11 May - (Air) Liber LXV, 2:1-3
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Same here in needing the commentary as the symbolism is over my head. Air is attributed to the Ruach and so it makes sense that one of the first images we see is the Hawk (divine consciousness; Neshamah) seated (still) in the East (quarter of the Air). However, then there are sounds and explanation which are listened too - in this situation the commentary states Isis is speaking, but that is hard to gather from the verses by themselves. The figure is veiled which reminds of the Priestess in the Tarot and so can be regarded as the true light that is veiled speaking to the adept.
I enjoy verse 3 in that it expounds upon the nature of being. Regardless of what manner and direction we grow we are always drawn back to the source that we were born out of. The source I take to be divinity and the more sublime modes of consciousness. How can we be "greater" than that? How can that be defiled? In the union of our opposites the divine child is created.
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"1. I passed into the mountain of lapis-lazuli, even as a green hawk between the pillars of turquoise that is seated upon the throne of the East.
- So came I to Duant, the starry abode, and I heard voices crying aloud."
Rather than 'interpreting' this symbolism, passages such as this are useful for tuning the mind to the experience. This is useful methodology in meditation, astral travel, etc. We can see it as a technique that Crowley used commonly throughout The Vision & the Voice. And, of course, it aids subconsciousness to converse in the symbols directly without the 'conscious' mind getting in the way.
So, more important to me than interpreting hawk, pillars, etc. (which tend to be intuitively understood), my path with this is always simply to visualize myself as an emerald-colored hawk, flying in dawn light toward two turquoise pillars rising close together, and flying into what, at first, appears to be a cone of lapis lazuli and, upon penetrating it, is the vast, seemingly illimitable domain of space, vibrantly indigo-colored and saturated with uncountable stars. This serves me as a gateway to the Yesod &c. theme of what follows in the chapter...
"3. O Thou that sittest upon the Earth! (so spake a certain Veiled One to me) thou art not greater than thy mother! Thou speck of dust infinitesimal!
Thou art the Lord of Glory, and the unclean dog."And here comes the first: Again, visualizing it, feeling it with all my senses, making the conversation as real as the inner senses permit: the High Priestess, who is Isis &c., speaks directly into my soul. (Having first made sure to enter Duat, I hear and understand this through subconsciousness, not ego-consciousness.)
Among other things, it seems to focus this morning on the fact that the unconscious realm is infinitely more vast than the tiny globe of consciousness centered around a particular ego-point. The last line, long familiar to me, made no particular new impact this morning, and so far simply seems to be stating its evident and important factual truth: the ego center is at once the most extraordinary of things and the most inconsequential.
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1. I passed into the mountain of lapis-lazuli, even as a green hawk between the pillars of turquoise that is seated upon the throne of the East.
2. So came I to Duant, the starry abode, and I heard voices crying aloud.
3. O Thou that sittest upon the Earth! (so spake a certain Veiled One to me) thou art not greater than thy mother! Thou speck of dust infinitesimal!
Thou art the Lord of Glory, and the unclean dog.Duant? Is this a typo? If not it is a very strange word. Does it mean two opposing ideas or points of view held in the mind, simultaneously? Is is a noun describing a woman who is both your Daughter and your Aunt at the same time? A special pointer to Nuit as qualified in the text as the starry abodee?
We have progressed to Air from Earth, though Earth seemed particularly exalted to my mind—I was never sure what was earthy about the last section since not much earth remained once the master relocated to the locale of the seedless samadhi. I suppose the resolution of the world of action inthis seedless experience was in question.
But now the text is attributed to the element Air. It feels like air. The air is thick with thoughts crying aloud.
The Veiled One echoes Heraclitus: "nature loves to hide."
The feeling I get from the selection is of the universe as the mind, vast, varied, and teaming with stuff! The dice game of Shiva! This chapter will talk about the mystery of form(s)—Bruno's intelligible sphere whose center—Hadit is everywhere, and whose circumference—Nuit is nowhere to be found?
Here are the forms:
Thou art the Lord of Glory, and the unclean dog.
I remember a story (paraphrased from memory) where Indra decides to see what it is like to be pig. On becoming a pig he forgets that he is Indra. The gods, in some distress come to him and tell him he is not a pig, but Indra, the king of the gods. Ridiculous, he says—he knows he is a pig, in fact he has no desire to be anything else—life is good with his slop and his sows, and his sty. So, to prove to Indra he is not a pig the gods tear him to pieces, and being released from the old form he returns to himself, so to speak.Why this incarnation, this airy fragmentation of mind?
I passed into the mountain of lapis-lazuli, even as a green hawk between the pillars of turquoise that is seated upon the throne of the East. The pillars are the gates of the land of duality...
And perhaps we have entered this duality because:"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union. 1: 29"
Love and Will
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@RobertAllen said
"Duant? Is this a typo?"
Not a typo, but not the most common spelling. A hundred years ago, Egyptian transliteration was still pretty, uh, relaxed, and it isn't unusual to see tuat, duat, duant, and other spellings for the same thing: the realm "beneath the earth" where the Sun passes during the night.
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@Jim Eshelman said
" it aids subconsciousness to converse in the symbols directly without the 'conscious' mind getting in the way."
This is one of those things that I think will take me a lot of practice. In one way I am very familiar with it and enjoy the mysticism of letting the symbols do their "work" on my subconscious mind. However, becoming conscious of this without meddling with this work going on is more difficult for me. It is like seeing something out of the corner of my eye - when I turn to look at it - poof, its gone!
I was actually reading a little bit of this instruction on mediation in Book T last night and coincidently I focused on the Preistess Atu.
@Book T said
"Look at the Trump. Bring to mind its associated Hebrew letter, the meaning of the letter, its astrological attribution, and such other basic attributes of the card as you wish, as a review; then release them and let your eyes sink deeply into the card. Do not engage your intellect very much, except your curiosity; rather, let subconsciousness come to the fore so that it can respond directly to the symbols of the Trump. (These symbols are the “words” of the language spoken by subconsciousness.) Be receptive, attentive, keen, curious, and ready to receive."
I tried this and afterwards got into a short Asana to reflect as well. In Asana I found that my mind was going to fast and was confused on what to focus on. The preliminary to this mediation is to clear and still the mind and I seem to be able to slow it down a bit in Asana. I also need to build up these symbols and correlations within myself so that my subconsciousness can string them together and make associations without my ego consciousness get in the way. First drill the mind! Then let it do its work independent of my ego - kind of like a mantra.
Thanks for the instruction.
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@mojorisin44 said
"This is one of those things that I think will take me a lot of practice. In one way I am very familiar with it and enjoy the mysticism of letting the symbols do their "work" on my subconscious mind. However, becoming conscious of this without meddling with this work going on is more difficult for me. It is like seeing something out of the corner of my eye - when I turn to look at it - poof, its gone!"
This sounds like maybe you're still trying to render it in intellectual or ego-conscious terms - trying to have subconsciousness translate it for you so that you consciously understand it? - If so, that's not necessary. Subconsciousness will get around to "telling you about" anything it learns in its own sweet time. Meanwhile, a valuable technique is just having the experience without consciously having a clue what it means.
"I was actually reading a little bit of this instruction on mediation in Book T last night and coincidently I focused on the Preistess Atu."
"In Asana I found that my mind was going to fast and was confused on what to focus on."
Sometimes, when this happens, the best thing to focus on is the stream itself. (Otherwise, you probably end up resisting the stream.)
"I also need to build up these symbols and correlations within myself so that my subconsciousness can string them together and make associations without my ego consciousness get in the way."
Subconsciousness already understands most of this without being taught. (Symbols aren't "man-made" in the usual sense - they are rooted in mass-mind, possibly even rooted in biology.) But, otherwise, subconsciousness will build up its own lexicon if you just persist with the Tarot meditations. You don't need to know (actually, you don't ever have to know) consciously what it all means. The greater power is for subconsciousness to read it directly and understand - and then deliver to your conscious mind whatever hints or guidance or insight you need.
This is all the more timely since we are just starting the Air chapter. (These chapters do seem to follow parallels of Worlds and Sephiroth etc., so that the entry into this chapter is the moving of focus to Yetzirah, the moving from Malkuth to Yesod, etc.)
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Subconsciousness already understands most of this without being taught. (Symbols aren't "man-made" in the usual sense - they are rooted in mass-mind, possibly even rooted in biology.) But, otherwise, subconsciousness will build up its own lexicon if you just persist with the Tarot meditations. You don't need to know (actually, you don't ever have to know) consciously what it all means. The greater power is for subconsciousness to read it directly and understand - and then deliver to your conscious mind whatever hints or guidance or insight you need."
My mind almost refuses to allow for this (I guess in a way this is natural). I want to believe that they depend on my understanding and on me figuring something out. A bit foolish when I write it out, but I (ego) probably want to feel more important or vital in the process, possibly for a sense of accomplishment or something. Thanks for pointing this out - it is something I struggle with.
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@mojorisin44 said
"My mind almost refuses to allow for this (I guess in a way this is natural). I want to believe that they depend on my understanding and on me figuring something out. A bit foolish when I write it out, but I (ego) probably want to feel more important or vital in the process, possibly for a sense of accomplishment or something. Thanks for pointing this out - it is something I struggle with."
Yeah. You've got a clear handle on the issue.
So as not to beat this to death, let me leave you with one more piece: Over time, the definition of "I" will change. What you really mean above, it seems, is that the ego-consciousness, Ruach, wants to feel more important than the other parts of the mind. Ruach does have the job of making the choices; but, along with that, it has to get over itself. It needs to establish a clear relationship with subconsciousness wherein both are equal yet have different jobs; and then it needs to surrender its self-importance to Neshamah.
But these things all come in time, and, as mentioned above, I think you have a good handle on the issue.
PS - Download Black Pearl No. 9 and read the article on "Rehabilitating Subconsciousness."
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Not to beat this over the head either...but, after absorbing instruction in this thread, reading some supplemental information suggested, and meditating on the Atu again I thought I'd comment. I wrote in my journal thereafter and I noticed a difference after a changed perspective that I could not describe a "thing" to sum up my thoughts. There was no formula to expound or symbols I saw. The best I could describe was feelings. I felt "Peacefulness, Awe, a sense of being cared for, etc" (as I wrote in my journal). Some of this could be explained by my own life and events of the day, but nevertheless I focused more on my feeling rather than a specific "thing" to describe. It wasn't like there was great bang or anything special, but what I'm getting out of this is to allow things to bubble up from my subconscious rather than probing myself for an elaboration.
I think this pertains to this thread and the meditations because these probably need to be handled in a similar way (by "me" of course). The "analysis" and "reflection". So I'm posting this to express thanks and satisfy my obsessive impulse for completeness (for today anyway)
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@Jim Eshelman said
"
Yeah. You've got a clear handle on the issue.So as not to beat this to death, let me leave you with one more piece: Over time, the definition of "I" will change. What you really mean above, it seems, is that the ego-consciousness, Ruach, wants to feel more important than the other parts of the mind. Ruach does have the job of making the choices; but, along with that, it has to get over itself. It needs to establish a clear relationship with subconsciousness wherein both are equal yet have different jobs; and then it needs to surrender its self-importance to Neshamah.
But these things all come in time, and, as mentioned above, I think you have a good handle on the issue.
PS - Download Black Pearl No. 9 and read the article on "Rehabilitating Subconsciousness.""
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I just want to add to Jim's wonderful post--just my saying "add" makes me feel that I am defiling it
--that the Ahamkara is a thing that needs to be dealt with with PERSEVERANCE. Also, the Ego is very important, it is our means of interacting with the world. I think that the key word here is, my word, Perspective. Jim says it so well above that I feel like a blasphemer. Ah, well. 
Swami Vivekananda once said that "if you fail 1,000 times, then you must make yourself ready and go for try 1,001." [that is a paraphrase]Love is the law, love under will.
PS
"Defiling" and "blasphemer", well, those are just bad habits I picked up from posting on other forums.
LOL.