Tarot Exercises Part 2

Tarot Exercises Part 2

The Tarot is generally made up of 78 cards.  We have 22 “trump cards” (22 Hebrew letters) 16 Court cards (king, queen, knight and “page”.  Lastly we have remaining 40 numerical cards (4 sets of 10).  We shall explore this more later.

For now let’s move onto a simple but LONG term exercise.

You should get to KNOW your deck intimately.  How does one do this? One meditates.

You should obtain a book to be used as a journal.  Now you have to meditate upon every one of the 78 cards!...yes a daunting task, but there are no quick fixes; a good meal isn’t made up of “fast food.”

Feel free to add to your journal at all times.

1. Take a card from your deck.  Now Which card should this be?  That is up to YOU.  There are several methods a0 follow a numerical value system.  Such as start with card #1 of the trump cards…then move on to card #2 etc.  Or you could follow a system based upon how the cards are placed upon the tree of life.  Or simply meditate and pick a card from the deck.  The choice is YOURS. But stick to it!

2.     Now you must meditate upon your chosen card daily.  Do this initially by staring at the card.  Place it close to your eyes.  Allow the image to fill your consciousness.  At this initial stage do not allow anything to move.  You are merely attempting to fix the image in your mind.  SO much so you could close your eyes and see the card.  DO this initial “staring” for around 10 minutes a night, preferably at the same time every night.  Do this for at least a week, perhaps 2 weeks.

• Now you should know the card off by heart and pretty much be able to see the card without even looking at it.  Continue as in stage 2 but allow the card to Move.  You should be able to now meditate closed eyed upon the card.  Do this for several days.

1. Gradually carry on as before.  But now you should move your consciousness so you are within the card.  Feel free to interact with any of the beings in the card.

• Do this for every card.

More to come

Tarot Exercises part 1

Simple divination is but one use of tarot. Tarot is most effectively used to help transform conciousness and to meditate upon. There are 2 types of tarot users, those who rely upon their innate "abilities" (which all people have to a greater or lesser extent) and those that are the same as the 1st group BUT also KNOW and communicate with their deck.

First and foremost as tarot users we should know that Tarot is ALIVE. A simple way to approach any deck is to treat them as: "TAROT ARE LIKE A PERSON, TREAT THEM BADLY AND THEY'LL TREAT YOU BADLY, TREAT THEM WELL AND THEY'LL BE YOUR FRIENDS."

This simple yet effective exercise should be undertaken for those who are regular meditators, at least this will be most effective for those that meditate often. Part 2 will examine a simple yet effective method to "get to know" your entiure deck.

PART 1 : court card exercise

1. Remove all the court cards from your deck. Set aside the rest of the deck, you will not be using them.

2. Briefly enter silence and still your mind. Take the cards and shuffle them in this "silent" mode.

3. From this deck choose 1 card, face down. Place the rest of the cards aside.

4. With your chosen card place it in both hands. Caress the card. Briefly enter silence and meditate upon the card, stilling the mind, free yourself allowing the card to "talk to you".

5. After this brief period turn over the card. Hold the card close to your face and study it. Clear your mind and meditate open eyed on the card. Let the card fill your conciousness. The card may begin to move and become alive, do not resist this, only resist absurdities such as an appearance of mickey mouse. Meditate open eyed holding the card in your conciousness for 5-10 mins.

6. Now you have communicated with the cards. This is a simple exercise that is surprisingly effective. Feel free to write down any exeperiences or things you have learnt.

More to come

Links:

Learn the Tarot Course

The Magical World of the Tarot: Fourfold Mirror of the Universe

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot

Learning the Tarot (yahoo group, please note there are many similiar)

Hazret-i Mevlana Muhammet Celaleddin Rumi (1207-1273)
The world is like a tree

THE SUFI POETRY OF RUMI:

The world is like a tree,
and we are the half-ripe fruit upon it.
Unripe fruit clings tight to the branch
because, immature, it's not ready for the palace.
When fruits become ripe, sweet and juicy,
then biting their lips, they loosen their hold.
When the mouth has been sweetened by felicity,
the kingdom of the world loses its appeal.
To be tightly attached to the world signifies immaturity;
as long as you're an embryo,
blood-drinking is your business.

"The unripe ego is arrogant and self-centered -- worldly. The ripe ego, which considers itself a child, servant or devotee of God, cannot injure anyone; it is retained by illumined souls, after they come down from the transcendental to the ordinary plane of consciousness in order to teach spirituality to others." (Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook, Vedanta Press, 1962, p. 31)

Son of the SUN
by Steve Kalec
Pharaoh Akenaton, was one of the great mystics whose spiritual realization and love for that which is the divine far surpassed the spiritual consciousness of some of the most enlightened the world has ever seen. Thirteen centuries before Christ, to him the word light meant more than anything, and he understood it as being the divine love which binds and permeates all of creation through and through. Through his highly elevated spiritual consciousness, Akenaton came to the realization of his oneness with a transcendent God which he symbolized in the sun. This oneness, to him was the ultimate reality that all men and women truly seek, whether consciously or unconsciously. This realization and enlightenment was the “One Thing”, without which man could never truly be happy. Akenaton was truly ahead of his time. If we consider the oft-quoted phrase that “God is light”, and that God is said to be absolute, today, in science and in physics, so is light said to absolute. God lies beyond the manifest world
of matter, shape and form, beyond both space and time, so does light. To me this would imply that in the so called Big Bang theory of science, it was Infinite Omniscience that exploded. “ Let there be Light ! ”

This is what tonight’s discourse is all about, it is about this “One Thing”, this oneness with that something which Akenaton symbolized in the Sun. So sit back, relax and let us enter into some very profound concepts as we will try to understand Akenaton’s Sun.

On March 20th we celebrate the spring equinox. This day is being celebrate all around the world in many different cultures and religions. This has been celebrated collectively for millennia. What truly is being celebrated is the fact that life has conquered death. With the return of the sun's dominance in nature, the light has conquered darkness and the rebirth of spring begins. Darkness gives way to light as our days are lengthened and the coldness of the winter days slowly warm up as ice and snow melt. A true washing and purification is had through the spring time rains. Consciousness awakens
collectively as creatures of all kinds awake from their hibernation. The singing of birds give glory to this reawakening. The heat of the sun gives strength to seeds as they gather energy and break through the earth having conquered death. It is all this that we celebrate during the Spring Equinox.

High in the heavens, in its most beautiful glory and splendor, shines our Sun located in the most inner center of what we know as our planetary system. The sun radiates outwards of its own self, selflessly giving of its own life and sharing it with all creatures below it. Sharing and giving equally to the just and the unjust, rich or poor, human, animal, vegetable or mineral. It never asks anything in return. It is a true selfless gift of love.

What is it that the sun truly gives to us ? I know that you would all know the answer to this. However, what I would like to impress upon you, is that the Sun actually gives us everything. Everything that humanity has in its possession comes from the Sun. This everything really comes down to only three things, and to tell the truth, the Sun can give only but these three things because these three things are the roots of everything, and all else that we have.

What is it that the sun truly gives to us ? I know that you would all know the answer to this. However, what I would like to impress upon you, is that the Sun actually gives us everything. Everything that humanity has in its possession comes from the Sun. This everything really comes down to only three things, and to tell the truth, the Sun can give only but these three things because these three things are the roots of everything, and all else that we have.

These three things are the three Rosicrucian verities in the teachings of our Order. They are Light, Life, and Love. Our very great and venerated master Akenaton in his hymn to Aton, the solar disk, has references to these verities. Aton is what he called the solar disk, the Sun. Aton actually means disk.
In his beautiful hymn to this Aton, Akhenaton actually affirms these three verities as the very gifts being given to us by the Sun.

Of Light, he says,

“thy light of diverse colors leaded captive all faces.” “ Thy rays at dawn light up the whole earth”

“ The land brightens, for thou risest in the horizon, Shining as Aten in the day; the darkness flees, for thou givest thy beams,”

Of Life, he says,

“ Thy appearing is beautiful in the horizon of heaven, The Living Aten, the beginning of life;

In an other verse, speaking of all the living creatures, Aknaton says, “ They live when though shinest upon them.”

Of Love he says

“ Thou risest gloriously, O thou Living Aton, Lord of eternity! Thou art sparkling, beautiful, and mighty. Thy love is mighty and great,”

“ Thou art very beautiful, brilliant and exalted above the earth, Thy beams encompass all the lands which thou hast maded. Thou art the sun, thou settest their bounds, thou bindest them with thy love.”

We know that akenaton was a great mystic. He was a very wise and enlightened soul personality. We cannot help but imagine that such a man surely had a secret and a hidden esoteric conception underlying his teaching regarding Aton or the Sun.

The truth is, as Denis Hauck states in his book, “The Emerald Tablet”, that “Akenaton thought of God as an abstract force, being impersonal and called as Aten, or simply (The Disk). With rays coming down from heaven and terminating on Earth in dozens of tiny hands, a marvelous symbol of the One Thing”.

This One Thing is the undifferentiated Being as the Nous (Universal Mind).

“The rays of tiny hands is also a very appropriate symbol of a giver. The Aten to Akenaton was Radiant Energy personified as the all-pervading reality of an immanent character. To Akenaton, the sun was like all matter that falls under our senses, but a visible manifestation of something more subtle, Invisible, intangible, everlasting and creative in its essence.”
--Denis Hauck

Where are we to find this invisible and creative essence ? If we are to comprehend the greater mysteries and our relation to the cosmic, we must understand that cosmically all Reality is One, that Mind is One. The secret that Akenaton was symbolizing in the (Sun) is best understood through the concept of the correspondence between what is the inner world and what is the outer.
This is known as the Hermetic principle of correspondence expressed as “what is above is like that which is below”.

It is very important for the student of mysticism, philosophy and psychology to understand the power that is realized through the comprehension of the principle of correspondence. There is a law that states, “change your conception of the world, and you will have changed the world”. “ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. Our inner states influences how we see the outer world. As many people as who are in the world, there are as many worlds.

We all see the world according to what we project on it from within. So is there then an outside world, or is the world really within and projected out? Such is the principle of correspondence. True miracles occur at the convergence of the two worlds, the spiritual and the material.

According to this Hermetic concept, it is said that as the elements of the Cosmos or the Macrocosm correspond to those within man as the microcosm, then the higher forces of nature, those which are the unseen and hidden forces with which man ultimately wants to reintegrate with, are to be found in himself, within his or her very being.

“My advice to you, whoever you may be, Oh you who desire to explore the Mysteries of Nature; if you do not discover within yourself that which you seek, neither will you find it without. If you ignore the excellence of your own house, how can you aspire to find excellence elsewhere? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Oh Man! Know thyself, and you will know the universe and the Gods.” -__The Oracle of Delphi__

This correspondence of the inner and the outer is best summed up by the following analogy. As the warmth and brightness of the sun's appearance coming out from behind dark clouds is a beautiful and a very comforting event to behold, so too it is with the Inner Light concealed within each and every one of us as it emerges from the depths of our beings when it is given the opportunity to express itself and shine forth. This realized inner light is in turn projected out into the outer world, and so the light is made manifest as it lights the shadows and that which was previously the darkness in the world.

By this light we see more of the beautiful and nobler things and values in the world, which in turn attune us with even more of the finer and more noble qualities of soul. As this inner light is thus intensified, it wants to ever more express itself in the outer world and thus we have a sort of positive vicious circle making the light grow in the whole “world”. For the inner is only half the world and the outer is the other half of the whole world. The two together is the
marriage of heaven and earth. The Emerald Tablet exclaims this when it says that, “ in this way, you will have the glory of the whole world”. This is what true alchemy is.
By this light we see more of the beautiful and nobler things and values in the world, which in turn attune us with even more of the finer and more noble qualities of soul. As this inner light is thus intensified, it wants to ever more express itself in the outer world and thus we have a sort of positive vicious circle making the light grow in the whole world. For the inner is only half the world and the outer is the other half of the whole world. The two together is the marriage of heaven and earth. The Emerald Tablet exclaims this when it says that, “ in this way, you will have the glory of the whole world”. This is what true alchemy is.

In his hymn to Aten, Akhenaton actually tells us, that as he is referring to the sun, he is also speaking of an abstract force, a more subtle intangible essence that in correspondence is like the outer visible sun. He says, “ Thou art in my heart, there is none who knoweth thee, excepting thy son”. None knoweth “thee” is a reference to an inner Sun as the God of his heart. None knoweth him except his son, means that no one can know this God except that consciousness which has become conscious of it.

In the Vedas, the Self or Atman is said to dwell as the Sun within the heart or center of our being. This inner sun is called by mystics and alchemists as the son of the Sun and manifests the divine light of consciousness, the Sun of Suns within us. It is the greatest treasure to be found and it is found in our own house, within us.

The Philosopher and Alchemist Gerald Dorn says in his “Philosophia Speculativa”,

“ There shines in us, though dimly in the darkness, the life and the light of man, a light which does not come from us, which however is in us, and we must therefore find in us: we can find it in Him, in His light. He says that the image of God dwells within us, and that is the one thing which has no second other thing.”

In “Alchemy Unveiled ” , Johanes Helmond, says that this image is a Fire, solar by Nature. This is why it is also called the Son of the Sun.

The Cabalistic tree of life actually expresses a great thing in ourselves. We see in the center of the tree the sephiroth of Typheret as being at the center of the world, center of our being. The Cabala is more easily understood if one understands that Typhereth is at the center of the Middle Pillar, that it is directly linked to all the Sephiroth except Malkuth our matter and the objective world. That It is linked to Malkuth only through Yesod (Luna), then the Tree of life and the Cabala would be more easily understood.
For one to continue on the meaning of Akhenaton's sun, one has to understand a little of this tree.

All the sephiroths are to be understood as “states of being.” To explain this, we can say that when we contact a sephiroth, the greater part of us resonates at the same vibratory level as the sephirah, or that our consciousness positions itself within us at a level where there is a given harmony of vibratory frequency.

A Quick Glance At the Tree of Life

1. The Above and the Below are one.
2. Malkuth is our matter, it is also the objective world.
3. All the sephiroths are in Malkuth and they are drawn out of Malkuth.
Heaven is within.
4. Chokma and Bina are really the Positive life force- consciousness –
( soul personality ), and matter, Spirit energy as negative vibrations.
5. Kether is the Nous or Universal Mind.
6. The left side and the right pillars indicate polarity.
7. The veil of the Abyss separates the “Above” from the “Below”.
This veil separates the three supernals from the lower sephirots. Beyond this
veil man cannot live with a body, for time and space begin below the veil.

In the Cabala Tiphereth translates to Beauty. "It is located on the Pillar of Balance which is the pillar of consciousness and corresponds, we are told, to the highest state in which a man incarnated on this earth can live, that is, a man “of flesh and blood.” This means that a man capable of remaining in Typhereth has “spiritualized’ his matter, has formed his glorious body and has obtained the power to go beyond incarnation, consciously." Death has no further hold on him, for he has become an immortal.
Because Typhereth is directly linked to all the sephiroths except for Malkuth, we understand then that it can receive the influences of the higher sephiroth and in turn project its influence on all lower sephiroths. This center concentrates the radiations and in turn distributes them. In relation to the Veil of the Abyss,
Typhereth is Kether’s reflection. It is the perfect mediator between that which is above and that which is below.
1. Typheret, is the center in mankind receiving the higher energies,

2. Typheret is the center of being, the reflection of the light of Kether, the union and harmony of spirit and matter.

3. Typheret is the path between the Macrocosm and Microcosm.

4. Typheret is the mediator between earth and heaven.

5. Typheret is called the Christic Sphere as the cosmic principle in man. It is the divine man as the son of God.

“I am the way, the Truth, the Life.
Whoever sees me has seen the Father.
No one reaches the Father without passing through me. I am the Light of the World ” -- St John

No man can reach Kether while still in the flesh, a mortal form, for all time and space disappear beyond the veil of the abyss. The way is through Typheret. He who sees and touches Typheret, sees and touches Kether, since Typheret is son and image of Kether.

The symbol of the Sun explains Typhereth as the Christ, the Solar Spirit. Akhenaton and all traditions considered the solar luminary as the visible image accessible to man of the divinity, as a symbol of life, light and love. This image has been called Ra, Aton, Apollo, etc. which are all linked to Typhereth. Just as the sun is the center of our solar system, Typhereth is the solar center in man as the divine light of the inner Self.

“If we are not in our center, we are in our periphery and we therefore only contact the periphery of things, of beings, of ideas. The sun light all and everything up: the good and the bad, it is all the same to it, its love is total.”

---­O.M Aivanov

In this lies the secret and the magic of achieving our highest ideals.

“Your center is your sun, which is your own divine part - live there, look and act from there, you will find the truth and everything.” ---Jean Dubuis

Typheret is also the philosophers stone for it is represented by the two triangles superimposed. The ultimate marriage of the finite and infinite world, as the world becomes the whole world. This is the Great Arcanum as the greatest secret man can know.

Let us conclude with the “Golden tractate of Hermes.”

“ Understand then, O Son of Wisdom, what the Stone declares; protect me, and I will protect thee, increase my strength that I may help thee! My Sol and my beams are most inward and secretly in my own Luna, my light, exceeding every light, and my good things are better than all other good things. I give freely, and I reward the intelligent with joy and gladness, glory, riches, delights; and them that seek after me I make to know and understand, and posses divine things.”

Because the Sun’s nature is one of expanding and radiating outwards from itself, the Sun by itself cannot readily see itself. The Sun sees himself in his own lover. He sees his own light in the reflection of Luna. As Luna absorbs the Sun’s light, the Sun impregnates her through the warmth of his beams. Hence Luna, his wife, becomes his mother who also generates him as her son. Thus we see the type of the Christian myth as God the Son born to the virgin mother. When the inner divine light is perceived within ourselves, we see it as being reflected in our own Luna as our unconscious self. In the beginning it is dark as the dark moon until the beams of our inner Sun light her up to become the full moon and immaculate virgin as our purified and uplifted consciousness. Here is the Chemical Wedding of the Philosophers. Luna nurtures and gathers in the light of the Sun while the Sun warms and impregnates Luna. In this way Luna conceives a child as the subjective self and the Hermaphrodite Child of the Son and Moon being the youthful regenerative force of the alchemical process. This divine child leads one into a new and higher spirituality and consciousness. When the divine grace is received and this inner light is realized then one can truly be called the “Son of the Sun”.

Such is the depth of the philosophy of alchemy that the mystical concepts of Akhenaton has taken us to. All our present western philosophies and religions, especially the Judeo and the Christian, have their roots going back to Akhenaton's very mystical concepts of the one Universal impersonal God symbolized in the universality of the Sun. …. Steve Kalec
Copyright © Steve Kalec 2001

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alchemystica/ email skalec@videotron.ca

Also of related interest:

The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran: The Essene Record of the Treasure of Akhenaten by Robert Feather

The Secret Initiation of Jesus at Qumran : The Essene Mysteries of John the Baptist by Robert Feather

Alchemy in art 4 :The Madonna

Madonna,
Painting by Grunewald,
Germany, early 16th c.,

The Purification of the Vehicle
and the Lower Self.

Directing the transforming powers
of the spiritualized will over mind,
emotions and diet, harmonize the
forces of the three essentials of
Spirit , Soul and Body. Thus one
becomes a perfect vehicle for
carrying the developing Cristic
Light or Cosmic consciousness.
Hence the conception of this
inner child is symbolic of the
mystic center as the youthful
reawakening force of the
alchemical process.

Steve Kalec

The End is the Beginning is the End...

**Well in the Sefer Yetzira, the ten holy sefirot are describedin terms of five polarities. Kaplan suggests identifying the extremes of various polarities withpairs of sefirot. As said before the six spatialdirections are linked to the central six sefirot (witha few discrepencies between the masters), which leaves the other four to the polarities of Good and Evil,Past and Future. First time I attempted this exerciseI really struggled with Good and Evil between Ketherand Malkuth. I finally settled on Malkuth as Good and Evil, and Kether as neither. That's when I realisedthat was what I thought was meant by Good and Evil. Kether has no attributes of its own, its the potentialfor all the others, and this makes it good. In Malkuth however, we find the extremes of bothattributes, all the attributes in both their good andevil relative impermanent imperfect forms. It mightbe better to think of it as:Absolute - Keter - Good Relative/Conditioned - Malkuth - Evil


I thought Kaplan used past and future for Kehter and Malkuth.....its been a while...
but um there are 7 directions...... forward backward..left right up down and within.....

7 days. of creation...7 stages of alchemy (visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem)..7 spheres before the supernal triangle....etc.....

Now kaplan also discusses Oroboros..does he not....
the end is the beginning is the end.....

he states 2 polar opposites...lets say kether and malkuth.....lets call them past(kether) future(malkuth).....now if these were 2 imaginary points...polar opposites..that stretch out for infinity in opposite dirtections...kaplan states they reach a point of infinity...and eventually come back upon them selves...and meet..(this is modern maths.....pardon my ignorance I'm just saying what kaplan said).....thus the end is the beginning is the end......Indeed some forms of kabbalah teach that kether is closer to malkuth than it is to chockmah.......

This fits in nicely with many ideas such a hindu and buddhist thought that states the end is indeed the beginning.....we can also see this in western esoteric thought....the divine trinity of creation destruction and redemtion.....which is the same as the Rosicrucian trinity of

"Ex Deo nascimur.

In Jesu Morimur

Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus."

We are born in God...we die in Christ and are reborn in the Holy SPirit.......

creation destruction redemption is again much like the kabbalist (and many others) idea of a return to a better state.....the end is the beginning is the end....

this also fits in with 1 modern alternative to the standard big bang idea that states such as I have said above....creation....destruction...creation...an endless cycle....

No one had raised this point...so I thought I would....so creation destruction redemption is again much like the kabbalist (and many others) idea of a return to a better state.....the end is the beginning is the end....

this also fits in with 1 modern alternative to the standard big bang idea that states such as I have said above....creation....destruction...creation...an endless cycle....
No one had raised this point...so I thought I would....

> so creation destruction redemption is again much like the kabbalist (and> many others) idea of a return to a better state.....the end is the beginning> is the end....I'm not sure what you mean here. > this also fits in with 1 modern alternative to the standard big bang idea> that states such as I have said> above....creation....destruction...creation...an endless cycle....> > No one had raised this point...so I thought I would....Kabbalah has a rather straight forward creation myth, from A to T or O or Z or whatever. It might be interesting to study it through the eyes of a cyclic universe though.J

Well....here are some thoughts....

Many people like to see the tree as Linear.....as you say from A to T or O to Z or whatever.....I think this is wrong....
Clearly if we look at Phi or the image of Oroboros we see that things are not linear...indeed some modern seekers states time is a spiral and this explains why "distant past" is closer to the present than the future.....and thus this is why it is "easy" to contact the distant past in meditation/magic etc (sadly you really need to see the diagram to conceive of this fully...probably).....many kabbalaists also assert that the tree is not linear....

How does this relate to kabbalah?.....well the tree can be seen in many ways....the standard linear model familiar to us......the Lurianic "modern" tree and the "hermetic tree" are but one way to picture the tree....as you probably know.....I even have a diagram of the tree as a 5 pointed star at home.....but anyway...in Judaic kabbalah the tree has been shown as 1 big circle with concentric circles within it......so we have one big circle with lesser circles within it.....

Now on another post someone mentioned the fractal nature of the tree......so the tree is not 2d.....frankly is a sphere 2 dimensional? no...the plan is 2d(due to the limitation of the printed page)....but in reality the tree is not flat.....so what if we picture the tree as one sphere......one coherant sphere ....then like a fractal within the sphere we have the standard lurianic or hermetic trees......much like a fractal...zooming in for greater detail...and then of course each of the 10 within the original 1 can be zoomed in upon.....

Now what does this have to do with the beginning is the end is the beginning? Well a sphere and a circle have no end........and no beginning...they just are.....much like the earth is not flat.......its a sphere...if it had an end we'd fall off (forgetting gravity etc for a second)........

Now in Christian Kabbalah at least (I know this isnt valid for all forms) the tree is seen as an imperfect tree

The imperfect tree: the "kircher" tree...

the blanced pre fall tree is the "Gra" tree :

the tree after the falll.....originally malkuth was where daath was (ending our YHVH quaterinty of kether chockmah and binah...flame oil lamp...illumined)thus the "great work" is to make malkuth go back to where it originally was.....daath....

The fall can be shown diagrammatically with the flower of life

but essentially thats what I meant by creation destruction redemption.....

eden...(creation) perfect state.........the fall (where we are now..some would argue we are still falling)....redemptiona climg back out of the fall back to eden.......thus the end is the beginning is the end...

from womb to tomb to womb....

Jhonn Balance16 Feb 1962 - 13 Nov 2004

Ether

It's either ether or the other
My mind is back to front
And sometimes absent
And slip the cup
I've taken a sip from the cup that slips into ether

It's either ether or the other

I press my window to the glass
The glass turns to gas
I breathe out ether, a glass of ether
Ether is a thief
It's stolen my belief

Slip through the ether
We both slip through the ether
Slipstreams of memory slipping away its ether


...???...
Slip through the ether
Sip the ether Sip the ether
Slipstreams of memories slipping away
Slipstreams of memories slipping away
Memories of ??? slipping away into ether
Into ether


I've changed my mind
It's what it's there for
I've changed my mind
It's what it's there for
For therefore
Full of ether
Full of ether
Full of ether
Full of ether
Full of ether

I'm going upstairs now
To take my mind off
I'm going upstairs now
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off
To turn my mind off ...

ALchemy in Art part 3

The Fall of Icarus
Painting by Joos de Momper,
Netherlands 16th-17th c.

In alchemical symbolism, the wings
of birds symbolize spiritual elevation.
Wings acquired by humans symbolize
their capacity to overcome and transcend
the limitations of the physical realms. In
this way the ordinary human condition is
elevated as man becomes an intermediary
between heaven and earth, bringing
blessings, messages and visions from God.
To soar in heaven like an eagle is a power
belonging to the purified soul. The
impure, the uninitiated, the ill prepared,
those who dare to force their way into
higher spiritual energies before their
psychic and sympathetic nervous systems
are gradually unfold to the fire of the
spiritual sun, meet with its awesome
intensity only to be burned and destroyed .

One raising the Kundalini imprudently
without proper knowledge and practice
may be prone to the same fate. The
disruption on the psychological and the
metaphysical natures may be severe.

Steve Kalec

daath and the lies of the golden dawn

when we die we are no longer corporeal(have a body)...well duh!!!

Thus shock horror that can be a little disconcerting for some conciousneses........

sometimes the "no corporeal form" needs help to adjust.....

for instance lets say I was a drug addict...I snorted lysol powder for decades.....now in my incorporeal state I still have this craving....So I must be cleasnsed of this craving as well frankly I no longer have a nose to snort lysol with!!!

SO I must pass through the lake of fire/purgatory.....and be CLEANSED....Yes it is "fire" its not "un painful"......this idea can be applied to rapists...murderers...drug addicts...masturbators....and chicken f*#kers.....
This idea is related the idea of Judgment by the divine.....

(as we see it is largely impartial....you either need it or you dont...you createyou own "karma"...or need to snort lysol")

...or the egyptian weighingof the soul.

In kabbalah we can see this in the tarot card of judgement..which for me is placed between the path running from chockmah to binah (I do NOTuse the standard golden dawn tarot/kblh attribution..as its full ofcaccacca) This view of the lake of fire can be found in egyptian theology, hinduism, some forms of catholisim and the western mysteries. Well known occult writer Dion fortune covers this very topic in her book"Dion Fortune's Book Of The Dead" (formely know as "through the gatesof death")

Of course this flies in the face of fundys who embrace eternal damnation and punishment.......often fundys know more about hell fire and damnation than they do actual heaven or God. Of course the choice of the void at "daath" is a whole other issue....

I get this stuff from actually learning about other religions old bean....

In kabbalah we can see this in the tarot card of judgement..which for me is placed between the path running fromchockmah to binah (I do NOT use the standard golden dawn tarot/kblh attribution..as its full of cacca)

do you end up going through da'ath with judgement then, or do you find da'ath between Tiph and Keter?

daath or Knowledge...

.kether is flame..
.chockmah is oil....
binah is a lamp...
Daath is that which is illuminated....

Or

God....
God's message...
how God's message is pervayed (ie through "religion" etc)
the "seeker"

OR
the actor....
the tv show..
.the tv....
the viewer.....etc....

Da'ath as you probably know is before "judgment" ...and is within thevoid....as you say between tipareth and kether... (see doodle I did illustrating my point at top of the page).....the line between the "oil lamp" and the puddle of oil is the pathwaybetween chockmah (wisdom, the oil) and Binah (understanding, the lamp)..this is the "line of judegement"....that we face as we climb up to the top...backto "heaven"...

here is a convetional tree.....Da'ath is of course conventionally seen as psudo sephira (sphere...the circles on the tree are spheres..the tree is 3d..inspite of the 2ddiagram).....a gateway between.....as from geburah and chesed's pairing...above that is the void.....much likethe asteroid belt of our solar system.....the choice in daath is life or death......the void or ascent.....and there's much more.......interestingly enough......horus is sometimes placed at da'ath....There...that IS where I got it from......

CURSES on you, Hoom, for having an intelligent comeback for once. Or twice.

lol...

me)In kabbalah we can see this in the tarot cqard of judgement..which for me is placed between the path running from chockmah to binah (I do NOT use the standard golden dawn tarot/kblh attribution..as itsfull of cacca)

(you)Why do you think it's full of caca? Why replace the Empress with theJudgment card? What else do you flip around?

(me) Ok several reasons.

1. The Golden dawn and all "old gaurd" as they are known...19th century occultists worked in certain shared ways. They were a product of their time. One way this manifested is how they treated new seekers. They'd "root" out the good students from the bad by feeding them allcrap...lies...misinformation. The idea was that a good student would in practise see that they had been fed crap...and thus realise it!

Of course today this way of doing things isseen as archaic....yet many western mystery schools still cling to this wayof doing this....as opposed to just giving the student all the information...without misinformation...often with the provisio of when they are ready for it...

Qabbalah teaches us that all things are equal...nothing is superior toanything else. Thus the whole hierachy in dante's inferno...the bible....mystery schools etc are essentially literalism on crack....often such hierachies only existed due to misconceptions...such as the idea that "kether is more important..and full of the light of God than malkuth"....which is crapola.......or yes...sadly the limits of the printed page have created such hierachies...which is why I disagree with your dear wife's view on different levels of punishment... but this is a seperate issue..so another time

SO.....The Golden Dawn tarot tree attribution was a deliberate misinformationspread to new students.


2. People insist that there is no "right attribution" ok correct. TheGolden Dawn placemnt is only due to numbers. For instance we take the card number...and add 10. 10 is the intial numbers of spheres..so the paths begin at 11....to make 32 (the 10 spheres and the22 hebrew letters...and/or 22 trump cards) thus the magician goes at path11.....the devil does at path 23....etc. THIS IS THE ONLY REASON forplacement of the cards upon a tree of life in the "standard pattern."

3. The GD attribution works better for Magicians. Magicians that are seeking to "make themselves God". Thus the GD system works well with the mindset that is intent on MASTERY of the divine. The Divine to them is something I can say "hey there.....gimme gimme gimme"......a magic treasure chest you can take from...forever. Much like the thread about farming. Magicians are content to produce food on the land..and GET WHAT they want...the Divine is there to take from!

The attribution I use...works better for those that seek to harmonise. WHo seek UNION with the divine. Seek to become ONE. Again with the farming thread...people who seek to live WITH the land...not OFF it......

4. The attribution I use goes by meanings of the cards. Thus we place the moon card by the moon sphere!!! the sun by the sun....death goes by binah and geburah. Or Saturn(binah) and Mars(Geburah)...thus we see death is a feminine restricting energy card. Which does fit in verywell with Death herself. What is more restricting than death?

5. The attribution I use actually fits in with the cosmos! So we have themiddle pillar of eathe moon sun and stars.....JUST like it REALLY is!!!!!.....as opposed to the GD attribution which bears no resemblance to how the cosmos is!!!!Here is a diagram of the attribution I use....which is not known to many...I have only found 1 website online that really delves deep into this attribution... I have plans to make my ownwebsite...but its hardly a small project.

you)Da'ath is knowledge, and is within the Abyss. The Abyss is not aplace you would want to spend any time in.

(me)Da'ath as you probably know is before "judgment" ...and is within the void.... as you say between tipareth and kether...

(you)In the Void you face the pit or ascension, depending on what you managed to get straightened out so far on your way up the tree. Ifyou haven't Charioteered properly, you'll end up drifting down to theBlack Bothers...I don't understand why you would conclude that you could reach thesupernal triad before facing judgment? Judgement is about making atonement, and starting over again. It's a resultant, an effect, apassive. How do you actively transfer from understanding to wisdom?

(me) I didnt, read what I said....judgment is at the path between binah andchockmah.....it is PART of the supernal triangle....da'ath is before the supernal...

(you)What is the glowy bit beneath Kether in the doodle, is it Da'ath orTiphareth?

(me) this is daath..it is a standardway to show it...as its not a completecircle...also the symbols of mars and jupiter (geburah and chesed...severityand mercy) are below it!..I hope this answers your questions....lol....

Israel regardie himself said the "standard" attribution is crapola.......

meanings simple...the energys of the spheres....for instance....7 and8 mercury and venus.....netzach(venus) and hod(mercury) ..the path between we see is one of polarity,,,,these spheres are about intelelct and intution...emotion and logic......essentially the mundane polarity we face daily. This here we place the wheel offortune. Thats the meanings..the meanings of the tree....notnumbers. The numbers on the tree are and have always been arbitrary....why place the sun not near the sun? why not place themoon NEXT to the moon!.....etc....

But sadly I'm largely a beginner myself..this is not "my" system...itwas popularised by the kabbalst WG Gray....who was briefly a memeberof the golden dawn...and dion fortune's society of inner lightgroup. Gray revolutionised magic(k)....so much so....he's largelyunrecognised..a worker in the back room...few know of...but many owea debt to.....be they magicians or witches....Gray brought the english language to kabbalah. He threw out hebrew.

A great idea....as every language is holy. He argued one's native tongue would be the most powerful language one could use. Of coursethis is no good for people who cling to their hebrew....

Personally I am learning the hebrew at the moment...essentially withan effort to learn the basics...(golden dawn style hermetic) with aview to going on to a form of Gnostic kabblah.....

1st I need to do years of study of the "basics".....sigh....lol....

Gray's tarot attribution..where he got it from is shrowded in secrecy. He either made it up fully himself, or he got it from the Golden Dawn. In fact gray was ostrasised from the Golden dawn for revealing many secrets....such as this taort attribution.

Stuffy mystery schools such as the Golden Dawn claim to be workingfor all mankind....yet they seek to make themselves the elite...byHIDING and keeping info for themselves....and spreadingmisinformation. Ego is such a terrible thing....Many modern GD off shoots are still full of ego masturbators...and men unable to keep their dicks in their pants.

Chic cicero...(a bigname in publishing...if you havent heard his name) is one of these charletons...many women have accused him on seperate occaisons of him using his penis as an aide to helping intiates "get to the next level"...so to speak!...I wont even mention the OTO..and other formal Thelema schools!!!!

WG Gray worked and lived in england....but shared a life long friendship with Israel regardie. When gray's 1st pupil (who he subsequantly fell out with and later replaced with a south africanman "jacobus swart" ...who was well versed in lurianic kabbalah...which is the form MOST but not all modern jews use) RJStewart...went to visit regardie in USA as a go between the 2 kabbalists (gray and regardie).....Regardie intimated that indeed...the standard kabbalah tarot attribution was a "blind" given to new pupils..and that it was unused by those higher up in rank....

Gray claimed to be in contact with Dion Fortune after her death. With the help of her he also revolutionised magick as a whole. Gray was there in england when wicca 1st started growing beyond the seed planted by gardener. Gray helped create rituals that today every neo-pagan witch practises....such as rituals relating to the circle..the directions..the elements and the times of the year. He and some other witches

(gray was NOT a witch and hated the term...and claimed a fardifferent etymological origin for the word witch than most then andnow cling to...he claimed the word witch always was and is a negativeterm...and people needed to get hold of a decent ancient anglo saxonetymological dictionary!!!)

helped create what today witches and neopagans take for granted as "how witches do things"....of course gray is seldom mentioned..let alone known by witches.

Was Gray "perfect"? no he was far from it. At times he could be irrasible...and pig headed. His autobigraphy is called "the old sod"....for many reasons. Gray always wanted the image of 2 fingerssticking up in a V symbol on his tomb. In england this is a curse symbol, going back to Norman invasion of Engalnd; where the natives would use this sign to show the normans that they still had their "bow fingers". This V symbol placed backwards is of course thesymbol for "victory".....victory is netzach the 7th emanation. Venus...the Goddess within the earth...(especially if one reads the chemical wedding). a quite fitting epitaph forMr Gray........

Gray's legacy is largely unknown compared to Crowley or Fortune. But then he was never really one for creating a "persona" as crowley and fortune embraced.

Of the few books in print by Gray as the Sangreal Solidality series. This trilogy of books form a coherant kabbalstic system relating wholly to the holy grail...and sacred blood. In fact building on these books Gray created his own mystery school. TheSangreal Solidality. Though unlike the Golden Dawn etc this school had no formal structure..

(Gray HATED the old school secret societal structures..asjust as he had predicted...they became and are filled with selfinflated egos..and people who misuse and abuse power....)

Gray's schools are all over the world. Each one is different and were created by different people. The only thing they share in common is Gray's threadwork. To this day in their ritual halls some of these groups are said to leave an empty chair for Gray.Gray Died in the 1990's in the english copuntryside.

An interesting "old fart"...who gave much....

was far from perfect...but tried his best....what more could you ask?

some thoughts on...John 14:6

Ken Hunter wrote

And one last thing, what the hell is up with God> having to punish himself for the rules he made up?
It would be like me approaching my son with his hand in the cookie jar and saying, " I love you so much I am going to beat the #$@# out of myself, but if you don't really appreciate the fact that I am a masochist and kiss my feet I'm going to stuff you in the microwave...because I love you so much."

Melanie Gadbois wrote

Well, it is sick from my perspective too. But, I do understand the consistency of it. Man sinned so sin can only be attoned for by a man, but it would only work if the atonement came from a sinless man, so God was the only one who could, but he had to incarnate as a sinless man. He's is the only man that could be sinless. I try to reassure myself by thinking about the analogy of a parent pushing their kid out of the way of a moving bus only to be hit themselves.

To sin is to miss the mark.....

to separate the self from the divine.

Only we can do this....thus we created sin....

as we perceive separation and empower this separation...

As we can clearly see in the Eden tale...when "man created sin" by gaining knowledge of opposites...of good and evil...

the "message" of Christ is therefore unification.....

a release from the duality of separation.....

which in my opinion is seen in many god forms (prections of how the divine manifests)....Its just that "Jesus" was a culmination of all the previous....IMO.....

John 14:6 (New International Version

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Thomas Aquinas stated that there are ONLY 3 movements in the universe....

straight line.....masculine..the penis...the rod..the sword..air and fire

circular...vagina...womb...cup..shield...water and earth

and

obtuse.....a unification of male and female...chanign direction midflow...serpetine....the kabbalistic lightning flash..the chord...quintessence...aether..the Christ.....

SO we see the idea of the alchemical unity.....

a "chemical wedding" (the rosicrucian term)...a marraige of opposites to form a new whole.....

Thus we can see....

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Can be equally applied to ANY faith...as long as it seeks unification and not seperation....

22. Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father's) kingdom."

They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) kingdom as babies?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

---the Gospel of thomas

5. It moves and It moves not. It is far and It is near. It is inside all this and also outside all this.

6. He who sees all beings in his own self and his own self in all beings does not suffer from any repulsion by that experience.

7. He who has known that all beings have become one with his own self, and he who has seen the oneness of existence, what sorrow and what delusion can overwhelm him?

8. He has occupied all. He is radiant, without body (incorporeal), without injury, without muscles, pure, untouched by evil. He is the seer, thinker, all pervading, self-existent, has distributed various objects, through endless years, each according to it's inherent nature.

9. Into blinding darkness enter those who worship ignorance and into greater darkness those who worship knowledge alone.

10. Distinct they say is the result of knowledge and distinct they also say is the result of ignorance. This is what we heard from the wise who explained these matters to us.

11. He who knows both knowledge and ignorance together, crosses death through ignorance and attains immortality through knowledge.

12. Into blinding darkness enter those who worship the unmanifest and into still greater darkness those who take delight in the manifest.

13. Different indeed they declare what results from the manifest and distinct they say what comes out of the unmanifest. This is what we heard from the wise who explained these truths to us.

14. He who understands both the manifest and the unmanifest together, crosses death through the unmanifest and attains immortality through the manifest.

---the Isa Upanishad

Veiled by ignorance,

The minds of man and Buddha

Appear to be different;

Yet in the realm of Mind

Essence They are both of one taste.

Some-Time they will meet each othe

rIn the great Dharmadhatu.

--Buddhism. Milarepa

1) True, without falsehood, certain, most certain.

2) What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing.

3) And as all things were made from contemplation of one, so all things were born from one adaptation.

--the emerald tablet of Hermes

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.


If certain acts in violation of treatise are crimes,
they are crimes whether the United States does them
or whether Germany does them, and we are not
prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct
against others which we would not be willing to have
invoked against us
--J.Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Prosecutor, Nuremburg