"Jim, what do you think about the beetle reference?

R.E.D."

No thoughts AT ALL on the beetle reference in Liber L?

I have an idea ...why not mail order some live spanish flies or larvea & put them in a box with the cakes of light, do some sympathetic magick by naming a few your enemies & consequently slaying them, drying them out & grinding them to a fine powder, consuming them, getting randy(as an adverb not a pronoun) & making the fresh 'blood of the child' to consecrate the next batch of cakes? What do you guys think

R.E.D.

R.E.D.

"The scarab or blister beetle contains strong aphrodisiac properties. Between the cakes of light and beetles, you won't be needing any viagra..

Also:

*If you are wondering what may win the most disgusting aphrodisiac award, this next one is definitely in the running. There are several cultures that believe that the cockroach possesses a powerful aphrodisiac when eaten. One of the most common ways to digest this option is to grind one up and mix it with cinnamon. This mixture is then added to coffee. *

www.unexplainable.net/artman/publish/article_3495.shtml"

Thanks h2h! This is the most viable explanation I have seen thus far for the beetle-eating problem - but it leaves the issue of how & why they appear as a result of the cakes unsolved...

616

"
@Aiwaz said
"These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof."

If these verses aren't taken literally then what might they imply?...the 'slaying' or destruction of the Illusion represented by Atu XVIII?

616"

The scarab or blister beetle contains strong aphrodisiac properties. Between the cakes of light and beetles, you won't be needing any viagra..

Also:

*If you are wondering what may win the most disgusting aphrodisiac award, this next one is definitely in the running. There are several cultures that believe that the cockroach possesses a powerful aphrodisiac when eaten. One of the most common ways to digest this option is to grind one up and mix it with cinnamon. This mixture is then added to coffee. *

www.unexplainable.net/artman/publish/article_3495.shtml

"

If it's meaning isn't literal, then what might the beetle reference imply? Keph-Ra?...an allusion to Atu XVIII?

If these verses aren't taken literally then what might they imply?...the 'slaying' or destruction of the Illusion represented by Atu XVIII?

616"

You bring up a lot of interesting ideas for interpretation. Personally, as someone who's never liked bugs, whenever I get them in my room I remind myself of my growing "holiness" Seriously though, the Book is taking a grotesque image and making it sacred - something not unusual with Crowley or Liber AL.

Still, I have some discomfort with the verses because they do seem to be very "witchy" with the idea of killing enemies through sympathetic bug-magick. And I ain't eatin' no beetles anytime soon!

About the "Moon" atu XVIII, it's about madness and delusion right? Perhaps one would have to be to follow these lines too closely... maybe they are a warning of getting caught up in "Low magick"

Ah... Mention of coprophagia always sends me back to my college days...

I went to a state school.

Love=Law

• C

"
@Aiwaz said
"Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof."

ok...I gotta ask: are we eating beetles here or cakes of light?...or our 'slain illusions'? "

These verses have reminded me of the ancient Greek/Egyptian magical papyri. I haven't read through them lately, but the practitioner was often instructed to do some... um... strange things, in order to accomplish the magic. I wouldn't be surprised if beetle-eating was among those things.

The parallels with the Egyptian scarab (and Khephra) are strong, too. This is occurring in the Horus chapter of the Book, after all. And, an even more speculative connection could be the fact that these guys do in fact engage in the coprophagia that Crowley (reportedly) experimented with at one time...

The later verse ("be they long kept...") reminds me of the strange descriptions of what happens in the various stages of alchemical putrefation.

Just some stray pestilential thoughts (which is on target for the relative grossness of the above ideas, I guess!)

Steve

"ok...I gotta ask: are we eating beetles here or cakes of light?"

... or our enemies?

"Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof."

ok...I gotta ask: are we eating beetles here or cakes of light?...or our 'slain illusions'?

R.E.D.