Stealing fire from heaven
-
Towards the end of section II of Chapter 18 in Magick in Theory and Practice it says:
"One may bring down stolen fire in a hollow tube from Heaven, as The MASTER THERION indeed has done in a way that no other adept dared to do before him. But the thief, the Titan, must foreknow and consent to his doom to be chained upon a lonely rock, the vulture devouring his liver, for a season, until Hercules, the strong man armed by virtue of that very fire, shall come and release him.
The TEITAN
GR:Tau-Epsilon-Iota-Tau-Alpha-Nu = 300+5+10+300+1+50 = 666.— whose number is the number of a man, six hundred and three score and six — unsubdued, consoled by Asia and Panthea, must send forth constant showers of blessing not only upon Man whose incarnation he is, but upon the tyrant and the persecutor. His infinite pain must thrill his heart with joy, since every pang is but the echo of some new flame that leaps upon the earth lit by his crime."
I've been thinking a lot about this section lately. I asked elsewhere about it and someone told me that (paraphrasing) it's about the divine expression of power and that once the tone of prayer (water) reaches Geburah you can again descend with the light. He said to think about the Hanged Man card, the Aeon card, and Liber LXV in general.
The Aeon card makes sense to me since the path of Shin is bisected into fire and spirit. Some of the passages in LXV make sense in this context. Specifically I was thinking about lines 13-18 of chapter 1:
"Wolf's bane is not so sharp as steel; yet it pierceth the body more subtly.
Even as evil kisses corrupt the blood, so do my words devour the spirit of man.
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.
So also the light that is absorbed. One absorbs little and is called white and glistening; one absorbs all and is called black."The Hanged Man card makes less sense to me though. If in general the passage about bringing down fire in a stolen tube mean what I think it means, thinking is kind of suspended (in the sense that you don't really listen to your thoughts), which would bring up the Hanged Man. The Hanged Man would also make sense in that it is associated with water and therefore the emotions and the Svadhisthana chakra. I think that's what he meant by water reaching Geburah, though I don't know what "tone of prayer" means. The Hanged Man also seems to imply a very passive element though, which feels uncharacteristic of what this is about.
The vulture devouring the liver is an interesting part of this section as well. The liver is associated with Lamed and therefore the Justice tarot card, which brings up the "stealing" aspect.
I don't understand at all what Asia and Panthea mean. Googling Asia obviously just brings up Asia (haha) and Panthea brings up a genus of moths and an Oscar Wilde poem about fire and desire (?).
Any thoughts on this? Specifically I'd really like to know what context Asia and Panthea are being used in.
-
Googling "Prometheus Asia Panthea" brings up Shelley's poem, Prometheus Unbound.
-
Awesome, thank you. I had read the wikipedia article on Prometheus himself but that didn't have anything about Asia and Panthea. In that play there's another, Ione, that seems important too.
I'm still not totally sure what they're supposed to represent to the person stealing fire from heaven, but I think I got a clue using gematria. Asia=72, which is Adonai the holy guardian angel and the "Geomantic intelligence of Sagittarius." I don't know what the latter means but Sagittarius is associated with the Temperance card so that would make sense. Panthea (in one way of spelling it) equaled 146, was "limit, end; boundless" and "the First Gate." So maybe that would be the boundlessness of the world? I'm much less sure about that one. Sorry if this makes no sense and I'm just talking to myself, I know the qabalah is supposed to be unique to everyone and I just began actually using it.
-
I doubt Crowley had Qabalistic motives on this one. Probably just poetic ones.
Besides, Asiah (Assiah) would be 385 Hebrew or 212 in Greek. The Greek Panthea is 131+15 = 146.
-
"Towards the end of section II of Chapter 18 in Magick in Theory and Practice it says:
"One may bring down stolen fire in a hollow tube from Heaven, as The MASTER THERION indeed has done in a way that no other adept dared to do before him. But the thief, the Titan, must foreknow and consent to his doom to be chained upon a lonely rock, the vulture devouring his liver, for a season, until Hercules, the strong man armed by virtue of that very fire, shall come and release him.
The TEITAN
GR:Tau-Epsilon-Iota-Tau-Alpha-Nu = 300+5+10+300+1+50 = 666.
— whose number is the number of a man, six hundred and three score and six — unsubdued, consoled by Asia and Panthea, must send forth constant showers of blessing not only upon Man whose incarnation he is, but upon the tyrant and the persecutor. His infinite pain must thrill his heart with joy, since every pang is but the echo of some new flame that leaps upon the earth lit by his crime.""Asia here would be a reference to Kundalini most likely, where as PanThea would be the all encompassing divine principle. The vulture is a more specific feminine divine aspect.
This reads to me like a very intense process.
Why is Titan spelled out one way, but then added up another? Is it a typo on the first? -
Thanks for all your answers. If Asia is referring to the world of Assiah, I think that would make sense. It sounds like it makes sense by how the words are formed. On another plane it would make sense for it to be referring to Kundalini, if Yesod in Yetzirah is the seat of Kundalini.
I don't know if the vulture is referring to a divine feminine aspect though. But maybe. Solipsistically, it just seems evil to me, lol. I just got involved with magick and the first spirit to make itself known to me calls itself "ZYZEZABEL." This brings up the myth of Jezebel. To me the vulture seems like a Jezebel+Ahab spirit. In Sepher Sephiroth, Ahab (9) refers to Ventriloquus: the special 'fire' of black magic, whence Obi, Obeah. Cf. 11 and 207. The petty tyrant that Carlos Castaneda talks about. The number 11 refers to Firebrand, volcanic fire: the Special 'fire' or 'light' of the Sacred Magic of Light, Life, and Love; hence "Odic Force" &c. Cf. 9 and 207, which brings to mind Prometheus.
I don't know why Crowley spells the Titan "TEITAN;" the only reasons I can think of are so it adds up to 666 or if that's the way it's actually spelled in Greek.
-
I have a soft spot for vultures...
www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/sumul.htmlThere are quite a few good links on the web demonstrating Kundalini=Prometheus.
There is a very solid geological reason that the culture that Kundalini arose from is in asia, and not say Australia. The geological forces on the planet, Gaia have a huge influence on humanities spiritual unfolding, as this verse clearly describes.
-
I hadn't really thought of the vulture like that. This line especially was interesting: "Vultures have been regarded in various cultures as intermediaries between mortals and the Gods; or purifiers, who help the soul to transform by getting rid of the earthly body."
It reminds me of something I read a few weeks ago in this book Astral Attack and Defense by Marcelo Motta. He said something along the lines of it can be considered a good thing if someone sends a demon after you because, if nothing else, it'll teach you control and self discipline.
-
Most people think vultures are gross, scary or just overall nasty. I think they are remarkable.
Of course worms, woodlice, maggots and dung beetles have a bad wrap too, but with out them doing the necessary job of "recycle reuse reduce" we would be up to our armpits in "waste"
I have a lot of turkey vultures in my area, awesome to see.
www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-12-most-magnificent-vultures-world-hone
L.A. Zoo had Condor babies in 2006 I think it was, but they had just hatched so I couldn't see them, and my local zoo has a King vulture that is incredible.
-
If anyone reading this is interested in it, I found a satisfying answer. I still haven't read the play Prometheus but I downloaded an updated version of Sepher Sephiroth (Sephiroth ha-D'borim) and in it it categorizes for the number 385 "Shekinah, Divine Presence: Goddess of Malkuth." Asia could correlate to that and Panthea as 146 means the First Gate, boundlessness, and eternity; world as an adult. So the person stealing fire from heaven is comforted by Shekinah (which I think is similar to or the same as the vision of Adonai) and the boundlessness that they have entered into. Also the Hanged Man is the titan chained to the rock, I don't know how I didn't see that before, and the vulture pecking at one's liver is the feeling of fear (and thus delusion) coming at you over and over again. In my other posts I had thought the vulture was referring to Jupiter or Zeus in the Prometheus myth.