2 February (Heru-Ra-Ha) Liber CCXX, 3:57-59

[Jim Eshelman]

(v. 202) 57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but play; all fools despise!
(v. 203) 58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers!
(v. 204) 59. As brothers fight ye!

[Jim Eshelman]

(v. 202) 57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but play; all fools despise!

Cowardice - the absence of the Third Power of the Sphinx - is the ruin of all virtue. Courage is of the Lion, Leo, and one who has not courage has no heart (Latin cor). Those without courage are deceitful. They attack from weakness and therefore cannot be trusted. Honest here-and-now fear is as sacred as any other feeling, and usually motivates action of the highest integrity; but most fear is residual fear, in whole or in part. That is, it is not of the here-and-now. And the cancerous grip of chronic or persisting fear in the heart is the death of all honor.

“professional soldiers,” or mercenaries, fight for entirely wrong reasons. They fight for money, rather than for belief. Again, they squander spiritual strength for coin, and live not by the canon of their hearts.

Or, to look at the sentence a different way: Despise those who will not be themselves, who will not live the life that is theirs to live: It is an example of the dilemma of Arjuna.

And certainly despise fools!

(v. 203) 58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers!
(v. 204) 59. As brothers fight ye!

“Brothers,” in Hebrew, is AChYM, echiym = 59, the number of this verse.

Our comradeship, or kinship within Thelema, is with “the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty.” This is what we intrinsically are, the standard to which our young aspire. It is among such others - beings of strength and honor and integrity, with the courage to live their lives wholly and by their own sure knowledge of their course - that we belong, that we feel at home. With such as these shall we stand if need be, shoulder to shoulder, facing any common foe to that Life of Liberty, that Light of Love, which we hold so dear.

[Angel of Death]

" Despise those who will not be themselves, who will not live the life that is theirs to live"

Well said for me today, it was 22 years ago today that I completed my year and a day self imposed probationary period, and dedicated myself, To my heart, myself and my life. While I am not the same person as that young girl, at my core and in my heart it feels like the same passion and will.

I have had some uncomfortable dispatching to do recently, and it amazes me, that no matter how uncomfortable it may be, I always have the heart, the courage to do what needs to be done and said.

These words remind me today that there are others, my kin, who have this strength as well and even if I never se them face to face, my heart resonates with them, and I know they are never far.