19 October (Luna) Liber VII, 6:20-25
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20. Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor.
21. See! he has summoned us to the Imperial dais.
The night falls; it is a great orgy of worship and bliss.
22. The night falls like a spangled cloak from the shoulders of a prince upon a slave.
23. He rises a free man!
24. Cast thou, O prophet, the cloak upon these slaves!
25. A great night, and scarce fires therein; but freedom for the slave that its glory shall encompass. -
In the old aeons, when we looked up to God, we saw AB, the Father, an Emperor before whom we should kneel and swear obedience. Today, looking with our hearts towards wisdom, we see Infinite Space and Her stars. The Emperor we adored is a fool, is blown away like leaves in the wind, and we come forth, Her children, wearing the cloak of freedom. We stand as scintillating fires in that great Night.
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20. Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor.
21. See! he has summoned us to the Imperial dais.
The night falls; it is a great orgy of worship and bliss.
22. The night falls like a spangled cloak from the shoulders of a prince upon a slave.
23. He rises a free man!
24. Cast thou, O prophet, the cloak upon these slaves!
25. A great night, and scarce fires therein; but freedom for the slave that its glory shall encompass.It used to be the Emperor Card was assigned to the Hebrew letter Heh and and the 15th path. This passage seems more logical with the newer attribution of the Star, not the Emperor, imho.
Thou and I are beloved of the Priestess of the Silver Star.
See! she has summoned us to the Imperial dais.Forgive me if I am wrong, but Crowley was still using the old system when he transmitted/wrote this book?
If it wern't for the fact that I see in these versus the essential, sensual nature of Luna—freedom of body and spirit, an end to shame, I would have been reluctant to have rewritten the text; but it seems appropriate since the theme is pretty much: do what thou wilt.
EDIT: I wanted to add this observation, and then spaced it:
Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor.
I = Tiphareth; and Thou = Chokmah. These are the two ends of the 15th path.Love and Will
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O Heavenly Bridegroom, bring me to that orgy of worship and of bliss! In the night of ignorance in which I languish, a slave, cast Thou upon my shoulders the cloak of freedom, the Night of Our Lady of the Stars. Let me burn as a fire therein.
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One could argue that in this passage, the Emperor is Kether, who has invited the master (Binah) and his angel (Chokmah) to approach his dais. Then (in keeping with the lunar theme of the chapter), the cloak of stars is the Veil of ISIS (= Infinite Space, Infinite Stars), the path that leads to the Imperial dais.
Ah, but this is not the place for argument, but for the bhakti of worship and bliss. O Son of the Morning, Chief among the Mighty! Thou art the exaltation of the Sun and the diurnal house of Strength! Thou are Sight and Light, and Thou hast favored the prophet and his angel for that they are servants of the Star and the Snake. And as the snake = Scorpio = Nun, and the star = Vav (which is the pentagram by Tarot and the hexagram by gematria), so they are the servants of NU, whose image is the great night with scarce fires.
And as we could not see the stars unless their light filled all space, so Her NOX and Thy LVX are one.
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No argument. I'm a big fan of those connections a person makes for themselves. I do it all the time myself. I have no problem saying, or more often thinking "to hell with the orthodox interpretation." Not that I am not still interested in what the official interpretation, or the traditional association should be; but if it doesn't work for me, there is very little the correct answer can provide until I understand its necessity.
But in terms of the various possibilities, when there are several, it often seems to me the different technical points add up to more or less the same idea. For example: The Star tarot trump could, and has been used, as conceptually synonymous with Nuit—if not the goddess herself, then her priestess with the starry body of Nuit overhead.
A personal example: Kether as Dais would never work for me because of what my image of what a dais is—there is usually more than one station on it, at least in my experience, so the supernal triad as a group is a better fit. That's just what works for me. I also tend to think, and this is just my experience with such things, when anyone, especially Crowley uses the word Emperor it usually means the tarot trump. But this later point could be modified if I were to find a number of good exceptions to meditate on.
@gmugmble said
"and the star = Vav (which is the pentagram by Tarot"
Vav?
If so, I'd love a fuller explanation. EDIT: fifth trump, but why make the connection—what does it do?Love and Will
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@gmugmble said
"and the star = Vav (which is the pentagram by Tarot"Vav?
If so, I'd love a fuller explanation. EDIT: fifth trump, but why make the connection—what does it do?Love and Will"
It was just an off-the-cuff association. I was on a roll this morning. (Or on something.)