Book of Law Study Group 1.60

Aeon418

Here's the actual manuscript page containing the verse in question:
http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0031.html?num=19

The phrase, "The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red" is in Rose Crowley's hand writing. The inserted note says, "Lost 1 phrase". Crowley's comment on this in the Equinox of the Gods states:
On page 19 I failed to hear a sentence, and (later on) the Scarlet Woman, invoking Aiwass, wrote in the missing words. (How? She was not in the room at the time, and heard nothing.)
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There is something odd about this though. Rose' addition reads like an incomplete sentence. So did Crowley add the phrase, "The shape of my star is", afterwards? This partial sentence in the manuscript was not included in the published editions.
 

RLG

Dwtw

Although we are accustomed to thinking of the five-pointed star as a pentagram, the normal Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for a star is a symbol having five radiating lines, like a starfish. This is the symbol discussed below:

"The iconography of the stellar image can be quite varied. While Egyptian star charts and decan tables make use of dots, circles and other figures as well as five-pointed stars, ceiling s and other areas with more formal decorative schemes usually used the five-pointed star represented by the hieroglyphic sign , though the brightest stars are sometimes depicted as circles - like miniature sun disks. The five-pointed star hieroglyph was also frequently used in Egyptian art to adorn representations of the personified sky goddess Nut."

Richard H. Wilkinson "Reading Egyptian Art" p.131


A good example is the interior of the sarcophagus lid of the pharaoh Psusennes I, in Tanis, XXIst dynasty. Unfortunately most images on the web do not show this clearly enough, but the figure of Nut on this lid is covered in stars of the type described above.

It is not certain from the text of this verse whether Nuit is mentioning pentagrams or more traditional Egyptian stars.

The number 11 can easily be generated from a traditional pentagram, which has 5 outer points, 5 crossing points, and the 'circle in the middle' as the 11th point.
In terms of the Tree of Life, the ten points are the sefirot, (often described as 5 sets of pairs in kabbalistic texts), while the circle in the middle would be Da'at.
In this respect, it is important to recall that in Egyptian mythology, the stars were said to reside in the Duat.

"Paintings of stellar deities and constellations were made on the ceilings of many temples and tombs because every Egyptian temple functioned as a complex model of the whole cosmos and because the stars were intimately connected with the Egyptian concept of immortality - they were not only the inhabitants of the heavens, but also of the DUAT, the underworld realm of the dead through which the sun passed each night..."
ibid.

With this in mind, it might be suggested that the 'circle in the middle' is the sun passing through the Duat (=Da'at) at night. In some iconography, the solar disk is shown passing through the body of Nut, who is, as noted, often adorned with the star hieroglyph.

In terms of the Tarot, we might then understand the sequence of trumps 'Star, Moon, Sun' as the starry body of Nut, through which the khepera beetle travels at night, to bring the solar disk to its full glory in the morning.

In ToL terms, descending from Hokhma (realm of the fixed stars), we have the path of the Star (as Heh), passing through the darkness of the Abyss (as Da'at/Moon atu), and arriving in Tiferet, abode of the daytime Sun.
This train of thought, connected with the idea that Nuit's star is 'five-pointed', suggests that the Star card be given to the letter and path of Heh, whose value is 5.


Litlluw
RLG
 

Aeon418

Duat - Daath? Hmm, I find this a bit of a stretch. Duat, or Tuat, is a modern transliteration of an Egyptian word. But it's an artificial invention used by Egyptologists that bears little resemblance to how the words were actually pronounced. And I'm assuming you see this apparent similarity of pronunciation as a link between the two?
 

Aeon418

My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us.

The obvious 5+6=11 stuff has already been covered elsewhere. But another interpretation of 11 is related to the central theme of this chapter and the nature of Nuit herself as the Sacred Zero from which all else emanates.

Creation is not from 1 to 10, but from 0 to 10. It's this capping of the entire scheme with Nothing that makes it 11.

0 = 2 or 0 = II. Nothing manifests as twins.

Daath as 11 only represents the illusory relationship between things. Knowledge, as such, does not exist. The real union of the pairs of opposites returns them to Zero.
 

Aeon418

The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red.
Hadit is represented on the Stele of Revealing as a winged red circle. What better place for him could ther be than the very centre of Nuit.
 

RLG

Aeon418 said:
Duat - Daath? Hmm, I find this a bit of a stretch. Duat, or Tuat, is a modern transliteration of an Egyptian word. But it's an artificial invention used by Egyptologists that bears little resemblance to how the words were actually pronounced. And I'm assuming you see this apparent similarity of pronunciation as a link between the two?
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Dwtw

Yes, you're assuming, since I never said that, nor was it implied. You can call Da'at Knowledge if you like, and call Tuat the Underworld if you like. The point is that if one likes to chart their ToL such that it has an 'abyss', this is similar in content to the idea of the Duat, particularly in reference to the tarot triad of Star-Moon-Sun.

(As an aside, I have met very few occultists who can properly pronounce the Hebrew words used in the kabbalah that they appropriate for their own uses. For example, the word Lamed-Alef, commonly spelled in transliteration as LA, is not pronounced LAH, it is pronounced LOW).

Now before you point out that the actual path of the Moon card is elsewhere on the Tree, let me remind the reader that I'm speaking only of a symbolic resemblance between the idea of an 'abyss' and the iconography of the Moon atu, with its dung beetle carrying the solar disk through the darkness. One could also link this card with the Priestess, whose path crosses the abyss and whose planet is the Moon, but I am dealing only with the Star-Moon-Sun triad, as it relates to the verse in question.

The Star card has been placed by AC on the path from Hokmah, (the sphere of the fixed stars) to Tiferet (the sphere of the Sun), and this path travels through the 'abyss', which I see in this context as similar to the Duat/Underworld and the Moon atu.

In Egyptian mythology, the solar disk of Ra was often seen as traveling through the starry body of Nut, to be born from her loins after his journey. This concept seems to resonate with the tarot triad in question. It doesn't matter to me how the Egyptians actually pronounced the names of Ra and Nut, or Khepera or Duat or any other god name for that matter. No one will ever know exactly how their words were pronounced, (and many occultists are too lazy to even learn to pronounce Hebrew correctly).

As for 11 being the result of 0-10, thank you for informing me that creation began with Zero. The thought had never occurred to me.

But for 0 to be the 11th unit, it would need to be counted last, not first, right? So perhaps it's just as fair to say that all creation returns to zero in the end? But Nuit and Hadit both claim to be eleven, so perhaps they are both saying that they represent the totality of manifestation (and hiding), in terms of the Tree of Life.

So whether the 11 in the verse indicates the 11th sphere of Da'at or the unknowable precursor to the manifest Tree, or something else entirely is probably a matter of taste, illumination and interpretation.


As for the idea that Knowledge does not exist, that's curious. It makes me wonder how we are going to make 'this knowledge go aright' if it doesn't exist in the first place. And what is Hadit going to bring when he 'bringeth Knowledge and Delight and bright glory'?

In Liber AL, the word 'know' or a variant thereof appears 26 times. The sum of the verse-numbers where it appears is 623.

623 = Ruach HaQadosh, meaning Holy Spirit.
6 + 2 + 3 = 11.


Knowledge may not be a 'thing', but it seems to have a certain ontological status, and is used extensively in Liber AL.

Litlluw
RLG
 

Aeon418

RLG said:
You can call Da'at Knowledge if you like,
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That's what it means. What else should I call it?
RLG said:
But for 0 to be the 11th unit, it would need to be counted last, not first, right?
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Oh, you mean like the Fool card, numbered 0, on the 11th path and the 1st Hebrew letter. ;)
RLG said:
As for the idea that Knowledge does not exist, that's curious. So you don't really know anything, do you?
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Knowledge, in the mental sense, is merely a relationship between facts. But each fact depends on other facts for its meaning. Try describing something without relating it to something else. You can't do it. In the end intellectual knowledge is circular and contradictory. The only way out of this loop is via direct Gnosis. Then there is no more subject and object. No more relationship between things.
RLG said:
It makes me wonder how we are going to make 'this knowledge go aright' if it doesn't exist in the first place.
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Like Crowley already said so many times, reason is king on it's own plane. Our minds function at this level. But what is the ultimate purpose of the knowledge of these rituals. It is to allow us to transcend the mind. The rituals are a means, not an end.
RLG said:
And what is Hadit going to bring when he 'bringeth Knowledge and Delight and bright glory'?
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Here you seem to be lumping all knowledge into one basket, but anyway...

Compare it with the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian angel. To the modern mind it sounds like "information and a chit-chat". But it's real meaning is in the biblical sense of intimate union.
In the K&C there is no more You and the Angel, for that would imply a relationship between two discreet individuals. Instead there is direct Gnosis.

Hadit is so big on Knowledge because he is the Knower. That's why he commands worship with wine and strange drugs that have the ability to bring down the walls of the "little self" that constantly stands in the way of direct perception. It's also why he has such a rant against "reason", "why", and "because".

Did you think the Knowledge that Hadit brings is merely intellectual knowledge? Some nice little facts to file away for later and gloat over in private. That would fly in the face of everything that Crowley was trying to communicate on this issue.

Here's a few word from Crowley on Knowledge. (Commentary on AL 2:5)
Note that Knowledge is Daath, Child of Chokmah by Binah, and crown of Microprosopus; yet he is not one of the Sephiroth, and his place is in the Abyss. By this symbolism we draw attention to the fact that Knowledge is by nature impossible; for it implies Duality and is therefore relative. Any proposition of Knowledge may be written "ARB:" "A has the relation R to B." Now if A and B are identical, the proposition conveys no knowledge at all. If A is not identical with B, ARB implies "A is identical with BC;" this assumes that not less than three distinct ideas exist. In every case, we must proceed either to the identity which means ultimately "Nothing," or to divergent diversities which only seem to mean something so long as we refrain from pushing the analysis of any term to its logical elements. For example, "Sugar is sugar" is obviously not knowledge. But no more is this: "Sugar is a sweet white crystalline carbo-hydrate." For each of these four terms describes a sensory impression on ourselves; and we define our impressions only in terms of such things as sugar. Thus "sweet" means "the quality ascribed by our taste to honey, sugar, etc."; "white" is "what champaks, zinc oxide, sugar, etc. report to our eyesight;" and so on. The proposition is ultimately an identity, for all our attempts to evade the issue by creating complications. "Knowledge" is therefore not a "thing-in-itself;" it is rightly denied a place upon the Tree of Life; it pertains to the Abyss.

Besides the above considerations, it may be observed that Knowledge, so far as it exists at all, even as a statement of relation, is no more than a momentary phenomenon of consciousness. It is annihilated in the instant of its creation. For no sooner do we assent to ARB than ARB is absorbed in our conception of A. After the nine-days' wonder of "The earth revolves round the sun," we modify our former idea of Earth. "Earth" is intuitively classed with other solar satellites. The proposition vanishes automatically as it is assimilated. Knowledge, while it exists as such is consequently "sub judice", at the best.

What then may we understand by this verse, with its capital K for "Knowledge?" What is it, and how shall it "go aright?" The key is in the word "go." It cannot "be," as we have seen above; it is the fundamental error of the "Black Brothers" in their policy of resisting all Change, to try to maintain it as fixed and absolute. But (as the Tree of Life indicates) Knowledge is the means by which the conscious mind, Microprosopus, reaches to Understanding and to Wisdom, its mother and father, which reflect respectively Nuith and Hadit from the Ain and Kether. The process is to use each new item of knowledge to correct and increase one's comprehension of the Subject of the Proposition. Thus ARB should tell us: A is (not A, as we supposed) but A. This facilitates the discovery A,R,C leading to A, is A(index2); and so on. In practice, every thing that we learn about (e.g.) "horse" helps us to understand -- to enjoy -- the idea. The difference between the scholar and the schoolboy is that the former glows and exults when he is reminded of some word like "Thalassa." Ourselves:- What a pageant of passion empurples our minds whenever we think of the number 93! Most of all, each new thing that we know about ourselves helps us to realize what we mean by our "Star."
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Grigori

My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing.
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I"m very curious about this color reference. A check of the GD color scales shows none of the sephiroth/paths have a attribution of black and also blue and gold. Scratch that theory! :laugh: Instead can we think of black as nothing, the absence of color? Though I'm also reminded that she's often loosely equated with Binah, which is black in the Queen scale. I've seen a few depictions of Nuit and blue with gold, I think that is traditional no?
 

thorhammer

I seem to also recall blue and gold being a recurring theme in pictures I've seen of Nuit.

Might the "black" refer to the impression among those not aware of the finer points of Thelema that it's all "black magick"? (This reminds me of a certain PM I sent you a few days back :laugh:). Hence, the ignorant ("blind") see Thelema as being black magick, but the ones whose eyes have been opened to the possibility of something else see blue and gold.

What correspondences do blue and gold have? (I don't have the requisite resources - I'm in the middle of moving :D).

\m/ Kat
 
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