The Aeon

This cards about awakening the dead?

Can you share some more info on this with us(or maybe just me if I'm the only one who didn't know lol. This card has continually come up in self readings the ;ast 5 days, eithe as what to do, what's coming. This has been the most puzzling card for me in the deck, but your post was like a big huge lflashbulb going of. I mean all this weekend we've been celebrating Halloween and I've been preparing for Dia de Los Muertos.(day of the dead)

So now that you've shown me what I was missing, I'd like to dig into it a lil more. In other decks, this card's Judment Day right? Is that where the reuturn of the dead theme comes from?

Another way I'm starting to The Aeon is as that moment of rest an preparation for the end, where we're consolled and supported by those who have already been through it. Like when Obi-Wan and Yoda's ghosts appear to Luke and help him prepare himself for the end confrontation with Darth Vader.

I would not say that the Thoth Aeon card is about awakening from the dead - but that the Judgement card, card XX which the Aeon card is replacing is indeed about awakening from the dead - is it not a picture of people coming out of their coffins?

The Thoth version of Arcane XX on the other hand is quite another story...however, the interesting question is, what is the link between the old card (awakening from the dead) and the new one - showing the Goddess of the Sky (the firmament, the night) -- Nut...

The Aeon card is a symbol of birth and new growth. Not death, resurrection and judgement.

A few random mutterings:

Somewhere in the BoT, it talks about the child Horus (the blue child in the card) and this it is depicted with a finger to the mouth OR with the thumb (there doesn't seem to be agreement) and he mentions that these would mean different things- for the life of me, I can't find that passage at the moment, but because they chose one way over the other, I'm positive that there was a meaning that Crowley would assign to that fact.

Next- Horus is the child of Nuit and (er.... what's his name). Nuit is the representation of infinite space (everything in one place that has infinate "room" in 3 dimensions). The other guy is the representation of an all encompasing point (everything in one place that has no dimensions- thus no "room"- yet containing everything) Horus, being the child of these two is kind of a marriage of these ideas. Again, I'm going to have to be vague, because I'm not so sure what this means (someone feel free to chime in)

I think that the idea of this card has something to do with humans moving to a time where instead of seeing the birth-life-death cycle as a closed system (death is the END) we are begining to see it as part of an infinate cycle. The card indeed indicates rebirth (as the last judgement cards did) but in a different way- nobody is rising from the dead, because there is no death (to the soul). Here, I'm looking back at Horus's parents, and squinting to try to see how they fit into this idea- but clearly they fit.

Can't look up the specifics right now, but Horus' dad was Osiris who was killed by his brother Set before he was born. His mom Ibis, fled wit him, while Set took the throne of Egypt. She raised Horus by herself, in exile, untill he reached adulthood and returned to take back his throne.

I can see how this ties in with Last Judgement, in the Book of Revelations, St. James describes a vision of a woman standing on the moon(Ibis) who is giving birth. She is attackd by a serpent (Seth) who tries to kill them wit a flood of water(the Delta river flooded every year right?) The woman and the child go into exile in the wilderness for a bunch of years. This vision was before the final judgement vison, where the dead rise and all that. Also compare to the Gospels, where King Herod tries to kill all the recently born children, So St. joseph takes Baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary to live in exile. In Egypt of all places.

Ug- You are right (but Nuit is the mother of Osiris, so the relation is still there)

I'm gonna have to go back to the books to make a contribution to this thread.

My memory must have slipped- I was sure that the child and the hawk headed figure were both depicting Horus- but now, I'm wondering if the child is supposed to be Osirus (which would explain why I can't find the passage I was talking about from BoT).

-tb

Well the child is the new Aeon of Horus...

In this card it has been necessary to depart completely from the tradition of the cards, in order to carry on that tradition.

The old card was called The Angel: or , The Last Judgment. It represented an Angel or Messenger blowing a trumpet, attached to which was a flag, bearing the symbol of the Aeon of Osiris. Below him the graves were opening, the dead rising up. There were three of them. The central one had his hands raised with right angles at the elbows and showlders, so as to form the letter Shin, which refers to fire. The card therefore represented the destruction of the world by Fire. This was accomplished in the year of the vulgar era 1904, when the fiery god Horus took the place of the airy god Osiris in the East as Hierophant (see Atu V). At the beginning, then, of this new Aeon, it is fit to exhibit the message of that angel who brough the news of the new Aeon to earth. The new card is thus of necessity an adaptation of the Stélé of Revealing.

Around the top of the card is the body of Nuith, the star-goddess, who is the category of unlimited possibility; her mate is Hadit, the ubiquitous point-of-view, the only philosophically tenable conception of Reality. He is represented by a globe of fire, representing eternal energy; winged to show his power of Going. As a result of the marriage of these two, the child Horus is born. He is, however, known under his special name, Heru-ra-ha. A double god; his extraverted form is Ra-hoor-khuit; and his passive or introverted form Hoor-pa-krat. [...]. He is also solar in character and is therefore shown coming forth in golden Light. [...]

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from Crowley's Book of Thoth - chapter on the Aeon pp. 115

So he's his own father? Like in Christianity? God the father, Jesus the Son, and that other guy?

You know, for claiming to be the beast and all that 666 stuff, Mr. Crowley just kind of came up with a cooler, edgy, underground version of Chrisitanity. Kind of like in high school, when a "hip" new band caught on, all the kids that "knew" would never tell anyone else about this great band because then the "trendy" kids would ruin it for them. And if the band ever got played on the radio, or did to well on the charts, they would hate the band. Damn elitists. lol

Gotta love that guy, disciplines, open minded, focused, persecuted,maybe even wise, but still prone to those immature tendencies us guys never outgrow. lol

One Armed Scissor said:

So he's his own father? Like in Christianity? God the father, Jesus the Son, and that other guy?

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Osiris is his own father, yes. Christianity, being an Osirian religion in essence, naturally shares the common themes of death/rebirth.

Mr. Crowley just kind of came up with a cooler, edgy, underground version of Chrisitanity

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lol, not exactly. Crowley didn't invent Isis/Osiris/Horus. They are Egyptian gods, remember. All Crowley did was join up the dots and point out the common themes. The Egyptian model is rather more all-encompassing than most (in that it encompasses all phases: Isis, Osiris, Horus and... whoever is next - I can't remember) and so he ends up using it. Egypt is also part of the bedrock of magick so it's gods and themes are quite important.

spiral said:

Isis, Osiris, Horus and... whoever is next - I can't remember)

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Ma'at.