27 April - (Earth) Liber LXV, 1:40-42
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40. The joy of men shall be our silver gleam, their woe our blue gleam — all in the mother-of-pearl.
41. (The scribe was wroth thereat. He spake:
O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.)
42. (And immediately it was granted unto him.) -
It really is something how Crowley's HGA made sure he was steeped in Bible symbolism...
The word "inkhorn" took me back instantly to when I was about 6, hearing Ezekiel chapter 9, when I first heard that word.
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1 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.
3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;
4 and the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
6 slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
7 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
9 ¶ Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
11 ¶ And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me." -
To date, there have been a few passages where I just didn't have much to add. I've taken these as challenges to find some personal hook that was a little more than the obvious interpretation, with the intention of going a little deeper. Today is one of those days. Other than the obvious sentiment—I've put up with your pepper and salt, so how about a little sugar!—I was drawing pretty much a blank.
Then AvshalomBinyamin posted the great excerpt from the old testament about slaughter and inkhorns.
In 'Resources' Jim mentions the twenty two readings for the twenty two high holy days, and how these readings corresponded to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Somehow this notion infected my back brain, and I began to assume a similar connection between these daily meditations and the letters as well, but more specifically the associated tarot trumps. The fact that they began on the 11th of April only made this worse because I started thinking: okay, 11th of April, 11th path of Aleph, and so forth. That would make a connection between today's reading and the path of Peh, The House of God, or the Blasted Tower.
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O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.)
**As symbols go, the pen and the sword are interchangeable. The 'inkhorn and the pen' is then the destructive energy of Mars applied to false doctrines and partial truths as imaged in the tarot card. The 'echo of your kisses' recalls the thunder clap of the lightning bolts themselves, the bolts being the actual kisses!
I know it's incomplete and even apocryphal, but there is something in this set of associations that feels right—the idea of the kisses of Adonai raining down on the scribe as bolts of lightning...
Love and Will
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I find it interesting that he demands his fee. I am conditioned to ask, say please, and thank you. This has more of a "Take Heaven by Storm" feel with that phrase.
I take it as a lesson of our true will and to be strong and determined in aquiring what we seek even though we should simultaneously not lust after the result.
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40. The joy of men shall be our silver gleam, their woe our blue gleam — all in the mother-of-pearl.
41. (The scribe was wroth thereat. He spake:
O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.)
42. (And immediately it was granted unto him.)I hate stating the obvious, but it's good practice...
I am struck by the idea that the joy and the pain of these lower planes is but the glory of Adonai.
I have had experiences such as the scribe's, where I allowed myself to "demand" something in exchange for my obedience; when not conflicting with the obedience, it has been granted.
93, 93/93.
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Well, my understanding of the mother of pearl was based on folk tales of the best pearl being the mother of pearl. So I did some research to get a better understanding. The mother of pearl is created by secretions of the mollusk to form its shell.
" 40. The joy of men shall be our silver gleam, their woe our blue gleam — all in the mother-of-pearl."
This may answer my question that I asked earlier, as there appears to be no particular type of man (or woman)
" 41. (The scribe was wroth thereat. He spake:
O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.) "With this verse it is not clear why he was wroth even though he did it without pay, he still did it for something and that something was “in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye.” Clearly he was getting what he worked for. But then that was not enough, I mean to sail as one of ye (or them) was not enough. Anyone can get on the captains boat and sail as he sails. He can even make his own boat and sail as he sailed, but he was not happy with just sailing as one of ye (them), he wanted to be one of them but he knew that he could not even ask of that (or could he have?), so instead of asking for a kiss, which he could not get because he was not one of them he demanded the echo of the kiss.
Note: An echo of a kiss is also considered the memory of a kiss although I may be drawing the wrong picture; it is like wisdom, truth or beauty, remembered. The kiss is also remnant of the kiss of life.
" 42. (And immediately it was granted unto him.) "
The question is why did he demand and why was his demand granted?... Don’t worry no one needs to answer.
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@Zeroed O said
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Note: An echo of a kiss is also considered the memory of a kiss although I may be drawing the wrong picture; it is like wisdom, truth or beauty, remembered. The kiss is also remnant of the kiss of life."I actually liked a lot of what you wrote, but I only have some thoughts related to the above. It comes up in the Vision and the Voice quite a bit, or Visions and Voices, which I am slowly working through. It's this idea that hearing is the sense of Spirit, just as sight is attributed to the element of Fire. So the scribe may be demanding a spiritual experience, not so much a lesser experience.
Then again, if a lesser, or rumored experience is being asked for, it might have to do with the idea of protection, because to look upon the face of god directly, or to hear the actual word of god usually ends up with the person exploding. It's a bit of a pop-myth, but I think this is the idea behind Metatron, the archangel of Kether, whose job it is to speak for God, an echo if you will.
Love and Will
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41. (The scribe was wroth thereat. He spake:
O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.)Both partake and kisses brings to mind the image of the mouth and tasting in the sense of experiencing.
These kisses seem to be the interactions of love between the "ye" that he's addressing -how they experience each other.
Echo brings to mind reflection, pattern, image, duplication, etc...
Perhaps the scribe can't experience their kisses? However, the echo seems to rectify this and provide a way suitable for the scribe.