Altar Construction from Book 4
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Dearest Jim and Group,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am finally building a personal altar as it is depicted in Book 4. I have a question concerning elemental directions. Would I place the tablet of Air in the North and Earth in the East or use the standard alignment? Any input would be most welcome.
Love is the law, love under will.
Frater A
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@Frater A.'.31 said
"I am finally building a personal altar as it is depicted in Book 4. I have a question concerning elemental directions. Would I place the tablet of Air in the North and Earth in the East or use the standard alignment? Any input would be most welcome."
Your altar, your universe, my friend.
Also - just so you know - that altar isn't an official design of any kind, just something Crowley conceived for the book.
But if your question is about a traditional pattern, you should use the microcosmic pattern which places Air in the East.
You could also consider having these be removable tablets which snap in place on the side - even through Velcro! - and adjust them as you see fit for a particular working.
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Dear Mr. Eshelman
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you for your advice which I shall take to heart. At the risk of sounding foolish may I enquire as to why Crowley placed Air in the North and Earth in the East?
Love is the law, love under will.
Frater A
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@Frater A.'.31 said
"At the risk of sounding foolish may I enquire as to why Crowley placed Air in the North and Earth in the East?"
Not a foolish question at all.
In his published work, he did this only in two rituals, and, for one of those, only in a single version.
I suspect, therefore, that you're looking at the Star Ruby and/or Liber Reguli. I encourage you to take those rituals out of the context of everything else he wrote.
The original form of The Star Ruby, and what I still consider the best, is that in The Book of Lies. It follows the traditional Macrocosmic plan of Fire in the East, Water in the North, etc.
Liber Reguli was intended to be a ritual that "broke all the rules," i.e., followed the same formula AC used to receive Liber L. (Of course, it only has that power for people who have drilled the traditional rules for years so that there is an emotional and intellectual violence at the idea of breaking them!) His reasons for the assignments in that ritual are complex and bring in many threads of his thinking over many years.
I've long thought that the Star Ruby attributions only got changed in their reprint in MT&P so that they would match Reguli. They do, however, have the interesting virtue that they deploy the elements in the normal sequence but in reverse order. That is, clockwise from the East they are Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, just as the original form has Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. I've, therefore, suggested in print that the formulae of these two versions of the Star Ruby differ - that the one in MT&P is better suited for a First Order (below Tiphereth) aspiration pattern, and the original, deeper, truer version IMHO in The Book of Lies is an Adept's ritual.
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Dear Mr. Eshelman
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you very much for your help. I have sought out the answer to this question for some time now. I could never get a concise answer. You have taken quite a weight off of my shoulders as it were. I am very pleased to have found this forum.
Love is the law, love under will.
Frater A
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Jim got me thinking. Going counterclockwise symbolizes that you are going back to yourself i.e. solve and that's the neophyte's formula. And going clockwise symbolizes that you are going forward i.e. colagula and this is the Adept's formula.
Looking at the Grades we see Earth, Air, Water, Fire. It looks like the Neophyte is climbing the Tree and the Adept is going down.
So I do think both versions have their use. Btw, see 777 about the HVHI formula - it does indeed banish all the planets...