path of the scarlet woman
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93 bethata418
I am going to print this post out and read over it today to see what comes up.
From my limited reading of the Book of the Law I am convinced it is to be understood as Qabalistic text.
Now saying that let me jump right in with a few quick thoughts!
Quote:
Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and tenderness visit her heart; if she leaves my work to toy with old sweetness’s; then shall my vengeance be known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered.Unless Subconsciuousness (Yesod) is under the direction of the higher self Tiphareth, Beware! The animal desires will rule. Subconsciuousness is the animal nature that must be tamed, it is in Yesod the 9 sphere on the tree of life. Teth =9
Our Subconsciuousness is not to be toyed with abused or tortured but sternly trained to serve the higher aspirations. Ruling the senses if you will.
If my memory is correct, I have read somewhere on the forum that practical magick is not taught till the Second Order. Maybe this is the reason. I can only assume that contact with the Tiphareth level must first be made to work safely with our lower elemental/animal nature.Love is the Law Love under will.
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My view is pretty close to 'Deen's - the main point is to understand that Liber Legis speaks primarily about consciousness, not about people. (Specific references to people and outer events are "bleed off" or "leakage.")
IMHO the text in question is referring to consciousness of Binah within each aspirant, rather than to the life-path of one or more specific human women.
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93,
"Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and tenderness visit her heart; if she leaves my work to toy with old sweetness’s; then shall my vengeance be known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered."
The almost sounds like an admonition to a woman moreso than a man, however, the message is universal. The mention of compassion, pity, tenderness of heart remind me of the vices Chesed, or excessive activity of that sephirah, in which the spehere of Geburah will come into play in order to restore balance. "Old sweetnesses" indicate stagnation; stagnation indicates a blockage of the free flow of energy; pressure builds up from the blockage until it can not be contained anymore and then "the levees break". Maybe this is an indication that once you start on the path of initation, and then stop for some reason, thinking you can go back to your old way of life, you will be faced with a heavy dose of adversity.
"But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my way! Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart"
I think this particular passage outlines the virtues of Geburah, especially strength to do one's will without fear. Perhaps the work of the wicked is a reference to the training of the subconscious mind by means of magick.
"Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men!"
Women have the right to do the same as men, which is a radically different view of women's rights from those of the ascetic religions.
93 93/93
Shariyf -
I didn't even see your post before I put mine up Jim. I'm confused as to what you meant by "bleed off" though.
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@Ra-Imhotep said
"I didn't even see your post before I put mine up Jim. I'm confused as to what you meant by "bleed off" though."
Hasty words with too little explanation... trying again...
I hold that everything in Liber Legis refers to consciousness and none of it per se refers to prophesy and events and personalities.
OTOH, any aspect of consciousness that is resisted, unfulfilled, or (actually for any reason at all) unexpressed within will tend to externalize itself in our lives. For example, a species level inner impulse to transformation will meet "resistence" to the extent that some percentage of the species is not ready for transformation. Accordingly, there will be external events (e.g., wars, plagues, and other catastrophes) manifesting a lowest common denominator expression of the same principle.
Therefore, declarations of truth about consciousness will tend to have the characteristic of "prophesy" to the extent that they are not fully actualized within. Since instantaneous full actualization within doesn't usually occur for a newly risen impulse, times that are ripe for change (either individually or collectively) tend to be heralded by crisis.
I used the terms "bleed through" and "leakage" to mean that, due to a failure to (yet) actualize an inner truth, that truth "leaks" or "bleeds" out into some kind of "event," i.e., outer manifestation.
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Thank you for clarifying, that makes a lot of sense. Even sheds light on some personal stuff going on right now. Thanks again.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"I hold that everything in Liber Legis refers to consciousness and none of it per se refers to prophesy and events and personalities."
Including all those verses referring to the prophet, that many take to mean that Crowley fellow?
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@zeph said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"I hold that everything in Liber Legis refers to consciousness and none of it per se refers to prophesy and events and personalities."Including all those verses referring to the prophet, that many take to mean that Crowley fellow?"
Without reading line by line, I'd have to answer no more than "probably" - but he'd be the only exception. (There are at least some places wher "prophet" sure seems to refer to a Neshamic-intuitive faculty of conscious at least as much as it does to a person.)
I definitely include references to "the Beast" in my original statement - it's the solar-phallic Chiah Briatic expression, of which AC was simply an avatar.
Ultimately, Liber L. was a book to Crowley from his H.G.A., but of sufficiently universal impact to be about and for the rest of us.
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93,
I noticed a few months ago that sometimes the word is 'Prophet' and sometimes 'prophet'. There might be a division in the intent here between the office of prophet (which could theoretically be filled by anyone advancing far enough, and not just AC) or the Neshamah-inspired condition of receiving prophecy.
93 93/93,
Edward
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The word 'prophet', case-insensitive, occurs 26 times in Liber AL. Of those, the following are uppercase:
- II:37 "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!"
II:39 "A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet -- secret, O Prophet!"
The Ape of Thoth has them all... -
@zeph said
"The word 'prophet', case-insensitive, occurs 26 times in Liber AL. Of those, the following are uppercase:
- II:37 "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!"
II:39 "A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet -- secret, O Prophet!"
The Ape of Thoth has them all..."To answer your earlier question... I've generally taken the first of these as referring to Crowley directly because there is no (non-stretchy) alternative psychological meaning and the biographical reference is clear. I've generally taken the second one as entirely psychological, i.e., referring to a function of consciousness that eventually emerges in each person.
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@Edward Mason said
"I noticed a few months ago that sometimes the word is 'Prophet' and sometimes 'prophet'. There might be a division in the intent here between the office of prophet (which could theoretically be filled by anyone advancing far enough, and not just AC) or the Neshamah-inspired condition of receiving prophecy."
I thought of this comment the other night when I read:
- But these thy prophets; they must cry aloud and scourge themselves; they must cross trackless wastes and unfathomed oceans; to await Thee is the end, not the beginning. [LXV:II:62]
There are clearly instances in Liber LXV where the prophet is the scribe, but this certainly suggests other prophets, not necessary much advanced. I'm not at all certain that language in one Holy Book is interchangeable with the language of another, though, so it's not necessarily a point of any matter.
- But these thy prophets; they must cry aloud and scourge themselves; they must cross trackless wastes and unfathomed oceans; to await Thee is the end, not the beginning. [LXV:II:62]
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@zeph said
"* II:37 "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!""To answer your earlier question... I've generally taken the first of these as referring to Crowley directly because there is no (non-stretchy) alternative psychological meaning and the biographical reference is clear."
I've stretched a lot on that one, to no avail. Every year that I toast them on that feastday, I draw all the Spirit I can from sips of Jaegermeister, but cannot seem to draw any real spiritual sustenance from the celebration of the consummation of a couple of dead people. I'll keep stretching and sipping, and see which one works first.
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Well, I also recommend that celebrate your own equivalent date.
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Shucks. I was kinda hoping my sweet would forgive forgetfulness of such a date, on account of not yet having been told to pay attention to it by my Angel.
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@zeph said
"Every year that I toast them on that feastday, I draw all the Spirit I can from sips of Jaegermeister, but cannot seem to draw any real spiritual sustenance from the celebration of the consummation of a couple of dead people."
The consummation of AC's and Rose's marriage can be argued to have kicked off the "current" (defined way loosely here) that culminated in the "birth" of the new aeon, the following spring. Not sure if I buy this idea, but it does help add significance to the feast.
One neat calendrical remark. Richard Kaczynski once noted (in his livejournal) that there are exactly 220 days between this day, August 12, and the following March 20 - the feast of the Supreme Ritual. I think this only works for non-leap years, though (i.e., it doesn't work for a key year: 1904). He posted a calendar in which there is one verse of Liber Legis for each day in this sequence. It's interesting that "There is death for the dogs" occurs on December 1st!
Also, the II,76 cipher occurs on January 1st, though I'd recommend against a yearly new year's resolution to solve it! 
(I couldn't find an easy "search button" on his main page, richard-kaczyn.livejournal.com/ but it's somewhere in there...)
Steve