Thelemic elemental assignments
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Hi,
I have a group of questions as to how/why Crowley changed the elemental assignments for the new Aeon.
Before settling on Thelema I mainly used the older GD system.
I can understand the simple logic of the new aeon attributions when performing the Star Ruby - it makes sense to start with the lowest element and move to the highest - and also still starting in the east where the sun rises.
When banishing and therefore moving widdershins this works - but if adapting SR to invoke the elements then arn't the elements now out of any kind of sensible order? When moving deosil then Earth would be invoked in the east first, followed then by fire, water, air?
I ask because I always found the Greater Invoking Ritual of the pentagram as very useful. Sometimes to invoke all the elements for balance. Sometimes invoking just those I felt the need to focus on to improve balance - or if need be to deliberately be off balance if I felt a particular day was going to require the heavy influence of one or more specific elemental energies.
Although Crowley improved the LBRP to create the Star Ruby and the same with the Hexagram ritual to arrive at the Star Sapphire, I have not seen a Thelemic version of a greater invoking pentagram ritual.
From a balancing perspective the GD elemental attributions work well. The magician stands in the center of his circle facing east with the Active/Male element of Air banalcing perfectly the Passive/Female element of water behind him. The idea being that Air/Intellect without the balance of love/emotion results in cruelty, and pure emotion/feeling without being balanced by intelect results in obsession and delusion. (same principle with Active Fire balancing Passive Earth). In the Thelemic system we now have the two active male elements opposite each other (north/south) and the two passive female elements also opposite each other (east/west). What is the symbology here? Is there a purpose to this?
How does this work also with the NOX signs? Earth is usually a passive female element - so why did Crowley attribute earth with Therion and the sign of Vir? Placing the Earth pentagram in the east makes sense at first glance - assuming its zodiac assignment remains the same (Taurus) - I could see the sembalance with the beast/bull although this is still not right as Taurus is a female sign and related to Hathor. Did Crowley move the zodiac attributions in this way? - I do not remember reading so.
Interestingly he keeps the old aeon attributions when working with Liber Chanokh - why did he not change the assignments of the elemental tablets here also? Bearing in mind that the Golden Dawn adapted/embelished the enochian system with their own correspondences, why did Crowley not do the same?
I have been experimenting with updating the GIRP to align it with the new Aeon. Reguli seems designed to invoke the forces of the Aeon of Horus in general - im not sure it works as well if used to invoke a single element. The Widdershins spiral dance and direction followed to invoke the elements would at least need to be reversed.
Has anyone adapted GIRP to use the new aeon elemental assignments? Should I not do this and expand the Star Ruby instead? Is it more important to invoke lowest to highest than worry about Deosil vs Widdershins use for invoking/banishing?
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@Serpentarius said
"I have a group of questions as to how/why Crowley changed the elemental assignments for the new Aeon."
I wouldn't call these "Thelemic elemental assignments" or "for the new Aeon" but, rather, assignments he created for two or three specific rituals.
It took me years to get past the idea that elemental assignments to quarters were in some fashion fixed. At some point it just clicked in that, while there is value in having common standardization in group work, and while there are well-established and Qabalistically assigned patterns of assignments (and, as you likely know, more than one of these!), the attributions may vary depending on the ritual.
The normal Microcosmic attributions, which the GD perpetuated (from much older traditions) especially for its First Order work, are based on the letters of Adonai (ADNI) clockwise from the east; but (as you likely know), the GD also employed a Macrocosmic scheme for within the Vault (and somewhat more generally for the Second Order), based on the letters of Tetragrammaton (YHVH) counter-clockwise from east. There's another pattern for the Supernals based on the letters of Eheieh (AHIH) arranged in a cross.
But there are other schemes that have a disticntive place. Consider a Malkuth ritual wherein the elements are attributed as on the painting of Malkuth, with Air to the east, Earth to the west, Fire to the north, and Water to the south.
"I can understand the simple logic of the new aeon attributions when performing the Star Ruby - it makes sense to start with the lowest element and move to the highest - and also still starting in the east where the sun rises."
And this is only one version of the Star Ruby. The Book of Lies version uses the G.D. Macrocosmic scheme with Fire in the East, etc. You've exactly targetted the point here: One attribution is suited for beginners still mastering the pre-Adept grades; another is for the working of an Adept.
"but if adapting SR to invoke the elements"
Ah, that's the point - the Star Ruby is only a banishing ritual. It was never intended to be used for invoking.
"I ask because I always found the Greater Invoking Ritual of the pentagram as very useful."
Me too. (Or even the Lesser.)
"Sometimes to invoke all the elements for balance."
Star Ruby isn't the ritual for that purpose. It's a banishing. Stick with the classic Pentagram Rituals (as Crowley did his entire life BTW). I'm not sure he ever intended the Star Ruby to be an actual replacement for the older Pentagram Ritual but, if he did, then it was a brief and passing idea because he personally practiced the earlier forms his whole life (and it is the classic LBR that he sent to his students in California in the 1930s and '40s).
"How does this work also with the NOX signs?"
They aren't attributed to the quarters. They are all done at the center with a specific pattern. The N.O.X. dsigns are the grade signs of 6=5 through Babe of the Abyss (7=4 Maj.), and are done after the elements are balanced and one has assumed the center. They are not used at the quarters in the way you're used to with the First Order signs in the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram.
"why did Crowley attribute earth with Therion"
Think of the Kerubs. Earth in this sense of the Bull Kerub = Vav = The Hierophant. There's more, but that's a start.
"and the sign of Vir?"
In the Star Ruby, he didn't.
"Interestingly he keeps the old aeon attributions when working with Liber Chanokh"
He keeps them in nearly all of his work (but not all). They are the standard.
"Has anyone adapted GIRP to use the new aeon elemental assignments?"
In Temple of Thelema, we've been quite careful not to do so. As I said, the older attributions are the standard (as they remained with Crowley).
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Thanks Jim!
I read somewhere (might even have been a poster on this very forum) that the rituals of the old aeon should not be used - and was therefore troubled at being "denied" the GIRP, Middle Pillar, etc.