The Curriculum · The Second Order: R.C.

7°=4□ Adeptus Exemptus

Time

Until the thesis is complete and the Adept decides the Oath of the Abyss.

The passage

The Oath of the Abyss. It is described in One Star in Sight and not published.

The reading ↓

The work of the grade

Perfection of all these matters, sealed by a thesis: a contribution to the knowledge of the Order which the whole of his attainment stands behind. Then the choice that admits no third way: cling to what he has and rot into a Brother of the Left Hand Path, or strip himself of all he has and is, and take the Oath of the Abyss. In preparation he works Liber CMXIII (ThIShARB), the way backwards through his own incarnations.

The Task of an Adeptus Exemptus

0. Let any Adeptus Major be appointed by authority to proceed to the grade of Adeptus Exemptus. Let him read through this note of his office, and sign it. Let him obtain the robe of an Exempt Adept. Let him make an appointment with his Adeptus Exemptus at the pleasure of the latter for the conferring of advancement.
1. The Adeptus Exemptus shall proceed to the grade of Babe of the Abyss at any time that Authority confers it.
2. He shall bring his Bhakti-Yoga to perfection; and in this matter he shall be his own judge.
3. He shall prepare and publish his thesis setting forth his Knowledge of the Universe, and his proposals for its welfare and progress; and this shall be as a general Epitome of his own Attainment as reflected in the sphere of the Mind.
4. He shall practice unto conclusion the methods of Liber Os Abysmi vel Daath; and he shall consecrate himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the Order to which he aspires. Furthermore, he shall devote himself utterly to helping his fellow creatures.
5. Beside all this, he shall govern the two lower Orders of R.C. and G.D. Let him be mindful that the word Adeptus Exemptus is no idle term, but that he has attained to a Way of Liberation which he must travel yet further into the Night.
6. When Authority confers the grade of Babe of the Abyss, let him neither rejoice nor sorrow, but step freely into the Night of Pan.
7. He may at any moment withdraw from his association with the A∴A∴ simply notifying the Magister who introduced him.
8. He shall everywhere proclaim openly his connection with the A∴A∴ and speak of It and Its principles (even so little as he understandeth) for that mystery is the enemy of Truth.
9. He shall in every way establish perfect control of his Magical Memory, according to the advice of his Magister, for that the ordeal of advancement is no light one.
10. Thus and not otherwise may he obtain the great reward: YEA, MAY HE OBTAIN THE GREAT REWARD!

The Oath of an Adeptus Exemptus

Liber CLXXXV, Liber Collegii Sancti, Publication in Class D, printed on loose sheets for the Order about 1909.

What One Star in Sight adds

Adeptus (Exemptus). — Completes in perfection all these matters. He then either (a) becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or, (b) is stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a Babe of the Abyss, who, having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the womb of its mother. It then finds itself a Magister Templi.

8. The Grade of Adeptus Exemptus confers authority to govern the two lower Orders of R. C. and G. D. The Adept must prepare and publish a thesis setting forth His knowledge of the Universe, and his proposals for its welfare and progress. He will thus be known as the leader of a school of thought. (Eliphas Levi's Clef des Grands Mystères, the works of Swedenborg, von Eckartshausen, Robert Fludd, Paracelsus, Newton, Bolyai, Hinton, Berkeley, Loyola, etc., etc., are examples of such essays.) He will have attained all but the supreme summits of meditation, and should be already prepared to perceive that the only possible course for him is to devote himself utterly to helping his fellow creatures. To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the emancipation from thought by putting each idea against its opposite, and refusing to prefer either; and the consecration of himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires. He must then decide upon the critical adventure of our Order; the absolute abandonment of himself and his attainments. He cannot remain indefinitely an Exempt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irresistible momentum that he has generated. 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, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his elements round his Ego as if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a “Black Brother”. Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe, despite his now desperate efforts to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandise himself by predatory practices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish, especially when with a new Aeon a new word is proclaimed which he cannot and will not hear, so that he is handicapped by trying to use an obsolete method of Magick, like a man with a boomerang in a battle where every one else has a rifle.

The Babe of the Abyss

7. The Order of the R. C. The Grade of the Babe of the Abyss is not a Grade in the proper sense, being rather a passage between the two Orders. Its characteristics are wholly negative, as it is attained by the resolve of the Adeptus Exemptus to surrender all that he has and is for ever. It is an annihilation of all the bonds that compose the self or constitute the Cosmos, a resolution of all complexities into their elements, and these thereby cease to manifest, since things are only knowable in respect of their relation to, and reaction on, other things.

One Star in Sight, Appendix II of Magick in Theory and Practice (Paris, 1929).

The reading

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1. Liber CMXIII Liber ThIShARB (Viae Memoriae) from the Neophyte list
2. De Homunculo (O.T.O. IX°–X°) titled by Crowley himself; the O.T.O. IX°-X° paper