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Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Spirituality & Beliefs > Tarot and Oracle Cards

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  #11  
Old 05-10-2019, 04:07 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 9: Path between Hod and Netzah in Assiah

This is the first path that is horizontal, going up the tree. Those horizontal paths come after passing one of the three veils.

The first veil is called the veil of little mysteries passing from Malkuth to Yesod

Letter: Peh

XVI - The Tower: "This card is attributed to the letter Peh, which means a mouth; it refers to the planet Mars. In its simplest interpretation it refers to the manifestation of cosmic energy in its grossest form. The picture shows the destruction of existing material by fire. It may be taken as the preface to Atu XX, the Last Judgment, i.e., the Coming of a New Aeon. This being so, it seems to indicate the quintessential quality of the Lord of the Aeon.

At the bottom part of the card, therefore, is shown the destruction of the old-established Aeon by lightning, flames, engines of war. In the right-hand corner are the jaws of Dis, belching flame at the root of the structure. Falling from the tower are broken figures of the garrison. It will be noticed that they have lost their human shape.

They have become mere geometrical expressions.

This suggests another (and totally different) interpretation of the card. To understand this, it is necessary to refer to the doctrines of Yoga, especially those most widely current in Southern India, where the cult of Shiva, the Destroyer, is paramount. Shiva is represented as dancing upon the bodies of his devotees. To understand this is not easy for most western minds. Briefly, the doctrine is that the ultimate reality (which is Perfection) is Nothingness. Hence all manifestations, however glorious, however delightful, are stains. To obtain perfection, all existing things must be annihilated. The destruction of the garrison may therefore be taken to mean their emancipation from the prison of organized life, which was confining them. It was their unwisdom to cling to it.

The above should make it clear that magical symbols must always be understood in a double sense, each contradictory of the other. These ideas blend naturally with the higher and deeper significance of the card.

There is a direct reference to this card in the Book of the Law. In Chapter I, verse 57, the goddess Nuith speaks: "Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God". [For this reason the ancient title, to-day not very intelligible, has been retained. Otherwise, it might have been called War.]

The dominating feature of this card is the Eye of Horus. This is also the Eye of Shiva, on the opening of which, according to the legend of this cult, the Universe is destroyed.
Besides this, there is a special technical magical meaning, which is explained openly only to initiates of the Eleventh degree of the O.T.O.; a grade so secret that it is not even listed in the official documents. It is not even to be understood by study of the Eye in Atu XV. Perhaps it is lawful to mention that the Arab sages and the Persian poets have written, not always guardedly, on the subject.

Bathed in the effulgence of this Eye (which now assumes even a third sense, that indicated in Atu XV) are the Dove bearing an olive branch and the Serpent: as in the above quotation. The Serpent is portrayed as the Lion-Serpent Xnoubis or Abraxas. These represent the two forms of desire; what Schopenhauer would have called the Will to Live and the Will to Die. They represent the feminine and masculine impulses; the nobility of the latter is possibly based upon recognition of the futility of the former. This is perhaps why the renunciation of love in all the ordinary senses of the word has been so constantly announced as the first step towards initiation. This is an unnecessarily rigid view. This Trump is not the only card in the Pack, nor are the "will to live" and the "will to die" incompatible. This becomes clear as soon as life and death are understood (See Atu XIII) as phases of a single manifestation of energy."
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...4120068351.jpg
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  #12  
Old 10-10-2019, 09:15 PM
Lorelyen
Posts: n/a
 
Interesting and I hope that people are able to get the benefit of all your typing. I have long used pathworking. There are slight differences with my own practice and guidance (close to the Golden Dawn). Even as an observance I can't guarantee enough time every day to make it a continuous exercise and particularly as it takes more time as I go so I'm quite a way off Kether yet!

It's surprising that there isn't a section on the forum that discusses this approach. It can be hard work but the results are highly rewarding.
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  #13  
Old 10-10-2019, 11:19 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lorelyen
Interesting and I hope that people are able to get the benefit of all your typing. I have long used pathworking. There are slight differences with my own practice and guidance (close to the Golden Dawn). Even as an observance I can't guarantee enough time every day to make it a continuous exercise and particularly as it takes more time as I go so I'm quite a way off Kether yet!

It's surprising that there isn't a section on the forum that discusses this approach. It can be hard work but the results are highly rewarding.

Hello Lorelyen,

Thank you for your words.

I'm typing those words in this thread here because I found it was I kind of approach I did not read much about on this forum.

My father other than being to society a politician and a spychiatrist was among many things also an alchemist. So I got to hang out with those "strange" people young. That's where I learned about this path of wisdom and decided to follow it for nearly a two year period.

It was work then, each path and sephirah I would evoke blasting me like a ping pong ball from one form of archetypical way of being to another.

I must say that with a center a bit more in Kether and in Tiphereth as a normal way of "life" now, that evoking those same archetypes I did more than 20 years ago does not seem like work anymore. I find it very interesting.

And the typing each weekend is an easy way for me to set up the "color" of how things in the following will unfold. Simply need to relax and enjoy the show.

Regards,
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  #14  
Old 12-10-2019, 03:33 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 10: Netzah in Assiah and the 7 of Disks

General Symbolic of Netzah:

Tiphereth represents the higher consciousness, which perceives spiritual realities. Netzah is the image of desire (the instincts and reflexes it evokes), and Hod is the image of the concrete mind. It is impossible to separate the activities of Netzah and Hod, which are a functional pair, as Geburah and Chesed represent the two aspects of metabolism.

A child's lips suck any object that is offered to them. It is through dance, the exaltation of emotions through rhythm, scents, colour and sound that we come into contact with Netzah. Art and rituals involving these factors allow this contact.

Netzah is the artist and Hod the scientist. Hod's preponderance will make us theorists, without an ounce of practice. Hod's scepticism will destroy, before they are born, the fragile images we develop. Like everything else, Hod, unfertilized by the opposite polarity, remains sterile. Every magician must be a scholar and an artist.

Netzah is love; the parent's love for the child, true friendship.

With a hint of heresy, the term "Victory" attributed to this sephirah could be interpreted as follows: the instincts that motivate us, the fundamental dynamism of an individual, are closely dependent on his sexual life. This is a preponderant fact of our mental life, evaded by the esoteric in the living room who prefer to chat about "universal love" (an outcome and not a starting point) without having put a curse on their own neuroses. Although they have a good conscience, they are just as useless to others as they are to themselves. These people, convinced that they have achieved much more advanced awareness than the average of their peers (as confirmed by their brilliant and many past lives), most often reveal a life (love or work) that is sad, mediocre and chaotic.

A balanced temperament is not the objective of the spiritual life, but a prerequisite for its beginning.

In both East and West, the Mystery Schools have grasped the importance of desire, which can lose or exalt the one who experiences it. Also, techniques and rites have been developed to make it sacred and channel it. Indian Tantrism is partly composed of such techniques. But they have reserved for the highest degrees and have nothing in common with the easy love of those Westerners who use them as an alibi.

"Spiritual sexual life" means "sexual life in conformity with our inner being" and not "sexual life in conformity with the morality enacted by others". Each human being has a male and female component, although to varying degrees. To recreate a complete being in itself, a "male" man can search for a "female" woman. But a "male" woman can look for a "female" man, etc... Much of the mystery of these attractions lies far beyond the physical body. Like any other combination, both male and female homosexuality belong to this search for the total human, prior to the division of the sexes.

Netzah's magical image is a beautiful naked woman.

Netzah in Assiah: Venus

Venus is the planet corresponding to this sephirah. The Greeks called it Phosphorus, the Latin Lucifer, two terms that mean "Light Bearer". The Hebrews called it Nogah (the bright one) or Helel ben Sharar (Son of the Dawn), because Venus sparks with power in the morning sky. All these names became euphemisms for the rebellious angel who fell from the sky and whose subsequent mission is to ensure the survival of the World

The 7 of Disks - Failure:

“The number Seven, Netzach, has its customary enfeebling effect, and this is made worse by the influence of Saturn in Taurus. The disks are arranged in the shape of the geomantic figure Rubeus, the most ugly and menacing of the Sixteen. (See Five of Cups.) The atmosphere of the card is that of Blight. On the background, which represents vegetation and cultivation, everything is spoiled. The four colours of Netzach appear, but they are blotched with angry indigo and reddish orange. The disks themselves are the leaden disks of Saturn. They suggest bad money.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...hoth-tarot.jpg
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  #15  
Old 19-10-2019, 01:33 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 11: Path between Hod and Tiphareth in Assiah

This card or path brings up a lot of different interpretations.

One of them with a Christian influence, as say someone who wanted to stay anonymous in his Book Meditations on the Tarot, is that one cannot meditate on this card. To quote the chapter of The Devil card in this book:

“The fifteen Arcanum of the Tarot, in so far as it is a spiritual exercise, cannot – and must not – lead to an experience of identification of the meditant with the subject of meditation. (…)
One can grasp profoundly, i.e. intuitively, only that which one loves. Now, one cannot love evil. Evil is therefore unknowable it its essence. One can only understand it only at a distance, as an observer of its phenomenology.”

So, I would not suggest to one starting on the path, or one that has not cleared all it’s fears, to meditate on this path of the Tree of Life.

Letter: Ayin

XV - The Devil: “This card is attributed to the letter 'Ayin, which means an Eye, and it refers to Capricornus in the Zodiac. In the Dark Ages of Christianity, it was completely misunderstood. Eliphaz Levi studied it very deeply because of its connection with ceremonial magic, his 4 favourite subject; and he re-drew it, identifying it with Baphomet, the ***-headed idol of the Knights of the Temple. [The Early Christians also were accused of worshipping an ***, or ***-headed god. See Browning, The Ring and the Book (The Pope).] But at this time archaeological research had not gone very far; the nature of Baphomet was not fully understood. (See Atu 0) At least he succeeded in identifying the goat portrayed upon the card with Pan.

On the Tree of Life, Atu XIII and XV are symmetrically placed; they lead from Tiphareth, the human consciousness, to the spheres in which Thought (on the one hand) and Bliss (on the other) are developed. Between them, Atu XIV leads similarly to the sphere which formulates Existence. (See note on Atu X and arrangement.) These three cards may therefore be summed up as a hieroglyph of the processes by which idea manifests as form.

This card represents creative energy in its most material form; in the Zodiac, Capricornus occupies the Zenith. It is the most exalted of the signs; it is the goat leaping with lust upon the summits of earth. The sign is ruled by Saturn, who makes for selfhood and perpetuity. In this sign, Mars is exalted, showing in its best form the fiery, material energy of creation. The card represents Pan Pangenetor, the All-Begetter. It is the Tree of Life as seen against a background of the exquisitely tenuous, complex, and fantastic forms of madness, the divine madness of spring, already foreseen in the meditative madness of winter; for the Sun turns northwards on entering this sign. The roots of the Tree are made transparent, in order to show the innumerable leapings of the sap; before it stands the Himalayan goat, with an eye in the centre of his forehead, representing the god Pan upon the highest and most secret mountains of the earth. His creative energy is veiled in the symbol of the Wand of the Chief Adept, crowned with the winged globe and the twin serpents of Horus and Osiris.


"Hear me, Lord of the Stars, for thee have I worshipped ever with stains and sorrows and scars, With joyful, joyful Endeavour. Hear me, O lilywhite goat Crisp as a thicket of thorns, With a collar of gold for thy throat, A scarlet bow for thy horns."
The sign of Capricornus is rough, harsh, dark, even blind; the impulse to create takes no account of reason, custom, or foresight. It is divinely unscrupulous, sublimely careless of result. "thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect." AL. I, 42-4.

It is further to be remarked that the trunk of the Tree pierces the heavens; about it is indicated the ring of the body of Nuith. Similarly, the shaft of the Wand goes down indefinitely to the centre of earth. "If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one." (AL. II, 26).

The formula of this card is then the complete appreciation of all existing things. He rejoices in the rugged and the barren no less than in the smooth and the fertile. All things equally exalt him. He represents the finding of ecstasy in every phenomenon, however naturally repugnant; he transcends all limitations; he is Pan; he is All.
It is important to notice some other correspondences. The three vowel-consonants of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Yod, 'Ayin, these three letters form the sacred name of God, I A O. These three Atu, IX, 0, and XV, thus offer a threefold explanation of the male creative energy; but this card especially represents the masculine energy at its most masculine. Saturn, the ruler, is Set, the ***-headed god of the Egyptian deserts; he is the god of the south. The name refers to all gods containing these consonants, such as Shaitan, or Satan. (See Magick pp.336-7). Essential to the symbolism are the surroundings - barren places, especially high places. The cult of the mountain is an exact parallel. The Old Testament is full of attacks upon kings who celebrated worship in "high places"; this, although Zion itself was a mountain! This feeling persisted, even to the days of the Witches' Sabbath, held, if possible, on a desolate summit, but (if none were available) at least in a wild spot, uncontaminated by the artfulness of men.

Note that Shabbathai, the "sphere of Saturn", is the Sabbath. Historically, the animus against witches pertains to the fear of the Jews; whose rites, supplanted by the Christian forms of Magic, had become mysterious and terrible. Panic suggested that Christian children were stolen, sacrificed, and eaten. The belief persists to this day.

In every symbol of this card there is the allusion to the highest things and most remote. Even the horns of the goat are spiral, to represent the movement of the all-pervading energy. Zoroaster defines God as "having a spiral force". Compare the more recent, if less profound, writings of Einstein. [Compare Saturn, at one end of the Seven Sacred Wanderers, with the Moon at the other: the aged man and the young girl -see "The Formula of Tetragrammaton". They are linked as no other two planets, since 32=9, and each contains in itself the extremes of its own idea.”
(The book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...6d5bfa9375.jpg
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  #16  
Old 26-10-2019, 02:07 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 12: Path between Yesod and Tiphareth in Assiah

Letter: Samekh

XIV - The Art or Temperance: “This card is the complement and the fulfilment of Atu VI, Gemini. It pertains to Sagittarius, the opposite to Gemini in the Zodiac, and therefore, "after another manner," one with it. Sagittarius means the Archer; and the card is (in its simplest and most primitive form) a picture of Diana the Huntress. Diana is primarily one of the lunar goddesses, though the Romans rather degraded her from the Greek "virgin Artemis", who is also the Great Mother of Fertility, Diana of the Ephesians, Many-Breasted. (A form of Isis-see Atu II and III.) The connection between the Moon and the Huntress is shewn by the shape of the bow, and the occult significance of Sagittarius is the arrow piercing the rainbow; the last three paths of the Tree of Life make the word Qesheth, a rainbow, and Sagittarius bears the arrow which pierces the rainbow, for his path leads from the Moon of Yesod to the Sun of Tiphareth. (This explanation is highly technical; but this is necessary because the card represents an important scientific formula, which cannot be expressed in language suited to common comprehension.)

This card represents the Consummation of the Royal Marriage which took place in Atu VI. The black and white personages are now united in a single androgyne figure. Even the Bees and the Serpents on their robes have made an alliance. The Red Lion has become white, and increased in size and importance, while the White Eagle, similarly expanded, has become red. He has exchanged his red blood for her white gluten. (It is impossible to explain these terms to any but advanced students of alchemy.)

The equilibrium and counter-change are carried out completely in the figure itself; the white woman has now a black bead; the black king, a white one. She wears the golden crown with a silver band, he, the silver crown with a golden fillet; but the white head on the right is extended in action by a white arm on the left which holds the cup of the white gluten, while the black head on the left has the black arm on the right, holding the lance which has become a torch and pours forth its burning blood. The fire burns up the water; the water extinguishes the fire.

The robe of the figure is green, which symbolizes vegetable growth: this is an alchemical allegory. In the symbolism of the fathers of science, all "actual" objects were regarded as dead; the difficulty of transmuting metals was that the metals, as they occur in nature, were in the nature of excrements, because they did not grow. The first problem of alchemy was to raise mineral to vegetable life; the adepts thought that the proper way to do this was to imitate the processes of nature.

Distillation, for instance, was not an operation to be performed by heating something in a retort over a flame; it had to take place naturally, even if months were required to consummate the Work. (Months, at that period of civilization, were at the disposal of enquiring minds.)

A great deal of what people now consider ignorance, being themselves ignorant of what the men of old time thought, comes from this misapprehension. At the bottom of this card, for example, are seen Fire and Water harmoniously mingled. But this is only a crude symbol of the spiritual idea, which is the satisfaction of the desire of the incomplete element of one kind to satisfy its formula by assimilation of its equal and opposite.

This state of the great Work therefore consisted in the mingling of the contradictory elements in a cauldron. This is here represented as golden or solar, because the Sun is the Father of all Life, and (in particular) presides over distillation. The fertility of the Earth is maintained by rain and sun; the rain is formed by a slow and gentle process, and is rendered effective by the co-operation of air, which is itself alchemically the result of the Marriage of Fire and Water. So also the formula of continued life is death, or putrefaction. Here it is symbolized by the caput mortuum on the cauldron, a raven perched upon a skull. In agricultural terms, this is the fallow earth.

There is a particular interpretation of this card which is only to be understood by Initiates of the Ninth Degree of the O.T.O; for it contains a practical magical formula of such importance as to make it impossible to communicate it openly.

Rising from the cauldron, as the result of the operation per- formed ~ is a stream of light which becomes two rainbows; they form the cape of the androgyne figure. In the centre, an arrow shoots upwards. This is connected with the general symbolism previously explained, the spiritualization of the result of the Great Work.

The rainbow is moreover symbolical of another stage in the alchemical process. At a certain period, as a result of putrefaction, there is observed a phenomenon of many-coloured lights (The "coat of many colours" said to have been worn by Joseph and Jesus, in the ancient legends, refers to this. See also Atu 0, the Motley of the Green Man, Dreamer-Redeemer).

To sum up, the whole of this card represents the hidden content of the Egg described in Atu VI. It is the same formula, but in a more advanced stage. The original duality has been completely compensated; but after birth comes growth; after growth, puberty; and after puberty, purification.

In this card, therefore, is foreshadowed the final stage of the Great Work. Behind the figure, its edges tinged with the rainbow, which has now arisen from the twin rainbows forming the cape of the figure, is a glory bearing an inscription VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM.
"Visit the interior parts of the earth: by rectification thou shalt find the hidden stone." Its initials make the word V.I.T.R.I.O.L., the Universal Solvent, to be discussed later. (Its value is 726=6 X 112=33 x 22.)

This "hidden stone" is also called the Universal Medicine. It is sometimes described as a stone, sometimes as a powder, sometimes as a tincture. It divides again into two forms, the gold and the silver, the red and the white; but its essence is always the same, and its nature is not to be understood except by experience. It is because the alchemists were dealing with substances on the borderland of "matter" that they are so difficult to understand. The subject-matter of chemistry and physics in modern times is what they would have called the study of dead things; for the real difference between living things and dead is, in the first instance, their behaviour.
The initials of the alchemical motto given above form the word Vitriol. This has nothing to do with the sulphates of either hydrogen, iron or copper, as might be supposed from modern usage. It represents a balanced combination of the three alchemical principles, Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. These names have no connection with substances so named by the vulgar; they have already been described in Atu I III and IV

The counsel to "visit the interior of the earth" is a recapitulation (on a higher plane) of the first formula of the Work which has been the so constant theme of these essays. The important word in the injunction is the central word RECTIFICANDO; it implies the right leading of the new living substance in the path of the True Will. The stone of the Philosophers, the Universal Medicine, is to be a talisman of use in any event, a completely elastic and completely rigid vehicle of the True Will of the alchemists. It is to fertilize and bring to manifested Life the Orphic Egg.

The Arrow, both in this card and in Atu VI, is of supreme importance. The Arrow is, in fact, the simplest and purest glyph of Mercury, being the symbol of directed Will.”
(Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...artcard-hd.jpg
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  #17  
Old 06-11-2019, 01:11 AM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Because of high winds last Friday, that left us with no electricity until today, I was not able to post this post until today.

Week 13: Path between Netzah and Tiphareth in Assiah

Letter: Nun

XIII - Death: “This card is attributed to the letter Nun, which means a fish; the symbol of life beneath the waters; life travelling through the waters. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars, the planet of fiery energy in its lowest form, which is therefore necessary to provide the impulse. In alchemy, this card explains the idea of putrefaction, the technical name given by its adepts to the series of chemical changes which develops the final form of life from the original latent seed in the Orphic egg.

This sign is one of the two most powerful in the Zodiac, but it has not the simplicity and intensity of Leo. It is formally divided into three parts; the lowest is symbolized by the Scorpion, which was supposed by early observers of Nature to commit suicide when finding itself ringed with fire, or otherwise in a desperate situation. This represents putrefaction in its lowest form. The strain of environment has become intolerable, and the attacked element willingly subjects itself to change; thus, potassium thrown upon water becomes ignited, and accepts the embrace of the hydroxyl radicle.

The middle interpretation of this sign is given by the serpent, who is, moreover, the main theme of the sign. [The Qabalists embodied in the Book of Genesis, Caps I and II, this doctrine of regeneration. NChSh, the Serpent in Eden, has the value 358: 50 also MShICh, Messiah. He is, accordingly, in the secret doctrine, the Redeemer. The thesis may be developed at great length. Later in the Legend, the doctrine reappears in slightly different symbolism as the story of the Flood, elsewhere in this Essay explained. Of course, the Fish is identical in essence with the Serpent; for Fish=NVN=Scorpio=Serpent. Also, Teth, the letter of Leo, means Serpent. But Fish is also the Vesica, or Womb, and Christ -and so on. This symbol resumes the whole Secret Doctrine.] The serpent is sacred, Lord of Life and Death, and its method of progression suggests the rhythmical undulation of those twin phases of life which we Call respectively life and death. The serpent is also, as previously explained, the principal symbol of male energy. From this it will be seen that this card is, in a very strict sense, the completion of the card called Lust, Atu XI, and Atu XII represents the solution or dissolution which links them.

The highest aspect of the card is the Eagle, which represents exaltation above solid matter. It was understood by the early chemists that, in certain experiments, the purest (i.e., most tenuous) elements present were given off as gas or vapour. There are thus represented in this card the three essential types of putrefaction.

The card itself represents the dance of death; the figure is a skeleton bearing a scythe, and both the skeleton and the scythe are importantly Saturnian symbols. This appears strange, as Saturn has no overt connection with Scorpio; but Saturn represents the essential structure of existing things. He is that elemental nature of things which is not destroyed by the ordinary changes which occur in the operations of Nature. Furthermore, he is crowned with the crown of Osiris; he represents Osiris in the waters of Amennti. Yet more, he is the original secret male creative God: see Atu XV. "Redeunt Saturnia regna." It was only the corruption of the Tradition, the confusion with Set, and the Cult of the Dying God, misunderstood, deformed and distorted by the Black Lodge, that turned him into a senile and fiendish symbol.

With the sweep of his scythe he creates bubbles in which are beginning to take shape the new forms which he creates in his dance; and these forms dance also.

In this card the symbol of the fish is paramount; the fish (Il pesce, as they call him in Naples and many other places) and the serpent are the two principal objects of worship in cults which taught the doctrines of resurrection or re-incarnation. Thus we have Oannes and Dagon, fish gods, in western Asia; in many other parts of the world are similar cults. Even in Christianity, Christ was represented as a fish. The Greek work IXThUS, "which means fish and very aptly symbolizes Christ", as Browning reminds one, was supposed to be a notariqon, the initials of a sentence meaning "Jesus Christ Son of God, Saviour". Nor is it an accident that St. Peter was a fisherman. The Gospels, too, are full of miracles involving fish, and the fish is sacred to Mercury, because of its cold-bloodedness, its swiftness and its brilliance. There is moreover the sexual symbolism. This again recalls the function of Mercury as the guide of the dead, and as the continuing elastic element in nature.

This card must then be considered as of greater importance and catholicity than would be expected from the plain Zodiacal attribution. It is even a compendium of universal energy in its most secret form.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...death_card.jpg
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  #18  
Old 09-11-2019, 01:51 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 14: Tiphareth in Assiah and the 6 of Disks

General Symbolic of Tiphareth:

Tiphareth (Beauty) sits in the centre of the Tree of Life, in the middle of the central pillar. It is the outermost manifestation of the five most subtle sephiroth, while being the spiritual principle of the four most dense sephiroth. It's Kether on a lower plane, and Yesod on the upper plane.

Tiphareth is halfway between the body (material world of Malkuth) and the first expression of the divine Kether). For Irenaeus of Lyon, "the son of God became man so that man could become son of God" (Against heresy).

Tiphareth is to the Tree what the sun is to our world; the vital centre, the heart. If everything emanates from Kether, Tiphareth keeps all the Elements of the Tree in relation to each other. With the exception of Malkhut, each sephirah is directly connected to Tiphareth by one of the paths. It is comparable to the eye of the cyclone, a place of calm and security in the centre of the storm. Unless our lives are centered around an appropriate point, we get lost in chaos. Without an inner sun to illuminate us, everything disintegrates and dissolves. This center is God in us, the Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. This is the sun to which Tiphareth draws our attention to the tree. It is the light that we must find to arrange around it the whole of our inner and outer universe that it will transfigure. In a second step, he will be entrusted with the direction of our life. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this task, the only true objective of Magic.

Tiphareth is the centre of the second triad of the Tree, who’s other two angles are Gerubah and Chesed. This triad, reflecting the three upper sephiroth, is the one that remains after the death of the body and mind. In privileged moments, the voice that the inner listening perceives is that of the Self, and not that of God or disembodied spirits.

It should be noted that there are two circuits in the trails. The first is that of the Light distributed to the sepiroth via Tiphereth, and the second is a system of exchanges between the sephiroth themselves. The origin of the light comes from Kether, but from a practical point of view, the distribution centre is Tiphareth.

The six sephiroth of which Tiphareth is the center are sometimes called the Universal Man. From Kether's point of view, this man is a child. From Malkuth's point of view, he is a king in his kingdom. In the Bible, according to the name expressed for "God", we know to which sphere of the Tree this particular mode of manifestation should be assigned. Any reference to the son refers to Tiphareth.

There are three types of magical images of Tiphareth; a child, a king-priest and a sacrificed god. The child indicates that this is where our "individuality" begins, distinct from that of others. The king (divine right) between the heavenly city and the human city. The sacrificed god shows that we must divest ourselves of our individuality to join the union with God. We descend the Tree with the child, we live with the king, and finally ascend to accept the sacrifice of ourselves.

In the tradition of Western mystery schools, the first of the great initiations confers the power to converse with our Guardian Holy Angel. The characteristic of this state is that there are no visions or voices. The higher consciousness (Tiphareth) is beyond the mind (Yesod). Pure intuition, it contains no image perceptible by the senses.

Moreover, any inner experience where the vision ends in dazzling light is assigned to Tiphareth. Visions of a clearly defined shape (characters for example) are characteristic of Yesod. En-stasis without form or light, such as the one described by Plotin, tends to reach Kether.

Tiphareth in Assiah: Sun

In Hebrew SHEMESH, the "Sun" is attributed the colours of gold, yellow and purple. Its nature is warm and temperate dry. It is masculine, diurnal, moderately good if it is well aspected (sextile and trigone); it is bad if it is struck by conjunction, square or opposition and also when it is peregrine.

The 6 of Disks - Success:

“The Number Six, Tiphareth, as before, represents the full harmonious establishment of the Energy of the Element. The Moon in Taurus rules the card; and this, while increasing the approach to perfection (for the Moon is exalted in Taurus and therefore in her highest form) marks that the condition is transient.
The disks are arranged in the form of the Hexagram, which is shown in skeleton. In the centre blushes and glows the light rose- madder of dawn, and without are three concentric circles, golden yellow, salmon-pink, and amber. These colours show Tiphareth fully realized on Earth; it reaffirms in form what was mathematically set forth in describing the Ace.
The planets are arranged in accordance with their usual attribution; but they are only shown as disks irradiated by the Sun in their centre.
This Sun is idolized as the Rose and Cross; the Rose has forty- nine petals, the interplay of the Seven with the Seven.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...hoth-tarot.jpg
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  #19  
Old 16-11-2019, 07:45 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 15: Path between Hod and Geburah in Assiah

Letter: Mem

XII – The Hanged Man: “This card, attributed to the letter Mem, represents the element of Water. It would perhaps be better to say that it represents the spiritual function of water in the economy of initiation; it is a baptism which is also a death. In the Aeon of Osiris, this card represented the supreme formula of adeptship; for the figure of the drowned or hanged man has its own special meaning. The legs are crossed so that the right leg forms a right angle with the left leg, and the arms are stretched out at an angle of 60° so as to form an equilateral triangle; this gives the symbol of the Triangle surmounted by the Cross, which represents the descent of the light into the darkness in order to re deem it. For this reason there are green disks-green, the colour of Venus, signifies Grace-at the terminations of the limbs and of the head. The air above the surface of the water is also green, infiltrated by rays of the white light of Kether. The whole figure is suspended from the Ankh, another way of figuring the formula of the Rose and Cross, while around the left foot is the Serpent, creator and destroyer, who operates all change.

It is notable that there is an apparent increase of darkness and solidity in proportion as the redeeming element manifests itself; but the colour of green is the colour of Venus, of the hope that lies in love. That depends upon the formulation of the Rose and Cross, of the annihilation of the self in the Beloved, the condition of progress. In this inferior darkness of death, the serpent of new life begins to stir.

In the former Aeon, that of Osiris, the element of Air, which is the nature of that Aeon, is not unsympathetic either to Water or to Fire; compromise was a mark of that period. But now, under a Fiery lord of the Aeon, the watery element, so far as water is below the Abyss, is definitely hostile, unless the opposition is the right opposition implied in marriage. But in this card the only question is of the "redemption" of the submerged element, and therefore everything is reversed. This idea of sacrifice is, in the final analysis, a wrong idea.

"I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice."

"Every man and every woman is a star."

The whole idea of sacrifice is a misconception of nature, and these texts of the Book of the Law are the answer to it.

But water is the element of Illusion; one may regard this symbol n evil legacy from the old Aeon; to use an anatomical analogy, it spiritual vermiform appendix.

It was the water, and the Dwellers of the Water that slew Osiris; it is the crocodiles that threaten Hoor-Pa-Kraat.

This card is beautiful in a strange, immemorial, moribund manner. It is the card of the Dying God; its importance in the present pack is merely that of the Cenotaph. It says: "If ever things get bad like that again, in the new Dark Ages which appear to threaten, this is the way to put things right." But if things have to be put right, it shows that they are very wrong. It should be the chieftest aim of the wise to rid mankind of the insolence of self-sacrifice, of the calamity of chastity; faith must be slain by certainty, and chastity by ecstasy.

In the Book of the Law it is written: "Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled and the consoler."

Redemption is a bad word; it implies a debt. For every star possesses boundless wealth; the only proper way to deal with the ignorant is to bring them to the knowledge of their starry heritage. To do this, it is necessary to behave as must be done in order to get on good terms with animals and children: to treat them with absolute respect; even; in a certain sense, with worship.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...historical.jpg
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  #20  
Old 23-11-2019, 03:57 PM
Legrand
Posts: n/a
 
Week 16: Path between Tiphareth and Geburah in Assiah

In the Thoth tarot card VII and XI have different Names and the places of the cards has been changed in the Tree.

Letter:
Lamed

VII – Adjustement: “This card in the old pack was called Justice. This word has none but a purely human and therefore relative sense; so it is not to be considered as one of the facts of Nature. Nature is not just, according to any theological or ethical idea; but Nature is exact.

This card represents the sign of Libra, ruled by Venus; in it Saturn is exalted. The equilibrium of all things is hereby symbolized. It is the final adjustment in the formula of Tetragrammaton, when the daughter, redeemed by her marriage with the Son, is thereby set up on the throne of the mother; thus, finally, she "awakens the Eld of the All-Father."

In the greatest symbolism of all, however, the symbolism beyond all planetary and Zodiacal considerations, this card is the feminine complement of the Fool, for the letters Aleph Lamed constitute the secret key of the Book of the Law, and this is the basis of a complete qabalistic system of greater depth and sublimity than any other. The details of this system have not yet been revealed. It has been thought right, nevertheless, to hint at its existence by equating the designs of these two cards. Not only therefore, because Libra is a sign of Venus, but because she is the partner of the Fool, is the Goddess represented as dancing, with the suggestion of Harlequin.

The figure is that of a young and slender woman poised exactly upon toetip. She is crowned with the ostrich plumes of Maat, the Egyptian goddess of Justice, and on her forehead is the Uraeus serpent, Lord of Life and Death. She is masked, and her expression shows her secret intimate satisfaction in her domination of every element of dis-equilibrium in the Universe. This condition is symbolized by the Magic Sword which she holds in both hands, and the balances or spheres in which she weighs the Universe, Alpha the First balanced exactly against Omega the Last. These are the Judex and Testes of Final Judgment; the Testes, in particular, are symbolic of the secret course of judgment whereby all current experience is absorbed, transmuted, and ultimately passed on, by virtue of the operation of the Sword, to further manifestation. This all takes place within the diamond formed by the figure which is the concealed Vesica Piscis through which this sublimated and adjusted experience passes to its next manifestation.

She poises herself before a throne composed of spheres and pyramids (four in number, signifying Law and Limitation) which themselves maintain the same equity that she herself manifests, though on a completely impersonal plane, in the framework within which all operations take place. Outside this again, at the corner of the card, are indicated balanced spheres of light and darkness, and constantly equilibrated rays from these spheres form a curtain, the interplay of all those forces which she sums up and adjudicates.

One must go more deeply into philosophy; the Trump represents The Woman Satisfied. Equilibrium stands apart from any individual prejudices; therefore the title, in France, should rather be Justesse. In this sense, Nature is scrupulously just. It is impossible to drop a pin without exciting a corresponding reaction in every Star. The action has disturbed the balance of the Universe.

This woman-goddess is Harlequin; she is the partner and fulfilment of The Fool. She is the ultimate illusion which is manifestation; she is the dance, many-coloured, many-wiled, of Life itself. Constantly whirling, all possibilities are enjoyed, under the phantom show of Space and Time: all things are real, the soul is the surface, precisely because they are instantly compensated by this Adjustment. All things are harmony and beauty; all things are Truth: because they cancel out.

She is the goddess Maat; she bears upon her nemyss the ostrich feathers of the Twofold Truth.

From this Crown, so delicate that the most faintest breath of thought must stir it, depend, by chains of Cause, the Scales wherein Alpha, the first, is poised in perfect equilibrium with Omega, the last. The scales of the balance are the Two Witnesses in whom shall every word be established. She is therefore to be understood as assessing the virtue of every act and demanding exact and precise satisfaction.

More than this, she is the complete formula of the Dyad; the word AL is the title of the Book of the Law, whose number is 31, the most secret of the numerical keys of that Book. She represents Manifestation, which may always be cancelled out by equilibration of opposites.

She is wrapped in a cloak of mystery, the more mysterious because diaphanous; she is the sphinx without a secret, because she is purely a matter of calculation. In Eastern philosophy she is Karma.

Her attributions develop this thesis. Venus rules the sign of the Balance; and that is to show the formula: "Love is the law, love under will". But Saturn represents above all the element of Time, without which adjustment cannot take place, for all action and re action take place in time, and therefore, time being itself merely a condition of phenomena, all phenomena are invalid because uncompensated.

The Woman Satisfied. From the cloak of the vivid wantonness of her dancing wings issue her hands; they hold the hilt of the Phallic sword of the magician. She holds the blade between her thighs.

This is again a hieroglyph of "Love is the law, love under will". Every form of energy must be directed, must be applied with integrity, to the full satisfaction of its destiny."
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...htarotcard.jpg

Last edited by Legrand : 23-11-2019 at 06:45 PM.
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