Book of Law Study Group 1.41

cardlady22

question

So, is this one the heh/hei placed on keter but instead of being the Emperor we look at the Star card? Or am I confused?
 

Grigori

This line makes me think of the Devil card a lot. The word of sin (Osirian devil) is restriction (RWS devil). Also the use of "O" reminds me of ayin, the Eye/Devil trump and gives the line a more sexual slant.

Relationships with people joined by love. Anything else is a curse (guilt, contract, dependence, any form of restriction etc..) The concept of "sin" itself is cursed into Hell, not the "sinner" who is encouraged to go the way of love free from concepts of sin.

cardlay22 said:
So, is this one the heh/hei placed on keter but instead of being the Emperor we look at the Star card? Or am I confused?

I keep loosing count, so not sure :| But if its Heh, then I'd be looking at the Star card I guess.
 

ravenest

Originally Posted by Aiwass
41. "... all else is a curse. Accurséd! Accurséd be it to the aeons! Hell."

Sounds like Aiwass is having his first 'tantie'?

Accursed "to the Aeons" ... for all aeons to come? This seems to suggest that this is not a localised (in time) taboo, not something that might be acceptible (for a Thelemite) in a different Aeonic social paradigm?

I think this HAS to be central to Thelema- the opposition to the 'grafting' on to love the concepts of false 'love'. I just read a v.interesting book (Broken Song by Barry Hill- about the work of Australian (sort of) Ethnographer - T.G.H. Stralow) where the the author talks about a type of false love that he terms paternal love, that is motivated by many expressions of the ego and control,the author says this can never be true love as its very nature denys love itself, does not allow individuality and free expression.

Its all become tied up with ego and controll and fear and ...well, i guess - restriction.

yeah ... curse that to the Aeons!!!!!!!!!!
 

Aeon418

Sin is usually defined as transgression of moral or divine law. (In most cases this "law" it is nothing more than superstitious tribal taboo.) But Thelema teaches that "there is no law beyond Do what thou wilt". The only way to Sin, to transgress against that Law is to hold yourself back from it. In a word, Restriction. Most of us practice this form of restriction due to our ego's. (See Atu XVI for the remedy.) We're all Sinners. })

But this Sin should not be interpreted in any kind of moral sense. Sin is an archery term. It's means "to miss the mark". Every time our ego's hold us back we miss the mark or fall short of the target. But this shouldn't accompanied by feelings of shame and guilt. On the contrary, it should be the inspiration to have another go. One day you just might hit the Bull's eye. And the only real way to fail is to stop trying. (See the arrow of Atu XIV and it's astrological attribution. Also note which path/card this card crosses on the Tree of Life. ;))

O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will!

This could be interpreted as attack on marriage as a slave institution. Saying "I do" doesn't mean that you own the other person. To seek to control another is to divert them from their Will. In the past there was a sense that a wife was the property of a husband. This verse is a rebuke against that state of affairs.
Crowley sums it up nicely.
Laws against adultery are based upon the idea that woman is a chattel, so that to make love to a married woman is to deprive the husband of her services. It is the frankest and most crass statement of a slave-situation. To us, every woman is a star. She has therefore an absolute right to travel in her own orbit. There is no reason why she should not be the ideal hausfrau, if that chance to be her will. But society has no right to insist upon that standard. It was, for practical reasons, almost necessary to set up such taboos in small communities, savage tribes, where the wife was nothing but a general servant, where the safety of the people depended upon a high birth-rate. But to-day woman is economically independent, becomes more so every year. The result is that she instantly asserts her right to have as many or as few men or babies as she wants or can get; and she defies the world to interfere with her. More power to her -- elbow!

O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love:

Why stay with someone if you don't love them? But people do it all the time and remain in dysfunctional relationships because of fear, feelings of loneliness, economic worries, or the opinion of family/society. In the long run it's better to go. It may be painful to leave, but anything is better than the slow death of love turned to hatred and contempt.
 

Aeon418

cardlady22 said:
So, is this one the heh/hei placed on keter but instead of being the Emperor we look at the Star card? Or am I confused?
Yes, this is the start of the Heh set of verses and the Star card. It defines a new and wider set of boundaries for humanity. But it's also helpful to compare it with the old Emperor and his very formal and rigid way of doing things.

Out with the old, and in with the new. But it might not be a smooth transition of power. The current world scene is a mirror of the changes faced by the individual at this time. Things are changing so rapidly it's scary. There is still a desire to cling to old certainties and traditions out of a need for comfort, security, and stability. Today we see this acted out on the world stage via the rise fundamentalist religion and Big Brother government.

But by digging in and refusing to give up the throne the Emperor/Heh has become King Cnut.
 

cardlady22

Aeon418 said:
Yes, this is the start of the Heh set of verses and the Star card. It defines a new and wider set of boundaries for humanity. But it's also helpful to compare it with the old Emperor and his very formal and rigid way of doing things.

I'm shaking my head and smiling ironically! Even my Tarot Birth Card calculation process showed this. I'm sure I mixed up concepts/methods, but the alternate was quite interesting! I dance on the cusp of every system I've examined. I even got the 8 vs. 11 controversy . . . which is probably what attracted me to delve deeper with the Thoth in the first place.
 

Aeon418

41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart!

Not mere want, whim, whimsy, fancy, caprice, or inclination. Will.
Do what thou wilt does not mean do what you want.

Magick Without Tears, chp.70:
Shameful confession, one of my own Chelas (or so it is rather incredibly reported to me) said recently: "Self-discipline is a form of Restriction." (That, you remember, is "The word of Sin ...".) Of all the utter rubbish! (Anyhow, he was a "centre of pestilence" for discussing the Book at all.) About 90 % of Thelema, at a guess, is nothing but self-discipline. One is only allowed to do anything and everything so as to have more scope for exercising that virtue.

Concentrate on "...thou hast no right but to do thy will." The point is that any possible act is to be performed if it is a necessary factor in that Equation of your Will. Any act that is not such a factor, however harmless, noble, virtuous or what not, is at the best a waste of energy. But there are no artificial barriers on any type of act in general. The standard of conduct has one single touchstone. There may be—there will be—every kind of difficulty in determining whether, by this standard, any given act is "right" or "wrong": but there should be no confusion. No act is righteous in itself, but only in reference to the True Will of the person who proposes to perform it. This is the Doctrine of Relativity applied to the moral sphere.
 

Aeon418

How superstitious are you?

Accurséd! Accurséd be it to the aeons! Hell.

Hell is an odd word to stick on the end of this verse. If we look beyond Christian superstition we find that Hell means the hidden/concealed place. It may be related to "one who covers up or hides something". Hmmm....

AL 2:1 Nu! the hiding of Hadit.

If Nuit is Heaven (AL 1:21) then Hadit, her complementary opposite, must be the Lord of Hell. Hadit / Hades?

Hell - HILL - Heh Yod Lamed Lamed. The spelling of Helel, Lucifer the Morning Star. Gematria value 75. The same value as NVIT.

Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
...

Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
 

Aeon418

ravenest said:
Sounds like Aiwass is having his first 'tantie'?
Or Aiwass playing Nuit having a tantrum? ;)

Sometimes when I read this verse I get a sense of a female lover who will tolerate no rivals. You either devote yourself to the True Will, the path to Nuit, or you're accurséd, accurséd to the aeons!

Would you like to explain to the Goddess of Infinite Space that you've been seeing another woman? :laugh: