Book of Law Study Group 1.7

Aeon418

Yygdrasilian said:
I see what you mean . . . with two eyes; "working" on the third.
But remember what was said about Satan earlier.

ShTN - Shin(Fire), Teth(Leo - Lion), Nun (Scorpio, Eagle)

I'm thinking Atu XIV Art. ;)
But in the first we came to a mighty throne of gray granite, shaped
like the sweetest pussy cat you ever saw, and set up on a desolate heath.
It was midnight, and the Devil came down and sat in the midst; but
my Fairy Prince whispered: "Hush! it is a great secret, but his name
is Yeheswah, and he is the Saviour of the World." And that was very
funny, because the girl next me thought it was Jesus Christ, till another
Fairy Prince (my Prince's brother) whispered as he kissed her: "Hush,
tell nobody ever, that is Satan, and he is the Saviour of the World."
 

Myrrha

Aeon418 said:
If you're not familiar with the Golden Dawn method of constructing telesmatic images from Hebrew names, this picture is pretty close, if not spot on. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Baphomet.png

Did AC make this connection somewhere between the Baphomet image and a telesmatic image of Aiwass?

I'm wondering because to me the resemblance seems a little vague. I have the Ciceros' book Tarot Talismans which includes a little bit of information on this, both the original GD attributes and their own amended and expanded set of attributes.

The head fits the Ciceros' modified attributes well: Ayin -- Strong, goat-like or horned, dark hair and eyes, a flaming torch (and a horn of water which I don't see in the Baphomet). The traditional GD attributes are just: "Masculine, mechanical" and it is Capricorn so there you have the goat qualities.

The next letter, Yod, was considered feminine for telesmatic purposes by the GD so it fits with the hermaphroditic look of the Baphomet. Not sure if the mid-section of the Baphomet image looks "delicate" though.

Vau is "masculine, steady, strong, heavy, clumsy" in the traditional GD attributions, and associated with Taurus so there would be bull-like qualities. I don't really see this in the legs of the Baphomet image.

Zayin is "masculine, thin and intelligent". The hooves don't seem to fit with this to me and this is the letter that would have been the feet of a telesmatic image. (The Ciceros' amended attributions do say "standing on clouds" and there are some clouds around the throne but the Baphomet figure is sitting).

The GD attributions don't give much visual detail so I guess some of it could fit the Baphomet image but only in a pretty general way.

The Ciceros' amended and expanded list includes lamens and objects that the figures hold and none of these four letters describe the figure as having a cadeuces. The various lamens and objects that are associated with these four letters are not seen in the Baphomet image.
 

Aeon418

Myrrha said:
Did AC make this connection somewhere between the Baphomet image and a telesmatic image of Aiwass?
It's not the sort of thing that would have slipped past Crowley unnoticed. But he wouldn't have been in a position to see it until 1918 at the earliest. It wasn't until that date that Crowley knew the correct Hebrew spelling of Aiwass. Hold onto your hat, this gets a bit spooky.

(1904) Crowley receives the Book of the Law. Initially he calculates the value of Aiwass as 78 (AIVAS). He figured it related to Mezlah (MZLA - 78), the Influence from Kether.

(1913) After Crowley published his infamous, The Book of Lies, he was confronted by Theodor Reuss, who accused him of publishing the central secret of OTO. Crowley proclaimed his innocence until Reuss pointed out a certain chapter in The Book of Lies. This led to Crowley being appointed X* OTO for the United Kingdom. Crowley's chosen motto for this role was BAPHOMET.

(1917) Crowley wrote an article in a newspaper called, The International. The article, The Revival of Magick, ended with a quotation from the Book of Revelation.
Rev 13:18. Herein is wisdom; let him that hath understanding count the number of The Beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and three score and six.

Also in 1917 Crowley was involved in extensive communications with an intelligence calling itself Amalantrah. Through the mediumship of a woman called Roddie Minor, Amalantrah gave Crowley the spelling Baphomet and assured Crowley that he would find the true spelling of Therion. But try as Crowley might he could not find the correct spelling.

(1918) Crowley received a letter from a complete stranger who had read his article in The International. The letter contained the correct spelling of Therion. (ThRIVN = 666)
Crowley's correspondent was a man named Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs. Crowley wrote back and asked Samuel how he spelt his middle name in Hebrew. The reply was OIVZ. Crowley quickly calculated it's value. It was 93. Crowley was absolutely stunned.
 

Aeon418

Myrrha said:
I'm wondering because to me the resemblance seems a little vague. I have the Ciceros' book Tarot Talismans which includes a little bit of information on this, both the original GD attributes and their own amended and expanded set of attributes.
There are several different versions of the Telesmatic images. Some of them incorporate more Zodiacal/planetary/elemental imagery than others.

Try this for size:
(From Circles of Power by John Michael Greer p.90)

Ayin: Curling goat's horns, hooves, animal hair. Dark shadowy. Indigo or brown.

Yod: Very delicate; translucent, as if not quite material. Humanlike, and female. Yellow-green, as if of new spring growth.

Vau: Massive build with immense strength. Dark colors in general. Horns and hooves. Red-orange, brown.

Zain: Tall, thin, humanlike, but winged. Combines male and female attributes. Many colors, orange predominating.
 

ravenest

cardlady22 said:
sucking his finger . . .
What are some reasons that would be done?

tasting something
getting ready to test the direction of the wind
trying to soothe/clean a wound

The God of silence puts his finger to his lips (or between his lips) and says
"Shhhhhh" (Hush)
 

ravenest

A good way to personally expereince these strange aspects (sign of silence, feeling of 'innocence of the babe',e etc) is to get into practicing the assumption of God-forms .... do it yourself.
 

Myrrha

Aeon418 said:
There are several different versions of the Telesmatic images. Some of them incorporate more Zodiacal/planetary/elemental imagery than others.

Try this for size:
(From Circles of Power by John Michael Greer p.90)

Ayin: Curling goat's horns, hooves, animal hair. Dark shadowy. Indigo or brown.

Yod: Very delicate; translucent, as if not quite material. Humanlike, and female. Yellow-green, as if of new spring growth.

Vau: Massive build with immense strength. Dark colors in general. Horns and hooves. Red-orange, brown.

Zain: Tall, thin, humanlike, but winged. Combines male and female attributes. Many colors, orange predominating.

I like this set of attributions because of the colors. Other than that they are pretty much the same. The one that seems most not to fit is Zain, "humanlike", this doesn't seem to fit the Baphomet images feet which are hooves. Maybe the wings come from this set of attributions and they are not done top to bottom but all combined together. I guess it would fit pretty well if it wasn't done top to bottom with Zain necessarily being the feet.
 

Myrrha

Aeon418 said:
Also in 1917 Crowley was involved in extensive communications with an intelligence calling itself Amalantrah. Through the mediumship of a woman called Roddie Minor, Amalantrah gave Crowley the spelling Baphomet and assured Crowley that he would find the true spelling of Therion. But try as Crowley might he could not find the correct spelling.

(1918) Crowley received a letter from a complete stranger who had read his article in The International. The letter contained the correct spelling of Therion. (ThRIVN = 666)
Crowley's correspondent was a man named Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs. Crowley wrote back and asked Samuel how he spelt his middle name in Hebrew. The reply was OIVZ. Crowley quickly calculated it's value. It was 93. Crowley was absolutely stunned.


That is truly amazing if it happened that way.

Why would "therion" be so difficult to spell that a man with AC's intellectual capacity had to be told how to spell it? There can't be more than a few different possible ways to spell it in Hebrew.

Is Aiwaz really a name in Hebrew? I tried googling it and all that came up were thelemic websites and articles. I'm not saying this to be argumentative but I can't help thinking that Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs might actually be a distant relative of Frau Spengler.

Still, interesting connections between AC/Aiwaz/Baphomet.
 

Aeon418

Myrrha said:
Why would "therion" be so difficult to spell that a man with AC's intellectual capacity had to be told how to spell it? There can't be more than a few different possible ways to spell it in Hebrew.
See the Confessions, chp.85 http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/chapter85.html
Myrrha said:
I can't help thinking that Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs might actually be a distant relative of Frau Spengler.
Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs (c. 1891-1971) was a typographer and book designer who founded the Golden Eagle Press.

His full name was Samuel bar Aiwaz bie Yackou de Sherabad.
 

Myrrha

Crowley confessions said:
I then spent some hours in trying to transliterate Theta Eta Rho Iota Omicron Nu into Hebrew in such a way as to give a number which would mean something in my general Cabbalistic scheme. I failed completely! This is very remarkable in itself, I having had twenty years' experience of the art, and the possible spellings being very numerous. Ingenuity can nearly always find a more or less satisfactory orthography for any given combination of letters. However, I was completely baffled.

He does say that it was difficult and that there are a lot of possible spellings. I guess that there are more possible spellings than I though since the spelling that was suggested to him by Samuel A. Jacobs seems to be using the letter vav as an "o".

wikipedia said:
[edit] Vav with a dot on top
Vav can be used as a mater lectionis for an 'o' vowel, in which case it is known as a holom male, and in pointed text is marked with a dot above and to the left and is usually pronounced as /o/.

Still, Crowley was so brilliant I really can't see this posing so much of a problem for him. He could have simply written down all the possible spellings and added them up and then chosen the one that added up to a number that had significance to him.

Thanks for the information on Samuel A. Jacobs, I was able to find numerous references to his press. Still no luck finding any other uses of "Aiwaz" as a name in Hebrew.

I am not here to try to discredit Thelema, but just can't help but be skeptical about some of this.