characteristic of a child (Horus)
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if you go to chapter 49 of Crowley's Confessions you will see that Crowley comments upon the (then) new Aeon of Horus. He (retrospectively) cites that Liber Al is the Book of the new aeon and if we were to contemplate "every characteristic of a child" and apply these to the socio-political crises that followed April 1904 then this should act as firm proof.
Children are messy, loud, prone to vulnerability, cruel (in our society), ignorant i.e innocent, lacking in inhibitions, inquisitive,playful, ......... you get the picture. Think of their characteristics and apply them to any glaringly obvious symptoms of the early 20th century
he uses the 2 examples of World war One and Prohibition as being symptomatic of the emergence of The Child. I understand that Prohibition is the last insane desperate act of the Patriarchal sin-obsessed Aeon and World war One similarly acted as a violent Old Aeon gargantuan upheavel which spawned the then futuristic Communistic Soviet/Chinese state, the rise of the Nazi Revolution,Suffragettes and the power shift from Europe to the United States (bastard child of European autocratic oppression).
More to the point (and this is important for Thelemites i feel because it is cited as proof of the validity of Liber Al) what are the characteristics of a child and how do these apply to post 1904 cultural economic phenomena?
anyway to reiterate ; Chilldren are messy, loud, prone to vulnerability, cruel (in our society), ignorant i.e innocent, lacking in inhibitions, inquisitive,playful, ......... you get the picture. Think of their characteristics and apply them to any glaringly obvious symptoms of he early 20th century
Can you think of any more syptoms/post 1904 phenomena which support this proof of the violent birth of Child Aeon. I was thinking that the publication of Einstein's mass-energy conversion /space-time relativity acted as an upheavel to the Newtonian world view which refelects the child's curiosity for the unknown perhaps as oppose to Newton's rational adult "single vision and Newton's sleep".
Also technological innovation in the 20th century didn't just advance it *accelerated * which brings to mind the idea that technology and war (Horus) are interlinked however refer the characteristics of a child and apply these to the evernts of a post 1904 world .
Any other observations ?
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93,
I'm not 100% sure if this is what you're looking for, but, I just happened to be thinking the other day while sitting in class that conversion of the Chinese writing system shortly after the Communist victory was evidence of the Aeon of Horus.
The conversion so simplified characters on the mainland made the writing system easier to learn, thus easing a chronic problem with illiteracy, but destroyed thousands of years of culture and history that are contained in the traditional radicals making up the traditional characters.
It was really, in my view, kind of a good thing, although it does dumb it down to a child's level.
Love=Law
- C
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hahah that's interesting stuff yes. I was thinking more of Picasso's child-like paintings and the dischord and chaos that overtook classical music literally like the way a child will bang nonsense on a guitar or piano but i'm not sure if this was immediately after 1904.
Perhaps the credit overspending boom of the "roaring" 20s would not have been tolerated in previous centuries i don't know but it certainly reflects the child's attitude toward money and it led directly to the abyss of the Wall Street Crash/Great Depression.
I think the major characteristic of the child is the rise of fascism i.e. the cruel filling of the political vacuum left by the collapse of the upper class autocracies in Europe. Hysterical crowds following nationalistic militaristic manipulator- leaders ; Japan,Germany,Italy.
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@ThatNarrowFellow said
"I just happened to be thinking the other day while sitting in class that conversion of the Chinese writing system shortly after the Communist victory was evidence of the Aeon of Horus."
Actually -- I don't have the references with me now, but I wrote a paper on this once in grad school -- China has a history of "simplifying" its writing system by imperial decree every few centuries or so. This isn't the first time it's happened.
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@gerry456 said
"Can you think of any more syptoms/post 1904 phenomena which support this proof of the violent birth of Child Aeon."
Somewhere (in Magick Without Tears I think), Crowley mentions the increasing popularity of sports and movies as evidence that humanity is becoming childlike. That passage always makes me laugh; it's ironically prophetic, since sports and movies (and computer games ) are enormously more popular now than they were in his lifetime. I would add the quality of political discourse on television ("Oh yeah? Well I can yell louder than you!") as further evidence of humanity's puerilification.
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Childlike is good. Childish is not as good.
In L.V.X.,
chrys333 -
source: *(http://iao131.livejournal.com/20084.html)
<img src=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0801/m51_hst_lgx.jpg width=450 height=300>*
<center><b>The Formula of the Child is Continual Growth</b>
<i>"[In the Aeon of] Horus, the child... we come to perceive events as a continual growth..." -Aleister Crowley, Introduction to the Book of the Law</i> </center>This new Aeon of human existence is a new dawn of a shift in our point-of-views. With the reception of Liber AL vel Legis, or the Book of the Law, in 1904 by Aleister Crowley, the paradigm of Thelema was brought to the world. Only a year after, Einstein had his famous "miracle year" which revolutionized physics and brought us, among other things, the special theory of relativity. Less than two decades later, quantum mechanics would spring onto the scene with full force and lead to technological achievements like transistors, computers, and A-bombs. In this century, not only were protons, neutrons, and quarks discovered, but so was the double-helix structure of DNA, genes, and other biological advances like stem-cell and cloning. There was the rise of psychology and neurology. There were incredible leaps in transportation (e.g. personal cars and commercial airliners) and communication (e.g., cell phones and the Internet). With the turn of the 21st century, it is an exciting time as ever to exist with much amazing growth remaining possible ahead of us.
<i>Consider how much growth has happened to the human race in the last century, especially in terms of the advances in physics, biology, and technology. Consider one's own development and how much growth one has gone through physically, emotionally, and intellectually. </i>
<center><img src="http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/harpocrates.jpg">‡</center>
One may recognize the immense amount of growth that occurred in the period when one was a child. Childhood is a time of great openness and vitality, among other things. Being in this New Aeon of the Crowned & Conquering Child, each person may (much to their benefit) identify with this symbol of a child. Now let us consider the characteristics of a child:
<center><i>Openness to Experience
Ever-renewed Vitality & Resilience
</i>and most importantly...<i>
<b>Ever-continuing Growth</b></i></center>
As a symbol of this ideal, Thelema has Horus, the Egyptian sky and sun god, especially under the form of "Ra-Hoor-Khuit" (Ra-Horakhty was a synthesis of the gods of Ra and Horus in ancient times). Speaking in terms of the occult mysteries, Aleister Crowley writes in "Liber Samekh," "In the Neophyte Ritual of Golden Dawn (As it is printed in Equinox I, II, for the old aeon) the Hierophant is the perfected Osiris, who brings the candidate, the natural Osiris, to identity with himself. But <b>in the new Aeon the Hierophant is Horus (Liber CCXX, I, 49) therefore the Candidate will be Horus too. What then is the formula of the initiation of Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man, through Death. It will be the natural growth of the Child. His experiences will no more be regarded as catastrophic.</b> Their hieroglyph is the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates Babe becomes the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. 'Der reine Thor' seizes the Sacred Lance. Bacchus becomes Pan." (emphasis added)
In the occult mysteries, one formerly identified with a form of the ideal man which was typified by the dying-and-resurrecting form - in this case it is the Egyptian Osiris. Now the ideal is the child with the formula of Ever-continual Growth. Just as dawn is understood to always follow the ordeals of midnight and spring always follows the ordeals of winter, we understand that all psychological ordeals - including the 'death of the ego' - are not catastrophic (although they, like the hour of midnight and the season of winter may seem so while living through them), but are in fact part of our Ever-continual Growth. But Thelema doesn't just deal with the occult mysteries because, as mentioned at the beginning of this essay, Thelema is an all-encompassing paradigm and it is advantageously applicable to all facets of life. Thelemites therefore are open to all experience, however much joy or suffering may arise because all things are accepted as part of "love under will;" all experiences of all degrees add to one's being. Crowley wrote in "Liber Tzaddi,"
<center><i>My adepts stand upright; their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells.</i></center>
This line perfectly captures the Thelemite's acceptance of all facets of oneself, from the most apparently hellish to the most divine, and also all facets of Nature, spanning all degrees of beauty and terribleness. <i>Consider how, in your life, certain events that seemed to be a time of great trouble (physically, financially, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually) eventually faded away into greater strength, energy, and insight. Consider how the events that seemed wonderful or even divine have transpired and what they have added to one's experience. Ask oneself: how does integrating these diverse experiences of both joy & sadness into a coherent whole allow me to perform my Will more effectively?</i>
Again, in "Liber Samekh" Crowley writes about how experience is necessary for the individual, "All experiences contribute to make us complete in ourselves. We feel ourselves subject to them so long as we fail to recognise this; when we do, we perceive that they are subject to us... To live is to change; and to oppose change is to revolt against the law... which govern[s] our lives." <i>Consider the many times one has needed to do something or been forced to do something that one did not want to (e.g. fold your laundry, take an entrance exam, go to the dentist, travel to a foreign country). How many times was your immediate desire (i.e. to leave the dentist's office) in conflict with longer goals (i.e. to have healthy teeth)? How has pushing oneself to have experiences, however undesirable and uncomfortable, led to increased understanding, knowledge, strength, and adaptability?</i>
Two new and different news articles have recently been released (late 2007) on the subject of growth and a 'growth mind-set' and its various advantages. In one case, the psychologist <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7406521">Carol Dweck has seen</a> that kids who have a 'growth mind-set' - meaning they believe that their intelligence is mutable and liable to growth as opposed to static and unchanging - perform better in school. In another instance, <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids">Scientific American investigated the fact</a> that, "teaching people to have a 'growth mind-set,' which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life." These two subtly different views - one where seeing intelligence as mutable is beneficial and the other where emphasizing effort over intellect is beneficial - see the advantage of what they both label as a "growth mind-set."
Continuing with the attributes of this ideal symbol of Horus, "the Crowned and Conquering Child," Crowley writes in his <i>Confessions</i>, "The child is not merely a symbol of growth, but of complete moral independence and innocence." This subject of morality in Thelema, related to the symbol of the child, growth, and innocence, has been treated more fully in the essay <a href=http://www.geocities.com/hdbq111/essays/thelemicvalues.html>Thelemic Values: a new view of morality</a> (<a href=http://www.geocities.com/hdbq111/essays/ThelemicValues.pdf>PDF</a>). We may then focus on how "innocence" is also characteristic of the Child.
<center><img src=http://www.cuttingedge.org/Osiris_Isis_DivineChild.jpg>§</center>
The "innocence" of the formula of the Child in Thelema is certainly not the uninformed, unexperienced innocence of actual children but refers to their point-of-view. Children are much less unimpeded by the imposed values from their family, friends, and society. Not only are their values less imposed but even their very basic way of understanding the world is unclouded by preformed opinions, systems, and maps. Instead, the "innocence" of a Child - which is, again, an ideal that all Thelemites can advantageously identify with - refers to its <i>openness</i>. The child is open to experience, as mentioned previously as one of the characteristics of the Child, and is open to new and different ways of perceiving ideas. This openness to physical experiences and mental ideas ties directly back into the formula of the Child being Ever-continuing Growth. It is this innocent openness which allows us to submerge our feet in the deepest hells and raise our heads to the highest heavens. Instead of fearing our comfortable balance may be lost, Thelemites push ever onward to new horizons, invigorated by the seemingly infinite possibilities and potential symbolized by the starry night sky of Nuit.
IAO131
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93,
You are, of course, correct that Chinese has been going through periodical simplifications for quite some time. However, the radical simplification undertaken by the communist party is different in that it is the first time whole radicals have been removed from characters, as in the removal of the radical heart (心) in simplified love (爱), and also in the alteration of certain radicals to such an extent that they bear absolutely no relation to the original, as in the top part of the traditional study, which was reduced to (学). A change from 11 strokes to three.
At the very least, I think we can say that the modern simplification is far more radical and sweeping, and far more careless of traditional culturally-encoded meanings than any before. Both key elements in what I see as evidence of the new Aeon.
Love=Law
- C
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thanks for BUT it was a mere simple question
contemplate the characteristics of a child
apply that to the socio-politicval/economioc climate of the 2 decades following 1904
what do you come up with?
nothing?
i'm not asking for vast complex theses