City of Pyramids
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In Your book you mentioned briefly the City of the Pyramids, and the lonely towers before the abyss, or something to that nature, having read The Heart of The Master, I was always curious as to what the city actually was/is, and what exactly is the tower that you are refering to? I once read that Crowley wrote in Liber ABA that it may be possible to fall from the tree of life and attain the towers of the black brothers, can you clarify?
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@Law said
"In Your book you mentioned briefly the City of the Pyramids, and the lonely towers before the abyss, or something to that nature, having read The Heart of The Master, I was always curious as to what the city actually was/is, and what exactly is the tower that you are refering to?"
I split this from the original thread, to a thread of its own...
This is a complicated subject, mostly because the real answer is: It's a Mystery. Not a secret, but an authentic mystery - something that we want to disclose and the nature of consciousness and language obscures.
Most simply, the City of the Pyramids is a poetic description of Binah; or, rather, of the "initiation space" within Binah, reality as seen by one abiding in Binah, etc. The poetic reference has several meanings from the nearly material to the verhy abstract. For example, in one of his early visions of this, Crowley saw what at first appeared to be black pyramids and turned out to be perfectly still masters in their black robes, hoods pulled, sitting in unmoving meditation. Additionally, the pyramid will have been a primary symbol of the course of initiation from 1=10 A.'.A.'. on, and the "balanced but not yet complete [truncated]" pyramid a symbol of Chesed, and the completed pyramid a symbol of Binah.
Mostly... it's a Mystery. I encourage you to read The Vision & the Voice and see how this symbol unfolds through the various visions.
"I once read that Crowley wrote in Liber ABA that it may be possible to fall from the tree of life and attain the towers of the black brothers, can you clarify?"
I think in this case he isn't referring to the Tree of Life as "map of the universe" etc., but as "map of the course of initiation." That is, that one falls entirely off the framework of mapping actual progress (since no further progress is possible to a Black Brother past 7=4).
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I always took the city of pyramids to mean basically that each microcosm a pyramid in the macrocosm, the same as the stars in the body of Nuit.
On transcending the SELF, awareness turns from looking within the microcosm to an awareness on the level of the macrocosm where the other microcosms be come aspects of the consciousness, each as a solitary self-contained world with it its own pyramid (phallus).
But this is all based on my own experiences, which may be indicative of some other state.
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I'm glad someone started this thread.
To throw out a few observations not taken from AC:
The imagery in Liber Cheth is profoundly alchemical - specifically, Johann Daniel Mylius’ Antidotarium (1620), engraving on Aegidius, or Philosophia reformata (1622), plate 9, both depicting a field of skeletons desiccating in the sun while ravens flock and pick the remaining flesh off the bones. Plate 9 shows the skeletons lying next to open graves and, besides the ravens, we see birds arriving and leaving the scene. The engravings depict the transition from nigredo/black to albedo/white. The colours can be confusing since nigredo/putrefaction is often associated with Saturn, which AC maps onto Binah, whereas the nigredo seems to correspond to stages prior to the City of the Pyramids. The key detail to pay attention to, I believe, is the presence or lack of water. Putrefaction is caused by water that subsequently dries up in the albedo stage to (hopefully) enable the crossing of the Abyss. The Adept is instructed to pour out all his blood precisely so that no water or life is left in him.
As such the death of the ego, as signified by the field of skeletons, has to occur long before 8=3 otherwise he/she/it won’t survive crossing the Abyss. Liber Cheth also depicts the Adept completely detaching from identification with the body. What is left of the Adept to be carried on the winds is represented by the *birds *arriving and leaving the field, not the skeleton. This process, along with line 5 of Liber Cheth, makes me question whether the Crossing can, in fact, be done by any volition of the Adept, which is often inseparable from ego, or whether it’s a case of just lying in the sun until the birds or something comes along…
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If No Progress is available after 7=4, then how is it that in you Book, Jim, TMAMSOAA that it is written that the momentum built up will not let you stop, or will not let you remain in that grade indefinetely? I guess I have read enough to wonder, if the system of initiation is so individual, and in the book it continuously says that don't take this as the "right way" how can one be sure that there is no progress for a black brother? I mean if it is to be said that there isnt progress, then that implies (at least to me0 that somewhere in the game here, there is a standard to be met....so how can one make a genuine statement that there is for sure no advancement left? Wouldnt you being a magus of the AA give you some kind of authority, a bullshit barometer, so to speak? I mean, wouldnt you be better able to tell whether or not someone that is supposedly a black brother like kenneth grant or AOS is actually saying something valuable, or just writing lies?
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@Law said
"If No Progress is available after 7=4, then how is it that in you Book, Jim, TMAMSOAA that it is written that the momentum built up will not let you stop, or will not let you remain in that grade indefinetely?"
The Black Brother is one who has closed himself or herself off from authentic progress. The natural next step is the Abyss... and the Black Brother is a 7=4 who refuses it.
"One Star in Sight" answers your question: "Should [the Exempt Adept] fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady BABALON, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his elements round his Ego as if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a 'Black Brother.' Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe..."
"I guess I have read enough to wonder, if the system of initiation is so individual"
The system of initiation isn't individual. That's a common mistake. The initiation is utterly individual, but the map is universal.
"how can one be sure that there is no progress for a black brother?"
Fair question. Yes, as you surmise, part of the answer is that those who have progressed far enough on the Path to know these things have reported back to the world on them.
"I mean if it is to be said that there isnt progress, then that implies (at least to me0 that somewhere in the game here, there is a standard to be met."
Absolutely! Yes, there is. Again, the initiation is individual, but the Path is universal. In a sense, that's the main thing the A.'.A.'. system provides: An exacting map with specific tasks and tests to evaluate its milestones.
"Wouldnt you being a magus of the AA give you some kind of authority, a bullshit barometer, so to speak?"
Bullshit sensitivity starts much, much earlier, way before even adepthood
."I mean, wouldnt you be better able to tell whether or not someone that is supposedly a black brother like kenneth grant or AOS is actually saying something valuable, or just writing lies?"
Until one is an Exempt Adept, there is no basis for knowing. I have no opinion on whether Grant ever reached 7=4 but, if he did, it wasn't while Crowley was alive; and I never saw Spoare as more than (at best) a very well-developed 2=9. (I'm not aware that he ever got past Probationer 0=0 in the formal system.)
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" have no opinion on whether Grant ever reached 7=4 but, if he did, it wasn't while Crowley was alive; and I never saw Spoare as more than (at best) a very well-developed 2=9. (I'm not aware that he ever got past Probationer 0=0 in the formal system.)"
Interesting.....then Spare is, as you claim a well developed 2=9 (maybe) so all that talk of KIA and the Death posture and isnt really treading new ground then?
I wont press the Grant issue, though I got to wonder.....did he discover something of absolute sublimity? -
@RifRaf said
"I like your idea better, sounds easier, you should start a lineage.
"Not easier, but it does seem to be a question of the Will of the Universe rather than the person. AC describes the exact moment at Aumale as follows:
The Seer had not thought of continuing this work for nearly 9 years. It is not at all clear how the idea came to him in 1909, during a walk through the Desert with Frater O.V., (Victor Neuburg) a Probationer of the A{.'.} A{.'.}, but at Aumale a Hand suddenly smote its lightning into his heart, and he knew that now, that very day, he must take up The Vision and the Voice from the point where he had laid it down in 1900. Parallel to this, it is also possible that he had in his ruck sack one of his earliest Magical Note Books, where he had copied with infinite patience the 19 Calls or Keys obtained by Sir Edward Kelly from certain Angels and written down by Queen Elizabeth's astrologer, Dr. John Dee.
Jim - regarding AC’s commentary on The Lovers/Brothers, is he equating Cain with attainment to Binah?
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The Black Brothers claim realization falsely, making a false crown of Daath. They fall to trying to intellectualize their way into heaven. They are about uniformity and sterility and opposed to creativity and individuality.
In the movie series the matrix, it is agent smith who represents the black brothers. This is plainly apparent in the last movie where smith is rambling on about purpose and reason. Also, in the way he spreads like a virus, destroying everyone's individuality and turning them all like himself.
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NOTE:
I'm trimming the majority of this thread administratively - deleting most of the posts - to preserve only serious and related responses to the original thread. -
Things were digressing off into another topic, and mostly silliness while going off-topic - so I just deleted those to get the thread back on track. (I'll delete this one soon.)