Escaping from the Tree of Life?

Aeon418

Much like you have belts of various colours in many martial arts schools.
Sure, if you were to walk into a Karate dojo it's reasonable for you to expect the instructor to be competent and know his or her stuff. The colour belt they are wearing should give you some indication of their ability to practice and teach. Initiatory grades serve a similar purpose.
I'm not sure which belt Mr Barlow wears though, aside from the one that holds up his trousers.
But I am sceptical that the ToL will truly tell you about an apprentice's level of spiritual attainment, or where they need to go from there. Spiritual development is far too complex and individual a matter for a simplistic approach. I feel that submitting to the rigidity of such a scheme may cause its followers to miss out a lot.
In this context the Tree is a guiding structure, not a defining structure. Just like the way you can map developmental landmarks in young children, that same developmental map doesn't define every single facet of a child's growth process. The same is true of spiritual growth too.

The Tree of Life and it's use in graded teaching systems is a complicated issue, and one that is frequently made even more complicated by generalised assumptions about how the Tree is worked within different systems.

For example the Golden Dawn and the A.'.A.'. use a grading structure that superficially appears identical in the way it maps onto the Tree of Life. And yet these two systems are totally different. As a consequence the notion of 'spiritual attainment' is difficult to address.
The Golden Dawn model is an 'initiation first' system. It doesn't necessarily confer any sort of 'spiritual attainment' as such. It's more like a series of doors being opened to the possibility of attainment. Each of the grades is basically a 'ceremonial exposure' to each of the Sephiroth (and connecting Paths) and the learning of the theory associated with the grade. There is no question of 'attainment' in any of this though. In fact substantial 'inner work' is not undertaken until the G.D. Adeptus Minor grade 5=6. (Which is not the same as the K&C of HGA. Barlow is yet another author who mistakenly confuses the two. :rolleyes:) In the Golden Dawn scheme the aspirant is merely initiated into a grade (i.e. made a start), they have not attained it.

Crowley's A.'.A.'. uses a similar grade structure, but because it is a 'work first' system it is totally different. The grades are not bestowed upon aspirants in the formal sense of Golden Dawn style orders. Rather they are the seal of attainment and represent the successful completion of work and the development of skills. Despite Barlow's uninformed and ignorant remark about the grades being used to separate the "higher up's from the plebs", the grades actually represents an individuals capacity for the work. Everything is earned through the students own efforts. Instead of the snobbish status symbols that Barlow "imagines" the grades are, they actually represent an ever deeper level of service to others. Crowley makes this abundantly clear in the essay, One Star in Sight.
Aleister Crowley said:
He is furthermore trained to the one habit essential to Membership of the A∴A∴; he must regard all his attainments as primarily the property of those less advanced aspirants who are confided to his charge.
As for the complaint that the scheme is rigid, I can't agree. The A.'.A.'. curriculum is very specific, but it is more like a skeleton framework. There is absolutely nothing to prevent a student working with material and practices outside of the formal curriculum. Provided the particular requirements of each grade are met, the student is free to explore anything else that they choose.
 

Michael Sternbach

hmm... I guess it is a large topic in it's own right to understand from a couple of excerpts. Perhaps I am getting crossed wires here. The Liber spirits may be as you say Mercurial rather than Goetic and he does seem to differentiate them. However, it appears to be Goetic ones he describes as being positive to work with in the excerpt. This seemed at odds with his other (perhaps more recent?) description of the Goetia on the inverse tree as being man made demon forms and limited in their use. I thought the inverse tree was the Qlipphotic side.

The Mercurial spirits correspond with the Major Arcana, the Goetic spirits (or jinn) with the Minors. They can both be safe and constructive forces to contact if it is done right, says Paul. This much is clear.

However, there is another category of spirits traditionally associated with the decans to consider, which are attributed with the 72 names of God, the Shemhamphorash. Citing Wikipedia:

"The 72-fold name is mentioned by Roger Bacon, who complained about a book titled Liber semamphoras, more specifically the linguistic corruption that occurred in translating Hebrew to Latin. The angels of the Shemhamphorash factored heavily into the cosmology of Johann Reuchlin influencing Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Athanasius Kircher. Thomas Rudd featured the 72 angels in his magic, as a balancing force against the evil spirits of the Ars Goetia or in isolation. Rudd's material on the Shemhamphorash was later copied and expanded by Blaise de Vigenère, whose manuscripts were in turn used by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers in his works for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn."
 

Aeon418

The Mercurial spirits correspond with the Major Arcana, the Goetic spirits (or jinn) with the Minors.
Just in case this got missed, there are two sets of spirits presented in Liber 231. The Mercurial Genni's and the corresponding Qliphoth. The former is the spirit of the balanced manifestation of any Path/Major. The latter are the unbalanced, blocked, and calcified "husks" that serve to block the natural flow 'energy' of a particular Major card.

And as you have already pointed out, these (including the Qliphoth) are different from the Goetic spirits.

Barlow's adoption of Kenneth Grant's 'add on' about travelling through Da'ath to access the 'supposed' reverse of the Tree in order to work with the Qliphoth is outside of the scope of Crowley's original Liber 231.
 

Michael Sternbach

Thanks Aeon for your clarifications regarding the different roles of the grades in the GD and A.'.A.'., respectively. Very informative.

However, I wonder if in your last post you actually meant to say that the qliphoth are a group of spirits (the opposites of the Mercurial spirits)? I thought the term is used only for the "broken" Sephiroth.
 

ravenest

Universally verified truths are the truths from either Mathematical, Logical or Scientific verification process. For example,

1+1=2
if x+1=10, then x=? x=9 ...etc

Everyman dies, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates dies.

And all the Scientific truths which can be verified by experiments and observations with 100% same results of repeatability and testabilties provided performed under the same conditions, for simplest example "If you drop an apple from the top of a 10 story building, it will fall down to the ground due to the earth's gravity." etc etc.

Nobody can deny above statements, because they are universally verifiable truths. Psychological and Metaphysical statements are not universally verifiable in their nature, so they can only be more reasonable, coherent or more valid, not right or wrong.

Psychological analysis or treatments do not apply coherently, and don't work 100% to every human being on earth on every occasion.

Sounds like you are referring to death and taxes.

In that case I will leave the maths up to LRichard, I am sure he can explain unity and duality mathematically for you, if that is the proof you need ( if he could be bothered to) .

Just wondering; when you go to a doctor and get a prescription ... do you ask for mathematical proof ?
 

Richard

.....In that case I will leave the maths up to LRichard, I am sure he can explain unity and duality mathematically for you, if that is the proof you need ( if he could be bothered to) ......
Can't be bothered right now. Trapped in a tree.
 

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foolMoon

Sounds like you are referring to death and taxes.

In that case I will leave the maths up to LRichard, I am sure he can explain unity and duality mathematically for you, if that is the proof you need ( if he could be bothered to) .

Just wondering; when you go to a doctor and get a prescription ... do you ask for mathematical proof ?

Because you were crying out for definition of the universally verified truths, I gave out some simplest examples. No confusion please. We have been talking about the logic of debate.
 

smw

The Mercurial spirits correspond with the Major Arcana, the Goetic spirits (or jinn) with the Minors. They can both be safe and constructive forces to contact if it is done right, says Paul. This much is clear.

However, there is another category of spirits traditionally associated with the decans to consider, which are attributed with the 72 names of God, the Shemhamphorash. Citing Wikipedia:

"The 72-fold name is mentioned by Roger Bacon, who complained about a book titled Liber semamphoras, more specifically the linguistic corruption that occurred in translating Hebrew to Latin. The angels of the Shemhamphorash factored heavily into the cosmology of Johann Reuchlin influencing Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Athanasius Kircher. Thomas Rudd featured the 72 angels in his magic, as a balancing force against the evil spirits of the Ars Goetia or in isolation. Rudd's material on the Shemhamphorash was later copied and expanded by Blaise de Vigenère, whose manuscripts were in turn used by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers in his works for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn."

Thanks for the info. I was wondering about the Shemhamphorash numbering 72 similar to the Goetia.