Tag Archives: Aleister Crowley

Let’s talk about the Tower, baby, let’s talk about you and me…

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Essay, Tarot

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Tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck; a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley for the public domain

Tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck; a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley for the public domain

Tarot’s Tower does come across as a phallic symbol and in some interpretations it is read as such*; the Star accordingly could be read as female orgasm – and as connection to sephirot Binah and whatnot.

It’s one of the Major Arcanum I have working knowledge of, but can’t connect to on a deeper level, I don’t get it.

Yes, I know it all – the connection to even more confusing Biblical tale of the Babylonian Tower; for an uber-intellectual analysis of the Arcanum and references to anyone you can think of – from Nimrod to Plutarch, see “Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey” by Sallie Nichols… It is a great book on theory of Tarot and I recommend it heartily, but I do doubt it will improve your practical reading skills even the tiniest bit.

It’s been said before that Tarot is a language – a system of signs in semiotic understanding. As such, it does need to be studied both theoretically and practically. To me personally, the two aspects of studying do go hand in hand, otherwise – theory without practice is abstract and dry, whereas practice without theoretic studying tends to turn the discipline into mere fortune-telling. (Nothing too wrong about it, except that on philosophical level it’s diametrically opposed to the doctrine of  free will, whereas in practice it too easily activates the notorious ‘negative self-fulfilling prophecy’, ie. negative predictions do influence sitter’s mind on various levels.)

I am not going to re-digest numerous valid and known interpretations of the Arcanum XVI, those didn’t do much for me. I did learn over years what Tower means in my readings – it’s usually denoting couple of days of stress and upset, but not more than that. (One of the cards I dislike getting way more is the depressing and dis-empowering Hanged Man, that energy for me is way more difficult to handle than shaky and unpredictable Tower.)

What I wanted to share is an unusual and non-deterministic take on the Tower to which I came during last couple of days, since I relocated once again from Montenegro to Moscow.

See, nevertheless we too speak a Slavic language and albeit my country throughout history had close ties with Russia – our own Balkan mentality and Mediterranean way of living has nothing to do with Russian ways. Italian mentality is close to ours – and no wonder, it is a neighboring country to ours and good part of Montenegro was historically ruled by Venetia. We get along with Turks very well – after all – as much as we fought throughout history, we did live in a close proximity for some 400 years and by now we do have a lot in common, taste in foods and similar cuisines among it. But Russians… as much as we love them, we have close to nothing in common with them – neither the system of values, nor the way of life. And it’s tough for me, every time I come here, to adapt and adjust to it all once again – and here we come to the Towerish experience which I wanted to share.

I wrote before on secondary linguistic personality and cultural adaptation ( you can read an excellent material – Russian source translated into English – here http://www.russcomm.ru/eng/rca_biblio/l/leontovich02_eng.shtml ), learning a foreign language is a profoundly transforming and deeply Tower-ish experience.

Leading kabbalistis of our times, such as Shaul Youdkevitch, say that the language we speak molds our personalities – and albeit I am a doctoral candidate in linguistics, I quote kabbalists way more gladly than linguists and philosophers. (After all, during brief 45 min of intro lecture to Kabbalah – which is mostly on what Kabbalah is NOT-  one learns way more than during hours long, boring and pretentious lectures by Slavoy Zizek for example, at least it is so in my experience.) The thing with me is that by now I speak Russian as a native and they don’t figure out easily I am a foreigner; but my attitude is foreign to them and that brings about a lot of confusion. Our society back home is conservative – and so is Russian, but in very different ways; I am from patriarchal culture, but I am not used to patronizing to which I am exposed over here due to my gender – and Russians are not used to women being as assertive as I am, at least not at my age (I look younger my biological age.) Back at home I don’t act from the framework of my gender – I am a responsible person, a member of the community and most often my gender is irrelevant to whatever I am doing or saying. It’s not so in mother Russia. I was told I speak too much for a woman (by a member of the academy of science, mind you.) I am constantly reminded I don’t need bother too much, it’s suffices that my looks are somewhat pleasing to the eye. That bothers me. I wasn’t raised as a girlie girl – I was raised to be a person, not a girl. More so that at my age and with social position I have back home it is ridiculous to be reduced to some kind of decoration… but it is what it is. I learned so far that there isn’t much point in arguing and explaining feminist premises to anyone, people get it or not. What’s important is that in my own microcosms – in academia and at my own Muscovite University it is NOT so; the treatment I – and most other women get out there… that I can’t change, as much as it bothers me. For the sake of the proverbial intercultural communication, you need to adapt- at least seemingly and temporarily – as difficult as it I; so, I learned a little trick, which makes my Towerish adaptation tad easier to bare – I introduced a heavy foreign accent which clearly marks me as an intruder. As soon as I step out from the comfort of Pushkin University, my faked accent distinguishes me as an outsider, a crazy foreigner, Albert Camus’ Meursault – by choice.

Meanwhile, I skyp with my family, so not to lose my mind completely 😉

my mom, my fur baby, my cousin Drago and sis in law Vanja

my mom, my fur baby, my cousin Drago and sis in law Vanja; father dearest on the snapshot bellow (he’s just back from a reception hence the tie & all that jazz ;))

Video call snapshot 48 Video call snapshot 50

* Lon Milo Duquette, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot; Weiser Books, 2003 (also Sexual Alchemy of the Thoth Tarot – DVD course by the same author)

 

The House of Bondage & Tarot Commandments

10 Sunday Feb 2013

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In Egypt, i did think of the Biblical Hebrews – while wandering in the desert, they used to quetch about the current living circumstances and, instead of being grateful for having achieved freedom  – were quite nostalgic about the ‘the house of bondage’… Of course, Mizraim , when the Bible is read indepth, is a metaphor for our own Ego, but still… even in nowadays Egypt, the foods are delicious, sightseeing is awe-inspiring and the service is excellent. I should have known  better than going there in the summer as the heat is insupportable and the level of security which foreign tourists get (read: military escort) so to keep the eventual terrorists away is unnerving, to say the least, but still – it is well worth travelling there.

There are many myths linking Tarot with Egypt, and albeit they aren’t true – they do buzz the imagination; also, Aleister Crowley was forever fascinated with it and even conceived the notches of his philosophy in Cairo.

I’ve never written extensively on Egypt, it’s been done before – and in a way which  makes the mere trying to add something –  unnecessary.

In an earlier essay i had quoted two paragraphs on Cairo by Lovecraft and i’ll repeat myself, albeit i hate doing so: if you read that – you too were in Cairo, you strolled along the cobbled alleys of its bazaars, you sipped on your coffee on Nile and listened to the city talk about yet another Saudi prince who fell head over heels in love with the famous belly dancer and spent his fortune in the process.

It’s being said of Karnak that it represents the micro-cosmos of ancient Egypt; one of the largest temple sites in the world, except for its architectural, ritual and historical importance, is also known as the setting of Agatha Cristie’s ‘Death on the Nile’.

Here it is, as magnificent as it gets:

01 02 03 04

There is that “Tarot commandment” You shall not collect (only) a mini deck, without investing into a regular edition, here are my two Egyptian darlings – regular and mini one:

Egyptian Tarot by Lo Scarabeo, regular and mini decks

 

 

“…as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold – everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment – an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by – I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, ‘Can you see anything?’ it was all I could do to get out the words, ‘Yes, wonderful things.”
Howard Carter, Tomb of Tutankhamen


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The Four Queens of Tarot and Gender Stereotyping

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Tarot

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The Queen of Swords has been stalking me  lately. I must confess that i still get goose bumps when her Royal Highness chooses to come out in a reading. In Raider Waite she’s usually the bitchy one, embittered one, “traditionally” – a widow… What not. Definitely, not an energy one would strive for, right?

How exactly Pamela Colman Smith‘s deck got a life of its own and how the common meanings attributed to the cards developed  – that’s a story unto itself.

In occult circles you’ll often hear the tale of presumed animosity between Aleister Crowley and Arthur Edward Waite, but was it really the case or theirs was merely a good marketing? When Waite referred to Crowley  – it was in terms of his rebellion, his letting out the best kept magickal secrets just like that, passing it to the undeserving who haven’t spent years in painstaking training, meanwhile Crowley, who did call Waite a “bore” , still painted the latter as an reputable scholar and the guard of old (and powerful) magical traditions… Yet none of them ever pulled hard artillery so to say, or anything else that would actually kill other’s career. Rob writes in detail on this presumed enmity.

Myself i am not all that interested in the history of the Golden Dawn and i think several points in Rob’s text are disputable, but anyway it is, we did end up with two distinct traditions in Tarot, that of RWS and Thoth, Waite’s and Crowley’s decks respectively.

While Thoth has kept its tradition more or less intact, RWS, the most popular and widespread Tarot deck, seems to have adopted “traditional” meanings on the go.

Thus, Crowley writes in The Book of Thoth: “The Queen of Swords represents the watery part of Air, the elasticity of that element, and its power of transmission. She rules from the 21St degree of Virgo to the 20th degree of Libra… She is the clear, conscious perception of Idea, the Liberator of the Mind. The person symbolized by this card should be intensely perceptive, a keen observer, a subtle interpreter, an intense individualist, swift and accurate at recording ideas; in action confident, in spirit gracious and just.”

The Swords Queen is further related to the Hexagram 28, Dà Guò – Across the Great Pass, in the Book of Changes

Capture

where first character  represents a big man and the second stands for a pass in a mountain, also meaning the completion of an action:

28. Da Guo

(Adopted from artsofchina.org )

So how come this Liberator of the Mind and the symbol of the Great Passing, has come to denote a dreaded bitch?! You’ll find online “traditional meanings” like these: A widow. An unscrupulous woman. 

How on earth this came to be?!

Here she is, in all her glory:

Queen of Swords from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck

Queen of Swords from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The problem with contemporary cartomancy is that some new-agey, happy-go-lucky attitude is applied to an ancient and scholarly subject, newbies are told that cards mean “whatever you want them to mean” and here projections start begetting  distortions.

The truth is that the Queens  stand for the letter Hei in the Tetragramaton and, as Crowley puts it “they represent the second stage in the process of creation whose fourth and last state is material realization.”

Lo and behold, search any Tarot forum for “what does Queen of **** mean” and you’ll get sick in your stomach: The Queen of Wands is dubbed the slutty one, The Queen of Pentacles is, like, a housewife at best and a kept woman at worst, while the Queen of Cups would go for the resident psycho or the other women… Sure.

Actually, such “meanings” speak of the society’s perception of women, so the Queen of Earth (Pentacles) , attributed to I Ching’s – Hexagram 31, Wooing and denoting influence, success and cordiality of a sage – in “Tarot folklore” gets to be either a gold digger, or a housewife! Goodness!

Alas, Tarot was read long before the Golden Dawn, so lets take a look at the granma of the modern-day-Swords Queen:

Royne D'Espees, Veritable Tarot de Marseilles

Royne D’Espees, Veritable Tarot de Marseilles

Here, the Queen is depicted as pregnant, her right hand  (symbolizing reason) holding  the sword is bigger then the left, she seems to be winged and ferociously protecting the fruit of her womb.

When dabbling with Tarot, the way to go is to read the cards – and that’s exactly what i did; i choose the Swords Queen as Significator and pulled five cards:

100_5976

The Queen has turned her back to the delusion of Seven Cups and to impasse of Eight Swords, she is facing the balancing of the Justice and the Ten of Pentacles.

Let’s take a closer look at the last card in the spread:

Pay attention at the pattern in which coins are arranged. Seems familiar? Right, the Ten Sphirot of the Tree of Life:

There is that legend, that wise men of the times long gone had decided to put wisdom on the cards so to preserve it for the future, they knew the human nature and bet on the chance that vice will grow on us… It turned out that they were right. As the time went by, Tarot had followed its mysterious ways and ended up in medieval Italy. Some believe that a young nobleman from the House of Sforza, as he was gambling under the influence of intoxicating local wine, started noticing that the cards he was playing were trying to tell him a story… He listened. From there on it started rolling and it never stopped.

That’s the story i came up with, and Tarot does encourage each and everyone of us to tell their own story, there are only two elements of the genre that can not be omitted: wisdom and nobility of the intent.

Now go and write.

 

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Parlez-vous TdM?

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Tarot

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Friday evening, when i am at home – and that’s most Fridays when in Montenegro – i pull randomly five cards from one of Tarot de Marseilles decks and i lurk at the cards while listening to weekly Kabbalah classes.

I was going to title this essay Scattered thoughts on TdM and 3 Negative weeks when it dawned on me that apart from most zealous Tarot enthusiasts  – hardly anyone would know what is it about.

My beloved Tarot tribe has developed its own lingo which  would take an expert in military ciphers to decode  – unless one is socializing with other Tarotists on a daily basis and hanging out on Tarot forums and facebook groups.

When you say Tarot – most non-connoisseurs vaguely recall the artwork of Rider-Waite tarot deck, the best known deck in English speaking countries.

I was for a decade or so in “monogamous” relationship with it, that was the only deck i read – and even now, after having learned other traditions and acquired over hundred of exquisite decks, it would still be the deck i’d take with me to the desert island.

Arthur Edward Waite was a member of  the Golden Dawn –  a magical order which probably had strongest impact on Western occultism – a Freemason and scholarly mystic whose work was well received in academic circles; yet he is most known as co-creator of Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Genius artist and fellow Golden Dawn member  Pamela Colman Smith illustrated the cards for Waite, and the deck of deceptively simple artwork, one of the first with 78 cards fully illustrated, was published in 1909.

If you look at attached scan of 7 of Wands, you see a man who seems to be defending himself. Look closer, pay attention to his different shoes. From there, Dan Pelletier – one of the most interesting and original contemporary philosophers of Tarot – makes connection with what’s known as Levirate marriage and The Book of Ruth and there your mind starts to boggle.

For we know Ruth, traditionally, is the first convert in history – albeit she is Moabite and it is said (Deuteronomy 23:4)  An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation shall none of them enter into the assembly of the LORD for ever.

Not only she becomes an Israelite, but she’s also great-grandmother of King David!

How did that happen? Is there some mistake in the scripture?! Not really, because when read indepth, The Book of Ruth is not merely a story of the first convert, also described as first gold-digger in history – but a manual on how to transform the darkness in each and every one of us – into the light.

Stuff like that.

But, back to different Tarot traditions, which i like to compare to what’s known in linguistics as proto-languages… For Tarot is a language, albeit constructed one,  a code if you like, not a natural one – but still a language in its own right.

In the same way the known languages which are believed to have descended by slow modification of the proto-language into languages that form a language family –  most of the thousands of contemporary Tarot decks ascend to the three proto-traditions: Raider Waite, Thoth and Tarot de Marseilles.

Aleister Crowley, Waite’s fellow initiate of the Golden Dawn and his fervent opponent, in partnership with Lady Frieda Harris created Thoth Tarot.

Crowley – a ceremonial magician, prolific author, mountaineer and the founder of  religious philosophy of Thelema, together with Harris seem to have crammed into this pack of cards all occult knowledge in existence; thus 7 of Wands here stands for Netzach (Victory) in the suit of Fire and is also attributed to Mars in Leo.

I know very few readers who can make sense of the card as it is (without recalling Pam’s depiction of “Defendant”) – and albeit Thoth can give amazing readings, it is basically a part of initiatory system of magical fraternity Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.),  or better to say – of its several competing fractions who claimed to be legitimate heirs to Aleister Crowley.

Basically you need to un-learn the RWS system in order to learn Thoth, and – albeit some respectable Tarot thinkers and practicioners have quite different opinion on the matter – in my view, Thoth deck, taken out of Thelemic context, makes very little sense.

But, let us go to the grand-daddy of both decks – Tarot de Marseilles and its depiction of Seven of Wands ie. Le sept de Bâton :

No Kabbalah here, no astro glyphs, levirate marriages or whatsoever – simply seven wands crossed in a particular way and some vegetation growing from it.

Yet this too will send you tripping if you focus on it.

Yes, of course it can be read traditionally – all sevens are related to the Chariot and Wands are work, so the card would on the most basic level denote something to do  with hard work which results in success, but…

Apply to it Enrique Enriquez  famous “Eye Rhyme” method, try reading card’s  rhyme, rhythm and resonance  – for this genius artist experiences tarot reading as an act of visual poetry – try hearing what song this card sings to you personally, all magical orders, ceremonial magicians and traditional meanings aside…

That’s what i tried to do this night and here is my reading with Jean Noblet deck:

On Fridays i read from right to left. Nine of Swords – first card from the right – to me is quite an ugly one; the eight swords (Suit of Air/ Thoughts/ Ideas) locked in a circle are cutting off and propelling out four identically shaped buds; to me – it can be about some kind of vicious circle, cliche thinking, speech patterns and so on.

The shortsword in the middle seems to be a Gladius – the primary sword of Ancient Roman foot soldiers.

As a side note – other words derived from Latin noun glădĭus  are gladiator  (“swordsman”) and gladiolus, the sword lily.

So, let’s presume the shortsword here represent some idea – could be”pure”, lily-like one – that has pierced some repetitive negative thought pattern; that idea is then excruciated on the Weel of Fortune, tempered in the fire of the Tower, and finally buried… Before it becomes a weapon in the Queens right hand – her left, significantly smaller hand being laid on what seems to be baby bump – that idea needs to ‘raise from the dead ‘ in the Judgement card, then to be internalized in the guarded Queen’s stomach – before it becomes the weapon of protection in her right hand.

It’s a long way to go  – but probably the only one by which  repetitive negative thoughts which lead to self-sabotaging  behavior  patterns –  can be transformed into one’s advantages.

The so called Three Negative Weeks – the interval of “Bein HaMeitsarim” (between the straits) in which we are now according to kabbalistic calendar –  seem to be the ideal timing to do so – we are propelled to go within and prevent situations that might bring self-destruction.

In words of one of the leading Kabbalists of our times, Shaul Youdkevitch: “We often forget that we are the master of our body and soul, and have the right not to let in emotions which don’t serve us or our purpose. We must hold on to the belief and knowledge that we have the power to redirect our fate, as the alternative is to be “bnei beliya’al” (evil-doers, lacking conscience), useless in the ability to rise above emotion, thought and misery that overwhelms us… it is this time, during the three weeks, that we fight these negative forces with tolerance, open-heartedness and unconditional love.”

Absolutely amazing interview of Dan Pelletier by Enrique Enriquez http://tarology.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/a-conversation-wit-dan-pelletier/

Jean Noblet Tarot http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Jean_Noblet_Tarot

The 9th of Av According to Kabbalah http://www.livekabbalah.org/index.php/home/gates-in-time/holidays/the-9th-of-av-tisha-beav/

Weekly Zohar Study (Matot) http://www.livekabbalah.org/index.php/home/weekly-zohar/numbers-bamidbar/matot/

Weekly audio Zohar Study (Matot-Masei) with Shaul Youdkevitch http://www.livekabbalah.org/index.php/home/download-studies/

The Lord of Swiftness and The Secret Service

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Tarot

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English: Aleister Crowley's unicursal hexagram.

English: Aleister Crowley’s unicursal hexagram. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am drooling over my new Giant Thoth and i must say that to me personally there is no deck like it!

It’s been a while now – a decade or so – that i didn’t do daily draws for prolonged periods of time, these scattered thoughts are mostly about enjoying on a daily basis the amazing artwork of Lady Harris, backed up with genius Crowley’s thought.

It’s interesting how these images – and their derivates* speak to the observer when he is unfamiliar with all the nasty myths related to Crowley and, more so, when he is not familiar neither with Tarot nor with Qabala…

With a friend we’ve been working on a project – i am completing the cycle of Thoth inspired poems and she is doing the illustrations; the teasers, selected poems and illustrations, were just published in June’s edition of Ars Literature Magazine.

It’s freshly out of press and i haven’t seen it yet, but today a life-long family friend, whom i hold in high respect, Mr Vladimir Kekovic, has called me to share his impressions, he happens to be one of the people on whose judgement of my work i rely the most.

Mr Kekovic is an amazing gentleman, a polymath, a popular and somewhat controversial public figure, author of several non-fiction bestsellers, famous art connaisseur and collector, father of the famous Montenegrin painter Biljana Kekovic and former Minister of Internal Affairs, which would say – chief of the secret service  during the times of former Yugoslavia when this very service was ranked among the world’s top four, together with CIA, KGB and Mossad.

Someone with such references and public standing mazel tov-ing you on your work makes it up for the countless hours of research, for sleepless nights spent penning, for the whole process by which a poem is born into this world – which, as rewarding as it is, oftentimes is downright painful.

So, Mr Kekovic says he is moved by the poems and he shares with me what impact they had on him… and as he speaks, i bless god because that’s exactly why i spent the last year studying Crowley’s thought and O.T.O. materials religiously, performing the rituals, scrying andmeditating up to 16h a day! Last summer (2011), upon passing my PhD exam in philosophy in Moscow, i had returned to Montenegro, my mind still ‘trained’ from the seven months long preparation for the exam, i stocked up on all available materials on Thoth and locked myself with it in my apartment for four consecutive months – that is, during that time i focused exclusively on this deck of cards… (Since then, after managing to grasp an overall idea of the system, i devote to it some time every single day and at least one whole day of 8 effective working hours a week.) And it’s a tough cookie, i must tell you.

To get Thoth, one has to un-learn all one knew about reading RWS or Tarot de Marseilles. One needs to get beyond the urban myths about Crowley and their own fears – that’s not easy – and it’s just a first step.

Basically, Crowley and Lady Harris crammed all occult knowledge in existence into these 78 images – there are plethora of Greek myths included, the sacred geometry, biblical hermenautics, Qabala, Astrology and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Not to forget that both Crowley and Harris were geniuses in their own right, so getting their work takes much more than mere intellectual understanding; the images , with their meticulous selection of symbols and colors, when scryed on in preset combinations   – have an expanding impact on the consciousness, which by far exceeds both verbalization and logic.

I do not think theirs can ever be surpassed; what can be done though – and what my friend and i tried to accomplish while working on this project – is to present your own perception of the deck and the ways it has impacted you.

For that purpose, i can’t recommend highly enough “Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot” by Lon Milo DuQuette, which i believe to be essential in Thoth studies – alongside with Crowley’s “Liber Theta” and Jim Eshelman’s “Liber Theta: Tarot Symbolism & Divination”. (Wang’s “Qabalistic Tarot, a Textbook of Mystical Philosophy”  is an excellent source too, albeit often hard to follow and, to my view, excessively detailed.)

Lon Milo gives the qabalistic formula behind 8 of Wands aka “The Lord of Swiftness” : 8 (Hod) of Wands (Aziluth) + Mercury in Saggitarius;  Harris’ design depicts the way in which energy becomes matter.

Crowley, without mentioning Einstein or mass-energy equivalence (E = mc2), states that: “this card, therefore, represents energy of high velocity, such as furnishes the master-key to modern mathematical physics. ”

Let’s try to understand what does it mean. (If you are not so much into Kabbalah and it derivatives, do skip the text in italics.)

Essentially , there are two ways of approaching the Tree of Life:  from the “top-down” and  from the “bottom-up.” “Top-down” is the analysis of the process of creation, beginning with what we can know about God, descending through the heavenly realms, down to earth and man himself. In Kabbalah it’s called the Work of Creation, and stems from the first chapters of Genesis.

“Bottom-up” begins with man and continues “up Jacob’s Ladder,”following his spiritual journey into the spiritual realms, towards God. This method is based on the analysis of Ezekiel’s vision, and called the Work of the Chariot.

Generally, the Sephirah on the right “pillar” of the Tree of Life are “active”  and those on the left a “passive”. The outer pillars are also associated with the ideas of “force” and “fire” (on the right side) and “form” and “water” (on the left side). The central pillar is balancing the two, and is associated with “air” or “spirit.”

“All the Sephirot on the passive pillar are receptive and have the qualities of Form, in the Understanding (Binah) is the formulation of ideas, Judgment (Gevurah) is exercised in response to something, and Reverberation (Hod) is the echo to an impulse coming from any one of the other Sephirot. It is the same with the active pillar. Here the impact of revelation is seen in Wisdom (Hokhmah), while the power than must be behind Mercy (Hesed) is enormous. Eternity (Netzah) is the principle of repetition, the incessant input necessary to make the world go round. The central pillar is concerned with Will and with the Grace which descends from the Crown (Keter) through Knowledge (Da’at) to Beauty (Tiferet), which is the Sephirah which reflects the top to the bottom of the Tree. Foundation (Yesod) and Kingdom (Malkut) are respectively the manifestation of an image plan and the actualization of it in the Divine material.” (1)

(It should be noted however, that as the Sephirot interact with, and contain aspects of each other, that any of the ones on the passive side can act forcefully, and vice-versa. For instance, Gevurah (Judgment) can be “passive” in terms of mediating between understanding and truth, or it can be “active” in terms of meeting out punishment in the face of continued evildoing. )

The Four Worlds of Kabbalah, the stages of the “creation process”are read out from Isaiah 43:7, “Every one that is called by My name (Atzilus “Emanation/Close”), and for My glory I have created (Beriah “Creation”), I have formed (Yetzirah “Formation”), even I have made (Asiyah “Action”). 

The simplest way of understanding the four worlds and descending chain of Existence is to compare it to someone building a house:

The person determines that one day they would build their own house (emantion);
they plan the style they would design it to (creation);
they draw up the specific blueprints to fulfill this design (formation);
they acquire the materials and construct it  (action).

Hod is the eighth sephira of the Kabbalistic tree of life; and, mystically, as a placement 
on the roadmap to higher consciousness, it’s the key to the mystery of form.

In Western Esoteric Tradition (Hermetic Qabala)Hod is viewd to be the sphere in which the magician mostly works. Dion Fortune gives example of a primitive man, meditating in the wilderness, who comes in contact and begins to understand some energy that surrounds him. To grasp it better, he creates some form, perhaps the form of a god or a symbol, so he has something he can relate to. He uses that statue or symbol in future ceremonies to contact that intangible energy once again and this is the role that Hod plays in magick.

Long story short – it’s somewhere here that the word is imbued with its creative powers and charged  with whatever it takes to manipulate the outer reality.

Astrologically, according to Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas, “Mercury is in detriment in Sagittarius because of the disproportion between the planet of specific facts and the sign of general possibilities. Sagittarian expansiveness stimulates Mercury to a fitful brilliance which may be alternately superficial and inspired… The mind darts from one conclusion to another but, unless it is deliberately reined in, continuity and judgment are lacking.

At best, the Mercury-Sagittarius blend gives a profound sense of purpose and the ability to focus on distant goals. A far-reaching ambition to comprehend the mental and moral laws of the universe and to reconcile scientific and religious approaches to life results in a tendency to study several subjects simultaneously, to carry on more than one occupation, and to become involved in a number of different but related projects.” (2)

Lon Milo compares 8 of Wands to two people who spend the night drinking coffee and talking tirelessly – adding that obviously there is a lot is to be learned, yet that ultimately they’ll crash. (I say – that’s unless those two switch to drinking herbal tea, munch on a healthy snack and get a nap – very little can be understood in a single night, albeit a lot can be said.)

As per the working use, the main Key Words for the card are ‘hasty communications and messages’.

As we know, Lady Harris among else used her knowledge of Decans* in choosing the colors and those are all but accidental.

As i look at the planetary Glyph of Mercury depicted on the card, i think to myself how was blessed i was to spend this Saturday on my own, in gracious presence of my fur baby, Manya, who is mostly minding her own business.

The yellows and reds of the card remind me of the burn out and exhaustion i felt ever since last Tuesday, when i got back from the most demanding and tiring work trip to Brussels – it did feel like being in the sun way too long.

Communicating extensively, giving speeches and participating in conferences for several consecutive days for me is an unusual and extreme mode of being and as i look at these red arrows zig-zagging from the center outwards – i do feel how i am retrieving my own energies the other way around, being on my own, centering and enjoying the silence; going deeper from the upper fiery colors – towards the bottom of the card are the blue shades of spirituality and the green of rejuvenation.

Copyright©20012 Lena Ruth Stefanovic, All Rights Reserved

Thoth Tarot scans (all cards) http://www.tarot.com/tarot/decks/index.php?deckID=5

O.T.O. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis

Lon Milo’s Book on Thoth – Review http://supertarot.co.uk/wp/2009/06/understanding-crowleys-book-of-thoth-review/

Liber Theta: Tarot Symbolism & Divination (free download) http://www.thelema.org/publications/

Alester Crowley , The Book of Thoth (free download) http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/crowley/libro_thoth.htm

The Four Worlds of Kabbalah http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/361902/jewish/The-Four-Worlds.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Worlds

* The Golden Dawn Minor Arcana, Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog:

http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/the-golden-dawn-minor-arcana/

(1) A Kabbalistic Universe, Z’ev Shimon Halevi, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, Maine, 1977, p. 16.

(2)Astrology, The Divine Science. Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas: Arcane Publications; 1st edition,1978 (OOP)

Full Moon Chaos Magick, as performed by a kabbalist…

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Satire

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English: A chaos magic ritual that uses videoc...

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Right… You say too much of a good thing? Well, not really.

A disclaimer: i have absolutely no formal training in magic(k) nor do i believe in such. Magick is one of the very few words that haven’t been worn out from excessive use and that still have some inherent power to it – as a word, as a vibration, as a verbal impulse and that to me, as a linguist, is the best bet.

What’s magick? As Aleister Crowley puts it – its “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will”.

Now, who opposes it the most? The Church. An institutionalized religion, branched out from another, earlier religion that is actually based on causing the very change to occur in conformity with the  will… Red Sea parting anyone?

When Moses, persecuted by Egyptians, looks up to the sky with desperation and the Allmighty nonchalantly answers : “Why are you yelling at me?”  Right…

Its because he himself had all it takes to part the Sea.

I won’t even go to  Christian Bible/ New Testament and all the miracles described there, turning water into wine and so on.

And that’s the guys telling you magick is evil? Whom are they kidding?

The problem here is that if you start doing it yourself – then you are bypassing the mediator – and then the clergy would have to look for real jobs… Oy gevalt!

Don’t even get me started on astrology… 12 Tribes of Israel? Well even a wanna-be kabbalist who ventured at the time into London’t Kabbalah Center – if for nothing else – then to peek at then Mrs Richie… even s/he knows the 12 tribes denote the 12 zodiac signs.

Christian Bible? How was it exactly that Jesus was found by the three wise men? Aghh, they were following a Star… they have read his natal chart… and your priest tells you it all is a matter of the Devil?!

I’ll save my opinion on the devil for another entry – but let me tell you… he doesn’t exist. What does exist is a lot of stupidity combined with plenty of superstitions and an inherently  human trait to blame things on someone else… be it a fairytale horned semi-human… Yeah.

Anyway.

I am a sucker for ceremony and protocol and all. Be it my will – i’d have a special embroidered robe and a fancy stuff and probably a bronze cauldron  and what not… Yet i have no way of getting those where i am, given that my plans at the given moment do not include robbing a bank and/or depriving my dearest&nearest of basic means for living so i could get all the fancy gadgets… i doubt all those powerful magicians and alchemists from the past had stylized robes and designer magickal jewels… it might help, it might give you an additional impulse – but it all is not necessary.

Also, studies of ceremonial magic take years – and they aren’t available in any of the locations which wouldn’t represent a true ‘geographical  challenge’ to me…

So i choose to get by with what i have. Some call it Chaos Magick and here is what trusted wikipedia has to say about it: Chaos magic is a school of the modern magical tradition which emphasizes the pragmatic use of belief systems and the creation of new and unorthodox methods.

That’s good enough for me.

So, here i am, in my magical outfit – Indigo jeans 2011 winter collection, a preppy sweater and woolen socks from Marks and Spencer. My magickal footwear consists of comfortable &worn out slippers, bought at the local flee market.

My devoted apprentice and my only follower is napping on the tv receiver while purring in her sleep.

I have performed serious research of the rituals performed on the occasion of the Full Moon – i subsequently googled : Full Moon Magick, Full Moon Rituals, Moon Magic

All i need to know there. Seems most rituals use candles, floating ones being  the preferred kind, yet i don’t have them handy, so i’ll stick with the ordinary ones from the supermarket.

Needless to say i absolutely have no intention of hunting for bats or some other rare mammal or bug kinds, nor do i plan to pop in to some remote Himalayan meadow in order to pick a very special flower that grows once in seven years when constellations are synchronized in a quite particular way…

The magickal equipment used in this ritual is the following:

one unspecified candle bought at a supermarket

an oil burner from a Dollar (euro that is ) shop in Belgrade

soup bowl

couple of silver coins, just for the sake of it

some oils, one of them perfumed – with very strong bouquet, that i bought in Cairo, near the pyramids in Giza – have kept for almost a decade, felt sorry to throw to garbage, yet didn’t know what to make of it exactly.

INTENT to burn out and release all i don’t need anymore – all the thinking patterns and attitudes that limit and hinder my overall progress and well being…

Whom i am invoking by this powerful magickal ritual? My own psyche’s aspects most probably…

…as its all in our heads – its just that we are not aware how big they are!

Abracadabra