Searching For The Inner Light
"The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs." (Liber al vel Legis I:8)
The eighth verse in the first chapter of Liber al val Legis is a strange, almost humorous play on
words that reminds us of the old English rhyme that includes the line: "the cow is in the corn." Although in this case, the
proper thing would be that the corn is in the cow, not the other way around.
This suggests that the creator of the book, known only to us as Aiwass, understood that the book
would be first known to English speaking people through the receiver, Aleister Crowley. While the message in this line is
philosophically difficult to grasp, the parallel with cows in the corn seems to give us a familiar means of reaching understanding.
Khabs and Khu are ancient Egyptian words that generally mean "the starry sky" and "spirit-soul"
respectively.
But this suggests that the message is that the starry sky is in the soul, but the soul is not in
the starry sky. We are obviously missing something with this simplified translation.
There is something to be learned by going on to the ninth verse: "Worship then
the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!"
The light is the light of Nuit, or a universal light.
Crowley puts these words in perspective with his book: The Law is for All. He writes that Khabs
is a secret light comprising "the innermost, essential man." It is the star described by Nuit in her declaration: "Every
man and every woman is a star."
Crowley went on to say that the Khu describes our minds and bodies that veil the Light within. When
we become preoccupied with our bodies, our inner Light is obscured and hidden.
Nuit instructs that we as individuals are not the body, but rather the secret light hidden within
the body. That every man and woman "is a star," promises that we are all part of the universal energy that we recognize as
God. It is the spark, or soul, that makes us unique. But according to Crowley, neither the body nor the memory contained in
each brain is included within the Khab, or secret light.
The ninth verse commands us to "worship" the Khabs, the inmost light within. This statement plunges
deep into the heart of the ancient belief that to find God, we must look within.
Nuit states that Khabs also is the light of infinite space. Crowley reminds us that "the light of
space is what men call darkness; its nature is utterly incomprehensible to our uninitiated minds."
Crowley warns that "we are not to worship the Khu, to fall in love with our magical image (bodies).
To do this--we have all done it--is to forget our truth. If we adore form, it becomes opaque to being and may soon prove false
to itself."
Copyright - James Donahue
