Thoth Study Group - The Hierophant

thorhammer said:

Of course, AC's re-placement of the Aeon card for the Judgement card is apt in that it is a paradigm shift and a changing of the guard.

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But can any "changing of the guard" be a completely peaceful affair? New things are often threatening and unsettling. The old ways, even though they may be dysfunctional and outdated, are still familiar and comforting symbols of stability. So is it any wonder that the new Hierophant has a sinister air about him and the new doctrine he teaches appears to be a horrifying and evil.(See the inverted sign of benediction.) But the tighter we cling to the old Tower, the more destructive the new aeon will appear.

Atu XVI The Tower.

The picture shows the destruction of existing material by fire. It may be taken as the preface to Atu XX, the Last Judgement, i.e., the Coming of a New Aeon. This being so, it seems to indicate the quintessential quality of the Lord of the Aeon.

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This is worth bearing in mind when you read chapter 3 of Liber Legis. There's a lot of Tower energy in there. But is it liberating or terrifying?

thorhammer said:

The fruits of the technological Aeon have borne us nuclear ability, so will we obliterate the masses through a cleasning, unspeakable Fire event?

\m/ Kat

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Great little post Kat. I think it is quiet possible, but I do feel a bit more relaxed about it nowadays. ( I was an impressionable little kid during the 'duck and cover' turtle campaign ... talk about getting kids to feel uneasy!)

Perhaps we will mature to some type of responsibility, at the moment I see the young development of the Aeon sort of like the child Horus ... he's still growing up, at this stage it's like when little Billy has managed to open the gun locker ... all enthusiactic and ready to give it a go without the needed responsibility of what his actions might entail.

(You probably can't see, because it's too small, but my profile pic shows Horus with left hand extended holding a nuclear fireball. The energy and mystery is offered, but how will we use it?)

These are great posts! I haven't even looked at this deck in years. The Hierophaunt always appeared when I was dealing with orthodoxy. Very much the opposite of the Aeon, with its new energies. The Hierophaunt feels like the attempt to slow down or stop change.

In chapter 16 of Astrology, Aleister, & Aeon, Charles Kipp talks about some of the principles behind the Aeon of Osiris and how it has helped humanity evolve. But also how the same principles taken to extremes will destroy us unless they are balanced by the reintroduction of Isis, thereby creating Horus.

One of these principles is linked to the growth of human civilization. It is the restriction of the libido. The Aeon of Osiris placed human sexuality under immense restrictions. But this sexual energy, frustrated in it's free expression, has to go somewhere. It was this energy that led to the development of the human mind and our subsequent domination of this planet.

The implicit understanding of these dynamics, along with the ancient knowledge of the universal principle of entropy, provides a rational basis for the prophecies of the apocalyptic culmination of the patriarchal tradition, that is, the eschatological expectations that characterize patriarchal dogma. Those explicitly formulated expectations are direct evidence of some kind of understanding on the part of the initiators of the patriarchal tradition that it would run it's course and ultimately self-destruct in an inevitable planetary conflagration that would be precipitated by the exhaustion of material resources necessary to fuel the insatiable quest for material power resulting from the inhibition of spontaneous libidinal flow within the psychic economy of humanity.

The only possible salvation for physical humanity within this apocalyptic context, as it currently confronts us within our closed planetary environment, lies in the restoration of instinctual sexuality, whereby the psychic economy of the human organism may be relieved of the vacuous quest and the debilitating and destructive compulsions that have resulted from obstruction of the natural flow of libido caused by imposition of a mandatory and restraining sexual ethic.

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The New Aeon Hierophant can no longer be represented solely by a male Pope. His one sided doctrine, while necessary to our development, has reached it's final chapter. The only step left is apocalypse.

But this doesn't have to happen. The Thoth Hierophant explicitly shows us the change required by humanity to avert disaster.

Let the woman be girt with a sword before me.

Here is Wisdom. Let Him that hath Understanding
count the Number of Our Lady; for it is the
Number of a Woman; and Her Number is
An Hundred and Fifty and Six.

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thorhammer said:

But what of the present Aeon? What does the fiery god Horus mean for the general direction of humanity?

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A few more thoughts for the future...

Most people are aware that the world in which we live today is massively over populated. Currently we have a world population of around 6.7 billion. Estimates indicate that this will increase to 9 billion by 2040.
The natural carrying capacity of the planet is estimated to be around 1 to 2 billion. So how did we end up with such a massively inflated population?

We have achieved such phenomenal population growth by artificial means. Our aggressive exploitation of natural resources has given us the ability to enable life to flourish in places where previously it would have struggled to survive. (Osiris was the bringer of civilisation and agriculture. ) At the same time we also require greater and greater amounts of natural resources to keep the ball rolling. But here's the problem.
We live in a finite world, with finite resources. So what happens when inevitably demand begins to outstrip supply? It's crunch time.

At the present we still have the luxury of an abundance of resources. This allows us to continue indulging in what we believe are noble, Christian sentiments that see righteousness in allowing weakness to flourish, where in other times and places it would have struggled and died. Saturated as we are with the Osirian ethic it seems so natural that we should want to do this. It also seems unthinkable that this state of affairs will ever change. After all, it seems so right, just, and humanitarian.

But put yourself in the shoes of someone in the not too distant future, in a world where the luxury of abundance is a thing of the past. Will the same Christian ethic still be viable? Or will it be a world of hard choices and tough decisions enforced by the harsh reality of limited resources?

This is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world.

You disagree with Aiwass—so do all of us. The trouble is that He can say: "But I'm not arguing; I'm telling you."

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What seems to me the most encouraging symptom of all is this: the Book itself, and the system of Magick based thereon, and the bankruptcy of all previous systems (as set forth in Eight Lectures on Yoga, Magick, The Book of Thoth, and other similar works) do furnish us all with a clear, concise practical Method (free from all contamination of the humbug of faith and superstition) whereby any one of us may attain to "the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel," and that the many other Beings of intelligence and power indefinitely more exalted than anything which we recognize as human—and, let us hope, capable of bestowing upon us a modicum of Wisdom adequate to get us out of the quagmire into which the crisis has temporarily plunged us all!

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