Major Arcana and the Thelemic Holy Season

[Aeon418]

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

Fence makes no sense to me, then it's a house, and then The Grail. It's not going to come together for me, yet.

OK, lets try a bit of Paul Foster Case on for size and imagine it is your HGA speaking from the perspective of the letter Cheth/Fence.

I am the hedge of protection
Enclosing the field of existence.
In this field thou dwellest.
And I am thy defense
Against the darkness which is without.
Yet is this hedge of safety
Also a wall limitation,
And the darkness against which it defendeth thee
is the radiant Darkness of the Limitless Light,
too brilliant for thine eyes.

The first five lines describe the Angel as a kind of buffer between yourself and the Infinite. It's there to stop you blowing a fuse when you try to connect with the divine consciousness. The Angel acts as a go-between and only lets through the amount of "juice" that you can handle, without pushing you over the edge.

The next five lines show the Angel as a limiting factor. If you want to experience higher levels of consciousness, you've got to prove you're capable of handling them first. The Angel is own personal sparring partner and tester.

[Always Wondering]

Originally Posted by LRichard

It's true that the chariot is not really very enclosed, but neither is the area inside a fence.

Thanks, this is some of the issue I had, the linear thinking of a modern fence.

AW

[Always Wondering]

Originally Posted by Aeon418

OK, lets try a bit of Paul Foster Case on for size and imagine it is your HGA speaking from the perspective of the letter Cheth/Fence.
The first five lines describe the Angel as a kind of buffer between yourself and the Infinite. It's there to stop you blowing a fuse when you try to connect with the divine consciousness. The Angel acts as a go-between and only lets through the amount of "juice" that you can handle, without pushing you over the edge.

The next five lines show the Angel as a limiting factor. If you want to experience higher levels of consciousness, you've got to prove you're capable of handling them first. The Angel is own personal sparring partner and tester.

This was helpful. What book is it form? Limatation was the key word for me. Hedge was helpful too. I never thought of the Angel as sparing partner before.

AW

[Always Wondering]

Zayin
7
Path 17, Binah(Understanding) to Tiphareth(Beauty)
Disposing Intelligence
Sword
Gemini
The Lovers

The Seventeenth Path is the Disposing Intelligence, which provides Faith to the Righteous, and they are clothed with the Holy Spirit by it, and it is called the Foundation of Excellence in the state of higher thing.

This is the path where the Rauch(rational soul) and the higher self is joined to Binah. Descending the tree, it's the path of division, ascending it is Union. The letter Yod is a descending Vav, archetypal fire into manifestation.

Zayin means Sword, which implies division, also constant adjustment, preparation, measurement, judgment, and organization of the the individual human soul for the leap over the Abyss. All of BoL Chapter Three come to mind. Looking at it in a nutshell like this is helpful. It is the sword that divides and also work with the sword that unties.
The polarity of division finds a physical expression is sex. On a mental level it separates the self consciousness and subconsciousness. Case mentions smell as a property, involving discernment. The nose brings in air. This brings to mind pranayama. I have been focusing on the tip of my nose during practice.

Mercury, the planet of life and death, rules Gemini, mutable Air, meaning The Twins. The lower rates of Mercury's vibration limit the intellect, causing the faulty idea of mortality. Consciously raising this vibration is the death of the false conception of personality.

Crowley call ATU VI the most fundamental of the tarot. The card of the Twins(brothers) also has a twin in ATU XIV Art. Together these cards compose Solve et coagula, separate and join together. The basis of all alchemical working. Mercury here is represented by the Hermit. Cupid is a suggestion of Eros in relation to Mercury, through Hermes, representing both division and union. His quiver quotes Thelema and he bears the arrow of Sagittarius, Art (Samekh) to indicate that the two cards should be studied together.

I found Chapter Two of Liber LXV serene.

Verse 33, and the process of commentary was helpful in reaffirming mantra rather than silence as a focus.

33. Ah! messenger of the beloved One, let Thy shadow be over me!

The Adept invokes the Word of his Angel to silence all personal thoughts.

Not so: to harmonize them, that is, to organize his human life from the point of view of Spirit.

This is where I will try to keep my attention on for the rest of the day.

7. Moreover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little boat thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. Also the river was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream.

The river is the stream of thought. The boat is the consciousness. The purple sails are the passions that direct its course, and the woman is the pure Ideal which one seeks to make the constant occupant and the guiding principle of one’s conscious life. Thus “woman”, though of gold, is only a lifeless image. The river is of blood; that is, the current of thought must be identified with the object of one’s like, not a mere medium for reflecting every casual impression.
The boat is of steel; that is, the consciousness must be able to resist the intrusion of all undesired thoughts. Loving this ideal, the Aspirant frees himself from all that binds him (shame, selfishness, etc. — “loosing my girdle”) and loses his ego in Thought itself (cast myself into the stream).

8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many days and nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.

He identifies himself with pure consciousness, immune from, yet floating upon, the course of Thought, and devotes himself to this Ideal, with poetical and religious fervour.

9. Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.
He consecrates his creative energy to the Ideal.

10. But she stirred not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to blackness before me.
This process destroys the superficial beauty of the Ideal. Its purity is corrupted by the contact of mortality.

11. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of the flower of my youth.

Despite the disappointment, the Aspirant persists in “love under will”. He gives himself up utterly to Truth, even now when it seems so dark and dreadful.


Value of 7
7 traditional planets
7 days in the week
7 vertebrae in the human neck
7 spinal chakras
7 strands on ATU IX The Hermits head
7 rays of light on ATU XVII The Star
7 branches of good on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
7 branches of evil on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.


AW

[LRichard]

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

.....What book is it form? .....

The quotation is from P. F. Case's Book of Tokens.

[LRichard]

A random thought about The Chariot. The prophet Elijah did not die but was transported to heaven in a chariot, hence the lovely old spiritual "Swing low, Sweet chariot / Coming for to carry me home....."

[Aeon418]

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

This was helpful. What book is it form?

Originally Posted by LRichard

The quotation is from P. F. Case's Book of Tokens.

What he said.

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

I never thought of the Angel as sparing partner before.

Some people have described the trials and balancing work below Tiphareth as wrestling with the Angel. The Fence of Limitation is there for your own protection. But prove your Strong enough to handle it and the boundary lines that mark out your sense of Self will get wider. Sometimes it is slow and gradual. At other times there are big steps and Tower experiences.

Jacob: "I will not let you go until you bless me."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...acob-angel.jpg

[Always Wondering]

Originally Posted by LRichard

The quotation is from P. F. Case's Book of Tokens.

Originally Posted by Aeon418

What he said.

Thanks guys. I looked it up. I really like parts of it. I'll have to order a hard copy.

Originally Posted by LRichard

A random thought about The Chariot. The prophet Elijah did not die but was transported to heaven in a chariot, hence the lovely old spiritual "Swing low, Sweet chariot / Coming for to carry me home....."

I hadn't realized the spiritual was about Elijah.

Originally Posted by Aeon418

Some people have described the trials and balancing work below Tiphareth as wrestling with the Angel. The Fence of Limitation is there for your own protection. But prove your Strong enough to handle it and the boundary lines that mark out your sense of Self will get wider. Sometimes it is slow and gradual. At other times there are big steps and Tower experiences.

Jacob: "I will not let you go until you bless me."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Jacob-angel.jpg

Well, that explains the rest of Case's meditation on Cheth. You quoted the best part.

AW

[Always Wondering]

Vav
6
Path 16 Chokmah to Chessed
Eternal Intelligence
Nail
Taurus
The Hierophant

The Sixteenth Path is the Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence, so called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no other Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous.
The pleasure and the glory refer to the whirling energy of Kether harmonized by the effect of Chokmah and Chesed. Vav is a Yod with a descending line. So we have the seed of flame descending into manifestation.

Vav means nail or hook. Also yoke which closely related to the word yoga. All three meanings point to union. External hearing unites man to man, internal listening unites man to God. The triumph is the result of inner hearing, or success in yoga/union. Victory over the illusion of a separate, mortal existence.

Taurus, fixed Earth, is ruled by Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love, meaning sexual desire in Latin, lust in Sanskrit. Thus, repeating the theme of Holy fire descending to earth. Crowley makes a clear distinction of Venus on ATU V, represents the serpent rather than the dove. The woman grit with the sword.

The main focus on the Hierophant is the uniting of the microcosm with the macrocosm. A dancing male child inside a pentagram, inside a hexagram. The child is a reference to the Child Horus and the Law of the new Aeon. I can look at this card and read Crowley all day, but I found Book of Tolkens online and all I can see when I look at ATU V is this.

I am the revealer of all mysteries.
None other is the Teacher of any man.
These words that thou readest,
Or that, perchance, are read to thee ——
Whose words are they but mine?

And This.

The Nail is a perfect symbol of this Severity.
It hath a property of sharpness and stringency,
Like the point of a nail;
And again, as a nail fasteneth together
The parts of a house,
So doth the desire of coming forth
Join together the parts of the universe,
My dwelling-place.

These are mysteries, O Israel,
Difficult to understand.
With much searching shalt thou still fail
To grasp them,
Unless thy search be rightly prosecuted.
Yet the Way to Understanding is ever open
To him who will follow it steadfastly.
It is the Way of the Heart,
And thou shalt be guided therein
By thine own inner Hearing.

Mosty my mind is stuck on Cheth. I keep thinking about the crab claws symbol of Cancer, that seems to say alot in itself. I also read on a Jewish sight about hovering, but not touching. These two thinks together really made an impression.

I'll try Crowley again tomorrow.

AW

[Aeon418]

A verse to sum up the last two days.

I:29. For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union.

Nuit becomes Zain for the chance of Vav. The pain of the former, makes the joy of the latter possible.