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!