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'trustworthy, imperturbable; he constantly seeks new uses for common things, and
adapts his circumstances to his purposes in a slow, steady, well-thought out plan.
He is lacking almost entirely in emotion. He is somewhat in sensitive, and may
appear dull, but he is not; it so appears because he makes no effort to understand
ideas which are beyond his scope. He may often appear stupid, and is inclined to be
resentful of more spiritual types. He is slow to anger, but, if driven, becomes
implacable. It is not very practicable to distinguish between the good and evil
dignities in this card; one can merely say that, in case of his being ill-dignified, both
the quality and quantity of his characteristics are somewhat degraded. The reaction
of others to him will depend almost entirely upon their own temperaments.
In the Yi King, the airy part of Earth is represented by the 53rd hexagram, Kien. The
commentary concerns the flight of wild geese, "gradually approaching the shore",
then "the large rocks", then ''advanced to the dry plains-the trees-the high ~ finally,
to "the large heights". It thus symbolizes slow, steady emancipation from repressive
conditions.
The description is even happier than that given by the Qabalah, although in every
way congruous with it. Practical considerations are never absent from Chinese
thought, even at its most abstruse and metaphysical. The fundamental heresy of the
Black Lodge is con tempt for "the world, the flesh, and the devil", all which are
essential to the plan of the Universe; it is cardinal to the Great Work for the Adept so
to order affairs that "even the evil germs of Matter shall alike become useful and
good".
The error of Christian Mystics on this point has been responsible for more cruelty,
misery, and collective insanity than all others put together; its poison can be traced
even in the teaching of Freud, who assumed that the Unconscious was "the devil",
whereas in fact it is the instinct which expresses, beneath a veil, the inherent Point-
of- View of each, and, properly understood, is the key to Initiation, and a hint of
what seed may blossom and fructify as the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel". For "Every man and every woman is a star".
But no doubt the judgment of the Adepts Exempt (for it is they who determine,
under the guidance of the Masters of the Temple, all such details of doctrine) in
respect of this card has been influenced by its transition from Aries to Taurus. It is
too often forgotten that Taurus is the House of Venus, and that Luna is exalted
therein. The new doctrine set forth in this present Essay makes the primary colour of
Earth not black, but green; it insists that every Disk is a living and revolving symbol.
The central thesis of the Book of the Law asserts the Perfection of the Universe. In
its pantheistic conception all possibilities are equal in value; each and every Point-
Event is "a play of Nuit", as it is written in the Book of Wisdom or Folly, "Bind
nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any
other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But whose availeth in this, let him be the
chief of all!" Liber Al. 1. 22. Or, yet more comprehensively and simply: "Every
number is infinite; there is no difference." Ib I.4.
PRINCESS OF DISKS
The Princess of Disks, the last of the Court cards, represents the earthy part of
Earth. She is consequently on the brink of transfiguration. She is strong and
beautiful, with an expression of intense brooding, as if about to become aware of
secret wonder.
Her crest is the head of the ram, and her sceptre descends into the earth. There its
head becomes a diamond, the precious stone of Kether, thus symbolizing the birth of
the highest and purest light in the deepest and darkest of the Elements. She stands
within a grove of sacred trees before an altar suggesting a wheatsheaf, for she is a
priestess of Demeter. She bears within her body the secret of the future. Her
sublimity is further emphasized by the disk which she bears; for in the centre thereof
is the Chinese ideogram denoting the twin spiral force of Creation in perfect
equilibrium; from this is born the rose of Isis, the great fertile Mother.
The characteristics of an individual signified by this card are too various to
enumerate; one must summarize by saying that she is Womanhood in its ultimate
projection. She contains all the characteristics of woman, and it would depend
entirely upon the influences to which she is subjected whether one or another
becomes manifest. But in every case her attributes will be pure in themselves, and
not necessarily connected with any other attributes which in the normal way one
regards as symbolic. In one sense, then, her general reputation will be of bewildering
inconsistency. It is rather like a lottery wheel from which the extraction of any
number does not predict or influence the result of any subsequent operation. The
fruit of the Philosophy of Thelema is enjoyed, rare, ripe, nourishing and vitalizing at
its highest and fullest in this meditation; for to the adept every turn of the wheel is
equally probable, and equally a prize; for every Event is "a play of Nuit".
In the Yi King the earthy part of Earth is represented by the 52nd hexagram, Kan.
The meaning is "a mountain"; of how sublime a significance is this Chinese doctrine
of Balance, and how closely congruous with that of the Holy Qabalah!
The mountain is the most sacred of all terrestrial symbols, stark, rugged, and
immoveable in its aspiration to the Highest, thrust up as it is by the Titan energy of
Hidden Fire. It is no less an hieroglyph of the Inmost Godhead than the Phallus itself,
even as Capricornus, the sign of the New Year, is exalted in the Zodiac, its deity
autochthonous no less than the Most Holy Ancient One himself.
It is essential for the Student to trace this doctrine for himself in every symbol: Air,
the elastic and flexible, yet all-pervading and the element of combustion; Water,
fluid yet incompressible, the most neutral and composed of all components of living
matter, yet destructive even of the hardest rocks by physical assault, and irresistible
in its burning power of solution; and Fire, so kin to Spirit that it is not a substance at
all, but a phenomenon, yet so integral to Matter that it is the very heart and essence
of all things soever.
The characteristic of Kan in the Yi King is rest; each line of the comment describes
repose in the parts of the body in turn, and their effects; the toes, the calves, the
loins, the spine, and the jaws.
This chapter is a close parallel in this respect, line by line, with the 31st, Hsien,
which begins the second section of the Yi.
The Rosicrucian doctrine of Tetragrammaton could hardly be more adequately
stated-to every ear that is to heavenly harmony attuned.
"There's not a planet in the firmament [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]