This is a story. It's about the Word, the Virus and the Magician. Crossing Time and Space, transcending cultural boundaries. It is about disguise and dissimulation, transmission and dissemination. It begins at an end, and ends at a beginning. Full circle, cycling through the ages, turning through 360 degrees and all points in between. It is a story about magic and codes, about dreams and reality; above all, it is about the Process.

The end of one story is the beginning of another. All things return to their root, and to begin we will visit the secret chamber of Hassan i Sabbah, Old Man of the Mountain and founder of the Ismaeli sect known throughout history as `The Assassins'. The date is May 23rd. The year, 1124. The place, Alamut, the Eagle's Nest set high in the mountains, just south of the Caspian Sea. We are safe here. Safe from the orthodoxies to the West, and from the Mongul hordes to the East. This is a city of refuge, and a base for transmitting. It is reputed to contain the greatest library in all Islam, a haven for the `word' in all its forms. Here one can find ancient manuscripts from all the world's traditions. And it is here that we find Hassan i Sabbah, the hero of our tale.

He is waiting for us in the same chamber he has occupied for 33 years since founding his mountain kingdom. 33 years, the time endured in this world by an earlier heretic some thousand odd years before. Another law breaker whose word struck fear into those who opposed.

Hassan i Sabbah is dying, but still he waits. Waiting for the moment to strike. And while he waits he dreams of the grand stratagem by which he secured this impenetrable retreat. How he bargained it for the skin of an ox, sliced so thin that its length could encompass the mountain. All the land contained in the skin was his. But he is dying and his life-blood will soon depart. He must speak with Kiya.

Reaching out from his bed, he beckons Kiya-Buzurg-Umid, his Grand Vizier, friend and chosen successor.
`Kiya, come close,' he whispers. `It is time to convey the secret.'

The Grand Vizier leans closer. The Old Man, his Master, has promised him this. Kiya draws up his robe to form a protective screen from prying eyes and inquisitive ears. These last words are for him alone.
Later they were to be recorded in Cities of the Red Night from which I now quote:

`It is said that an initiate who wishes to know the answer to any question need only repeat these words as he falls asleep and the answer will come in a dream....'
Rumour has it that `these words' were:

`Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted.'

Cut to 1958. Paris. Brion Gysin is casting a spell. Some 834 years have passed since Hassan's dying breaths. Hearing his story from Brion, William Burroughs adopts the Old Man's maxim as his own. Is he aware that the numerical value of `Alamut' according to mystical traditions is 483? Does he see the permutations begin to unwind?

Two years have passed and Brion is recording his permuted poetry for the BBC, famously achieving the second lowest audience on record. We pause to wonder who achieved less. Now that would be interesting.

Some years later Brion was to relate to Terry Wilson:
`The permutations discovered me – because permutations of course have been around for a long time; in the whole magic world permutations are part of the Cabalistic secret.'
`The Way Out is to permutate... Rub Out the Word' -
from The Process.

Retreat back 1000 years. A manuscript begins to circulate in esoteric circles. It is drawn from an ancient tradition and records the secret instructions of Creation. Scan text. Lock on to 2:3. Display:
`Twenty-two foundation letters: Engrave them, carve them, weigh them, and transpose them, Alef with them all. Permute them and with them form the soul of all that ever was formed, and the soul of all that ever will be formed.' (Sefer Yetzirah - Chapter 2 verse 3)

We know that by 900 this text was circulating in Arabic. Hassan i Sabbah, educated with the highest of his day and versed in mysticism and magic, calls upon his scribes to prepare a copy for his library. He notes that central to this esoteric Book of Creation is the concept of `No-Thing', the root of all existence.

Permutate `Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted.' Full circle. 360 distinct phrases emerge.

Brion: `The Divine tautology came up at me off a page one day: I AM THAT I AM, and I saw that it was lopsided. I switched the last two words to get better architectural balance around the big THAT. There was a little click as I read from right to left and then permutated the other end. AM I THAT AM I? “It” asked a question. My ear ran away down the first one hundred and twenty simple permutations and I heard, I think, what Newton said he heard: a sort of wild pealing inside my head, like an ether experience, and I fell down.'
(from The Third Mind)

I AM THAT I AM, the ancient formula for the ineffable God, indefinable, the `No-Thing' of the ancients manifested, the root of all Creation. `It is said... that the answer will come in a dream.'

Hassan i Sabbah reaches out across the wastes of time and space from his eagle's retreat. The dry cackle of laughter emerges sometime in the 20th century. `For Burroughs, Brion was the only man he had ever respected, a regal impeccable presence without a trace of pretension, the only authentic heir to Hassan i Sabbah.' (Ted Morgan in Literary Outlaw)

Someone at last understands. The last words of Hassan i Sabbah:
‘No-thing is True. Everything is Permuted'

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