17 April - (Earth) Liber LXV, 1:15-17
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15. I breathe, and there is infinite dis-ease in the spirit.
16. As an acid eats into steel, as a cancer that utterly corrupts the body; so am I unto the spirit of man.
17. I shall not rest until I have dissolved it all. -
93,
I'm often struck by how images of poison, corrosion and disease occur in the Holy Books. The Abrahamic scripture tend towards definitive judgement - Allah sends the infidels to eternal flames, and so does the God of the Bible. Thelema warns us all that we are going to be transformed fundamentally, and we won't appreciate it.
93 93/93,
Edward -
@Edward Mason said
"I'm often struck by how images of poison, corrosion and disease occur in the Holy Books. The Abrahamic scripture tend towards definitive judgement - Allah sends the infidels to eternal flames, and so does the God of the Bible. Thelema warns us all that we are going to be transformed fundamentally, and we won't appreciate it."
There's a question asked in the first Temple of Thelema initiation, just before they consent to take the obligation. The question is intended to openly (that is, candidly rather than covertly) disengage ego-resistance to that fundamental transformation (in addition to simply informing them of what's coming). Adding that to the traditional rites has proven quite valuable. -
"The question is intended to openly (that is, candidly rather than covertly) disengage ego-resistance to that fundamental transformation (in addition to simply informing them of what's coming)."
"15. I breathe, and there is infinite dis-ease in the spirit.
- As an acid eats into steel, as a cancer that utterly corrupts the body; so am I unto the spirit of man.
- I shall not rest until I have dissolved it all."
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I breathe, and there is infinite dis-ease in the spirit.
It's a nested dream. I am dreaming that I am dreaming in discreet segments, much in the same the way I chop video of actors into segments, and work on them, before stringing them back together. The restlessness with which I pursued this activity kept me from sleeping deeply the entire night.
And I am struck by the appearance of the Q-Sh-Th symbolism again. Dreaming is a decidedly Qoph activity, and the work with units of dream of various lengths is a reference to time, which is Saturn, and the path of Tav.
As an acid eats into steel, as a cancer that utterly corrupts the body; so am I unto the spirit of man.
What of Shin? The last segment is exactly 60 seconds long, which is Samekh, the path of the arrow of Saggitarius. 60 by gematria also relates to a word which means trial by fire, which I associate with path of Shin, the tarot card of the Aeon. The notion of trial and purifying also connects to the activity of editing the segements. This last segment is exactly 60 seconds long, and I know it refers to Samekh, and the editing choice I choose to make here is to blank the entire content, to erase it. 60 seconds of silence, of imagelessness.
I shall not rest until I have dissolved it all.
Heraclitus tells us that Hades, whose primary attribute is that he is invisible, and Dionysus are one. So like Ariadne, whose initial content or recorded 60 seconds was that Jason had abandoned her on the Isle of Naxos, we now hear the cymbals and chanting of the train of the god as he approaches, and all the old content is now erased, gone, never was...
Love and Will