The Capstone
By Wormwood
a commentary thereupon by Screwtape

• In my innocence, I walked the Fool's road to find my Clear Way.
  

  The Clear Way is the Author's True Will. It is to be understood as being 'Clear' from the point of view of Wormwood as star. Inasmuch as Wormwood is on the Fool's road, he seeks this True will from the point of view of a fool, or a Fool at best...

• I traveled avenues of delight, past temples of song and bright color. I sought to be lost in their gilded chambers of splendor.
  

  At this point of his Initiation, the author describes past experiences being enamored of other Magicians' paths, and would have taken them for his own, a contradictory method to one whose only right is to do his will.

  Note that the "avenues of delight" lead past these temples to foreign gods. The author erred in stopping to be "lost" in them, rather than going on his own course. This mistake is, in terms of Liber AL, a confounding of the space-marks.

• O wayward fool!
  

  Here he acknowledges his error. Notice "fool" here in lower case.

• In the inmost secret shrine of those finely ornamented halls, I beheld a foreign idol of a foreign god, gilt by hands unknown.

  Again, "thou hast no right but to do thy will." Foreign gods (gods, also in lower case!) are a symbol for the sirens present in any ordeal. This is a warning to Thelemites to be alert to the possibility of being assuaged of purpose, even by one another.

• The riddle of the mysteries is in the fee of the Ferryman, and the hall to Thy True Shrine is adorned with milestones!

  Here the author orients himself along the proper path, that is, a State of Going.

• Anointed and beloved idol at the crossroads, lead me to the empty plateau where I may quarry stone with my own hands.
  An adoration to Hermes here is made, identifying him with the principle of Going, and Hadit, by whose motion the author aspires to Ptah, the capstone of the pyramid, called by the Jews Kether, the Crown.

• There is a dire plague upon all prophets. The ink is poison to the hand that writeth!

  With a dire tone, the author acknowledges the imperfection of his own prophet's word, and his own path. The "plague" here referred to is the "Curse of the Magi", whose symbol is the Ape of Thoth.

• And to the eye that readeth!
  

  It takes two to tango.

  This perspective is one of acknowledgement of the division present below the Abyss. The author aspires to transcend this duplicity, but steels himself and warns others against foreign gods.

• Plague upon plague, their perfect words.

  They that chisel the new word in stone inscribe canticles of error.

  In the soft clay of the riverbed, the ibis describes the true hieroglyph, consecrated by the Wise Water of Nile, who washes it away.

  Evolution and Initiation are processes that preclude such a concept as an "eternal creed." In Aspiring to any God, that Aspirant will eventually achieve that Godhood, and go on (be it in several years or lifetimes or Aeons...). The author here reiterates V.V.V.V.V. in Liber LXV ch. II v. 27 & Liber 333 ch. 23.

• Ptah! thine is the firm foundation! Burn to me Thy brilliant furnace that the soft clay of my temple may endure, having passed through the heat of Thy forge.

  Here the author yearns to transcend duality. Ptah is a god who clusters to exalt Ra-Hoor-Khuit as a symbol for the indifferentiated Creation Force. In this, he is also a symbol for Nuit in her aspect of 'one' in Liber AL I, 28.

• Thy furnace is the ringing central sun, vibrant with the song of the laborious forgemen.

  The furnace mentioned here is Tipareth, 6.

Thus do they sing: