Thoth Meanings vs Traditional Meanings
Aeon418
Like you already said, you can't make an omellete without breaking a few eggs. Ideas and inspirations are great, but if you don't have the will to see them though they will probably come to nothing. How can any idea be judged as good or bad unless you've tried it out?
You mention the 8 of Disks, but that is the next card in the series. Obviously the initial inspiration was acted upon, and may yet turn into Gain and Wealth.
One of the messages I get from the 7 of Disks is that inspiration is all well and good, but on the plane of Disks you are going to need more than inspiration to actually get things done.
Calvin Coolidge.
Craxiette
You can't! Well not in the context of 7 of discs anyway. This is what I meant with "failure is just failure". What about those die hard stubborn fools, who put all their energy into something that simply will never lead to anything and just don't know when to quit? Life is finite in terms of time and energy, we don't have the luxury of being able to follow every single road we can concieve of to it's final completion. Abandoning a project after concious consideration of cost/benefit is of course more pleasant, but sometimes "nature" corrects us when we are not smart enough to choose it ourselves. Does that make sense to you?
Edit:
Yes, for better or for worse.
Aeon418
Of course it does. But that might mean that the original idea was not as inspired as it first appeared. You reap what you sow. Netzach may be where we seek inspiration, but it's not the source of inspiration. That Venus is higher up the Tree.
Craxiette
Ok...you lost me now!
Netzach is not the source of inspiration...which is WHY nurturing everything that comes out of there is not a good idea. Because as you say, things we find there might not have been as inspired as it first appeared. If you don't get rid of the rotten eggs in 7, no amount of hard work or patient incubation in 8 is going to stop you from getting one stinky omelette in 9...Failure to the rescue!
If I ever make a tarot deck, the 7 of discs will be "Lord of Abortion"
Aeon418
And as you've already said, nature corrects.
How do find out if an egg is rotten? Just make a guess and throw it away? Or break it and find out? Of course if you want to carry on and make an omelette with it anyway, nature will correct you in a rather unpleasant, but colourful way. Whether you actually learn from it is another matter altogether.
But if the egg is good, will it turn itself into an omelette all by itself? Of course not. Likewise, no inspiration, true or otherwise, will manifest anything without effort on the Plane of Disks.
Craxiette
Yup, without the "divine guidance of the HGA", holding our hands along the straight path, trial-and-error is the only way forward.
Very true!
Aeon418
Agreed.
Although I think the hand of HGA is always there, we just don't take it sometimes. Instead of the True Will we often end up chasing phantoms. It's a bit like the image on the RWS 7 of Cups. The trouble is that until K&C is achieved you only have intuition as a guide, and that can easily be over-ridden by personal desires and petty wants.The True Will in the context of the 7 of Disks is a good example of true inspiration needing effort. It may be a person's True Will to do or be something, but without effort it will still come nothing.
Barleywine
I found it on one of the front pages to "The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic," without attribution. I know I had seen it before, probably in a business "cheer-leading" book (one of those inspirational things bosses always think you should read). Did NOT remember it being from Calvin Coolidge. (And I did have to google it
)Craxiette
Agreed.
Ah, now those 7€ on the RWS-mini is finally starting to pay off! LOL!, I can't believe he put a magic mushroom there! And disguised it as some person from the KKK or what on earth it's supposed to look like? Don't do drugs kids! And don't go chasing shiny beads, blue dragons or curly-haired people, ya hear!? (Sorry, the RWS is just so alien to me still
)The problem is, if you are looking for K&C of the HGA (or the equivalent in any other religion/magick/philosophy -system), any old sneak of a petty desire will pronounce itself as such, knowing it's one of your weak spots. Which is why one should work towards it, but not too obsessively...I don't claim to have much experience. But I've seen people who claim to follow their hearts but are clearly deep in debauchery (God-Warrior from Changing Spouses, anyone?). As an ex-smoker (well...sort of ex-) I do however have some experience of combating with some really nasty bugger of a demon -the Nicotine demon. It will dress up as absolutely anything to get it's way and to stay alive...I'm just sayin'.
Definitely! But this is so unfashionable Aeon! Hard, boring work in the culture of pop-spirituality and bliss-frenzy is just so passé! It means you haven't gone to enough seminars or bought enough dvds with the latest revealed secret-ancient-alien-technology-for-instant-enlightenment yet! If it isn't all easy, you are doing it wrong and you're attracting hardship with your bad attitude!
