The Book of The Law Study Group 3.47
Zephyros
Hmmmm. Do I see Crowley injecting something of the Bible Code into his book, that the letters and their positions may mean something? Seems a little self-aggrandizing, even for him.
Grigori
It's funny, I see this the opposite way. Sure the implication is there is something hidden in the original manuscript by its placement, but that placement is random as far as Crowley' knows consciously, and he's told he'll never know the details and has to wait for someone else to solve the riddle. So to me it seems a bit of an ego deflation to be told that you won't solve the mystery yourself and to even try would be failure.
Always Wondering
Maybe I am placing to much on the timming of this verse, but I do see this in connection with the current lust of result thread. "These mysteries that no beast shall divine." The mysteries of life? "Failure is a key also". Sounds to me like it's connected 2:27-33ish and the cursed Because.
At this moment I am thinking the line drawn could be a life lived.
"It shall be his child & that strangely." I've been focused on the The Aeon, and this brought it's image right back to me. This plus "Abrahadabra" 418, gives me more of a personal feeling I can wrap some meaning around.
The letters and position could be Qabalah and how there is really no one answer, as in the BOL itself. Funny when it's the words of these verses, I'm comfortable with this, but once we start applying numbers to them I start expecting an absolute, and feeling right or wrong again.
AW
At this moment I am thinking the line drawn could be a life lived.
"It shall be his child & that strangely." I've been focused on the The Aeon, and this brought it's image right back to me. This plus "Abrahadabra" 418, gives me more of a personal feeling I can wrap some meaning around.
The letters and position could be Qabalah and how there is really no one answer, as in the BOL itself. Funny when it's the words of these verses, I'm comfortable with this, but once we start applying numbers to them I start expecting an absolute, and feeling right or wrong again.
AW
Aeon418
Your intuition may be trying to tell you something.
III x 47 = 141, κοιλια - Womb.
Aeon418
This book shall be translated into all tongues: - On the surface it appears to say that the book shall be translated into all languages. So far the Book of the Law has been translated into a number of languages, but I doubt all. A less literal interpretation may be that each reader must translate the book into their own words. An individuals reading is their own and not anothers.
I'm also wondering if the four elemental triangles could be considered as tongues? Four levels of interpretation?
but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; - No matter how many veils of interpretation get placed upon the text the exact same objective starting point always exists. Any disputed readings are matters of interpretation.
for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine.
On one level this sounds like a slap in the face and a knock to Crowley's ego. Aiwass basically tells AC that he will never understand every mystery in the book, so don't bother trying.
I find the use of the word "divine" interesting though. Divine suggests guesswork or intuition to gain knowledge from incomplete facts. This may point to how the word "Beast" is used in this third chapter to indicate the Ruach-Intellect mind. Trying to treat the Book of the Law like a big Sudoku puzzle is missing the point. While you certainly can make lots of interesting connections on the plane of intellect, the book is meant to have originated from a source higher than intellect. So does it follow that you can solve it with the intellect alone?
Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. - In one sense this could indicate George Stansfeld Jones who's motto, Achad, means Unity-One. He discovered the Key AL = 31.
In another sense I've long since become bored with wannabe Thelemic messiahs proclaiming that they are the One. I'll leave it there...
It's possible that the one that cometh after is a reference to a different level of consciousness beyond the intellect. Instead of trying to "divine" the meaning at the level of Silver (III:64) the HGA-ized Adept has made a connection to the source itself (III:65). He/she gains the missing ingredient that provides the Key to it all. This may have a transformative effect on all partial or flawed keys invented by the intellect, for the touch of the Angel turns all to Gold.
Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. - If you look at the line drawn on page 60 of the original manuscript you will notice that total of the letter values crossed or touched by the line equals 418...... sort of. You have to fudge it a bit though.
http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0031.html?num=60
s t Be t I say f a
Shin(300) + Teth(9) + Beth-Yod(12) + Teth(9) + Yod(10) + Samech-Aleph-Yod(71) + Vav(6) + Aleph(1).
Well I did say it was a fudge. One of the two letter S's has to count as Shin and the other Samekh. The letter "e" has to be a Yod. And the f is a Vav. Crowley counted it up a different way and still got 418. I bet if we look hard enough we might be able to find next weeks winning lottery numbers too.
The circle squared in it's failure? The little drawing appears to be a symbol of the Rosy Cross, except it's a bit wonky and the arms of the cross don't meet the circle at two points. Along with the "line drawn" this suggests to me the partial, fudged, or failed keys invented by the intellect. But once the master key is obtained (HGA) all Failure turns to Success.
And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. - Achad was definitely a child & that strangely. But maybe all who attain or aspire to K&C are a child of the Beast - and that strangely.
Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it. - Is this Crowley and Achad again? Or is it a warning to the intellect not to go lusting for results and thereby setting it's self up for a big fall.
I'm also wondering if the four elemental triangles could be considered as tongues? Four levels of interpretation?
but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; - No matter how many veils of interpretation get placed upon the text the exact same objective starting point always exists. Any disputed readings are matters of interpretation.
for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine.
On one level this sounds like a slap in the face and a knock to Crowley's ego. Aiwass basically tells AC that he will never understand every mystery in the book, so don't bother trying.
I find the use of the word "divine" interesting though. Divine suggests guesswork or intuition to gain knowledge from incomplete facts. This may point to how the word "Beast" is used in this third chapter to indicate the Ruach-Intellect mind. Trying to treat the Book of the Law like a big Sudoku puzzle is missing the point. While you certainly can make lots of interesting connections on the plane of intellect, the book is meant to have originated from a source higher than intellect. So does it follow that you can solve it with the intellect alone?
Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. - In one sense this could indicate George Stansfeld Jones who's motto, Achad, means Unity-One. He discovered the Key AL = 31.
In another sense I've long since become bored with wannabe Thelemic messiahs proclaiming that they are the One. I'll leave it there...
It's possible that the one that cometh after is a reference to a different level of consciousness beyond the intellect. Instead of trying to "divine" the meaning at the level of Silver (III:64) the HGA-ized Adept has made a connection to the source itself (III:65). He/she gains the missing ingredient that provides the Key to it all. This may have a transformative effect on all partial or flawed keys invented by the intellect, for the touch of the Angel turns all to Gold.
Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. - If you look at the line drawn on page 60 of the original manuscript you will notice that total of the letter values crossed or touched by the line equals 418...... sort of. You have to fudge it a bit though.
http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0031.html?num=60
s t Be t I say f a
Shin(300) + Teth(9) + Beth-Yod(12) + Teth(9) + Yod(10) + Samech-Aleph-Yod(71) + Vav(6) + Aleph(1).
Well I did say it was a fudge. One of the two letter S's has to count as Shin and the other Samekh. The letter "e" has to be a Yod. And the f is a Vav. Crowley counted it up a different way and still got 418. I bet if we look hard enough we might be able to find next weeks winning lottery numbers too.
The circle squared in it's failure? The little drawing appears to be a symbol of the Rosy Cross, except it's a bit wonky and the arms of the cross don't meet the circle at two points. Along with the "line drawn" this suggests to me the partial, fudged, or failed keys invented by the intellect. But once the master key is obtained (HGA) all Failure turns to Success.
And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. - Achad was definitely a child & that strangely. But maybe all who attain or aspire to K&C are a child of the Beast - and that strangely.
Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it. - Is this Crowley and Achad again? Or is it a warning to the intellect not to go lusting for results and thereby setting it's self up for a big fall.
Always Wondering
Lovely
Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. - If you look at the line drawn on page 60 of the original manuscript you will notice that total of the letter values crossed or touched by the line equals 418...... sort of. You have to fudge it a bit though.
http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0031.html?num=60
s t Be t I say f a
Shin(300) + Teth(9) + Beth-Yod(12) + Teth(9) + Yod(10) + Samech-Aleph-Yod(71) + Vav(6) + Aleph(1).
Well I did say it was a fudge. One of the two letter S's has to count as Shin and the other Samekh. The letter "e" has to be a Yod. And the f is a Vav. Crowley counted it up a different way and still got 418. I bet if we look hard enough we might be able to find next weeks winning lottery numbers too.
The circle squared in it's failure? The little drawing appears to be a symbol of the Rosy Cross, except it's a bit wonky and the arms of the cross don't meet the circle at two points. Along with the "line drawn" this suggests to me the partial, fudged, or failed keys invented by the intellect. But once the master key is obtained (HGA) all failure turns to Gold.
And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. - Achad was definitely a child & that strangely. But maybe all who attain or aspire to K&C are a child of the Beast - and that strangely.
Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it. - Is this Crowley and Achad again? Or is it a warning to the intellect not to go lusting for results and thereby setting it's self up for a big fall.
Fascinating. I always wondered about that line. And that whole page is on different paper, graphed or squared. And it's numbered 16, Vav and the Hierophant.
AW
Aeon418
Actually it's the same paper as the rest of the manuscript. The grid of lines was added by Crowley at a later date. When? Nobody knows for sure. But the very first facsimile of the manuscript appeared in The Equinox volume 1 number 7, published in 1912 - minus the grid. The next publication of the manuscript occured in 1926. That edition did have the grid on page 60. There's 14 years between those two publications and Crowley could have added the grid at any time. Some people speculate that he made the addition during his time at Chefalu. It's as good a guess as any I suppose.
Always Wondering
Well that makes more sense, now that I think about it.
So maybe he was trying to figure it all out also?
AW
So maybe he was trying to figure it all out also?
AW
Aeon418
In all likelihood he probably was trying to figure it out. After all it says he will never get it. Now that's what I call showing a red rag to a bull. But it may be one of those aspects of the book that Crowley had to play out for real, where for the rest of us it is more metaphorical. Crowley considered Achad to be the first child of the New Aeon*, so it is appropriate that he should have seen something that Crowley either did not or could not see.
Here's a postcard Crowley sent to Achad in September 1919 after he received a copy of the latters Liber Thirty-One.
[*(From memory) In a letter to W.B. Crow Crowley said that he himself wasn't a child of the New Aeon because he had a foot in both the old and the new. He was more like a bridge between the two.]
