16 May - (Air) Liber LXV, 2:12-13
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12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream.
13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of the midmost sun. -
the sequence from 8th till the 13th verse shows the progress through the Grades of the Order, from 1=10 to 5=6, as seen in Yetzirah
"8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many days and nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her."
Neophyte
"9. Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth."
Zelator
"10. But she stirred not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to blackness before me."
Practicus
"11. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of the flower of my youth."
Philosophus
"**12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream. **"
Dominus Liminis
"13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of the midmost sun."
Adeptus Minor
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That's exceptional! I'd never seen it. Crowley's commentary doesn't touch it. But it's dead on.
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12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream.
13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of the midmost sun.I owned these books many years ago, and the narrative comes back to me as the parts are strung together. This section in particular made a lasting impression on me—today's, and the previous two days.
There is perhaps some easy association I can make with these images and IAO, the natural rhythm of mystical transformation through the dark night of the soul; the emergence of the new faculty, or understanding that dawns when the image of itself sickens and dies—sickness and corruption of the image of the world/self, Nun being the fifty gates of Understanding. These lines refer, perhaps, to an inner journey of mind when all is said and done—the image of nature—the daughter becomes a 'black woman' in the process of the mind confronting it's own hubris, dying to itself, becoming old. This is the death of an old mode of thought and analysis, and the birth of a new faculty above the abyss?
I can and probably should turn this into a meditation—conceive a beautiful maiden who I worship and make love to, day after day as she slowly, lifelessly corrupts into a form of sickness, blackness, and repulsion—a thing of disgust. It would recall certain Tibetan Buddhist meditations, and Christs' descent in Hell. There is a fury and a curse in the darkness of the mind, the unconscious if you will. If you run from it it will chase you—Bloom in Nighttown.
Nekyia - In ancient Greek cult-practice and literature, a nekyia (ἡ νέκυια) is a "rite by which ghosts were called up and questioned about the future," i.e., necromancy. A number of sites in Greece and Italy were dedicated wholly or in part to this practice.
But of course, when the night of terror has ended, you find that you are still whole, and Penelope is waiting for you in Ithica. I am not there yet. I hold this at arms length. The idea of a blackening corpse that I make love to does not do much for me, but the idea that I would subject myself to my own nightmare world freaks me out!
Each day, I approach the morning meditation as my old self—a victim to forces ill understood that would rather have me find some excuse for not working, or delay it just a little. Each day, after I have prayed for help and examined my heart to make sure of its devotion in this effort I walk away from the meditation a new man, more committed to the time when I will be able to give everything. This is a long way off.
Nevertheless, I want to say that it feels like my life it is this nightmare, just in slow motion, and not fully appreciated for what it is because I am just not that awake to appreciate the full dynamic, to receive the initiation. But for the most part, this isn't a mystical practice, it's just my life.
Love and Will
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It's kind of obvious, but these verses always reminded me of the alchemical stages of nigredo and albedo.
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[present. Ponders all these things in his heart.]
This is the first time I've ever even approached understanding this.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"That's exceptional! I'd never seen it. Crowley's commentary doesn't touch it. But it's dead on."
thanks!
it just came to mind today when I read the verses for this day here