Pour les sages le ciel c'est la suprême raison et l enfer c'est la folie
Yes, and the 'historians' will never be able to solve that question . . .
;the fables of Homer remain truer than history, . . .
The key of the mysteries E. Levi
I believe the strongest justification for a correlation that puts LeMat between XX and XXI (didn't someone state this already, based on the 20 + 2 thing?) is that on the Day of Judgment (trump XX) the choice for each soul is between New Jerusalem (trump XXI) and oblivion (LeMat).
Personally, I think that is a great justification! It makes sense. And perhaps even Eliphas Lévi would have agreed, at least in part, with you, although he focused on it differently in his own text.
quote:
"Do not say that civilization is bad; for it resembles the damp heat which ripens the harvest, it rapidly develops the principles of life and the principles of death, it kills and it vivifies.
It is like the angel of the judgement who seperates the wicked from the good.
Civilization transforms men of good will into angels of light, and lowers the selfish man beneath the brute; it is the corruption of bodies and the emancipation of souls. . .
and also :
Pour les sages le ciel c'est la suprême raison et l'enfer c'est la folie.*
To the wise heaven is supreme reason and hell is madness.
La science des esprit E. Levi
"This pantacle is composed of two triangles joined at the base, one white and one black. In the black point of the triangle lies a madman who twists his head and looks painfully with a grimace of terror in the dark triangle which reflects his own image; in the tip of the white triangle there is formed a man in the prime of life, dressed as a knight, with his eyes closedin a peaceful attitude of strong command. In the white triangle the characters of the divine tetragrammaton are drawn.
"One could explain this pantacle by the caption: "The wise man builds on the fear of the true God, the fool is overwhelmed by fear of a false god in his own image."
"The wise man builds on the fear of the true God, the fool is overwhelmed by fear of a false god in his own image" Levi says is the exoteric meaning of the emblem, but that it also contains the unspeakable formula of the Grand Arcanum.
The reflected image the fool froms that of the devil - shin, according to Levi, is the torch between the devil's horns (Wirth possibly has also emphasised the 'shin' shape of the fool's hat?).
(Image is by Oswald Wirth).
The magician, by this point in his development, has reached a very exalted state, but this is where the real danger lies. It is a heady experience - as Lévi says, it's God-like - to knowingly create reality through one's imagination. Afterall, what we call reality is just a dream (this is the realization that comes with the Star through Judgment). And the dream can be shaped by manipulating the astral forms and planetary magnetisms. But few can operate at this disembodied level without becoming overcome by those very forms, which Lévi describes as 'contagious hallucinations' that affect not only the madman but those in sympathy around him.
quote:
En 1839, l'auteur de ce livre reçut un matin la visite d'Alphonse Esquiros.
-Venez-vous avec moi, voir le mapah, lui dit ce dernier.
-Qu'est-ce que c'est que le mapah ?
-C'est un dieu.
-Merci, alors je n'aime que les dieux invisibles.
-Venez-donc, c'est le fou le plus éloquent, le plus radieux et le plus superbe qu'on ait jamais vu.
-Mon ami, j'ai peur des fous, la folie est contagieuse.
In 1839, the author of this book received a morning visit from Alphonse Esquiros.
"Come with me and see the Mapah", he said.
"What or who is the Mapah?
"He is a god."
"Thanks, but I prefer invisible gods."
"Still come, he is the most eloquent, the most radiant and most superb madman ever seen."
"My friend, I fear the mad, madness is contagious."
The history of magic E. Levi
Kwaw
*On comprend que nous employons ici le mot ciel dans le sens mystique qu on lui donne en l'opposant au mot enfer. (One understands that we employ here the word heaven in the mystical sense that gives the opposing the word hell.)