Grades along Path Summed Up
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Is it possible to sum up (and if so would you please offer your summation) each of the grades along the path using only two words? For example, I'm hoping I can fill in the following list... I've inserted what I believe is the two-word-summation for the grade 2=9, 2 being Chokmah and therefor representing the lesson of Change, 9 being Yesod and the lesson of Stability...so...
0=0
1=10
2=9 -> Change=Stability
3=8
4=7
5=6Another question: if the following grades are summed up similarly to the ones above - what is the difference in the lesson?
6=5
7=4
8=3
9=2
10=1 -
@Tinman said
"Is it possible to sum up (and if so would you please offer your summation) each of the grades along the path using only two words? For example, I'm hoping I can fill in the following list... I've inserted what I believe is the two-word-summation for the grade 2=9, 2 being Chokmah and therefor representing the lesson of Change, 9 being Yesod and the lesson of Stability...so..."
The Middle Pillar ones have been pretty well established; and those off the MP, less so.
In addition to 2=9 being "Change is Stability" (complementing 9=2 being "Stability is Change"), we have 1=10 as "Kether is in Malkuth" (and its complement at 10=1), and 5=6 "God is Man" (Deus est Homo).
Sometime around 4=7 I worked the others out in my diary - would have to dig, because it was more of a useful exercise than something worth passing on. Most of the ideas can be understood well enough on meditation, even when the phraseology isn't so concise.
For example, one approach to 3=8 is that "the Mind is the Sea" - the understanding that personal intellect is a 'harbor' of content that is really much more widely part of an infinite sea of consciousness. This is a particularly useful key to Gnana Yoga in general, and is practiced with such Practicus tools as Liber 536. - As its complement, 8=3 might be expressed as, "Yes... but the Sea is Mind!"
And so on.
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@Tinman said
"Is it possible to sum up (and if so would you please offer your summation) each of the grades along the path using only two words? For example, I'm hoping I can fill in the following list... I've inserted what I believe is the two-word-summation for the grade 2=9, 2 being Chokmah and therefor representing the lesson of Change, 9 being Yesod and the lesson of Stability...so...
0=0
1=10
2=9 -> Change=Stability
3=8
4=7
5=6Another question: if the following grades are summed up similarly to the ones above - what is the difference in the lesson?
6=5
7=4
8=3
9=2
10=1"One would think your personal & individual working-out of this would be a useful exercise...
IAO131
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I liked your question, as I had spent time contemplating this previously also.
There would appear to be an inversion of the equations when describing them in words though. Thus for 2=9 I would say Stability is Change, rather than Change is Stability. The precedent for this being the readily established ones of the Supernals and of Tiphareth. As Jim mentioned the one for 5=6 is God is Man (Deus est Homo), rather than Man (5, the pentagram) is God (6, the hexagram).
The ones for the three Supernals are also well established, see Liber B vel Magi.
8=3 Sorrow is Joy
9=2 Change is Stability
10=1 Selflessness is SelfThis just left me to figure out 4=7, which I got as Love (7, Venus) is the Law (4, the number of Law, as the fixation of Will, 2x2).
By reflection that gives us the following list:
1=10 Self is Selflessness
2=9 Stability is Change
3=8 Joy is Sorrow
4=7 Love is the Law
5=6 God is Man
6=5 Man is God
7=4 The Law is Love
8=3 Sorrow is Joy
9=2 Change is Stability
10=1 Selflessness is SelfTo answer your question as to what is the difference between any two reflections, such as 5=6 and 6=5, Crowley writes:
"It should also be remarked that every grade has its peculiar magical formula. Thus, the formula of Abrahadabra concerns us, as men, principally because each of us represents the pentagram or microcosm; and our equilibration must therefore be with the hexagram or macrocosm. In other words, 5=6 is the formula of the Solar operation; but then 6=5 is the formula of the Martial operation, and this reversal of the figures implies a very different Work. In the former instance the problem was to dissolve the microcosm in the macrocosm; but this other problem is to separate a particular force from the macrocosm, just as a savage might hew out a flint axe from the deposits in a chalk cliff."
MTP Ch VII -
I had just recently started taking a closer look at these grades. And from my experience of how it was i came to Thelema, I never really concentrated on what grade that I was in. However I can certianly say that passing through these levels of growth will happen quite naturally. I had before finding Thelema just focues on that relationship with the HGA and that was central for quite a few years before finding Thelema, and recognizing that there was in fact others like myself.
But in saying this, and as I looked and reviewed these grades, I can look back and remember those moments in my growth where the representation of that system rings true within me. And as I look further into this grading system it maybe a good idea for us to take a closer look at them and certainly see how developed some of us have became.
I am a solitairy Thelemite so, in saying this growth has been apparent and recognizable as traits of enlightment has became a reality for me, the practice of a grading system is still yet more I want to learn about.93
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@FraterAnimiLiberare said
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@Jim Eshelman said
"For example, one approach to 3=8 is that "the Mind is the Sea" - the understanding that personal intellect is a 'harbor' of content that is really much more widely part of an infinite sea of consciousness.And so on."
I've been reading and practicing for 10 years and this simple sentence is one of the very few I have read (or heard) that truly made a
go off in my head. Possibly something like how Frater Progadior felt during the walk to the beach."Same here. Great sentence ! Thats magick, no more no less.
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@IChTUS 93 said
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1=10 Self is Selflessness
2=9 Stability is Change
3=8 Joy is Sorrow
4=7 Love is the Law
5=6 God is Man
6=5 Man is God
7=4 The Law is Love
8=3 Sorrow is Joy
9=2 Change is Stability
10=1 Selflessness is Self"
Also we could play in many ways:
For instance :
- volatilizing the fix= joy from sorrow
- fixing the volatile= sorrow from joy
- mind freedom= "change of stability"(of "harbors") is selflessness
...
To emphasize interactions, retroactions, hidden correspondances...