Kerubic Confusion

93

The Four Evangelists

This is the first time that I am posting for a really long time, and I'm sorry about that.  From now on, I'm going to attempt to post every other week.  Just so I can get back into the swing of things, I've decided to post about something simple: the four kerubic (cherubic) animals.

"And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north... Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man... As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle."-Ezekiel 1:4, 5, &10.

These slightly unusual verses speak of four animals that any occultist has seen multiple times throughout their studies; a lion, an ox, an eagle, and a man.  This can be seen on many pieces of religious artwork from the middle ages, often surrounding a vesica pisces with Christ in the center. In Christian iconography, these animals represent the "Four Evangelists," Matthew, Mark,  Luke, and John.  However, the depiction of the four animals can also be seen in a very different set of images; the Tarot cards.  in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, as well as many others, the cards "The Wheel of Fortune" and "The World" are also surrounded by the bird, the lion, the ox, and the man, in a fashion quite similar to that of the depictions of the "Four Evangelists".

The  Wheel of Fortune

Now these four animals can be seen in other places than the tarot and Christian art.  One very relevant place for thelemites to look is in the "Liber Resh vel Helios".  In Resh, four gods are names, and these are Ra the falcon god (representing the eagle), Hathor the cow goddess (representing the ox), Tum the man-god, and Khepri the beetle-headed god (who in this case represents the lion).  Perhaps the most interesting part of this comparison is that Crowley did not pick these gods to match up with the biblical cherubs, but that they were already the Egyptian solar deities.

This next example of the kerubs will both make things more clear, but at the same time it will pose a problem. The fixed zodiacs, being Taurus the ox, Aquarius the water-bearing man, Leo the lion, and Scorpio the scorpion, seem to match up very well.  The odd one out is Scorpio, but the Golden Dawn seems to like to replace Scorpio with an eagle head glyph, conveniently enough matching up all of the animals. Now this is the part that all makes sense. Only when you start involving elements and directions does it start to get confusing.

Royal Arch Banners

In Ezekiel, it says that the cherubim came out of the north, therefore putting the man in the south, the lion in the east, the Eagle in the west, and the ox in the north.  This system matches up with the banners in a Royal Arch lodge room an a freemasonic chapter.  In Resh, the eagle (air) is in the north, the ox (fire) is in the south, the man (water) is in the west, and the lion/beetle (earth) is in the north.  Now these elements match up with the Golden Dawn elements, but not the animals, which are man for the east (Aquarius), lion for the south (Leo), eagle for the west (Scorpio?), and ox for the north (Taurus).

I've been referring to the zodiacal elements in this post as "Golden Dawn method", but this is also wrong, as in LBRH (note the H), the elements are different.  The elements given are from the Watchtower ritual and LBRP, which are slightly more common.  I still have no idea why the elements in LBRH are how they are; if someone knows, please tell me.

Khepra

Perhaps the meaning for this confusion is that it could be a blind, a purposeful mistake  meant to confuse the uninitiated.  Or perhaps it is something similar to the "four quabbalistic worlds", although if it were, I would expect the "rotations" of the elements to be much more constant as opposed to random switches.  If anyone has any Ideas, I'd love to hear them.  please comment below.
93/93, and in LVX,
Frater R.I.M.R.

Just a little side note on the topic of Kerubs, there is a new occult book publishing company called "Kerubim press" which I strongly reccomend anyone to check out.  Here's the website: http://kerubimpress.com/ .  I have not been able to buy any books from here due to the fact that I'm currently unable to make on-line purchases, but judging by some of the authors' other writing, I'm positive that these books are great!

Tea: the elemental eucharist

The idea of an elemental Eucharist has been in many ways in the world of the occult.  In the golden dawn, the "mystic repast of the four elements", being a rose for air, a candle for fire,  a glass of wine for water, and bread and salt for earth searves as a type of eucharist.  In Thelema,  The gnostic mass takes the cakes of light and wine straight from the host and wine in catholic mass.  In the book "The Magicians Workbook" by Steve Savedow, a consecrated  egg is used (the book says that this is from crowley, but I have not read this any where else).  Personally, I think all of these are great, but perhaps something a bit more familiar  would also work?

A great tea mug I found on the interwebs

Tea is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of all of the elements combined in one consumable item. At first,  tea may appear to be completely of the element water.  Water is the first step of brewing tea.  Of course, this makes up most of the tea physically, but it is not at all the entirety of it esoterically. After water is collected, the next step is to boil it.  This is where the element of fire is incorporated.  Not only is the water being put on fire, but the fires heat stays with the water for a long time.  The third step in making tea is to add the boiling water to the tea leaves, which are the element of earth.  This is what makes it tea and not hot water.  The air portion it the vapor and sent which come from the tea.  Good tea should be aromatic and pleasant smelling.

In addition to it corresponding to the foul traditional elements, by choosing the correct tea leaves it can also represent the three Alchemical properties of Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury.  The best way to do this would be to buy pure black, pure green, and pure white tealeaves.  Black tealeaves are harvested when the leaves are old, Green when they are not too old and not too young, and White just after they have sprouted.  I am not sure which alchemical elements they each correspond to,  but if you have an Idea, please leave a comment.

Everything is somehow related to at least one of the elements, but tea seems to be a part of all.  This is a great eucharist for general magical workings.  Different types of teas cam be used for different rituals; a tea made with herbs corresponding to a certain sephera can be consumed as preparation for a specific planetary invocation.  I intend on writing some sort of ritual of consecration and consumption for tea.

93 93/93 and In LVX , Frater Rota in medio rotæ

Side note:  I have discovered the great use of reddit in studying the occult.  I suggest that you go on r/occult, r/thelema, r/magick, r/goldendawn, and r/esoterica if you already go on reddit.  Its really great, you should try it.  Also, I'm on facebook and would like to find more pages/friends in relation to the occult.  My facebook name is Rota-in Medio-rotae.  I'm sort of desperate now, because I only have one friend currently, and would truly appreciate more. But don't friend me if you don't want to.

Invoking Raziel

93.

 The world is full of secrets; big ones, small ones, ones about friends, ones about enemies, and even ones that seem to be about nothing at all.  With all these secrets out there,  it is only natural for one to want to find them out.  some people use force to gain this knowledge, others use reasoning. However, I prefer a much more spiritual method: invocation.  But who would you invoke in order to gain the answer to a secret, especially if the secret is something esoteric itself?  Well, an archangel with the name meaning "Secrets of God" sounds like a pretty good candidate.

[The seal of Raziel] 

Today, (Saturday, October 15th)me and my friend/partner-in-occultism Frater S.'.S.'.E.'.I.'. (This is the Frater O who I mentioned earlier, he recently changed his motto), preformed an invocation of the Archangel  Raziel.  The specific invocation that we preformed was from the book "Keys to the gateway of magic", or more specifically "Dr. Rudd's Nine Celestial Hierarchies".  This ritual had a "celestial key" (in this case, a bottle with Raziel's seal painted on a glass bottle), as opposed to the traditional black mirror/ invocation triangle.  Here's the details and preparation of the ritual:

The first stop in preparation was  finding a good date for the ritual.  We chose Saturday because the the book which we were using listed Raziel as corresponding with Saturn.  Technicaly, this is incorrect, because he corresponds with the sephira Chochma, which in turn corresponds with the zodiacs, not saturn.  however, since there is no day of the week for the zodiacs, we go down the tree of life until we find a sephira with a day corresponding to it, which is Binah, the sphere of saturn.  We would also attempt to preform the ritual in the hour of Saturn.

We made quite a big deal with candles, in my opinion.   we bought two gray candles to represent chochma,  as gray is the color of the saphira chochma and two is it's number.  in addition, we attempted to buy correct candles for the four quarters of the temple.  To find the right ones, we went to the local Botanica (Santeria store)  we were able to find a red candle with "saint Michael, archangel" on it for the south.  The other candles were a bit of a compromise.  For the west,  we were able to find a candle with "saint Gabriel, archangel" on it.  Sadly, it was purple, not blue.  For the north,  we bought a blain black candle.  Unfortunately, it did not have the name Uriel or Auriel on it.  the East, however, was the least accurate.  We asked the man at the botanica if he had any yellow candles with Raphael on them, but there were none in stock.  He said though, that since Raphael was an archangel,  that the white candle with "Holy Guardian Angel" on it would be the closest that we could get.  We ended up getting that one.

[A different 2 sided seal of Raziel]

Because we are both "closeted occultists" so-to-speak (meaning we have to hide out occultism from everyone [hence the name of my blog]), we decided that the best place to preform the ritual would be in a secluded section of the park near both of out houses.  After setting up the temple and donning our robes, we preformed a divination to see if we should continue with the ritual.  The tarot cards said that we should go along, but first we should be ritually cleansed in some sort of way.  To do this, I put water,  a small stone (earth), a wildflower (air [like a rose in the mystic repast of the golden dawn]), and some florida water (representing fire [sort of like Crowley having Abramelin oil representing fire]) in a small container and used this to baptize/anoint ourselves before the ritual.  This is a little non-tradition,  but I think that it works in this situation. I acted as ritualist, and Frater S.'.S.'.E.'.I.'. as the seer.  We preformed LBRP, BRH, Watchtower Ritual,  and began the invocation (pg 152 - 158 of the download I gave as a link in the name of the book).

The ritual went very well.  I almost wish that I were the seer in the ritual, to experience seeing the great archangel Raziel,  who I have always thought of as somewhat connected to.  I am not sure why, but Raziel seems like  the angel who i would associate myself with, and I'm not sure why.   I have not yet recieved knowledge and conversation with my HGA,  but I do not think that it is Raziel.  Sadly,  Raziel told the seer in this ritual not to reveal what was revealed to us,  so I cannot post this.  However, I must say that it is not something that a person could have thought up.  these are clearly archangelic works.

frater s.'.s.'.e.'.i.'. at altar 

The altar with celestial key

Red Michael candle

Gabriel candle

Black (auriel) candle

Guardian Angle candle (Raphael) 

 I'm not a big fan of the religious feeling that the candles give the temple, nor the fact that they call them "saint Gabriel" and "Saint Michael", nor the fact that there are spanish prayers on the side that I cannot understand, but still, the temple feels more authentic with the candles.



in LVX and 93 93/93, Frater R.'.I.'.M.'.R.'.

Tarot and the Shem-ha-mephorash

93!

In my last post, I mentioned how one of my tarot decks had correspondences to the angels of the shem-ha-mephorash.  In responce to this, I received a question: if there are only 72 angels, what about the other 6 cards? Well, the thing is,  it's not as simple as having one angel per card.  Infact, The only card with shem-ha-mephorash correspondences are the minor arcana, numbers 2 - 10! here's how that works:

There are 78 cards in a tarot deck, 22 major, 56 minor.  Within those 56 minor cards, 4 are aces, 4 are pages (or princesses), 4 are knights (or princes*), 4 are queens, and 4 are kings, totaling to 20 "irregular" cards.  The 36 remaining cards are the corresponcence cards. 

Now where else does 36 fit into this? well, what's 36 times 2? the answer is 72! That, if you've been following, is the number of angels in the shem-ha-mephorash.  But that's not all: if you know about astrology, you'd know that the zodiacs each have three deacons (each zodiac has three corresponding planets**). Well, 3 (the number of deacons per zodiac) times 12 (the number of zodiacs) allso turns up as 72!  Theirfore, each "regular" card corresponds to one zodiac, one planet, and two angels.  This can be put onto a diagram :

I hope that answers your question!

93/93 and LVX,
Frater R.'.I.'.M.'.R.'.

ps: I found that image, I didn't make it.  here's where I found it: http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23298&start=45
I found it via a google searh, I don't go on that sight. (mind you...)
PPS: there's a better diagram in the fiction book Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman.
* Sometimes replaces king, not knight.  See Thoth tarot. 
** Correspond isn't realy the right word. What's a better word? (leave a comment to answer)

Tarot Consecration Ritual

Just recently, I got two  fantastic new tarot decks. The first one I got was Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck with three versions of the Magus card (three magi?).  This deck was fantastic!  I love the Hebrew letters and astrological equivalents! the only thing that I dislike is the fact that the hebrew letters are in awful handwriting so the gimmel (ג) looks like a nun (נ) and the nun looks like a kaph (כ) &c.  Also, I don't like the "loop in the zodiac" thing and the whole "but the star is not tzaddi (צ)" madness, making the order of the trumps all messed up. 

However, the other tarot deck that I got is fantastic. the name of that tarot deck is the "Hermetic Tarot".  It has all of the classic Hebrew and astrological correspondences, including the modern planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).  It has all of the traditional golden dawn symbolism (which I verified in SIITGDT and the Book of Thoth).  But the best part is that it says the names of the Shem-ha-mephorash angels (verified in SIITGDT, 777, and the back of Andromeda Klein [Really!])

Well anyways,  i decided to make a consecration ritual for them. It is based off of the Modern Magick talisman ritual, which in turn I realized is based off of the Golden Dawn Neophyte initiation ritual (almost identical to the one in SIITGDT).  It also includes the "invocation" of HRU seen in the Book of Thoth and the booklet for the Hermetic Tarot.  Well, here it is!

1.  Begin with Opening by Watchtower, LBRP, BRH, and if you want, rose cross ritual and SIRP.
2. Place the deck outside of the circle in the south-west.
3.  Take the outer wand of double power* in the right hand,  dagger in the left,  and cross them over the deck.  Say: "Before I entered this magickal circle, I was alive yet not alive.  Once inside I have been born anew.  So too are all things outside this circle without true spiritual life. Hear now, O Tarot,that thou mayest enter, but thou may not move on."  (* there is no use for any other higher wand.)
4. Bring the deck into the circle with the dagger.  Say: "Now O Creature of the Tarot,  Become a dwelling place of knowledge of hidden things and become thou a body for the magnificence of HRU."

5. Place the deck at the foot of the altar and say: "in the name of HRU, and by the powers and forces invoked here this day/night, I proclaim that I , [motto], shall invoke the to form a true and potent link between my human soul and that spirit of the Tarot summed up in the name of HRU.  I proclaim that this tarot deck be charged in order that knowledge of true and hidden things may be mine so that I may be able to preform  the great work an be better able to assist humanity.  may the powers of HRU witness this, my solemn pledge."

6.Put the Tarot deck in the middle of the altar.  Put down the dagger and hold the wand by the white half.  Say: "I now invoke the powers of HRU into this temple.  In the name of HRU, Be here now! know that all is in readiness to consecrate this Tarot deck.  Aid me with thy power that I may cause the great angel [HGA] to give life and strength to this tarot deck."

7. Put down the wand and pick up the dagger.  Go the the east and face west.  While creating the lesser invoking pentagram of earth (earth?), say:  "I invoke thee IAO, that thou wilt send  HRU, the great angel who is set over the operations of the secret wisdom to lay his hand invisibly upon these cards of art that I thereby may obtain true knowledge of hidden things to the glory of thine ineffable name, Amen. "

8. With water, trace a cross and (water) triangle on the deck while saying " I purify with water."  Trace a cross and (fire ) triangle over the deck with incense while saying "I sanctify with fire." Pick up the dagger and say/bang "So / mote / it / be /! " (/ = bang).
9.Go clockwise to the southeast with the deck.  say: "Unpurified and unsanctified, thou canst not enter the gate of the west."
10. Purify and sanctify as before, but instead of the "so mote it be," say "Creature of the tarot, twice purified and twice consecrated, thou mayest approach the gateway of the west."
11. walk into the west and say: "Before thou canst come into the light, thou must first come out of the darkness.  yet fear not he darkness of the west for there is no place that God and the light of God are not.  Theirfore, take on manifestation before me without fear.  For in the west is he in whom fear is not.  And now that thou knowest this truth, pass thou on."
12.Circumambulate the circle once, and go around again, stopping at the north east.   repeat 9 and 10, changing west to east, twice to thrice.  say: "to become a tarot deck, strong and true, thou must pass from darkness into light, from death into life.  To do this requires the light which shines from within the darkness, though the darkness comprehendeth it not.  By the will of god I can control a speck of light which ariseth in the darkness.  I am the exorcist in the midst of an exorcism. Therefore take on manifestation before me for I am the wielder of the forces of balance. Now pass thou on unto the double cubical atlar of the universe."
13.go to the west and repeat step 7.  say  "thus do I potently conjure and exorcise thee-" put down dagger and pick up wand and deck and hold on high while proclaiming "Creature of the tarot; long hast thou dwelt in the darkness, quit the night and seek the day!"
14. Place the deck on the altar, and hold the wand vertically above it.  say:
"By all the names, powers, and rituals already rehearsed, recited, and preformed, I conjure upon thee power and might irresistible.  Khabs Am Pekht, Konx Om Pax, light in extension.  as the light hidden in the darkness can manifest therefrom, so shalt thou become irresistible."
15. preform the Middle pillar ritual and project its energies into the deck.  when you finish, proclaim "It is done!"
16. hold your hands in the air and say: "let the white brilliance of the divine spirit descend upon this creature of the tarot and fill it with the glory of thy majesty that it may be unto me an aid to aspire to the great work." Draw a blue invoking earth pentagram and say: "Glory be unto thee, lord of the land of life, for thy splendor flows out rejoicing even to the ends of the universe."
17. hold out the deck so that it can be seen outside the circle. circumambulate while saying: "Behold all powers and forces that are here in attendance.  I am pure. I am pure. I am Pure.  Take witness that I have duly exorcised, purified, initiated, enlivened, consecrated, and empowered this creature of the tarot by the power of HRU and by the exaltation of my own higher nature."
18. touch the tip of the air dagger to the deck, say: "By the powers of air", touch the deck with the pentacle, "and of earth," tough the deck with the fire wand, "and of fire,"  and sprinkle the deck with water,
'and of water," pick up the wand by the white half and hold it on high," and by the secret names of the divine presence who works in silence and whom naught but silence can express, I declare by my rights earned by practice of the arts magickal that this tarot deck is charged and consecrated. So mote it be!"
19.say: "not unto me but unto thee be the power and the glory forever and even beyond the ends of time.  I  thank thee for allowing me to enter thus far into the temple of thy divine mysteries.
20. finish with closing by watchtower, LBRP and BRH.

just because I'm paranoid about being sued,
Kraig, Donald Michael. Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2010. Print.

TL;DR? SRY!

new books, etc.

I've recently bought a few new books to add to my occult library:
• Blue Brick (Magick, liber ABA ) by Aleister Crowley (fantastic and amazing!)
• Liber 777 by Aleister Crowley (very usefull)
• The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley (interesting view on tarot)
• The magicians workbook by Steve Savedow (an attempt at saying the same thing in liber ABA, with less words, but still ok)

Also, I bought a couple of new tarot decks:
• Thoth tarot (interesting and thelemic)
• Hermetic tarot (the best tarot deck in the entire world)
• Crows Magick tarot (gave it away the day I bought it)

I love most of what I bought and I plan on reading/using them all.  I also plan on writing a tarot consecration ritual and posting that. 

3D Board Game Double Qabalah

Earlier today, I was sitting in my basement playing with a board game that I own called Abalone.  The game consists of a hexagonal board with circular holes, in the way that a piece of circle graph paper would look, with six circles surrounding one.  There are also 28 spherical pieces, 14 black and 14 white.  I don't actually know how to play,  so I was just playing around with the pieces.  By doing this, I thought up a 3 dimensional way of thinking of the qabalah, doubled.

I divided the black and white pieces into two groups of ten pieces, with four remainders in each.  These ten  pieces are of course representing the ten sephirot.  i called the black ones the "sephirot of Boaz" and the white ones the "sephirot of Jachin".  with each i constructed a 3D tree of life, consisting of for layers.  with the left over pieces, I created the three veils and the two pillars.  these were surrounding the "trees" or rather "intertwined pyramids".  I'll start with the first layer/

For Jachin,  the first (bottom) layer was a hexagon of the non-middle-pillar sephirot (NMPs) surrounding keter.  this represented the fact that the sapherot originated from keter.  For Boaz,  it was the bottom two NMPs (netzach and hod) in the front, and the bottom MP in the back.  This represents the fact the the middle pillar is balance between the other two pillars, as with all of Boaz's Sepherot.

The second layer for boaz consisted of all the MPs,minus keter.  this is self-explanatory.  for boas, it was the second-to-bottom sephirot (hesed and givurah)  in the front and the second to last MP (yesod) in the back.  this is a continuation.

 

For the third level,  because Jachin was completed,   there were only the top two NMPs (Chochmah and Binah)  and the second-to-top sephira, Tiferet. 

 

For level one, there was only Boaz's keter.    so from the sides, it looked like this: 

Jachins keter is hidden.  Boaz's severity is hiding Jachin, But jachins mercy is shining through.  from the front, Boaz's MP is hidden, but from the back,  all is hidden but the MP! Everything is a matter of perspective.  

Also while I was playing with the pieces, they formed the geomantic figure ammissio.  that can't be good. 

Hopefully, this blog will get more followers.  Hopefully.  

LVX, Frater R I M R