Preface To Sudanenka

SUDANENKA
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN



PREFACE

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

The full and true history of any Adept could only be
written by himself, and even then, if brought before

the eyes of the world at large, how many persons
would lend credence to it?

[The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin
the Mage. Introduction. pxxi ]

The story of Sudanenka came to me in the year nineteen-hundred-and-ninety-four e.v. following a magical working whereby I invoked Auramoth, the Goddess who presides over the element of water, in the South, (also representative of the Hanged Man in the Tarot). The story is that of a Baptism which is also a Death; the symbol of the Triangle surmounted by a Cross – the descent of Light into Darkness, to redeem it. And thus one aspect of Sudanenka is the Hanged Man, the Dying God of Self Sacrifice which is an image belonging firmly in the old aeon of Osiris, along with the notion of Chastity!
We find that ‘Man and Tree were One’, which we can assume to mean that Sudanenka is a representation of the Christ figure, crucified as a sacrifice for the redemption of sins. But water being the element of illusion, we find that all apparent truth is but a mirror of itself. Mem, the letter in the Hebrew alphabet which symbolises water, gives us a return to the eternal silence, (in accordance with this the student should read Crowley’s chapters on various magical formulas, i.e. his explanation of the word AUM . See Magick ).
Sudanenka is the centre of his own universe whereby he is a being of perfect and absolute equilibrium; there is no part of his nature that is in opposition to his will. He has attained, yet this is not to say that he has ceased to evolve in any way, for as a magician, he is part of a continual cycle which is perpetually in motion and is never static; he embraces change, as all those who accept the Law must do, for it is only by the understanding of this process that true Magick can flow, ‘the word of sin is restriction’. And is not the Ankh also known as an ankle strap? It is inertia that is the enemy of the Great Work! – Go! And be ye not Black Brothers!

Without going outside, you may know the world.
Without looking through the window, you may
see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the
less you know. Thus the sage knows without
travelling; He sees without looking; He works
without doing.

- Tao Te Ching

Man must become the Cup to receive the higher spiritual forces which exist on more subtle realms than the lower world of matter. Once this is attained, the transcendental beauty and purity beyond the Abyss will be reflected in the Adept.
In Sudanenka we see the strength of Geburah which is a corrective force; a violent yet disciplined energy (Ra-Hoor-Khuit: Will) balanced with that of Chesed, which is protective and jovial (Hoor-Par-Krat: Love). This ‘union of duality’, of severity and mercy, is Horus, whose destructive force purges and cleanses elements which no longer have a use. And so in reference to the ‘sacrifice’ we see only ‘change’ and not ‘annihilation’. Sudanenka may give the impression of a typical ‘Christian’ whose small mind screams sin! and cowardly heart cries shame! when confronted by lust, but as in all things, in one’s animal urges and in all one’s sensorial experiences, it is not the act (for there is no sin but restriction), it is the feelings and emotions which accompany the act which cause the harm and imbalance to the adept when empowered by negative forces.

Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!

But exceed! exceed!

It was in the year two-thousand-and-four e.v. on the day of the moon, three days before the centenary of the writing of the Book (1) that I encountered a certain Adept. An Adeptus Major (2) who expounded certain truths to me in plain English, and each found their target, and I left his side as if I were poor bloody St Sebastian, filled by his wondrous arrows!

Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an act of love with Thee.
The beat of my heart is the pendulum of love.
The songs of me are the soft sighs:
The thoughts of me are very rapture:

He shall await the sword of the Beloved and bare his throat for the stroke.
Then shall his blood leap out and write me runes in the sky; yea, write me runes in the sky.
[Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli. Sub Figura VII. Part V]

Love is the law, love under will.

P.A.A.A.
An IVxii, Sol 6 Virgo, Luna 28 Aquarius.
Sunday 29th August 2004 e.v.
At the house of the Adept. London.

_____________________

1. Monday 5th April 2004 e.v.

2. 6 =5