cusanusia

"It is for this reason the esotericist personifies the subtler forces and calls them Intelligences. He then proceeds to deal with them as if they were intelligent, and he finds that there is a subtle side of his own nature and consciousness which responds to them, and to which, he fondly believes, they respond." Dion Fortune

This journal began with the intent being to discuss the topic of Intelligences on the Tree of Life. That study seems to have expanded to correspondances rather than direct interaction with the Intelligences. This very helpful detour is not without fruit.  Thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis were at work. It appears to be a preliminary to bridge-building.

I am still vulnerable to Truth when it hits. I adore the pressure that it lays down on the marrow of the bones while lifting it at the same time.  There is no human experience that I have ever encountered that can compare with it.  It halts all activities until it enters, making sure it was comprehended, ingested, not wasted. This does not mean that it comes for translation. First it must be recycled. The nutrients must be drawn out as it expands the heart cavity with a dose of understanding. These small doses are large in scope. No wonder this is a slow process. When this is attached to another human being exhibiting impeccable timing, then it reveals increased potency in its bestowal. What this does is increase the evidence that there is a transmutation that happens among us that bares proof of its mystery brought into manifestation. It doesn't hold as much power without that perfect timing -- Impeccable perfect timing. It is a timing that is more potent then spyware gaming. It is truly magickal. When the experience then continues in synchronistic ways, such as further conversations, like the difference between chemistry and physics, it is icing to the cake.  It is more powerful then studies and findings. It is bestowal. It is impeccable timing. It is a valuable extension of the Temperance Card.

The West is so quiet.

Attempting to look beyond the opposing views of whether paths are paved by destiny or will, it became
worth taking note of hidden desires that brought experiences onto the path. I don’t want to speculate on
karma, or an actual predestined knowing or not knowing. I want to take a look at what did come and what
type of viewpoint it developed and whether that development needs to be erased and replaced. This will be a
matter of what is and what can be. I also wish to look at synchronicity and desire and magnetism, or desire’s
drawing power.

It is said that there are many paths and they all lead to the same place. What is that place? Peace? Power?
Enlightenment? Liberation? Or maybe, Intelligence? Each traveler on personal paths that supposedly lead to
the same place, may feel differently about which goal is more valuable then the others. How then do the
roads all lead to the same place? My answer for now lay in terms such as recognition, realization,
awakening, and lifting. In these cases, the results can remain individualistic and are applicable on many
levels.

I had to ask myself why I thought it possible that the many paths could be something like recognition verses
enlightenment, or realization verses peace, or awakening and lifting verses power and liberation. It was
because of the spectrum capabilities. Enlightenment is a place that one must arrive at in order to be said to
be enlightened. Whereas, realization, recognition, awakenings and lifting are continual, no matter the level of
understanding. Even in ignorance these are operating. There may be many a semantic rift, but each
perception can have its realizations. This same comparison applies to religious goals of salvation,
redemption, resurrection. They are things to be achieved and reached rather than consistently performed,
even eternally performed. They have finite ceilings rather than infinite value.

Somewhere in this contemplation I began considering circles, as in the dog who chased his tail around and
around. I then considered Oroborous, the serpent who is biting his own tail. To follow the serpent’s way one
chases his own tail and eventually bites himself. Of course, this symbol holds other interpretive ideas, but I
am considering those things which have been brought to my attention. The climb and fall of a traveler on a
circle or the circle with no end or beginning, draws a different metaphor then a spiral which is circling but
climbing or descending and eventually arriving at expansion or contraction. It just may very well be that the
spiral holds a lot more weight when discussing paths for an eternal paradigm rather than cyclic ones, as well
as those descriptives that offer a continual movement rather then a stagnant place to arrive at.

When I came to the Journal the other day and stared at the Lady of Bridges for a moment, the term “Blue Alchemy” came up to a conscious level. I had never heard of such a term. So, my investigation began. A google search revealed that many seem to use the term “Blue Alchemy” in reference to electronic art. In direct reference to Alchemy I could not find an alchemical term “Blue Alchemy.” There were different mentions of the color blue in the alchemical process, such as, “...blue serpents ascend into the alembic, and are collected into a receptacle by an old man who seems on the point of carrying it away,” a mention by Edward Kelly in “The Theatre of Terrestrial Astronomy.”

The blue base of the flame kept coming to mind as well. I had seen reference to this in Judaic studies. At inner.org:

“The blue (or black) part of the flame is adjacent to the energy source, the wick. The mystical term for this part of the flame is chashmal. The wick symbolizes the physical dimension of the heart on fire with love of God. True love affects the heart physically.”

The word chashmal is translated at the same site as "electrum." The definition goes on to say that chashmal is a fiery radiance identified in the vision of Ezekiel as surrounding the Divine countenance seated upon the heavenly chariot; interpreted in Chassidic thought as the dynamic of "silent speech."

Now, it is interesting that the initial search wrought “Blue Alchemy” as ‘electronic art’ when Chasmal (the blue flame) translates to “electrum.”  The base of the flame is blue. But what of the blue flame that emerges out of the coal, the soot? How can this be correlated to the electrum -- a word definined as an alloy of silver and gold. [Middle English from Latin amber from Greek [Elektron].

All Rights Reserved  Copyright 2005 by Cusanusia

Lamed and the Sword of Lady Justice, having its point in the earth, speak of transitions. Heart beats drum the copulative rhythms, seeking a knowledge that is not only circumvent to a Divine sort, but balanced with discrimination and courage. The mind listens for the end to pretensions and illusions, and an offering up of infantile reliance. There are matters of growth that are born of union. Matters of insight and not eyesight whisper where the listener hears. Is the Law of Equilibrium at work everywhere except in the self-consciousness?

Ah, Temperance, you came with the unexpected. It must have been you who created the the silence of a big bang. And while I might have expected that things move into the Devil Card, there appears to be other plans. It makes sense that the Law of Probation would move into Justice. The trial, the testing, the pain rising and fueling transmigrations founded on balance and equilibrium.

She has a very interesting way of bringing things to a point of clarity and preparation for the next movement of the descending one, to the ascending one to the descending one to the ascending one. The learning of the ‘bringing in’ being essential to the ‘lifting up’. Her timing is selective with non-intellectual,  or material or idealistic planning. It is  a ride of experience with no other alternative. Choice is still present in that the choice was made. I may have been Willing to walk the path, but the experience is utter surprise. I wouldn’t say that it is shocking, but soothing. It may potentially be a calm before the storm or, better yet, a time of boarding up the windows before the storm hits. In this latter case, saving that which could have been damaged, not in a sense of material attachments, but of wisdom and wonder not being robbed by grief and loss. It is a calling to the warrior within who understands that the battle is coming and girds up for the Victory. The loss then becomes those things which are perfectly lost.

Approximately 17 years ago, I had a series of dreams in a two week period that had potent staying power. One of them was about an Archaeologist who had found the Ancient Gateway but never returned to his wife. Having at first only known one Archaeologist in association with the occult, the dream of old still didn’t enter the final understanding of its potent message. In the past few weeks, I found out that Poke Runyon was an Archaeologist. Then another occultist came out as an Archeology Major, and still another.  An ex employer’s daughter (both Wiccan) is also now majoring in Archeology. All of this was surfacing around me without a fullness of understanding. Years ago, I thought Archeology was what I wanted to pursue and then changed my major to Sociology but that is not of import or relevance here. In the dream the Archaeologist had opened an ancient gateway and never came back. The wife of said Archaeologist decided to go on a mission to find him and sought out a Guide. She was informed that her husband had entered into a realm of desire and that if she had ever hoped to unite  with him again, she would have to have such a degree of concentration that could set itself upon his desire and not hers. In other words, she could not use her love for him, her longing, nor her yearning. She would have to use his desire - Archeology and the Ancients.

If I were to apply this metaphor to practice and life movement, my pastime was always in the searchings of cultural exploration among the 12 Tribes of David and Solomon. What I know now, which came from the meeting of tribes and people of those tribes and participating in their systems, doesn’t make me an Archaeologist, but does set a foundation that seems to accompany the dream. Still, the fullness of it all did not emerge. Only in my recent studies of the Temperance Card does it make sense as to why even have the dream to begin with. According to Daphne Moore in the Rabbi’s Tarot, The Temperance Card is the end of a series of Laws: “Suggestion, Response, Rotation, Equilibrium, Reversal, Dissolution, and Verification.”  There are many other key notes that come along with the Verification of the Temperance Card besides the dream, but for now, it is enough to say that the journey through the other Laws took many years, even though their rotation and application bares a certain constant cycle of movement until they have been finally recognized in their totality.

Another series of movements has recently been posted elsewhere, where the final realization is the
recognition of one’s personal Work. It appears to somewhat correlate with Verification, even though these may sound like endings they are only arrivals to true beginnings.

“By developing Temperance the Initiate discovers the secret of redirecting energies which would otherwise knock him off his Path...” ~William Gray

I valued this statement immediately upon reading it. There is a big difference in reading something after you have experienced it verses before you experience it as a suggestive of what you should experience. When seeking, this fear of falling pre-exists as a warning to something that has not yet happened, in the same equivalent as ascending, but only in supposed meaning. After the fact, the science of living proof appears. Some would say this is fundamental in pathwalking and that all things must be lived to be truly known. But, is it a proof that can be tested under controlled study or still a supposition? Although flow should not be mistaken here for expansion -- the accidental living for deliberate and intentional -- being clueless is not always an accidental negative. There are accidental positives. But, in living it, it becomes clear that states exist, and also can be lifted for a different experience, continually elevated experiences, until merging with it essentially in its highest expression, or at least what practitioners have come to experience as highest. In soul matters, who can say which is highest. If dissolution is highest, there is nothing left to tell or prove. Sometimes, tastes of this are important for preparation, due to the impact of change and growth on the human psyche. For example, I can laugh at the review of the use of the word ‘deep’ or 'depth' being a slang for higher vision. Entering into the ‘deep’ is not a speculative rising but is an expansion of knowing. It has now become known as a descending, even though it may still have association to swim or drown in the depths of the descending;)

“By developing Temperance the Initiate discovers the secret of redirecting energies which would otherwise knock him off his Path...”

(i.e. Poison Ivy)

Coming back to the Intelligences as the topic of this journal, the Intelligence for Temperance is said to be the Intelligence of Probation or Temptation.

I must go dive into this.....

Soooo much stuff....

Today I imagine the Hanged Man upside down. His head is below rather then above. His
head is Hades. Four rivers went out of the Garden....

Hades and the Underworld
www.geocities.com/.../greekgods.html
Since Hades was the ruler of the Underworld, it makes sense to note one of the key
features of this region - its myriad rivers. These rivers each had names and symbolic
meanings:
Acheron - river of sadness
Cocytus - river of lamentation
Lethe - river of forgetfulness
Phlegethon - river of fire
Styx - river of hate

This is but an imaginatively derived moment.

I am reading one of RJ Stewart’s books, Demystifying the Qabalah

He is speaking of the Sun Below and Above and questioning how we can even know where is Above when the Sun is always at an angle. His point of view is secondary to what the concept of this inner core of Earth fire/sun, and the Sun which shines upon the earth triggered as a contemplation. I found this to stimulate a consideration of the symbolism of  “Child, King, and Sacrificed God” (This is in the sense that this concept generally alludes to Christ or Osiris / Ausar on a large scale, or the ‘Sun’ and the sphere of Tiphereth). This line of thought led me to three potential suns: the center of Earth; the center of the Self and the center of this universe. I could take these three and align them to Orion’s belt, but I don’t know what that would accomplish at the moment, not knowing enough about it. What I can accept at the moment is that of acknowledging Earth, Self and Universe in alignment. What this suggests to me, verses Child, King, and Sacrificed God is interesting. The latter seen in the sense of a rising sun, the sun directly overhead and the setting sun verses three suns in a more expansive perspective.  I wonder how this sits with physics?

The sword cut off times of the hungry ghost, for a translating of how information is viewed. From a hunting of credits which build a false front for vampiric energizing rather then seeing life moments as tools for interior subtle surgeries, there is a purge. Although all the ‘thens’ have their place in the schematics of the whole, inclusive of whether an orange can be anything other then an orange except it transfigure into its own fertility. What superficiality carves in, the sword carves out. 

This surgery on human communication gone amuck which makes for a weird tongue, brings relief in degrees. As an addendum, the following quote liberates when saying “Those who Know, realize how much they don’t know.” It is a relief more then a humbling as unto submissions of any ethical ‘supposed-to-be’.  It is liberating consumption and elimination. Still the sword searches for arrogance and sassiness -- emotional daggers of the lower fire that await their dual with the sword’s two-edged blade -- a lifted light that turns them into strengths to travel the unforgiving realms of the non-competitiveness and, the Disposing and Distillations. Different from learning, the Disposing is the eliminator in preparation for the Illuminator -- to interject a small bit of poetic license -- some sort of marriage of opposites -- but not really. The many marriages, all with varied intents, are here and there and then and now on the driftings of memory and future workings -- surgeries amassing, revealing their way -- calcination and separation to liquefy a hardened husk for conjunction. The She and the He...

More of the Sword's wayfaring, admitting that some sword experiences cannot be told.

In looking into the Intelligences, I begin to evaluate the topic of pure digitial information which has no atoms or weight but consists of an entire field of symbols and abstractions that translate into information and forms on  integrated or microelectronic circuits. I arrived at the consideration that the technological age of computer software and the information within the silicon and copper processors which produce information, is a translation of information through human creativity. The question is then whether this creation is in any way linked to Intelligences?

Living in a Frame

Ficino puts this Neoplatonic framework to therapeutic use.

III. Agrippa (here)

"Elaborating the Neoplatonist picture. Agrippa accepts the basic Neoplatonic framework ... God has the Forms in his mind. God created "Angelical and Celestial secondary causes," beings Agrippa also calls the "Intelligences," and God "gives the seal of His Ideas to the Intelligences." The Intelligences then use the "heavens and stars as instruments" to send these copies of the Forms down to humans on the Earth. In exactly the way our souls/intellects control our bodies, the Intelligences -- the Celestial souls -- control the body (=the matter) of the universe. So just as my mind "sends commands" to my body in order for the mind to achieve its aims, so too do the Intelligences/ celestial souls use the stars to achieve their ends. Thus Agrippa agrees with Avicen[na], who says "whatever things are done here, must have been before in the motions and conceptions of the stars and orbes." Agrippa says that "quintessence" -- Aristotle's 5th element, aither -- is what conveys the Intelligences' power to material stuffs: the spirit is contained in "the rays of the stars."

In a previous post on Memory - found here:  The writings brought up the topic of Psyche and Eros. I didn't pay much attention to it that day. I moved on to the topic of Zayin and there it was again, however, in the section on the Lover's card in the Crowley Tarot. Banzhaf notes the archetype of this card as Eros, then Amor and Psyche as a mythic tale of the unification of the human psyche with the Divine Eros which sounds akin to the Sons of God mingling with the daughter's of men. Zayin is depicted as a sword in its role of severing the Hermaphrodite which embraces itself.  The two parts then search for each other until union is formed. This is an impressed and wide-spread story of the separation of the female and male inward parts of the Hermaphrodite which need to reconcile. Oneness separated yearns for its other half. Is this the paradigm we must accept in this era / Aeon?

This Chymical Marriage crosses many paths. Contradictions mix and mingle with the yearning for the ultimate Union. The suit of swords is not far from this viewpoint when it can be said that the suit of swords is often associated with conflict and struggle -- a sword that is symbolic of words which get us in and out of trials. But in this they are words which must be brought under mental discipline. While with the Lover's card and the Myth of Amor and Psyche, the focus is union. 

When speaking of the sword as 'Zayin, Inner.org talks of the Woman of Valor who lifts her husband. This gives us another aspect of the sword, that of lifting rather then separating. Maybe it is the lifting of Lilith into the willingness of Eve or a strengthening of Eve with the shadow of Lilith? Eric Neumann speaks of the shadow and a higher form of female consciousness in his treatise of the myth of Amor and Psyche, further explained as Psyche’s development as a growth toward the masculine, by which he means consciousness or the psychic development of the Feminine.  Here is a body, heart and mind finding union. The two jealous sisters in the myth could very well be the heart and the impulses of the body envying the Queen or Mother seated with Her mate on the throne, crowned. Even sage meeting with 'sagess' could be apropos, or Prophet with Prophetess.  These meetings have nothing to do with body and heart.  For example, Banzhaf places the union over the hood of the Sage.

Looking at both views, separations that seek unions or liftings that merge with higher understandings, there is a combination that appears to be vertical risings and the other a horizontal approach. Is this the true work of the equal armed cross - balance in multiple directions? 

So many symbols. The Lover's Card number is suggested as the number 'six'. I am going to interject an odd meeting with the number six that I had while watching a Daniel Tammet video. Daniel is a savant who experiences numbers as color and images. He feels numbers. He said that the number six is like a hole in a landscape. I cannot find any other reference that comes close to his personal experience with the number.  But why is six associated with the Sword or Zayin? Some suggest it references union and harmony, while it is also said to be the number of man and mind.

In essence, the sword served as a reflector of light transmissions to the chakras as well as pillars before and behind rather then placed left and right.  Always revealing in a vertical stance, aligning itself with the vertical core, one might link this essential meeting with Zayin or the Ace of Swords. "And, there was light! as expression of the creation becoming aware of itself." ~ Banzhaf

The Zohar adds another perspective:

48. Shoftim : 2. The four deaths of Samael
Verse 3. The sword of the Holy One, blessed be He, Yud OF YUD HEI VAV HEI, is the top of the sword. The Vav OF YUD HEI VAV HEI IS the body of the sword, while the two Hei's OF YUD HEI VAV HEI are the two edges of the sword, WHICH ARE THE SECRET MEANING OF: "justice, only justice, shall you pursue" (Devarim 16:20). Two verdicts are decided (lit. 'cut'), one from the celestial court and one from the terrestrial  court. From this we understand that a person cannot do the least thing down here unless permission is given from up high.

I find that utopian type escapism and martydom are opposing forces asking for choice, wherein there still exists the center between the two extremes. These two extreme methods of the razor’s edge, offer shock or ecstasy as their method for acquiring a more subtle life experience, be they afterlife or present life rewards. One asks that the past be remembered for a life's purpose to rise. The other ask's that the mind clears itself of all thoughts. Where is the area of balance concerning the mind’s memory and amnesia. It is also interesting to consider where these memories are stored when it comes to attempting to go beyond this particular lifetime into a past, or visions of the future.

The  story of those who await the heavenly life is wide-spread enough that it need not be given explanation here. I need to cover the topic of past life regression as a cutting of the sword, a razor's edge experience which shocks the system into insight. Swords of recognition, make way for the bridges of discovery. Some people believe in past lives as a foundation for seeing or building purpose. The experience of visions that solidify those beliefs is common. But where are these planes of discovery that are found through mnemonics? The common theme in past life regression is people being Kings and Queens of Egypt.  But, what if I had been a slave owner in a past life which is quite a different drama. There is one factor in this that should not be overlooked. Did the past life arise because I studied Eastern methods of awakening and needed a foundation for the practice? Does the psyche build the Temple according to its needs? Or, does the realms of memory have a keeper?

The connotations in being a slave owner in a past life could go either way in application. It could have been a preparation on a literal level for the metaphor in this life -- to be a Master. Or, in the school of karma, payback is a lesson to be learned. To live a life to feel what it is like to be a slave might present itself. Of course, most egos would prefer the first to this latter state, but what if the preparation carried within it a little of both -- the feeling of the sensation of enslavement and reaping an understanding in a new rulership role as master of one’s own self? Mission accomplished by Psyche? Some go a step further and look for the fuel that motivates Psyche. What makes Her move on our behalf? Is it Eros?

Some people believe in creating a new past with the imagination. Make the story any story you would like. Is it a more beneficial pursuit to find the tensions between opposing forces,  to have an even understanding about such life experiences? Maybe it boils down to a contemplation on choice and destiny -- choice and the still present destiny -- meaning choice as a fallacy and destiny ruling within a large bubble of seeming choices.  There is another problem in mnemonic unveiling.

The exception is when some whimsical circumstance ties a knot in the corner of one's mnemonic handkerchief. MITP

Emotional suffering or entanglements, what is sometimes termed the “Gordian Knot,”  Alexander the Great proved on  occasion that the Sword was mightier then the pen/intellect. Are these two opposing extremes those of meditation of shock both using this type of sword which slays verses written word dichotomy? One lives the experience and one reads about it.

In the end, there are several ways to look at a soul's journey and return to the earth plane. Whether we return to do a Work that is transmitted through mnemonics, something remembered, or whether we choose to seek bliss to escape the life experience and choose to forget,  these are both extremes.  What of the space which  the sword's blade has carved....