11 January (Heru-Ra-Ha) Liber CCXX, 3:1-2
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(v. 146) 1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.
(v. 147) 2. There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit! -
In Nomine Adonai AMEN.
The Tiphereth verse within the Samekh decanate of verses begins the third chapter. If we did not already know that all expressions of Horus in this book are veils for the Holy Guardian Angel, the numeric symbolism of the first verse might tell us that. In this I remember, throughout my day, that Name by which He made Himself known to me.
@CCXX said
"(v. 146) 1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut."
These five (or seven) words have several simultaneous interlocking meanings.
Chapters I and II opened with identifying (or caption) verses declaring the former to be "the manifestation of Nuit" and the latter "the hiding of Hadit" (Greek ΑΔ = Hebrew אדם). Nuit and Hadit represent the two great complementary polarities of infinity. She "bends down;" He "lifts up" himself. Their union is in the Hexagram, the ensign of love, union, and the fulfillment of the Great Work. All of this is represented by the word "Abrahadabra."
"Abrahadabra" - as we learned in 1:20 (120!) - is "The key of the rituals," a sobriquet of the Rosy Cross. It would be perfectly correct, I believe, to read this verse as "The Rosy Cross; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut."
Abrahadabra is especially a word of eleven letters which unites the 5 with the 6, the Microcosm with the Macrocosm, ΑΓΑΠΗ with ΘΕΛΗΜΑ. ("Had" in the midst of 11 letters = Had as the "secret centre" of Nuit.) In Abrahadabra is the completion and fulfillment of the Great Work. consummata est, "It is finished," and סוף, "end, limit."] It is especially the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (Abrahadabra is especially a symbol of the 5=6 equilibration.) The Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is "the reward of Ra Hoor Khut." Horus is an exterior image, or "visible object of worship," of the Holy Guardian Angel, the Child (of the Great Mother and Great Father) who is part of the Magical Image of Tiphereth.
The exact form here - Ra Hoor Khut - is different from the form encountered previously, in Cap. I. For one thing, its numerical value is 10 less, 453. This is also the value of Behemoth (BHMVTh), the great land-monster of Hebrew mythology; and of nephesh chiah (NPhSh ChYH) "breath of life," a term for the Animal Soul in its fullness, i.e., including the Creative Will (Chiah).
I also suspect that this orthography is intended to point us in a particular direction. The name "Ra-Hoor-Khuit" does not appear, as such, in any of the old Egyptian records; but there are some very similar names, especially Ra-Heru-Khuti or Ra-Heru-Khut. I think the Author of this Book is directing our attention to that particular archetype.
Heru-Khuti is a very common name in the old writings. It is the Horakhte of which Fagan especially wrote, properly translated "Horus of the Horizon." Heru-Khuti or Horakhte (the Greek Hrumachis) is an especially mighty and wondrous manifestation of the Sun, virtually a Redeemer God. This name usually appears in combination with other names which specify the exact aspect of the Sun which is intended; for example, Tum-Heru-Khuti is the setting Sun.
Ra-Heru-Khuti (or Ra Hoor Khut) is, then, especially the rising Sun, the inner and natural experiences alike which can at once be represented by a Golden Dawn and the Rosy Cross. The newborn Sun, rapturously rising at dawn, is a stupendous emblem of this "reward." When the "i" is added in the next verse, returning the value to 463, this symbol is again identified with Sushumna. It especially represents the translation of the nephesh chiah (453) into Sushumna (463). Here, in verse 1, the name is more specifically telling us that, in the dawning of this new Aeon of the Child, Hrumachis hath arisen (cf. verse 34).
I also recall Crowley’s observation that "reward" may have a double meaning; i.e., it may mean to "re-ward," to set the wards again.
Thus, in this great Ritual of the Equinox of the Gods, the knell of the new Utterance hath sounded, the new Hierophant hath been seated upon His throne in the East ("throne" implies Binah as well; thus, His is a Supernal office of super-consciousness), and the universal temple is now to be re-warded - purified, consecrated, and sealed upon the reception of all the officers into their stations. The dictation (and verily the reading!) of this Third Chapter is a ritual whose guardians are now securely posted so that we may hear the promulgation of the Aeon - so to speak, the Hierophant’s lection of the occasion.
@CCXX said
"(v. 147) 2. There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!"
There is a clean, clear start at the beginning of this new chapter. The first two or three verses are setting up what is to follow. The function of this verse 2 is parallel the function of Chokmah in the Tree of Life, and it commences by declaring a fundamental duality: "There is division."
In this verse, as well, there seem to be multiple simultaneous meanings (although only one primary current, which I shall get to in a bit). For example, "division" reflects that the God of this chapter is a Twin-God. The path of the Twins, Zayin, opens from the Sphere of Tiphereth just acknowledged (in verse 1) unto the Sphere of Binah, "home." Whereas Nuit in Cap. I is the foundation or basis of nihilism, and Hadit in Cap. II of monism, so is Heru-Ra-Ha in Cap. III the foundation of a philosophy of dualism. Within Thelema, all three of these rivers of philosophy coexist, and our Qabalah shows how they are necessarily interrelated and coexistent.
But the primary meaning here, I am sure, is along other lines. "...the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all" (1:30). This verse, this entire chapter, simultaneously displays the Next Step for humanity collectively, and the Next Step for each of us individually. The enthroning of Horus is for the world what the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is for the individual. Throughout Chapter 3, we will see this parallel, repeatedly and (I think) exactly.
The "division" is the fundamental duality within us each, and especially the separation from the Holy Guardian Angel, the "wound" that is to be healed - the mystery of the Divine Twins in many lands, especially as treated by Jung and Hillman. The pain of this division "is as nothing," yet, "the joy of dissolution" is "all." It is unto the Reality that is Heru-Ra-Ha that the world must turn, that it must embrace; and it is unto the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, "the joy of dissolution," that each must turn. This division is "hither homeward," i.e., between "here" and "home," the final goal (which, perhaps due to equations of "home" and "mother," keeps appearing to me as Binah).
"there is a word not known." Every word of this is pregnant with rich meaning! "there is a word" may mean only "a word exists;" but I believe it means "there is a word." It is "there," in or at the state called "home." This "word" is a teaching, a doctrine, a key - not, perhaps, literally verbal; in fact ("Spelling is defunct"), I am pretty sure no literal word (one made up of actual letters) is meant. It is silent Truth, Will in motion. It may be the "word not" (LA), as one of the ubiquitous "31" keys to this Book; but it is clearly "not known." We do not have "knowledge" of it, in the sexual (union) sense. It is "there," at "home," and we have not yet united ourselves with this Logos of our being.
Note also that this is not a "Lost Word." It would have been the easiest thing for Aiwass to have dictated, "the word is lost." But this new Word has never yet been found! It is still unknown, unembraced, "undesired, most desirable."
Again, the doctrine is very explicitly that of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
"Spelling is defunct." At one level, this warns us that we should not play word games in trying to find this "word not known." But I also agree with AC that the double use of "spelling" and "spell" in this verse is a clue, that the "spelling" which is defunct is the old way of executing spells.
"Spelling is defunct." The old ways of composing letters and words (ideas, themes, forms) is outdated. "Defunct," as AC suggested, means, "no longer able to function." New modes of magical working, new formulae, now emerge.
"all is not aught." I think I will skip this sentence for the rest of this lifetime! The word "aught" has the damnable quality (useful, however, in the metaphysics of Nuit) of meaning both "everything" (all) and "nothing." In English this sentence either means "All is not all," or "All is not nothing." By Qabalah it gets even more confusing, with such equations as all = 61 = AYN ("nothing"), both equal to "aught" in meaning. The problem with this sentence is that it means so much - virtually everything! - that it means nothing at all. (God, I didn't mean to do that!) Astounding! The sentence itself, by its very character of complex simultaneous meanings, enacts by the process of the sentence the literal meaning(s) of the sentence. Four words. Thirteen letters. A tremendously, marvelously complete and multilevel summation of Chapter I’s doctrine. But why is it here? What has it to do with this verse in this chapter? My guess is that (by its incomprehensibility and simultneous internal self-contradiction and self-affirmation, if nothing else) it is intended to lift the mind out of Ruach into Neshamah, expanding on the effect of the immediately proceeding sentence, "Spelling is defunct."
"Beware," though expressed as a warning, simply means, "Be wary!" or "Be alert!" Aiwass is hollering, "Heads up!" It is an instruction in attentiveness, concentration, and mindfulness. "Hold" probably refers to self-discipline more than to halting or groping. Together, "Beware! Hold!" are an instruction in the method of yoga.
And the consequence - which is also our "assignment" - is the "raising" of "the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit." Among all its other interlocking meanings, this especially refers to the raising of the kundalini in the attainment of the K&C of the HGA, pictured in terms of this solar-phallic-Self-GOD (Ra-Hoor-Khu-it).
Ra-Hoor-Khuit (RA-HVVR-KVYT) = 463. This is the value of the Middle Pillar of the Tree of Life (Th = 400, S = 60, G = 3) and of Sushumna (SVShVMNA). This solar-phallic-Self-GOD is the Sushumna, who is our Middle Pillar.
This, then, is the fulfillment - and the uttering of the Word (this verse 2) - of which the redemptive and effulgent rising Sun of verse 1, Ra Hoor Khut, is the seed of promise.
"there is a word not known." Compare this to the corresponding verse in Cap. II, "Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed." In Cap. I, the corresponding verse is, "The unveiling of the company of heaven." They are very similar, but with a progressive withdrawal from naked disclosure.