Something I noticed many years ago, about 2010 when I first got the Thoth Tarot deck, was how at the bottom of The Universe card, which is also on the cover of The Book of Thoth itself, has what appears to be circuits of a computer chip. The Thoth Tarot, however, was created by Lady Frieda Harris at the direction of Crowley over the years of 1938-1944, and the first integrated circuit chip was only created in 1958 by Jack St. Clair Kilby and Robert Noyce of Texas Instruments.As the complement to The Fool, the 'first' tarot card numbered 0 which is attributed to 'Air', The Universe (21) is attributed to the earthy, lower Saturn, the dense alchemical lead of materiality and the physical plane. In its inverted sense, this dense physical becomes very restrictive and as Kenneth Grant says regarding the qliphoth or 'shadow'-side of this Path, "These are typified by the forces of restriction and incarceration symbolised by Saturn." -Nightside of Eden, page 254. And as a friend of mine, Soror 722, once said, the entire 'Agenda 21' is related to the inversion of The Universe card, because instead of freedom and livelihood when upside-down it is akin to the forces of Ahriman. While Ahriman is sometimes considered an 'air' demon, so too Lucifer is the the Prince of the Air and the Earth. This is the Spirit and Matter in simple terms, the ends of the electromagnetic 'lightning flash' that composes the Tree and Manifestation itself. Grant also ends up saying that the disease typical of this kala (or Tunnel) is arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries that is the adjunct of senility and the onset of the final rigor. He also says that "The works of this tunnel include incarceration or 'tying up as a corpse' in the swathings of eternity". Negative stillness or stagnance.
Most important to remember is that "The 32nd Path (the 21st Atu) transmits the astral energies of Yesod to the sphere of Malkuth thereby effecting the final 'earthing' of all the kalas and influences that have streamed through the tunnels from 'Pluto' (Kether) and Earth (Malkuth). but at this utmost and final earthing of the cosmic current a sudden reversal occurs; and this is the formula of Magick itself that the Current having earthed itself in Malkuth now turns back upon itself and streaks up the Tree to dissolve in its source in the transcosmic centers of energy represented by Kether.
Thus 'Malkuth is in Kether and Kether is in Malkuth, though after a different manner'. The Bride is celebrated in the final verse of Liber CCXXXI with the words:
And in the heart of the Sphinx danced the Lord Adonai, in his garlands of roses and pearls making glad the concourse of things, yea making glad the concourse of things." Note also that while Aleph means 'Ox', referring to the Bull, Tau has a special relation to Taurus, the Bull (and both symbols for Aleph and Tau are related to the Cross, א / ת.)
'Tau', it should be remembered, is a major symbol in Masonry which is Three-fold and related to the Royal Arch of Enoch. This Tau is also yet again reflected in the Magick Circle of the Magus in Crowley's system according to Book 4. In its downward or inverted form, the 'T' forms the phallic shape of which the Cross in the Rose (Yoni) & Cross (Phallus) symbolism corresponds. On page 241 of his book Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, Masonic author J.S.M Ward wrote that "The tau cross is also a symbol of the male or creative side of deity, and is really a convent ionised form of the phallus (penis)'
The Three Directions symbolize not only the 3-Dimensions but also the Three Gunas which are figured on the Wheel of Fortune card; Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas which correspond also to the Alchemical Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. They are also the 'Three Fates', 'Past-Present-Future', and pretty much any cosmic universal trinity aligns with these Three Supernal nodes - but also last but not least the three states of Waking, Dreaming and Deep-Sleep, the three main coils of the Kundalini with the 'one half' being the 'between'-state of Turiya, or 'Twilight', Pure Consciousness. This is the 'hidden light' which is generated from the triple-power and then precipitated or 'Rayed' and reflected out into different gradations of being into physical growth and, at least ideally, gradually entering into the higher planes through the vehicular Temple of the Three Bodies, the Trikaya of Buddhism.
Alice Bailey, though demonized by the far-Right Christian sects (who she really wrote her books as manuals of further enlightenment for), actually has a rather simple system regarding the understanding of the 'occult' hierarchy of Man in her first book Initiation; Human and Solar which anyone of any background should make themselves privy to.
"As Above, So Below"; "As Within, So Without"
The Egyptian Temple of Edfu has been noticed to resemble the general structure of a Central Processing Unit and its parts. The complex at Teotihuacan in central Mexico, the Aztec temple meaning 'birthplace of the Gods', or 'road of the Gods' also somewhat resembles a common chip structure.
And now, with cities covering much of the land the network mentioned even as far back as Hopi legend are shown to be reflected as a sort of macrocosmic computer-network of which we act like a hive-mind. A natural 'hierarchy' of sorts is inevitable, both socially and individually, as Initiation and all progress itself must take place gradually according to degrees.
The general direction is tending toward total automatic control - and soon enough most buildings, electronics and bought objects will be easily connected to a series of networks which can all effectively be tapped by virtually any capable engineer. This also presents the problem of course of quickly loosing 'control' and even understanding in a generation or two and therefore lapses in ability to maintain. The problem is that too much focus and reliance has been placed on the external and manifest order rather than the sub- and unconscious drives which are truly the main influences in the case of psycho-social advancement.
Using Hebrew-English Gematria (The Hebrew formula applied to the English Alphabet), COMPUTER has a value of 418, a major number in Thelema and Aleister Crowley's magickal system as it has many correspondences relating to the mysteries surrounding Liber AL vel Legis. Incidentally, if you make Computer(s) plural by adding a Shin (S, 300), COMPUTERS = 718 - the number mentioned in Chapter III, verse 19 of that book which refers to it as the Abomination of Desolation.
"That stélé they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718."
It has been noted by a certain person that the Stele may actually be a reference to what was to become the computer itself, and that the previous verse 10 of that chapter which says:
"Get the stélé of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple— and that temple is already aright disposed— & it shall be your Kiblah for ever. It shall not fade, but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close it in locked glass for a proof to the world." (See The War-Engine of Liber AL.)
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| The NINE CIRCLES have the value of the Solar 666. 9 is the supreme number of the human solar initiation cycle. See also Dante's Inferno. |
The colour that shall come back day after day, locked in glass, does sound like the computer screen, and after all, 'Computer' does have a value of 666 in English Gematria as well. Being as it does connect just about everything physical to a sort of sub- or meta-physical mainframe, in a sense a Computer is itself an externalization of the Hierarchy, carrying as it does more than mere physical relevance and information. Mystically, however, it should be seen that the Core Mainframe of the Computer has been bound up in the NUMBER CALCULATOR itself, the 9 Key Chambers of the # Grid.
This number grid I have been meditating upon myself for a while now, but just in a flash yesterday Soror 722 realized that it is 11 unified with the = symbol, i.e. =11, the EGG of the Total Tree (including Daath), the twin pillars with the twin veils of the Abyss and Paroketh which divide the 3 triads which crystallize into Malkuth (10), which also creates a 'shadow' and thus infinite reflective parallels in the Mirror-like Abyss of 11, the 'shells' of parallel perspectives of Anatma, or 'Not Self'. This could be also depicted as 11=O, which when unified forms a widened cross which resembles what could could become an 8-pointed star, but still houses the 9 Number Cells. Also, O is the Egg itself, EGG being 5+3+3, or 11, also Grant mentions how the 11th letter of the alphabet used to actually be O. And, in yet another creative visualization, 11=O could be seen as an electric plug going in a socket, with obvious sexual overtones as well as simply the electrical circuit or archetypal 'matrix'-plug symbolism is obvious also. It is on this dense level that we see the physical literally takes form after the more subtle 'ideas' which almost always can be found to reduce to binary symbols.
The symbol of Malkuth or 'The Mark of the Beast', the heart of the sigil of Nodens which is on the cover of Outer Gateways, also contains the 0=11 formula since it is the X in the O, symbolizing as it does the formative worlds achieving apotheosis in manifestation from the lightning strike flash of creation (Lux) in the dark waters of the Abyss (Nox).
Once again, as mentioned in the last blog, the 'Hourglass' and Toroid figure comes up, here with the X as a figurative Hourglass itself and O as the Toroidal doughnut which together formulate a schematic for the understanding the mechanics of Space-Time. Incidentally, the Rune symbol most closest to the Hourglass symbol is that of Dagaz, ᛞ which means 'Day' and symbolizes Awakening, awareness, hope-happiness, the ideal, paradigm shift; or lack of vision, sleep, blindness, hopelessness, cataclysmic change." The O and the X, put vertically resemble the iconic Skull and Bones 'Jolly Roger' symbol, usually denoting either pirates, danger, poison or sinister secrecy such as in the 'Skull and Bones' fraternal society with its notable '322', 'THE NUMBER' of 'THE MASON CODE'. The Skull and Bones first and foremost symbolize the Mystery of Golgotha and the Ordeal known to Initiates as the Crossing of the Abyss.
The Death card itself is not itself usually indicative of death, but instead great change by which comes a new beginning. Golgotha means 'Place of the Skull' and mystically refers to the place of the Crossing or Nexus between the Inner (subjective) and Outer (objective) world and thus the 'Gate' at the center in which Mind and Manifestation meet. Grant also was one to note that GATE = 409, the number of GVTh, referring to 'God' but also taken as is it could be 'Gut' (the instinctual/intuitional consciousness) or Cut, which can refer to the 'Cleft' of the Vagina which is also symbolized as a 'Gate'. Here it is the Gate of Matter which is symbolized in ⊗. The Christian symbol of Chi Rho is also an analogous 'Gate'/Cross symbolizing the Christos and the Crucifix in particular, and also the Egyptians were depicted with their arms crossed holding the crook and flail symbolizing the ruler who possesses royal power. It is also used in a pose in the Master Mason rites. The Mystical Death and subsequent Rebirth or Awakening is one of the central aims of Initiation - one which naturally comes around in cycles to remind of the fact of immortality - to convey what is ultimately expressed in Chapter II, verse 9 of Liber AL:
"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
Thelemites know the continual realization of the deep meaning of this in the phrase 'Die daily', as every second of every day that passes is continually dying to give way to a new one. To die as Christ on the Cross of the Elements is to pass the portal of Initiation which awakens the first level of psychic sense simply in the ability to conceive of the unmanifest 'element' of Akasha which is beyond but still also the 'astral fabric' of the 4 denser elements themselves. Just as the 4 elements come together out of the 5th the 5 Senses of Man come out of the 6th which is the Sense of Self Individuation. This quality is known as the 'Sixth Sense', one which has been lost or corrupted out of misuse and misunderstanding, to solution to which is found as Yogins have said for ages in the focused meditation on breathing. The Breath is intimately related to the Akasha, and in Hebrew the Breath is the Ruach which is associated with the Spirit and Life-force. The 'X' of Osiris is crossing between the Higher and Lower worlds, the Spiritual and the Material and the process of Spirit condensing into matter and being dissolved back into the Spirit.
Important here is the procedure known as 'The Death Posture'. Grant says in Nightside of Eden (pg. 41) that "Austin Osman Spare has shown that the Deaath Posture is the key to the Gate of the Abyss, and his doctrine of the Neither-Neither is intimately interwoven with the ego/anti-ego complex of Daath."
In Images and Oracles Grant says that "Spare defines the Death Posture as 'a simulation of death by the utter negation of thought, i.e. the prevention of desire from belief and the functioning of all consciousness through the sexuality.' 'By the death posture the body is allowed to manifest spontaneously ... Only he who is unconscious of his actions has courage beyond good and evil: and is pure in this wisdom of sound sleep.' (-The Focus of Life) In order to assume this posture successfully it is necessary to have re-membered the subconscious strata where knowledge ceases and sexuality becomes law. One must, in other words, penetrate to the purely instinctual or automatic levels. (In qabalistic terms this refers to magical working in the Sphere of Yesod, the power-zone of the lunar current.) At such a moment, which is the moment of immanence, of creation, and of the generation of the Great Wish, inspiration flows spontaneously from the source of the Great Id, the primordial woman, the Goddess. 'Inspiration is always at a void moment, and most great discoveries - accidental, usually brought about by exhaustion of the mind,' (-The Book of Pleasure) i.e. when knowledge has been discarded."
"The Sixth Formula of Zos, entitled Metamorphosis by Death Psture supplies practical details: -
Powers of visualization, self-discipline, and concentration are qualities necessary. All magical practice to be effective needs great courage.
By this posture, total transposition of consciousness into the sex-center occurs, bringing about pure aesthesis and the creation of a new sexuality by autotelic concept: the subsequent ecstasy is a sublimation.
Because every other sense is brought to nullity by sex intoxication, it is called the death posture. Everything is a priori to the act. The a posteriori illuminations reveal the intersexual correspondence of all things and great emotiveness occurs.
Only he who has attained the death posture can apprehend this new sexuality, and its almightly love satisfied. The progenitor of itself and all things, but resembling nothing, this sexuality in its early simplicity, embodies the everlasting. Time has not changed it, hence I call it new." (-The Book of Pleasure)
The death posture is the reduction of all conception (sin) to the Neither-Neither till the desire is contentment by pleasing yourself. By this and by no other means are the inertia of belief the restoration of the new sexuality and the ever original self-love in freedom attained. The primordial vacuity (or belief) is not by the exercise of focussing the mind on a negation of all conceivable things, the identity of unity and duality, chaos and uniformity, but by doing it now, not eventually. Perceive, and feel without the necessity of an opposite, but by its relative. perceive light without shadow by its own colour as contrast."
Intuiting this we then see that it is a focused meditation on the supreme unity of all things, including even what we call Death and decay. This is also similar to the 'Danse Macabre', a ritualistic dance which symbolizes how the 'dance' of death unites all, however the notable quality of the Death Posture is its effectual reversion of the senses by way of their being cut off from their natural external flow. This is symbolized in the myth of Cyrus turning back the waters of the Euphrates at Babylon, the returning of the Life-force to the Higher Self effecting its awakening and alignment with that of the Lower persona. There are hierarchical structures from the highest to lowest spectrum of both and they often tend to pattern themselves similarly so the learning on one plane may be adapted or found to help learn others as long as distinction is maintained to counter confusion. I doubt the similarity between the CPU hardware and the temple or the design in The Universe card and circuitry which had yet to be invented were deliberate conscious acts on the part of the designers but instead are archetypal patternings with meaningful architecture. The manifest counterparts are but limited and specialized simulacra of fundamental archetypal components, and so in a same way words themselves are creations built of fundamental building blocks (letters) which themselves are of such limitless permutability in their precision carry an almost fractal quality in themselves in that they are holonic, each part (letter) containing all the rest, and therefore the material is still in a sense full of magickal possibility, albeit more limited. The Speech in the Silence, or the 'Voice of the Silence' is symbolic of the immaterial 'language' of the Higher Self which is not limited to letters and words, but pure being manifested as sexual energy and translatable by all beings.
A is 1 (or 0), the First or Primordial Essence, and the Last letter is either Tau (Hebrew) or Omega (Greek), in which case either the Circle in the Cross or the Dot in the Circle are formed, the symbolic determinatives of the Crossing of the Abyss and the Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel. These are the essential formulas which Christ as the Son-Sun resurrected incarnalized as 'The Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End', THE AZOTh (=888= Ιησους, Jesus) or THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE of MANIFESTATION. 888 resembles the serpent coils of Apophis, and I just found on the calculator by subtracting 'APOPHIS' (306) from 888 and deducing with common knowledge of certain words that APOPHIS SERPENT COILS is in fact 888. The serpents coils are the toroidal networks of time, like the 'dragon lines' or ley lines of the physical kind, writhing time-tunnels of parallel dimensions saturate the qliphothic darkness back of the illusory manifestation of mind and Self and swathe as a mummy the true self-less pure 'emptiness' (Anatma, 'Not Self') which is the true eternal light which pierces all as the Diamond-Thunderbolt.
The inversion of this idea would be the constrictive coils of the Boa, the chains binding man to the leaden Saturnian material externalization. To be lost and bound up in external circumstance means to be uncentered and entranced by the outer illusion. Thus, Anton LaVey was completely right when he said that the Television set was the Satanic family altar. However, as mentioned above, the Computer is much moreso now the focal point of daily ritual in most of the lives of humanity and a much more powerful tool for transmission of communication and knowledge. In a way, the 'Omega Point' fathomed by Chardin and others could very well be said to be found manifest in this way as virtually any point on the face of the planet can be connected to any other. Much of the literature from the 17th-20th centuries directly perceived and even outlined the plan for these new systems but it seems as though no one could have anticipated the swiftness of the advancements which can clearly be seen to have far outpaced our personal and collective capacities which are in deep need of catching up. The primary limit to such a thing are the same things they have always been: fear, laziness, in-fighting. This is no longer a period where the Group or herd mentality will have much of a progressive effect for the Group, instead individual responsibility and inner duty is of supreme importance to awaken the Inner Light so as to awaken from the low-conscious 'sleep' of materialistic trance.As a sort of basic ritual which can be of help to the solitary Initiate is to design your own personal computer area as an Altar. Keep it clean, orderly, and keep only things around it which serve a magickal purpose. Realize you use this tool for receiving much Light, both physical and meta-physical, and so you want to keep it clean and suitable for the work which you are doing. The Altar serves as the physical 'operating table' and should reflect externally what is being attempted to be externalized from within to help guide and empower the Will accordingly. When the Magickal Computer is established as a centerpiece of the Altar (of which you may have many serving different purposes), it should be properly consecrated and cleansed when needed. The uses of the Magickal Computer are virtually endless, but I find it primarily useful for collating and magnifying certain endeavours in my magickal work as well as use it as a sort of divination system in a few different ways.
It may be said one of the first prototypes of the magickal computer was the Ouija board, 'Witchboard', or 'Talking Board' most people are familiar with in one way or another (and before that, perhaps the calculator grid itself which serves as a core mainframe of the Logos/Operating System). The 'matrix' of the alphabet and letters form limitless possibilities and through such a vast ocean or 'Abyss' of potential - with the necessary ceremonial alignments and connections made - may come certain specialized data, albeit usually fragmentary or fuzzy and often arising from the subconscious data exuding in or around the astral or etheric aura of the operator or nearby persons. The modern computer with its physical rather than etherically connected planchette (mouse) and actual operating system make it much easier for the Inner and Outer Plane contacts to make their presence and gnosis manifest as the electrical powers coursing through along with the metaphysical wireless currents humanity is being both mentally and etherically prepared in a much deeper way for the 'Externalization of the Hierarchy' which is seen as fully concomitant with the upswing in both technological and spiritual advancements presently occurring. The Living Mirror, or Stele if you prefer, that is the Magickal Computer is, like all tools on the Altar, a microcosmic reflection of that Macrocosmic Computer that is the Universe itself, hence the computer symbolism found in The Universe card. Through this singular tool humanity is participating in a Group Initiation which all that this publication has sought to analyze and better expound in sections and simplifications and covers many of the major points to be focused on and worked through. War, famine, poverty, lack of education are all not only avoidable but also their opposite could easily be effected if but certain basic Truths were acted upon and, once again, it is up to each of us to either use this tool effectively or be used by it. Take a look around, how much is technology (or any external forms) already controlling your life? This is the question of The Universe card and its inversion.
