Prologue of the Unborn

In one sense, the “Unborn” is the “Bornless One.” He is That which was, is, and is to come; who transcends time and space, but acts within it through the cycles of incarnation.

Also, this “Unborn” is the “Babe of the Abyss.” In this sense it is “Unborn” because it in a state of being RE-born. It is in that limbo state between having died to one’s “‘normal” (or ego or divided) self and yet to be reborn into “the City of the Pyramids.” This is associated with the “Night of Pan” and what can allow the influx of “Pan,” i.e. the All.

• Night of Pan is 8○ = 3□ : 24th Aethyr: “Summum bonum, vera sapientia, magnanima vita, sub noctis nocte sunt [‘The Great Work, True Wisdom, Perfect Happiness, under the night of nights’]; Refers to the Night of Pan (see later Aires) and so to 8○ = 3□ which with 5○ = 6□ make the two initiated steps.”
• NOX as Key of the Abyss. Babalon is the Lady of hte City of the Pyramids beneath the Night of Pan. 7th Aethyr: “The five and the six are balanced in the word Abrahadabra, and therein is the mystery disclosed. But the key unto this gate is the balance of the seven and the four; and of this thou hast not even the first letter. Now there is a word of four letters that containeth in itself all the mystery of the Tetragrammaton [TARO: it conceals all the mysteries of Tetragrammaton through the cards which declare him.], and there is a word of seven letters which it concealeth [This may be Babalon, for Malkuth concealeth Binah. Also 156 = 2 x 78.], and that again concealeth the holy word that is the key of the abyss [This word is N.O.X. = , Babalon conceals this word because She is the Lady of the City of the Pyramids beneath the Night of Pan. These words are probably BABALON, ChAOS, TARO.]. And this thou shalt find, revolving it in thy mind.”
• Book of Lies ch.1: “O! the heart of N.O.X. the Night of Pan.” Commentary: “‘The chapter begins with a repetition of O! referred to in the previous chapter. It is explained that this triad lives in Night, the Night of Pan, which is mystically called N.O.X., and this O is identified with the O in this word. N is the Tarot symbol, Death; and the X or Cross is the sign of the Phallus. For a fuller commentary on Nox, see Liber VII, Chapter I. Nox adds to 210, which symbolises the reduction of duality to unity, and thence to negativity, and is thus a hieroglyph of the Great Work. “
• Book of Lies ch.11: “The reflection of All is Pan: the Night of Pan is the Annihilation of the All. Cast down through The Abyss is the Light, the Rosy Cross, the rapture of Union that destroys, that is The Way. The Rosy Cross is the Ambassador of Pan.” Commentary: “Pan is a generic name, including this whole system of its manifested side. Those which are above the Abyss are therefore said to live in the Night of Pan; they are only reached by the annihilation of the All. Thus, the Master of the Temple lives in the Night of Pan.”
• One Star in Sight: “Should he fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady BABALON, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously,”

1. Into my loneliness comes—

 

2. The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.

The flue of Pan is the inherent “allure” or attraction of the Supernal Triangle for the Babe of the Abyss. The “uttermost hills” being an expression of the omnipresence of this flute’s sound. (IAO131)

3. Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.

 

4. And I behold Pan.

Pan as “Sire of Nemo” is analogous to the Tetragrammaton-system that Crowley espouses in Magick, part II: “In one, the best, system of Magick, the Absolute is called the Crown, God is called the Father [in this case, Pan], the Pure Soul is called the Mother [in this case, the Magister in Binah or “Nemo”], the Holy Guardian Angel is called the Son, and the Natural Soul is called the Daughter. The Son purifies the Daughter by wedding her; she thus becomes the Mother, the uniting of whom with the Father absorbs all into the Crown. See Liber CDXVIII. [i.e. Vision & the Voice]”(IAO131)

5. The snows are eternal above, above—

 

6. And their perfume smokes upward into the nostrils of the stars.

 

7. But what have I to do with these?

 

8. To me only the distant flute, the abiding vision of Pan.

 

9. On all sides Pan to the eye, to the ear;

 

10. The perfume of Pan pervading, the taste of him utterly filling my mouth, so that the tongue breaks forth into a

weird and monstrous speech.

 

11. The embrace of him intense on every centre of pain and pleasure.

8. I see this “center” not as chakras but as the sensory centers which receive stimuli. Each sense is talked about previously as being viewed as some manifestation of Pan (eye, ear, and tongue at least). Further, our senses are the centers of our pleasure and pain, surely. Also, most people can agree that the senses exist whereas most will not agree about chakras (nerve plexuses exist, though!)

12. The sixth interior sense aflame with the inmost self of Him,

Now, taking my interpretation as the “center”s previously spoken of as the five senses, this “sixth interior sense” makes a lot of sense (pardon the pun). It is that faculty which remains which all the senses have been transcended

13. Myself flung down the precipice of being

 

14. Even to the abyss, annihilation.

Etymologically, “annihilated” means “reduced to nothing.”

15. An end to loneliness, as to all.

It is an end to loneliness, because the Abyss is crossed. “All” is destroyed in the sense of one’s self being annihilated, i.e. “reduced to nothing” which is the necessary process of “crossing the Abyss.”

16. Pan! Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!