New Aeon Tarot: Adjustment and the Lovers
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I've been thinking about the Thoth Tarot deck lately and two of the most interesting card designs to me are Adjustment and the Lovers.
Adjustment was changed from Justice in the (Old Aeon) Rider-Waite tarot pack. The idea is that there is no justice in the universe: the best we can do (and what we must do) is adjust to the conditions of the universe.
The best example I can think of here is the idea of the Ego, the idea that we are consciously in control of ourselves as individuals. This is not really the case: we are all essentially brainwashed. To put it another way, we are conditioned. We don't consciously choose to get up and brush our teeth every day, we do so out of unconscious habit. These habits are mostly based on our culture.
Beyond that we are animals with specific biological instructions. We didn't ourselves (as The Animal) choose to have teeth, for example, or to require food to live. Those are simply the Conditions that we find ourselves in.
Justice also implies revenge, which implies an inferiority to the person we are vengeful towards.
And so we move from Justice to Adjustment.
The Lovers card I am not as familiar with, but I have noticed something that might be of interest.
From Liber Artemis Iota: "The student should assimilate the doctrine of the “Black Brothers.” To refuse to fulfill any of one’s possibilities is the direct negation of the Great Work."
On the card we have a white brother and a black brother. Possibly this means that in the New Aeon, with Adjustment implied, we are all Black Brothers, or the Black Brother is an equivalent or a counterpart to the White Brother.
It might be kinda cool to be a Black Brother.
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Have you seen these threads?
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I was never one to really care about being cool, Im more of a hot blooded girl myself.
These are very beautiful cards and the paths can be just as beautiful, depending of course, on your attitude and intention.
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@LD330 said
"On the card we have a white brother and a black brother."
Idiocy. That's what that is. A "Black Brother" has nothing to do with the hue of one's skin. If that is what Crowley intended then we can strike his intention down.
"Possibly this means that in the New Aeon, with Adjustment implied, we are all Black Brothers, or the Black Brother is an equivalent or a counterpart to the White Brother."
The Black Brother is someone, of any color or any gender, who has attained unto the awareness of samadhi but then decides that their old Ego-ridden ways are best for their own personal gain... Are you familiar with the transition point between dhyana and samadhi? Dhyana means simply meditation. One begins trying to gain one-pointed focus unto some object of their choosing. Thoughts interrupt, but one resolutely returns their attention to the object of their meditation. When that interruption becomes less and less it eventually resolves into dhyana, when the focus is relatively stable. In the high stages of dhyana it is kind of like pushing up against a wall to attain oneness with it. However, once the dhyana becomes practical and regular, that pushing will become a pulling, the attention being put out onto an object of focus will begin to (ostensibly) become drawn to that object, seemingly of its own accord. Instead of the union symbolized by pushing against a wall, the union becomes as a shaving of iron drawn irresistably to an omnipotent magnet. The object becomes one with the impersonal subject.
Now, I went into that to describe the temperament of the Black Brother as implied by Liber CDXVIII. Rather than becoming warm to that "pulling" they resist it and attempt to obtain the benefits of it without giving in. They keep to themselves instead of dissolving into oneness... They make of themselves an affront to "love under will."
"It might be kinda cool to be a Black Brother."
How old are you? Or, better yet, define what you mean by "Black Brother"?
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@seekinghga said
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@LD330 said
"On the card we have a white brother and a black brother."Idiocy. That's what that is. A "Black Brother" has nothing to do with the hue of one's skin. If that is what Crowley intended then we can strike his intention down."
Name calling and race baiting. You know, you're the first to bring mundane politics into this discussion of a symbolic painting. That tells me all I need to know about you.
A black brother is one, as you describe, who forsakes the Great Work for his or her (or hur or hir or he-she's) ego.
Bullying and race baiting might be a sign of this kind of development, and since the OP was about the possibility of taking on the doctrine of the black brother (as described in Liber Artemis Iota), I wish you well in your endeavor to explore every possible experience.
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@Takamba said
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Name calling and race baiting. You know, you're the first to bring mundane politics into this discussion of a symbolic painting. That tells me all I need to know about you.A black brother is one, as you describe, who forsakes the Great Work for his or her (or hur or hir or he-she's) ego.
Bullying and race baiting might be a sign of this kind of development, and since the OP was about the possibility of taking on the doctrine of the black brother (as described in Liber Artemis Iota), I wish you well in your endeavor to explore every possible experience."
Name calling? Nah. It's called idea-calling. (Every man and every woman is a star!) You really think that your post is relevant or helpful? Pfft. Go back to your propaganda efforts elsewhere. HAHHAHAHAHA
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Let me also say, ideas are beliefs are concepts are thoughts are antithetical to the silence of the mind required of yoga. What, takamba? What? Come on!
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If I really wanted to tear into what you just said I could call out what you said about me "race-baiting." How? By saying that the Black Brothers have nothing to do about race. What? Do you believe that they do? You think that a Black Brother, as described in Liber 418, has to do with skin color or sex? Is that what you think? Is that what your myopic little mind carries on about? Remember all ye that existence is pure joy... -
"Name calling? Nah. It's called idea-calling. (Every man and every woman is a star!) You really think that your post is relevant or helpful? Pfft. Go back to your propaganda efforts elsewhere. HAHHAHAHAHA"
They sure talk up a storm about how PC culture is Stalin/Mao censorship, and everyone needs to grow a thicker skin because the racists are just engaging in a little developmentally healthy race baiting and innocent spouting off.
But criticize any of their ideas and they melt like a snowflake.
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@Avshalom Binyamin said
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But criticize any of their ideas and they melt like a snowflake."Melty melt, like cheese.
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"The Lovers card I am not as familiar with, but I have noticed something that might be of interest.
From Liber Artemis Iota: "The student should assimilate the doctrine of the “Black Brothers.” To refuse to fulfill any of one’s possibilities is the direct negation of the Great Work."
On the card we have a white brother and a black brother. Possibly this means that in the New Aeon, with Adjustment implied, we are all Black Brothers, or the Black Brother is an equivalent or a counterpart to the White Brother."
it might be more constructive to have some interest in the fact that there are 8 human forms on this card, yet your focus was only on the lower two.
The Thoth cards are packed with imagery to bring to your mind interesting things,
and all things are interesting legitimate in their own waychoose your focus well because in this day and age ignorance is no excuse for Bad behavior
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@seekinghga said
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@LD330 said
"On the card we have a white brother and a black brother."Idiocy. That's what that is."
There are a 1269 ways that I could have said that better. I'm an asshole sometimes. It happens. Sorry. I am.
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Everything is under control.
The Lovers card is pretty complicated. I notice the two females together with the males produce some sort of formula or process. I can feel it but can't really articulate what it is. We also have Cupid or Karma shooting an arrow, a puppetmaster and a male statue and a female statue. Also the Ten of Swords (Ruin) is in the background.
I wonder if the male and female statues are representing ideal male/female forms. I also wonder if they are actual famous statues from art history. Crowley references the Venus of Milo in the Book of Lies.
The puppetmaster I also understand intuitively but don't really get. Who is this figure? He, plus Karma (Desire) seem to be motioning the Universe. The male/female dichotomy is in the card, but not as openly as in the Rider-Waite version of the card. We almost have the boys separated from the girls as in elementary school.
Another New Aeon card I have been considering is the Aeon. The figure in front is an invisible-transparent Harpocrates and behind him we have Ra Hoor Kuit.
I don't know much about Harpocrates symbolism (outside its association with silence) but the ideas I'm getting now are that Harpocrates is the Geist or Spirit, the Silent Philosopher standing and thinking. Behind him we have Ra Hoor Kuit, the Lord of the Aeon, ruling over Harpocrates' thoughts. We only have the thoughts we do due to the society we live in and the people we associate with. The thoughts we have are based on the knowledge we have as a society, which will change throughout history (the aeons). The thoughts of a person in ancient Greece will be different from a medieval monk which will be different from our current way of thinking.
I also see Ra Hoor Kuit as the "current reterritorialization" of humanity; humanity's current, generalized map of reality. As I see it, if someone discovers something new or has an original idea, Ra Hoor Kuit's function is to allow that new idea to be expressed, if it is True, even if it differs from the expectations of humanity.
What Harpocrates thinks is dependent on what Ra Hoor Kuit, the Aeon, allows him to think. It took time for atheism to become accepted. I wonder if this is because people expected others would start acting entirely out of control, breaking all the laws, etc. if atheism was widespread and no one believed in God. This is an extreme example; from an everyday perspective, what we think about is what everybody else thinks about, and our philosophy is kept on Earth by the genetic, God-given "What should I eat today?" and "I have to go to the bathroom", along with social behavior type thoughts.
I think Harpocrates represents the Thinker of the one Thought, the once-in-a-while stroke-of-genius thought that occurs outside of the banalities.
But this is just my opinion and my development of my own philosophy.
