Tarot: The Sun
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It is also most important to observe that the formula of the Rose and Cross (indicated by the wall-girt mound) has completed the fire-change into "something rich and strange"; for the mound is green, where one would expect it to be red, and the wall red, where one would expect it to be green or blue. The indication of this symbolism is that it must be one of the great advances in adjustment of the new Aeon to work out simply and without prejudice the formid able problems which have been raised by the growth of civilization.
I've been pondering the above quote from The Book of Thoth for a while now and have come up empty. Why should we expect the the mound to be red rather than green? And why should we expect the red wall to be green or blue? I figure it must have something to do with the elements, but that's as far as I have got.
And how does all of this tie in with the problems of civilization?
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Going out on a limb here, but seeing as how this starts off by stating:
"It is also most important to observe that the formula of the Rose and Cross (indicated by the wall-girt mound) has completed the fire-change into "something rich and strange""
I think that it is talking about the "Heart girt with the Serpent" in which the heart (mound) is red while the serpent (wall) is green.
"for the mound is green, where one would expect it to be red, and the wall red, where one would expect it to be green or blue"
These two seemingly separate things have identified with each other though the Great Work.
"The indication of this symbolism is that it must be one of the great advances in adjustment of the new Aeon to work out simply and without prejudice the formid able problems which have been raised by the growth of civilization."
The Great Work is one of the greatest "advances in adjustment of the new Aeon" which is theoretically the answer to these problems of the growth of civilization.
Not sure if I went way off track with this but it was the first thing that came to mind.
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@Her said
"I've been pondering the above quote from The Book of Thoth for a while now and have come up empty. Why should we expect the the mound to be red rather than green? And why should we expect the red wall to be green or blue? I figure it must have something to do with the elements, but that's as far as I have got.
And how does all of this tie in with the problems of civilization?"
Agreed that the main reference is to the hill being a heart, and that heart girt with an emerald serpent.
But the elements are still indirectly involved. The hill would be red because it is phallic and thus fiery. It penetrates a ring that is blue for water or Nuit, or green for Venus, in either case its complement.
I think the last sentence refers primarily simply to the progress of the Aeons - which constitute "the growth of civilization," the progress of humanity. If that's the case, it is just saying, "Hey, look, symbolism is changing. Gotta deal with it when that happens."
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"I think the last sentence refers primarily simply to the progress of the Aeons - which constitute "the growth of civilization," the progress of humanity. If that's the case, it is just saying, "Hey, look, symbolism is changing. Gotta deal with it when that happens.""
Good point Jim, that never even came to mind but very much makes sense.
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Thanks, I didn't see that as the heart swelling up, nor the heart girt with a serpent. However I did see that the sunflower had 12 petals which correlated it to Anahata, the heart chakra. I think Crowley is relating Key XIX to the heart chakra, the Sun being one of the 7 planets, although he doesn't mention it in his comment (he only mentions the 12 zodiac signs).
By correlating it as such, with the wall as the emerald green kundalini, he would have made the connection that the kundalini beginning to rise from the heart to the higher Vishuddha (which he correlated to Binah) was the initiation of the ordeal of the abyss (when the heart as he says begins "aspiring to the heavens"). He may also have seen then that Key XX The Aeon symbolized this ordeal, and that Key XXI The Universe as the vesica pisces in Binah represented the attainment of enlightenment, as Crowley says "the Great Work accomplished".