Book of Law Study Group 1.7

Yygdrasilian

Egyptian Tantra

Aeon418 said:
Almost identical symbols are those of the secret God of the Templars, the bi-sexual Baphomet, and of Zeus Arrhenothelus, equally bi-sexual, the Father-Mother of All in One Person. (He is shown in this full form in the Tarot Trump XV, "the Devil".)

I agree up to this last part. It seems 14:Art is depicting the "sacred hermaphrodite" or, hermes-aphrodite. I've seen the Devil trump described as a Lord at the Gates of Matter and as a Child of the Forces of Time; in this respect he seems to check your credentials at the door - like a trickster - so that only the illuminated 14th piece may enter.
 

Aeon418

He is shown in this full form in the Tarot Trump XV, "the Devil".
3:22 .... I am the visible object of worship .... , i.e. Ra-Hoor-Khuit.

It's a mistake to confuse the object with the reality it represents. But once the Third Eye is open what use are objects? There's no need to worship the Sun when you are the Son.

3:22 .....the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x....

Ordeal x - the circle squared, the Great Work, Knowledge and Conversation. You don't need the image of Ra-Hoor-Khuit after that. You are Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Thelema is only a solar cult up to a certain point. After K&C it becomes stellar.
 

Ross G Caldwell

I think Crowley was thinking of the hermaphroditic Wirth Devil when he made that remark.

wirthdevil.jpg


If that link doesn't come through, see it at -
https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Tarot-15-Le-Diable-The-Devil-Posters_i1879059_.htm

There is a Wirth deck in the Aleister Crowley Collection of the Humanities Research Center at the University of Austin (Texas), which contains the first edition (1889), with the Hebrew letters altered by hand to correspond to the Golden Dawn system. This is illustrated (unfortunately not too clearly) on page 393 of Kaplan's "Encyclopedia of Tarot" vol. II (discussion on pages 391-2). You can see, for instance, that "Le Feu du Ciel" (the Tower) has the letter altered to Peh (when it would have been Ayin in the French system).

This deck probably belonged to Crowley.

Ross
 

Aeon418

Ross G Caldwell said:
I think Crowley was thinking of the hermaphroditic Wirth Devil when he made that remark.
It's possible. Plus many of Crowley's comments on the Devil are concerned with PAN as the manifestation of the ALL. Both masculine and feminine in One. And then there's Crowley's reformulation of IAO as FIOAF and the formula of the Aeon of Horus corresponding to two sexes in one person.

I would quote from the relevant chapter in Magick in Theory and Practice, but the layout of the online copy at Hermetic.com is atrocious, and it will probably derail this thread onto a wild tangent. Here's the link for the interested. http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/aba/chap5.html
 

Myrrha

About the finger-to-mouth gesture: Egyptian art was very formalized. There was a cannon of "correct" ways to represent things and people. Showing a person with a finger to their mouth (often with their hair in one sidelock) simply meant that they were a child. Horus as a child is depicted this way and so are ordinary children.

Budge and Crowley both were writing before this was known and the victorians interpreted the gesture as meaning "silence". Still, it seems to have had this meaning for Crowley and the Golden Dawn and (as Aeon 418 pointed out) we aren't really speaking of Egyptian deities as the Egyptians understood them.
 

Aeon418

Myrrha said:
Still, it seems to have had this meaning for Crowley and the Golden Dawn and (as Aeon 418 pointed out) we aren't really speaking of Egyptian deities as the Egyptians understood them.
Exactly! If you want to understand Thelema and it's symbolism you have to turn to the tradition it evolved out of. The Golden Dawn.
 

Abrac

Myrrha said:
we aren't really speaking of Egyptian deities as the Egyptians understood them.
True, but when someone appropriates symbolism from something else for a different purpose it helps to know where it came from. An understanding of its original intent and usage can help clarify its current usage.

The Greeks viewed Harpocrates as "discretionary silence" or "secrecy." Crowley identifies him as a representation of the holy guardian angel or the "true will."
 

Abrac

Myrrha said:
About the finger-to-mouth gesture: Egyptian art was very formalized. There was a cannon of "correct" ways to represent things and people. Showing a person with a finger to their mouth (often with their hair in one sidelock) simply meant that they were a child. Horus as a child is depicted this way and so are ordinary children.
Myrrha, could you please post a reference for this or at least point me in the right direction??! :)

Oh wait, I found it. It has to do with the hieroglyphic for "child." It shows a child with its finger to its mouth. :)
 

Yygdrasilian

Devil in the Details

Aeon418 said:
It's a mistake to confuse the object with the reality it represents. But once the Third Eye is open what use are objects? There's no need to worship the Sun when you are the Son.
Duality rectified in Unity (2=0). Yes?

Ross G Caldwell said:
I think Crowley was thinking of the hermaphroditic Wirth Devil when he made that remark.
I see what you mean . . . with two eyes; "working" on the third.

(y=g)

Mahalo,
and Happy New Year!
 

Aeon418

Yygdrasilian said:
Duality rectified in Unity (2=0). Yes?
0=2 ? Not really. The K&C of HGA (the level of Tiphareth) is still within the bounds of the Ruach, the Mind. The union with the Angel is made through the most aweinspiring, magnificent, and biggest conception of the divine that your mind can possibly hold onto without burning out. But because of that there is still the seed of duality present. The conception of the Angel acts as a kind of buffer, that stops your mind being totally overwhelmed and driving you completely insane. Unlimited connection with the divine can only be achieved above the level of the ego, above the Abyss in the sephira Binah. But every last vestige of ego has to be shed in the crossing of the Abyss, otherwise you are in serious trouble. It's not for nothing that the symbolic god of this level of awareness is PAN - the god of divine madness.

Liber Cheth is a good example of what is required to make the crossing. It's not bed time reading. :laugh:
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib156.html