The Path of The Emperor

Teheuti

Aeon418 said:
If it's just a slip why did Crowley get Harris to paint the Emperor with the same incorrect symbolism, ie the ray of light showing the influence from Chokmah to Tiphareth.

It could equally be a ray of light from Netzach to Yesod. Why put Aries in the place on the Tree where you would expect Aquarius to be?

I don't use Crowley's attributions as they don't make any sense to me - and I certainly tried to understand.

Mary
 

Formicida

I've just had something of a revelation about the Emperor's place on the tree, and I'd like to hear other's thoughts. Forgive me (and correct me!) if I'm way off base--I'm quite the Qabalah newbie.

One thing that's been bothering me about the switch is that it seems to remove any possibility of parallelism with the Empress. That's particularly odd because a glance at the two cards reveals that they're closely linked. So why should one be so much further down the Tree than the other?

I'm reading Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah, and this quote seems to give the beginnings of an answer:

These two basal Sephiroth of the Supernal Triad are especially referred to as the Father and Mother, Abba and Ama, and their magical images are those of the bearded male and the matron, thus representing, not the sex attraction of Netzach and Yesod, who are represented as maiden and youth, but the mature beings who have mated and reproduced.

In other words, there's a parallelism here between Chokmah/Binah and Netzach/Yesod--the paths of the Empress and the Emperor respectively. The Empress could be the mature love shared between adults who have lived together for years, while the Emperor would be the much more dynamic, sexual attraction between new lovers.

I know it's Fortune and not Crowley, but it still seems to fit. Does he say anything about this? I don't think I've ever seen anything justifying the switch in terms like this, but I could easily have missed something.

Other interpretations? What do you guys think?
 

Aeon418

I agree with you, Formicida. :)

Crowley's placement of the Emperor on the 28th path is perfect and it also high lights a prime piece of Victorian moral values.

The magical images of Yesod and Netzach literally scream animal attraction. The magical image of Yesod is of a Strong, beautiful naked Man. Some sources suggest a very phallic nature as well. ;)
The magical image of Netzach is of a Beautiful naked woman. Some sources describe her as the Amazon to indicate the very primal and instinctual nature of Venus that is present in the Sephira Netzach.

So what does that tell us about the 28th path? It's going to be one heck of an explosion. :laugh: The Emperor fits the bill perfectly. He symbolises the heat and fire of sexual attraction. His attribution of Aries connects with the Springtime and all of it's natural associations. The Hebrew letter Tzaddi, literally meaning Fish hook, ties in with the symbolism of attraction.

The 28th path is deffinitely a path of sexual energy. That's why the old attribution of Star seems like such a mismatch. But I'm sure it fitted in perfectly with repressive Victorian moral values though.

Of course there are different aspects to the Emperor. One is control. It's well known that Western magical practices and Eastern yoga techniques use the sexual force in a controled way to bring about enlightenment. Tzaddi also means meditation. ;)

In my opinion people who object to the placement of the Emperor on the 28th path do so because they have an incorrect idea of the kind of Venus that Netzach represents. Netzach is the home of the firey, passionate, and wild Venus. The one that will literally rip your clothes off. :laugh:
The more traditional side of Venus relates more to the Empress on the 14th path.
 

Voron

The Tsar and the Star

Tzaddi is the Tsar (Czar/Tzar).
Heh is the Star.
I think there's a profound mystery in this. ;)

furthermore, the meanings in hebrew:

Tzaddi = 'fishook' -- obviously masculine.
Heh = 'window' -- obviously feminine.


The balancing of the masculine and feminine energies in the Yod Heh Vau Heh formula was very important to Crowley.
 

Aeon418

Teheuti said:
I don't use Crowley's attributions as they don't make any sense to me - and I certainly tried to understand.
A year on they make more sense to me. My new understanding revolves around Crowley's three aeon model, Isis, Osiris, and Horus. I just hope it makes some sort of sense to people unfamiliar with it.

Yesod is the seat of the instinctual and primal energies within mankind. These basic, primitive drives correspond to the aeon of Isis and Lunar consciousness. During the aeon of Osiris these primal drives are seen as undesirable. Just think about Christian attitudes towards sex and sexuality for a good example. During this period of human development the religious dogma focuses on the need to spiritualise and sublimate the primal drives within mankind. Anything that might arouse or stimulate these basic instincts and drives gets the lable of "sinful". (There are a whole host of ramifications here that relate to past attitudes about sex, women, and physical enjoyment.) This need to reject the physical and focus solely on the spiritual is represented by placing the Star on the 28th path.

The aeon Horus ushers in a change. Horus the child combines both Isis and Osiris. The formula of Horus is not the uncontrolled animal/lunar consciousness of Isis, but neither is it the repression and restriction of Osiris. Instead it is a blend of both. The primal instincts are to be harnessed, controlled and used in their rise to the fiery devotion of Netzach. What better card could there be than the Emperor on the 28th path? ;)
 

Lillie

This tzaddi business......

Personally I just think 'wuh????' and ignore it.

Really, I've read the BoT.
If Crowley can't get it straight in his own head, does he really think that I'm going to bother?
 

Aeon418

Lillie said:
This tzaddi business......

Personally I just think 'wuh????' and ignore it.

Really, I've read the BoT.
If Crowley can't get it straight in his own head, does he really think that I'm going to bother?
Ah, but when it involves restoring the feminine principle to the Trinity it's worth the bother, or so some people think. :laugh:
 

Lillie

I am the feminine principal.

All three of me.

So we don't have to bother.
 

brujaja

<<The 28th path is deffinitely a path of sexual energy. That's why the old attribution of Star seems like such a mismatch. But I'm sure it fitted in perfectly with repressive Victorian moral values though.>>

Well...a perfect Victorian moral disguise, given that the Star is very sexual. And ALL about control. (Put in "my" language, as we were discussing elsewhere, Emily Dickinson was a Swamp Thing).

<<This need to reject the physical and focus solely on the spiritual is represented by placing the Star on the 28th path.>>
Or perhaps the rejection is represented in over-spiritualizing the Star?

<<So what does that tell us about the 28th path? It's going to be one heck of an explosion. >>
Maybe. Definitely some kind of union. But does it have to be an explosive union? Or not a dynamite explosion, but more like...mitosis? This seems very Star to me...and if pressed, I'd say that restoring the feminine to the trinity is more completely done by re-uniting a spiritualized feminine force with her very physical source -- the image is ready to receive its fullness -- rather than giving a feminine attribution to a very masculine image. See, I'm still treading in the images....tho your J H V H point does make a lot of sense to me. What happens if you give the Emporer Tzaddi and the Star Heh but the Star retains the 28th path and the Emporer retains the 15th?
 

Aeon418

brujaja said:
What happens if you give the Emporer Tzaddi and the Star Heh but the Star retains the 28th path and the Emporer retains the 15th?
You can't move the Hebrew letters, they are fixed to the individual paths. Heh is the 15th path, Tzaddi the 28th. The Tarot cards are placed on the paths and thus correspond with that particular paths letter.