Liber 418 study group - 30th Aethyr: TEX

Aeon418

I think an interesting comparison is to be made with the unfolding of the Cube which leads us to the Rosy cross that's at the back of the Thoth deck's Trumps.
Or the process of squaring the circle. It is also significant that this process is spread over 30 Aethyrs. 30 = Lamed.
That also got me thinking that The Devil and The Fool along with the thunderbolt/swastiga is pretty informing indeed, because I think those two cards reveal both aspects of Heru-Ra-Ha, Harpocrates (Atu 0) and Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Atu XV).
You might find Crowley's reinterpretation of IAO interesting.
http://hermetic.com/crowley/book-4/chap5.html
Also, The Fool is the 11th Path and The Devil is the 26th Path adding to 37, GOD, To grow great, Flame, Behold!.
Under the number 11 in Speher Sephiroth there is the word, ChBA. This means hidden or concealed. That brings to mind a certain title of Kether. The Concealed of the Concealed.
26 is of course the value of IHVH. But it is also the combined value of the sephiroth on the middle pillar. This suggests extension and manifestation.
 

Owl Tarot

Or the process of squaring the circle. It is also significant that this process is spread over 30 Aethyrs. 30 = Lamed.

A two-way process maybe? If it is, it also fulfills the aphorism "Change is Stability"

You might find Crowley's reinterpretation of IAO interesting.
http://hermetic.com/crowley/book-4/chap5.html

Really interesting, actually. It explains a great deal of things both about the Aethyr we are working upon and certain Trumps in coordination. I could assume this makes up the new-and-improved IAO formula! This may explain a bit more about the Aethyr's end.

Book 4 said:
In the Æon of Osiris it was indeed realised that Man must die in order to live. But now in the Æon of Horus we know that every event is a death; subject and object slay each other in “love under will”; each such death is itself life, the means by which one realises oneself in a series of episodes.

Some interesting parts about Atu XV we are working with:

Book 4 said:
The exalted “Devil” (also the other secret Eye) by the formula of the Initiation of Horus elsewhere described in detail.

Thus “the Devil” is Capricornus, the Goat who leaps upon the loftiest mountains, the Godhead which, if it become manifest in man, makes him Aegipan, the All.

He is the Open Eye of the exalted Sun, before whom all shadows flee away: also that Secret Eye which makes an image of its God, the Light, and gives it power to utter oracles, enlightening the mind.

Thus, he is Man made God, exalted, eager; he has come consciously to his full stature, and so is ready to set out on his journey to redeem the world. But he may not appear in this true form; the Vision of Pan would drive men mad with fear. He must conceal Himself in his original guise.

@Always Wondering: I am indeed still waiting for it and it might take some time to arrive, so I will slowly build up from the threads and then take it from there!
 

Aeon418

But I am getting a little overwhelmed again and feel it is time to step back and try the visualization Eschelman recommends in Visions & Voices before continuing.
Hi AW. :)

If you're getting overwhelmed then stepping back may be a good idea. Just read through the vision without commentary. Take in the big picture and reflect on the images and what thoughts and feelings they stir up. Don't dig into the minutia until you feel up to it.

Remembering the basic structure of this vision will aid the process.
Line 1 sets the scene. A crystal cube surrounded by a sphere. Inside the cube stands Crowley (or yourself ;)) in the form of Harpocrates. Standing around him are four black robed angels bearing books. Each one delivers a message.

Lines 2 - 11. The angel of the North's message is basically that the old is passing away and coming to an end. It's all dark and subconscious. But something new is coming. Eternity is in travail child. These are the labour pains and birth pangs heralding the New Aeon.

Lines 13 - 14. The angel of the East's message is for the rational mind. It gives a bit advice and shows the way ahead via the symbol of the shedding of blood.

Lines 15 - 26. The angel of the South's message is from the superconscious. It is the new child that is in the process of being born, the new emerging consciousness.

Lines 27 - 30. The angel of the West brings it all to a close and declares what will happen next.

Lines 31 - 36 are a kind of reaction from Crowley who is seemingly still in the 'darkest hour before the dawn'. The birth has yet to manifest.

Line 37. Closes the vision.
 

Always Wondering

Owl Tarot said:
I am indeed still waiting for it and it might take some time to arrive, so I will slowly build up from the threads and then take it from there!

The books is nice to have, but certainly not necessary, as you've already proven.

Aeon418 said:
If you're getting overwhelmed then stepping back may be a good idea. Just read through the vision without commentary. Take in the big picture and reflect on the images and what thoughts and feelings they stir up. Don't dig into the minutia until you feel up to it.

I did just that. In the nick of time I think. I was resistant to put myself in the chaos, but as I did I realized it was reaffirming. And calming in a way. It is beautiful. I just want to sit with it for a while before I start asking questions.

AW
 

Aeon418

I did just that. In the nick of time I think. I was resistant to put myself in the chaos, but as I did I realized it was reaffirming. And calming in a way. It is beautiful. I just want to sit with it for a while before I start asking questions.
That's fine, AW. :) If you would rather just experience the visions instead of picking them apart, go for it. :thumbsup:
James A. Eshelman said:
As part of that work, The Vision & the Voice is important because it describes historically rare and extraordinary states that, with the passage of time, have become progressively more accessible to living women and men. In some cases, doors are opened simply by rational statement of perspctives that supersede reason.....

In many more cases, there is a contagion of a higher mode of consciousness spread by sympathy with the words and images of these visions: Simply reading them and visualizing their imagery stimulates brain functions normally dormant or under-utilized by most people.

In other words, this book exposes us to varieties of heightened consciousness once uncommon, but now increasingly accesible.
 

Aeon418

The numerical value of Geburah is also interesting, and it connects to the event depicted in Atu XX, the Judgment of the World by Fire which took place when Heru-Ra-Ha took his seat.

Your connection between the 'Book of the East' and the seat in the East occupied by Horus jogged my memory. Right at the end of the 2nd Aethyr the Book is opened. All that remains is the revelation of the Lord of the Aeon in the 1st Aethyr.
ARN said:
Now the whole Aethyr is swallowed up in a forest of unquenchable fire, and fearlessly through it all a show-white eagle flies. And the eagle cries: the house also of death. Come away! The volume of the book is open, the Angel waiteth without, for the summer is at hand. Come away! For the Aeon is measured, and thy spans allotted. Come away! For the mighty sounds have entered into every angle. And they have awakened the Angels of the Aethyrs that slept these three hundred years.

For in the Holy letter Shin, that is the Resurrection in the Book of Thoth, that is the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, that is three hundred in the tale of the years, hath the tomb been opened, so that this great wisdom might be revealed.

Come away! For the Second Triad is completed, and there remaineth only the Lord of the Aeon, the Avenger, the Child both Crowned and Conquering, the Lord of the Sword and the Sun, the Babe in the Lotus, pure from his birth, the Child of suffering, the Father of justice, unto whom be the glory throughout all the Aeon!
 

Owl Tarot

Your connection between the 'Book of the East' and the seat in the East occupied by Horus jogged my memory. Right at the end of the 2nd Aethyr the Book is opened. All that remains is the revelation of the Lord of the Aeon in the 1st Aethyr.

Pretty interesting, isn't it? Along those lines, this part of the Book of North is interesting:

5. Lift up your heads, O Houses of Eternity: for my Father goeth forth to judge the World. One Light, let it become a thousand, and one sword ten thousand, that no man hide him from my Father's eye in the Day of Judgment of my God. Let the Gods hide themselves: let the Angels be troubled and flee away: for the Eye of My Father is open, and the Book of the Aeons is fallen.

The symbols depicted here connect strongly to the energy of Geburah. The opening of the Father's Eye is depicted in Atu XVI, which is the planetary Trump of Mars, the planet assosiated with Geburah. Liber 777 informs us in Table XX that the Egyptian Deity assosiated with Geburah is Horus. Even from the start of the Aethyr signs of the new Aeon which is about to take place are obvious. And the Lord of the Aeon triumphantly takes his place in the East, which event is depicted in Atu XX, the Path of letter Shin.
 

Aeon418

TEX said:
18. Thy Shadow is as great Light.
19. Thy Name is as the Breath of Love across all Worlds.
Breath - Aleph.
Love - Vau.
World - Tau.
AVTh, a mark, a sign, or a token. Also the Union of the first and last letters of the alphabet. In Greek this is equivalent to the Alpha and the Omega.

AVTh = 407 = ARVR, a curse. A union of opposites? "Thy Shadow is as great Light." Or possibly a curse that is a blessing in disguise. (This is a theme of the 2nd Aethyr.) A process of union that outwardly appears destructive but conceals an inner purpose.
Liber LXV. I:13-17. said:
13. Wolf’s bane is not so sharp as steel; yet it pierceth the body more subtly.
14. Even as evil kisses corrupt the blood, so do my words devour the spirit of man.
15. I breathe, and there is infinite dis-ease in the spirit.
16. As an acid eats into steel, as a cancer that utterly corrupts the body; so am I unto the spirit of man.
17. I shall not rest until I have dissolved it all.
 

Aeon418

TEX said:
25. O that Our Bed were seen of Men, that they might rejoice in My Fertility: that My Sister might partake of My Great Light.
If the speaker here is Heh prima then the sister is possibly Heh final. Compare this line with Liber CCXX. I:53.
Nuit said:
I:53. This shall regenerate the world, the little world my sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send this kiss. ...
The kiss may be the Breath of Love across all Words. The sign of the Swastika in the vision of TEX.
TEX said:
26. O Light of God, when wilt thou find the heart of man — write not! I would not that men know the Sorrow of my Heart, Amen!
Compare with Liber CCXX. I:29-30.
Nuit said:
29. For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union.
30. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
 

Aeon418

TEX said:
29. For thou wilt find a life which is as Death: or a Death which should be infinite.
30. For Thou art submitted to the Four: Five thou shalt find, but Seven is lone and far.
The Four are the elements. The fifth is Spirit hidden within the four, formulating the Pentagram. But the Heptagram of Seven, symbol of Binah, is a long way off. But the Path is one continuum.
Liber Cheth said:
19. Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof.