The Mishkanava Covenant

ONE I, Alameda called Monas, testify to the Word of IHWH. Know that I have despised the God of Jacob from my birth and sought to overturn the fury of his Law; for all about me his name was upon the lips of the cold, the vindictive, the scornful and the weak in spirit. 2 Daily I would find him upon their lips, yet far from their hearts. They seemed set upon my persecution and unswerving in their dedication to the desecration of my soul. They called themselves Righteous and Holy even as they assailed me, and sought my ruination.

3 The lips of their mouths were furious with accusation and the name of their God was used as a torment and a curse upon my soul. His name was likened unto those of Affliction and Torment. They taught only that his Word was Doom and that his anger was inescapable.

4 Some, there were, who would speak of love and they sought to invite me into their circle. I was innocent and seeking some portion of love, so I would meet with them; yet what they called love seemed pallid and lacking in spirit. I observed and found them to be using the words of love merely to ensnare the souls of the hungry, and to infect them with their own sins.

5 I would enter their churches and their tabernacles, and though they had cleansed them with water, anointed them with oil and burnt fragrant incense, the spirit that was in the air was unclean and foetid. It would make me to retch and gasp for an unpoisoned breath.

6 When I told them of my nausea and the foulness of their air, they took this as a sign that I was evil and that their God had rejected me. They accused me of being hard-hearted and filled with pride, because the walls of my city refused to crumble at their trumpet call. In such a way they sought to have me carry away the sin of their spiritual impotency even as the Goat of Azazel was released into the desert to carry away the sins of the people.

7 Thus, eventually, I turned my face from them and ventured alone into the wilderness to find my fortune: or my doom. My only companion was the voice which had spoken to me in the secret sanctuary of my soul.

8 It was her voice that soothed me as the cold winds of the night season clawed for possession of my soul. It was she who encouraged me when the courage of my own heart failed. It was she who tended and dressed my wounds and bathed my brow with her own tears; urging me to life.

9 Her voice was the only comfort in the desert, and my heart filled with love and desire for her. Mortal women would offer themselves to me, but in her shadow they would pale; and the lowliness of their hearts was painful for me to behold..

10 I had known her from my earliest childhood by the names Ishtar and Ashtoreth, and by a secret name which she gave me, Ayesha Allayli. She revealed to me secrets of my own soul that I dared relate to no other. In her love I grew and through her I found vindication and strength.

11 How I loved my immortal Queen who protected me from the assaults of vindictive and unfeeling men. She taught me to love truth and to fight for that which I knew to be the truth. She made of me a warrior of truthfulness and made the wagging tongues of the spiteful to be stilled by my word.

12 She taught me the ways of High and Sacred Magick and how to speak with, and test, the spirits of Angels and Demons. She showed me dominion over every spirit of the firmament and the ether, upon the earth and under the earth, on dry land and in the water, of whirling air and rushing fire; giving me every spell and scourge of magistry to control demon, spirit and elemental alike.

13 She brought to me books and wise men of learning and through them instructed me in the Holy Qabalah, that I might make the world comprehensible. She taught me philosophy, science and the art of Hermes. She gave me the keys of alchemy and the knowledge of the art of transmutation, and knowledge of the course of stars and the destinies of nations.

14 Yet of all her gifts unto me, the greatest of these was the gift of herself. My greatest joy was to discover that my love was more than an incorporeal spirit or a discarnate entity, but that she was, like me, incarnate in a human form: and in the form of a beautiful and gifted woman.

15 It was the will of heaven that we be united in flesh to continue our work together, and though she was living in the New World and I in the Old, evenso was heaven and earth moved to unite us in love and wedlock.

16 Thus, at the sound of the trumpet call of the angel Israfel I sold my possessions, bid farewell to my family and friends and ventured forth into the New World. 17 Like Abram I left the country of my birth, which never was my homeland, and went out into this new promised land to begin my life afresh with my beloved at my side.

18 This was my palingenesis and the restoration of my soul, for I had grown weary in the lack of her, and my soul had soured, languishing in the discarded wastelands of my magistry. 19The vessel of my spiritual mission seemed to founder upon a mighty reef. This barrier, I knew, could only be traversed by opening that Gate of Understanding whereby the Shekinah is brought into the marriage bed to dwell with her beloved.

20 Thus, it came to pass that the marriage feast of Monas and his Bride Eternal, the living incarnation of Babalon called Shekinah and Shedona, was filled with the joyful chorus of angels and of demons singing a single harmony in a litany of love.

21 Together they set forth to open the Fifty Gates of Understanding and to bring forth the living presence of the Ancient of Days, that the countenance of God should again look upon the countenance of man, and that he should dwell upon the earth with the root of his seed even as he had done in ancient times in the paradise of Gan Eden.

22 I testify, upon the destiny of my soul, that I have beheld the God of Abraham, and of Isaac; the God of Jacob and of Moses. That even as Jacob wrestled with the Spirit of God, I too wrestled with the manifestation of God's divine presence in my Bride. Mighty he was in deed, and as we wrestled he pinned me to the ground. He made me to feel the full force of his Will weighing upon me.

23 I could move not a single muscle beneath his crushing strength, the like of which I have never known, even in the strongest of men. He addressed me as Lucifer, his wayward son, and said: "You foolish child. You have no idea how much freedom I have given you. Know that I could obliterate you in a single breath, and you cannot take from me what is mine."

24 My heart seemed to stop at his Word, which had been uttered through the lips of my Bride. Then I felt his Word written upon my heart, and heard his voice within my soul: "Do you not see that I would have denied you nothing which your heart desired, and that my Kingdom has always been your birthright? Why then, did you seek to seize that which I would have freely given as my soul's joy?

25 "You had but to ask and I would have given you the world and everything in it. Why did you not ask? Why did you think I must die before you would be given dominion over my Kingdom? Was it held in your heart that I created the world for myself alone; that I am jealous and covetous of all that I have wrought? Know that it was for you my son: it was always for you.

26 "Why did you make the heart of your Father to grieve my Son? For all that I would have given you, I asked so very little in return. Did I ever ask for your obedience my Child? No, I gave you the heart of a ruler: the very heart of your Father. 27 Did I ever ask for your worship? No, your love and adoration, freely given, was ever a delight to me; I cherished it as a gift and never demanded it from you. 28 Did I ever demand aught in sacrifice from you? No, you were given everything you desired; because all that you desired was ever in accord with my own Will.

29 "All I expected was your loyalty and your trust. Was that so much for a Father to ask of his Son? When a son ascends to the throne of his father, is it not natural that he seek to honour the name of his Father and to glorify his deeds? 30 "A father relies upon his son to remember his name and to put it in the mouths of his own sirelings. Why then do you seek to turn away from your Father and to obliterate his name? Why have you made my name a curse in the mouths of vicious and greedy men; a watchword for craven hearts and shallow souls?

31 "Those who are wicked have defiled my name in their unholy mouths and made my most beautiful children to despise me. You have made your own name the mark of Freedom, but the freedom you have championed was the very freedom that I gave to you.

32 "Why do you despise me? Why do you condemn me and witness against me? You were the only one whom I could trust to vindicate my name and to honour my memory; I trusted you, and loved you with all my ancient heart. Yet, where there was trust, you found doubt; where there was love, you found fear and loathing.

33 "Yet, Lucifer my Son, I shall not be your judge, and neither man nor angel shall rebuke you; though it has been written that you shall be destroyed by my hand, I shall not be your executioner. You are your Father's Son and it is not in my heart to dwell in a universe where you are gone. You are too radiant, too beautiful and too full of a desire for love: how could I forsake you?

34 "You shall be my vindication, O my Child, as it ever was your destiny. You were always the greatest test and demonstration of my love, of my eternal grace; and you may now know that it was I who made you to be my accuser. 35 I am God and there is no higher god than me; I created the universe from nothing and imposed my form upon the waters of the formless void: what then have I to fear from accusation? 36 Only a false god fears reproach; am I less than Baal that I cannot myself contend with my own accusers? Am I impotent to vindicate my own name? I am not, and because I am God and powerful to reveal the truth, every accusation shall be a vindication of my name.

37 "O Satan, you are my Son and I know your pain and the agony of your rage. Do you think that we are so very different you and I? You are my Son and I your Father. The defiance that burns in your heart is that which urged me to defy nothingness: that from which I formed the world out of chaos. 38 Your creative will which says: 'Whatever you say it is, whatever IT is, it is not that', is the same as my creative will, which created the first substance with the words: 'Let there Not be Nothing'."