8=3 to 9=2
-
I know I posted on your Facebook but thought I would add another comment here as I think about this...
To me, there is a desire to grasp many things. As magicians I think we all suffer from this, or at least I haven't met one yet that doesn't desire to know ALL things. But take a step back from the statement and think about why it exists. Does it exist to give you an understanding of what is meant by it or does it exist to wet your appetite?
I ask this because in most other fields understanding only comes from progression. Meaning that you can't understand Quantum String Theory on your first day of Kindergarten. You first need to learn how to add and subtract, multiply, solve algebraic equations, integrate, etc.
Is this no different? Can one truly grasp the ideas and thoughts of the anything above ones current station? There are lessons to learn, trials to overcome, etc and isn't it these events and learning moments which will give us TRUE understanding of what any elevated statements might mean? Is any other understanding just a mere delusion of our ego?
I know this falls into your "You can't possibly fathom it below the Abyss." category but think on it.
-
@Blythe A. Blanche said
""To attain the grade of Magus he [the Magister Templi] must accomplish Three Tasks; the renunciation of His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself as the Finite..."
~ One Star in Sight ~It's only this first Task that I'm inquiring about, and it's a broad inquiry: What exactly does this Task imply? To break down the question, what is the "enjoyment of the Infinite," in the least mystical terms possible? What does it mean to "formulate Himself as the Finite"?"
First, it's worth saying that this is the task associated with the Path of Heh, The Star. Symbolism of that Path may make this clearer. (Meditate on it <vbg>. The card, I mean.)
The Magus is the embodiment of a particular Word - a singular expression. The M.T. is doctrinally indifferent, but the Magus cannot be. The M.T. is the perfect, immediate implementer of whatever ray strikes her (one might say, she gets pregnant from every passing glance), almost unconsciously taking the Word of her beloved (whatever it is!) and bringing it into existence. But the Magus must be One Particular Thing (emphasis on the "particle" part of "particular").
"Enjoyment of the infinite": Another part of the M.T. grade, which I also associate with Heh / Aquarius / The Star, is the Vision of Wonder. This is elaborated in Little Essays. Here is a discussion of it from Chapter 78 of Confessions.
@Confessions, Cap. 78 said
"Only one other [grade besides 5=6] is equally cardinal: the grade of Master of the Temple, which is the Threshold of the Order of the A.'.A.'.. I have called the vision corresponding to this the ‘Vision of Wonder’ which permeates one’s daily life in a similar way. The difference ** is that penetrating beyond sensory perceptions, one is aware of the mechanism of events, of the subtle chain of causes which connect them. One perceives in detail how each impression necessarily succeeds its forerunner. The effect is that one is lost in wonder at the ingenuity of the universe, to use a very inadequate word, as being the only one available. One feels the intense awed admiration which the greatest masterpieces of Kant, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Riemann, Kelvin, and such as they inspired, with this difference: that all impressions are equally puissant to produce it."
PS - Because you said you wanted "the least mystical terms possible," I've given a rather sparse discussion. It's all mystical - that is, these are mystical processes. You're asking about the relationship of Neshamah and Chiah, after all.
-
This is difficult to explain because it requires a degree of initiation (small "I")....a certain worldveiw so to speak. But I will try anyway:)
The necessary momentum needed to cross the abyss will only put u in the abyss. In other words, His enjoyment of the Infinite is what pushes him into the abyss. But this same thing brings about an inertia that will trap you within the abyss( this is different from being slammed back into Chesed).
There are diferent ways to experience the crossing of the abyss. One thing is common for every experience....The Vision Of Sorrow. Its this that traps u in the abyss.
When u experience the Vision Of Sorrow u will Understand why ur enjoyment of the infinite is a deadly poison.
-
@Blythe A. Blanche said
""To attain the grade of Magus he [the Magister Templi] must accomplish Three Tasks; the renunciation of His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself as the Finite..."
~ One Star in Sight ~""I am alone: there is no God where I am."
Usually the simplest answer is the most difficult to explain:p
-
It's the bodhisattva vow.
The MT has attained Nirvanah and in complete in himself, one with the infinite dissolution master of the formula of Solve. But to progress to the great work one must not simply Identify with the cosmos as it is now, the Magus must create something new beyond the world, a Word, which is a lie. That is it's a not true yet, it requires work to make it true, it's a statement of intent spoken on behalf of the whole universe. The magus must formulate himself again as a particular and work, must renounce the absolute and work in the conditional to transform the nature of the conditional. The MT empties himself of ego and personality in order to receive the Word without personal bias. The magus then must reformulate himself as the expression of that word, and manifest that word in every action upon the conditional material plane. Thus for the Magus the great work is essentially practical, even political. The Magus is the Master of Coagula.
Solve = mysticism and Theurgy
Coagula = magick, establishing religion and culture, and Thaumaturgy. -
Regarding the initial progression from M.T. to Magus, I've always liked this image:
www.myspace.com/felicia_travels_nebula/photos/11558182
The particular was raised to and permanently absorbed into Nuit upon crossing the abyss to become the homogeneous waters of the great sea of Binah. After being fermented in this state for however long there forms a seed in the darkness. The infinite now distills back into awareness akin to the all-seeing eye where there is no individual creating obfuscation. This liberates a great boon of life energy akin to the Chiah soul of Chokmah. The beginning stage of the Magus is akin to Mercurius birthing from the great sea as above, a baby's gnosis per Hoor-paar-kraat, the buddha, etc.
The main process as I see it is the distillation of the those universal waters into an enlightened Buddha drop as it were, where one is now fully awakened in contrast to when one was below the abyss and separated from the continuity of Nuit.