Thoth Study Group - The Lovers

[Yygdrasilian]

Decknamen

The union of Empress (Venus) & Emperor (Ares=Mars), by some accounts, brought Cupid into this world; but his Arrow pointing from Kether to Chokmah may hint at the consummation of their matrimony yet to come.
But I wouldn’t want to spoil the Regulis Martis before its ready...

In the meantime, check out A290 here:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/amclglr15.html

 

[Grigori]

I was reading Pollack's 'Tarot Wisdom' tonight and noticed The Lovers/Zain is the path from Binah to Tipareth, which is a path location I've not given much thought to before. The connection of this particular path and sephiroth seems particularly fitting to Zain/Sword/Gemini/Lovers, something that I became aware of subsequent to seeing J. Daniel Gunther teach recently on Thelema.

Tipareth is where we achieve Knowledge and Conversation with our Holy Guardian Angel, essentially a type of heiros gamos or sacred marriage/union (i.e. The Lovers or more RWS aspect of the card). This is the first major crisis or milestone in a magical career (A.A. style at least).

The next major milestone is the crossing of the abyss, where the magician dissolves/surrenders(?) his ego or sense of separateness and is absorbed into Binah/Babalon. This is in a way another sacred marriage or union, though on a different level. The interesting thing is, this is where the Zain/sword part comes in, as in order to cross the abyss the magician must sever their connection to their HGA and cross the abyss alone, without their HGA (Gemini, twins?). This seems more like the Marseille idea of choice, in this case choosing to stay at the level of HGA connection (and maybe becoming a black brother... Oohhhh) or choosing to give that up and try to cross the abyss. Interesting also to think about Crowley's alternate name for this card "The Brothers" and the Cain and Able figures in the context of the Black Brothers or the Great White Brotherhood.

Lots to think about for me

 

[Aeon418]

The interesting thing is, this is where the Zain/sword part comes in, as in order to cross the abyss the magician must sever their connection to their HGA and cross the abyss alone, without their HGA (Gemini, twins?).

To be re-united on the other side, but in a different way than before.

Below the Abyss the Gemini twins are separate and contradictory. Above the Abyss they are a unity. The Sword/Zain has two edges, but it comes to a single point.

The HGA-ized Adept in Tiphareth still has a separation-making ego to deal with. No matter how intimate the union is, there is still a sense of the Angel and the Adept. Crossing the Abyss is the process whereby the sense of separation between the Angel and the Adept is dissolved. But the Adept is so used to the the Angel-Adept relationship, when the boundaries between the two begin to disappear the Adept initially perceives this as being abandoned by the Angel. The Black Brother baulks at this and tries desparately to hold on to the previous Angel & Adept relationship. The succesful Master has entered into a whole new relationship, where the Angel and the Adept are One.

 

[Aeon418]

This seems more like the Marseille idea of choice, in this case choosing to stay at the level of HGA connection (and maybe becoming a black brother... Oohhhh) or choosing to give that up and try to cross the abyss.

Either/Or choice only exists at the Yetziratic mind(Swords) level. The Black Brother refuses to let this go and so he/she looks toward Binah and sees nothing but the 3 of Swords - Sorrow.

Liber A'ash
7.... in the great day of M.A.A.T., that is being interpreted the Master of the Temple of A.'. A.'., whose name is Truth.

The Master in Binah is compared to the goddess Maat because he/she opperates on a higher level than Yetzirah and does not tip the scales either way with personal choice.

Another interesting aspect of the Path of Zain is that it is the path of Intuition and Oracles from the Gods. The HGA communicates with us down this path. Unfortunately Briatic level Truth has to go through a Yetziratic filter before we can understand it. Even worse is that the Truth gets scrambled along the way and ends up looking like contradictory nonsense. To our Yetziratic minds it looks very confusing and cryptic. But if the mind is allowed to leap between the contradictions it may be able to Intuit the Truth.

The Tarot is a Yetziratic Oracle.

Magick in Theory and Practice Chp.XVII

It is a hard saying; but in the order to divine without error, one ought to be a Master of the Temple. Divination affords excellent practice for those who aspire to that exalted eminence, for the faintest breath of personal preference will deflect the needle from the pole of truth in the answer. Unless the diviner have banished utterly from his mind the minutest atom of interest in the answer to his question, he is almost certain to influence that answer in favour of his personal inclinations.

......................................

The same difficulty appears in a grosser form when one receives a perfectly true reply, but insists on interpreting it so as to suit one's desires. The vast majority of people who go to "fortunetellers" have nothing else in mind but the wish to obtain supernatural sanction for their follies.

 

[Aeon418]

This seems more like the Marseille idea of choice

Think of that Marseille card and consider this:

The Brothers of A.'.A.'. are Women: the Aspirants to A.'.A.'. are Men.

The Brother of A.'.A.'., the Master of the Temple, is represented by both of the women.

The Aspirant to A.'.A.'., below the Abyss, is the Man in the middle. His task is to overcome his prejudice for either of the "pairs of opposites". The Truth is in both.

 

[Aeon418]

On the same subject...

But there are "planes" proper to every clairvoyant who explores the Astral Light without prejudice; in such case, things assume the form of his own mind, and his perception will be clear in proportion to his personal purity.

On the higher planes, the diversity of form, due to grossness, tends to disappear. Thus, the Astral Vision of "Isis" is utterly unlike that of "Kali". The one is of Motherhood and Wisdom, ineffably candid, clear, and loving; the other of Murder and madness, blood-intoxicated, lust-befogged, and cruel. The sole link is the Woman-symbol. But whoso makes Samadhi on Kali obtains the self-same Illumination as if it had been Isis; for in both cases he attains identity with the Quintessence of the Woman-Idea, untrammelled by the qualities with which the dwellers by the Nile and the Ganges respectively disguised it.

Thus, in low grades of initiation, dogmatic quarrels are inflamed by astral experience; as when Saint John distinguishes between the Whore BABALON and the Woman clothed with the Sun, between the Lamb that was slain and the Beast 666 whose deadly wound was healed; nor understands that Satan, the Old Serpent, in the Abyss, the Lake of Fire and Sulphur, is the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life, Lord of Infinite Space that flames with His Consuming Energy, and is also that throned Light whose Spirit is suffused throughout the City of Jewels.

 

[Grigori]

I've been formulating a response to post here, but have realised it's much better to just say thanks for the ideas to think through and then let my ruach go play 2=1=2 games by itself for a bit I find irony endlessly amusing

 

[Aeon418]

It's always a good idea to let the Ruach chew the cud for a while.

A bit more food for thought...

Look at the cards that make up the Supernal Triad.

The Fool - his Wisdom is Folly.

The Magus - he speaks Truth and utters Lies.

The Priestess - The Virgin of God, and yet she sits with her arms raised in the sign of Mullier.

The Empress - The Mother sitting in the sign of Puella - the Virgin Daughter.

Above the Abyss contradiction is Unity.

 

[by zero]

 

[Aeon418]

The next major milestone is the crossing of the abyss, where the magician dissolves/surrenders(?) his ego or sense of separateness and is absorbed into Binah/Babalon.

The City of the Pyramids.

Below the Abyss the aspirant builds and perfects the elemental pyramid of self. Each time the pyramid is made ready it is capped with the Benben stone of spirit. (Pyramid/Capstone - Twins) This process repeats itself all the way up until Adeptus Exemptus 7=4, but with one big difference. This time the pyramid builder and the capstone are one and the same. The Master of the Temple 8=3 is the capstone of his/her own pyramid. The Master is a Temple of Initiation.

Liber 418. 14th Aeythr.

What I thought were shapes of rocks, rather felt than seen, now appear to be veiled Masters, sitting absolutely still and silent. Nor can any one be distinguished from the others.

And the Angel sayeth: Behold where thine Angel hath led thee! Thou didst ask fame, power and pleasure, health and wealth and love, and strength, and length of days. Thou didst hold life with eight tentacles, like an octopus. Thou didst seek the four powers and the seven delights and the twelve emancipations and the two and twenty Privileges and the nine and forty Manifestations, and lo! thou art become as one of These. Bowed are their backs, whereon resteth the universe. Veiled are their faces, that have beheld the glory Ineffable.

These adepts seem like Pyramids --- their hoods and robes are like Pyramids.

And the Angel sayeth: Verily is the Pyramid a Temple of Initiation. Verily also is it a tomb*. Thinkest thou that there is life within the Masters of the Temple, that sit hooded, encamped upon the Sea? Verily, there is no life in them.

*It is also a phallus, which dies itself to communicate life to others.