23 October (Venus) Liber VII, 7:1-5
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1. By the burning of the incense was the Word revealed, and by the distant drug.
2. O meal and honey and oil! O beautiful flag of the moon, that she hangs out in the center of bliss!
3. These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the feet of Osiris, so that the flaming God may rage through the firmament with his fantastic spear.
4. But of pure black marble is the sorry statue, and the changeless pain of the eyes is bitter to the blind.
5. We understand the rapture of that shaken marble, torn by the throes of the crowned child, the golden rod of the golden God. -
This one gets to me.
It reminds me about how every experience of light seems to shatter both my sense of identity, and my sense of corporeal existence.
Somehow, letting go of attachment to the black god, Osiris, seems like such a personal task today.
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This has been my favorite chapter of Liber VII for decades. When I selected this chapter to memorize as a 1=10, I remarked to Soror Meral that it was the one that reminded me of Liber LXV the most in terms of tone and style. She replied that of course it did - it was the Venus chapter and concerns love.
As does the whole of Liber VII, of course - it as deeply a work of Bhakti Yoga as, say, The Dark Night of the Soul. But this chapter has the greatest power to move me directly.
These opening verses have imagery the is so compelling. Meal, honey, and oil seem to be the corn, honey, and oil of the Fellowcraft ceremony and to refer to Malkuth, Tiphereth, and Kether - and direct ascent up the middle pillar to where the "beautiful flag of the moon" is hung "out in the center of bliss!" Verse 3 is transformative, and some of the most compelling imagery for the awakening of the 1=10 to the Mysteries of Yesod (even corresponding fairly literally to a core event in the 2=9 initiation ceremony) - but, more so, speaks of real life being unfurled in response to love. Verses 4 and 5 start to disclose a deeper understanding of the Isis archetype as the day and night of our psyche come passionately together.
As with most parts of Liber VII, it's difficult to express the raw emotional power (much deeper, richer, and more refined in this chapter than in the prior ones) because the text is complexly technical - yet to discuss it as a technical text is to miss the entire point. The most useful way still seems to be to place the actual images in the mind and let them have their effect on one.