Reading Waite-The Doctrine Behind the Veil

Reading Waite

"The Alphabet of Thoth can be dimly traced in the modern Tarot which can be had at almost every bookseller's in Paris. As for its being understood or utilized,the many fortunetellers in Paris who make a professional living by it are sad specimins of failures of attempts at reading, let alone at correctly interpreting the symbolism of the Tarot without a preliminary philosophical study of the science...." Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine, "The Hexagon", in volume 5 of the 6 volume set

Yes, Blavatsky tried to unfold the evolution of consciousness as symbolically indicated in the Kabbalah, Vishnu Purana, Tibetan Stanzas of Dzyan, the Bible, etc. She thought modern science and theology went in narrow, shallow interpretive directions. She wrote copiously and never-endingly on the occult meanings of numbers, colors, geometric patterns, gods and goddeses. She wrote about the "Sun Initiate" in Freemasonry. Waite as a Christian mystic certainly saw things differently, but he probably appreciated her pioneering explorations of occult symbols. (Blavatsky was before the Krishnamurti controversy. She claimed inspiration by way of Tibetan Masters, which Manly P. Hall regarded as true.)

Frank,
Though masonic information by Hall is questionable, his comments on occult doctrine are likely well-founded. I also perceive HPB as a reasonable source, as Waite perhaps did, since he uses a bit very similar her writings to describe his Two of Cups. Waite did say somewhere in PKT that he wasn't adept at the Eastern spirituality the Madam made famous. I bet Waite wished his books sold as well as the Russian writer.

Waite seeing the Kabbalah as a "secret doctrine" offers a certain appeal. While at one point in the PKT, Waite says something to the effect that most writers have messed up Kabalistic assignments, he never says the Hebrew doctrine does not apply to Tarot.

At his Masonic initiation Levi stated the Kabbalah holds the "lost traditions" of Freemasonry but few took him seriously. Waite could also have seen the Kabbalah as the "secret doctrine" of Christianity and Masonry not just Tarot.
Patrick

Sentences 5-10 (_Mutus Liber_)

Sentences 5-10 (On Alchemy & the _Mutus Liber_):

5: "As regards Tarot claims, it should be remembered that some considerable part of the imputed Secret Doctrine has been presented in the pictorial emblems of Alchemy, so that the imputed _Book of Thoth_ is in no sense a solitary device of this emblematic kind.
6: "Now, Alchemy had two branches, as I have explained fully elsewhere, and the pictorial emblems which I have mentioned are common to both divisions.
7: "Its material side is represented in the strange symbolism of the _Mutus Liber_, printed in the great folios of Mangetus.
8: "There the process for the performance of the great work of transmutation is depicted in fourteen copper-plate engravings, which exhibit the different stages of the matter in the various chemical vessels.
9: "Above these vessels there are mythological, planetary, solar and lunar symbols, as if the powers and virtues which--according to Hermetic teaching--preside over the development and perfection of the metallic kingdom were intervening actively to assist the two operators who are toiling below.
10: "The operators--curiously enough--are male and female."

The _Mutus Liber_ ("Mute Book") can be seen in a version handpainted by Adam McLean, at
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/mutusliber_thumbnails.html

A translation of a French commentary on the work can be found at:
http://members.tripod.com/~icanseefar/mutus_liber.htm

Waite included an appendix about it in _The Secret Tradition in Alchemy_.

Mary

Suggestions for commenting on sentences 5-10:

Summarize what Waite said in a brief statement.

How is tarot like the _Mutus Liber_? How is it different?

What did Waite mean by "The operators--curiously enough--are male and female"?

Mary

If Waite sought the "secret doctrine" of Christianity it leads to the Chaldean Oracles, which perhaps provided inspiration for the allegorical imagery of Mutus Liber. While I have yet to read a serious study comparing Christianity to Zoroastrianism, I see a distinct similarity. In a theological study, one might argue that the much earlier religion, which deifies a Father god, represents the very roots of Judaism and consequently Christianity. This was the national religion of the greatest empire of the pre-Hellenistic world, until the battle of Marathon (490 BC). As perhaps the single most important battle in Greek history, it had Earth shaping consequences. In the battle Greek soldiers actually make the 26 mile run in full gear to surprisingly head off the Persian Navy and invent… you guessed it, the Marathon race.

Zoroastrianism incorporates astrology to a large degree and is thought to be the religion of the “Magi” of Biblical fame. Abraham was leaving the heart of the ancient Persian Empire when he met a Father God but I'm not sure when they met. Putting Biblical dates to the historic record is a problem but we do know in Persia, sometime before 600 BCE, a reformer was born. While we know little or nothing about the Persians in this period, we know the name of this redeemer, who first introduces the roots of Monotheism. Called Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek), his new religion and new triadic god captivate the spiritual and social imagination of the Persians. While in rough outlines, Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion, it set aside widespread Polytheistic worship in a vast empire that ruled Mesopotamia for centuries. Porphyry states Pythagoras spent several years learning from the “Chaldeans” in Persia after his tutoring in Egypt.

By calling them "operators" Waite employs some unusual grammar, which also occurs in the Oracles. Hecate is "operatrix" in the Stanley version. In an English translation by Thomas Stanley in 1661 CE, Hecate, a triple sided Greek Goddess, represents a feminine aspect of Divinity. According to the translation, Hecate serves as a main operator because she is Dispenser of spiritual fire that “fills the Life producing bosome of Hecate.” In the Oracles, the triadic goddess signifies creative mental power; however, Greek archeological finds portray her as guardian of the gate that offers illumination or guidance with her fiery torches. In modern Wicca, Hecate acts as a protector of witches that Robert Graves links to three lunar phases in his 1948 CE book, The White Goddess. The Moon actually displays four distinct phases.


Two kinds of alchemy perhaps relates to physical and spiritual branches of the ancient art. To Waite, making gold in the spiritual sense, as in "making gold" in ones heart likely represents his personal preference. As I mention earlier, the High Magic of Mathers and Crowley was not to his liking.

Frankly, the images are too small for me to comment on in detail. Since Waite makes a point on mentioning male female imagery, I’ll start with the female, who appears to be a dispenser of fire or "Hecate" in the Stanley translation and, by the way, the date of the first English version of the Oracles is prior to the date of these images.

Birds appear in these images and in the Oracles there are some curious fragments dealing with birds.

An astrological aspect of the Oracles works well with Bull/Ram Aries and Taurus in the sky in the images of Mutus Liber. Looks like those operators are working during the Spring Equinox. Also, the Oracles say “And from the downward elements Nature brought forth lives reason-less; for He did not extend the Reason (Logos) [to them]. The Air brought forth things winged; the Water things that swim, and Earth-and-Water one from another parted, as Mind willed. And from her bosom Earth produced what lives she had, four-footed things and reptiles, beasts wild and tame.”

Here’s another direct quote from the Staley version (notice what sign he mentions as he writes of alchemy)

“The Oracles assert that the impressions of characters and other divine visions appear in the Ether. The Chaldæan philosophy recognized the ethers of the Elements as the subtil media through which the operation of the grosser elements is effected—by the grosser elements I mean what we know as Earth, Air, Water and Fire—the principles of dryness and moisture, of heat and cold. These subtil ethers are really the elements of the ancients, and seem at an early period to have been connected with the Chaldæan astrology, as the signs of the Zodiac were connected with them. The twelve signs of the Zodiac are permutations of the ethers of the elements—four elements with three variations each; and according to the preponderance of one or another elemental condition in the constitution of the individual, so were his natural inclinations deduced therefrom, Thus when in the astrological jargon it was said that a man had Aries rising, he was said to be of a fiery nature, his natural tendencies being active, energetic and fiery, for in the constitution of such a one the fiery ether predominates. And these ethers were stimulated, or endowed with a certain kind of vibration, by their Presidents, the Planets; these latter being thus suspended in orderly disposed zones.”

In another image, it seems only a slumbering male appears... from the "One comes the Two or as the Oracles put it “Paternal Monad… is enlarged, which generates two. For the Duad sits by him, and glitters with Intellectual Sections. And to govern all Things, and to Order every thing not Ordered, For in the whole World shineth the Triad, over which the Monad Rules. This Order is the beginning of all Section. For the Mind of the Father said, that All things be cut into three, Whose Will assented, and then All things were divided. For the Mind of the Eternal Father said into three, governing all things by the Mind. And there appeared in it [the Triad] Virtue and wisdome, And Multiscient Verity. This Way floweth the shape of the Triad, being pre-existent. Not the first [Essence] but where they are measured. For thou must conceive that all things serve these three Principles.“


Patrick

Hey, all you silent readers of this thread,
I really urge you to at least post a paraphrased summary of what Waite said. It's the best way to learn to read him. You'll usually find that what he says makes far more sense then it at first seems.

Anybody have any ideas why Waite talks about the _Mutus Liber_ here? There don't seem to be any images in common with the Tarot nor any direct connection. What is Waite's point (assuming there is no direct connection)?

Mary

Teheuti said:

.........

Anybody have any ideas why Waite talks about the _Mutus Liber_ here? There don't seem to be any images in common with the Tarot nor any direct connection. What is Waite's point (assuming there is no direct connection)?

Mary

Click to expand...

It may not be the images per se, that Waite draws a connection to, rather, it may be the operational usage of the Mutus Liber, that Waite wishes to show to the neophyte Tarot user that would be reading his book for the first time.

Just as one could also draw a connection to the Minor cards and the forty Rosicrucian Emblems of Daniel Cramer.

Mutus Liber - sentences 5 to 10

Regarding Sentence 10: "The operators--curiously enough--are male and female" --

In Appendix IV (on the Mutus Liber) in _The Secret Tradition in Alchemy_ Waite writes:

"The hand of womanhood in the traditions of Hermetic practice is to be traced almost from the beginning, and my suggestion is that . . . there may be something withdrawn in the hiddenness. . . . The most interesting evidence on the part of woman in Alchemy is contained, however, in the silent corroboration of picture-symbols [i.e., the Mutus Liber]. . . . The point that concerns us in the present connection is that the alchemist is represented as working throughout in conjunction with a woman of the Art. They begin and they attain together.

"[1st plate: Angels] are in the act of sounding trumpets to awaken one who is asleep on the ground beneath, thus symbolising the quickening of an artist who is called to the Great Work. . . .
[2nd plate:] The symbolical sun of philosophy is shining in the mid-heaven and beneath it are two angels, having one foot on the earth and another on the water, presumably to indicate that dryness and moisture both enter into the work. . . .

"Whenever these luminaries [Sun & Moon] appear in connection with the man and his helpmate the Sun is on the side of the woman and the Moon on his. . . .

"The general literature of Alchemy offers the following elements of symbolism, among many others:
(1) the Marriage of Sun and Moon;
(2) of a mystical King and Queen;
(3) a union between natures which are one at the root but diverse in manifestation;
(4) a transmutation which follows this union and an abiding glory therein.
It is a recurring conjunction between male and female in a mystical sense, a bringing together by art of what is separated in the imperfect order of things, and the perfection of natures by means of such conjunction. But if the mystical work of Alchemy is an inward work in consciousness, then any union between male and female . . . must be a union in consciousness; and if we remember the traditions of a state when male and female had not as yet been divided, it may unfold to us that Higher Alchemy of this kind may have cherished the idea of return into that ineffable mode of being. . . .

"The Ladder of Jacob . . . may intimate the ascent into union, into that state when the male is with the female, 'neither male nor female.' . . .

Waite concludes:

"Alchemy is a secret science, using a veiled terminology, and it is not to be expected that these indications will prove readily intelligible on the surface. The true path or right way of palingensis ["transmigration of souls"] in the mystical work is that by which the seeker after eternal life becomes by interior unfolding that which is Nature herself, or an expression of Divine Will. . . . The purpose is knowledge of God. . . . The work of God in the soul is like that of God proceeding to the creation of Nature. . . . The intent of Nature is to make gold on all planes of manifestation. . . . The same thing is everywhere--the same truth, the same possiblity, the same grace of attainment and the same witness always in the world. The man also is not without the woman in the manifest order of things, and in the state of attainment . . . they are as Sun and Moon spiritualised."

Again we have a description that seems to correspond with the World card.

It's also interesting to note that if you count the number of probable male and female figures in entire the RWS deck they are nearly equal.

Mary K. Greer

?

Mary,

I can't find the The Secret Tradition in Alchemy online... If it isn't too much trouble, could you post the rest of this next passage in context? "
"The Ladder of Jacob . . . may intimate the ascent into union, into that state when the male is with the female, 'neither male nor female."

Not only did I notice the sexually balanced imagery years ago, I also believe he tosses us a couple of red-herrings to slightly disrupt the symmetry, by making Justica/LADY Justice look male and stating a very feminine looking Temperence (a traditionally female image) is "neither male nor female"

Patrick

Although I have found this thread very interesting- I have this disquiet about an obscuring book. Why write a book and throw in red herrings and misinformation because of Oaths to Secrecy? It reminds me of a local lady who bakes the most amazing Fruitcake, gives out the recipe, leaving several ingredients out. A lesson in planting cabbages upside down?
Mutus liber is a series of images or a silent book apparently based on Alchemy. I guess Waite was saying that if you understood the images, you can read the book- same with Tarot. This seems very eletist to me, secret societies and magical ceremonies and the suchlike. I have enjoyed your translating it tho, and reading others interpretations on it. ~Rosanne