path of the scarlet woman

[zeph]

@Jim Eshelman said

"I hold that everything in Liber Legis refers to consciousness and none of it per se refers to prophesy and events and personalities."

Including all those verses referring to the prophet, that many take to mean that Crowley fellow?

[Jim Eshelman]

@zeph said

"
@Jim Eshelman said
"I hold that everything in Liber Legis refers to consciousness and none of it per se refers to prophesy and events and personalities."

Including all those verses referring to the prophet, that many take to mean that Crowley fellow?"

Without reading line by line, I'd have to answer no more than "probably" - but he'd be the only exception. (There are at least some places wher "prophet" sure seems to refer to a Neshamic-intuitive faculty of conscious at least as much as it does to a person.)

I definitely include references to "the Beast" in my original statement - it's the solar-phallic Chiah Briatic expression, of which AC was simply an avatar.

Ultimately, Liber L. was a book to Crowley from his H.G.A., but of sufficiently universal impact to be about and for the rest of us.

[Edward Mason]

93,

I noticed a few months ago that sometimes the word is 'Prophet' and sometimes 'prophet'. There might be a division in the intent here between the office of prophet (which could theoretically be filled by anyone advancing far enough, and not just AC) or the Neshamah-inspired condition of receiving prophecy.

93 93/93,

Edward

[zeph]

The word 'prophet', case-insensitive, occurs 26 times in Liber AL. Of those, the following are uppercase:

• II:37 "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!"

II:39 "A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet -- secret, O Prophet!"
The Ape of Thoth has them all...

[Jim Eshelman]

@zeph said

"The word 'prophet', case-insensitive, occurs 26 times in Liber AL. Of those, the following are uppercase:

• II:37 "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!"

II:39 "A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet -- secret, O Prophet!"
The Ape of Thoth has them all..."

To answer your earlier question... I've generally taken the first of these as referring to Crowley directly because there is no (non-stretchy) alternative psychological meaning and the biographical reference is clear. I've generally taken the second one as entirely psychological, i.e., referring to a function of consciousness that eventually emerges in each person.

[zeph]

@Edward Mason said

"I noticed a few months ago that sometimes the word is 'Prophet' and sometimes 'prophet'. There might be a division in the intent here between the office of prophet (which could theoretically be filled by anyone advancing far enough, and not just AC) or the Neshamah-inspired condition of receiving prophecy."

I thought of this comment the other night when I read:

• But these thy prophets; they must cry aloud and scourge themselves; they must cross trackless wastes and unfathomed oceans; to await Thee is the end, not the beginning. [LXV:II:62]
  There are clearly instances in Liber LXV where the prophet is the scribe, but this certainly suggests other prophets, not necessary much advanced. I'm not at all certain that language in one Holy Book is interchangeable with the language of another, though, so it's not necessarily a point of any matter.

[zeph]

@Jim Eshelman said

"
@zeph said
"* II:37 "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!""

To answer your earlier question... I've generally taken the first of these as referring to Crowley directly because there is no (non-stretchy) alternative psychological meaning and the biographical reference is clear."

I've stretched a lot on that one, to no avail. Every year that I toast them on that feastday, I draw all the Spirit I can from sips of Jaegermeister, but cannot seem to draw any real spiritual sustenance from the celebration of the consummation of a couple of dead people. I'll keep stretching and sipping, and see which one works first.

[Jim Eshelman]

Well, I also recommend that celebrate your own equivalent date.

[zeph]

Shucks. I was kinda hoping my sweet would forgive forgetfulness of such a date, on account of not yet having been told to pay attention to it by my Angel.

[Steven Cranmer]

@zeph said

"Every year that I toast them on that feastday, I draw all the Spirit I can from sips of Jaegermeister, but cannot seem to draw any real spiritual sustenance from the celebration of the consummation of a couple of dead people."

The consummation of AC's and Rose's marriage can be argued to have kicked off the "current" (defined way loosely here) that culminated in the "birth" of the new aeon, the following spring. Not sure if I buy this idea, but it does help add significance to the feast.

One neat calendrical remark. Richard Kaczynski once noted (in his livejournal) that there are exactly 220 days between this day, August 12, and the following March 20 - the feast of the Supreme Ritual. I think this only works for non-leap years, though (i.e., it doesn't work for a key year: 1904). He posted a calendar in which there is one verse of Liber Legis for each day in this sequence. It's interesting that "There is death for the dogs" occurs on December 1st! Also, the II,76 cipher occurs on January 1st, though I'd recommend against a yearly new year's resolution to solve it!

(I couldn't find an easy "search button" on his main page, richard-kaczyn.livejournal.com/ but it's somewhere in there...)

Steve