The Universe : ?

ZenMusic

the so-called sickle is really a fishhook
looks like a fishhook, but in the notes by Frieda Harris, she says..

"She holds the Moon in her hand and the Sun is merged in the Eye of God. These two planets typify the positive and negative forces"
 

Parzival

ZenMusic said:
looks like a fishhook, but in the notes by Frieda Harris, she says..

"She holds the Moon in her hand and the Sun is merged in the Eye of God. These two planets typify the positive and negative forces"
Yes, it's a moon, fishhook, a harp when on its side, link ( a hook can join one thing and another) between "Eye of God" and Humanity/Horus, and who knows what else -- it is a multi-dimensional, multi-meaningful window into the universe, but, like the mobius strip, it is both one thing or side and two things or sides at once, or more.
It's interesting to consider the "Eye of God" upper left and the three pyramids lower center, with the table of the elements. The Lady and the Snake dance in the middle, Eye above and pyramids below. Spirit that sees everything, above, the arrangement of the elements into concrete patterns (pyramids) below, and the Tantric Dance of Mother-Father in the middle. Much mirrored here, in this alchemic culmination of polarities into unities.
Incidentally, in the Babylonian creation myth, Marduk creates the universe out of the body of a great serpent, so the Snake is matter-energy, in a mythological way. The Maya see the Snake as the magical link between earth and heaven-- it unites Mother Earth and Father sky. In Orphic myth, the naked Goddess at the beginning dances in the emptiness, then changes the north wind into a great serpent, Ophion. They dance together, mate, and co-create the world egg. So the dance of the Lady and the Snake here is a co-creating, not a peaceful coming to rest in the static divine. Is the Snake simply God or Kundalini or Horus or cosmic matter-energy or Earth-Sky uniter or cosmic cycles of birth-death or time or libido or maya or persona ? No. All of the above, and much more...
 

Aeon418

A few thoughts on why Crowley changed the position of the Kerubs on the Universe card.

Firstly Crowley says this in a footnote to his vision of the 24th Enochian Aethyr:
The Beast and the Scarlet Woman are attributed to (Leo) and Water (Scorpio). They are the two-in-one Chief Officers of the Temple of the New Aeon of Heru-Ra-Ha. (Note the Eagle Kerub in the 23rd Aire is Aquarius. Scorpio is the Woman-Serpent. This is important, for the old attribution is of the Eagle to (Scorpio).
The Golden Dawn attributed the letters of the name YHVH and the four elements to the Kerubs on the Universe card. In the above quote and in his own card Crowley doesn't change this scheme. What he does change is the Kerubic emblems as they relate to the elements of Water and Air.

Although the position of the Kerubs is traditional, the attribution of the elements to the Kerubs is not. Some pre-Golden Dawn authorities give the Eagle as Air and the Man as Water. Why did the Golden Dawn adepts prefer the usage of the Eage as Water? Possibly because the Golden Dawn founders, who were one time Theosophists, drew on the astrological writings that came from well know members of the Theosophical society, such as Allan Leo. These writers were typically Victorian in their sexual attitudes. They thought that physical sexuality was something be trancended, hence the attribution of the Eagle to the sensual element of Water. This repressive, Victorian attitude doesn't really fit with Crowley's system. He was all for breaking out of the restrictive Victorian morality. The mind (Air) was what he thought needed to be trancended, so that was given the emblem of the Eagle on Crowley's card.
 

ravenest

And also possibly because the Eagle is one of the (secret) totems of Scorpio whose element is water?
 

Aeon418

What's so secret about Scorpio and the Eagle? It's common knowledge.

Also the only Eagle that ever appeared in the night sky was Aquila, which rises in juxtaposition with the stars of Aquarius ! Plus there's Ophiuchus which represents the upper torso of a human. This overlays the stars of Scorpio creating a half human, half scorpion image.
 

ravenest

Aeon418 said:
What's so secret about Scorpio and the Eagle? It's common knowledge.
Yep, sure is. I should have said that Eagle is often secondary to Scorpion in the animal that most people relate to Scorpio. Many see it as secondary exoterically but of primary importance esoterically, or hidden, and hence an antiquated occult term for it; secret. [I love those antiquated occult terms ... but unfortunaltly now days the cats out of the bag ;) - damn this new fangled 'common knowledge' ! ]
Aeon418 said:
Also the only Eagle that ever appeared in the night sky was Aquila, which rises in juxtaposition with the stars of Aquarius ! Plus there's Ophiuchus which represents the upper torso of a human. This overlays the stars of Scorpio creating a half human, half scorpion image.
Oooooh, I like that one!
 

Lillie

Isn't Ophiuchus the missing, 13th zodiac sign?

And it's between scorp and sag?

I'm sure I read that somewhere......
 

Lillie

Well cool, cos I'm one of them!

Yay for the ophicans!!!!
 

ravenest

Dripping sarcasm alert!

Dear me Aeon and Lillie. Dont you realise that well known and very respected astrologers not only disagree with these kinds of statements, they get down right ornery and flubbistered! Astrology using constellations and even.... dare I say it ... stars!!! Tut tut!
[Check Ophiuchus on the search function... and even Opheicus ;) ]

I bet if you saw a hornets nest Lillie, you would poke it with a stick :laugh:

But getting back to the subject of the thread - The Universe card, I find it very interesting that the one CONSTELLATION on the ecliptic that is not represented by a SIGN on the ecliptic shows a very similar symbology to that depicted on Crowleys Universe card.