18 April - (Earth) Liber LXV, 1:18-20
-
18. So also the light that is absorbed. One absorbs little, and is called white and glistening; one absorbs all and is called black.
19. Therefore, O my darling, art thou black.
20. O my beautiful, I have likened thee to a jet Nubian slave, a boy of melancholy eyes. -
18. So also the light that is absorbed. One absorbs little, and is called white and glistening; one absorbs all and is called black.
19. Therefore, O my darling, art thou black.
20. O my beautiful, I have likened thee to a jet Nubian slave, a boy of melancholy eyes.Maybe it's just where I am in relation to my own path, but I keep going back and forth between Binah and the thirty-second path. The Rites of Eleusis begin with the fall of Saturn. At the same time the path of return begins with learning the lessons of Saturn. This echo has the effect of my wanting to collapse the whole work into a single gesture.
Clearly this quote is all about the blackness of Binah, and the homoerotic themes are a variant on the daughter, set upon the throne of the mother, etc. But there is also that other blackness near the beginning of the journey. I can easily make a distinction between them, but the paean of love seems especially appropriate when applied to the soul in its most un-regenerated state of darkness, yes, even at the beginning. For me, this image of the desire of the HGA for the soul, even in its greatest degree of servitude or slavery to illusion, is quite moving.
It totally redefines the purpose of incarnation and the value of this mess we are in.
EDIT: adding onto the last line—for me, this way of looking at the text does something amazing to the whole notion of perfection as presented in the original text. It has a way of collapsing the work into a single gesture by destroying the path itself.
Love and Will