Introduction

My first book, The Black Star of Nuit, was published by Aeon Sophia Press, and sought to unify the left and right-hand paths in occultism by drawing upon Thelema, Gnosticism, and Eastern mysticism as well as the work of Kenneth Grant. However, I felt that I did not provide enough information on each Qliphoth and its role in the initiatory process. The second work in the trilogy, Liber Nuit, aimed to provide a much more extensive overview of our spiritual philosophy as well as each Qliphothic sphere, drawing upon alchemy, Buddhism and Eastern spirituality. Within this scheme, the Qliphoth represent that which Grant refers to as the Negative Way, wherein the initiate negates all physical, mental, emotional and spiritual attachments so that they return to the Three Negative Veils of Existence, beyond the Trees of Life and Death. These cannot be seen as sequential stages in a cosmogenic process but different ‘aspects’ of the same Absolute insofar that Ain represents pure nothingness, the fact that it transcends all known concepts, even those of being and non-being, Ain Soph symbolizes the fact that all concepts are an unnecessary qualification while Ain Soph Aur is the transparent light of pure awareness, inseparable from the ‘void of wisdom.’ Once the initiate is catapulted into the Three Negative Veils, they are then spat out of the eternal void and reaffirm that which was previously negated, realizing that nothingness makes space, time, motion, and change possible, even though it transcends them. It is an impossible possibility. It is the groundless ground of Beingness itself. It is not being, not non-being, not both being and non-being, and not neither being nor non-being, yet makes all these ontological categories possible even as it rests beyond them. At this point, phenomenal reality is reaffirmed, however, the initiate never loses themselves in the mystifying maze of Maya since they have recognized that all is but an expression of nothingness. The sun, moon and stars are all expressions of nothingness. It is like watching a shadow-play on the wall; you recognize that it is a trick of the light but you can take joy in the shadows dancing before your eyes. Once the initiate returns to the void, they attain that which the Hindus describe as Kaivalya, meaning aloneness. The initiate is reborn as a living God as they realize that they are entirely alone insofar that they make space, time, and motion and change possible. There is no other reality of which they can speak other than their own since it is an expression of their own Beingness. They can create new realities through magical techniques, beyond the human imagination, without losing themselves in the seductive song of Prakriti. We describe Kaivalya as magical solipsism since the initiate realizes that there is no other God but themselves insofar that there is no other reality other than that which they choose to create. Consciousness is projected into the future through the will and space-time is your mechanism while the astral light is your subtle medium. Through the flame of desire, the will is transformed into imagistic forms before they are projected onto the plane of Malkuth as an objective reality. We describe it as solipsism because there is no other reality beyond the perimeters of your own experimental matrix.