Major Arcana and the Thelemic Holy Season

[Aeon418]

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

I didn't catch this as the High Priestess even with it being verse two as a hint.

The lyre is the give away. The Priestess has one on her knees.

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

Here's what I don't get. Tooth. I can see a bit of the molar in the symbol of Shin but that is about it.
AW

The way teeth penatrate food is a symbol for the way Spirit penetrates matter. Also we chew food up with our teeth so that we may absorb and transform it into a different form. This points to Spirit being, in a certain sense, a destructive force that can consume us and thereby transform us. The symbol of the Phoenix might give you some idea of the nature of this all consuming Fire.

Other symbols to look out for in Liber LXV include the Fang, and the poison of the Fang. Also acid that eats into steel and things that dis-solve.

[Always Wondering]

Oh. I was wondering about the poison. This all makes sense. I saw a lot of Shin when I reread it.

Thanks again.

AW

[Always Wondering]

Resh
200
Path # 30 Hod to Yesod
Collecting Intelligence
Head
The Sun

I am having a hard time seeing the difference between Shin and Resh. Fire and Sun, I guess it's the difference between Perpetual Intelligence and Collecting Intelligence. So Resh is the consciousness of Shin? That would explain Head. I need to go through my books and find one that expains these Hebrew letter meanings. Liber VII : IV seems a lot about the moon, stars and night. I could find no commentaries. So I am feeling a little polarized instead of solarized.

Crowley says that the Rose and the Cross has completed the fire-change into “something rich and strange. . . That is rather intriguing.

The Golden Dawn keyword for the Sun is Inner Self. It's action is energizing and stimulating. It governs health, vitality, and personal fulfillment. But honestly every since the BoL study all I see is HGA in The Sun, and the Golden Dawn stuff isn't working for me today.

Verse 34 I could relate to.

In the boat of Ra did I travel, but I never found upon the visible Universe any being like unto Thee!

I think I will focus on this the rest of the day. My mind is pretty much toast. Too much thinking and not enough meditating for a holy day.

AW

[Aeon418]

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

I am having a hard time seeing the difference between Shin and Resh.

Shin was about penetration inwards and stirring things up. But Resh is more about projecting outwards, coupled with holding things together. Resh is the Head or Face. The Head suggests leadership because the "head" is the term we use for someone in charge of an organization. The Face man/woman at the helm.

The face is the Countenance, from the Latin continere - to hold together, contain. This ties in with Resh being the Collective Intelligence. The Hebrew word for collective is, KLLI - Kelali, it's gematria is 90. This points to a connection between the Sun and the Emperor.

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

Liber VII : IV seems a lot about the moon, stars and night.

There's a lot of Solar/Tiphareth symbolism in there too. Just quickly scanning through I see Golden hair and eyebrows and a brilliant face. A rosy dream! Sweat Heart. Thigh = Phallus. Honey and myrrh. Cakes of corn. Blood has a solar connection. IAO. Iacchus. Flaming God. Boat of Ra. Winged white horse. Pyramid. Hawk.

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

I could find no commentaries.

Crowley never wrote a full commentary to Liber VII. Just a few marginalia notes.

[Always Wondering]

Originally Posted by Aeon418

Shin was about penetration inwards and stirring things up. But Resh is more about projecting outwards, coupled with holding things together. Resh is the Head or Face. The Head suggests leadership because the "head" is the term we use for someone in charge of an organization. The Face man/woman at the helm.

The face is the Countenance, from the Latin continere - to hold together, contain. This ties in with Resh being the Collective Intelligence. The Hebrew word for collective is, KLLI - Kelali, it's gematria is 90. This points to a connection between the Sun and the Emperor.
There's a lot of Solar/Tiphareth symbolism in there too. Just quickly scanning through I see Golden hair and eyebrows and a brilliant face. A rosy dream! Sweat Heart. Thigh = Phallus. Honey and myrrh. Cakes of corn. Blood has a solar connection. IAO. Iacchus. Flaming God. Boat of Ra. Winged white horse. Pyramid. Hawk.

It has been very helpful for me to see this gap of understanding of basic Herbew. It's no wonder I struggle with the holy books. Some of these things seem very obvious once you point them out. I am going to work on training my mind to find these things.

AW

[Always Wondering]

Qoph
100
Path 29 Netzach to Malkuth
Corporeal Intelligence
Pisces
The Moon

So we go from the head to the back of the head. Corporeal Intelligence means body consciousness. Corporeal also means “to rain upon”. Reproduction.

Pisces GD key phase is I believe, key word, understanding. Mutable Water and is changeable, receptive, intuitive and emotional, imaginative, and musical.

Some of the symbolism I see the Liber VII:VI
sleep (back of head against pillow)
silence (back of head, no face, no mouth)
concealment,secret, stealth (water- unconsciousness)
ice and snow (to rain upon)
midnight, moon, wolves (nocturnal)
harp (the Priestess, moon, musical)

Qoph=100
pakh (flask or bottle) -cup bearer
Min (species) -wolves, birds, horse, tiger, sparrow
Loa (throat) -wines, cakes, meats, feasting
Sam (Spice)

There seems lots of grey and an emphasis on horses and Romans that I couldn't make much sense out of.
AW

[Aeon418]

Just adding a few Lunar observations on Liber VII from an Atu XVIII angle.

The Druids are said to have performed some of their rites according to the phase of the moon. Their name is supposed to originate from old Irish and Welsh words for sorcerer and seer. Sorcery and seership are both connected to the moon.

The temple of stones in the shape of the Universe is the Vesica Piscis - the Lunar Yoni. The waning moon is said to be the time for the practice of sorcery or witchcraft, in the old sense of the word. The wolf reference suggests lycanthropy and shape-shifting.

Originally Posted by Always Wondering

There seems lots of grey and an emphasis on horses and Romans that I couldn't make much sense out of.

Messalina and Caligula are two colourful figures from Roman history who seem to have been afflicted with more than a little Lunacy, or so the stories say.

Caligula is supposed to have been quite insane. He had people killed on a whim, just for the fun of it. Once he was bored at the Roman games and ordered his guards to throw some of the other spectators into the arena to liven up the show. He wasted his money on follies and sent his soldiers on stupid exercises, and turned his palace into a brothel. He is also accused of committing incest with his sisters and prostituting them. And he tried to make his favourite horse, Incitatus, a priest. The horse even had it's own house, complete with servants, and would invite people round for dinner. Personally if I got an invite I would have just said nay

Messalina was the wife of Emperor Claudius. She basically had him wrapped around her finger and would manipulate him to eliminate or exile anyone who she felt was a threat to her ambitions. Eventually she tried to orchastrate a secret plot to kill Claudius and have her new lover, Silius, declared Emperor. She was found out and executed. Scheming, treachery, and deceit are all negative qualities of the moon.
Aside from her plotting and avariciousness, Messalina is most famous for her insatiable sexual appetite and promiscuity. She is reputed to have run her own brothel and taken part in a 24 hour sex contest against a prostitute. Apparently Messalina won.

I think both of them fit nicely into the Moon card. Caligula was simply barking mad, and Messalina seems to epitomize some of the qualities that are traditionally thought of as negative feminine qualities. The old joke is that men worry about what their wives/girlfriends are secretly plotting behind their back. But is it a joke?

Grey - everything looks grey under moonlight. The grey land is a metaphor for the everyday world we all know, bathed in the light of illusion.

[Aeon418]

I like verses 36 & 37.

36. Wail, O ye folk of the grey land, for we have drunk your wine, and left ye but the bitter dregs.
37. Yet from these we will distil ye a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods.

The bitter dregs seems like a good metaphor for the experience of Atu XVIII The Moon, and the distasteful but essential passage through the twilight aspects of the self. But once the change promised in this card comes to fruition, those same dregs will be transformed into a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods.

http://www.the-equinox.org/vol1/no1/eqi01011.html

On to Liber Tzaddi and the Emperor.

[Always Wondering]

Originally Posted by Aeon418

I like verses 36 & 37.
The bitter dregs seems like a good metaphor for the experience of Atu XVIII The Moon, and the distasteful but essential passage through the twilight aspects of the self. But once the change promised in this card comes to fruition, those same dregs will be transformed into a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods.

http://www.the-equinox.org/vol1/no1/eqi01011.html

Well shoot, I was wondering about that dark night stuff and it was right there in the wine.

Originally Posted by Aeon418

On to Liber Tzaddi and the Emperor.

Very kind of you to point that out. I will get over the double loop phobia sooner or later.

AW

[Always Wondering]

Tzaddi
90
Path 28 Netzach to Yesod
Natural Intelligence
Aries
The Emperor

Natural Intelligence means to sink, dive, or to impress.
Fishhook is that which pulls the fish(Nun) out of the water(Mem).

Crowley says that the Emperor’s authority is derived from Chokmah, the creative Wisdom, the Word, and is exerted upon Tiphareth, the organized man.

Thanks to recent BoL verses I can make some sense out of these ideas.

Aries is Cardinal Fire, Key phrase, I am, and is all about activity. I always find Aries energy impressive, which ties in with Natural Intelligence. I can see looking at the Aries attributes that the Emperor wouldn't be the Emperor without Chokmah. Initiating is an Aries attribute and Liber Tzaddi is written in the name of the Lord of Initiation.

All this has reorganized my thinking. My idea of initiation in the past has stopped at, or derived solely from Tiiphareth. I guess it might feel that way, but now I know better.

I see a lot of will in Liber Tzaddi.
The whole liber seems to be a hook to pull the Nun out of Mem

But since one is naturally attracted to the Angel, another to the Demon, let the first strengthen the lower link, the last attach more firmly to the higher.

This seems particularity so.

I pour you lustral wine, that giveth you delight both at the sunset and the dawn.

This has the feel of Natural Intelligence, diving, pouring.

Light, Life, Love; Force, Fantasy, Fire; these do I bring you: mine hands are full of these.

This seems like a very Aries type sentence.

The Hebrew of Natural Intelligence is NIVTBO 127 also Mevetbau is 127 which means material, natural.
Tzaddi (90) Mem (90).

I like Liber Tzaddi, as I can get my brain around some whole sentences.

AW