XI & XIV

Red Eagle of Death

Can someone explain to me the technical differences between the sex magick operations implied by Atu XI & XIV?...are they not indicative of the same operation?

R.E.D.

Jim Eshelman

As sex magick operations - yes, mostly the same.

That's not the primary meaning of either card but, if you're going to interpret along those specific lines, then yes, they're substantially the same operation (though they represent slightly different stages of the same operation).

The following might be interesting to you. I published it in No,. 7 of Black Pearl. It shows the entire set of trumps as a single operation.

TANTRA & TAROT
An interpretation of the 22 Atus of Tahuti

Alchemical Mercury. Kundalini, Life Force.
The Priest: the Logos of the operation.
The Priestess: the Vehicle of the Word.
Alchemical Salt.
Alchemical Sulphur.
The Stone: Sacred Union of the Priest and Priestess.

(These six form the hexagram.)

The Wedding. Declaration of the Work to be done, employing a complex alchemical symbolism. Solve.
Unveiling the Graal.
The Woman Satisfied: the Scarlet Woman fulfilled by directed application of Iudex and Testes.
The Spermatozoon in the womb, a bearer of Solar Light.
“Lord of the Forces of Life.” [K = KP = kteis + phallos, “a unity of supreme attainment and delight.”]
The marriage as it occurs in Nature (that is, the real marriage, rather than the ceremonial formality). The Serpent that unites the opposites in ecstasy. BABALON and THE BEAST conjoined.
In essence, Water as a formula of Redemption. Practical formula of the Elixir, elaborated in the three cards that immediately follow.

13-15. A complex hieroglyph of the process by which idea manifests as form:

Love under will. Sexuality; resurrection.
Consummation of the Royal Marriage (Coagula). Merging and interchange of attributes. Mingling of elements in a “cauldron.”
Material creative energy; phallus, Set, Pan.
Male orgasm.
Female orgasm.
Collecting the Elixir; the Astral environment of the gestation.
Regenerated male and female as children before the Sun.
Growth and development of the Child.
The Seal: Completion of the Work. The universe newly formulated and manifest.

Frater SOL

Thanks Jim...this is fantastic!

616

Corvinae

I must say,
I have never seen this spelled out this way.
This truly is an outstanding piece of information, and of course it comes to me at a very profound moment.
Thank you for sharing such genius. I will never look at the whole thing the same way again. This brings much clarity to understanding relationships, and the bigger picture.
I just wanted to bump it up so that maybe some others will enjoy the stimulation.

@Jim Eshelman said

"As sex magick operations - yes, mostly the same.

That's not the primary meaning of either card but, if you're going to interpret along those specific lines, then yes, they're substantially the same operation (though they represent slightly different stages of the same operation).

The following might be interesting to you. I published it in No,. 7 of Black Pearl. It shows the entire set of trumps as a single operation.

TANTRA & TAROT
An interpretation of the 22 Atus of Tahuti

Alchemical Mercury. Kundalini, Life Force.
The Priest: the Logos of the operation.
The Priestess: the Vehicle of the Word.
Alchemical Salt.
Alchemical Sulphur.
The Stone: Sacred Union of the Priest and Priestess.

(These six form the hexagram.)

The Wedding. Declaration of the Work to be done, employing a complex alchemical symbolism. Solve.
Unveiling the Graal.
The Woman Satisfied: the Scarlet Woman fulfilled by directed application of Iudex and Testes.
The Spermatozoon in the womb, a bearer of Solar Light.
“Lord of the Forces of Life.” [K = KP = kteis + phallos, “a unity of supreme attainment and delight.”]
The marriage as it occurs in Nature (that is, the real marriage, rather than the ceremonial formality). The Serpent that unites the opposites in ecstasy. BABALON and THE BEAST conjoined.
In essence, Water as a formula of Redemption. Practical formula of the Elixir, elaborated in the three cards that immediately follow.

13-15. A complex hieroglyph of the process by which idea manifests as form:

Love under will. Sexuality; resurrection.
Consummation of the Royal Marriage (Coagula). Merging and interchange of attributes. Mingling of elements in a “cauldron.”
Material creative energy; phallus, Set, Pan.
Male orgasm.
Female orgasm.
Collecting the Elixir; the Astral environment of the gestation.
Regenerated male and female as children before the Sun.
Growth and development of the Child.
The Seal: Completion of the Work. The universe newly formulated and manifest."

Macsen Melinydd

@Veronica said

"I just wanted to bump it up so that maybe some others will enjoy the stimulation."

Thanks, Veronica!

THANKS, JIM!

Danica

@Red Eagle of Death said

"Can someone explain to me the technical differences between the sex magick operations implied by Atu XI & XIV?...are they not indicative of the same operation?

R.E.D."

this may not be precisely a "technical difference" you were asking for, but could be useful to meditate upon: Teth is a horizontal Path, and represents the union of opposites on the same plane, so to speak, while Samekh is vertical, it unites opposites from different planes

Jim Eshelman

@Iugum said

"Definitely one of the most helpful things Jim has posted on these forums. I copied the information to my own journal when he first typed this up. I do wish, however, that he would come back and maybe expand on some of these more. I understand the conclusions on most of them but am a bit confused on a couple, ike X "The Wheel of Fortune" who's esoteric title is the "Consciousness of the Desired, which Fulfills"."

You might be making it too complicated... trying to add back in too many attributions at once rather than taking it at face value... or you might just not be quieting your mind and looking at it meditatively to get the point. Remember that the above list is sequential - it's a single ritual from front to end, setting up principles, setting them in motion, pausing somewhere in the middle to articulate certain concepts, and then diving toward the end of the major opus.

So... now that I look at this some more... Atu X really does require more meditative stuff. I'm not going to give it to you, but I'll set it up for you as best I can. Imagine that it's honeymoon night and steps 6, 7, 8, and 9 have occured, one after the other. Then 10! (If I spelled it out more, it would just be intellectual.)

It may help to know that the forces of Kaph are what fill the sphere of Yesod - it's the violet that fills and infuses Yesod (just as the blue of Gimel is what actually fills Chesed, giving its linkages to memory and unity, etc.). Kaph is the vital life force that is whirling and circulating within our biological organism, from the circulation of blood and breath etc. - and here a distinctly spiral force is set in motion. (Possibly "you have to be there" to get it - to witness this.)

There is, however, the simple hint in the letter that Kaph, spelled K Ph, gives the initials of phallus and kteis. The card is called “Lord of the Forces of Life.” Crowley summarized the card as “a unity of supreme attainment and delight.”

"And what sexual resurrection is being mentioned in the description of the Death trump? I would see it going in a different way, leaning more towards something to do with fantasy and a resurrection of new expressions of Love. I speak under correction, maybe I am misinterpreting the ideas."

Cards 13-15 are a hugely big deal, and need to be (for the purposes of the present list) understood together (as they so often do). They are the three cards of the "Paths of the Portal of Vault of the Adepti," and have numerical, psychological, and many other levels of relationship.

Patiently working with these, with The Book of Thoth at hand, should prove quite valuable. The list was created to foster years of fruitful meditation, not to give a quick checklist. (Of course, if one has already been over the turf, then it IS a quick checklist.)