Q.B.L. by Fr. Achad
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
Well first of all you guys might want to read it before discussing it. Here's a link:
www.hermetics.org/pdf/qbl/qbl.pdfDetails of the split between Crowley and Jones are given in the introduction to Liber Aleph. Unfortunatley the only copy I know of on the web doesn't include the introduction. (It's on sacred texts dot com). Borders usually has a copy that you can read over a cup of coffee.
As far as Jones' theories go....
He bought into Crowley's reality tunnel. Jones never made it to Magus, he was forever stuck in a reality tunnel. In fact I think he went into the light and found it to be a train.
The tree is a SYSTEM. The tree is not TRUTH. The way is a PATH. The WAY is NOT THE POINT. One could build an opperable system with the paths reversed, but Jones thought that he had found TRUTH. He laid down his new system and said "Here is TRUTH, what was before was false".That was his mistake. Our way is no more TRUE than his way, but when 99% of available material uses a certain attribution, not to mention the millions of adepts who have "built" these correspondences on the "astral" plane, or in the "collective unconscious"(however you choose to see it) it behooves us to take advantage of the labor of others.
"If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants"
"Reality is what you can get away with"
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
In a letter to Gerald Yorke he wrote:
@C. S. Jones said
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If this new Aeon is what it seems to be, it will have lifted the Curse of Magus and destroyed the Glamour and Lies and Madness of the Supernal Paths. That would leave one in Daath - and represent real Attainment - the becoming one with Those Who Know."The Black Brothers reside in Daath. He should have studied this one a little more:
@Uncle Al said
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yet the word is falsehood, and the Understanding darkness. And this saying is Of All Truth." -
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
@Redd Fezz said
"I am going to take the lack of positive response as a resounding "no" in what was essentially a "so, should I read this" question."
No, sir, I would read it. Let this be as a test. See if you can read it now with unbiased eyes. Otherwise how will you call yourself free.
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@Almighty Creator said
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No, sir, I would read it. Let this be as a test. See if you can read it now with unbiased eyes. Otherwise how will you call yourself free."Nope, I'm not gonna!
Thanks for saving me some time, Almighty! After reading what he said about the Supernals vs. Daath, I have no interest because I actually spent a lot of time studying AC's whole concept of The Word in Portable Darkness. It was driving me mental. I was cross-comparing it with Brion Gysin: "We're here TO GO, to get out of The Word!" My mind was really in hyperdrive.@Almighty Creator said
"The Black Brothers reside in Daath. He should have studied this one a little more:
Uncle Al wrote:
yet the word is falsehood, and the Understanding darkness. And this saying is Of All Truth."
Interesting bit in the Bible about "In the beginning was God, and the word was with God, and the word was God..." I wonder if that has any relevance to this.
This whole thing reminds me of this web article I once read in which the author believed Qabalah Gnosis was a trap: "The Light" was actually no higher than Da'ath and any aspirant was reabsorbed into the demiurge or, um, false god... I forget the term, but whatever it was called in Valis. Also, there was a whole conversation I archived by a frequent "astral projector" who wrote "we are all food for the demiurge". How would we ever really know if we ever really got past Da'ath, anyway?
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@Redd Fezz said
"This whole thing reminds me of this web article I once read in which the author believed Qabalah Gnosis was a trap: "The Light" was actually no higher than Da'ath"
That's true by definition. L.V.X. ("light") is especially related to the solar level of illumination. It is especially a Tiphereth idea. Binah admits to N.O.X. ("night"). What confuses many students at the beginning is that N.O.X. is "more L.V.X.," the Light having reached a different threshold of intensity so that it shoots past the "visible spectrum" range of consciusness. (That's a metaphor.) It's the negation of L.V.X. only in the sense that it's the completion of L.V.X. I also enjoy the metaphor that L.V.X. is the Light propagated through an atmosphere, air, intellect-ego, whereas N.O.X. is the Light propagated through space.
The main thing to remember is that N.O.X. is not infernal darkness but, rather, is supernal darkness exceeding what we call L.V.X. It is "the light higher than eyesight" (CCXX II:51).
Of course, Kether is the highest symbol of LIGHT among the Sephiroth. N.O.X. is a higher kind of LIGHT than L.V.X. But if your writer meant "L.V.X." by "The Light," then he was technically correct.
"and any aspirant was reabsorbed into the demiurge or, um, false god..."
Oh, no, that's backwards! We're absorbed into the Demiurge / False God before crossing the Abyss, not after. It's the ego. The Demiurge (Jehovah or what have you) is always placed at Chesed, the "top" of the Ruach.
"How would we ever really know if we ever really got past Da'ath, anyway?"
That's the difference between knowing and Knowing. You couldn't know - otherwise, you'd still be enswathed by Da'ath. Instead, you'd have to Know.
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@Fire Giver said
"I also enjoy the metaphor that L.V.X. is the Light propagated through an atmosphere, air, intellect-ego, whereas N.O.X. is the Light propagated through space."
I love it. It reminds me of that quote from 2001: A Space Odyssey: "My god, it's full of stars!"
If LVX is the light of the sun/Tiphareth/Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and NOX is the light of Binah/Nuit, then is there a similar formula for the light of Chokmah/Hadit?
Might this be the "CHAOS" from Liber B val Magi?
"The main thing to remember is that N.O.X. is not infernal darkness but, rather, is supernal darkness exceeding what we call L.V.X. It is "the light higher than eyesight" (CCXX II:51)."
My darned science-trained brain always short circuits when I read this verse, and all I tend to think about is "ultraviolet radiation." Thanks for a better metaphor!
Steve
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@Steven Cranmer said
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My darned science-trained brain always short circuits when I read this verse, and all I tend to think about is "ultraviolet radiation." Thanks for a better metaphor!Steve"
Likewise. I've read similar thoughts from many others, too. Essentially, there's room for everyone to think they're correct in their experience/Knowing without knowing who is correct or who is off his rocker, isn't there?
As far as the demiurge being in Chesed, I have no real qualms about that idea, but how does the tetragrammaton appear on the Tree of Life, again? Yod is placed where, Heh is where, Vav is where, Heh is where?
I'm looking at a diagram right now that puts (spellings as on diagram):
Ehiëh in Kether,
Jah in Chokmah,
Jehovah in Binah,
El in Chesed,
Elohim Giboor in Geburah,
Eloha ve Daath in Tiphareth,
Jehovah Tsebaot in Netzach,
Elohim Tsebaot in Hod,
Chadaï el Haï in Yesod
Adonaï Melek in MalkuthYHVH is supposed to be the demiurge in this concept, right? Oh right, that's before manifestation, so whatever Binah manifests is the Demiurge and since Daath has no place on the tree, that leaves Chesed. So, is it likely that anyone ever really goes past the Abyss permanently? Or for that matter for much time at all? Or beyond time, has any semblance of themselves without coming back?
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David's right on the most common attribution.
In the Demiurge issue, Johovah is attributed to Chesed on a different basis than the usual name attributions. It is there (1) as an expression of the idea of 4 and (2) because the Gnostic idea of the Demiurge is the self-exalting brat ego that thinks he's the highest that is, not realizing that he's just a joke before the veil of the Goddess - in other words, Chesed!
BTW, I did specifically say Jehovah - meaning specifically that form, not other interpretations of YHVH. It's Johavah = Jove/Zeus.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"David's right on the most common attribution.
In the Demiurge issue, Jehovah is attributed to Chesed....
BTW, I did specifically say Jehovah - meaning specifically that form, not other interpretations of YHVH. It's Johavah = Jove/Zeus."So, on that diagram I was referring to, El is on Chesed and Jehovah is on Binah. I'm not sure what you think of this, as you used both Johovah and Jehovah spelling variants in your above quote for Chesed. Should Jehovah ever be placed on Binah in your opinion? Does El have a place?
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Typo, now corrected.
I can't speak for the diagram you're looking at, haven't seen it, don't know anything about provenance, etc. It isn't typical, to say the least.
One way of mapping these, though, is:
Kether - Yod
Chokmah - Yod Hey (YaH)
Binah - Yod Heh Vav (YaHOo)
Chesed - Yod Heh Vav Heh -
93
Last night I revisited Fr. Achad and spent a couple of hours scanning through his major works, especially the Anatomy of the Body of God. I've concluded that he had moments of brilliance, and among the confusion of his writings, there are some inspired points.
As you read him, you get a sense that he is psychotic in the medical sense. I have no doubt that he did some work, but what stands out beside his erratic writings is the fact he didn't 'work through the grades,' as Crowley politely and impolitely encouraged him to do.
Not having his diaries at my disposal, which might shed further light on this subject, I conclude he was seized by something very similar to a Choronzon; with the result that he became obsessed with his intellectual discoveries and remain trapped in Da'ath. Although, I would even go as far to say he never even got close to there. I wonder if instead of finding an HGA he found a Qlippothic force instead and never reached the K&C.
Note: I would add that since he jumped from the grade of Neophyte 1=10 to Master of the Temple 8=3, he in fact got no further than Yesod, since his writings rave about the importance of it, it being the generative organ of Man and thus spawning an infinite number of Trees, etc.
93, 93/93
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@Draco Magnus said
"I would add that since he jumped from the grade of Neophyte 1=10 to Master of the Temple 8=3, he in fact got no further than Yesod, since his writings rave about the importance of it, it being the generative organ of Man and thus spawning an infinite number of Trees, etc. "
Worthy observations.
Probably worth adding in comment to this: There is a fairly common phenomenon at the end of A.'.A.'. 1=10 and the transition into 2=9. Something reported by many of us, but not everyone, is an experience of what seems to be crossing the Abyss.
I think several things are involved. One is that the scope of transition between 1=10 and 2=9 is huge, likely waaayyyyyy beyond what a person has experienced previously or thought likely. Second, there is a symbolic relationship between Yesod and Da'ath and between Yesod and Binah (see 11th Aethyr - how the "frontier of the Abyss" is painted in almost exclusively Yesod symbols). Third, every Sephirah has a sub-Tree in it, and (if my experience is any clue) that is a direct experience near the end of 1=10 of passing through the Supernals-of-Malkuth. (These sub-Sephiroth experiences were exceedingly common in all of my early A.'.A.'. grades.)
I was, therefore, suspicious years ago when I revisited the available part of Achad's diaries and noticed his specific experience of passing not just into Binah but of "overshooting" it into Chokmah and "eventuating" in Kether. This was very familiar to me - but as the Supernals in Malkuth!
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@Draco Magnus said
"I would add that since he jumped from the grade of Neophyte 1=10 to Master of the Temple 8=3, he in fact got no further than Yesod, since his writings rave about the importance of it, it being the generative organ of Man and thus spawning an infinite number of Trees, etc. "Worthy observations.
Probably worth adding in comment to this: There is a fairly common phenomenon at the end of A.'.A.'. 1=10 and the transition into 2=9. The experience (reported by many of us, but not everyone) is that there is an experience that seems to be crossing the Abyss.
I think there are several things involved. One is that the scope of transition between 1=10 and 2=9 is huge, likely waaayyyyyy beyond what a person has experienced previously or thought likely. Second, there is a symbolic relationship between Yesod and Da'ath and between Yesod and Binah (see 11th Aethyr - how the "frontier of the Abyss" is painted in almost exclusively Yesod symbols). Third, every Sephirah has a sub-Tree in it, and (if my experience is any clue) that is a direct experience near the end of 1=10 of passing through the Supernals-of-Malkuth. (These sub-Sephiroth experiences were exceedingly common in all of my early A.'.A.'. grades.)
I was, therefore, suspicious years ago when I revisited the available part of Achad's diaries and noticed his specific experience of passing not just into Binah but of "overshooting" it into Chokmah and "eventuating" in Kether. This was very familiar to me - but as the Supernals in Malkuth!"
EXCEEDINGLY interesting.
(I know the previous remark does not offer much to the conversation, but I felt the urge to post it.)
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This is an extremely interesting thread. Personally I think there is a great deal of substance in Achad's work, as well as a welter of rather tenuous threads. It was he, after all, who discovered the key of LA / AL to The Book of the Law, and I also think that the Word which he vibrated in 1926 - ALLALA - is extremely interesting though I'm not as yet convinced by his assertion that it was the Word of the Aeon which Crowley had failed to utter.
I also find of great interest Achad's contention that the Aeon of Maat dawned in April 1948, the first cycle of which was the Daughter or Ma-Ion. He set out this position in the voluminous correspendence with Gerald Yorke in 1948-9, a correspondence which forms part of the Yorke collection, and upon which Grant draws in the course of Outside the Circles of Time.
Achad's work is highly imaginitive and, inevitably, he took wrong turns. Intuitions are by their nature sometimes spot on, and on occasions turn out to be wrong. Gematria is essentially an art, not a science, growing out of our magical and mystical experience. For instance, I have a passionate interest in Lam and in the Amalantrah Working, and certain numbers which arise in the record of the latter - for example 33 - have become very meaningful for me, incorporated into my magical universe.
If the original poster has decided, as a result of some of the more dismissive remarks in this thread, not to read QBL or other works by Achad, then obviously it's a matter for him or her but I think they're missing out.
Best wishes,
Michael.
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Actully Fraters Achad's QBL was one of the books I was going to pick up for a number of reasons.
when you refeared to Achad mistakes in regard "Intutions are by their nature sometimes spot on, and on occasions turn out to be wrong" that is very well said.
Even Adepts have hang ups and mistakes.
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I just ordered it now BTW
Damn I love amazon..I need to stop ordering books I have like 5 new ones on the way on Kundalini Tantra among other things as well.
Im not trying to be a arm chair musician eather but really going into full gear on studying.
Grants books are next on my list.
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@SetiDraconis said
"I just ordered it now BTW
Damn I love amazon..I need to stop ordering books I have like 5 new ones on the way on Kundalini Tantra among other things as well.
Im not trying to be a arm chair musician eather but really going into full gear on studying.
Grants books are next on my list."
while i don't discourage reading Grant, let me let you borrow some copies or read some pdf's which are available before you spend the vast amounts of cash his works go for these days..
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Jonathan ive found a few of Grants work that are pretty cheap and are some rereales etc
But totally what ever you have is cool to and like I told you I have Maat Magick you can borrow along with some other books as well.
Oh just ordered Chicken Qabalah as well along with Achad"s book.
Thanks again
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@Jonathan said
"while i don't discourage reading Grant, let me let you borrow some copies or read some pdf's which are available before you spend the vast amounts of cash his works go for these days.."
These PDFs are unauthorised reproductions of Grant's work, and as such are - whatever the motive - a copyright violation.
Grant's Outside the Circles of Time will be republished in February or March, and others volumes of the Typhonian Trilogies will be republished in a phased programme thereafter, including Beyond the Mauve Zone and The Ninth Arch which are presently the most expensive of the out-of-print volumes to obtain.
In the meantime, please do not encourage the proliferation of pirated copies of these works.