Question regarding The Emperor card
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I somewhat understand the mobius flip-flop of Tzaddi and Heh, but the Book of Thoth brings up a question. I can understand the attributes to the switch, and have been dealing with them as such. Heh, The Star is path 15; Tzaddi, The Emperoror, is path 28.
But in The Book of Thoth, in The Emperor segment, he writes, "It is finally to be observed that the white light which descends upon him indicates the position of this card in the Tree of Life. His authority is derived from Chokmah, the createve Wisdom, the Word, and is exerted upon Tiphareth, the organized man."
I always assumed that this was a mistake, but it seems impossible to believe that A.C. would have forgotten this change. Am I missing something, or is this just an editing lapse. He has seemingly contradicted himself before, and then I realized I had overlooked something.
Curious, and would like to be less confused. -
@Aion said
"I must confess it still plays havoc for me on The Cube of Space.
Do you swap the Trumps or the Consciousnesses?"
The astrological patterns are what lock into the Cube of Space. Therefore, the NE corner corresponds to the letter Tzaddi, corresponding to Aries, The Emperor, The Natural Consciousness. The edge South-Above corresponds to Heh, Aquarius, The Star, The Constituting Consciousness.
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The "Natural Consciousness" works pretty easily for me on the NE edge. Just instantly, I look at it and think, yeah, that makes sense. It's a different take on it, but it works.
"Constituting Consciousness" comes a little more difficultly though.
I was reading some Case, and he gives the Hebrew for "Constituting" as MOMID (mem ayin mem yod daleth).
If that's correct (if memory serves me from last night), when I look it up online, both Google Translate and Strong's give it as "stand, endure, remain, take one's stand."
I can make that work through, you know, "make to stand," or "establish," and connect that with "constitute," but I was wondering if I may have made an error along the way, or if there is otherwise a more direct link? - Before I really sit down with it.
Comments?
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@Aion said
""Constituting Consciousness" comes a little more difficultly though.
I was reading some Case, and he gives the Hebrew for "Constituting" as MOMID (mem ayin mem yod daleth).
If that's correct (if memory serves me from last night), when I look it up online, both Google Translate and Strong's give it as "stand, endure, remain, take one's stand.""
Your etymology is right, and you're also right that it takes a certain amount of reframing from old habits on the point. Thing of it (to change language and paint a picture) as the Great Mother giving Form to the world. In fact the accompanying text is soooooo Binah-like, with distinctive maternal expressions also.
From my translation of The 32 Paths of Wisdom, translation and notes:
The Fifteenth Path is called the Constituting Consciousness, because it constitutes the Substance of Creation (etzem ha-B’riah) in pure darkness. According to masters of contemplation, this is that darkness referred to in Scripture, “and thick darkness its swaddling band.”
NOTES
SEKHEL MA’AMIYD (ShKL MOMYD). The root of ma’amiyd is OMD, ’amad. The primary meaning of this root is “to stand.” Its secondary meanings include: to stand firm, endure; to stand up, arise, stand erect; to raise or erect; to be constituted, set up, appointed. Of all of the synonyms that could be employed, the traditional translation “constituting” (lit., “setting up,” Latin con-stituere) is entirely apt. It means to set up, formulate, establish, compose, etc.PURE DARKNESS. The phrase translated “pure darkness” is ORPLY THVR, arafeley tahor. Kaplan, who translated it “Glooms of Purity,” remarked that this expression is found in the Musaf service for Rash Hashanah at the beginning of Shofrot, relating to the revelation at Sinai. Arafeley comes from a similar word (ORPL, arafel) meaning “the darkness of clouds” or “thick clouds;” hence Kaplan’s “gloom.” Tahor, “pure,” is the name the mode of consciousness attributed to the Ninth Path, Y’sod.
“THICK DARKNESS.” The closing phrase. “thick darkness its swaddling band,” is a direct quote from Job 38:9, VORPL ChThLThV, va-arafel ḥathoollatho.
NOTE: I seem never to have gotten around to adding that arafel is a primary sobriquet of Biynah.
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@Aion said
"Also, I can't find the Hebrew for "Natural" in my Case source. Any help?"
Happy to help. All of these are given in 776 1/2, btw. The word is MUTBO, mutva. It means “natural,” from the root tava’a (TBO) which, both in rabbinical writings and Modern Hebrew, came to be translated “nature.”
The text of The 32 Paths of Wisdom for this Path corresponding to the exaltation of the Sun reads:
The Twenty-eighth Path is called the Natural Consciousness. Through it is completed (i.e., perfected) the nature of all that exist beneath the sphere of the Sun.
It's not so much about "nature." It's about disclosing your nature, especially when expressed at its very best (most complete).
"Because of the correspondence of the Hebrew letters to the Tarot, which is prevalent in the Western Mystery Tradition, it is valuable to look more closely at how this meaning evolved. Qabalists of a hundred years ago taught that the Twenty-eighth Path of Tzaddiy corresponds to Atu XVII, The Star, one of the preeminent female images of the Tarot. Within the Thelemic model, however, it is taught that this was an error; that Tzaddiy corresponds to Atu IV, The Emperor, arguably the chief symbol of paternity, among the Tarot trumps, and, by implication, of phallic authority. In this light, in examining the root, TBO, we find that its meaning is “to sink, to press into”! From this primary meaning, it came also to mean “to impress, to seal,” as with the pressing of a royal signet into malleable wax; and then, “to sink, to be dipped in or plunged in.” The phallic implications are inescapable! In the Rabbinic Hebrew of the Midrash period, the form TBO, teva’a, came to mean a coin or medal – something that had been pressed or impressed – and, finally, a substance which is to be shaped. In Modern Hebrew, the word for the “nature” or “character” of a thing is this same TBO, teva’a.
So the “nature” of this “Natural Consciousness” is, first, only partly the field of Nature in the sense of the material world and its phenomena. This it is – from the philosophical view that this is the waxen substance which has been imprinted, shaped, and molded by the phallic, paternal, impressing, sealing, “plunging in” mode of Consciousness represented by this letter Tzaddiy. But it is also the “nature” or “character” of a person or thing, the fundamental disposition or temperament of a person – again, probably viewed as that with which he or she has been imprinted or impressed. On the Tree of Life, this Twenty-eighth Path marks the impact of the fiery desire force of Netzach, the Hidden Consciousness, on the malleable, waxen, adaptive, receptive aspect of the psyche represented by Y’sod, the Pure Consciousness."
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Well, shit. I guess I need another Eshelman book.
Nonsense aside, thanks very much for your help and your overall work in general.
I get it now.
I have the utmost respect for Case. Honestly, temperament-wise I'm probably more like him than Crowley, though you wouldn't know it from experience here, I guess. That aside, I know Case was preserving the Rosicrucian tradition as it was, for posterity, at the same time Crowley was presenting innovations, reportedly from the same source. I don't see these wills in conflict.
This was something previously concealed. That's how I look at it. I can't remember the exact quote that hints at it from the old mystical texts, but the hint certainly seems to be there. "Correction" or "revelation," ...whichever. But it makes sense.
And that frustrates me because I like consistency-over-time and simplicity of explanation, and this change is very odd and difficult to try to explain.
But I guess I'll get over it.
