"He was despised:" Christmas and the Messiah

Madonna and Child with St. Anne

I would like to begin this post by noting that it took me a long time to figure out exactly what I wanted to write about for this post, but I also knew I could not let Christmas go by without writing something about it. I thought I would simultaneously revisit a previous topic on this blog – the nature of Atu XV The Devil from the tarot. While this seems like an unlikely subject to bring into a discussion about Christmas, there’s, as always, a reason for doing so.

As I get older (and one would like to imagine, wiser), I keep feeling this deep urge within myself to search out the religious experience with greater enthusiasm. For me, the holiday is not so much about presents, food, or celebrations, but has become more about meditation and penance, as well as great hope. I recognize that I am a contemplative person naturally, but this season in particular – perhaps because of the increasing cold and barrenness, the way nature wants to make us slow down – seems geared toward greater introspection.

Advent, if you may be aware, is a penitential season, not one of celebration. We are reminded that Christ is “coming” in order to die a wretched death, not to be coddled and cooed over like every other baby. This is why it is so important in Luke’s Gospel that Christ is born in a manger, shunned by everyone in Bethlehem. Christ comes into the world undesired and for the most part unloved. He dies hated for being a rebellious religious upstart, after having healed many who did not necessarily deserve His blessing.

Therefore, I cannot help but feel that there’s something profoundly bittersweet and sad about Christmas. Part of the Christmas celebration is about recognizing the salvation that comes with the Nativity, but we conveniently forget that that salvation comes at a tremendous price. I also think of the old Renaissance paintings of the Virgin and Child, where Mary looks slightly melancholy in her contemplation of the God she holds, and the Christ Child restlessly squirms in her embrace, nervous but anxious to do His Father’s Will. Both of them know what will happen. How is it that we seem to have forgotten what will happen?

The true joy of Christmas then, cannot have anything to do with transitory things that grant momentary pleasures. The pure blessings of happiness the season is supposed to bring must be received in acknowledging that we are entirely unworthy of so great a gift. It is through humility and fear of the Lord that we come to appreciate the religious significance of the holiday.

But instead, the holiday has been degraded into a time when children look forward to receiving endless things, and adults (myself included) struggle and grope to recreate the Christmases of their youth. And while there can be beautiful aspects of these as well – that is, the ideas of charity, innocence, nostalgia, and tradition – they seem to reflect only parts of the central idea without laying it bare and honestly. I sympathize with the people who want to “put Christ back in Christmas,” but also with the people who want to celebrate the holiday with exciting parties alongside their families. But if we are to be realistic with ourselves, these things make Christmas a chore, not a joy. By distracting ourselves from the main source of joy in Christmas with several other little and transitory joys, we have missed out a great deal. And we have also created an awful lot of stress and financial burden for ourselves.

I promised that I would somehow include XV The Devil into this post, and now might be a good opportunity to try. Of course, your average Christian will look at the Devil’s presence in the tarot and immediately jump to irrational conclusions about the practice of divination – “it’s satanic!” or “you’ll go to hell!” etc. All of these are of course entirely false. First of all, XV The Devil (at least in Crowley’s tarot) represents an initiated individual who has recreated their own morality based on the nature of their divine True Will. People label something as “a devil” or “evil” if they are afraid of it, or if they do not understand it. An individual who has questioned set modes of morality and made up their own mind on the subject may be unconventional or less inhibited, and could in that case be considered such absurd things by others. But at the same time, psychologists argue that real maturity comes from being able to dissolve morality learned from parents, societies, and religious institutions, and reassemble it back into a better understood, more flexible, and unique framework. The individuals who never take steps to question morality never fully develop as people, and remain in the darkness of ignorance. They are also the people who are most likely to not understand why something is right or wrong. Let this be clearly understood by those who would irrationally and rashly jump to conclusions about the Devil trump card, or tarot in general.

This is a significant aspect of the Devil card, as Crowley writes that he is a symbol of the Messiah revealed to the initiated. Indeed, some Gnostic Christians (albeit “heretical” Christians) believed that Satan and Christ were two sides of the same coin. For them,  Satan lead man to truth and wisdom and thereby redeemed man from his state of ignorance. But Christ Himself fits the description of the Devil card’s personality: He is rebellious; He disobeys the Law of the masses because He possesses greater authentic understanding of it; He advocates preaching of the Gospel by all, despite their ability to do so or not; He is hated by many, and is condemned from the moment of his birth until his Passion; He wields miraculous power over natural substances, whether it be the body, food, or wine; and He is “the Word made flesh.”

I will try to explain this last bit as succinctly as possible, since I realize it is probably the most esoteric part of this post so far. XV The Devil represents the reconciling of the highest with the lowest – the incarnation of the spirit in the flesh. In Kabbalistic term, it is the notion that Kether (IAO, the masculine Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is contained in Malkuth (the body, the Bride of Christ, and the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit). Kether is the First Mover of the Aristotelian cosmology, and is seen as the First Logos (Word or Will) as well, since a God is synonymous with its Will. In fact, a God may only be contemplated by understanding of its Will, since His name is ineffable and His presence concealed – hence why we come to know the Father through the Son, who represents the Father’s Will. But of course, Christ was made incarnate in the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the womb of the Virgin Mary. It is said that in this moment, God reconciled the difference between the highest and lowest, and thereby granted salvation. The Devil card is therefore a representation of the Messiah – the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts descending in joy upon the earth, Malkuth, or the lowest aspect of an individual, and thereby anointing him/her (“Christ” means “anointed one”), granting them prosperity and fertility.

There is nothing “Satanic” about this. Satan in the form Christianity has given him – the glowing red, black-winged, pitchfork-wielding human-devourer – is a fallacy invented by the ignorant in their fear of death. But the image of Satan as the fusion between the Spirit and the animal self that we cannot deny we bear, is entirely relevant.

To return to the matter of Christmas. XV The Devil in its most negative connotation is seen as materialism, and indeed as we have seen he does represent that to some extent, as it represents the incarnation of the spirit in the bowels of the earth. But there is a danger to this, as we are all too aware. When we become too materialistic, we breed egotism, ignorance, and evil. This is the real “Devil” of Christianity, whose force is exhibited in the Seven Deadly Sins, each of which is based on some base desire of the body. These, then, are the meanings contained the spectrum of meanings for the symbol of the Devil. On one hand we have Godliness and the birth of the Messiah – on the other hand, materialism and wickedness. Christmas itself contains both these polar meanings; one is superior, the other far less desirable. In our eagerness to turn Christmas into a meaningless celebration of consumerism, we have substituted the benevolence of God’s gifts with our own, and these could, based on what I have previously written, be considered “evil.”

Once again, it seems that we have rejected the Messiah because we do not try hard enough to understand Him. Like the image of the Devil in the tarot, He is despised for His independence and almost foreign nature. What Christ brought with His message was almost revolutionary. The idea of divinity incarnating as man, thereby coming to understand human suffering, and thus developing enough sympathy for man so as to grant him salvation was not new. This was the basic premise of the Dionysian mystery cult, after all. But the notion that God comes into the world hated and shamed, but still willing to sacrifice Himself out of love even for those who hated Him, was truly unheard of. What Jesus did through His acts was unheard of. His idea of morality was not understood by the majority of people, and because he resisted the power of the moral authority, He was targeted, labeled by many who feared Him as "evil," or even "demonic," and was ultimately slain. 

But of course, there are shades of gray to my argument as far as Christmas is concerned. I don’t mean to suggest that all material aspects of the holiday should be abandoned, only reevaluated. When we place all our expectations for the season in its abundance, we miss out greatly. And frankly, there is an allegorical value to the prosperity Christmas celebrations are supposed to represent. As I mentioned before, the Devil/Messiah is also a symbol of fructification and fertility, success, ecstasy, and supreme happiness. It’s as if all our cultural materialism in regards to the holiday is a reflection of God’s humor; we’re close to understanding it, but simultaneously disastrously distant from it. 

I’d like to end in the same witty vein: XV The Devil represents the sign of Capricorn, which is the sign the sun enters on the 22^nd of December. That’s right – Jesus is a Capricorn.

Da capo section of "He was despised" from Handel's Messiah

[I hope this post did not offend anyone, and only offered some points to meditate on. I would like to include as a disclaimer that I do not consider myself a Satanist in any capacity. I am simply an anti-dogmatist, and I believe in the value of pushing people outside their bounds of “right” and “wrong.” Otherwise, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a blessed New Year.]

State of the Union: A Thanksgiving Tarot Reading

Here's a reading I did on the general state of our country (the US) in honor of Thanksgiving. I asked about the general mindset of our country politically and where we're headed. Hope you find it interesting - I certainly did!

The Story the Thoth Trumps Tell

Here is my attempt to read the trumps as a circle, given their esoteric meanings. I hope it's relatively clear! I tried to keep it simple.

0 The Fool
The Universe as complete Nothing. The sum potential of existence before it has manifested itself as something.
I The Magus
The Masculine Will of the Universe. Presents the doctrine that the unmanifested Being is a unity, or God. This Will is capable of organizing the original chaos of Nothing into categories, though at this stage it is difficult to say that there is concrete differentiation between these categories. There is only the potential for these categories to exist.
II The Priestess
The Feminine counterpart to the Will, or the image of that Will. She is the body of light the Universal Will will shape its creations from. She is therefore the Truth of form - all form is an illusion of the Divine Light.
III The Empress
The result of the affinity between the Will and the Light - impregnation. Because the Will has moved within the Divine Light, there is a concrete something waiting to be born.
IV The Emperor
The sovereign individual point who is Lord of his own Universe. This is a point of perspective and consciousness that may conceivably distinguish itself from the macrocosmic Universe. It itself is a Unity, and therefore a God.
V The Hierophant
The individual learning through experience. Alternatively, this individual point is master of its own knowledge and truth.
VI The Lovers
The doctrine of duality. There is a firm distinction between microcosm and macrocosm. But the two could be considered twins, as they bear the same attributes. Because of this separation, the individual point is capable of drawing insight from the Whole and vice versa.
VII The Chariot
The point endowed with a soul for a vessel. This allows the point to move within the body of the Universe as is its will. Because of duality, the illusion of space and time is now possible. The idea of indestructibility is also implied.
VIII Adjustment
Now that the point is capable of motion and experience, it must now learn the virtue of Free Will, and the karmic repercussions of that. For every action there is a reaction.
IX The Hermit
Now we finally have the concept of the physical body, which, perhaps because of Free Will, has fallen into a less desirable state. But the Godhead (the point), which dwells secretly within the body, is the initiator of the True Will - the path of Rectitude and Virtue for that given point of consciousness. It has inherited this from the Will of the Universe. In secret the Godhead of the individual works to "redeem" the physical body from its state of disobedience, and guides it towards maturity and self-understanding.
X Fortune
The resulting combination of all these forces. The various parts of the human being vie for supremacy, and thereby create various events in the individual's life. The point remains the axle of the wheel, and therefore does not move. It is perpetually the center of its own universe.
XI Lust
A particularly interesting response to Fortune. One reading shows that it is the fusion of all the individual's components through the act of "love under will." The energy contained in each part can be guided toward the realization of a desired outcome - i.e. a magickal act. Another reading reveals this to be the Red Tincture, or lion, of the alchemists. It is the masculine, solar, creative energy bound up in the individual. At its most basic level, this stage represents the sexual act in general.
XII The Hanged Man
From the perspective of ritual magick, this represents the sacrifice of the potential life in the male semen as a result of orgasm. It may also appear as the illusion of the creative urge being stifled as a result of the orgasm. If the sexual act is used for procreation, however, the card can represent the infusion of the spirit in a new life form. Being associated with water, both acts are seen as a kind of baptism; the former is a baptism for the magician, the latter is a baptism for the newly conceived physical being.
XIII Death
The mystery of Resurrection on several levels. Firstly, it represents the recovery of the male after the "death" of orgasm. Despite the supposed "death" of the libido after its release, it eventually returns. The libido is immortal, and can only be transformed into various guises. Secondly, it represents the reincarnation that took place in Atu XII, in which a baby was conceived. The idea is that this infant is at its core is an indestructible point itself, and that whatever form it decides to take in this life is a result of its experiences and choices in previous lives. Lastly, the card represents the White Tincture, or the eagle, of the alchemists. It is the feminine, lunar creative impulse, which is passive and destructive, as opposed to the masculine, which is active and creative. One must remember that both Creation and Destruction are polarities that makeup the general idea of Life.
XIV Art
Having undergone the process of Creation and Destruction, the individual is prepared for the actual moment of Resurrection. This is the culmination of the INRI formula (which I encourage you to look up). It is the representation of the doctrine of evolution; the positive plus the negative equals a third thing which is different from the original two, but bears some of their traits. This card is also the fulfillment of VI The Lovers and IX The Hermit. The individual has been able to fuse the masculine and feminine parts of his/her identity and has thus become androgynous. They have disintegrated the boundary between higher self and lower self, and has become whole, as well as an entirely new Being. By doing this, they are set on the path of the True Will. Lastly, the card speaks of the alchemical command to "find the hidden stone." This is none other than the original point of consciousness concealed in the physical being.
XV The Devil
The god Pan and the above-mentioned "hidden stone." In this stage, Pan is Pangenitor, All-Begetter. This is the newly created individual after having undergone the formula of Resurrection. They are complete, and have ascertained their original godhead. They also have discovered the nature of their True Will, and they set out to manifest it with utmost ambition and enjoyment, despite the response from other people. This person now may be misconstrued as "a devil" because they have attained autonomy, and therefore are not dependent upon the consent of others. They are unapologetic for fulfilling their purpose, and by doing so they infuse the material universe with prosperity. The union of the highest and the lowest has been complete, and the individual has begun his/her work to redeem the material universe.
XVI The Tower
This is Pan as Panphage, All-Devourer. Because of the individual's reformation process, their perspective on the material world has been entirely eradicated. They have learned that the material plane is one of illusion. The distinction between Self and Other has been destroyed, and all material events and things are seen as an extension of Self.
XVII The Star
At this point, the veils covering the Divine Self are removed. One realizes they are a unique conduit for the Divine Will of the Universe, and are allowed to be because they are a royal child of the Universe. Perhaps we could say that as much as the material universe is the full extension of the individual, so is the individual the full extension of the unmanifested Universe. This is the optimistic revelation that, through one's existence, the limitless potential of the Universe comes to be. Internal change results in external change. What seems impossible is possible with God.
XVIII The Moon
The revelation of the Universe as stagnant without the intercession of the individual's action on the path of True Will. The True Will is creative, and is culmination of the Divine Will. The Universe as a metaphorical womb is left stagnant and infertile as long as this Will is left unfulfilled. Sin is the result of inaction, or action taken in a direction away from that of the True Will.
XIX The Sun
Fertility reasserted. Triumph and victory over darkness. Light is brought to the darkness by the virtue of the individual. The realization of the True Will resulting in Love, Liberty, Light, and Life.
XX The Aeon/Judgment
As a result, stagnation is purged from the world, and the world is redeemed. The proper order of things is established. The beginning of a new era because of the work done by the individual.
XXI The Universe
The individual point of consciousness, having completed the Great Work, finally returning to the Origin of All, the Nothingness of unmanifested Being. But there is the implication that the sum total of All was always Nothing all along, and that the whole experience was but a game, or a play. As Goethe writes, "Alles vergängliche," "all is allegory." The process is now ready to repeat itself, not for any purpose, but for the sake of Universal evolution and enjoyment.

The Sacred Feminine: The Christian and Thelemic Perspectives

The Hodegetria

Since we are in a Marian devotional month in the liturgical calendar, I have of course been meditating a lot on the Virgin Mary and her allegorical purpose. Personally, I believe that she is one of those figures in the Bible that cannot be taken at all literally, and that she must solely be interpreted allegorically. Otherwise she makes no logical sense, and of course we must always put our faith to trial by the fires of intellect and experience. In recorded history prior to the invention of artificial insemination, there are no births by Virgins as far as I am aware. There are many in mythology, however! So quite clearly Our Lady, like many figures from the Bible, is a mythological personage who expresses a sublime philosophical idea regarding nature. This is not to lower her position or to degrade, for by all means she is still mightily exalted. Thus we must regard her nature as such, and not view her with certain mundane interpretations.

I think what my first issue thinking about Mary was that she is known as "the mother of us all." Now, I understand that to many this would have to do with the fact that Mary is also the Church, and through her we are baptized in the name of Christ. Thus we are "reborn." But are we not already baptized in Christ merely by existing? For "through Him all things were made." He is that which is, and through Him beings have their ability to exist. Nothing may be said to exist unless it partakes in a fundamental union with the Logos. (I prefer to refer to Christ as the Logos for that is what He represents. It is better to use general terms such as these in order to not exclude anyone who is not necessarily "Christian." Because of course the Logos/Christ is not a concept only contained in Western thought, and we should remember this.) Again, the Logos is that fundamental defining purpose for an existing being. It is its DNA, if you will - the coding for its manifested existence.

But the Logos in and of itself is useless. Like a man with no female partner, it cannot create by its own means. Therefore it must create for itself a feminine counterpart, or a passive extension and image of itself. If we look at the Sephiroth, this is clearly illustrated for us. Kether, sometimes referred to as the first Logos, first mover, etc., begets Chokhmah and Binah, the Father and the Mother respectively. Kether is the original point of unextended, impartial existence. Nothing can be said about it other than the fact that it exists. Chokhmah, the more overt Logos and the first sephirah on the Pillar of Mercy, is Kether's first more defined force or wisdom. Now we can say something about the original point of existence - we can characterize its will. However, we cannot really understand it. Binah, understanding and the first sephirah on the Pillar of Severity, teaches us the limitations of this wisdom and thereby balances out Chokhmah's infinite stream of force. The harmony between these two factors, the masculine active will and the feminine passive will, or the Will of God with the Image of God, results in the birth of something definitive and glorious. It is the birth of the Word made Flesh.

I hope now you see the obvious correlation between the Sephirotic/Neo-Platonic philosophy and the Christian Mystery of the Incarnation. They are strikingly similar. The Virgin Mary is a representation of Binah, the Divine Feminine, and Christ is more or less Chokhmah and Kether sort of conglomerated, or the Divine Masculine. It's difficult to really fit Christ into the Sephiroth because they're simply different systems of interpretation, and they do not intersect seamlessly. Christ is somewhat akin to the Ain Soph, Kether, Chokhmah, and Tiphareth all at the same time. I believe it depends on how we are talking about Him. If we refer to the Logos as that which is coeternal with the Father, then we are referring to the Ain Soph. If we mean Him to represent the Cornerstone of any existing being, then we mean Kether. If we speak of Him as the Life or Will of any existing being, then we mean Chokhmah. And finally, if we mean to speak of Him as Jesus Christ, the dying and resurrecting man-God, then we mean to say Tiphareth, or consciousness at the level of Tiphareth.

Regardless, the Virgin Mary still fits very neatly into the category of Binah, or even the Ain Soph Aur. For our purposes, however, let us stick to the idea of Binah, and leave the Ain Soph Aur for even more lofty discussions. Frankly, the whole business of Ain-anything is really confusing, and is meant to be so. Being at the very top of the Tree of Life, it is the most hidden, the most esoteric, the most difficult to describe, and yet it best describes the idea of God as unmanifested, unmade Being. But leaving all that aside, let us instead return the original Marian myth: the Annunciation. In the story, Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel, who pronounces her to be the future Mother of God. She humbly accepts the divine command issued by the archangel, calling herself "the handmaid of the Lord," and as a result is infused with the Holy Spirit and conceives Jesus. By giving birth to God, Mary in effect gives birth to all things that are made, and essentially baptizes all those things in the waters of her womb in the name of Christ. Note that Mary's name has the obvious etymological connection to the word "mare" in Latin, which translates to "sea." St. Jerome was the first Christian writer to write about this connection prominently, and it is from him that we get the imagery for the famous Marian hymn Ave maris stella (Hail, Star of the Sea). Mary therefore has an overt connection to the ocean and the womb. In Genesis as well, remember that "the Spirit of God moved across the waters" and brought life from chaos.

Atu III The Empress represents the Feminine
as the Vessel of Nature. Her letter is Daleth
which means "door." Her path on the
Sephiroth connects Chokhmah to Binah.

Mary then is not just a humble maiden mother. She is the womb of Nature, and is the Feminine will to live. She is rightly called "the door of life," for through her all things are born. The sacred Word that Christ represents is "Life," and she is its vessel. When she accepts the Divine Will to Live, she accepts Life in its most chaotic form. Remember that Chokhmah is barely defined, and Kether has virtually no definition. Chokhmah in particular is simply the infinite force and vigor of Life itself, the original impartial point of existence extending its energy outwards. With the third point, Binah, that energy is confined in the shape of a triangle - a metaphorical womb. Mary is associated with virtue and prudence because she Understands the proper course for Life. She is coequal with the Father, Chokhmah, and is the final direct expression of Kether, the Crown. By her means, Kether is able to manifest itself in space and time, and thereby experience itself as a made Being.

However, because she is "virtuous" does not mean she is so in any human sense of the word. Virtue is highly subjective, and in this case the example she sets for us by her humility does not mean we should humble ourselves to the point of absurdity. For example, women should not necessarily be housewives and remain subservient to men. Chastity is not necessarily a "good" thing, for by it we restrict the force of Life. Mary's passivity is the acceptance of Life in whatever form it can come in. She is understanding of God's wisdom because she knows how best to limit it for its own wellbeing. This limitation is more or less known as death. The Divine Feminine is the great recycler, being both the Fertile Mother and the Sterile Mother. She is fairness and justice in its highest notion, for she is balanced. For as much life she brings forth she also brings forth as much death. But this is how existence is allowed to remain intact. Can you imagine if nothing died? It'd be anarchy! In some ways we should be really thankful for death, even though it's obviously something most of us don't look forward to (myself included).

Now to bring in Mr. Crowley on this. Crowley equates Binah with the Whore of Babalon, and Chokhmah with Father Chaos, which of course all sounds very Satanic and icky. But at the same time, these descriptions make sense. Chokhmah has no sense of restriction, whereas Binah is the original notion of restriction. However, Binah does not restrict herself from impregnation with God's Will, no matter what form it decides to come in. We are more than aware of the diversity of Life - Life constituting all existing things, be they "alive" or "inanimate." The Divine Will to create Life then is equally diverse, and infinitely so. Binah/Mary as the humble Feminine accepts these creations and births them, but on the condition that they must eventually die. Binah/Mary as the Virgin remains ever fruitful, for her womb is never deprived of its fertility. She loves all of her creations equally, and subjects all of them to the same fair treatment out of this love. The love she has extends beyond the individual and encompasses the Universe. This is how the desires of the individual are not necessarily equivalent to what is actually best for that individual, given their relationship to the Universe at large.

So those of us who are lucky enough to raise their consciousness to the level of Binah effectively "die." They lose all sense of individuality, because they have ascertained their connection with the World. Their personal desires and identities are rendered meaningless in the sight of all that is made. Binah, like the Virgin Mary, shows us the Way of God, which is in Christ. She is our Guide, our Fountain of Life, our Protector, our Mother. The medieval tropes that continue to survive in modern Marian prayers certainly have some validity to them. By knowledge of the Mother we may come to knowledge of the Father/Son, and through knowledge of Him, we attain knowledge of God.

Gabriel with his scroll dispenses the
Will and Word of God to the Virgin
in the form of the Holy Spirit.

I'm sure some of you are still feeling weird about the correlation I have drawn between the Virgin Mary and the Whore of Babalon. I admit it is a stark comparison. First of all, remember that Crowley's whole linguistic methodology was based on juxtaposition. He used old concepts and renamed them things people found repulsive. By doing this he teaches us a great lesson - we cannot decide what God should and should not be based on subjective personal or cultural preference. God simply Is. Second of all, remember what Crowley says about existence above the Abyss, that "contradiction is unity." The concepts of virginity and whoredom are polarized against each other. But who can really say one is "positive" and the other "negative?" Above the Abyss, their contradiction becomes unity, and they come to represent the same thing impartially.

I think what is most important about all this is to see the foolishness of Christian morality regarding sexuality and women. It is not necessarily God's Will that everyone should be chaste, nor is it possible that he prefers chastity to sexuality. It is not reasonable to say that woman is below man. Outside of the realm of sexuality and women, it is also foolish to say that baptism only occurs through the Church, when simply by being born we are baptized through Mary in the name of the Logos. Etc.

Limiting the Circle

There is a particularly disconcerting section of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians – 4:8 through 4:9.

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

While this is at first a seemingly lovely passage, it makes no logical sense after further review. If God is infinite unmanifested Being, an eternal, infinite circle, if you will, how can we say anything definitive about Him? Furthermore, no one shares the same ideas of “purity,” or “goodness.” Your concepts of these things may be entirely different from mine, and so therefore we cannot take Paul’s advice literally. We cannot suggest that there are universal concepts of “goodness” which apply to God. Rather, more generally, we must accept that God can be expressed by the sum total of potential goods, as cognitively defined by an infinite number of potential people.

Therefore, we must also include things that are “bad” in the understanding of God, for what makes something “bad” other than the fact that it does not immediately satisfy the needs of an individual? One man’s “bad” is another’s “good.” The philosopher Nietzsche wrote extensively on this concept, and of course he is absolutely correct. I could say that a given bacteria is “bad” because it makes me sick, but from that bacteria’s point of view, my white blood cells are “bad” because they’re trying to kill the bacteria. But of course my blood cells in my opinion are quite “good” because they ensure my survival. Survival and security are perhaps the most important things to us on the most fundamental part of our beings. Our emotional needs, such as our need for love and attention, stem from our need for security. When we feel like we do not have these, we are more susceptible to committing faults against others.

Needless to say, God cannot be understood as the “supreme Good,” unless we conceptualize that as being the sum total of all potential goods, which would be infinite. Since of course, all of these would be different, nothing definitive can be said about the nature of God’s goodness. We can only agree in as neutral a sense possible that God is “good.”

The individual perspective is terribly important, and it is a shame Christianity fails to realize this. Its message of self-sacrifice and community building has been so warped that it no longer makes any sense. If we want Christianity to sound less like babbling idiocy and more like a sensible philosophy, we must weed through a tremendous amount of muddled muck. For a religion that is supposed to be so “standardized,” its symbols and myths are too confused, and do not clearly state an obvious doctrine that resonates with human experience as a whole. It projects a very Western mindset. Of course there are many aspects of Christianity that people across the world connect to, particularly ideas of suffering, charity, and equality.

But the human experience at the biological level, the natural level, does not agree with it. In fact, nature, the manifestation of God’s divine law, wholly rejects most of Christianity’s notions. Competition, death, and violence are inherent building blocks of nature. Nature produces itself through these methods, and since they seem to threaten our individual survival, we proclaim them to be bad and use religion to invent a hypothetical desired future-world where none of these things exist. God will supposedly wipe these things clean and there will only be “goodness,” and “peace.” But what would be the consequences of this? How would we deal with overpopulation of every species? The unfortunate reality is that disease, war, and famine are absolutely necessary for every species. God is not just in any moral or human sense of the word, but He is exact. The justice of God ensures that creation is measured appropriately, so that the universe as a whole maintains a perfect equilibrium. Otherwise, imbalance would lead to chaos, which would lead to collapse. So our wistful notions of “peace” are impossible, and are ignorant of reality. We are moving from God and knowledge of Him even further when we focus on goals such as these.

Peace, then, must be on the individual level. Everyone knows of the inner battles we all wage within ourselves. One part of us wants one thing, another part the opposite. Our biological needs contest with our moral desires and vice versa, and thus our decision-making is cluttered and unfocused. But we can ask God for peace in this regard. We can ask the Lord to grant us the power of His Son, His Will and His Word, who represents a sublimely focused willpower. The Divine Will is that which is capable of binding our own disparate will into one complete force. By doing this we attain a state of great power, calm, and wisdom. No longer do we feel insecure and threatened by others, but instead we feel prepared to face greater challenges. We begin to trust that the doors that were once closed will open for us. This is the sense in which peace may lead to progress. This is the kind of inner peace that will lead to better, purer relationships between humans. But “world peace” will never do this. That sort of peace could only be instituted by governments with pens and papers, and could do nothing to truly bring the minds of men and women to peace. Discord starts at the individual level and emanates outward from us, affecting all around us. Fix the issue at the source and spread peace around you in this fashion. But do not believe that peace should come from others sacrificing or effacing themselves for your sake, so that you might have it easier. Sometimes they are wrong and sometimes you are wrong, but these are easier to deal with if at least one of the individuals can approach the situation with calmness, security, and clarity, and not with unchecked, foolish emotions.

Religions have the very unfortunate tendency to dumb doctrine down into myths and stories so that the masses may have access to their wisdom. The issue arises when the masses don’t have the courage or intelligence to see beyond the veil of these stories by checking them against their own experiences and knowledge. It is true that there are some things about God that we cannot logically understand, particularly as was previously demonstrated. Very little can be intelligently and definitively said about God, if anything at all. But logic must not be seen as pointless in terms of spirituality. We must treat life as a science, in which we learn about the world through experimentation. Every experience is an experiment – some yield fruit, others do not. Everyone has the right to choose for themselves which experiences they wish to strive for in order to reap the greatest result. Let no one consider these experiences “bad” or “good,” but only as neutral experiments. Do not invoke God in order to enforce a specific morality. Doing so is to blaspheme against His very nature – to limit His Being. We can no longer say that Judeo-Christian values are the only important values in the world, for we know that many people have gotten along fine without them. Instead, let us yearn to know a God that is far mightier and less petty. Let us desire the Lord who is All, who is Being unmade, and not the idealistic invention of individuals.

A Truly Polyphonic Post

Hello all,

I realize I haven't made a blogpost in over a month! I hate to have been so negligent, but I honestly just haven't felt the need to write anything. After a fairly lonely summer (or at least until the tail end of it), one full of endless contemplation and thinking, it has been nice to not worry about the universe so seriously, or so intensely for awhile.

But in the meantime, there have been many things I've been thinking about as I continue to grow and learn through God's wonderful guidance. Please allow me to share them with you here.

1.) Know that you know nothing, no one else knows anything either, and all of that's alright.

The first thing I learned this summer was pretty simple. Despite my copious factual knowledge of all sorts of odds and ends regarding occultism, Christianity, and philosophy, I know absolutely nothing definitively about the universe. At first, this was truly terrifying for me. I'm the type of person who likes to feel they have the answers to puzzles and problems, and to finally be convinced of my own inadequacy in this regard was really troubling for me. But then it seemed to just pass, and now I'm perfectly ok with it. If anything, I feel more excited to pursue more experiences in life, because I also think this moment in my life taught me to rely more on my own experiences. The hackneyed statement that "experience is the greatest teacher" has a lot of truth in it.

This summer I also began working for the Church, and it got out that I read tarot. Unfortunately, some closed-minded individuals were greatly displeased with this information, and confronted me about it, and eventually left the organization I run. Needless to say, I was pretty distressed by this. Was my ability to read tarot "evil?" or "sinful?" I had to conclude that it wasn't, since it hasn't brought me much of anything other than a simple happiness, and a much stronger faith in God. If anything, it has humbled me more than exalted me, showing and reminding me constantly of my own inabilities and failings, and demonstrating the far superior guidance of God, which even though I trust, I can never seem to obey. In short, I am wretched. But I trust that I am where I should be, and that these are all tests for me. I trust that whatever miseries I create for myself shall be converted into even greater goods by the Lord (or whatever name you wish to give Him/Her).

Through this humility, I have been taught quite sternly and fairly the reality of the above statement: "I know nothing." But if I know nothing, then it is just as likely that no one else knows anything either. And so I came to see that we can only really know about who we are, and how we fit into the universe - that is our sublime ability. But, on the other hand, knowledge of the Universe as a whole is often kept from us, and we must trust that that is what's best for us. We must be content with the knowledge we garner from our own experiences of the universe, for this alone may bring about great happiness.

2.) Fear less, trust more.

Along the same lines, I believe now so firmly alongside Julian of Norwich that we must place all our trust in God, for when we fear, we are more apt to commit faults against other men and women. The man who feels secure has no need to attack others, but the man who feels unfounded develops fear, and this is the root of most evil. For it is true that humans are animals, and we are therefore an aggressive species at times. Certainly there are times when it is best to be aggressive, but not because we feel affronted by our peers. Competition is a necessary aspect of the universe, and it ensures growth, change, and evolution. This is how the universe may attain even greater perfections - this is the wonder of the world. That that which is already so wonderful can become even more wonderful over the ages. True, change is a fluctuation, and it is better to conceptualize development more as a spiral than a line... And as usual, I digress. The point is this: we must believe and have faith that God is constantly with us, observing our trials, our actions, and our thoughts, and He holds all of them in the palm of His hand. There is nothing outside of God's power, and it is best to thank Him for all the constant work He does and support He gives us.

With less fear, we can begin to experience and learn more, and thereby shed our ignorance bit by bit. "Question, O man!" Discover for yourself your own nature, your own truths through your experiences. Accept that all experiences are valid, that none is superior to another, for each experience is the creation of a new reality. Through each moment, God creates anew, and we are witness to it. My friends, as I write this, I cannot help but feel slightly overwhelmed by the magnitude of that statement, and again, I am humbled once more and thankful to the point of tears. There is so much to be thankful for, through good and ill, and we must trust that this is so, even though from our perspectives things may seem entirely bleak at a given moment. But remember that "My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts." Do not be afraid to learn more about life, for our Creator also bears a great zeal for existence, and a deep love for His creations. He does not bar us from participating in any experience, and we must know that the idea of sin is much more specific than was once believed. Sin is personal, and is based on our own recurring trials - for truly life is composed of a spiral of trials and tests that are meant to bring us to even greater glory. Only through trust in the Lord may we triumph over these. Please believe me, for everything in my life has only told me that this is true, and I feel it to be true so strongly within myself that I can do nothing other than speak it aloud.

3.) Do not fear death or loss.

It is only natural to fear these things, but we must again trust that they are not as relevant as we may think them to be. Fear of these things comes from too much focus on the mundane, or from objectifying people. On a personal level, we must remember that the important things of our life are contained safely in our memories, and have left an indelible mark upon our world schema. Through the memory, a being is able to preserve their experiences, and is thus able to grow perpetually through them. Likewise, the same experience may be revisited throughout one's life in order to be observed from different perspectives. Sometimes we do not have the correct tools with which to experience something fairly, and so we have an improper emotional reaction to it. In a simple example, we often think that when people are rude to us it is our fault entirely, or that the individual is just a bad person socially. But later we may come to discover that that person was having tremendous financial difficulty at home, or that one of his loved ones was ill, or even something much more basic - they hadn't eaten and were hungry, so they were quick to snap at others. Obviously there are many possibilities and I'm sure you get the point. But it's easy for us to forget this in the moment, and it is good to keep in mind while experiencing anything of note, that we will most likely not be able to adequately analyze that moment until much later in life. This is how we grow and become more profound individuals - we gain wisdom this way, and more moderate temperament. Thus, fear not for the loss of an experience materially. Instead, trust that if it was truly important to your development as a being, it would remain in your memory, and that it would leave a mark on your identity in some fashion. For instance, attending a class on early music in college has undoubtedly left its mark on me. As much as I miss that class and long for that moment in my life, I know that I am perpetually preserving that experience simply by pursuing other interests in early music. Thus, that moment or experience has not really "died," nor have I lost it.

And as far as literal death is concerned, we must first remember that it is natural, and will happen eventually. We are lucky to be natural beings, but the price of that is subjectivity to death. But I personally believe we must trust that death is not the end of anything, but merely a transmutation of our current energies and identity into something different, so that we may continue to experience. Nature teaches us that death is rarely finite, though of course, this is one of those things that I have learned to just think about less. I can't tell you what happens after death. I can just suggest that it doesn't help to worry about it.

4.) Respect yourself before trying to respect others.

It is impossible to sincerely give charity to others until you give charity to yourself. Firstly, accept that you are flawed, but simultaneously accept that you are learning. Allow yourself to learn and make mistakes, and to try new things. Know yourself well, and know what your needs and capabilities are. Confront the dark parts of yourself fearlessly by treating them impartially. This is not possible immediately, but comes with time. That is the beauty of the memory - we may revisit trauma and the details associated with it endlessly until they all hurt us less. But we must first choose to confront them in the first place, as a solitary soldier may take on many. The courageous will fight until they have emerged victor, but the weak will only give in and be trampled. Courage takes faith, and faith must be in God. Know that strength is available to you, but you must decide to look for it, and you must choose to wield it justly against your enemies. Look for these enemies not outside yourself but within, for indeed they lay in wait very near to you, ready to ambush you at any given opportunity. Therefore, be vigilant and wary - protect yourself with the armor of your experience, intellect, and faith and you will surely survive. The devil is not in your friends, but is in you.

Along these same lines, the idea of a "devil" is confusing. We must not believe that there is a being so turned against God that he desires to confuse and mislead all of God's creations. This is foolishness, for anything that may call itself a being has its existence through God. Thus, the idea of the devil really speaks of that-which-does-not-exist. And since God is all-pervasive and the only reality, there is no such thing as a Satan or devil, unless that figure is an aspect of God. There is so much scorn for this figure because we see only the bad things that this figure causes for us, but in doing so we fail to see that it is not an external enemy that is causing the grievances, but rather an internal one we have created ourselves, willingly or unwillingly. These become trials for us, and we learn and become stronger through them. We find faith through them. And so this is how we may come to laugh at "the devil" and how we may see "him" as "good," and how we must accept that his actions are for our improvement and come from the will of God. For truly no other agenda may exist, and no other being may exist. There is only God and the will of God.

Benedicite Domine!

The New Roman Missal: Some Thoughts

As you may or may not know, the Catholic Church has once more revised the Roman Missal's English translation so that it may more accurately reflect the original language of the Vulgate Bible. The changes are to be implemented during the season of Advent, 2011, and will supposedly rekindle faith and devotion for all who partake in.

To begin with, I would like to express a hearty "FINALLY" in response to this decision. The "translation" done in the 70's and 80's is so paltry, ineffective, dull, and irreverent that it is truly necessary to at last have an English text that does not try to summarize the contents of the liturgy, but actually attempts to translate them accurately.

This is not to say, however, that I approve entirely of the movement, not because I disagree with the efforts of the Church to more accurately disseminate the text of the Bible to lay people, but because I believe its opinions on the movement, as well as the goal of the movement, miss the obvious reality: that the music of English-language Catholic music is unashamedly awful.

Since the 1970's, the American Church has ruthlessly suffocated the true Roman tradition of Gregorian chant, and has frowned upon music that may be "too difficult" for lay people to sing (i.e. Medieval/Renaissance polyphony). For an institution that prides itself on espousing the Roman form of Christianity, and one that gloats over its universality as a single Church with one liturgy, it is incomprehensible as to why we suddenly need to sacrifice our 1,000-year-plus prayers and rituals in the name of gaudy simplicity, so that "the common man" can sing along in church. So essentially, the Church has allowed itself to stoop to the level of Disney Sing-Along in exchange for discarding one of the most sublime musical traditions the West has ever heard.

Let me be clear. The Church never catered to lay people's musical ability until the Reformation, when suddenly it became expected that everyone needed to participate in the liturgy. But this is not the original intention of Christianity. Indeed, early Christian rites were set up in mystery cult fashion, where the catechumens were the only ones allowed to partake in the Eucharist, and everything was done very hush-hush in the interest of secrecy and solemnity. But now under the guidance of the Enlightenment, we desire to expose the Mass in every way possible, to make it entirely accessible to even the most ignorant member of the congregation. We are now spoon-fed everything. No one has to work to understand the Mysteries anymore, no one has to work in order to pray or to worship. Everything has been simplified to the point where it is frankly sickening, and the Church has shot itself in the foot by this approach. How are we to expect people to regain excitement over a religion that has nothing to hide? that doesn't challenge us to dig deeper? The whole business of religion, whether Catholic or Protestant, has become too easy. No longer does one need to read St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas in order to understand Christianity; no longer must one delve into the mystical writings of St. Teresa of Avila; no one needs to be able to read music anymore or to attend rehearsal in order to sing the prayers at a high quality. No, instead we have a degraded, insulting version of a once beautiful religion, and I am frankly angry.

What happened to strong-arm Catholicism? Where are the old monastic teachers of the universities? Where is the voice of reason? Where is the usual sternness of Catholic dogma? We are flailing about over all sorts of other issues in the name of "Catholic dogma," but are afraid to defend authentic Catholic dogma and practice. Are we that enamored with Marty Haugen's Mass of Creation, or Bob Hurd's hideous Mass of Glory? Who are these people and who gave them the authority to subject us all to their mediocre, uninspired swill other than the few liturgical music publishing companies? Why are we not fighting back? I know that there is

a large group of people out there who believe in the pure, timeless beauty of things like Gregorian chant, or the wonder of old polyphony. Under the spirit of reform, we must become a much louder voice and defend this body of music, or at least hold it up as a standard to meet. Not every parish is going to be able to implement such music - I am all too aware of this unfortunate reality. But why do we not strive to do so? Why are church choral programs full only of the elderly? Why is it that no one really enjoys singing in church anymore? Why is no one learning musical technique through the church as people did since the 8th century under Pope Gregory I? We simply must address the issue of quality in contemporary worship music. These people who consider themselves "composers" are blemishes on the history of Catholic music. It is appalling and unconceivable that these people should consider themselves part of the same heritage as Josquin, or Lassus, or Palestrina. It is like comparing stray cats to lions.

I am not a hardcore orthodox Catholic - not by any means. I believe that the Catholic Church needs to seriously reevaluate its stances on abortion, homosexuality, and female ordination, but I do NOT believe that the Church should be throwing away its liturgy so carelessly. I am an ardent (and clearly feisty) lover of early music, and as an amateur musicologist, it pains me endlessly to see this once alive music become the subject for faux-new-age CD's and techno remixes. I realize that this comes across more as an impassioned rant, but I am so distressed by how long this practice of sheer mediocrity has been allowed and desired by certain members of the clergy.

The sad truth is that this music no longer moves people in any way, no longer elevates them to a different plane of thinking or contemplation. Instead it is flat and dull. No amount of bongos, electric guitars, or flutes will ever remedy this. The false exuberance of these works are only a tacky veneer over poorly designed composition and text setting. Handel, not a native English speaker, set English better than these native English composers. And why is this tolerated? So that we can maybe appeal to some of the "young people?" I am a member of the "young people," and I can tell you that none of us are impressed by this garbage. None of us have found any yearning for God from these petty songs. But I know many of my generation who have been deeply moved by things like chant, and it has inspired them in a way unbeknownst to them before.

May God move as is according to His Will.

Amen

Eheieh: The Major Arcana and the Great Work

The Major Arcana are often seen as a representation of the individuation process, or the means by which man returns to God. There are of course 22 of them in total, but the last one, The Universe or The World, is numbered 21. Curiously enough, the gematria value for one of Kether’s divine names, Eheieh, equals 21 as well. Eheieh itself translates to “I am,” or “I shall be” – very interesting given what we have just said about the Major Arcana.

Another way of looking at the Major Arcana is by seeing their positions on the Rose Cross, depicted on the back of Crowley’s Thoth cards. Without getting too absorbed in an explanation of this complex symbol, I will simply say that it could be seen as another representation of the Sephiroth, or the way God manifests itself and then relates to its creation. From the single point of white in the center of the symbol emanates a rose and cross, followed by additional petals and a much larger cross. The single point represents Kether (Eheieh), the unity, or Hadit if you are thinking in terms of Crowley’s Liber AL. Surrounding this first small cross is a ring of three petals, followed by a ring of seven petals, and a third ring of twelve petals. Here is where we find our Major Arcana.

The first three correspond to the three elemental majors, which in turn are associated with the three “mother letters” in Hebrew (Aleph - air, Mem - water, and Shin – fire/spirit). These would be 0 The Fool, XII The Hanged Man, and XX The Aeon respectively. Technically there is a fourth elemental card, The Universe representing the element of earth, but since it does not correspond to one of the mother letters it is not placed in this first ring of petals.

The next ring of seven corresponds to the planetary trumps, these being I The Magus (Mercury), II The Priestess (Moon), III The Empress (Venus), X Fortune (Jupiter), XVI The Tower (Mars), XIX The Sun (Sun), and XX The Universe (Saturn).

The third ring of petals on the greater rose represents the zodiacal trumps. These are IV The Emperor (Aries), V The Hierophant (Taurus), VI The Lovers (Gemini), VII The Chariot (Cancer), VIII Adjustment (Libra), IX The Hermit (Virgo), XI Lust (Leo), XIII Death (Scorpio), XIV Art (Sagittarius), XV The Devil (Capricorn), XVII The Star (Aquarius), and XVIII The Moon (Pisces).

What this symbol tells us is that each ring is a subsequent emanation of the ring before it, a further distillation of the meaning inherent in the cards prior. What I propose is that we can group the cards in families based on element, and thereby come closer to pinpointing what the 21-fold path to God is intimating.

Fire:

First, let’s deal with the fire cards, since Kabbalistically, fire is the first element, followed by water, air, and earth. This set is governed by XX The Aeon, which stands for the element of fire and spirit simultaneously. We are told that this has to do with the consumptive and enflaming quality of spirit. Fire is also attributed to the letter Yod of Tetragrammaton, and Abba, the Father who is represented by Chokhmah on the Sephiroth. XX essentially represents the Second Coming of Christ – the divine Self – who destroys the individual’s worldview and comes to rule over the soul as a lord. This, as we will see, is the overarching theme to the fire trumps. It is echoed in the two fiery planetary trumps, XVI The Tower and XIX The Sun. The former symbolizes the destruction of the ego’s fortress by the spirit. It is akin to the Harrowing of Hell by Christ following the Passion, when the Lord descends to the depths to liberate those trapped in Hell who did not deserve to be there (namely the beatific characters of the Old Testament). XIX on the other hand represents liberation, particularly from self-deceit, victory and triumph, the return of innocence, the Crowned and Conquering Child. Both of these planetary cards can clearly be seen as further developments of the original main idea contained in XX The Aeon.

The three zodiacal trumps for fire, IV The Emperor, XI Lust, and XIV Temperance, all also deal with these themes, but in a more specific fashion. The Emperor speaks of self control and self-lordship. He is a man of war being also associated with the alchemical sulfur. He is sudden in his actions and occasionally destructive without care. We can see that this represents the war against the ego, which flies about with little sense of direction. To tame it, we must be equally sudden and sometimes ruthless in our governance. We must consider its losses as a delight, and not something to mourn for. This is man’s innate “will to power” put to good use; rather than using it to destroy one’s peers, we can use it to destroy our false selves and thereby attain true Power. XI Lust also has the same nonchalance when it comes to its potency – what it destroys in its unleashing is quickly forgotten about. Lust represents the erotic union between masculine and feminine energies that are both inherent in the human being. The energy generated by this is enough to cause the Kundalini serpent, coiled at the base of the spine, to rise. Being situated in that place on the body, the serpent represents a very wild, natural energy form that can be seen as an effect of our “lower sensibilities.” By causing it to rise, we are bringing these “lower” essences more in line with our divine energies. We allow them to be governed more easily by spirit, or the Divine Self. XIV Art again deals with the harmonization between masculine and feminine, itself being a depiction of the androgyne. These energies are refined to their purest forms and then fused back together into a unified androgynous being – a more accurate representation of the Divine Self.

Understanding this, we can see that the fire trumps all deal with the War against the false self, as well as the governing of the human being by spirit, the Logos as represented by Christ.

Water:

Next comes water, which represents the Divine Feminine, the Mother, Binah on the Sephiroth, Aima, the Heh primal of Tetragrammaton, etc. So while fire represents the Divine Will, water is the actual understanding or interpretation of that Will. Therefore, we should expect the water trumps to further explain the fire trumps in a more passive way. Its elemental trump card is XII The Hanged Man, which is a curious and sometimes frustrating card in my opinion. It’s one of the trumps that Crowley felt needed revision since it so obviously depicts the mysteries of the Aeon of Osiris which has supposedly now passed. Primarily, he rejects it as a symbol of sacrifice conflated with morality. But while sacrifice may no longer be a relevant action today, the card still represents the descent of the Divine Self for love – not love in the sacrificial sense of Christ, but in the ecstatic form described by Nuit in the Liber AL (“for I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union”). An important aspect of the Hanged Man is that he is upside-down, meaning that his perspective is seemingly opposite to our own. Yet, Crowley writes that water is an element of illusion, and it would seem that the Hanged Man’s perspective is actually correct, and our own is deceptive. Thus, we “understand” the effect of XX The Aeon. The Aeon rectifies our perspective, and demonstrates to us that we are actually divine beings.

II The Priestess, or the Moon, is the one planetary trump for the element of water. Again, the card represents the truth concealed behind illusion. Manifested existence is simply a lovely guise for the One Truth – the One God, who hides himself therein. Now, we must compare her to the fiery planetary trumps, XIX The Sun, and XVI The Tower. These two cards also represent the shattering of illusion by Spirit, the Second Coming. The Priestess is the passive version of this, secretly telling us through our intuition that the form represented by the Tower was false, and that the only Truth is that of the Sun. We must remember that in Neo-Platonic thought, the sun was the closest representation of the Monad man could conceptualize. Mystical experience with the True Sun in this philosophy was the first major step towards union with the Source, as the two are so similar. The fact that the Priestess hints at the secret unity of life shows that she is in a direct relationship to XIX The Sun. So far, both the fiery and watery trumps have expressed practically the same ideas within their specific hierarchic levels. (In other words, the elemental cards express the same idea, and the planetary trumps together express another idea.)

The zodiacal water trumps are a bit trickier, though our theorem is still applicable. VII The Chariot represents control over the soul by the hidden One God. Ultimately, all actions of the soul are set in motion by God. By further defining the Hanged Man, we can see that whatever agency we believe ourselves to possess is false, and the only real authority possible is divine. Additionally, the card’s meaning is similar to IV The Emperor, but we see that the Emperor’s agency comes not from man himself, but from God alone. The Emperor is the pure idea of divine authority, the Chariot is a deeper (and therefore less pure) interpretation of that governance. Another, more simple way of comparing them is by noting that both are images of war and conquest. Though, while the Emperor is more spontaneous and active as a conqueror, the Chariot is simply directed and does not have a specific target of conquest.

XIII Death is also a card full of illusions and misconceptions that must be wiped away by the Spirit. While unaware of divinity, we believe in and fear corporeal death. It also speaks to the Dying Man-God Formula espoused by the Aeon of Osiris and the Hanged Man, as it represents Osiris himself. Osiris is the closest analogy to Christ we can find in the Egyptian Mysteries, and was most likely the ultimate predecessor to the archetypal story of Christ’s Passion. This card seems to be the most layered in its relationships to the element of water and its complement, XI Lust. Lust, as we know, represents the erotic fusion between masculine and feminine archetypes within the individual. On one hand, Death could therefore represent the death of orgasm when the two halves no longer distinguish differences between each other. On the other, Death shows us that whatever manifestations our personality goes through, each one is ultimately brought about by our pure Divine Self, who seeks to rectify our nature. Death purges us of unnecessary things, which causes us to feel “pain.” But this pain is a sort of divine ecstasy as it brings us closer to God.

Lastly, XVIII The Moon is entirely about deception and fear of the unknown. Without knowledge of God, we flounder through life feeling lost and confused about the future, our ambitions, who we are, almost anything you can imagine. Yet, buried deep under all that muck lies the sun waiting to be reborn. Note that each zodiacal water trump has depicted the Divine Self or Christ in some form, almost always in a solar aspect. The Chariot represents the “blood of the Sun” contained within the Holy Grail; Osiris, a god of vegetation and rebirth is naturally quasi-solar; and Kephra, the beetle, rolls his solar disk through the underworld. But XVIII is once again a hieroglyph of truth concealed in illusion. It resonates with XIV Art in that both of them show a sense of direction. While Art shows the path to balance and the Divine Self, the Moon demonstrates the need to stay connected to that solar middle path. It also speaks to the confusion created by the separate needs and desires of our masculine and feminine halves, as the cards two towers stand darkly opposing each other. The path between them is tread by Kephra, the sun.

It seems clear now that the water trumps depict the passive side of the “War” against self. They show different sides of the fire trumps by giving them more definition.

Air:

Air is the element attributed to the Son, the Vav of Tetragrammaton, and Tiphareth (the sun) on the Sephiroth. This is the heart of the Divine Self and the active consonance between the Divine Will and the Divine Understanding (fire and water). It is primarily defined by 0 The Fool, the letter Aleph. The Fool represents the wandering prince/knight-errant, perhaps even the incarnated Christ. He stands for divine mania, innocence, purity, fertility, ecstasy, androgyny, etc. He is the result of the fusion of masculine and feminine – by doing so he has regained his divine nature, and life becomes less of a grim struggle and more of a playground with little intrinsic meaning other than enjoyment. He can also be seen as the opposite and real nature of the Hanged Man.

The two planetary trumps for air, I The Magus and X Fortune, both speak of power and agency. The Magus shows that, with the War being won, the individual is free to craft their reality as they choose, since they will have discerned the illusive quality of existence and transcended it. Also, the Magus represents the alchemical substance of merucury, which is considered to be androgynous and a hybrid of sulfur and salt. Fortune echoes this, for the card tells us that as long as we are not in control of our multiple personas and powers, we are equally not in control of our lives and the seemingly “random” events that occur in them. Being an aspect of the Fool, we learn that all of the events that we want to take seriously really are just neutral events that are there to instruct us. In the case of the Fool, however, he is in control of the hand that turns the Wheel. Note that the Wheel of Fortune has a clenched fist engraved on its rim at the bottom; from this radiate six violet rays. Six is the number of the sun, as it is the number of Tiphareth on the Sephiroth. Essentially, the “hand of fate” is our solar, divine, Christ-like True Selves. The Fool, having recognized this, is free to manipulate his own destiny. Additionally, the Magus may further be a representation of the incarnated Christ, as the god Mercury is also a psychopomp, meaning he guides the souls of the dead. He is able to connect the highest to the lowest (“As above, so below”) and thereby redeem the lowly. Perhaps the ultimate message is that our highest good in the material plane expresses itself through our desire for freedom without prejudice against others. The Fool is indiscriminate because he is too innocent to pass judgment.

Which, of course, makes VIII Adjustment so interesting. Adjustment has nothing to do with any moral evaluation, only equilibrium. I believe we will find that the three zodiacal air trumps deal with the power and agency of the incarnated Christ, though I admit the air cards are particularly difficult to pin down (which makes sense, given the nature of air). But Adjustment, coming as a reaction to the harmony between the Emperor and the Chariot, teaches us that any action taken will have its repercussions in nature. Now that the individual has gained mastery over themselves by attaining Divinity, their lower selves (the Heh final of Tetragrammaton, the Princess) have been rectified and equilibrated. Its usual pendulum-like behavior has been balanced, thereby placing the Daughter on the throne of the Mother, Binah. Remember that Crowley writes that this card depicts that moment prior to her enthronement. She holds the sword of the Magus because with it she has focused all of her being toward this one goal.

XVII The Star, interestingly enough, comes as a response to Lust and Death, and depicts the manifestation of Nuit, the goddess of infinite space and nothingness. The letter associated with the Star is Heh, the letter of the Mother and Daughter, or Binah and Malkuth on the Sephiroth. The Star tends to represent that infinite potential of the universe encapsulated within the divine human being. All events for her are representations of the universe’s love. Primarily, we can see how this is connected to the ideas of the Magus and Fortune – as a divine being, man can access the infinite power of Divine Will (note that she pours upon herself the liquid spiral energy of a golden, a.k.a solar cup or bowl). She herself has become the conduit for the Divine Will and dispenses her blessing on the manifested Universe itself. Remember also what Crowley says, that all events are “a play of Nuit.” So after the ecstatic union achieved in Lust, understood to be a sort of release from the false self in death, the Star sees herself not as a divided being, but as one who contains both masculine and feminine impulses within herself, or perhaps rather the potentials for both.

Lastly, we have VI The Lovers, which is the counterpart to XIV Art. The former represents the alchemical act of solve while the latter is coagula. Both represent marriages of some kind. Let us remember that all magical working deals with these two activities – one can either divide or assemble when it comes to the goal of a magical operation. In fact, these are the only two operations of the Universe as a whole. Again, we see the empowerment metaphor of the Fool/Christ as reigning Lord. In response to Art and The Moon, the Lovers seems to decidedly advocate for separation, as the Hermit or Logos stands in the Sign of the Enterer, as if to authorize the marriage between man and woman. But, remember that The Lovers has a strong female element, as it is the influence of the Mother Binah upon the Son in Tiphareth. Perhaps we can see this card as a reminder to the Son of what his primary goal is – to marry the Princess and redeem her. In this light, perhaps the Prince has been given all this power and agency to entice the Princess.

It intrigues me that even though the element of air is meant to deal with the Son of Tetragrammaton, the reigning Christ after his fiery return in XX The Aeon, there is a strong presence of femininity in the zodiacal trumps. While we can suggest this is only natural given the Fool’s androgynous nature, it may also be intended to remind us of the Tetragrammaton cycle and the process of apotheosis. The Prince is always intended to marry his sister the Princess and set her upon the throne of her Mother, whereby she awakens the Eld of the All-Father and becomes one with God. So in the air trumps, we see the actual goal or focus of all the activity in the fire and water trumps – the redemption of the Princess. It is as if the entire force of creation surges to save her in loving joy.

Earth:

The last of the elemental trumps is XXI The Universe, which represents the Daughter fully enthroned in the New Jerusalem or Eden. It is akin to the Assumption of the Virgin into Paradise. At this point in the apotheosis formula, the Prince, along with any sense of individuality, has been sacrificed, allowing the Princess to be a complete vessel for the One True God – or rather, to actually become one with God. It is the fulfillment of the prophecy that the Kingdom of Heaven shall come to reign on earth.

The Universe is also Saturn, and along with III The Empress, constitutes the planetary majors for earth. As definitions of the New Eden, they both possess a sense of longevity and eternity. The Empress is the alchemical substance of salt, which represents death, slowness, inertia, etc. Saturn similarly represents the heaviness of time and its procession onwards. So having attained Godhead, the individual has also become one with Eternity. There is only one moment in this state – an eternal present; the past and future are not relevant. Furthermore, what was begun by the Masculine (IV The Emperor) has found completion in the Feminine (III The Empress). Venus as a planet represents beauty and love, and thus we see once again that all the work of the Universe has been ultimately an act of love. Paradise has regained its greenness as Hildegard von Bingen would say, and is once again beautiful.

For Crowley, XV The Devil is a representation of Kether, the single and only true perspective in the Universe. He is a symbol of mastery and initiation, but is also ruled by Saturn. The card is also a representation of the incarnation of the divine in matter, represented by the large phallus depicted in the card. But the idea is that God chooses to manifest Himself for better or worse. Let us also recall the traditional Neo-Platonic mythology surrounding apotheosis. Upon returning the unity, the individual is expected to return their eros or life energy to the demiurge so that He can create new forms. This is what it means to “pour one’s blood into the Cup of Babalon” and to thereby “awaken the Eld of the All-Father.” One has completed the work of self-mastery set out in The Emperor, The Chariot, and Adjustment. By becoming one with God, one partakes in the profoundly beautiful act of creation.

V The Hierophant is the hieroglyph of teaching and spiritual guidance, of exoteric revelation. As Crowley would say, he has become Master of the Temple by reaching Paradise. It is his duty to now instruct others who have not received initiation, to guide them toward Truth. His letter, Vav, means “a nail,” and is again a phallic symbol. He must generate spiritual progeny by infusing others with his inspiration. Even though he has completed the Great Work, he must continue to participate in it.

One last card, IX The Hermit (phew). Let us recall that the mutable zodiacal trumps have tended to do with the direction of willpower. Sagittarius directed it toward the Divine; Pisces hid the divine goal from the will and let it wander alone; Gemini taught the will to cleave to the Divine, but also to embrace the properties of division inherent in the Universe. Now the Hermit is a representation of the Divine Will working silently throughout nature, as its sign, Virgo, is ruled doubly by Mercury. But Mercury as psychopomp also seeks to redeem the individual soul – hence the depiction of Cerberus in the card’s lower right corner. And in the Hermit’s hand, he bears a lantern containing the sun. Through the guiding hand of the Logos, the Universe is cultivated and returned to its paradisical state. Again, we have a call to continue the Great Work until the whole Universe is integrated. It is no longer about the will of the individual, but about the Will of God. Also, we see a spermatozoon in the lower left corner, demonstrating the impregnating effect of this Will. But it is of course yet another phallic symbol.

Therefore, the earth trumps deal with Garden of Eden, Paradise, the New Jerusalem on Earth. They complete the apotheosis of the individual, but by doing so makes them an even more integral part of the Great Work for existence itself. On a personal note, I must add that this is exactly what Hildegard von Bingen writes about. She constantly talks about the need to return Paradise to its original green state prior to the Fall and the Incarnation of Christ.

Wrapup

We have talked about every single trump, and I’m exhausted. But I believe I have touched upon something very important, and I hope it clarifies the apotheosis process for all of us. I also hope it shows us how the trumps are all thematically related, and do ultimately demonstrate Eheieh, the unity of life.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

One Year Anniversary!

Yes, my friends, today marks the one year anniversary of my opening this blog. Since then I have graduated from college, sung the Brahms Requiem more times than I care to recollect, and prayed more than I ever have before. As a blog writer, I have veered into all sorts of subject matter - from the letters of Abelard and Heloise, to the mysteries of Christianity, to the musical integrity of pop artists, to the esoteric nature of tarot cards. Yes, we have covered a wide spectrum of titillating topics, while attempting to maintain academic quality, profound insight, and suitable questioning.

So first and foremost, I must say thank you to all of my subscribers (all eight of you). I hope you have enjoyed this year as much as I have, and I hope even more that you will continue to participate in the dialogue here. I would also ask you to please come to me if you ever have any questions or topics you would like me to discuss. I am here for help on tarot, religion, and general life advice.

Therefore, my primary goal for this blog over the next year is to foster more

of a communicative environment. I want you all to feel like you can contribute to this blog by sharing your own insights or experiences, or by coming to me with questions.

It's very important to me that my readers feel they are part of a small but inquisitive community of genuine thinkers, because, after all, the Internet is designed for communication, information,

and sharing.

Thank you all, once again - cheers for one year down! And for the ones to follow as well.

All best,

N

Kundalini Rising: Interpreting the Princesses of the Tarot

So this is not going to be one of my more coherent or well-thought out posts, but I was due for an update, and this has been what's on my mind lately.

In Hermetic Qabbalistic writing, we are constantly made aware of the fact that the holy Name Tetragrammaton (YHVH) "revolves," meaning that it represents a cyclical process of creation. The Yod represents the Father, who imagines the primary archetype or concept of a being; the Heh primal is the Mother, who formulates this into an actual image and gives it more definition as to what it can and cannot be; the Vav is the Son, the actual projection of this idea in space and time; and the Heh final is the Daughter, who is left oddly ambiguous. Now, these letters correspond to the four elements - Yod is fire, Heh primal is water, Vav is air, and Heh final is earth. But we are reminded by Crowley in his Book of Thoth that the only real elements upon which creation is based are the first three: fire, water, and air. This is because they correspond to the three Mother Letters in Hebrew, Shin, Mem, and Aleph respectively. Tau is attributed to the element earth and the planet Saturn simultaneously, much like Shin, which is both fire and spirit. Added to this information is the fact that each letter of the Name correspond to a sephira on the Tree of Life: Yod is Chokhmah, Heh primal is Binah, Vav is Tiphareth, and Heh final is Malkuth. This is important because we are also reminded incessantly that Malkuth is more a "pendant to the Tree of Life" than anything else. It's sort of just there for kicks, for lack of a better explanation. And lastly, in tarot, the Yod is the Knights of the court, the Heh primal the Queens, the Vav the Princes, and the Heh final the Princesses.

So then who is this "princess?" Based on these attributions I've laid out here, she seems vague and almost identity-less. She has no new letter to go with her (as she is another Heh) and she isn't considered to be that important from a Sephirotic perspective. But Crowley and others are insistent that she is the key to it all, as she is destined to sit on the throne of her mother and "awaken the Eld of the All Father." She is able to do this because she is of the same substance as her Mother supposedly, as they share the same letter (Heh); they are similar in essence. But this is ultimately not very helpful, at least in my opinion. We still cannot define this relationship.

Now, I recently stumbled upon this article: http://supertarot.co.uk/thoth/fool-pole-star.htm written by Paul Hughes-Barlow. I suggest you read it, because it raises the very interesting point that the Princesses are synonymous with the aces of the tarot (remember, they are the "thrones of the aces), and the aces apparently were connected with the constellation of Draco, who encircles the north pole. I find this to be particularly interesting because, of course, a dragon is also a kind of serpent, and we know how fond of serpent iconography Mr. Crowley was.

The primary connection between serpents and tarot, however, comes in the

form of the Lust card, atu XI. Its letter is Teth, which as a word translates into "serpent," and is associated with the sign of Leo. On the whole, it signifies the conjoining of the solar masculine sexual principle with the lunar feminine sexual principle in one rampaging, orgasmic, explosion. Additionally, while the idea of a sexual serpent immediately brings to mind the phallus, it also represents the Kundalini serpent, coiled at the base of the spine. But Kundalini is also sometimes interpreted as a goddess, a kind of offshoot of the goddess Shakti, who is the primary creative feminine deity. Sounds like the Great Mother Binah (Heh primal), right? Kundalini strives to climb up the spinal column and attain union with Shiva (in Qabbalah, this could be seen as the Ain Soph, or Chokhmah even). What does this sound like?? Exactly! The Princess who longs to arrive at the throne of her mother in order to make the All Father a very happy creative being.

So this would explain why the Princess as a representation of the body and the lower sensibilities is so powerful and miraculous! The lowest of the low is tremendously exalted in this case, for even though the Kundalini serpent begins at the lowest chakras, those associated with primal urges and desires, it possesses an unfathomable amount of energy that can rise upward and attain godhead (literally). Along the way, in its intense desire for the beloved, it has the incredible ability to break down the ego, finally eliminating it entirely upon reaching the sephira of Binah, the throne.

In this light, perhaps we can understand why the princesses have the personalities they do. The princess of wands would represent Kundalini in its purest form - the sheer will and force of it as it strives upward. This requires a sort of optimism and innocence, which is perhaps why the Fool's tiger is with her. The princess of cups would then represent the sheer ecstasy and brilliance associated with Kundalini Awakenings. Her swooning would make perfect sense, as well as the swan on her head, which supposedly represents the unity of life (OM). The princess of swords, however, is a bit tricky. Being associated with air and the mind, I would suggest that she represents the revolt of the ego against such an aggressive assault against it. The ego loves to fight back, and I'm sure that it would feel a particular urgency to do so after so fiery an attack as a Kundalini Awakening. Though, we could also simply see it as the general aggression of the Kundalini, and the general impartial destructive quality it possess. And lastly, the famous princess of disks - one of my personal favorites. We are told that she represents the sum total of womanhood and the quietude of the body. The first part mostly means that she is the full summation of Nuit, the infinite goddess of Nothing from which all this comes from. But the second part surely speaks to the ultimately calming affect Kundalini has on the body. By negating the ego, it helps bring the body into greater submission to the Divine Will, which would explain why she is impregnated. The process of coaxing the Kundalini up the spine also takes work, dedication, and purity, all of which are associated with the princess of disk.

These are all thoughts ultimately, and are not really coagulated into a coherent argument, as I said at the outset. But it is certainly an interesting way of looking at the princesses of the tarot. Please leave a comment if you have something to suggest!