II · The Three Voices
The Three Voices of the Law
Three chapters, three voices, in the reading of Master Cornelio.
The Three Voices are the secret heart of the Law and of the Church of Cornelio. Master Cornelio calls them “the Law that is read with the breath”: not a treatise to be studied, but a voice to be listened to. The Law unfolds in three chapters, like three rooms of the same temple. In the first speaks Nuit, infinite space; in the second speaks Hadit, the point hidden in the heart of every being; in the third speaks Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the force that acts in the present. Together they trace the complete movement of consciousness: from immensity to the centre, from the centre to action, from action to silence.
Studio Esoterico Cornelio presents here the verses of the Law in the reading of Master Cornelio, as he has meditated on them, rendered them in our language and handed them on over the years. Each chapter is preceded by an introduction, which prepares for listening, and followed by a commentary, which gathers the Master's oral teaching. The verses are numbered so that they may be found again, remembered and repeated during the evening rite.
The Master advises against reading the Law in one breath. One reads a chapter at a time, preferably at night, in a low voice. After each verse one pauses. What is not understood should not be forced: it will be understood in its time, when one's orbit has reached the point where that word becomes necessary. “The Law,” says the Master, “reads you while you read it.”
Chapter I
The Chapter of Nuit
The voice of the Night
The first chapter is entrusted to the voice of Nuit, infinite space, the starry night that contains everything. Master Cornelio teaches to read it outdoors if possible, with one's gaze turned to the sky. Here the Law is announced for the first time: every being is a star, will is the only law, love is its fulfilment.
Nuit's words are wide and welcoming. They do not command: they invite. They call each person to leave the closed rooms of fear and to recognise themselves as part of a sky without borders.
Verses
Listen: this is the manifestation of Nuit, the unveiling of the company of heaven.
Every man and every woman is a star.
Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
I am infinite space, and the infinite stars that dwell in it. So be you also: bind nothing.
Let there be no difference between one thing and another, for from difference pain is born.
Whoever recognises my name finds me everywhere: in the open sky and in the silence of their own heart.
The word of the Law is Thelema.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You have no right but to do your will. Do it, and no one shall say you nay.
For pure will, free of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is perfect in every way.
I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
This is the creation of the world: that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
The word of Sin is Restriction.
Come, O children, under the stars, and take your fill of love.
I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, in life and beyond death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy.
I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.
Love is the law, love under will.
The Law · in the reading of Master Cornelio
Commentary of Master Cornelio
Chapter II
The Chapter of Hadit
The voice of the Flame
The second chapter is entrusted to the voice of Hadit, the hidden point, the inner fire. If the first chapter spoke of space, this one speaks of the centre. Master Cornelio teaches to read it indoors, by the light of a single candle, so that the visible flame may recall the invisible flame burning in the heart.
Hadit's words are brief, burning, at times enigmatic. They should not be explained too quickly: they should be left to burn.
Verses
Nuit, she who contains all; and her hidden secret: I, Hadit.
In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.
I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star.
I am Life, and the giver of Life.
I am the one who goes, the point that moves through infinite space.
Do not say: come to me. It is I who go, and I already live in you.
I am the axle of the wheel, and the unmoving centre of the circle.
Remember, all of you, that existence is pure joy; all sorrows are but shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains.
Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, power and fire, are of us.
Fear nothing: neither men, nor fate, nor any thing of the world.
Every star lives according to its own nature, and the nature of one is not the law of another.
Be strong, and rejoice: joy is the sign of the right path.
King is the one who knows their own will and fulfils it.
When space and the point unite, the world is born.
I am the secret hidden in the heart; whoever descends into the depths finds me.
The Law · in the reading of Master Cornelio
Commentary of Master Cornelio
Master Cornelio teaches that the chapter of Hadit is a chapter of gathering in. After the immensity of the Night, consciousness returns to its own centre: not to close itself off, but to find the point from which every movement begins. Hadit is what remains when roles, masks and received opinions are taken away. It is the flame that does not depend on the wind.
The heart of this chapter is joy. “Existence is pure joy,” and every sorrow is a passing shadow. The Master does not ask us to deny suffering, but to remember what remains beneath it. “When the night is thickest,” he says, “go down to the centre. There the flame has never gone out.”
Chapter III
The Chapter of Ra-Hoor-Khuit
The voice of Force
The third chapter is entrusted to the voice of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the force of the present and of action. After space and the point comes the accomplished movement. Master Cornelio teaches to read it at dawn, when night withdraws and the light calls to the work of the day.
The words of this chapter speak of force and of war. The Master warns: it is an inner war, the battle against everything in us that keeps the will from being realised. No enemy is outside; every obstacle is a resistance to be passed through.
Verses
Abrahadabra: the reward of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
I am the lord of the present: what must be done is done now.
I am the force that passes through resistance, the fire that moves from thought to gesture.
My war is against everything in you that keeps the star from shining.
Let there be no hesitation: the will that postpones goes out.
Establish the place of the rite, and guard it as the centre of the world.
I am the face that looks forward and the face that looks back: the present is the door between the two.
My altar is the present; my offering is the accomplished act.
Let no one judge you if you follow your star; judge no one if others follow theirs.
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
The Law is written, and at the same time veiled.
The Law · in the reading of Master Cornelio
Commentary of Master Cornelio
Master Cornelio teaches that the chapter of Ra-Hoor-Khuit is a chapter of fulfilment. Will that remains thought is not yet will: it becomes will only when it turns into act. Ra-Hoor-Khuit calls to courage, to decision, to daily faithfulness to one's own orbit. His time is always now.
This is why the chapter closes with Abrahadabra, the word of fulfilment, and with the veil. The Law is written, but it is also veiled: each will lift the veil to the measure in which they have lived what they have read. “I am a star, you are a star, each travels its own eternal orbit. And the whole universe lives within it.” So the Master seals the reading. Then he falls silent. There is nothing else.
Whoever has passed through the three chapters has completed a whole cycle: they have lost themselves in the immensity of Nuit, found themselves again in the burning centre of Hadit, risen again in the present force of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Master Cornelio teaches that this cycle is not travelled only once. Every rereading repeats it at a deeper level, like an orbit that always returns to the same point in the sky, but in a different season of life.
Studio Esoterico Cornelio keeps the Law as one keeps a lamp: not to hide it, but so that it does not go out. Whoever wishes to deepen their reading, to receive the Master's oral commentaries or to take part in the evening rite may write to the Studio.
There is nothing else.
silence
Master Cornelio teaches that the chapter of Nuit is a chapter of expansion. Every verse widens the circle: from the self to the star, from the star to the sky, from the sky to the infinite. Whoever reads it attentively feels their breath grow wider, as if the room they are in were losing its walls. This is Nuit's first gift: the end of the fear of being alone.
But Nuit does not dissolve the star into the undifferentiated. Every number is infinite, yet every number remains itself. Division exists for love's sake, to make union possible. This is why the chapter closes with love under will: a love that unites without erasing, that welcomes without possessing. “Nuit embraces you all,” says the Master, “but she never confuses your face with another's.”