Unicursal Hexagrams
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Hi Jim,
In your book you state that the unicursal hexagrams should be drawn in gold for the Sun, and silver for the moon. Why use queen scale colours, for the Sun & Moon, instead of the king scale like the other planets? Are the colours for Sun and Moon not meant to be blue and orange?
What colours would you use if you where to invoke the Sephiroth with the unicursal hexagram?
What colour (flashing colours, like red and green for Mars) would you have as a background for silver and gold?
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@Mr Menth said
"In your book you state that the unicursal hexagrams should be drawn in gold for the Sun, and silver for the moon. Why use queen scale colours, for the Sun & Moon, instead of the king scale like the other planets? Are the colours for Sun and Moon not meant to be blue and orange?"
Queen scale isn't intended (though you're correct that this is what's there). This one is just from personal experience: the gleaming metallic colored light is far more powerful on consciousness than the flat spectrum colors.
You may, of course, draw the solar one in blue on an orange background, and the lunar one in orange on a blue background, to follow the pattern that would be used for every other planet.
"What colours would you use if you where to invoke the Sephiroth with the unicursal hexagram?"
You don't. There are no such attributions. (You could, of course, follow the model Regardie made up, but that's not authentic to the original attributions.) The other four points are attributed to the four elements, not planets.
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@Jim Eshelman said
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"What colours would you use if you where to invoke the Sephiroth with the unicursal hexagram?"You don't. There are no such attributions. (You could, of course, follow the model Regardie made up, but that's not authentic to the original attributions.) The other four points are attributed to the four elements, not planets."
Putting Regardie's method aside, can you not use the unicursal hexagrams to invoke Tiphareth or Yesod?
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Oh, I see, I thought you meant others.
In general, I would use pure brilliant metallic gold and silver light.
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(I'm just full of questions tonight ...)
The hexagram rituals being intended for invoking/banishing planetary forces (particularly solar), I'm confused as to why the TOT unicursal hexagram has elements at four of its points. Isn't that sort of confounding the planes?
And if one is going to put elements on a hexagram, wouldn't you want to put Spirit on it as well, perhaps in both its active and passive forms -- but maybe that's what the sun and the moon are?
It sorta feels like lowering the Sun from Briah to Yetzirah or even Assiah to put it in the "company" of the four elements. But then, especially in light of the use of the hexagram ritual in Adeptus Minor work, maybe that's exactly what you intended?
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@sk4p said
"The hexagram rituals being intended for invoking/banishing planetary forces (particularly solar), I'm confused as to why the TOT unicursal hexagram has elements at four of its points. Isn't that sort of confounding the planes?"
This isn't original to Temple of Thelema. It's the Golden Dawn attributions that Crowley first learned in the 4-7 Grade. I've merely reproduced them faithfully. This is the original, probably the root of where Crowley encountered it as a magical symbol.
Provenance having been addressed, the main question you asked was whether this is a confounding of the planes. I think not. The logic for it would seem to rest on a sense that the planets and elements are segregated on different planes; yet, while there is an elemental stage of initiation that generally comes before a planetary stage, that doesn't mean they are segregated. One is not (for example) Second Order in a way that divorces one from being First Order. This especially seems to me (at least, at the moment) to be one of the many symbols that establishes the Sun as establishing right dominion over the four elements, in the way that the Adept in Tifereth has the task of establishing right (balanced) dominion over the four elements through which one has passed (though there are several other paths of understanding anyway).
"And if one is going to put elements on a hexagram, wouldn't you want to put Spirit on it as well, perhaps in both its active and passive forms -- but maybe that's what the sun and the moon are?"
Center point. I didn't put it in the illustration partly because I'd have had to create a graphic (since I don't have one) and partly because that's what the five-petaled rose signifies and I didn't want to screw with the appearance of the rose.
"It sorta feels like lowering the Sun from Briah to Yetzirah or even Assiah to put it in the "company" of the four elements."
The Sun is in Yetzirah and Assiah, as much as in Briah and Atziluth. The whole Tree exists in all four Worlds. One has to be prepared to invoke all planets in all worlds.
Besides, the elements also exist in all four Worlds. Don't forget (to take an obvious example) that Kether, Hakh'mah, and Biynah are called the Roots of Air, Fire, and Water, respectively.
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One further method question though:
@Jim Eshelman said
"Center point. I didn't put it in the illustration partly because I'd have had to create a graphic (since I don't have one) and partly because that's what the five-petaled rose signifies and I didn't want to screw with the appearance of the rose."
So one should start at the actual center point for invoking/banishing Spirit with the hexagram, then? What direction to proceed? (My gut says "first towards Fire for Spirit Active, first towards Water for Spirit Passive", but I could also see "towards Earth" for the latter ...)