thorhammer said:
So the role of Hierophant is the previous Aeon, as filled by the dying and rising, hanged, martyred god (Osiris, Jesus), imposed upon humanity a yen for intellectual pursuits, as characterised by the element Air.
I agree. One of the purposes behind the Aeon of Osiris was the development of the airy intellectual mind of humanity. It is what has raised us above the level of animal existence. (It's also driven a wedge between parts of ourselves too.) Osiris is the god who taught civilization and agriculture.
thorhammer said:
It is knowledge in a vacuum, understanding without context. Hence the advances in science that were emplyed for the greater ill (subjectively speaking).
Technology. The vintage wine, the choicest fruit of our much vaunted intellect. We love that stuff, don't we?
But there are signs that our technology may prove to be our downfall. Global warming, depletion of natural resources, and an over populated planet are all attributable to our advances in technology. And what is our answer to these problems? More technology! After all, we're too smart to wipe ourselves out. Or are we? If we refuse to change our ways and continue to cling to Osiris the Saviour we may find that the universe is preparing one hell of a slap in the face for us.
But what of the present Aeon? What does the fiery god Horus mean for the general direction of humanity? Of course, AC's re-placement of the Aeon card for the Judgement card is apt in that it is a paradigm shift and a changing of the guard. but what if it is also literal? Do we face annihilation by Fire? The fruits of the technological Aeon have borne us nuclear ability, so will we obliterate the masses through a cleasning, unspeakable Fire event?
Remember that Fire does double duty for Spirit, Shin.
Transformative energy starts on the higher planes and works it's way down as it meets resistance. Eventually this blocked energy manifests on the physical plane in the form of unpleasant situations that literally
force change in the crudest and most direct ways possible. This is the side of Horus that we're probably not going to like very much.
Horus may be the god of War and Vengeance, but it's interesting to consider that Crowley was going to re-name Atu XVI WAR. That card doesn't represent wanton destruction for it's own sake, but liberation from restriction.
WAR transliterated into Hebrew is an anagram for AWR - Light.
In the former Aeon, that of Osiris, the element of Air, which is the nature of that Aeon, is not unsympathetic either to Water or to Fire; compromise was a mark of that period. But now, under a Fiery lord of the Aeon, the watery element, so far as water is below the Abyss, is definitely hostile, unless the opposition is the right opposition implied in marriage.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit taking his seat in the East means that he is the new symbol of Tiphareth, the Sun, the hexagram - fire and water in one. He is the new archetype for humanity. But he is not just the son of the masculine Osiris, but also the previously repressed feminine Isis. And there she is as Venus on Atu V.
"Let the woman be girt with a sword before me." This woman represents Venus as she now is in this new aeon; no longer the mere vehicle of her male counterpart, but armed and militant.
No one can have missed the increasingly visible role that women are playing in the world today. A role that is set to increase further and further in the years ahead. But this first sign of change in the outer world is also mirrored in humanities inner world. The feminine side of our nature, and the feminine point of view will become a huge influence for change in the years ahead. This balancing of humanity is what is needed for the sake of the planet right now. An excess of male energy has allowed us to dominate this world, but left unchecked it will destroy us.
It's also visible in the sudden upsurge of interest and acceptance of sexuality. In the previous Aeon this side of ourselves was heavily repressed. A subject of shame and disgust, surrounded by taboo and restriction. But now it's out in the open, and people are starting to see that it's not the sinful vice the priests said it was. It just part of who we are.
Yet outside this wall are the twin children who (in one form or another) have so frequently recurred in this whole symbolism. They represent the male and female, eternally young, shameless and innocent. They are dancing in the light, and yet they dwell upon the earth. They represent the next stage which is to be attained by mankind, in which complete freedom is alike the cause and the result of the new access of solar energy upon the earth. The restriction of such ideas as sin and death has been abolished.
To those people who's mindset in still rooted in the Osirian way, these changes are all signs of the increasing wickedness of mankind. A clear sign that the end is upon us.
The rise of religious fundamentalism is a desperate attempt to cling onto old certainties, in the face of a new and changing world.
