March 29 (MEM, The Hanged Man, Water) Liber LXV, Cap. III
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Recommended practice: Sleep of Siloam
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When I die my body will be broken down into nutrients that will feed the soil and in turn feed the grasses, bushes and trees that will go to seed in the autumn and spread parts of the body I inhabited all around until the person that I was becomes completely dispersed.
Before I was conscious I was a part of all things. In death I will be dissolved into all things.
I am still not certain who I really am now, nor what my True Will is, only that the entire trajectory of creation has moved to the point where I became conscious, therefore I am indestructable yet fluid. -
Beautiful chapter, of course, but not one of my favorites; with the exception of a few verses, it doesn't speak much to me. I find this very interesting, how it varies among people and their context, and it doesn't necessarily mean the text isn't true or useful. Anyway, below are the verses I like the most.
"How shall I answer the foolish man? In no way shall he come to the Identity of Thee!
But I am the Fool that heedeth not the Play of the Magician. Me doth the Woman of the Mysteries instruct in vain; I have burst the bonds of Love and of Power and of Worship."Come to think of it... pretty much the whole ending, all the way to v. 65.
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One of my very favorites. It was the chapter I memorized as a Probationer, so it's been living in my cells for at least 34 years.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"One of my very favorites. It was the chapter I memorized as a Probationer, so it's been living in my cells for at least 34 years."
I thought so! In fact I remembered you when setting out to read it. Maybe I've read that somewhere, or just deduced it because of the name of the Black Pearl.
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It's never really spoken to me before either but this time, following about a half hour of Mahasatipatthana, I remained in asana and read it out loud and the imagery took me over. The transformations, the ping-ponging perspective, the dissolution of one into the other in the realization that they are, in fact, one. Really beautiful stuff.
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Tarot Meditation – Hanged Man
I find myself in the midst of the endless ocean. A tiny little pearl in the black waters of Binah. And now those waters turn into an ocean of blood. The currents are strong. A little boat on horizon manages the waves by yielding to them, rather than resisting. It moves strongly in multitude of directions being carried here and there, but never flooded. “Oh little boat, where are you headed? And who governs your helm, who directs your course?” It is the Christ figure inside, the divine son who enters the storm without fear, without any wish or desire to evade strong winds and escape violent waters. With his saintly affect and disposition, without resistance he is in the midst of the storm and becomes the storm – water cannot flood itself. And he found me lost in the waters – a little pearl – whom he rescued with his hand and held her ever so close to his being. And there is an overpowering sense and feeling of indiscriminate and boundless Love. It spreads from the center of the boat out stilling the winds, calming the waves and bringing peace upon the horizon. The Lord Sun (son), the Father, approves from the sky above healing with his warmth and light, drying the pearl, polishing her with his kisses and reflecting himself in her center. So the Sun beheld the pearl, and the pearl beheld the Sun. And the pearl also beheld the Son who loved her with the pure heart.
In the colored light arched in the sky, colors of the rainbow gloriously bending over me initiated in unknown beginning and way into eternity, past anything that can be known. This mirage is a gift for the eyes, bringing those thoughts to mind which warm the heart. And the water is the mother who tossed me out from her womb, and the spiritual father embraced me in his compassionate manner. And the Sun melted my form so that I may turn to vapor and rise upward, ascend to the great Kingdom.