Unwilling Hanged Man?

ZenMusic

that's not what i said..

Aeon418

A thought picture....

The Emperor of the Thoth deck is alchemical sulphur. He is a royal and radiant King. His symbol is the triangle above a cross. Now turn him upside down and try to drown him in water (Mem). Now he's the Hanged Man, the cross above the triangle, but is a he still a King? Or has he fallen into illusion - Water.

ravenest

caridwen said:
Can anyone tell me why this Hanged Man is pinned up whereas most are free to leave at anytime? Is this because of Jesus who was nailed to a cross? Yet even Jesus sacrificed himself for 'our sins'...I'm a little confused.

I often see the Hanged Man as a glyph of the incarnation process (as well as what has been talked about above, and other things). We are still connected to the spirit world of light (the ank from which he is suspended) but we are pretty much stuck here (the nails). Of course one can rage against that and refuse to accept it, and as our societies and cultures decay, the suicide rate will go up. But we are pretty much STUCK in the experience, ie. it is going to effect you and stay with you. It wont go away, you might be able to utalise, transform or learn from it, but you cant wipe the slate of significant incarnatory experience, you might be able to supress it for a lifetime or two (resulting in all sorts of problems) but , in the long term, your spirit is 'nailed' to the physical experience that effected your spiritaul psyche.

Aeon418

ravenest said:
in the long term, your spirit is 'nailed' to the physical experience that effected your spiritaul psyche.

In a sense you chose the life you are living now. That's a bitter pill to swallow, especially when life doesn't seem so good. But that's the trouble with becoming attached to the personality, the illusory, unreal part of yourself. The part of yourself that suffers and fears it's own death because it doesn't see the big picture.

But there is THAT which remains...

ravenest

Aeon418 said:
But there is THAT which remains...

Do you think that this THAT is affected by incarnatory expereince or is it seperated from the effects of incarnatory expereince and these effects only 'imprint' on the illusory unreal part of the self, and if so (it is not effected) what is the whole point of the THAT which remains taking on incarnatory expereince in the first place?

Aeon418

ravenest said:
Do you think that this THAT is affected by incarnatory expereince or is it seperated from the effects of incarnatory expereince and these effects only 'imprint' on the illusory unreal part of the self, and if so (it is not effected) what is the whole point of the THAT which remains taking on incarnatory expereince in the first place?

I think that "THAT" (shall we say Hadit?) absorbs incarnatory experience, but it can't be harmed by it. Each and every experience, whether positive or negative, is another addition to itself, another manifestation of the Universal Joy of the eternal love play of Nuit and Hadit.

Of course from the ego's perspective the Buddha, with his "Sabbe Pi Dukkham" - all is sorrow, appears to be correct. But that's a consequence of the ego's narrow little view of the Universe. The ego thinks it is seperate from the universe and that everything is hostile. But what else can you expect from an illusory phantom like the ego that screams me, me, me, me, all day long. That's the Hanged Man alright. :laugh:

I thought the Old Man had already explained all this stuff? He gives a good analogy in the Book of Thoth itself with his quote from the Book of the Great Auk:

This ecstasy is evidently the exciting cause of the mobility of existence. It explains the assumption of imperfection on the part of Perfection. The Absolute would be Nothing, would remain in the condition of Nothingness; therefore, in order to be conscious of its possibilities and to enjoy them, it must explore these possibilities. One may here insert a parallel statement of this doctrine from the document called The Book of the Great Auk to enable the student to consider the position from the standpoint of two different minds.

"All elements must at one time have been separate.---That would be the case with great heat.---Now, when the atoms get to the Sun, we get that immense, extreme heat, and all the elements are themselves again. Imagine that each atom of each element possesses the memory of all his adventures in combination. By the way, that atom, fortified with memory, would not be the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from anywhere except this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time and by virtue of memory, a thing could become something more than itself; thus, a real development is possible. One can then see a reason for any element deciding to go through this series of incarnations, because so, and only so, can he go; and he suffers the lapse of memory which he has during these incarnations, because he knows he will come through unchanged.

"Therefore you can have an infinite number of gods, individual and equal though diverse, each one supreme and utterly indestructible. This is also the only explanation of how a Being could create a world in which War, Evil, etc., exist. Evil is only an appearance, because (like "Good") it cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply its combinations. This is something the same as Mystic Monotheism; but the objection to that theory is that God has to create things which are all parts of himself, so that their interplay is false. If we presuppose many elements, their interplay is natural."

The chapter on Sorrow from Little Essays Toward Truth is on the money too.

SORROW.

The Aspiration to become a Master is rooted in the Trance of Sorrow.

This trance is not simple and definite; indeed, it commonly begins in a limited selfish form.

The imagination cannot pierce beyond terrestrial conditions, or the sense of self grasp more than the natural consciousness.

One thinks at first no more than this: "there is nothing possible that is good enough for me." Only as one grows by Initiation dies one approach the asymptote "sabbé pi Dukkham" "Everything is Sorrow" of the Buddha, when the relations of subject and object, both expanded to infinity, are seen to be no less in the bosom of the Great Curse than were their first avatars, the petty Ego and the perceptible Universe.

So also for the transcending of this Trance of Sorrow. At first the victory often comes by trick of mind; extending subject or object, as the case may be, by an effort to escape reality, one seems for a moment to have defeated the Equation; but the clouds regather as the mind recovers its equilibrium. Thus, one invents some "Heaven," defining it arbitrarily as free from sorrow: only to find, on exact examination, that its conditions are the same as those of "Earth."

Nor is there any rational issue from this hell of thought. The transcending of the Trance of Sorrow is to be made by means of such other trances as the Higher Beatific Vision, the Trance of Wonder, and others, even the Trance call the Universal Joke, though this last is thereunto strangely akin!

There is this further consideration; that every subject of contemplation asks only that the mind should become fixed upon it, in a degree far inferior to that of true concentration such as secures Samadhi, to become evidently an illusion.

So much for a brief summary of the technical aspects of the matter. But all this is remote indeed from the simplicity of the affirmation of The Book of the Law:

Remember all ye that existence is pure joy: that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.

Upon what can depend this perception, which claims to sweep away with the fire of scorn the formidable batteries of all serious philosophical thought? The solution must lie in the metaphysics of Thelema itself.

And here we come upon what is apparently a paradox of the most disconcerting order. For The Book of the Law, anticipating the most subtle of recent mathematical conceptions, that of the greatest genius of this generation, makes the unit of existence consist in an Event, an Act of Marriage between Nuit and Hadit; that is, the fulfillment of a certain Point-of-View. And is not the procession of events the very conditions of Sorrow as opposed to the perfection of "Pure Existence?" That is the old philosophy, a tangle of false words: we see more clearly. Thus:

Each Event is an Act of Love, and so generates Joy: all existence is composed solely of such Events. But how comes it then that there should be even an illusion of Sorrow?

Simply enough; by taking a partial and imperfect Vision. An example: in the human body each cell is perfect, and the man is in good health; but should we choose to regard almost any portion of the machine which sustains him, there will appear various decompositions and the like, which might well be taken to imply the most tragic Events. And this would inevitably be the case had we never at any time seen the man as a whole, and understood the necessity of the divers processes of nature which combine to make life.

ADDENDUM

Furthermore, to the normal or dualistic consciousness it is precisely the shadows `which pass and are done' which constitute perceptibly: what man "sees" is in fact just that which obstructs the rays of light. This is the justification for the Buddha saying: "Everything is Sorrow": in that word `Everything' he is most careful to include specifically all those things which men count joyous. And this is not really a paradox; for to him all reactions which produce consciousness are ultimately sorrowful, as being disturbances of the Perfection of Peace, or (if you prefer it) as obstructions to the free flow of Energy.

Joy and Sorrow are thus to him relative terms; subdivisions of one great sorrow, which is manifestation. We need not trouble to contest this view; indeed, the `Shadows' of which our book speaks are those interferences with Light caused by the partiality of our apprehension.

The Whole is Infinite Perfection, and so is each Unit thereof. To transcend the Trance of Sorrow it is thus sufficient to cancel the subject of the contemplation by marrying it to its equal and opposite in imagination. We may also pursue the analytical method, and resolve the complex which appears Sorrow into its atoms. Each event of it is a sublime and joyous act of Love; or the synthetical method, proceeding from the part to the Whole, with a similar result.

And any one of the movements of the mind is (with assiduity and enthusiasm) capable of transforming the Trance of Sorrow itself into the cognate Trance attributed to Understanding, the Trance of Wonder.

Aeon418

Just to tie this all in with the Solar myth cycle it might to useful to point out the Earth based view of the Sun, i.e. The Hanged Man, is like the ego's view of life and the Universe. Birth, life, and the great catastrophe of death followed by the hope of resurrection. Step beyond the confines of the ego and you see everything from the perspective of the Sun. Once you've done that the catastrophe and suffering of the Hanged Man is suddenly revealed as a watery illusion.

Crowley asked Frater Achad to write on essay on this theme called Stepping out of the Old Aeon into the New.
http://www.hermetic.com/browe-archive/achad/misc/Stepping out of the old aeon.htm

Plus Crowley sums it all up nicely in his commentaries on AL.

AL II,9: "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."

The New Comment
This verse is very thoroughly explained in Liber Aleph. "All in this kind are but shadows" says Shakespeare, referring to actors. The Universe is a Puppet-Play for the amusement of Nuit and Hadit in their Nuptials; a very Midsummer Night's Dream. So then we laugh at the mock woes of Pyramus and Thisbe, the clumsy gambols of Bottom; for we understand the Truth of Things, how all is a Dance of Ecstasy. "Were the world understood, Ye would know it was good, a Dance to a lyrical measure!" The nature of events must be "pure joy;" for obviously, whatever occurs is the fulfilment of the Will of its master. Sorrow thus appears as the result of any unsuccessful -- therefore, ill-judged -- struggle. Acquiescence in the order of Nature is the ultimate Wisdom.

One must understand the Universe perfectly, and be utterly indifferent to its pressure. These are the virtues which constitute a Master of the Temple. Yet each man must act What he will; for he is energized by his own nature. So long as he works "without lust of result" and does his duty for its own sake, he will know that "the sorrows are but shadows." And he himself is "that which remains;" for he can no more be destroyed, or his true Will be thwarted, than Matter diminish or Energy disappear. He is a necessary Unit of the Universe, equal and opposite to the sum total of all the others; and his Will is similarly the final factor which completes the equilibrium of the dynamical equation. He cannot fail if he would; thus, his sorrows are but shadows - he could not see them if he kept his gaze fixed on his goal, the Sun.

ravenest

Aeon418 said:
I think that "THAT" (shall we say Hadit?) absorbs incarnatory experience, but it can't be harmed by it. Each and every experience, whether positive or negative, is another addition to itself, another manifestation of the Universal Joy of the eternal love play of Nuit and Hadit.

Well, I never said it would be HARMED by it.

Aeon418 said:
Of course from the ego's perspective the Buddha, with his "Sabbe Pi Dukkham" - all is sorrow, appears to be correct. But that's a consequence of the ego's narrow little view of the Universe. The ego thinks it is seperate from the universe and that everything is hostile. But what else can you expect from an illusory phantom like the ego that screams me, me, me, me, all day long. That's the Hanged Man alright.

I read an interesting take on thAT IN SOME OLD oto NEWSLETTER (?) opps caps stuck) that upm to a certain level (Master of the Temple ?) the Buddhist sorrow trip seems like the untimate relaity (but still Binah) the Hindu trip is abit more and he related that to Chokmah but then went on to talk about a higher level of Vedantta which accepts and goes beyond both (a path the author followed) and he related this viewpoint to Crowleys system.

Aeon418 said:
I thought the Old Man had already explained all this stuff? He gives a good analogy in the Book of Thoth itself with his quote from the Book of the Great Auk:

You thought right .... but I wanted to know what YOU thought

Dr Benway

the hangedman/pascal lamb

perhaps its from the nine chambers 4. 40. 400,( door , blood , sign) passover when the blood of a lamb was smeared above the door as a sign,hence hangedman/pascal lamb.

Grigori

Aeon418 said:
The Emperor of the Thoth deck is alchemical sulphur. He is a royal and radiant King. His symbol is the triangle above a cross. Now turn him upside down and try to drown him in water (Mem). Now he's the Hanged Man, the cross above the triangle, but is a he still a King? Or has he fallen into illusion - Water.

Despite it being clearly written in the BoT, I just realized that this card is a direct snub at the Golden Dawn. The cross above the triangle is the Golden Dawn symbol, and represents the old aeon formula of sacrifice. Crowley has changed the shape of the Hanged Man to match the GD's symbol, to the GD meaning the descent of spiritual light into matter via Christ like sacrifice.

When Crowley says this card is an epitaph, he is saying the GD formula is dead and his new aeon formula is the replacement. A little bit of "take that Regardie" perhaps :laugh:

Unwilling Hanged Man?

ZenMusic

Aeon418

ravenest

Aeon418

ravenest

Aeon418

Aeon418

ravenest

Dr Benway

Grigori