LBRP
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@DJHOHL said
"Also, is there a good source that explains the detailed visualization of the archangels in the LBRP?"
A good baseline, for me, was the BOTA tarot. Raphael is shown on Key 6, Gabriel on Key 20, Michael on Key 14, and Uriel on Key 15 -- after another manner. If you take that, and follow through with Sasha's recommendations, you'll probably be in good shape. Take your time -- there's rarely any need to rush the LBRP.
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@sasha said
"I don't understand why Crowley said you stand between those four sephiroth during the LBRP. To the best of my knowledge, the writers of this ritual intended it to take place entirely within Assiah of Malkuth. But that doesn't help you with visualization."
Is that what the original writers intended? I had always thought the intent was as Crowley describes it -- but maybe that's because Crowley's the only person I ever heard it from.
When at the intersection of Samekh and Peh, before you is Tiphareth (Sphere of the Sun, and of Raphael), behind you is Yesod (Sphere of the Moon, and of Gabriel), at your right hand is Hod (Sphere of Mercury, and of Michael), and at your left hand is Netzach (Sphere of Venus, and of Haniel).[1]
Haniel? Who the frack is HANIAL, and why is his name spelled transliteratively when assigned to the 7th and 14th Paths, as opposed to what I expected to find, HNAL, which is attributed to the 26th Path? Well, somebody with greater Qabalistic expertise than I will have to get to the bottom of that one for us. I know of no relevant gematria that does anything for me insofar as HANIAL goes, whereas HNAL overflows Netzachian imagery.[2]
Flummoxed by this weird spelling, the best I can do is say that I read somewhere that Uriel often substitutes for Haniel as archangel of Netzach.
So, stipulating that Haniel is on a bender and Uriel had to step in, as is his wont, from my perspective it makes perfect sense to stand at the intersection of Samekh and Peh, because then the archangels are actually surrounding you as you state they are in the ritual.
Further, and aside from the archangels and their drinking habits, note that this is an elemental ritual. If you are standing at the intersection of Samekh and Peh, then while banishing or invoking the four elemental quarters, you are yourself standing at the point of Quintessence.
Love and L.V.X.
z[1] Remember, you back into the Tree.
[2] Seriously, you have got to be kidding me. I find it nearly impossible to believe that the Haniel attributed to Netzach is not the same HNAL which enumerates to the same value as
H-TBO -- Nature
ABL HGDVLH -- The Great MeadowBoth of which evoke the verdancy of Netzach. And
HLLV IH -- Praise be to God
which evokes the bhakti aspect of the Sephirah. And all these I won't bother to comment on, but seem to me to bear on the 7th Path:
KVS -- Cup
MVLI -- Plentitude
LAKLH -- For food (Gen. reference to fruit and seeds)And, natch
ALHIM -- The 7 Spirits of God
I mean, really? HANIAL? Somebody explain that to me!
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@zeph said
"Haniel? Who the frack is HANIAL, and why is his name spelled transliteratively when assigned to the 7th and 14th Paths, as opposed to what I expected to find, HNAL, which is attributed to the 26th Path? Well, somebody with greater Qabalistic expertise than I will have to get to the bottom of that one for us. I know of no relevant gematria that does anything for me insofar as HANIAL goes, whereas HNAL overflows Netzachian imagery."
You're overlapping Haniel (HANIAL) and Hanael (HNAL).
"Haniel," the name of the Archangel of Venus, means, "Beholder of God," from the Hebrew word HA (Heh Aleph), "behold" (found in Gesenius and used in Daniel 2:43).
I don't know what "Hanael" means. The angel isn't mentioned in any standard references known to me other than tables of correspondences. (Gustav Davidson says it is a variant of Haniel, but I think he was guessing.) HN is a pronoun and not convincing as etymology. The meaning could derive unusually from HNAH, han'ah, "enjoyment," and would have a reasonable meaning for the 26th Path (but now **I'm **guessing) - oh, just noticed the simpler form of "enjoy" is HNH or HNY (and lots of similar words with only slightly varied meanings, so it might be more SWAG than WAG). Notice, though, that there isn't any Aleph as in the root of HANIAL's name.
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@zeph said
"What's the link to Uriel that apparently has Uriel standing in for Hanial during the LBRP?"
It's just a traditional statement - no real explanation given, and mostly linked to the Pentagram Ritual - that Uriel is in the place of Haniel.
I suppose (depending on the color scale) that there is that green thing. I think they're both Irish angels
Besides, Haniel isn't an angel attributable to Earth so wouldn't have been appropriate there. -
@zeph said
"When at the intersection of Samekh and Peh, before you is Tiphareth (Sphere of the Sun, and of Raphael), behind you is Yesod (Sphere of the Moon, and of Gabriel), at your right hand is Hod (Sphere of Mercury, and of Michael), and at your left hand is Netzach (Sphere of Venus, and of Haniel).
...
Further, and aside from the archangels and their drinking habits, note that this is an elemental ritual."
If you see the LRP in these ways, then how do reconcile the two? Which sephira serves as earth?
It seems so much easier and more elegant to me to see it as all taking place within Malkuth. You don't have to swap archangel positions or make any substitutions between Uriel and Haniel. You can also keep the elemental focus if you want, but a focus on the elements within Malkuth, rather than the "greater" elements associated with the four lower sephiroth.
Does it even matter?
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@sasha said
"If you see the LRP in these ways, then how do reconcile the two? Which sephira serves as earth?"
It's really not an either/or choice. The two ideas coexist. There are multiple paradoxes from this since, for example, Mikhael that is Archangel of Fire is not the same as Mikhael that is Archangel of Mercury and Hod, even though the two schemas both put Mikhael in the same place.
"It seems so much easier and more elegant to me to see it as all taking place within Malkuth."
I don't think that's a conflict, either. Remember, this ritual was a Golden Dawn invention. In the Golden Dawn, the entirety of the First Order (below Portal) consisted of sub-Sephirah in Malkuth. Therefore, saying that it is laid out on the tree just below Parokheth, and saying that it is "all in Malkuth" are - in the scheme for which it was created - pretty much the same thing. (One gets into trouble when one starts trying to interpret this ritual outside of the context for which it was custom-created.)
"You don't have to swap archangel positions or make any substitutions between Uriel and Haniel. You can also keep the elemental focus if you want, but a focus on the elements within Malkuth, rather than the "greater" elements associated with the four lower sephiroth."
Well, you have the problem that three of the four archangels are in the wrong place if you do it as the Elements as arranged within Malkuth.
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@Bastkity said
"
I don't think that's a conflict, either. Remember, this ritual was a Golden Dawn invention. In the Golden Dawn, the entirety of the First Order (below Portal) consisted of sub-Sephirah in Malkuth."Fair enough. But Crowley included Tiphareth and not Malkuth, so he refers to a different set of Sephiroth.
@Bastkity said
"Well, you have the problem that three of the four archangels are in the wrong place if you do it as the Elements as arranged within Malkuth."
But it does follow the "outer order" (and, therefore, all in Malkuth in terms of grades and consciousness) elemental atributions of the Golden Dawn.
I have a suspicion that the writers of this ritual either didn't intend for any sephirothic (except maybe all in Malkuth) or elemental attributions or else just didn't think through all of the possible implications of the ritual.
Does anyone know when the earliest mention of elemental attributions for this ritual came into print? Regardie says it in The Tree of Life in, I think, 1932. But he doesn't say it explicitly in The Middle Pillar (1938), where he only clearly associates the elements with the archangels.
Funny... Probably more people do this ritual than any other and, as far as I know, nobody knows who wrote it in its modern form and people disagree substantially on its purpose and meaning.
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@sasha said
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@Bastkity said
"I don't think that's a conflict, either. Remember, this ritual was a Golden Dawn invention. In the Golden Dawn, the entirety of the First Order (below Portal) consisted of sub-Sephirah in Malkuth."Fair enough. But Crowley included Tiphareth and not Malkuth, so he refers to a different set of Sephiroth."
...Just as the First Order temple floorplan, though encompassed in Malkuth for the most part, included Tiphereth as the dais in the east, i.e., incorporated the idea of that which exceeded the rest of the framework.
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@Bastkity said
"Well, you have the problem that three of the four archangels are in the wrong place if you do it as the Elements as arranged within Malkuth."But it does follow the "outer order" (and, therefore, all in Malkuth in terms of grades and consciousness) elemental atributions of the Golden Dawn."
Not sure what you mean by this. Can you elaborate, please?
"Does anyone know when the earliest mention of elemental attributions for this ritual came into print?"
"Print" may not be the word, since the earliest manuscripts were only circulated privately under obligation. The elemental attributions date to the earliest use of the ritual, i.e., 1887-88 in Golden Dawn Neophyte papers, and the elemental attributions to the directions are present throughout the whole model of the rituals contained in the original cipher manuscrips.
"Funny... Probably more people do this ritual than any other and, as far as I know, nobody knows who wrote it in its modern form and people disagree substantially on its purpose and meaning."
There's no significant mystery who wrote it. Fragments of it (but not a completed ritual) appear in Eliphas Levi's writings. The ritual itself is not in the cipher manuscripts, although the form of drawing the elemental pentagrams are there. There is every indication, therefore, that the ritual was written either by Mathers, or (less likely) possibly by Westcott (possibly by Mathers with Westcott input) based on Levi's public writings.
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@Sasha said
"But it does follow the "outer order" (and, therefore, all in Malkuth in terms of grades and consciousness) elemental atributions of the Golden Dawn."
Not sure what you mean by this. Can you elaborate, please?"
The outer order rituals put air in the east, fire in the south, water in the west, and earth in the north. As opposed to the zodiacal attributions, with fire in the east, etc, like with the hexagram ritual.
@Jim Eshelman said
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"Print" may not be the word, since the earliest manuscripts were only circulated privately under obligation. The elemental attributions date to the earliest use of the ritual, i.e., 1887-88 in Golden Dawn Neophyte papers, and the elemental attributions to the directions are present throughout the whole model of the rituals contained in the original cipher manuscrips."I meant the first mention of attributing the elements to the LBRP. I assume you refer to the grade rituals.
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@sasha said
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@Jim Eshelman said
"@Sasha said
"But it does follow the "outer order" (and, therefore, all in Malkuth in terms of grades and consciousness) elemental atributions of the Golden Dawn."
Not sure what you mean by this. Can you elaborate, please?"
The outer order rituals put air in the east, fire in the south, water in the west, and earth in the north. As opposed to the zodiacal attributions, with fire in the east, etc, like with the hexagram ritual."
Right. I think the point was that if you use the Malkuth arrangement, then you'd expect Air in the East, Water in the South, Earth in the West, and Fire in the North.
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@Jim Eshelman said
""Print" may not be the word, since the earliest manuscripts were only circulated privately under obligation. The elemental attributions date to the earliest use of the ritual, i.e., 1887-88 in Golden Dawn Neophyte papers, and the elemental attributions to the directions are present throughout the whole model of the rituals contained in the original cipher manuscrips."I meant the first mention of attributing the elements to the LBRP. I assume you refer to the grade rituals."
I'd have to look at the source documents, but all of these emerged together concurrently (through 4=7) in 1887 and, actually, were already established in the cipher manuscripts from some time earlier.
Additionally, the attributions of the archangels to the Elements is at least centuries old, and the distribution of them - the exact language, "Before me, Raphael; behind me, Gabriel," etc. is from a Jewish children's prayer that is at least a couple of thousand years old.
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There are probably several - I can't think of any offhand, but you could Google it.
But the particular form of these may vary with the exact tradition you're part of. If you're part of a specific training system, you should check with your teachers for the exact forms to use.
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The key features are classic winged angelic images, with appropriately colored robes - yellow, red, blue, and black.
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On the issue of the Sephirothic attributions from the "standing at the intersection of Samekh and Peh," I had completely forgotten - until I reread it tonight - how much I had played this up in my poem "Locked in Love" which describes the Pentagram Ritual.
In addition to the names of the Archangels, the attributions of the elements and directions, etc., note how the ideas of Tiphereth, Yesod, Hod, and Netzach (respectively) are worked into these four couplets:
Now, before me the healing dawn light Wears the rose of the rising sun’s beauty, While behind me the Foundation’s might Bears the grail and the tale of life’s duty. God’s ambassador flames on my right, Scintillation elating the mind, While the backlit and boreal night On my left is the passion that binds me.``` -
@Jim Eshelman said
"But Aiwass is of universal value. Aiwass is 93=418 - the direct messenger of HPK, the bearer of The Book of the Law to humanity. He falls not only in the category of Crowley's HGA, but of a high-ranking "secret Chief" with a specific purpose of communicating the current dispensation to humanity.
As such, vibrating the name aligns one with the ideas of 93 and 418 (among others) and with the Thelemic dispensation in general."
From the above I take it that you agree with the practice of vibrating Aiwass at the Tiphareth centre during the QC. I like the idea of aligning the ritual to the Thelemic dispensation but the thought of using the name of anothers HGA instead of my own (which I don't know) makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
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Understood - which is the reason most of the above discussion has taken place thus far.
But you've already quoted my response to that.
I might add that all holy Names are simply formulae - concatenations of letters and sounds with a specific vibratory pattern. Vibrating Aiwass is no more limited to Aleister Crowley than vibrating the Tetragrammaton is limited to the high priests of the old Hebrew religion.
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@Redd Fezz said
"1.) the author instructs to step forward with the right foot for the Enterer and puts his right forefinger to his lips for Harpocrates. In Duquette's "Magick of Aleister Crowley," he has these listed as left foot and left finger. Most places I've read say not to drop the right arm which has just created and pierced the pentagram, so it seems natural that the finger should be of the left hand, but..."
These details (and in particular the left-right details) vary with specific traditions - for example, specific schools - or, outside of formal training environments, they differ with individuals. They are completely inconsequential except to the extent that they have distinctive meaning within a particular school, Order, etc., to which one has committed.
"2.) Cornelius says to point the dagger at the floor, following the sign of Harpocrates, and draw a burning circle (not white light, flames) from quarter to quarter. So, unlike most LBRP instructions I've read, he is not saying to connect the center of the pentagrams with white light, he is creating a circle on the ground. "
These are probably just his personal recommendations and, again, are minor compared to the main points. If he's actually saying to draw the circle on the ground, then that does vary one very critical point sufficiently that I would no longer call it the LBRP but, rather, "a variation of," "derived from," etc. It's not a bad variation for particular purposes, btw (though I'd accomplish the same thing a bit differently) - I'm just noting that it's definitely nonstandard but also definitely makes sense. In fact, if he's doing some form of evocation, one usually would want to draw just such a hard circle on the floor, though (as I mentioned a moment ago) I'd go about it differently. (The "enforced, accentuated duality" of an absolute boundary - inside the circle vs. outside - is part of the psychological and magical technique of evocation, a rather critical part of the method I think.)
"3.) During the Qabalistic Cross, he says to touch the right shoulder with the left hand when vibrating ve-Geburah and the left shoulder with the right hand when vibrating ve-Gedulah."
Again, personal, stylization. Ultimately of no great consequence, though this would be especially attractive to ex-Catholics trying to go out of their way not to remind themselves of Catholic training.
"This is the Micro/Macrocosmic part of the LBRP related to the 2nd half where Netzach and Hod seem to be on the wrong sides."
They aren't on the wrong sides at all, though I like your word "seems."