Yod
10
Path 20 Chesed (Mercy) to Tiphareth.(Beauty0
Intelligence of Will
Hand
Virgo
The Hermit
The Twentieth Path is the Intelligence of Will, and is so called because it is the means of preparation of all and each created being, and by this intelligence the existence of the Primordial Wisdom becomes known.
This is huge. The Law of Thelema. Also Case and Regardie have much to say. Very difficult to summarize into understanding. Will is misunderstood, we've had plenty of discussion of that on this forum. Coition is burdened with complexes, even my spell checker didn't want me to use it.
If you learn to accept the Cosmic Will as the only true Will, if you embrace it as a love his beloved, if all your thoughts, words and acts are truly from that One, Omnipresent Will- then you will know the bliss of union with the Higher Self, the satisfaction and delight of the certainty that all your actions are expressions of a power which cannot possibly fail, the pleasure that is always experience by him who knows beyond peradventure that all his actions are expressions of adequate power and wisdom, so that whatever he does must of necessity be well done.
How's that for a sentence?
And I like to read Case because he is succinct. This just scratches the surface; as my surface has only been scratched.
Regardie notes that the hand of Yod is the pointed index finger on the hand with the other fingers closed. I hadn't known that, and it does help as a phallic symbol, and it's connection to the spermatozoon, libido, and Primordial Wisdom. Also helpful is his connection to legends of young men setting off on a adventure after receiving the wand (attaining puberty). Yod is also referred to the hand of the divine, extended to assist us. This kind of ties into the
intelligence of Primordial Wisdom, and what Case says about a power that cannot fail.
All letters of the Hebrew alphabet are derived from Yod. Regardie points out that the shape resembles the beginning point of all creation. This got me thinking of the gliph of the Sun, with the point of Hadit.
Crowley writes that Yod is the first letter of the name of Tetragrammaton, and symbolizes the Father, who is Wisdom; the highest forum of Mercury, and the Logos, the Creator of all worlds. Mercury rules Virgo which is mutable Earth. He has a way of writing about Mercury that brings it to life for me. It is the iridescent, flashing, creative, swift and brilliant, fluid essence of light which is the life of the Universe. This energy represented in physical form is the spermatozoon.
It is again, the General Characters of the Trumps as They Appear in Use that ties the spermatozoon to the hermit in ATU IX.
Wander alone; bearing the Light and thy Staff. And be the Light so bright that no man seeth thee. Be not moved by ought without or within: Keep silence in all ways.
So I get from spermatozoon to fertility in it's most exalted sense. In traditional astrology, Mercury is also exalted in Virgo. Which implies a special quality or Grace.
The appears to be much symbolism in Liber VII:5 I see lots of leaping blood, inverted places, secret chambers, drops of love, crystal caves and even a weird winged God. A crater of mountain fire, and stealthy tongue of liquid stone.
5. Only one fish-hook can draw me out; it is a woman kneeling by the bank of the stream. It is she that pours the bright dew over herself, and into the sand so that the river gushes forth.
More depth to ATU XVII than I ever realized.
These seem especially related to Yod.
26. And my deeds are the myriads of Thy children, the stars and the atoms.
32.So shall it be unto the end. We who were dust shall never fall away into the dust.
46.Nor by memory, nor by imagination, nor by prayer, nor by fasting, nor by scourging, nor by drugs, nor by ritual, nor by meditation; only by passive love shall he avail.
Surrender is easy for me to forget with all this study of up and action. But as a path from Chesed to Tiphareth it makes sense.
The value of Yod, 10.
10 Sephiroth
10 fingers
10 toes
Regardie calls 10 the perfect number. Case says 10 combines the idea of 0 and 1, the return to the eternal No- Thing, an inherent self manifesting power, the incessant
whirling forth of Primal Will, the ever-turning
wheel of manifestation.
AW