College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

56 is, without a doubt, my most favorite verse from this work.

Reap thou, and rejoice!

Then again, I'm not sure the above interpretation of v. 27 particularly fits with the Chiah-Neschamah communication Jim has indicated is the context of the passage. (This is made particularly apparent by v.26)

The problem is perhaps a difference of perspective; the perspective indicated in these verses being one which I can't fully comprehend.

"**25. Thou wast long seeking Me; thou didst run forward so fast that I was unable to come up with thee.
O thou darling fool! what bitterness thou didst crown thy days withal.

26. Now I am with thee; I will never leave thy being. **"

Awesome. So glad I logged in to check the meditation. I think this passage speaks for itself; theres little I could add to improve the elegant clarity.

"27. For I am the soft sinuous one entwined about thee, heart of gold!"

I like this. According to Carroll, at the center of consciousness is absolutely nothing. Everything that is, is only a distortion of this one pure void. The serpent that twines around this core of perfection symbolizes the grip of experience, of existence. Heart of gold symbolizes Love, and the Will to Love and unite with this experience joyously.

Just a quick thought before I run out the door to work.

I don't think there is any inherent gender to the HGA apart from that which we require of it. Mine tends to be female because that is the form (as opposed to nature) by which I could comprehend it when the experience occurred. Names are a type of form. The name of an entity gives clue to its nature and allows you to work with it more.

Is what you're saying that you encountered a being who offered the name Qadesh? And wondering whether to attribute that to your HGA or not?

I wouldn't. Merely because we encounter lots of things in the astral, and most of them are not specifically your Angel. And when you encounter it, you will be a lot more certain of its identity than the above question makes you sound.

Back on the subject of Bacchus: I dig that association. There is a very euphoric, intoxicating quality to encounters with the HGA that seems (in hindsight) like being very, happily, drunk...and not caring.

Yes, I was talking about for the purposes of Gematria. Actually, I was specifically wondering about substituting hebrew characters to obtain a numerical value for an english word. So the Teth/Tav thing is good to know. Appears I had that one backwards. But I suppose what matters most is internal consistency.

Thanks, Av. Ben., for your exhaustive answer. I'll keep that info in mind for when I'm doing something more in-depth than basic gematria.

Quick question on Transliterating English to Hebrew--

this has been bugging me for a while;

Is there a convention to determine whether you transliterate the English 'S' to Samech or Shin?

How about 'T'; Teth or Tav?

I have generally used Samech for 'S' and Shin for 'Sh'; also Tav for 'T' and Teth for 'Th'. But I have often seen respected Qabalists use the exact opposite. I don't know enough about the actual pronunciation of the Hebrew letters to answer this question on a phonetic basis. I'd appreciate some input.