in the Eighth Æthyr
(of Liber 418) for the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel” are the same document; it is not clearly delineated in the Equinox
publication, but the obvious cut-off point would be from “And thus shall he do who will
attain unto the mystery of the knowledge and conversation of his Holy Guardian
Angel.” through to “... so that he shall come at last into the City of the Pyramids.” The
instruction is printed as “Liber VIII: The Ritual Proper to the Invocation of Augoeides”
in Equinox IV (1), including the two paragraphs previous to “And thus shall he do...”
and the two paragraphs following “... into the City of the Pyramids.” and with paragraph
numbers added.