The Perfected Tree of Life

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The verses 1..22 of the third chapter of the Book of the Law seem to refer to the ATU.

Experimentally, I will interpret them in relation to the sequence established by the Perfected Tree:
XX - VII - XVIII - VI - 0 - X - VIII - XVI - I - IX - III - IV - XII - XV - V - XVII - XXI - XIX - XI - II - XIV - XIII
(XX in the Position of 0, VII in the position of I, etc.)

Also I would like to spell out, how the Perfected Tree sequence matches the previous mentioned list COLUMNS II, III: THE HEBREW NAMES OF NUMBERS AND LETTERS in Liber 777.

I will do both in parallel.

AC - 777 Col II said:
ALEPH means an Ox, principally because the shape of the letter suggests the shape of a yoke.

As mentioned before, the body of Nuit is the perfect yoke to the Ox of former ATU 0.

Contrast this with

AC - BoT: 0 said:
This card is attributed to the letter Aleph, which means an Ox, but by its shape the Hebrew letter (so it is said) represents a ploughshare

But also

AC - BoT: 0 said:
The really important feature of this card is that its number should be 0.
It represents therefore the Negative above the Tree of Life, the source of all things.
It is the Qabalistic Zero. It is the equation of the Universe, the initial and final balance of the opposites

The equation of the Universe is of course 0 = 2.

AC - BoT: 0 said:
Arriving at highly sophisticated theogony, there appears a perfectly clear and concrete symbol of this doctrine.
Harpocrates is the God of Silence; and this silence has a very special meaning. (See attached essay, Appendix.)
The first is Kether, the pure Being invented as an aspect of pure Nothing.
In his manifestation, he is not One, but Two; he is only One because he is 0.
He exists; Eheieh, his divine name, which signifies "I Am" or "I shall Be", is merely another way of saying that he Is Not;
because One leads to nowhere, which is where it came from.
So the only possible manifestation is in Two, and that manifestation must be in silence, because the number 3, the number of Binah-Understanding-has not yet been formulated.
In other words, there is no Mother. All one has is the impulse of this manifestation; and that must take place in silence.
That is to say, there is as yet no more than the impulse, which is unformulated;
it is only when it is interpreted that it becomes the Word, the Logos. (See Atu I.)

So now, following Grigoris convention

Aiwass - ALIII said:
1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.

ATU I (= former VII) immediately comes to my mind, having "Abracadabra" written on its baldachin.
I choose for Harpocrates (0, former XX) to keep silence and to attribute verse 1 to ATU I (former VII

).

AC - 777 Col II said:
BETH is a House, the letter showing the roof, floor, and one wall.
It is the dwelling place of man in the world of duality and illusion.

Aiwass - ALII said:
the name of thy house 418.

The roof is the baldachin, the floor is made of brown tiles (the Minor Arcana), the only wall of the house is represented by the cape.
This new Magus joins the elements on the "table", which are elaborated by the brown Minor Arcana tiles and the four Court Card sphinxes.

ETA:
I keep thinking of the pips as Minor Arcana, sorry for mixing the terms.

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XVIII in II

AC - 777 Col II said:
GIMEL the Camel, [...] the means of
travelling through the wilderness of the Abyss.

AC - BoT: II said:
The following chapter of the Book of Lies (falsely so-called),
may assist the student to understand this doctrine by dint of meditation:
DUST DEVILS
In the Wind of the mind arises the turbulence called I.
It breaks; down shower the barren thoughts.
All life is choked.
This desert is the Abyss wherein is the Universe.
The Stars are but thistles in that waste.
Yet this desert is but one spot accurséd in a world of bliss.
Now and again Travellers cross the desert; they come from the Great Sea, and to
the Great Sea they go.
And as they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate the desert, till it flower.
See! Five footprints of a Camel! V.V.V.V.V.

V.V.V.V.V. ...
V indeed, there is a pictorial link from XVIII in II to the Hierophant:
The nine drops of blood (XVIII) made by the nine pegs (V).
The V.V.V.V.V footprints.

In the Perfected Tree the former V is opposite to the former XVIII,
the path connecting 6 and 9,
whereas XVIII in II connects 1 and 10* (= 10 exalted).

AC - BoT: II said:
II
Purity is to live only to the Highest; and the
Highest is All; be thou as Artemis to Pan.
Read thou in the Book of the Law, and break
through the veil of the Virgin.

Io (Pan), indicated by the red wave representing iod/iota and the blue wave representing ש/Ω in the moon's face
= Iω
And as far as the veil of the Virgin goes:
To some the beetle might be a water beetle, to me it will always be a dung beetle.

Aiwass - ALIII said:
2. There is division hither homeward; (t)here is a
word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not
aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of
Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

As I mentioned before, to me ATU XVIII in II represents the idea of (= illusion of) separation, also meaning to neglect your dark sides/spots.

AC - BoT: XVIII said:
This is the threshold of life; this is the threshold of death.
All is doubtful, all is mysterious, all is intoxicating.
Not the benign, solar intoxication of Dionysus, but the dreadful madness of pernicious drugs;
this is a drunkenness of sense, after the mind has been abolished by the venom of this Moon.
This is that which is written of Abraham in the Book of the Beginning:
"An horror of great darkness came upon him."
One is reminded of the mental echo of subconscious realization, of that supreme iniquity
which mystics have constantly celebrated in their accounts of the Dark Night of the Soul.

AC - 777 said:
the 13th [path] symbolizes change through putrefaction

with 13th path = II

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VI in III

AC - 777 Col II said:
DALETH a Door,
refers to the position of the path as joining Chokmah and Binah.
It is the gate of the Supernals.
Again, it is the letter of Venus and shows the sexual symbolism.
The shape suggests the porch of a doorway, or a porched tent-flap.

The hood is the tent flap and a quite explicit vaginal symbolism.
Overlay the former III with this card (ATU VI in position III) and see how the cross of the crown marks the very spot.

Joining Chokmah and Binah fits this card quite well, showing the marriage of King and Queen.

Aiwass - ALIII said:
3. Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them.

The Sepher Sephiroth lists

434
Daleth = דלת
The Lord of War = איש מל חמה

The story of Cain and Abel attributed to ATU VI fits War and Vengeance, if one looks at it exoterically.

And then again, the woman girt with a sword (as the former attribution of this card) might as well be the greek goddess of vengeance, Nemesis.

If you follow the Perfected Tree down coming from Binah you have XVI as War - the disruptive flow of events - on one hand,
and on the other hand, coming from Chokmah you have X - the even flow of events / what goes up, must come down - the origin of the idea of revenge as seen by the Greeks:

wikipedia - Nemesis said:
The word Nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad

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XIX in XVII/Hé

AC - 777 Col II said:
HÉ a Window, remindes us that Understanding (Hé being the
letter of the Mother in Tetragrammaton) is the means by
which the Light reaches us.
The gap between the two strokes is the window.

As mentioned before this card represents more or less the anus, which might be indicated by "the gap between the two strokes".

A sublime connection supported by wishful thinking might be found in

AC - BoT: XIX said:
The card itself symbolizes this broadening of the idea of the Rose and Cross.
The Cross is now expanded into the Sun, from which, of course, it is originally derived.
Its rays are twelve-not only the number of the signs of the Zodiac, but of the most sacred title of the most holy Ancient Ones,
who are Hua. (The word HUA, "he", has the numerical value of 12.)
The limitation of mundane law, which is always associated with the number Four, has disappeared.
Gone are the four arms of a Cross limited by law; the creative energy of the Cross expands freely;
its rays pierce in every direction the body of Our Lady of the Stars.

referencing He and Our Lady of the Stars.

Aiwass - ALIII said:
4. Choose ye an island!

AC - Old Comment said:
4. An Island = one of the Cakkrams or nerve-centres in the spine.

According to the above attribution the Muladhara Chakra, Mula means root and adhara means support.

Music: Island In The Sun

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X in V

AC - 777 Col II said:
VAU a Nail (shape directly hieroglyphic)
suggests the fixation of the Supernals in Tiphereth.

AC - BoT: X said:
This Sphinx [...] is armed with a sword of the short Roman pattern, held upright between the paws of the lion.

Funny, this sword is even so short and painted in such a way that it looks almost completely like a nail.

Having attributed the pair of XVI and X to War and Vengeance (=Nemesis)
- see previous post VI in III -
lets the following passage shine in quite a different light:

AC - BoT: VIII said:
she is the sphinx without a secret, because she is purely a matter of calculation. In Eastern philosophy she is Karma.

Apart from that

Aiwass - ALIII said:
5. Fortify it!

see 3 of Disks => 4 of Disks

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VIII in VI

AC - 777 Explanation of the Attributions Col II said:
ZAYIN a Sword, refers to the attribution of the letter to Gemini, the
sign corresponding to intellectual analysis. The Yod above
suggests the hilt; that below, the blade.

ATU VIII - Is that a sword which I see before me?
Think so.
But actually in my Hebrew dictionary I find זין = weapon, go figure ...

Aiwass - ALIII said:
Dung it about with enginery of war!

Balance yourself in your fortress; hold the balance and challenge it; learn how to integrate or ignore disturbances.

AC - BoT said:
The Oracle of the Gods is the Child - Voice of Love in Thine own Soul; hear thou it.
Heed not the Siren-Voice of Sense, or the Phantom-Voice of Reason: rest in Simplicity, and listen to the Silence.

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Cheth

AC - BoT said:
The student must be referred to some less raw, cursory, elementary and superficial
Treatise than this present bat-eyed, penguin-winged, bluebottle-brained buzzing.

AC - BoT said:
SUMMARY OF THE QUESTIONS HITHERTO DISCUSSED
1. The origin of the Tarot is quite irrelevant, even if it were certain,
It must stand or fall as a system on its own merits.
2. It is beyond doubt a deliberate attempt to represent, in pictorial form, the doctrines of the Qabalah.
3. The evidence for this is very much like the evidence brought forward by a person doing a crossword puzzle.
He knows from the "Across" clues that his word is "SCRUN blank H"; so it is certain, beyond error, that the blank must be a "C"
4. These attributions are in one sense a conventional, symbolic map; such could be invented by some person or persons of great artistic
imagination and ingenuity combined with almost unthinkably great scholarship and philosophical clarity.
5. Such persons, however eminent we may suppose them to have been, are not quite capable of making a system so abstruse in its entirety
without the assistance of superiors whose mental processes were) or are, pertaining to a higher Dimension.

AC - BoT said:
When this matter is examined, it becomes quite clear that Levi's wrong attribution of the letters was deliberate;
that he knew the right attribution, and considered it his duty to conceal it. (It made much trouble for him to camouflage his chapters!)

AC - BoT: XII said:
It is most necessary for the Student to go round and round this Wheel of symbolism until the figures
melt imperceptibly the one into the other in an intoxicating dance of ecstasy;
not until he has attained that is he able to partake of the Sacrament, and accomplish for him-
self - and for all men! - the Great Work.
But let him also remember the practical secret cloistered in all these wind-swept corridors of music,
the actual preparation of the Stone of the Wise, the Medicine of Metals, and the Elixir of Life!

Now it get's even more convoluted.
Before we progress let's remember the LETTER - ATU - Name - Path_between_Sephiroth attributions, we had so far:
ALEPH - XX - Yoke - 1_2
BETH - VII - House - 1_3
GIMEL - XVIII - Camel - 1_10*
DALETH - VI - Door - 2_3
HEH - XIX - Window - 8_9
VAV - X - Nail - 2_4
ZAYIN - VIII - Sword - 3_10*
where 10* denotes Malkut(h) in the position of Daat.

AC - 777 Explanation of the Attributions Col II said:
CHETH a Fence. The Cross-bar on the uprights suggests a fence -
more properly the Holy Graal.

XVI in VII, XVI as a chariot seems to work (cf. "Chariots of fire"), as a means of protecting one's own perimeter, it would function as a fence or a "fire wall".
Now for the Grail part:

AC - BoT: VII said:
In the centre is radiant blood; the spiritual life is inferred; light in the darkness.

The hints are scattered all over the cards, one interpreting the other.

AC - BoT: X said:
On the right hand side, precipitating himself downward, is Typhon, who represents the element of salt. Yet in these figures there is also a certain degree of complexity, for Typhon was a monster of the primitive world, personifying the destructive power and fury of volcanos and typhoons. In the legend, he attempted to obtain supreme authority over both gods and men; but Zeus blasted him with a thunderbolt. He is said to be the father of stormy, hot and poisonous winds; also of the Harpies. But this card, like Atu XVI, may also be interpreted as a Unity of supreme attainment and delight. The lightnings which destroy, also beget; and the wheel may be regarded as the Eye of Shiva, whose opening annihilates the Universe, or as a wheel upon the Car of Jaganath, whose devotees attain perfection at the moment that it crushes them.

Aiwass - ALIII said:
I will give you a war-engine.

ATU XVI is the war engine, no doubt.

AC - New Comment said:
"the keen:" these are the men whose Will is as a sword sharp and straight, tempered and ground and polished its flawless steel; with a Wrist and an Eye behind it.

XVI the eye behind the sword? That would make
XIX - blade
X - hilt
VIII - wrist
XVI - eye

Or is it the other way round?
XIX - eye
X - wrist
VIII - hilt
XVI - flaming sword

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Lamed - I in VIII (part 1)

AC - BoT said:
Adjustment! Rhythm writhes through every act.
Wild is the dance; its balance is exact.

It get's confusing now for several reasons.
One reason is the three Magi, and we all know: Offically there is only one.
This should be clear by now, I chose the Swastika Magus, who combines with ATU VIII to complete the suggested letter balance (indicated by Alpha and Omega on ATU VIII).
Another reason is the conventional VIII/XI switch. TETH follows CHETH in the Hebrew Alphabet, but VIII should follow VII in the ATU sequence.
As you can see, I decided to keep the numbering order this time (in contrast to the XVII/IV switch).
This is only important for attributing the card to the next verse in the Book of the Law - AL III, 8 - which will be dealt with later on.
The last reason is the IX/XI switch. You can optically transform the numbers IX and XI into each other by mirroring them or by turning them upside down.
But why would you?
One day I just happened to notice that the X of the Hermit Numerals looked somehow different and imbalanced.
I had a closer look and discovered that all the Xs on the ATUs had a smaller free space between the upper "legs" and a bigger one between the lower "legs".
All ATUs except for the Hermit. Here it is the other way round, making it look slightly overbalanced in the top.
And the thicker line of the X is on the wrong side.
I thought of a misprint and cross-checked with the Hermit in the book, Equinox III No. V: nothing special with the Hermit there.
But then I saw it on the ATU Lust in the book: The thicker line of the X on the wrong side. Not in the real deck, just in the book.
To me, this made it very unlikely, that this was just a misprint.

AC - 777 said:
LAMED an Ox-Gods, is once more principally a matter of shape.

This should of course read Ox-Goad instead of Ox-Gods.
Only if it would refer to the Jupiterian ATU IV in the center of the Perfected Tree, it could be an allusion to the god(s) of the old aeon, reversing the VII/XI switch:

AC - BoT: IV said:
It is finally to be observed that the white light which descends upon him indicates the position of this card in the Tree of Life. His authority is derived from ...

With ATU XVI on path 3-5 and ATU IV on 4-5 looking downwards, the ram sceptre would point to ATU XVI; the authority - it seems - would be derived from the power to destroy.

Bible: Psalms 2 said:
You shall break them with a rod of iron

Which would be in line with

Aiwass - AL III said:
7. I will give you a war-engine.
8. With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you.

Xenophanes said:
But if horses or oxen or lions had hands or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men,
horses would draw the figures of the gods as similar to horses, and the oxen as similar to oxen,
and they would make the bodies
of the sort which each of them had.

In the new aeon

Aiwass - AL III said:
Let the woman be girt with a sword before me

ATU VIII is in the back of ATU IV, if the Emperor looks downwards.
If you turn IV to face upwards having the woman with the sword before him, the sceptre points to ATU IX as the light source.
To let one of the rays emitted by the Hermit's lantern really continue on the Emperor card, you have to turn the Hermit card a little.

As I said before IV pairs with XIII to represent

AC - BoT: XVI said:
what Schopenhauer would have called the Will to Live and the Will to Die. [...]
This becomes clear as soon as life and death are understood [...] as phases of a single manifestation of energy.

And then the crop (IX) joins in, bending under the scythe.
And it takes its place on the Wheel of Fortune, standing in for the fist at the bottom of the Wheel.
The seeds sleep in the earth to await the next cycle of life.
Sum sine regno - I am without reign - IX
Hear what the other figures on the Wheel say (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CarminaBurana_wheel.jpg):
regnabo - I will reign
regno - I reign
regnavi - I have reigned

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Lamed - I in VIII (part 2)

XIII pretty easily gets assigned to regnavi, it's more difficult with IV, who you would expect to reign.
But if XIII and IV really couple, it must be I will reign, and opposite to harvesting is sowing.
And suddenly a picture is arising in my mind, more like fragments, of a sower like here or here
the orb being the bag with the seeds, the hand with the sceptre throwing the seeds.
And XIII, which already was connected in my mind with rowing
- Row, row your boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream -
is becoming a boat.

AC - BoT: Bibliographical Note said:
may this Tarot serve as a chart for the bold seamen of the New Aeon,
to guide them across the Great Sea of Understanding to the City of the Pyramids

And the words are spinning around: Sower in German would be Sämann or Saemann, which is close enough to seaman, which close circuits to semen.
IV is becoming a priest spreading holy water with his phallic rod (cf. the Tau shape of his legs).

But on the top of the Wheel is ATU I, reigning by balancing the energies.
His phoenix wand shows qualities of

- the sacred lance

AC - BoT: 0 said:
Klingsor, the evil magician, who thought to fulfil the conditions of life by self-mutilation, seeing his empire threatened,
hurls the sacred lance (which he has stolen from the Mountain of Salvation) at Parsifal,
but it remains suspended over the boy's head

- a Saturnian means of control/balancing aid

- "resurrection through the generative process" (AC - BoT: I)

And this is the ox-goad.

Aiwass - ALIII said:
With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you.

archer1

Another take on the tree is from Frater Achad. Where the tree in Ascending not Descending....

The Perfected Tree of Life

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archer1