Ordeal x. What is this?
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@Jim Eshelman said
"**22. The other images group around me to support me: let all be worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me. I am the visible object of worship; the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x. What is this? Thou shalt know. **
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I take the first sentence to mean that any gods whatsoever, any objects of worship whatsoever, are to be grouped around RHK.[...]"
Just a thought here;
Looking at the Sephiroth as centers of objective energies in the four-world system with the world of Yetzirah referring to spheres 4 through 9 with Tiphareth as its balance and center then spheres 4,5,7,8,9 are indeed clustered or grouped around Tiphareth (RHK). -
@Jim Eshelman said
"As Soror Meral often said (and I concur), RHK is given to us by Liber L. as a "stand-in" or generic image for the Holy Guardian Angel. As she never said in my hearing, but which is inherent in the first statement, that means that RHK is "the new Christ" - the external archetypal imagery given everybody as a generic until they have the reality for themselves. (It is simultaneously true that - stripped of particulars of form - he is the deepest truth the Book has to convey, because He also tells us that regardless of who or what we begin to worship, in the end it is He that we shall find at the center - again, a truth of the HGA.)
So we are given a generic solar, Tipheric, archetypal, deific image to serve for the HGA idea until we get "the real deal." "
This is very helpful, thanks Jim. It brings up another question though, which is often the case.
If RHK is this center, archtype and "stand in," then why isn't "he" used in the Kabbalisitic Cross at the heart center instead of using the personal name for Crowley's HGA? Aiwass is the "stand-in" for our HGA till we know the name, and RHK is the stand-in for the HGA in general. It seems like using RHK is better than using the personal name of AC's angel. Unless of course there are other reasons?
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@DavidH said
"If RHK is this center, archtype and "stand in," then why isn't "he" used in the Kabbalisitic Cross at the heart center instead of using the personal name for Crowley's HGA?"
I'm always utterly baffled that people take this as "Crowley's HGA" rather than "The specific Secret Chief whose roll it is to deliver Liber Legis to humanity."
"It seems like using RHK is better than using the personal name of AC's angel. Unless of course there are other reasons?"
I can't speak for Crowley's reasons. For me, interspersing an Egyptian (or, more accurately, Egyptoid) deity in the middle of the Hebrew Divine Names just feels grossly bizarre.
Beyond that, I'd circle back to the virtue of using Aiwass: He is the essence of 93 and 418 itself - He is the essence of Thelema and its communication to the human race as a whole.
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Understood. The reason for this confusion with Aiwass is because of writings on the internet, some by apparently knowledgable and well known Thelemites, who refer to Aiwass as Crowley's personal HGA. Now I know better.
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@DavidH said
"Understood. The reason for this confusion with Aiwass is because of writings on the internet, some by apparently knowledgable and well known Thelemites, who refer to Aiwass as Crowley's personal HGA. Now I know better.
"Well, he is Crowley's HGA. But that's not the only thing he is.
More to the point: Consider Crowley's unique suitability for his destiny because his "personal HGA" was/is "the specific Secret Chief whose roll it is to deliver Liber Legis to humanity."
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@Draco Magnus said
"I remember reading, or if not reading, then thinking, that this Ordeal x was a test that involved the opposite sex (in my case, a woman) who would tempt me away from the path (occult) and into a mundane and mediocre existence. That she was in fact, a sort of vampire. This could be purely my own invention, based on my experiences at the time."
Draco:
I understand where you are coming from with this viewpoint, but it is a slippery slope. It is important to give balanced focus to the material realm of existance while doing the work, and looking at your perspective wife as a vampire will only lead to a lonely life.
There is such a thing as the "Path of the Hearth Fire" where an aspirants path leads them into having a family so that they can learn from said family what they need to learn, and they continue their work during that time. Personally, I rejected academia for a long time thinking that magick would be all that I needed etc. As it turns out, my life is now steeped in academia, and it has helped my path and improved my being in numerous ways. Just keep in mind, that we grow because of our interactions with others. Thelema is a western tradition, we are not monks on top of a hill somewhere in the east, our paths are tougher than that 
PS- I apologize if this sounds preachey, thats a fault of mine.
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Thank you TripleFlower. You bring up many good and valid points. I generally agree with you.
One of the reasons I originally asked the question, was to broaden my view on the possibilities of what that ordeal could mean, and does mean to others so that my own ideas expand in new ways.
No need to apologize, either. I sense you're meaning to be helpful, not malevolent.
Out of curiosity, what does ordeal X mean to you?
93, 93/93
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93
""I am the visible object of worship; the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x. What is this? Thou shalt know." Liber al vel Legis 3:21-22 "
With TripleFlower's assistance, I'm going to revisit the quote with a new idea.
The "secret others" are not the Beast & his Bride, but FOR the Beast & his Bride. Together, they can unlock, or better, communicate with the secret objects of worship (which at this stage I take to mean Hadit and Nuit). Could it be referring to tantric sex, or sexual magick?
Perhaps when they are in communion with one another, one can, even temporarily, attain the exalted offices of the Beast and Bride?
93, 93/93
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@Draco Magnus said
"The "secret others" are not the Beast & his Bride, but FOR the Beast & his Bride."
Yes, that's what it's said and what I've always held. I take the "others" to be Nuit and Hadit. (Did I write this at the top of the thread? Have to go back and look. Yes, here it is, excerpted from above:)
"The "others" - Nuit and Hadit - "are secret." They really are not even comprehensible to most folks. (There are, of course, lower octaves that the Yetziratic mind can grasp. Nuit, by Her image, as a form of the Great Mother, is certainly within reach of even the uninitiated. She can be seen as Mary &c. But this is not Her.) The worship of these "others" is reserved (by capacity, not by ordinance) to:
(a) the beast & his Bride (AC & Rose? or [more likely] the 666 & 667 archetypes as real inner Officers of the Aeon?), and
(b) "the winners of the Ordeal x."What is "the Ordeal x"? The clue is in the initials "O x." This could mean many things; on many levels [...]. Generally, though, it refers to Adepts. OX is a reference, at that level, to the Rosy Cross. This seems true, and also seems to be what AC had in mind when he issued Liber NV and Liber H A D for use of the Adeptus Minor and designated them, "for the Winners of Ordeal X." At a higher level, of course, [the Mark of the Beast circle-cross, i.e., X overlaid on O, same as the N.O.X. glyph] refers to the Magisteri, who are on a par with "the Beast & his Bride." Yes, I think this is it. "Beast & his Bride" refers to Chokmah- and Binah-consciousness in general, and "winners of the Ordeal x" to that of Tiphereth. Yod, Heh, and Vav. "God" sends angels to communicate to those who cannot look directly upon Her face."
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Draco,
To be perfectly honest, I hadn't thought much about Ordeal X beyond it being a term that many OTO members I have encountered use to describe their lifes falling to pieces post-initiation. But, my background isn't Thelemic, I have only begun to study Thelema seriously recently. So, perhaps it is the terminology I am stumbling on...I am thinking, from what you said earlier, that perhaps it is the Dweller on the Threshold expereince?