Qabalists and Holy Guardian Angels

Macavity

I realise this is a bit complex/specific. But can anyone enlighten me about Holy Guardian Angels and how they relate to the GD court cards... Princes? And, what's with all the concern about union with HGAs?

Intrigued :)

Macavity
 

Kiama

I didn't realise that they had anything to do with the GD courts, but I Know that the Union with the HGA is one of the primary goals of a Hermetic magician.

The HGA represents ultimate wisdom, goodness, and understanding, and to 'achieve union' with it is to 'gain knowledge' of it: to finally 'meet' the HGA aspect of your self. It's a long-winded magical process, described fully in the text 'Sacred Magic of Abra Melin the Mage' (you can probably find an e-text on the web for it).

Hope this helps,

Kiama
 

Macavity

Yes, that would sound about right! :)

I will look up the references. I suspect if I read through DuQuette's (in this instance) writing very carefully, more would indeed be revealed... or perhaps check out Paul H-B's forthcoming book. I suppose, as ever, my interest should be declared as merely "interested bystander", rather than a potential candidate for such processes. ;)

For interest (with no authority), Thoth courts seem to be important, inasmuch that they represent the progress between the Four worlds and, as I understand it, relate to the "Cinderella" (sic) legends which inspired Crowley et. al. in their concept of never ending renewal of Thoth Court Personae? I sense, we hang around in our Princess level Assiah world to be awakened by a Prince (the HGA!) as a first step to this process. And, of course, as you imply, this is really about various internal soul states etc. Nephesh... Ruach... Microcosm... Macrocosm... mumble... mumble... etc. etc. :D

Macavity
 

Kiama

I've just typed all this out once before, and as I was about to post it, the electricity cut out and I lost it all... Boy am I angry!!!

The Court cards Crowley created were based on the cycles he found in many legends and stories from arund the world, namely the legend of Percival/Parsifal in the Arthurian sagas. The Courts do indeed represent a cycle of personaes, and the main players in this cosmic drama are:

Princess
Prince
Queen
Knight/King.

In the cycle, the Prince is without a kingdom, and in order to gain a kingdom he must first win the hand of a Princess (Aladdin springs to mind here!). In most stories of this kind however, the Prince finds that the Queen is in opposition somehow and tries to stop this happening (Cinderella, Snow White), and only when he has overcome the Queen is he able to marry the Princess. When the Prince and Princess marry, they become King and Queen, and their children become Prince and Princess and the cycle starts all over again. In this cycle, we get a bit of the Heiros Gamos thing going on.

This is seen in the Percival legend. Percival's mother tries to prevent him from becoming a Knight (Notice how the Thoth King is actually a Knight!), and he overcomes her opposition and manages to become a Knight. In the opera Wagner composed 'Parsifal', which Crowley was heavily into, Parsifal fall sin love with a woman who's name I have forgotten and finally marries her.

So, that's the cycle thing with the Thoth Courts. Crowley also associated each Court with a part of the Tetragrammaton (Fourfold name of God):

Knight/King: Yod (Fire)
Queen: Heh (Water)
Prince: Vau (Air)
Princess: Heh (Earth)

I like your insight about the Princess representing Assiah and the Prince awakening her out of it. This would make sense given that the Princess is the Earth part of the Tetragrammaton and she is associated with the number 10 and therefore the sephiroth of Malkuth on the Tree of Life, which represents the earth. Also in many legends and stories it IS a Prince who awakens a Princess, either physically out of sleep or in some other way: See Aladdin, Snow White, Cinderella, Lancelot and Guinevere, and Sleeping Beauty.

Myself, I'm not a Hermetic magician and know it's not really for me, so I won't be performing any rituals to achieve knowledgel of my HGA. But my best friend is a Thelemite (Crowleyan Hermetic magician) so we regularly have discussions about all this.

Kiama
 

Macavity

Kiama said:
This would make sense given that the Princess is the Earth part of the Tetragrammaton and she is associated with the number 10 and therefore the sephiroth of Malkuth on the Tree of Life, which represents the earth. Also in many legends and stories it IS a Prince who awakens a Princess, either physically out of sleep or in some other way: See Aladdin, Snow White, Cinderella, Lancelot and Guinevere, and Sleeping Beauty.
Wow, I'm impressed! :) You've got it (independantly and) exactly! But indeed that's pretty much what DuQuette seems to be getting at. Must be handy having the odd tame Hermeticist around too... })

For completeness sake, the only associations remaining are:
Code:
Princess = "Microcosm", Heh,  Assiah,    Nephesh,    Sephiroth 10
Prince   = "Macrocosm", Vau,  Yetzirah,  Ruach,      Sephiroth 5 - 9 
Queen    =              Heh,  Briah,     Neshamah,   Sephiroth 3 
Knight   =              Yod,  Atziluth,  Chiah       Sephiroth 1 & 2
Just as an aside, I never quite understand how Qabalists seem (imo) to "flit" from associating the four worlds to four seperate trees of life (Jacob's Ladder?) and then suddenly back to some internal structure of one tree of life, as here? Hmm, I'm not sure why the Prince should have the run of ALL those central Sephiroth either - but Hey, I guess that's why he's the HGA! :D

Thanks! Maybe we progress somewhat...

Macavity
 

Kiama

Macavity said:
Just as an aside, I never quite understand how Qabalists seem (imo) to "flit" from associating the four worlds to four seperate trees of life (Jacob's Ladder?) and then suddenly back to some internal structure of one tree of life, as here?

Hmmm... I think it's because to Qabalists there are 'trees within trees'. Each Sephiroth has its own Tree of Life within it, just as each human has cells in him, and each cell has particles in it...

The Tree of Life can be seen as a Map of the Universe, so to have a Trees of Life within each Tree of Life possibly makes sense, as each separate part of the Tree is also a mini-Universe within itself...

I think. I'm not sure though.

By the way, what did DuQuette write? I've heard of him alot, and apparantly he's an excellent writer on the subject of Qaballah, but I still haven't gotten round to reading any of his stuff.

Kiama
 

Macavity

Ah, ya got me! This is only really from his "baby level" book - the Chicken Qabalah. But, it's amusing and, certainly very informative! It far exceeded my expectations and most people seem to agree on that. I do look, from time to time, at his other titles on Amazon UK. There are a LOT of quite "techie" ones... on Thelema, Magick etc. I guess the most interesting, potentially for me, might be his guide to the Thoth deck, coming out at the end of the year? :) Take a look...

Macavity
 

Ravenswing

Macavity said:
Just as an aside, I never quite understand how Qabalists seem (imo) to "flit" from associating the four worlds to four seperate trees of life (Jacob's Ladder?) and then suddenly back to some internal structure of one tree of life, as here?

Macavity [/B]

One thing you have to realize is that the tree of life is a model of perception of a structure of reality.

Consider any of the practical sciences. Each has many models as the science developed. Think of all the descriptions of the atom, for example. Each model-- within the parameters of knowedge of the time-- described a reality.

One more modern consideration is wave/particle modeling. We can 'flit' back and forth from one to another. Neither by itself is sufficient to describe 'reality'.

In a similar manner, I go from one tree to another. Each illuminates reality from a slightly different angle. My work is to put the pieces together....


fly well
Raven
 

Macavity

Thanks for reiterating this. I think Colin Low cleared that one up for me, and quite recently, in his: "A depth of Beginning" (notes on the Kabbalah). He writes (imo) in very accessible style. Maybe some other kabbalists should do something more universally recognisable, like jumping into the air before they are about to do such things? (mostly joking) :D

Best to Ya!

Macavity