Dwtw
I realize this thread is almost exactly 5 years old, but I was recently meditating on this verse again, and it struck me that there is a rather simple explanation for it. I'm probably not the first to notice this, but since it hasn't been mentioned, I'll set down an explanation here.
The Three Grades of Thelemites are represented in the three horizontal paths of the G.D. Tree of Life:
• The Lover is the path of the Empress - Dalet - Venus, connecting Chokmah and Binah;
• The Hermit is the path of Lust - Tet - connecting Chesed and Geburah;
• The man of Earth is the path of the Tower - Peh - connecting Netzach with Hod.
These three letters are 4 + 9 + 80 = 93, which is identical to the value of Thelema. This is in accord with the instructions in Liber AL to 'look but close into the word' Thelema:
39. The word of the Law is ΘΕΛΗΜΑ
40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth.
Despite the obvious connection of the term Lover with the tarot trump called the Lovers, (which Crowley noted in his Old Comment to this verse), it is just as easy to connect the Lover grade with the card of the Empress, attributed to Venus, the goddess of Love. This also finds support in the verse immediately following the listing of Grades:
41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse.
In this sentence, the 'divided' that love unites can be symbolized by the spheres of Chokmah and Binah, (and their associated pillars), which are united by the path of Dalet. The identification of this path with Love is also made in Liber B del Magi:
0. Yet the Magus hath power upon the Mother both directly and through Love.
The 'Mother' is the sphere Binah, and the Magus affects it directly, through the path of Bet - (The Magus trump) from Keter to Binah, and through the path of Dalet (The Empress trump) from Chokmah to Binah.
Also obvious is the connection with the Grade of Hermit with the Tarot trump of the same name - an association that Crowley makes in his Old Comment on AL. But when we refer to Liber AL for support, we find an entirely different connotation. The hermit of Thelema is defined rather specifically:
24. Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them.
This characterization fits very well wit the Lust trump, depicting the Scarlet Woman astride the Beast. She is certainly a 'magnificent beast' of a woman, well described in this verse. The point is that the hermit of Thelema is not isolated like an ascetic in the wilderness, but is fully engaged in the thrill of life and lust embodied in the card of the same name.
The Grade of man of Earth was attributed by Crowley to the Tower trump in his Old Comment to Liber AL. This coincides with the present thesis, and we can find justification for this attribution in the second chapter of AL:
26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.
Here is Hadit, identifying with the kundalini, and saying that when the power is brought downward, he becomes united with 'the earth'. This is the use of the 'fire snake' for sexual purposes, entirely in line with the very phallic nature of the Tower trump, which traditionally shows people falling to the Earth as the lightning (of orgasm) strikes the Tower.
Identifying the Three Grades with the three horizontal paths makes it elementary to see the nature of these grades as they ascend the Tree of Life. Each Grade represents the mastery of one of the three Triads above Malkut. In between the Grades are the two veils - of Paroket and the Abyss.
A related set of concepts is my thesis that AL I:57 identifies the same three Tarot trumps. Although too lengthy to enter into here, in brief it can be said that the two kinds of love - the dove and the serpent - are represented by Venus and Mars - i.e., the Empress and the Tower (House of God) cards, while 'the fortress' refers not to the Tower but to the Strength/Lust card, whose original Italian name 'fortezza' means 'fortress'.
The main thrust of AL I:57 is to elucidate the formula of 'love is the law, love under will'. Obviously, love/agape and will/thelema are both equal to 93, so from the perspective of Will, we have the Three Grades; the types of thelemites doing their will. From the perspective of Love we have the means whereby this will is accomplished, as symbolized in the Tarot trumps. The law of Love is the connecting force that binds the two side Pillars together via the horizontal paths. The 'word' of that law, its manifestation, is by way of actual human activity, the Thelemites doing their Will, who are exemplified in each of the Grades.
Thus, each of these three paths is dual in nature, and they each make manifest the principle of 'love under will'.
Litlluw
RLG