France, Essentially

I realize that I have not posted in some time; this is for several reasons, the first of those being that for the past week I have been in Connecticut at the Amherst Early Musical Festival singing Troubadour and Trouvère pieces with Anne Azèma and Shira Kammen. The second reason for this negligence is the fact that my computer has been broken, and I have literally just now figured out how to jerry-rig everything back to normal until it gets fixed properly. The third reason is that work at Gillette Stadium has started for me - how fun is that? Not quite as fun as 12th century lyric, but necessary nonetheless.

A few words about the French Medieval Song Project with Anne and Shira - the first that comes to mind is "wow," though perhaps a little more profound would be the word, "clarifying." Wow certainly describes the overall class. The hands-on instruction all thirteen of us received was top-notch, and incredibly insightful, as well as encouraging. The two gave a concert on Tuesday night that was absolutely to die for, and I must say, it was worth the tuition

just for that alone - quite honestly, it made me cry it was so beautiful at one point.

I would say the class was "clarifying" in the sense that it kicked me in the right direction. I realized that I really do want to perform this rep, and that in order to do it, I have to bust my hump, so to speak. It was clarifying in terms of grad school searching (though equally more obfuscating in some ways), and in terms of what I am capable of as a musician and a student. Even furthermore, I now have Anne Azèma's voice incessantly in my head saying, "If you all want to continue working with this repertoire... learn French." Mon Dieu, learn French? After hearing Anne speak/sing flawless, beautiful, melodious French for a week, after listening to NOTHING BUT FRENCH MUSIC either sung OR PLAYED BY THE BLOODY RECORDER AND HARPSICHORD, I now have a bucket-load of motivation (well, maybe not so much from the recorder bit) to do so. So naturally, in my vast spare time, I have started to learn French - C'est bon... for now.

In other news, I just got a Blackberry (organization... maybe?) and am reading Aleister Crowley's Qabalistic Writings edited by "our man" Israel Regardie. (Inside joke - Globalization class with Hannagan, bless his heart.) I will have to discuss this latter bit far more in detail in a later post, as this book is a MUST READ for any student of Qabalah or Crowley or just about any religion. The guide to symbolism and the allegory of numbers is simply staggaringly (invented adverb) brilliant.

Sorry this wasn't such an exciting post, though I am unfazed by this, as I still currently have three subscribers, and don't have high hopes for many more, particularly as two of them are my parents (thank you, Mike Hofmann). Regardless, hope this post finds you in a happy state, well, and relaxed.

VI The Lovers: Reconciling Christianity and Thelema through the Writings of Teresa of Avila

Aleister Crowley's disdain for Christianity is well known. As he considered himself the Anti-Christ, believing in his mission to destroy the Church, his writings and cosmology tend to be violently skewed, riddled with imagery many find Satanic and disturbing. Granted, one can relate this to the fact that Horus - the supposed ruler of the new Aeon - is attributable to Mars (see Israel Regardie's The Tree of Life), and is therefore meant to be vengeful and merciless, quite the opposite of the usual Christian message of suffering and humility. Crowley's attempt to reconfigure Atu XII, The Hanged Man, as a hieroglyph not of suffering but of redemption echoes this anti-Christian sentiment. I would like to suggest in this article that Crowley's Thelema and Christianity can in fact be reconciled, and should be, for in this age it is necessary for us to see the similarities between our various beliefs. I believe that is one of the true messages of the new Aeon supposedly set upon us.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was declared the first female Doctor of the Church in 1970, meaning that she wrote sufficiently enough about orthodox Church doctrine in a lucid and revelatory way to be considered on par with St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory (highly,

highly revered sources of masculine Christian discourse throughout the Medieval/Renaissance

periods). Teresa is known mainly for her experiences of divine ecstasy, as remarkably depicted in the Bernini sculpture (left). Her descriptions of these experiences, as well as her methods of prayer, are quite obviously related to the Neoplatonic/Kabbalistic/alchemical/

Magical/Hindu understanding of prayer and enlightenment, which Crowley based his Thelema on.

Enlightenment in much of these Western doctrines according to the Golden Dawn, Crowley, and countless others, was conceptualized by the revolving Tetragrammaton formula - YHVH - by which the physical body is redeemed by Knowledge and Conversation between the conscious self and the Highest Self (Holy Guardian Angel), spiritual marriage with that entity, and eventual union with that entity in order to rise to Godhead, by which one recognizes the root of their divinity, inherent oneness with everything, and attains enlightenment. (More on this below.)

Teresa's spiritual experiences are very similar to this. First, she explains that she stopped praying aloud as was the common practice, but rather focused inwardly and remained silent, meditating on Christ's presence within her. She writes, "When picturing Christ in the way I have mentioned... I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, of such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him." This is by definition the meaning of the Lovers trump. It is a recognition of the spiritual "other" as part of the self, known to alchemists as the first stage of coniunctio (marriage) - ironically called separatio. In fact, Teresa herself understands this relationship as a marriage, referring to Christ as her Spouse many times. I feel that in her case, the terms Spouse carries much more weight than in reference to any general nun who considers herself spiritually betrothed to Christ upon taking the veil. The beautiful moment she describes which became the inspiration for Bernini's statue is the real marriage, the moment when she sees an angel unlike any other ("in bodily form, which is not usual with me; for though angels are often represented to me, it is only in my mental vision"), who plunges a fiery spear into her heart and sets her"wholly on fire with a great love of God." (Princess of Disks much? Impregnated with the divine seed of the phallic Yod? Hmmm...)

Additionally, Israel Regardie explains in his Tree of Life that much of the process of enlightenment is conducted out of the body through Astral Projection (self-willed out-of-body experience), and that is precisely what St. Teresa undergoes. Teresa says, "Oh, my God, how clear is the meaning of that verse about asking for the wings of a dove and how right the author was... It is evident that he is referring to the flight taken by the spirit when it soars high above all created things, and above itself first of all; but it is a gentle and a joyful flight and also a silent one." Similarly, "In these raptures the soul seems no longer to animate the body, and thus the natural heat of the body is felt to be very sensibly diminished." This is a typical sign of the absence of the astral body (obviously not the entire body, which would result in death). Her point that the journey is silent is particularly intriguing, since Crowley speaks endlessly of Harpocrates, the Lord of Silence who is the twin of Horus and is representative of the silence of meditation and the element of spirit (see The Book of Thoth).

Also intriguing is Teresa's emphasis on the worth of the body to God, something also harking back to the Tetragrammaton formula. In Tetragrammaton, each letter represents one of the four elements - Y = fire, H (primal) = water, V = air, and H (final) = earth. In Tarot, we see this as the court cards, each letter corresponding to Knights (Kings), Queens, Princes (Knights), and Princesses (Pages/Valets) respectively. The Princess (earth) is the child born of the marriage between the Knight and the Queen (fire and water), and is the lesser twin sister to the more divine son, as represented by the Prince. She is expected to marry the Prince, ascend to the throne of her mother, kill the old Knight and replace him with the Prince, and thereby redeem the earth (the harrowing of Hell, the Ascension of Mary). The body is synonymous in Hermetic Kabbala with earth, and therefore one of the goals of enlightenment is to better the condition of physical existence, to bring spirit back down into more perfect union with matter (the creation process in the first place, the blessing of the Holy Spirit) in order to redeem it.

Teresa's writings oddly enough include details of this experience: "The Lord is pleased that the body should have a share in [the ecstasy] because of its obedience to the will of the soul. After the recovery of the consciousness, if the rapture has been deep, the faculties may remain absorbed for a day or two... and be as if in a state of stupor, so that they seem to be no longer themselves." This is clearly an unknowing nod to the Kundalini Awakening, which Crowley insisted upon as the goal of meditation

(Atu XI Lust) (Kundalini seen right) and the key to enlightenment. Furthermore, Teresa writes, "[Ecstasy] is much more beneficial than union: the effects it produces are far more important and it has a

great many more operations, for union gives the impression of being just the same at the beginning, in the middle and at the end, and it all happens interiorly. But the ends of these raptures are of a higher degree, and the effects they produce are both interior and exterior." Frankly, I think that's brilliant. Teresa recognizes the positive outward effect these ecstasy's produce, and discusses their merit in the same vein as Crowley, who attributes ecstasy to madness and divine bliss (Bacchus, as in Atu 0 and XV in The Book of Thoth).

And finally, Teresa makes interesting remarks on the nature of True Will - the entire point of Thelema. She writes that before she experienced God within herself she was very disobedient to the will of God. She claims that "the Lord became more desirous of preparing me for the state of life which was best for me." In a similar vein, she says, "O God, in how many ways did His Majesty gradually prepare me for the state in which He was to be pleased to use me! In how many ways, against my own will, did He constrain me to exercise restraint upon myself!" This can be seen as an example of "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." Teresa understands that God has a higher purpose for her that she must adhere to, lest she remain wallowing in sin and attachment to the world. Is it also not interesting, albeit probably coincidental, that the imagery of the angel piercing her heart like Eros is very similar to the imagery in Atu VI, The Lovers, in which Eros is directing the arrow of Thelema (True Will) at the heart of the Empress/Luna/Venus, who is marrying the Emperor/Sol/Mars ? (See The Book of Thoth for the explanation of these planetary associations, as well as a bit about the crucial role of Eros in this formula.)

Thus, it is indeed possible to reconcile Christianity with Crowley's Thelema, and in fact, I believe they help elucidate each other. The mysteries of one are often explained better in the other, and I have found studying both to be very helpful. In the perfect words of Goethe, "Alles vergengliche," (All is allegory), and ultimately Christianity and Thelema are both intricately orchestrated allegories. In this example, both found union (to continue the theme) in the archetype of The Lovers, a card representative of openness to other sources of inspiration. I'll just leave it at that.

(All quotes by Teresa were taken from her autobiography The Life of Teresa of Jesus, edited by E. Allison Peers)

Literary Rape in Abelard and Heloise

The letters of Abelard and Heloise of the 12th century are famous in Medieval scholarship. The most influential power couple in Europe at one time met with horrendous challenges and confrontations from their peers and from each other. Both incredibly strong-willed and brilliant thinkers, the letters between Abelard and Heloise are a fascinating example of letter-writing in the Middle Ages. Letters are considered a public genre for this period, meaning that letters were never private. Without a responsible postal service, people asked to deliver something in their travels could read anything they were asked to transport.

I recently had to read the letters again for a class at Vass while simultaneously taking another class on Middle English. In this second class the professor, Mark Amodio, emphasized the Medieval association between written text and the female body. This thought has been echoed in other secondary sources on medieval exegesis, and it is common consensus that since the writing stylus is phallic, the textual body that it "penetrates" is feminine. This is one of the main reasons women were not allowed to write publicly and teach in this period. Furthermore, the act of glossing, subjectively interpreting a prewritten text, was a task reserved only for men. Essentially, the feminine body of the text is perused and redefined by the masculine pen, which could be seen as raping, or at least taking advantage of, the vulnerable female body.

With this in mind, reading the letters a second time was revealing. I think I may be exaggerating the relevance of these gender associations in relation to Abelard and Heloise's letters, however, it's at least interesting to read them through this lens. In her first letter after reading Abelard's Historia Calamitatum, Heloise slowly focuses the attention on Abelard's sexuality. First she praises him for his creating the Paraclete (the convent which she leads as abbess), saying, "You alone, after God, are the founder of the place, you alone the builder of this oratory, you alone the architect of this congregation... It is all your creation... Before you, this was a wilderness... Nothing you brought to the task was from the wealth of kings and princes... it was all to be yours, whatever was done here, yours alone." I see this as an abject way of comparing Abelard to God as creator of the garden of Eden, particularly as she goes on to say, "Yes, it is yours, truly yours, this newly planted garden." Of course, gardens are a timeless symbol of fertility, pregnancy, and female sexuality, particularly virginity. We must remember that Heloise has already given birth to Abelard's child Astrolabe. Heloise continues, chastising Abelard for his negligence to his nuns, but also to her: "But leave aside these others for a moment - remember what you owe me."

From there Heloise narrows the focal point even more, by addressing their marital relationship as well as what she believes to be mutual love between them. However, Heloise's concept of love becomes deeply sexual for the period. She laments Abelard's castration at the hands of her relatives (oh yeah... about that) and demands that Abelard gives her some comfort in return for all she's done for him. Furthermore - and here's my favorite from this letter - she says, "I changed my habit along with my heart to show that my body along with my heart belonged only to you." (Habit as in the traditional garb for nuns and monks.)

Whoa! If that's not scandalous in every Medieval sense of the word, I don't know what is. Of course she doesn't let it go, and delivers her famous line, "The name of wife may have the advantages of sanctity and safety, but to me the sweeter name will always be lover or, if your dignity can bear it, concubine or whore." Yes. She went there.

So let's summarize a little bit: Heloise has basically called Abelard out as a mediocre spiritual leader and a failure of a husband, while promoting the value of their entwining sexual relationship, and demanding that he respect their relationship for what she believes it to be. However... this can be difficult for one to do when they've been castrated in their sleep and they realize that these letters are going to be read by the 12th century French social world. Scandal doesn't even begin to cover it. It's no surprise that in his response letter, all Abelard does is gloss her text by providing quotes from Scripture to analyze her claims and thereby discredit them. Essentially, I believe he is textually raping her to silence her and to assert his dominance as a man. We must understand that castration in this period is damning (literally), and such people were considered filthy, effeminate, and almost non-gendered (read the Pardoner's Tale in Chaucer to really look at how this plays out socially). Heloise's aggressive plea through a masculine genre - writing - must have been quite an affront to Abelard.

Clearly his response affected Heloise deeply, as her next letter is even more fiesty: "O, the ungodly savagery of God, if I may say it! The mercilessness of his mercy! etc," and, "Has there been glory like the glory that was mine because of you? Or ruin like the ruin that is mine because of you?" That is by definition a back-handed compliment if I've ever seen one. This letter had to be even more rhetorically provocative in order to stimulate some kind of consenting response from Abelard. Unfortunately though, Heloise quickly learns to be silent about her wishes and their sexual relationship. Abelard cannot sexually provide for her in the way she expects him to, and is suffering from a tremendous failure in confidence. Likewise, Heloise feels utterly trapped by her unhappy lot that she would have never chosen had Abelard remained safe... Marriage counseling was unfortunately not an option.

So what do you all think? Have something to add? Questions, comments, opinions? Leave a comment!

Poll

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I just put up a little poll on the right! I was just curious which deck tradition y'all prefer. Personally, I fluctuate, but I'd love to know your opinions!

The Three of Swords

I once heard this card referred to as the Trance of Sorrow, which always intrigued me. Apparently, this is the state required of the individual who wishes to discover their inherent divine purpose. It is considered an aspect of Binah on the Sephiroth, shown on the left here. Binah, of course, is the Great Mother, the Eternal Sea which is the source of all manifested existence in its original form as semi-shaped potential - if that makes any sense. The Golden Dawn attributed qualities of both the moon and Saturn to this sephira, as the moon represents fertility and Saturn represents time and limitation. Binah is the door of manifestation, the womb in which all existence gestates. As she is the gateway to matter, she subjects all things to limitation through the influence of time and death.

Anywho, the Three of Swords is notoriously one of the most depressing cards in the Tarot pack, but why? Paul Huson in his intriguing (albeit only slightly convincing in certain areas) book Mystical Origins of the Tarot argues that the Golden Dawn actually messed up the divinatory definition for the 3, switching it with the definition for the 4. Traditionally, the characteristics of the astrological decans, one of the systems by which the Golden Dawn organized the minor arcana, were drawn from a 14th century astrological text translated from Arabic entitled Picatrix. Now, according the Golden Dawn, the 3 is the second decan of Libra (10 degrees-20), and is ruled by Saturn. As Saturn is exalted in Libra, it would make sense that this decan's traditional definition is characterized by "quietness, ease, plenty, good life, and dance" (taken from Mystical Origins, pg. 204.). Clearly this is not the definition given the card by the GD or even by Arthur Edward Waite. Rather, their definition associating the card with suffering and tears seems more congruous with the final decan of Libra ruled by Jupiter: "ill deeds... mirth and gluttony, sodomy and following of evil pleasures." (Mystical Origins, 206).

My theory is that the Golden Dawn, Waite, and Aleister Crowley weren't stupid, and knew exactly what they were saying. Saturn is associated with Binah in her sterile form, and embodies the "Mourning of Isis." As the 3 of Swords is the only card associated with Binah ruled by Saturn - meaning that it's the only 3 in the pack that is ruled by Saturn - it makes sense that the GD would capitalize on this and conceptualize the 3 along these lines. Lately I've been reading Mary Greer's amazing book 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card (a must-read for anyone interested in intuitive and life-changing reading using the Waite-Coleman Smith tradition), and in it, she uses numerology to give further insight into the cards. Because of my Sephirotic studies, it's been inevitable to study some of the old Pythagorean divine characteristics of numbers 1-10, but one can overlook their significance sometimes. Threes represent manifestation, the creation of a spatial triangular plane, which therefore establishes time and being (the Saturnine quality of Binah).

Keeping this in mind, if we then look at Saturn (The World/Universe) as full physical

manifestation and Libra (Justice/Adjustment) as the law of the universe, or the karmic result of an action, then we can clearly see that the emphasis of the card is on the rules or inherent nature of the physical universe. Furthermore, swords are the suit of division, separation, as air is the first element to separate itself from Godhead (fire and water are really only two sides of the same coin). This of course relates to the revolving Tetragrammaton formula YHVH. In conclusion, the three of swords is representative of Buddha's spiritual plight: all manifested existence is suffering, because it is divided from union with God.

Therefore, we can see that the card represents a universal bleakness, an oppressive grief that perhaps comes from seeing the hopeless limitations of one's situation and wanting more. The Eternal Mother weeps and mourns over the loss of her children (the lamenting Mary at the foot of the Cross), and awaits reunion with them. Julian of Norwich echoes this sentiment when she explains that Christ wants only to be reunited with all of us, but simply cannot - "sin is befitting." The struggle of living is that which makes us desire spiritual change, and causes us to strive for our personal perfection in order to change and better the universe. In the words of Aleister Crowley, "Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: 'How splendid is the Adventure!'" (Book of Thoth, 113)

Opening Statement

If you're reading this, bless your heart, because I'm sure this will become an obscure and pleasantly awkward blog. My name's Nick, and I thought it would be nice to share my thoughts on Tarot, history, music, religion, life, etc., because I just like to talk about that stuff with people. I figured this would be an interesting way to get others' opinions on these things as well as explain what I've learned in my disparate studies. And yes, I am actually a dork, and yes, I am listening to music from the gothic period as I write this.

Speaking of which, I decided to entitle the blog "Polyphony" because I figured I'd be writing about a number of different things. Originally I wanted this to just be about Tarot, but I decided I could never just talk about one thing like that. Hopefully I can make all these ridiculous topics interesting to y'all over time. Granted, Guillaume de Machaut isn't exactly mainstream music, but I think it's important to remember that it was very mainstream about 700 years ago (gosh, has it been that long already??).

As far as my personal background, I'm going to be a senior in college this year - highly looking forward to that - and then I'll be moving on to grad school for choral conducting (ideally). I'm a music major with a minor in Medieval/Renaissance studies - Yes. Holler.

As far as my Tarot background is concerned, I'm highly interested in the workings of the Golden Dawn as well as Crowley and his Thelema, though ultimately, I adhere strictly to nothing. I believe spirituality should be as pantheistic as possible. Every religion has something to offer, just as every individual has something insightful to say about God. Therefore, why settle for one belief system? Systems become suffocating and uninspiring over time - at least that's my feeling on it.

So, in short, on this blog, you may expect to find musings on all these things. I hope you will find it intriguing and engaging - I'll try my best. Otherwise, thanks for visiting, and best wishes!

-Nick