vegetation of the gnosis
The stages of vegetation pronounced by the Priest on the first step of the dais in the Ceremony of the Introit constitute a specific formula of magick that could be applied to nearly any human enterprise, since “Every willed act is a magical act.” But the text of Liber XV directs our attention particularly toward its use in the invocation of Love as an image of the divine. We might profitably consider what Liber Nu calls the “first practice of Intelligence”: the appreciation of the rim of the Stele of Revealing as described in the stanza of Liber Legis I:14.

Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.

The growing plant, from its hidden seed to its full fruition, desires the unattainable: union with the heavens. It expresses its nature as a centrifugal striving, outwards towards Infinite Space. And yet every growth of the plant is already in space. Nuit is “above you and in you.” (CCXX I:13) The Infinite curves itself in love around every point-of-view, and the Priest’s acknowledgement of love as the divine image, of love as the law, is an invocation that transports him to the embrace of heaven.