Zirzird, Part 18 of 91, 3rd of MAZ. Zodiacal King: Gebabal Ministers: 7220 Mundane association: Parthia

Monday, November 14, 1994 2:25 PM

Invoked Zirzird following the revised method.

As I vibrated the name of the Part, after the Call, a conical formation rose up out of the center of the circle, its lower part contiguous with the bounds of the inner circle. It was a tall narrow cone, of about my own height. It seemed to transform for a moment into a snow-covered mountain, upon which goats leapt upwards in great arcs. Then it was simply a whitish cone again.

The scene changes once more, and now there comes the escapee from the castle of the previous vision. No longer naked, he seems to have caught some of the goats and made rough clothes out of their skins. Far away behind him the castle can be seen, blank side facing me. (It seems we are on a height.) And the road into the wasteland comes in this direction before vanishing from sight below a ridge.

The man trudges along an upward trail. He carries a staff in one hand, and has a pack made of tough, woven grasses on his shoulders. He reminds me of the ancient man whose body was recently found frozen in a Swiss glacier.

(It is odd, but I feel the presence of the Devil of the Tarot card behind this vision.)

Now I see him from behind, looking up the mountain. The top is hidden in clouds; he is approaching the snowline just below the clouds. He attempts to follow the trail into the snow, but his feet begin slipping; he can make no progress. By straining mightily, he manages to get a few feet further, but the farther he goes, the more difficult it becomes. It seems that gravity is increasing, pulling him backwards.

Finally he is exhausted, and he slides back. Tumbling, he passes the snowline and rolls a ways down the trail before stopping and sitting up. A bit of snow follows and swirls around him, as if teasing him, and then falls to the ground.

He repeats his attempt two or three times, sliding backwards at the end each time.

Now a ghostly overlay comes on the scene. Hidden in the clouds, the tarot Devil sits upon the top of the mountain, which does not end in a point, but in a wide, flat area exactly at the level where the clouds begin. The mountain itself is the black cube of the tarot card, and the gravity is the chain that ties the male and female figures to the cube. The climber is one of those figures, though he does not know it.

The Voice says: "Men are tormented by the Great Illusion; the illusion that there is some pinnacle of achievement to be reached through striving against the pull of Earth. Thus they push ever upwards, seeking a topmost point that does not exist.

"As the Sun seems to climb to the peak of the sky, and rule over the day therefrom, so do men, looking upwards in the Spirit, see what appears to be a great spiritual Sun above them, ruling over the worlds in which they live and move. And so they climb towards it, seeking to partake of its nature.

"But it is not inherent in the heavens that there be such a pinnacle. The peaks of mountains are the result of gravity, of the pull of the Earth; and where that pull is not, neither is there any top to be reached. All spreads out in all directions; one place is not inherently "higher" than another. The categorizations of the Earth-bound existence collapse in the face of new conditions.

"That Sun, which seemed so high and so great, is, from that wider vantage (i.e. outside the Earth's influence) to be nothing more than a single point of light in an immensity so great as to be beyond any comprehension.

"The very act of striving against the Earth affirms that one is bound to the Earth; rather, give up that upon which the pull of Earth acts, abandon it to become one with the Earth. And then, that which remains may fly outwards."

I waited for a while, but nothing more seemed to come. I thus closed the vision.

Seer's comments:

This vision continues the previous one, and borrows from it to keep the symbolism compact. The mountain here is the same one seen in the distance there. The mundane region connected with this Part, Parthia, doesn't seem to have any direct connection with what is seen.

The previous vision was connected with Cyprus, and this mountain is the Mount Olympus on that island. Since that "Olympus" is not the original, it is not the home of the gods, but instead a false image of that place, a suitable home for the Father of Lies.

The tarot card The Devil is associated with the zodiac sign of Capricorn, and connects Binah with Tiphereth in Achad's Tree of Life. The sign governs all struggles upwards against resistance, whether that be a physical struggle to climb a mountain, or a struggle upwards in the hierarchy of some organization. By association it rules all organizations with pyramidal structure.

I believe that this Part is in some sense the complement of the Part named Tiarpax, seen previously. There it was shown how the finite self, by emulating its "true father" in the act of undiscriminating love, becomes one with the divine. The process shown was one of attraction through similarity. Here we look at the complementary process, which is one of "pushing away" that which is below, in order to rise higher.

Either one can serve as a means of spiritual advancement. The problem is that, unlike Chokmah, Binah has no discernible characteristics, no innate tendencies of its own. It is the negation or cessation of all possible manifest characteristics and tendencies. Thus any perceived goal the person has in his struggle upwards is necessarily a projection of his own nature, or the generalized nature of the Ruach, represented by its center in Tiphereth. It is an illusion that conceals the true goal.

As long as one pursues such a projected goal, one is blind to the real goal. And simply pushing away from the finite aspects of being cannot get one into Binah. Rejection creates a bond with the thing being rejected; even as one pushes it away, one becomes more tied to it. Trying to reach Binah solely in this manner is like trying to touch the Moon by standing on a hill and jumping at it.

Opmacas, Part 19 of 91, 1st of DEO. Zodiacal King: Zarnaah Ministers: 6363 Mundane association: Getulia (Western Sahara, south of Morocco)

Saturday, November 26, 1994 3:14 PM

Invoked Opmacas following the revised method.

There came into my sight an image of the glyph of Libra. This glyph became three-dimensional, and took on the color of brass or bronze. At the pivot point was a point of searing white light, on which the arms rested. My viewpoint approached the balance, then took a quick left turn, moving out along one arm of the balance. At the end of the arm, an ornate hanging hook was attached to the arm by a cross piece; I realized the hook and crosspiece were the glyph of Saturn.

At the end of the other arm of the balance, a glyph of Jupiter was attached, hanging from curled-over end of the glyph's curved member. It curled around the arm and had it's weight so distributed that the vertical cross piece of the glyph was balanced directly below the arm.

But it seemed that this vertical piece was formed like a wavy-bladed knife (a kris?) with the point upwards, made out of some white metal, possibly tin. Instead of a hilt and handle at the lower end of the blade, there was a sphere of the same metal, with a surface sand-blasted into a grayish finish. (The whole looks like a single sperm cell; it also reminded me of Chokmah. As I thought this, I received confirmation of it.)

Now back at the other end of the balance, I saw that the lower end of the Saturn glyph was curled over into a small hook. Attached to this hook were four braided ropes. These descended and surrounded a much larger black ball. There was a sense of tremendous weight to this ball, though it was balanced by the gray sphere, which gave no such sense.

This ball had an insubstantial outer layer, into which the ropes sank slightly. Next came a tough integument of some sort, covering a jelly-like filling that took up most of the volume. Inside the filling the world floated, seeming at once to be whole, and to be decomposed into its myriad parts, down to the tiniest atom.

The Voice said, "What is the divine creative will without that upon which to expend itself? And what is the substance of being without that which fertilizes it and causes new things to arise from its infinite potential? Neither is whole without the other.

"With this Part, we transfer fully from the male side of the Tree to the female side. Though some earlier parts contained powers from this side, this was because they were necessary to maintain a balanced relationship in the activity of the male paths, or in the action of the neutral path of the central pillar. For example, the Parts of Capricorn, Fire, and Sol are so closely connected at their base that their powers interact and influence each other perpetually. To take one away from the other would be to disturb that balance.

(A pause.)

"As the winds shift in the fall, and the light becomes the dark of the year, so here does the balance of the Parts shift. And so is Libra the sign of this change. But the rulers of Libra are both feminine, so the shift is weighted towards the dark and does not return to the light until the weight of the male side is enhanced in the power of Aries.

"Love and Structure, acceptance and support; these are the powers of the feminine side of the tree, as they are the essential powers of the female human. And nourishment of growth; for is not the arc of Luna concealed within the sign of Saturn? And it is the waxing Moon, spilling its newly regenerated power into the world.

"And yet, one might object, further down this side are the powers all male. Why is this so, if the left-hand pillar is the side of the feminine?

"For this cause: that the power of Capricorn is the Mountain, the Mons, the ultimate solidity of the feminine principle of Structure. The male power of Mars climbs its heights, but without the mountain, its power would be expended uselessly. And so also for the Path of Mars; for the Tower is a thing of rock, of stone, and these are Saturn. The soldier conceals himself within the tower for defense, hiding in the Mother; so also he attacks the tower, seeking to penetrate the Lover. In both instances his actions would be futile without her; for aggression and thrust cannot exist without that against which to direct its energies. And spiritually this is rightly the feminine, where among the debased power is pitted against power in uncreative activity.

"And in yet another sense, the tower is not a phallus at all; but Caer Benoic or Carbonek, the castle that shelters the Grail.

"And so on down the Tree. In Virgo is the feminine power brought even further down; and we shall see Scorpio again, as it relates to this side of the Tree. Much more is to be given, never fear.

"For now, we are done."

I thanked the Voice, and asked if I should invoke this Part again. The indication was that I should not, but should instead continue on.

Seer's comments:

As all the Parts are representative of a dynamic change of state, so here also. The form of change is the simple and well-understood shifting of the balance. The Zodiacal King Zarnaah, who rules this Part, is connected with Libra in the system of correspondences used for this work. Note that 19, the Part's number, is the mirror-image of 91, the total number of parts.

The balance here is viewed as between the divine masculine expression and the divine feminine, and introduces a new sequence of Parts descending from Kether primarily through the Pillar of Severity, where those previous were in the Pillars of Mildness and Mercy. But here the two aspects seem to be in equilibrium and very tightly bound to one another.

Bronze is a combination of a "female" metal, copper, with a "male" metal, tin; thus the balances seen in the image are a merger of the two aspects. Jupiter and Saturn are the paths that descend from Kether (the pivot of the balance) to Chokmah and Binah respectively in Achad's Tree of Life, and are themselves traditionally considered a complementary male and female pair. This becomes even more explicit in the representations of the "weights" on the ends of the balance as a sperm and ovum, and as the sephiroth generally labeled as the Father and Mother within the Tree of Life.

There follows a somewhat revisionist interpretation of the paths of Capricorn and Mars. These are traditionally "male" in nature, but the viewpoint emphasizes the necessity for the presence of an opposite, "female" aspect of existence before these powers can be used with effect. Mountains have often been seen as feminine in nature; association with the breasts and the Mons Veneris are common. The Goat is nothing without the mountain on which to climb.

The Tower of Mars is viewed here not as the phallus, the embodiment of the male principle, but rather as the object of that principle's efforts. The inside of the tower is emphasized, its nature as an enclosure, and thus it is transformed into a symbol of the kteis, the vagina and womb. Thus the male power can be protected inside it, like a child in the womb, while another male power seeks to penetrate it and place itself inside.

Genadol, Part 20 of 91, 2nd of DEO. Zodiacal King: Hononol (Taurus) Ministers: 7706 Mundane association: Arabia (Arabian Peninsula, except the Red Sea coast and Yemen.)

Monday, December 19, 1994 12:03 AM

Invoked Genadol according to the revised procedure.

A curtain split before me, and behind it was the glyph of Taurus, in gold on a black background. The black was abysmally deep; nothing of light could be seen in it.

Now the glyph split into two parts, the crescent becoming the moon in the night sky, the circle becoming a gold coin; the latter fell to earth, spinning through the air. (The coin has a simple, equal-armed cross embossed upon it.) White tears seemed to leak from the lower arm of the moon, or to condense upon it. Each one swelled and fell off, changing in midair to another coin. The air was quickly filled with coins and other things of great value, all condensing from an invisible menstruum around the moon.

The darkness is very pleasant, and seems infinite in extent.

"This is she of whom it is said, she brings forth all things, but is never empty; she holds all things in herself, but is never full. Out of her comes the world in all its glory, indeed, all worlds are within her at all times. The Father's seed concentrates her substance, but can never exhaust it."

(I don't know whether the above paragraph was my own thought, or another's.)

Now all the things falling through the air finally hit the Earth, and are absorbed into it; they disappear from sight, but the sense of their value, of riches and wealth, remains. The Earth itself becomes those riches.

My sight draws nearer to the Earth, and it seems that I am above the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, close to its southeast corner. And I see below a caravan, bringing frankincense and spices north-westwards across the desert. Camels and asses are loaded high; richly-woven carpets pad them, other carpets cover the loads. Sounds of jingling bells and sweet music follow them.

A thought comes to me: the sun is the destroyer in this land, the moon the succorer. For the heat of the day wears down all things, burning the life from them. But under the moon men can work or travel in comfort. And deeper in time, this was the land of the goddess, as were the lands to the north; her hidden influence still lingers, sustaining the faith of those who now direct that faith to another god. (Something here also about the lunar crescent being the symbol of all these lands even today.)

Seer's comments:

This Part is the first attributed to Taurus among the 91. Taurus is ruled by Venus and has Luna exalted; thus it is, in a sense, the ultimate "feminine" sign. This seems appropriate for the first Part to follow the "shifting of the balance" described in the previous Part.

The black background is Binah, the infinite, transcendental no-thing from which any thing finite is produced. The horns of the Taurus glyph become the Moon as image or mask of Binah, the "bright, fertile Mother", AIMA. Stimulated by the Father she produces a liquid essence from which anything may be (and is) made. The fruits of the Mother then fall into the Earth and become one with it, so that the Daughter partakes of her Mother's nature.

Material wealth in general is attributed to Taurus, as is trade in goods. The camels of the caravan are Lunar by connection with the planet's Hebrew letter. The form of frankincense reflects the drops falling from Luna in the previous image, as does the means by which it is produced.

July 9, 1995 1:20 p.m.

Invoked Genadol according to the usual procedure. The sigil of the Part (upon which I was standing) fell away beneath me, and merged into the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. My body expanded until it seemed that my feet were in Arabia, and my body stood extending far above the Earth. I could not see my body, but only feel it.

Once again I heard the voice, saying faintly "This is She from whom all things come, yet She is not empty; this is She who holds all things in Herself, yet is not full; this is She who showers upon the Earth her everlasting life and wealth. She has taken the Father's seed and made it one with the Earth her daughter." Essentially the same as in December's vision; only small changes in wording, no change in meaning. The voice reduced to a faint chanting in the background, from which no more words could be distinguished.

Now another voice comes and says: "Where Eden was, now stands a desert. For the evil of man has eaten up Her life here, and taken all the wealth therefrom, and carried it away unto distant lands. There is naught left but the bones of the world here. Yet even the marrow of those bones is being taken; and soon shall naught be left of her glory save dry dust and stone, unto the center of the Earth.

"Yet in another place is Eden still as it was; naught is lost to the world. Memory fades, yet in the essence of things is the past preserved. She holds it in Herself, and shall bring it forth again in those days when men desire to restore the world. As a vision shall it come to them in those days, and through their knowledge and will shall it be made manifest again.

"Now looks upwards, o man, unto the places from which you came."

I looked towards the stars, and the pull of Earth beneath me faded. And it seemed that all the stars there are were compressed within a ring of glowing golden color, surrounded by that ring. The glow extended inwards, enclosing the stars from above and below in a lenticular shape. Knowledge came that the lens is a mystery of Her, for from above or below it shows the circle of enclosure; while from any side view it is the Vesica Piscis, the gate from which things are born. Thus the lens comprises both the womb and vagina, but in a manner different from the glyph of Venus; for since the lens is both womb and gate, things are born from Her yet they remain perpetually enclosed within Her.

I contemplated this lens for a while in silence. Then a great beam of light appeared and passed through the lens, being focused to a point by it. And I knew that this beam was a male power of some sort. The voice said:

"Within the Earth is the Mother complemented by the Father; she brings forth that which His creative will signifies. And so it is in the greater world as well; the entire universe is a vehicle by which a greater Father works his creative will. What that will is, none knows; for that Father is incomprehensible even to the highest gods. How much more lacking is our own understanding? We know that it is so, but little else.

"And here is the ultimate mystery: that there is one Mother, but many Fathers. For the Mother who acts within the Earth is the same who holds the universe in her womb. There is no division in her. But the sources of creation are not one; many creative beings act upon her to bring forth their creations; each such being is a Father, and works his will alone and separate from the rest. The men of Earth (comprising also the women of Earth) work their wills upon her, and bring forth new things within the world. The gods work their wills upon her and bring forth stars, and planets, and those greater structures that are invisible to men.

"Each works their own will, but despite this, there seems to be a unity, a coordination among their creations. Some of this is because the lesser creators act within a field that greater creators have already shaped somewhat; thus within any given world it seems that there is one Plan shaping everything. But the greater and more comprehensive unity comes from the fact that all are dealing with the substance of the same Mother, bringing forth their creations out of Her, so that all of their creations are Her children and show family resemblances to each other.

"Contemplate the Mother, o man, and know Her. Much that comes after in this series is dependent upon Her, and comes directly from Her womb into the world."

I did so for some time.

"We are done."

Seer's comments:

The principles of male-vs.-female in these visions seems to have many echoes with Liber AL. Nuit is "continuous" as the Mother here has "no division in her." Hadit can be many places, is multiple, just as in the early visions of this series we saw the male force in the form of countless sparks of divine creative fire. The union between the continuity of the former and the diversity of the latter is the ever-changing, ever-renewing world of events, depicted as the 91 Parts themselves in these visions, and as Ra-Hoor-Khuit in Thelema.

I wonder at the paucity of ideas relating to Nuit in Thelemic doctrine. There are a few practical works related to her -- the Gnostic Mass, Liber NV. Liber NV seems too glib and hacked-together to me; it shows little real understanding. Explications of her nature and its philosophical consequences are non-existent in A.C.'s works; even in The Vision and The Voice she is hardly visible. I suppose the prophet of the Brat-God had too little sympathy with her to do the job right.

Aspiaon, Part 21 of 91. 3rd of DEO. Zodiacal King: Zinggen. Ministers: 6320. Mundane association: Phalagon (a region unknown to Dee. Possibly Faliscan, an area of southern Etruria.)

July 12, 1995 3:45 PM

The vision opened with a brief image of torrential rain, gone almost before it was seen. Then it seemed as if I were in a region of deep, still, clear water, but colored purple or mauve of the shade sometimes seen in the body's internal organs. [7/13/95 -- The color of the inside of the womb during a woman's fertile days of the month, when it is engorged with blood.]

Within this water -- if water it is -- there floated many small pearl-like spheres, distributed thinly throughout the volume I could see.

The voice said: "Each of these 'pearls' is a world; no, not a single planet necessarily, but a region wherein a single creative theme is being manifested. It might, in time and space, be a planet, or a sun, or a person or some other thing. But here within the womb of the Mother, in the amnion of her body, are these creations the simple things you see. They are precipitated out of her undivided fluid by the stimulus of the Father's seed; each seed is at the core of one of the pearls you see, and she builds upon it those things necessary for it to become manifest."

Another brief image here. I moved toward one of the pearls and passed into it. Passing the boundary, an unending variety of things exploded outwards around me. Everything was in a tremendous state of activity, things changing into other things, new things constantly arising, old things disappearing and re-appearing in a modified form. I couldn't grasp but a small portion of what was going on. Then I was as suddenly back where I began, and all that activity was shut off as if it had never been. All this took place within a second, but seemed longer in terms of experience.

"That which is inside them, which is their nature, is of no importance here. For she transcends all such creations in herself. She is not affected by them, nor is she in any way active within them. (Though she is present therein at all times, yet she does not act or move.) [That is, the particular theme being expressed inside a "pearl" is a wholly internal matter, and is irrelevant to the realm which contains it. Anything that expresses a specific nature is not Her.]

"They see her not, who are within such a pearl; they know her not, nor can they come to her without abandoning that which they are. For she is free of all conditions, all distinctions, all differentiations and limits; she is the 'none' that encloses their "sum". [I heard "sum" as a three-way cabalistic pun, meaning "sum" in the sense of "totality", "some" in the sense of quantified thing-ness, and the Latin "sum" or "I am".]

"She is Nought, yet All cannot contain her; the smallest portion of her would overflow it. (And this word 'portion' is a lie even to speak in her presence.)

"Go you to her, o man, and become her servant. She it is that is your true core of being, the unchanging, end- and beginning-less [a word not comprehended here] of you. Not Set, for he is her Servant as you are, and made you out of her at her direction. Not any god is at the core of your being; there is no core, only endlessness."

(I don't know whether this statement is specific to myself, or a general statement of man's condition. The unspoken subtext seems to say the former; The god Set is my "father", but in some circular fashion his creation was the will of the Mother, according to terms she somehow specified. How an undifferentiated, non-acting whatever-she-is could do this is beyond my understanding.)

"We are done for the moment. Come again to this place before going on."

Friday, July 14, 1995 1:33 PM

Once again I get a brief glimpse of torrential rains, then the image changes to a mountainous seacoast, possibly a peninsula jutting out into the sea -- I cannot tell from my viewpoint, which is out over the sea. (near Sorrento, south of Naples?) Three sharp-peaked mountains are the peaks of the Part's sigil.

Now my viewpoint sinks into the sea, first through brightly-lit water full of colorful fishes, then through darker, blue-violet water. Finally into a region where the water is dark, not with the absence of light, but because its color is ultraviolet, beyond my sight.

Strange shapes form and dissolve, hardly seen in the moments they exist. One seems to be a wire-like outline of a cube, but with a hole in the middle. (That is, a spherical region of absence is suspended in the center of the cubical frame.)

Another looks like a dog with three heads, each one pointed to a different point of an equilateral triangle. Or is it a trefoil brass candle-holder? I cannot tell.

A Russian icon of Jesus, complete with gold-leaf halo, comes and goes again. His left hand is held down and palm-forward, with the thumb and first two fingers spread and the other two fingers folded against the palm. The right shows the same gesture, but with the hand raised to breast-height and the fingers pointing upwards. The icon tilts backwards until only its edge is visible, and then floats upwards out of sight. I do not know what this means.

The voice says: "That which is the source of creation is also a source of destruction. For are not the waters below as they are above? [That is, the Mother surrounds all creations, so she is as much "below" them as she is "above" them in their internal coordinate system, even though that system is meaningless in her own context.]

"She is the power that burns in the depths of being, that churns up the detritus of ancient days and brings it forth into the light. She is the acid that eats at the roots of being, and hell is in her as much as is heaven. If one sinks into those depths, then one encounters her in a seemingly evil aspect, as she destroys him. She is the ending-place of the Black Brothers as she is of the White, though they know it not and would deny it if they could.

"We say these things not to scare, but simply as fact. She is there; her being surrounds all. In either direction one comes to her, at the ends of creation."

I felt myself continuing to sink into the water, and the forms ceased to appear. Momentarily there was a sense of many disconnected particles flashing about. Then it felt as if I had passed through some sort of membrane and had fallen out of some enclosed region into a larger one. The flashing particles became stars filling the sky below me, while above was a great sphere of a dark purplish-silver color. And now I wasn't falling "down", but "away" from that sphere.

And as I moved away, I saw that what I thought were stars were actually galaxies. I could sense all the individual stars that composed each one, and all the living planets that circled those stars. And on one of those planets was the mountainous peninsula I saw at the start of the vision.

"The end is the beginning. There is, in truth, no beginning or end within a creation; it circles back on itself to be fully enclosing in all dimensions. The smallest becomes the largest, and the largest circles back to become, in time, the smallest. And outside all dimensions She supports them, and feeds them."

Now I am back in the mauve sea of the first vision, with the pearls floating around me. And every one of them contains all that I have seen here, the entire circle of creation from largest to smallest. I feel myself dissolving into that sea.

(Here the seer abandoned the vision and went to meditate. He found himself dissolving and re-forming many times over the next half-hour, at which time he reformulated himself by his will and went about his daily business.)

Seer's comments:

Here again we have a presentation related to the Mother aspect of divinity, without any reference to a particular path of the Tree of Life. Perhaps this and the previous two visions serve as a general introduction in a way roughly analogous to that in which the three Parts of LIL served for the Parts as a whole and for the Father aspect. Note the contrast between the theme of division and conflict there and the theme of non-division and continuity here.

The deep, still water of the opening image reflects the Piscean attribute of the Zodiacal King. Possibly the rain does as well, as a representation of the biblical Flood. The mauve coloration of the water may be a blind for the invisible "ultraviolet" that is the King Scale color of the sign.

The presentation of the Mother as "undivided", etc. is typical of Binah, but I believe that a higher state is meant here, with Binah being its reflection, or that portion of it that can be experienced within the limits of the terrestrial Tree of Life. In standard cabalistic terms the Mother of Binah is co-equal with or slightly inferior to the Father in Chokmah, where here it is stated to be definitely superior in some sense.

However, the next three paragraphs definitely relate to Binah; whether they also relate to that higher level I cannot know. The movement into and back out of the pearl connects to one Binah experience in which the finite levels are perceived as being "sealed off" in some way from the transcendental levels, with the internal finite events being irrelevant or meaningless within the larger context.

In Friday's vision the Piscean element is stronger. The sea becomes the true Piscean King Scale color. The forms all relate in some way to Pisces experiences: the cube and hole are the perception of the emptiness of a purely finite existence; Cerberus is Hell or suffering; the candle-holder is devotion to God, overcoming suffering; and Christ is the final salvation. The whole series is a summary of the religious (as distinct from the magickal) interpretation of the universal formula of INRI.

The vision then returns to the idea of the Mother as the Universal Container. The words speak of the Black and White Brothers, but the unspoken subtext had a slightly different import. Whether one moves towards the seeming unity of the Father, or towards the chaos at the roots of being, one eventually encounters her and must dissolve oneself in her to attain her level. In fact, with the principle that there are many Fathers, as spoken earlier, the difference between the endpoints disappears. If there are a multitude of creative realms on the cosmic level then the conditions there must be similar in gross outline to conditions on the sub-atomic level. Thus in the final image one turns into the other.

Zamfres, Part 22 of 91, 1st of ZID. Zodiacal King: Gebabal. Ministers: 4362. Mundane association: Mantiana (a mountainous region along the western border of current-day Iran, where it meets Turkey and Iraq. East of Lake Van, west of Lake Urmia.)

Invoked Zamfres according to the usual custom. Vibrating the name Gebabal produced an unusually strong response.

As the vision opened I was looking at the mundane region (of Zamfres) from above. For a moment the two lakes to either side became the eyes of some god looking back at me; the twin rows of mountains running north-south between them became the bridge of his nose. The spreading Tigris-Euphrates flood plain to the south became the fleshy part of his nose. Then the eyes closed, and a pressure I was not aware of eased, as if some great being had judged me and found me too inconsequential to deal with.

The glyph of Cancer formed about the lakes, each at the center of one of the glyph's circles. The two curved arms above and below encircled and enclosed the region ruled by Zamfres.

The voice said: "Ea rules the great subterranean sea, and his eyes upon the world are those lakes that you see. Therein, it is said, he concentrates the salts that would otherwise dispel the purity of his realm; for the underground sea is fresh, not salt water, and the springs of the Earth do come forth from it.

"Now in the spring of one year did the waters below burst forth; not in refreshing fountains but in great gouts of water that did destroy all about. And the rains came as well, out of season, and with the tears of Ea, that flow from his eyelids, did inundate the lands of men.

"Fifteen cubits did the waters rise, and the cities and fields of men were awash. Covered over were the cities of men, for they did dwell beside the rivers. Covered over were the fields of men, not with the life-renewing floods of normal times, but with the destroying waters. And the great Temples and groves of the Mother were all destroyed.

"It is said that Enlil caused this destruction, because the noise of men kept him from sleeping. And this is not so, for the noise did bother him not because of loss of sleep, but because that noise was raised in worship of the Mother, holy Inanna, and little of it was raised in his own praise. Thus did jealousy, hid secretly in the heart, cause the destruction of the world by water.

"And in this time was one man saved, along with his people. Ea whispered in his ear, the ear of Ziusudra, and did cause him to raise up a ship fit to withstand the flood. And this ship was itself an act of worship -- did it not have seven decks, and were not they divided each into nine compartments? Thus it was a Temple of the World, to hold all the world within it.

"And into the boat did Ziusudra take all that was needful for the restarting of the world. Of people and animals and goods did he take all that was needful, and all his wealth as well. And in the time of the flood, when the rains came with great destruction, and the waters rose up to destroy men's abodes, and the great wind out of the south blew, then did Ziusudra enter his boat, and come to be saved. And all his people with him.

"The great south wind, raised by the god, did blow the ship northwards, unto the brow of Ea. And there, when the waters receded, did it come to rest. And when the birds did show that the Earth was safe to trod upon again, then did Ziusudra come forth with all his people and make great sacrifices to the gods. And the gods were needful of this, and partook of the sacrifice with great hunger. As it is written: 'The gods hovered about the sacrifice like flies about the offering.'

"And the gods did rebuke the Destroyer for seeking to bring about the end of Man. For without man, who would feed the gods? Who would supply them with offerings of meat, and grain, and beer? And who would, in their own time, replace them? And so the gods placed a protection upon mankind, that they not again be destroyed.

"And Ziusudra and his wife, they made into gods; granting them the immortality of the gods, and giving them to dwell ever after in paradise, beyond the mouths of the waters."

"And so goes the tale of the flood, o man. And you have wondered over it, seeking its significance. But what other significance could it have but that great process hidden in INRI? [A thought of annoyance from me evokes an amused tone from the Voice.] You cannot escape it, o man, it is everywhere. Consider:

It is Inanna, the earth-mother, of whom Enlil is jealous. Enlil himself brings destruction, and so is Scorpio-water. Ea who is Shamash preserves him, and forces Enlil to give him a "soul even like unto that of the gods." Earth, Death-Water, Sun, and Air or Spirit -- thus again does INRI intrude into the affairs of men.

"Now there is more to be seen here, now that this is out of the way. This is indeed the power of Zamfres manifesting, and in another time we will show you a different view.

"Come again, and see. We are done."

Seer's comments:

I had been invoking Zamfres informally for a couple of days before this vision. About all I got out of these invocations was a mild obsession with the Flood story. But it didn't seem quite to connect. I suspect that this recitation of the Babylonian Flood story is to get this (possibly superficial) interpretation of the Part's power out of the way, so that something more direct and meaningful can come through.

The vision of the previous Part mentioned the "waters below"; Ea is a personification of them. Since the entire world (from the Babylonian viewpoint) is part of this Face of Ea, this is a repetition of the idea previously put forth that water surrounds the universe.

The "tears of Ea" are the meltwaters that normally caused the Tigris and Euphrates to rise and renew the soil of Mesopotamia in spring. These come from the mountains surrounding the two lakes Van and Urmia, and thus metaphorically leak from the eyelids of the god.

One can imagine the Babylonian version of the Flood having some basis in reality. The topography of the region is such that it wouldn't take a great deal of extra water to flood most of the inhabited areas of Mesopotamia. In the days before flood-control, the Mississippi and Missouri rivers regularly flooded much larger areas. Unusually heavy rains could easily produce such an effect without any miraculous intervention. Since Enlil is the god of storms, he would naturally be blamed for it by the survivors.

Ziusudra's boat is said to be a Temple of the World. He was instructed to build it as a cube 120 cubits in every dimension; thus its three dimensions sum to 360, the numerical symbol of the circle (which originated with the Babylonians). Within the circle of the universe, it has seven levels for the seven planets. Each level has nine compartments, which I speculate corresponds not to the usual lunar symbolism, but to the nine fruits on the Tree of the World -- roughly equivalent to the sephiroth. So it encompasses both the heavens and the Earth within its design.

The interpretation of the story in terms of the INRI formula distorts the attributes of the gods somewhat. In Babylonian terms Ea is a god of Water and Enlil is an Earth-god. With Anu they make up the prime triumvirate of the pantheon. They correspond to the Greek triumvirate of Poseidon, Pluto, and Zeus, who divided up the world between them.

But the association is probably valid anyway. The Earthy aspect of the story is the prediluvian world of Mesopotamia -- fertile, wealthy, and happy. The Scorpio aspect is the Flood itself. Ziusudra survives by creating a microcosm -- metaphorically discovering his solar self. And the granting of a god-like spirit raises him into the Airy realm of the final "I" of INRI.

Incidentally, the Part's mundane region, Mantiana, was at one time the Kingdom of Ararat, the same "mountains of Ararat" where Noah's Ark landed after the biblical version of the story.

Wednesday, July 19, 1995

After yesterday's work, I had an increasingly strong conviction that I hadn't really penetrated into the core of the part. The vision of the Flood seemed at least somewhat appropriate, given the zodiac association of the ruling King; but I felt that it had been thrown off by the Part as a diversion, or in the way that some lizards will sacrifice their tails in order to escape being eaten.

Late last night (this morning rather, around 12:30 am) I invoked the Part again with the intent to examine its energies and see if I could get a clearer perception of what was going on. I did not record the work at the time, in order that I could give all of my attention to the task.

The first invocation produced a sense of energy basically similar to what I got during the vision. But there was also a sense of something behind it that was of a different, deeper character. Repeating the invocations, I began to perceive the superficial energies as a shell surrounding this core; it seemed to produce a centripetal effect in anything that touched it. That is, it imparted a sideways vector, the way a spinning object will knock away anything that hits it at some odd angle.

I did additional invocations, calling repeatedly upon the God of Hosts and the Enochian God by his twelve names, in addition to the usual names associated with the Part. This seemed to increase the power of that central core, but did nothing towards enabling me to enter it.

At some point, I decided a diversion of my own was in order. If the defenses of this place were set against my usual astral body, then perhaps using a different one would enable me to pass them. For many years I have worked at developing a second astral body in female form; it is a construct intended to provide a sensory base in which I could explore the "feminine" mode of my own personality. It was never intended to be used for magickal work, but I tried to use it so now. Leaving my regular magickal body in place, I transferred my awareness to this other body, and moved it around to one side of the region I was trying to enter. Then I tried to slip in while the defenses were still focused elsewhere.

It seemed to work, to some extent. I felt that I was "inside" the region and was feeling its power around me instead of from outside. Almost as soon as I entered, some slight modifications occurred to the body. An Egyptian "Crown of the North" -- shaped somewhat like a red shmoo -- appeared on my head, with the plumes of Maat mounted to either side of it. The facial features took on a nilotic cast, and the eyes turned from green to brown. The hair remained black. (I was seeing this reflected on the inside of the aura around the body.) A dress formed around me, reminiscent of the styles in ancient Egyptian stele.

I moved further in, and more changes took place. The crown disappeared, to be replaced by a built-up hair style (I forget what women call it -- beehive?) with the hair threaded around with thin golden ropes. My hair became very wavy where before it was straight. The dress changed into the "Cretan" style -- breasts exposed but pushed up by a tight corset-like jacket, long skirt. Bracelets in the form of serpents appeared on my wrists. I felt several inches taller as well.

In both of these forms, I felt very like a priestess. But it was as if I was remembering and taking on an old form rather than manufacturing the feelings from my imagination.

Now I was simultaneously in this body, and viewing it and its surroundings from above and behind her. I made some sorts of gestures -- the nature of which I don't recall now -- and called upon the Gods and the names of the Part again. A brilliant aura formed about me, and it seemed that stars played about on its surface.

There appeared before me a large group of beings; I could not tell if their forms were male or female. The each wore clothes like those of a dervish-dancer, save that a small cap with cylindrical sides about two inches high was added. And instead of the dervish's white, these were covered in intricate geometric patterns, in which red and yellow predominated.

These beings began to dance, a dance composed mostly of spinning motions but with an occasional leap or lifted leg. Their skirts flared out as they spun, revealing bare feet. Their spinning motion carried them each sideways, moving in arcs punctuated sometimes by small loops. Their was no regular pattern to their movements; the motion carried them randomly around the visible area, and sometimes out of it. I took these beings to be the ministers of the Part, and their motions to be in some way dictated by the Part's energies. I watched, trying to feel the power behind them.

After ten minutes of this, I began to feel myself drifting from a meditative state towards sleep, so I ended the work and returned to my physical body. Waiting to fall asleep, I still felt my female astral body distinctly, though it remained more or less congruent with my physical body. An aura remained around me, in which a horde of tiny, shimmering pentagrams flashed about. Eventually this subsided, and I slept.

Writing this all down, I seem to have re-invoked something of last night's power. I can hear the Voice of the Part saying:

"Hail unto She who is the night-sky; she has come to us! She whose eyes and hair are the darkness of night; whose crown is made of stars; whose necklace is of lapis set in silver. She who encompasses all within herself; from whose womb all things come, and from whose breasts comes the milk of her heart to feed them. This is she whose power is one with all gods; whose womb opens to them that they might create children to fill all lands and times. Whom the Serpent serves in all things; acknowledge Her, o Serpent, and be one with her!"

I feel that this last is directed at me, and raise my awareness in a focus of greeting and contact.

"Now comes the Serpent, her servant in all things, who has carried her will in the world since the time of man was not yet born. He is the Snake whose burrowing undermines all realities, dispersing their solidity [or, possibly "breaking their forms"] so that her power shall shine in the depths as it does in the heights of the night-sky. Think ye, o man, that your work is in vain? Think not so; it shall be fulfilled. That which comes as a sun in the sky is not all of the spirit; that which penetrates unknown is often more effective, and shall have longer effect. [I don't know what inspired these last comments.]

"O Serpent, come you now or later, and you shall see what is here. Come in your female form, girt about with your ensigns of office, and we shall let you enter here and know for all to see."

I feel that I need a little more practice before trying to use my female body in my normal visionary mode; it is too difficult to split my focus between seeing and recording. So I indicate that I will do so at another time.

"Then we are done for now. Farewell."

Friday, July 21, 1995 10:46 AM

Invoked Zamfres with the usual method. I formulated my magickal body in a female form, dressed as a priestess of Inanna.

The sigil of the Part rose up out of the circle and hung before me in the air. A second copy of it split from the first, flipped over on its vertical axis and moved to one side. Now a long staff like a shepherd's staff came up from below and stopped between them; it was a plain wooden staff with a small knob on the top end.

The two sigils became serpents, and moved inwards to wrap themselves around the staff. Their tails touched the staff, their heads faced outwards to either side.

The voice said: "The Serpent is Her symbol of Life, for serpents were at one time thought to be generated spontaneously out of Her substance; the livingness of the world became too full, and concentrated and manifested itself in these sinuous forms.

"Later on it became known that the powers of life in the body flow also in these forms around the staff of the spine. And so this symbol before you was formed as the embodiment of Her power. This has been Her symbol since time immemorial, in many places; only in more recent times did some steal it for the symbol of a male god.

"Take the staff, for it is yoursas Her servant in all things."

I reached out and grasped the staff and felt a rush of kundalini-like power through my body. I only held it for a moment and then it merged with me; the knob of the staff in the center of my head, the heads of the serpents coincident with my eyes.

And now before me I again saw the image of Mesopotamia and the regions north of it. It seemed that the Tigris and Euphrates delineated the sides of some mystical staff overlaid upon the land; they were actually the Serpents entwined about it. The two salt lakes became the heads of the Serpents, and the mountains to the north between them became the knob of the staff.

"All this land is Hers, o priestess; it always has been and always will be. Though the man-gods rule, yet their activities are those of children playing in a house their mother made, not understanding how she maintains it even as they make use of it unthinking.

"It is here in her Womb that she brought forth her gifts to mankind; writing, agriculture, crafts and cities; history, the memory that lasts beyond the lives of a generation; the cooperation of great numbers to ease the labor of all. In this place were they born, and here will her other gifts return to mankind in other days.

"What boots it if for a time the children play, while Her attention is elsewhere? She made these things for them, and if they now think they are Lords of Creation, in time they will remember and come back to her. The motions of time [i.e., the last few thousand years of history] are a short holiday afternoon to her, as well you know.

"When they hunger with the true hunger of the divine, then will She answer them; when they tire of snacking on Seed, and desire the nourishing Milk, she will feed them until they are full up. In the meantime, she lets them go; how else do children grow, but through play and experiment?"

A playful atmosphere comes to the vision. At the same time I feel the clitoris of this body hardening and sticking up out of its fold. A flashed image comes of a woman's sex in a state of arousal.

"And this that you see is the true origin of the Serpent's symbolism. She sticks her head out of the furrow when the flows of life are at their greatest. Of such small things are great truths formed. [A sense of giggling, teasing amusement here.] Only a man, divorced from the land, could think that his ponderous club sticking up in the air is the embodiment of the snake's power. No; the snake stays hidden in the folds of the Earth, close to its burrow, and only comes out into the light of day when the rains fill up the Earth and the spring overflows." [The correspondences of this metaphor should be obvious.]

At this point both the vision and the voice dissolved into a rich turquoise illumination. For twenty minutes or so I assumed the throne asana (with both physical and astral bodies) and simply experienced it.

The voice returned:

"Now, what would we say to a woman who comes here? You shall not know. For even though you come in the image of your past selves, yet in this present time is your finite being shaped to other purposes, as you know. No matter the accuracy of your reproduction [of your past self] it lacks the foundation in daily life to truly comprehend the basis of womanhood; and memory [of past lives] fails when the nerves and body are not suitable.

"And even a woman of your times would have trouble finding the essence in this place; for the thoughts of the world [i.e. public and social expectations] are a pressure upon all, shaping and distorting even where the individual is suited to see what we have here.

"Yet we would say to her: Come here, and experience the freedom of the goddess. Know the exaltation of womanhood as it was in times before the dominance of men. Know what it is to love who you chose, when you chose, without obligation, without being owned or limited even by the pressures of society. Know what it is to chose the fathers of your children as you will, with full awareness that the children will be yours, and yours alone, with neither obligations to or duties expected from those men. Know the great freedom, as it once was and as it will be again in future times.

"Beyond this, we will not speak at this time [on this subject].

"Now, o servant of the goddess, prophet of the snake: Remember as you can these past times, and incorporate them into yourself. You will see, in time, where all this is leading; even Understanding is insufficient when the times are not yet right for revelation. It may be they will never be right, while this body of yours yet lives. The future is not, despite the claims of some; there is no inevitable destiny to events, requiring that they come will-ye or nil-ye. All is change, all is flux, until the moment of manifestation comes.

"You have known that some of your duties in this life are contingent upon events; if those events never come, then other things will be found [for you to do]. It matters not; great destiny or small, it is all the same. Do as your nature and the circumstances dictate, and let what shall come do so in its own manner. Seek not to form events; the responsibility for this lies elsewhere. Dance the dance, and enjoy.

"You are many things, too many to describe or enumerate. You are fully a human being, yet you are also like unto the servants and ministers of God. You are the lost past and the distant future. You carry a god within you, and are one with that god, and yet you are not [one]. Everything that one might say about you is contradicted in some particular. All categories fail in describing you. Therefore explain not, describe not, and ignore descriptions; simply be, and act.

[Something here about future visions in this series, which I did not catch.]

"We are done."

Seer's comments:

As near as I can gather, this Part defines the relationship between woman as a finite being and the Mother as transcendental Being shown in the two previous parts. Even the portion I was able to experience (during the meditative hiatus) was astounding. There was a great deal I intuitively apprehended about the attitudes necessary to perfect such a link; but I find them impossible to describe. All the English terms that bear on the matter are pejorative in one way or another; the language lacks any means of speaking of it in a positive manner.

It is easy enough to read over this vision and the previous two Parts and extract the essentials. What is not so easy is to imagine a social context in which these things are the height of respectability; in which the woman who achieves them has not only her personal will to sustain her, but religious cachet and a supportive social structure to help her maintain the state. I doubt it would be possible to fully realize all aspects of the relationship in any "civilized" social context that exists today; they have all been too poisoned by Aryan attitudes.

Other than this, there is little to say. The sections dealing with the Serpent symbolism are self-explanatory.

Overall, the three days work on this Part all relate in a general way to the zodiac sign of Cancer. Cancer is primal Water, hence the Flood symbolism. Cancer is the sign of Motherhood, so the rest fits in well enough. The erratic dancing of the ministers might be associate with Cancer as the Crab, which moves in skittering, sideways jerks.

There is also some small indication that we are moving out of a general presentation on the divine Mother and back into presentations more closely related to the paths of the Tree of Life. The image of the Mother as star-goddess relates to the path of Aquarius, which connects Binah with Chokmah in Frater Achad's Tree of Life. No doubt this connection will be explained more closely in other Parts.

Todnaon, Part 23 of 91, 2nd of ZID. Zodiacal King: Olpaged (Leo) Ministers: 7236. Mundane association: Soxia (Sinkiang or Xin Jiang province in western China.)

(Note to myself: The sigil for this Part doesn't match Dee's version. Check it before doing. [7/23/95 -- Dee's version is more compact. My version takes the letters in their proper sequence, but adds a superfluous line, making seven line segments instead of the usual six. There seems to be some rule that you can't jump the line except to an adjacent square.])

Sunday, July 23, 1995 11:27 AM

The vision began with an image of a featureless circular area of a brownish-yellow color, surrounded by a necklace made of tiny rosette-like forms mounted on a thin chain. The rosettes each appeared to have a blue center, with white petals in a single circle around the center. Each petal was trapezoidal, the long parallel side as the outer edge. They seemed to be made of some enamel or ceramic.

Now the image shifted slightly and the central portion became a barren sandy waste, the rosettes became oases around its edge, and the chain became trade roads between them.

The image shifted again, and now there was a great lion, roaring and leaping about with frantic energy. His fur stuck out from his body in every direction, every hair vibrating, but moving in a different way from all the others. Flames came from his mouth, but did not harm anything -- there was nothing but sand there. There was no purpose to his movements, no object or intent. I felt a sense of pity for him, wasting his energy in violent, empty motion.

Now a woman appeared, dressed in a thin white robe. She was golden-haired and had brown skin. She placed her hand upon the lion as he came past in his leaping, and he immediately stopped; but still he quivered with power looking for an exit. The woman stroked the lion for a time. Then she lay down on his back, resting her head on his neck, with her body and legs along his spine.

Her aura had radiated a sense of soothing calmness. Now it took on a very odd quality, sinuous and serpent-like. Gravity seemed to have no effect upon her; she was attached to the lion by some inner force of hers which negated anything else that might affect her. She began to glide around the lion's body, keeping full contact with it at all times. Like a snake wrapped around a tree she circled and looped around him, down and under, up and over, in every direction. "Glide" is the precise word; she encountered no friction at all as she moved. Very sensual.

A change came over the lion from her actions. His energies before were not only without direction, they vibrated in every possible manner simultaneously, and changed and shifted chaotically. But the woman's actions seemed to bring order to them, sorting them out by type and nature, and brought focus to them as well. His fur settled and smoothed, his mane combed itself into neatness.

It seemed that the woman coupled with the lion for a moment, and took a measure of his power into herself. As she did her aura expanded to totally surround the lion, enclosing him as her womb enclosed his member. A sense of great pleasure filled the air; entirely sexual but in no way tense.

Now the woman glided around again to the lion's back, and sat astride him. He looked about for a moment, and then began to move purposefully away from this place. It was his own purpose he followed; the woman rode him, but did not direct his course.

The voice spoke:

"It was said that Babalon was a harlot, but this is not so, save in the minds of the perverted who can imagine no other view. She is qadish, the pure and holy one, and it is her holiness that allows her to take all men into herself. By doing so she affirms herself, transcending all natures by enclosing them. If one man is wicked, it matters not to her; if another is good, she takes him as joyfully. Each benefits thereby, and her sanctity is increased by her actions.

"Yet if man is so caught up in his own "superiority", if he thinks he must degrade her to raise himself up, if he refuses her divinity in her acts of love; then he loses her and must go alone in the world, unsanctified, wasting himself in empty works. For it is she who gives focus and order to his work; in his union with her is his true will revealed. She does not guide; his own nature guides him. Yet without her does his nature go astray.

"Give praise to the holy one, mother and lover, the source of comfort. Her love surpasses understanding, yea, surpasses even the crown. In the secret places of the unmanifest, she is All, and None; there is nothing she does not encompass within herself, yet she is greater than all of them together. Meet her joyfully, o man, and embrace her as your lover.

At this point I fell into a meditative trance on the energies of the Part. No further vision came.

Monday, July 24, 1995 12:57 PM

The vision opened with another view of the necklace seen yesterday. But now the yellow-brown area in the center was a large high-cabochon cut topaz; the center of each rosette was an ice-blue diamond, and the petals were feathers, in which all colors coruscated beneath their overall whiteness. The whole was a huge brooch or medallion, mounted on a ribbon colored like a lapis stone; the ribbon was the Milky Way. It was worn around the neck of some great being who could only be sensed vaguely, not seen.

I seem to be having some trouble; nothing more wants to come. Odd, since when I was sitting on my bed invoking the Part, all sorts of visions rushed about me. Now sitting in front of my computer, there is nothing.

While doing the invocation I had two important realizations, received mostly in a visual/intuitive form. Translated into words:

First, concerning the nature of the Enochian system. I have said many times that this magick connects with absolutely everything that exists, on Earth or off it. It touches every part of the universe regardless of whether it is part of our Earthly scheme of creation. My work with the "Lotus of the Temple" shows that it connects to some very strange places indeed.

As has been stated several times in these visions every "male" seed, every act of creation by some entity, creates a region -- a "zone of power" -- with a definite thematic and energetic content. That is, it is limited in the sense that anything with a definite nature excludes from itself things not of that nature. Since the Enochian magick connects together a multitude of different creative zones, it follows that it cannot be a "creation" in the same sense that those zones are; otherwise some regions must necessarily be excluded from connection by its incompatible nature. The Enochian magick must instead be a manifestation of the "female" aspect of divinity, as it has been described in this and the preceding Parts; the Enochian God may very well be an Enochian Goddess.

This would account for the way the magick always seems to enter a particular region along some dimension that doesn't exist inside the region; and for the peculiar "twist" it sometimes puts on our view of a region. The connections exist in the transcendent aspect of the divine Woman, so would appear to be irrational or indescribable within any particular finite frame of reference. It would also account for the way that the "regular" angels and gods of the Tablets often show deeper natures totally different from their superficial, "elemental" classifications.

The second realization concerns the Call of the Aethyrs. The recent Parts describe the universe as a single transcendental Female aspect, within which a multitude of creative "fathers" work their will. These creations do not exist in isolation; they interact with each other. Being of many different (and complex) natures, they must necessarily come into conflict as often as they are compatible or irrelevant to each other. Within the enfolding Mother's influence, they sometimes compete, sometimes cooperate, and are sometimes irrelevant to each other. In short, they form a complex dynamic system -- an "ecology", if you will -- in which everything affects everything else, but in ways that do not have predictable outcomes.

If we accept this view, then the "curse" of the Call becomes nothing of the kind; it is simply a poetic description of the actual way of things. I will not analyze the Call in detail until I think about this further.

There was also an appearance by the lion, but it only repeated things from the first vision, from its own viewpoint. Nothing significant in its speech.

Wednesday, July 26, 1995 12:45 PM

The vision opened looking into the topaz at the center of the brooch seen previously. The Lion appeared therein, and suddenly I was the Lion, looking outwards. The lion's mane rose from his head and formed a cloud around it, as if held out by static electricity. As suddenly, all of the lion except the mane collapsed into a tiny point and disappeared; there was nothing left but these charged lines radiating out in every direction, a sphere with no point at its center. My awareness went into these lines. I noted that each of them was a different color and seemed to carry a different type or frequency of energy. Individual lines changed their position in the sphere constantly, so that there was no steadiness or continuity.

Now I saw the glyph of the Sun before me. Sparks of lightning leapt from the central point to the peripheral circle all around its circumference. A hand came in from outside the picture, and cut the circle; the circle disappeared and all the energy of the point went into the lightning leaping outwards; the point also disappeared. The lines of lightning spread out and vanished from the picture, each taking an erratic, spinning path.

The voice said:

"The Father is the Son shorn of his enclosure, which is the contribution of the Mother. The nature of the Father is to project itself outwards in all directions; it loses itself in the motion, and is no more. Without the enclosing love of the Mother, the Father expends his power to no purpose; it neither creates nor exalts its creator.

"She reflects his power back upon itself, enclosing it and forcing it into a narrow passage. It is thereby constricted, but its remains intact and undispersed.

"She also provides a focusing effect. Without her enclosure, the power radiated in every direction, each individual type moving by itself . Now, with her circle about Him, the energy is folded over on itself; that is, powers that are harmonic with each other, which belong to the same "chord" of vibration, are gathered together and focused on a particular point on the rim of the enclosed region. Remember the original image of this part:"

I saw again the first image of the Part, a chain of rosettes around a hot barren area. The rosettes now each seemed to vibrate with a different quality, shining outwards into the surrounding world and also back towards the center of the ring.

"The many qualities inherent in the Father's original impulse cannot be re-unified. They cannot be brought back together in the center of the circle and fused into a single point. Different groups of those energies are inherently incompatible with each other; once separated, they never rejoin.

"The real powers of the Son lie in these nodes upon the perimeter of his region; there is no true center, no individual, no point-like interior "I" to be found. But the nodes interact with each other, exchanging energy, cooperating and interfering with each other in many ways. And this intense interaction generates the illusion [word emphasized] of an individual, whose nature is determined by the pattern of those interactions.

"This is the meaning of the Buddha's dictum, that there is no permanence within the skandha of consciousness. For consciousness (and especially self-consciousness) arises out of the interaction of these nodes of power, which are not themselves conscious. And consciousness is entirely dependent upon their interaction; its specific state at any point in time is determined by the momentary state of those interactions in their ongoing, perpetual changes.

"If they change, so it changes. And yet...[brief pause] it seems at times as if this meta-creature, this abstract gloss upon the reality, itself is able to generate a will-to-change within the nodes from which it arises. Does this mean that it actually does have some existence separate from its supports? No; for what appears to be self-will arises not out of the illusory Self, but in a higher realm all together. It is a third factor, beyond the Father and Mother as they exist in the Tree, which enters into the equation. All will is really the divine Will, expressing itself through the medium of a Son.

"This divine Will is of great importance; for it is the source of the urge to evolve, to move upwards in the planes of existence, which is the process of initiation. It is the Will which makes such changes possible at all; without it there would be only gradual, almost accidental movements in that direction, quickly lost again. It comes from outside [emphasized] to work changes within the finite being. Why does it do so? We know not. How does it do so? By its own nature. When does it do so? According to its own judgment (if judgment it truly has), and not according to the desires of the being in whom it acts. Once it comes, it is always present to some degree, but that degree varies greatly in intensity, and therefore in what can be accomplished.

"But when the will appears in the man, it does not dictate the nature of change, but only enables it. It is the task of the Son to seize the time and move upwards according to its current state, its preparation for the moment, and its desires of achievement.

"Now in the previous Parts, it was shown how the woman might become the Mother, through direct identification of their natures, by creating a congruence between the acts and perceptions of the finite woman and the transcendental nature of the Mother. One might interpret this as being mainly a religious mode of work, but it is not so; it is a truly magickal mode of work, and only the blindness of men makes it seem otherwise to them.

"Here in this Part we have the key to how a man might come to know the Mother. This way is the traditional way; we give here a slightly different viewpoint on the matter.

"The "circle" which the Mother gives to the Son, the enclosing and defining perimeter, is not Herself as such, but only a reflection. It is a ring-pass-not in the Theosophical sense, a boundary which contains his energies and focuses them. It is a limitation or wall in a way that she herself is not, and is itself finite, not transfinite as she is.

"But the Mother herself (in her manifestation as Binah) can perform the enclosure of the Son's energies as well as can that lesser circle. She already does so, in fact, but the lesser circle blinds us to her presence.

"When the nodes of a finite being have organized themselves and their interactions to the greatest extent possible, and have eliminated any stray vibrations from external sources, and have reached the highest possible "charge" of power within the limits of the lesser circle; and the Will is present in full force. Then it is possible for the man to break down the lesser circle, to cut it away as did the hand in the image we showed you, and release its energies outwards.

"Since the existence of the individualized "self" is dependent upon that circle, and upon the nodes of power it creates from the Father's energies, then the destruction of that circle causes the destruction of that self. The energies of the nodes are released and expand outward as is their nature when unconstrained, their interactions stop for a time, and the illusion of Self ceases.

"But their movement is not entirely unconstrained, for without the lesser circle, the Mother can come into direct interaction with them. If each node is endowed beforehand with enough energy, then when it is released the Mother's nature takes it and encloses it in her being as it would an impulse directly from the Father. It becomes concentrated again, but as water flows into a hollow, not as fire is concentrated in a spark.

"We are not saying this well; it is a difficult thing. Perhaps an image would assist:"

I saw a glyph of the sun, with tiny points of power situated at various points around its circumference. These points were very intense, like the sparks of an arc-welder. Sharp lines of light shot between them, defining their interactions.

Then the circle was cut and the sparks were released. Each moved outward radially, expanding from intense points to less intense spheres of power as they went. The view expanded to keep them all in sight, and as it did so I realized that they were expanding into a great sea, a region of a watery nature, whose nature had been previously concealed by the narrowness of the view.

As the spheres of power moved out in this region, their nature changed. They seemed to take on a liquid quality themselves. Their power was not reduced, but the urge-to-expand (or urge-to-expend themselves) disappeared and was replaced with a kind of "contentment" with their current state, a sense of being in some way at rest. The outward motion ceased and they were all left floating in the sea.

Indeed, aside from the obvious visual distinction, I could not perceive any difference between these spheres of power and the surrounding water; they seemed identical in every other way. Now new visible flows began to connect them, and these two were not in any appreciable way different from the water in which they were.

The voice spoke again:

"You see, when the powers are released and expand into the larger realm of the mother, they cease to be what they once were, and take on her nature. It is not actually the same "sparks" that started outwards which come to rest at the end of the movement. Rather, their power is expended in her substance, and causes to arise an expression of her infinitude that is of a similar nature; she is all things in herself, and that which arises is simply a display of one aspect of what she is.

"The sparks of the Father (arising out of the dead Son) are no more; what remains is entirely of Her. Yet the pattern of the Son's nature is mostly intact, taken back into herself. Consciousness returns with the interactions of herself with herself within the pattern. Yet the "self" that arises in out of that pattern knows itself to be nothing but Her, indistinguishable from Her, inseparable from Her. The appearance of a man, but not a man; the infinity of Her is always present, the things which make him perceptible within her substance are mere wavelets in her vast sea.

"Now, because nothing of the Father remains in him, this transcendent once-man can itself become the Mother to a new impulse from the Father. And this is a key to the grade of Magus. A new union of the divine parents comes about, with the pattern within her receiving the Father's seed, and making it into a son to manifest within the finite worlds.

"But we have said enough, and more than enough. We are done."

Seer's comments:

The image that opens both day's work is based on the actual geography of the Sinkiang region of China. There is a central desert, enclosed on either side by two seasonal rivers, fed by meltwater from the surrounding mountain ranges. Along the courses of the rivers are a chain of non-seasonal oases that are the main habitable areas of the region.

Once again we are dealing with another aspect of the divine Woman. We can see a progressive presentation over the course of the last few Parts:

19 Opmacas: Declaration of a shift in the visions from primarily "male" powers to primarily "female" powers. Several traditionally male Paths of the Tree are dealt with in a form that emphasizes the hidden female factor.

20 Genadol: The divine Mother as a thing-in-herself. Presentation of her most "cosmic" aspect, as Infinite Space and, perhaps, whatever it is that encloses space and time.

21 Aspiaon: The relation between the Mother and the finite worlds of creation, and with finite self-aware beings as a general category.

22 Zamfres: The relation between the Mother and women, typified through the symbolism of the old Goddess religions.

23 Todnaon: The relation between the Mother and men, typified through the traditional experience of "crossing the Abyss", but with a few twists on the usual interpretation.

The visions themselves seem self-explanatory, when taken together. I don't see any need for further comment.

Pristac, Part 24 of 91, 3rd of ZID. Zodiacal king: Zarzilg (Gemini) Ministers: 2302. Mundane association: Gallia (France, Belgium, and Luxembourg)

Friday, July 28, 1995 2:00 p.m.

The vision opened with an image of France seen from space. The sigil of the Part was superimposed thereon; the left two segments were the coast of France, the point at the top was the mouth of the Rhine, and the remaining segments became the Rhine river.

A voice said: "Gallia omnis est diviso in tres partes." Julius Caesar's famous line. The word "omnis" was emphasized. Then the voice added: "Aquitania, Belgica, et Celtica." Then, speaking English: "And the foremost of these is Aquitaine."

Now the image changed to one like the card "The Lovers", save that the angel was clearly female, and the two other figures both male. One man looked upwards towards the woman, the other looked down at the earth beneath his feet. Their clothes changed into that of the medieval upper class. The woman elaborately gowned in white, with a golden tiara holding up an elaborate hairdo. The man looking up was dressed in red and white, with a lion embroidered on the front of his tunic. The other man was dressed in earthy colors, mostly black. I somehow knew these people to be Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her two sons Richard and John.

The voice said: "The mother cannot contain her nature within a single vessel, within the realms of Air; therefor does she divide herself, giving to one the love of the Spirit, to the other the love of the Earth. And between them do her twin sons encompass what can be held of her in the nature of men.

"One seems to look downwards, the other upwards; yet both look towards her. Is she not the enclosing womb, both above and below, and upon all sides? Therefor do those who worship Earth and its wealth worship her as well as those who look upon her divinity.

"Think not that one [son] is greater than the other. They are not above and below, but rather balanced in perpetual interchange. The one who rides high in the sky as often as not is the one who looks downward; he who enters the Earth often serves her Spirit. Who should know this better than you, o son of Set?

"If one son should die, fear not: he shall return. For the Star is reborn from his passage through the underworld; the Snake shed his skin and rises anew. The Conquering Child does not conquer in truth, for his rival is always present, even in death. And his turn in death also comes, when the Serpent wraps him in its coils and smothers his light and glory.

"And there is a third always present in their perpetual conflict; for they are bound by her Love. It is only in the realization of that love in themselves that the conflict ends; for when realization comes, there will remain no difference between them. In the burning passions of love shall they fuse into none, and bring the world back to lay in the Mother's lap.

"Their conflict is truly love, though its form is violence. Yet the Love of Her is present even in the world, without their presence; she sponsors it and promotes it in those who feel her being, whether they know it or not. Desire, romance, the ideals [idealizations?] of men for women, these are of Her as well. They form the perpetual unseen background to the transitory, foreground conflicts of her sons."

[And I am reminded of Frank Herbert's line, that no historian notices the woman working in the field to support her children, because her husband has been called off to war. This is yet another form of love.]

"Now we have said enough; you understand, and can explain if you will. We are done."

Seer's comments:

The visions continue their presentation of various aspects of the Mother. This time it explains the reason for the dual nature of her Sons. And as usual, there are many echoes of Liber AL and Nuit.

The world of the Son, the Air or Ruach, is characterized by dualities and oppositions. The human mind naturally falls into thinking of things in dualistic terms, of "A" and "not-A", of "higher" and "lower". The message of this Part is that even within the Ruach these dualisms are false, because there is always a third factor present, which is the relationship between them. If there is no connection between two things, then they cannot be opposites. Connection requires similarity of nature, a negation of differences in some dimension, which is a power of the Mother. The dualities of the Ruach are really expressions of the Nought of the Mother, and her undivided nature is constantly present in the connection or Love that binds them together.

"The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts." Given the emphasis on the word "whole", one might take this to mean that Gallia is itself a representation of the divine mother, and the divisions are in some way manifestations of her. (Apropos, France is usually symbolized as a woman.) The A-B-C listing of those divisions is certainly significant, but I don't know how.

The second image changes the symbolism of the Tarot card to fit better with the traditional "Twins" myths, in which both human characters are male. In the unspoken subtext of the vision, there was a definite sense that the woman is Nuit, and the men are Hoor-pa-Kraat (Richard) and Ra-Hoor-Khuit (John), thus calling in the symbolism of Liber AL.

Eleanor of Aquitaine is perhaps the best possible representative of the Mother in (relatively) recent history. She was a great patron of the arts, the inspiration for the idealized Love of the troubadours' Romantic movement, and for the high-minded conceptions of chivalry that went with it. But at the same time she had great political savvy and a was competent ruler. These natures, united in her, were split in her sons. Richard inherited the Romantic nature, running off to follow dreams of glory in the Crusades; John inherited her political nature, and sought to fuse the loose confederacy of English nobles into a genuine monarchy. Thus her own undivided nature becomes dual in the transition to the male mode.

Following this, the vision delves into some alternate symbolism for the same thing. The "one who rides high in the sky" is Horus, the one who "enters the Earth" is Set. These two are then connected with Thelemic symbolism: Horus is the Star, Set is the Snake. (This is a revisionist use of these symbols.)

Since both poles of a duality are necessary for either to exist, neither ever "conquers" the other. If one pole should be "killed", a new opposing pole is immediately generated, with a new relationship joining them.

Oddiorg, Part 25 of 91, First of ZIP. Zodiacal King: Hononol (Taurus) Ministers: 9996. Mundane association: Illyria (Eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, including most of former Yugoslavia. As a Roman possession, expanded to include eastern Austria and western Hungary.) Geoffrey James erroneously lists Assyria for this Part.

Friday, August 04, 1995 3:21 p.m.

The vision opens with an image of the glyph of Taurus; the crescent separates from the circle, as in the 20th Part, but here it moves upwards to become a sliver of moon in the last stages of waning, where before it was a waxing crescent.

There is a bitter taste to the air, like alkaline dust. It brings with it feelings of loss and defeat, of memories so old that their joy cannot be recalled, of things buried and dead. A faint wailing can be heard, as of many women crying for their dead lovers.

Now the voice says: "The moon wanes; the moon wanes; her blood is dried up, her moisture withdrawn into the darkness, her life leached into the Earth carrying away with it all save the dry bones of the land. ["Leached" in the sense that water leaches caves out of limestone.] Her children cannot find her; her husband has sought for her and been disappointed. Nothing remains save the aching hearts of those who have known her, and hunger for her presence.

"We who remain when she is gone have nothing but ashes and heartbreak; our lives are torn and rent, their wholeness shattered and scattered to the four winds. [I get the impression that the spirits of the Parts are those who remain. Possibly this has something to do with the curse of Division that is the Call of the Aethyrs.]

Were she here, we would be one; but she sleeps the sleep that is like unto death, and none can awaken her save one. And he wanders blind through the deserts of men, taking their curse upon himself for their sake, and hers.

"Would that he could find her, and put the taste of himself upon her lips! Would that she would awaken thereby and make us whole again! Would that she would comfort us in her embrace, erasing the tears and heartache of her absence!

"O Men! Do as you would; without her all is futile, your actions, however great, an aimless wandering. Your joys, however powerful, a bitter dust. Nothing lasts; nothing endures; nothing triumphs that does not also fall again. Look on your own works, o you mighty ones, and despair! For they shall not endure. Time shall wear them down to dust, and that dust shall blow away.

"Woe! Woe! Woe! Yea, four and five times woe unto us, and unto you, that our works are of no effect. There is no Progress, but only change; an endless recycling of old times, of old things, dressed up in youthful bodies, but not made new thereby.

"Bitter, bitter, bitter are our hearts."

On a parallel track, happening simultaneously with the above, the wailing in the background grew stronger. An image appears of many women, their heads covered with shawls and dressed in black robes, wailing in sorrow and lamentation. The pound their hands against an ancient wall, a mere fragment of some greater structure that once stood there. It is the "Wailing Wall" in Jerusalem.

The voice said: "Before Solomon, even before Yahweh was a glimmer in the mind of some priest, did women come here to lament the passing of their loved ones. For did not She also lament at the passing of Her lover, Dimuzi? The stones of the wall are Her tears, which made the dust into mud, which hardened into Stone. Her sacred precincts are gone, buried under the rubble of later ages; yet Her memory still comes up from the depths of women, and expresses itself in Her place.

"Yet it is not for Dimuzi that they weep, nor truly for their loved ones. It is for Her that they lament with such force, and for themselves. After many years, they still feel the loss of her light and life, and lament the degradation that loss brought upon their kind. [That is, upon women.] The force of Heaven was withdrawn from them, and they were trampled under the feet of men. Woe has been their lot, and woe is what they express."

(I can sense there is more, but I cannot endure this place any longer. I am being crushed by the despair here. I am withdrawing from the vision.)

Monday, August 07, 1995 1:03 PM

As the vision opened, the sigil of the Part was before my eyes. Behind it, an image of the Adriatic Sea appeared, with the sigil overlaying a portion of the eastern side roughly contiguous with what is currently called Bosnia.

The image enlarged and at the same time transformed in some way, so that a circular region became like a lunar landscape -- or like land cratered by artillery bombardments. The surrounding region became darker, barely visible.

The voice said: "Woe, woe is their lot; from the beginnings of time until the end, nothing but woe and pain. For they have conspired with evil and been touched thereby. Evil eats itself, while good seeks to destroy it; thus nothing they do can have a good end.

Now there was a sound of a great many marching troops. Out of the darkness surrounding the visible circle, there came a horde of men dressed in armor. Each bore a shield with the sun emblazoned on it; each carried a long spear or pike with a golden tip. Each wore a white surcoat with a red eagle upon it, and a black border.

These men streamed towards the area along paths from all sides. Like streams, these paths were narrow at their beginning but widened as they progressed. All these paths merged as they approached the encircled area, and the men spread out to surround it, their spears all pointing inwards, forcing back whatever might seek to leave the circle.

I get the impression that this all refers both to the Roman conquest of the region, when it was a refuge for pirates and raiders, and to the Nazi invasion, and to the current conflict there.

The image transformed so that the lunar component became dominant, and it was the Moon during a solar eclipse. The men surrounding it became the corona of the Sun.

The voice said: "When the darkness reaches its greatest extent, then does the Sun blaze forth, overcoming the loss of the Mother with the glory of the Son. So too in the ages of history, for as the Mother's force faded in the world, so did that of the Son, the Warrior-King, come forth and move into its ascent. The aged Father lies hidden in darkness (as Osiris is in the Underworld) a shadowy, ghostly influence upon events; meanwhile the Son reaches forth and conquers what his Mother built.

"And you ask: Where is the Daughter? I say: She is her Mother, but laid low; there is no difference between them, save that the Son's foot is now upon her neck, holding her down that she might be more conveniently raped. And in that rape does the Son see himself reborn, producing out of her a child which is all His, and none of Hers.

(The unspoken subtext says the Aryan belief was that the deceased father of a king became his tutelary spirit, wielding only a hidden advisory influence over his actions, while the king's conquests -- and the "glory" accrued thereby -- were all from the son's own work. They also believed that a male child was a spiritual duplicate of its father, taking nothing from its mother. So having many male children was a form of immortality, a perpetuation of one spirit through many bodies. The woman was a mere vehicle for this Solar Progress, and did not participate in it herself. But she could become "spoiled" if another man had her, causing the sons to be of a mixed nature. Hence their obsession with making sure that all the children of their wives were theirs. And the Hebrew practice of killing all the men and married women in a conquered territory, while saving the virgin women. And their practice of killing a married woman who had been raped -- she could no longer produce "pure" sons of her husband.)

"It matters not that the Son's belief is false. So long as he believes it, it perpetuates itself in the minds of men even while their bodies partake secretly of their mother's nature.

"And thus the power of the Mother, her life and nurturance, fall down into darkness. What once covered the world now must lie hidden, until the Son eventually falls. Her powers of life, death, and renewal have been arrogated by the Son, but he cannot maintain them; death he can manage, and creation; but support and growth? These are not in his nature. Nor are his creations all that he desires, for they must [emphasized] partake of their mother's nature in order to live; thus they always go astray from his plans.

"Now, in the succeeding Parts, we shall see her again, as often as necessary. But for the moment we shall be passing on to different ways of looking at things, as the Parts shift in their relationships and their powers take over different regions of existence on this world. What was once so, is not now; what is now, will not be so. Change is perpetual in the Parts, and what we see now may not be, when another comes again. But these seven Parts shall remain Hers for some time to come, and shall continue as expressions of Her many natures, which are one.

"We are done."

Seer's comments:

This vision is clearly related to the Moon in its final stages of waning, when the feminine power is withdrawing from manifestation. Traditionally this is a time of ill-luck, of sorrow and death. Things begun at this time are doomed to failure; other things experience a nadir of vitality, an inability to go forward, and disruption from random events. The futility of such times is reflected in Friday's vision. The "wailing wall" scene iconifies it in the mythos of Inanna/Ishtar, in the sorrow she feels at the death of her lover Dimuzi or Tammuz, and then extends it into an expression of the endless suffering of women under the Hebrew dispensation and its successors.

Monday's vision suggests that the endless fighting of the Balkan regions is due to a connection with this darkest of the Mother's phases. It then moves into the final disappearance of the Mother's power, in a perfect eclipse. At the moment of greatest darkness the female powers vanish or are conquered by the Solar powers.

The army surrounding the Balkan region in the vision is a stereotyped Roman legion, surrounding and vanquishing the darkly-lunar local forces. Rome is solar because of the "twin sons" myth of Romulus and Remus. The red eagle is not the alchemical symbol (which is feminine) but the Eagle of the Legions.

When the Son takes over, the sorrow of this last phase of the Mother's power is perpetuated, as if the female powers were "frozen" in that instant of time. The vision relates this to the conquest of the Middle East by the Aryans, and the consequences for the women of the area. It suggests that the invasion was due to the waning of the Mother's power on a cosmic level, related to the passage of the equinox from the sign of Taurus into Aries.

The entire series of Parts from Opmacas to Oddiorg can be seen as representing a single complete revolution of the Moon, passing through all her phases. Opmacas represents the first instant after the new moon, when the balance between the Lunar and Solar forces is just barely shifted in her favor. Oddiorg is the final few instants preceding the new moon. Part 22, Zamfres, is the full moon.

The remaining Parts in the sequence represent the quarters of her orbit. Genadol is the waxing crescent moon. Aspiaon is the waxing gibbous moon. Todnaon is the waning gibbous moon, and Pristac is the waning crescent moon.

As with any group of four, there is a temptation to connect these with the elements. But aside from the clear connection between Pristac and the element of Air, such an association fails. Zamfres, the full moon, has more in common with water than any of the remaining four. Perhaps a better way would be to view the cycle as taking place in a vertical dimension, with the waxing phases representing a movement into complete manifestation, and the waning phases a movement back out of manifestation.

Cralpir, Part 26 of 91, 2nd of ZIP. Zodiacal King: Lavavoth (Sagittarius) Ministers: 3620. Mundane association: Sogdiana

Wednesday, August 09, 1995 1:32 PM

The vision opens with the image of a minute point in a dark space. No, there is no space, only the point itself. Now a line begins to extend downwards out of the point; but before it can extend very far it bifurcates, and splits again, and again. The angles of the splits are strange in some way; they seem to defy measurement or definition. A fractal function of some sort seems to be implied; or something of which a fractal is a reflection.

The splitting continues, each branch of a split extending only a small bit before it splits again. Soon the whole space (and now there is definitely "space" present) is filled with them. The original point is totally obscured, though it seems I can sense a small clear area immediately around it, hidden by the confusion of lines.

It seems to me that each of the bifurcations represents a choice. Rather, the possibility of a choice, for nothing is really manifest in this vision; these lines all exist on some level prior to finite manifestation. I don't know how I know that. Somehow this maze of lines represents the infinite potential present in the extension of the Point.

Now the view recedes so that the lines become smaller. Soon they are entirely lost from view, even though they still fill the space I am looking at. All that is left is a featureless something that seems to vibrate intensely with the possibility of things becoming out of it. All these potentials seem perfectly balanced; there is no tendency of any sort, in any direction.

The vision continues to recede, and as I view ever larger amounts of space, another image slowly takes form. First a pair of crossed lines, intersecting at such an angle that a rectangle drawn between points equidistant from their intersection would be a golden rectangle. Now a closed curve appears centered on their intersection. It is not a circle or an oval, rather as if a golden rectangle had been distorted towards an oval shape. The curve turns into a wreath.

In the center of the wreath a naked female figure appears. Unlike the Tarot card, there is no scarf hiding the crotch; it is certain that the figure is not androgynous. She stands in the pose of Botticelli's Venus. Her right hand rests between her breasts, pointing upwards; the thumb of her left hand rests on her mons veneris, the first two fingers pointing downwards, the others curled under, so that her genitals are framed in the "V" of her hand. One gets the impression that she is stimulating herself with her middle finger.

The voice said: "This is the Virgin of the World, the third of the powers emanating from the divine. [That is, the third path, not the third sephira.] She is the complement to the Will of the Divine, and the Life of the Divine; without her, nothing would be. And she is greater than they, in a sense, for she must contain within herself all the possibilities that they might manifest. And she is less than they, for she serves them (in the end) with immaculate perfection.

"And yet at this point, nothing is done. She is still pure, unsullied; nothing of her potential has been made into form. We who dwell in this Part bask in her unspeakable perfection; we know her, yet she is not touched thereby. God created her for Love; she is all desire, and the object of desire unfulfilled. The creatures [i.e., the four elemental animals] do not encircle her; she encircles them. They come out of her womb in the moment she becomes known.

"Now, if you would understand and know her, o man who is a mage, then do this: In the dark of the night, when the world is still, vibrate the Call and the name of this Part. Assume the god-form she shows here, and invoke her as you know how, with the pleasure of the body. And if she comes to you and embraces you, you are indeed among the blessed of Earth; for only those who are of the highest may know her. And in that moment will you be willing to give all.

"Any further voice could be only silence. We are done."

Thursday, August 10, 1995

I tried the invocation as suggested but didn't get much from it. A few moments when some force surged in, but nothing more. Perhaps it was necessary as a conditioning process, to get my being more accustomed to the power. Will invoke again the regular way tomorrow.

Friday, August 11, 1995 12:12 p.m.

After the invocation, no vision came immediately. Instead I had a strange sensation in the region of my heart, as if something were blowing away all tensions -- indeed, all conditions and qualities of any sort -- and leaving behind a clean, airy sort of energy. It seemed to well up out of nowhere, extend up and down my torso and out the five extensions of the body, blowing out the ends of my fingertips, toes, and the top of my head. For a moment I felt like one of those diagrams of the etheric body in the old Theosophical books.

The power began to blow out through my skin as well, and the innermost shell of my aura filled with it, at the same time taking on the form of a vesica piscis around my body. The sensations from my astral body disappeared, and for a few moments the vesica was my body, its outline my skin, its inside a gate opening into a realm where there was nothing but this power.

The sense of identification faded enough for me to hear the voice: "Only those who become her can know her. Not the mind, not the body, not even the soul and spirit can know her as she is. If there is any sense of outside, of separation from her, then she is not known; only in being [emphasized] her is knowing possible. For she remains virgin throughout all the ages; the ages are not of her, but are beneath her. [That is, Time has not yet come into being at this level.] The creations of man or god touch her not; she is above them, wholly. Now look again."

I fell back into the state (I can't call it a "vision") again; barely conscious of time and sequence. After some time, I saw the image of the Virgin seen before, but the wreath around her was now a vesica like the one surrounding me. She seemed far away, then close, then immediately before me, without any perceptible transition. Her body touched mine, and I literally melted, starting from the bottom up. In moments, all of my body below the heart level had vanished entirely; there was nothing but her and the power out of which she came.

I didn't find this at all disturbing; rather, there was a great sense of release. Where the vanished parts had been, there was nothing but her; it seemed that there never had been anything but her, and never would be. The vanishing continued until I was only a head, looking straight into her eyes from a few inches away. The head vanished and I was a naked viewpoint under her regard. Then even that difference vanished.

(This whole process was very sexual, in a way. It was accompanied by a sensation like what I imagine one sort of female orgasm to be -- the "wave" or "oceanic" sort -- save that it was permanently and without effort at the crest of the wave, a continuous and unending orgasmic peak.)

Now it seemed that I was her, and she was a gigantic figure. The vesica that shortly before had been myself was now her own genitals, glowing in an orgasmic peak. And out of her the entire world flowed -- no, gushed -- in a great unending stream. She pours the world out of herself, and this is the cause of her pleasure. (I am not saying this right, but it is as close as I can get.) She (I) stands with legs apart, head back, her spine arched forward, and revels in that pouring-forth. The eroticism of this is indescribable, and I doubt I will be able to remember it afterwards; it is too much.

I cannot call this process "creative", in the way that the Father is creative. For there is no focus, no distinction, no discrimination, no purpose or intent. It is all the same to her; what comes forth, comes forth, and is as it should be. But at the same time it is creative, after another fashion, for there is nothing passive about the process; it is willed, positive, in no way submissive or receptive. She needs no Father, no husband or complement; she is self-activated, self-fulfilling. Her act is her own triumph, not the fulfillment of another's will.

[A few minutes pass.]

I passed in and out of that state several times, each time being out of it for longer. The voice was right; even this close to the event, I cannot remember it clearly. You can only be that power in its essence, you cannot view it from "outside". I could easily re-enter that state, but for the moment I choose not to do so. It could be addictive.

It occurs to me that the last words the voice spoke in Wednesday's vision is a quite literal prophecy of today's experience. The words were: "And in that moment will you be willing to give all."

This superficially echoes Liber AL 1:60: "But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all;...".

In the context of the Liber AL verse, "willing" is used in the sense of "amenable", implying that the magician, having been touched by Nuit, would want to abandon all that he is and has for more of her. But here another sense is used -- "active intent in the process of being carried out". At the moment of identification, the Virgin of this vision was will-ing the world out of herself; her intent was to "give all". Thus at the moment I became her, I was literally "willing to give all". This sort of cabalistic near-pun is not uncommon with Enochian entities.

Enough. I dismiss the forces of the Part.

Seer's comments:

Wow.

With this vision, the Parts return to their previous pattern of describing themselves in relation to the Tree of Life. (The seven visions of the Mother seem to take place outside this pattern.) In this case, the path in question is that of Saturn, connecting Kether with Binah in Frater Achad's version of the Tree. Note that this does not accord with the attribute of the Zodiacal King Lavavoth, which is Sagittarius. Little is seen of Saturn, either; only the mathematical images in the first day's vision. The remainder arises exclusively from the Tarot card.

The highest aspect of this path is being presented. It is a complement to the vision of the "Teeth of the Serpent" seen in Part number seven, Samapha. In order for the creative aspect of the divine to manifest its power, it requires a field in which (or on which) to act -- a canvas and materials with which to work; a stone to sculpt and a space in which to put it. This Part shows the first breathing-forth of that complementary aspect from the still point of Kether. It will not manifest in its stable form until Binah; it is the first movement towards Binah that is being expressed.

At its most abstract levels, the space of our universe seems to be based on irrationals. That is, on properties that cannot be precisely defined in whole numbers or as ratios of whole numbers. When the finite mind, the Ruach, tries to define it, it always eludes the effort; one can come arbitrarily close, but never quite reaches it. Thus "all their words are skew-wise." Pi is such an irrational; the field of fractals tiling space is another. So is the Golden Ratio. All these can be demonstrated but not quantified.

Wednesday's vision shows the formation of Space as a field of infinite potentials. Pick any point in the fractal pattern of lines, and it leads to a limitless series of possible actions. The divine creative force, acting on this field and choosing its course in accord with its design, brings about the manifestation of unique occurrences. The potential choices available in the field are so great that no one creative act -- or indeed, any number of creative acts -- can exhaust them. But there is no tendency towards one or another type of creation inherent in the space; its limitless choices are in perfect balance against each other. And at this point in the process, none of that has occurred; the field is still coming into being, and is untouched.

The shape of the wreath is one discovered by a Swedish mathematician in the 1950's or 60's. A solid figure with this cross-section has the odd property of being able to balance on end, even though the end is curved and appears to be unstable. I don't know if it was actually based on the Golden Ratio. The vesica piscis is a figure whose two axes express the Golden Ratio in their proportions. Thus the irrational, elusive nature of space becomes associated with the Divine Feminine.

The appearance of the Virgin transforms all this into a symbolic form, by which the actual power of the path might become accessible. The speech about her is a distorted reflection of the actual power, with a bit of short-term prophecy thrown in for good measure.

About Friday's vision there is little more to say. You had to have been there.

Doanzin, Part 27 of 91, third of ZIP. Zodiacal King: Zarzilg Ministers: 4230 Mundane association: Lydia

August 14, 1995 4:44 PM

At first I could get nothing but a luminous salmon-pink cloud or haze, very ill-defined. Tried doing the Call again, and didn't get much more. For a few moment, the circle turned into a stylized sun, with many triangular rays coming out of it in three different lengths; perhaps it was a compass rose. After that, the vision turned into a welter of fragmentary images, clearly confused and without connection.

It seems the time isn't right yet to do this Part. I'll try again later, or tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 15, 1995 1:38 PM

Invoked Doanzin again last night. Didn't get anything more in the way of a vision. Spent about an hour doing pranayama while using the name of the Part as a mantra, and trying to infuse my astral bodies with the energy of the Part.

I did get the sense that some intervening magickal influences (i.e., astrological) are influencing my perceptions in directions incompatible with this Part. Perhaps it would be best to wait until they pass; but that would be a couple of weeks from now. Not sure I want to wait that long -- might lose the momentum for continuing.

Also got the distinct impression that this Part will not continue the path-related presentations that seemed to be starting again with Cralpir. Instead, this Part is sort of a introduction or overture to the following three Parts, with the fourth following them being some sort of coda. Neither the mundane association (which seemed rich with possibilities) nor the zodiacal attribute will have much to do with what is seen.

Odd that musical metaphors come to mind -- is this significant? I recall when I first looked at the information for the Part and its mundane association, I kept getting the image of a lyre or lap-harp. I thought this was just a random mental association based on the similarity of sounds -- Lydia / lyre. But maybe there's more to it.

Another odd impression that came concerned the Parts as a group. In some dimension they are not really a series, but rather like the circular queues used in low-level programming. There is no beginning or end; you can enter at any point and start reading. The sigils of the Parts are the "addresses" of bytes in the queue. And while your read-pointer is at one position (i.e. the Part you are invoking at the moment) other "pointers" can be at other addresses in the queue, changing, modifying, or replacing the "information" stored there. So by the time you follow the queue around to your starting point, what you see there might be entirely different than on the previous pass. I haven't the faintest idea what these "other pointers" would be, or what would cause them to come into action.

Friday, August 18, 1995 3:48 PM

Invoked Doanzin again according to the usual method.

It's like there are two entirely different natures to this Part -- perhaps more. One of those I sense seems to lead off towards a presentation on creativity or art. The other leads into a presentation on the "outside" [of the Aethyrs, and the Earth in general] and how that outside penetrates and modifies conditions here. I suppose either one of these might connect with the mundane region; Lydia was known for its culture and arts, and the country made its living off of trade.

I feel stuck like Nasrudin's donkey, between two choices equally interesting. It seems wrong somehow to choose either one. There must be some point at which these natures merge.

No use; I can't move into either one. I'll work some more at absorbing and adapting to the Part's power, and try again another day.

Friday, August 25, 1995

I didn't do any more invocations after the last entry. It became clear that there was a buildup of power interfering with my ability to get a clear vision, and that the buildup was increasing in intensity. Seemed best to wait until it faded before trying again.

The interference appears to have been partly related to the powers invoked in the previous series of visions, and partly due to astrological events. The astrological interference reached its peak around 2:00 AM this morning, and quickly fell off thereafter. Another day or two and I expect it will be gone.

There is some question in my mind whether the results of the invocations of Doanzin done thus far have any relation to the actual nature of the Part. It may be that what was seen was mostly related to the interference, and not to the thing interfered with. When trying again, will need to be careful to avoid unconscious expectations based on it.

Sunday, August 27, 1995 12:38 PM

The vision opened with an image of the northwestern Pacific area seen from above. Specifically, of Japan, the Kurile Islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. There was a very strong impression of Kamchatka as a place of unrestrained wildness, and of Japan as a place of unrestrained order, both arising out of the same underlying force. (All these areas are volcanically-built lands.)

Now the image is distorted, twisted in some way about an invisible center. Kamchatka is pulled downwards and Japan pulled upwards and both curve around. They become the Tao symbol, with Japan the Yang and Kamchatka the Yin. Mt. Fuji becomes the small point of darkness within the Yang, and some mighty volcano on Kamchatka becomes the small point of light within the Yin.

Another image begins to develop overlaying the Tao. It is the image of a man of Asian features, dressed in some sort of ceremonial garb. He sits in full lotus position, hands resting on his knees. He wears a loose black long-sleeved shirt, a black skirt with vertical silver stripes. A pointed straw hat (also black) is on his head -- it has a wide brim, like a coolie hat, with a narrow conical center. Over the shirt he wears a ceremonial breastplate with shoulder-pieces that flare out horizontally into points. Upon the center of the breastplate the Tao symbol is shown, overlaid with a pentagram.

(The whole image is a nested double of the numerical series 1-2-5. In the outer series, the invisible powers of the Earth are One, the peninsula and Japan are Two, and the Man is Five -- the outline of a pentagram is formed between his knees, shoulder-pieces, and the top of his hat. In the inner series, the Man is One, the Tao symbol is two, and the pentagram symbol is Five.)

I feel an urge to sit facing this figure, and do so, assuming the lotus position. A flow of power begins between us. I sit for some time absorbing it. (I seem to be still overbalanced on the Yin side at the moment; the forces in the figure are perfectly balanced against each other, producing stillness. In myself they are producing a small amount of torsion.)

It seems that the unrestrained wildness of Kamchatka (and of the greater Yin) is the unconditioned transfinite "stuff" of Binah, out of which anything at all might come; the unrestrained order of Japan (and the greater Yang) is in some way reflective of Chokmah, the creative force which seeks to create everything in its own image out of the stuff of Binah. It is not "Order" as such -- that is, it is not Saturnian. Rather it is ceremony, a pattern of stylized, dynamic movements which define the sorts of ordering that take place in the finite creation. These movements are not themselves Order, but they create order. In a similar way the stylized ceremonies of traditional Japan don't necessarily make sense in themselves, but their repetition by all the people produces a definite social ordering. It is not quite "unrestrained creativity", though that is closer to Chokmah as I understand it.

Now it seems that the pentagram comes out of the interaction of the Yin and Yang; their union produces five children. But these five are not the traditional Elements. Instead they are the five "planes" of finite manifestation within which the lower seven sephiroth reside: the Atmic, Buddhic, Manasic, Astral, and Physical planes. There is a rough correspondence between these and the Elements, in terms of their "density": in order, Spirit, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. But the innate natures of these planes are not at all elemental.

The Atmic plane is the finite expression of Will. But Will cannot be expressed in a single form within a finite creation; therefor its expression is dual. Geburah represents the force or power aspect of Will, while Chesed represents its unifying aspect. These define the nature and purpose of the finite creation.

The Buddhic plane is the plane of consciousness, of awareness. Here the "self" of the creature resides. It is subordinate to the Will aspect and therefor controlled by it. Its occasional belief that it is "in control" is largely an illusion. Its nature is "connection" or "relationship" or "love" in the divine sense; the conscious being -- under the Will -- reaches out and connects to the rest of the world, so that that will may be fulfilled.

The Manasic plane is the plane of Mind in the narrow sense. Its manifestations are two: Intellect and Desire. The first gives order to the sensory experience of the conscious being. The second gives meaning to that experience.

The Astral plane is the plane of the senses and the feelings derived therefrom. Being watery, it reflects all about it, and so contains the Five and the Two within itself in small form. (The One is not to be seen here.)

The Physical plane is what it is.

(This stuff about the planes seemed to come from outside myself, but I did not hear any voice speaking it.)

From a transcendental viewpoint, Man is the Pentagram not because he contains the five elements within himself, but because he is the only incarnate creature of this world capable of integrating all five of the finite planes into a single active whole. The same planes are present in all things, but in most things the higher planes are inactive.

In turn, Man contains the Yin-Yang and the pentagram within himself in lesser form. Geburah and Chesed are Yin and Yang, and the lowest five sephiroth are the Pentagram, following the traditional attributions.

I sense that I should rest and meditate upon all this before going on.

Saturday, September 02, 1995 1:32 PM

I didn't do any invocations of Doanzin during the last week. Unlike the previous period, there was no sense of resistance or of being in the wrong frame of mind to perceive it. Simply, the time didn't seem right to continue. I think maybe I am running out of steam for the current series of visions.

Invoked Doanzin with the usual procedure.

The vision opened the same as last Sunday's, but went through all the movements in a couple of seconds, ending with the completed figure of the pentagrammatic man inside the Tao symbol, with another Tao on his breast with a pentagram inside it.

Now the man stood up, and the Tao faded from behind him. He assumed a position reminiscent of the dancers shown on Hindu temples -- arms and legs in stylized positions, frozen in mid-movement. His head faced to his left; his left arm was held across his torso with the palm of the hand raised and facing to the right. His left leg was also raised, and the calf and foot almost horizontal to the right. His right arm was raised so that the upper arm was level, the forearm vertical, the hand with the palm facing to the left. He held something like a dorje or a small lightning-bolt in that hand. The right leg held his weight, and was bent slightly at the knee, towards his left. I got the impression that the posture represented a swastika with five arms, whirling rapidly. I don't think a real person could assume this posture; the image seems to be based on an impossible perspective.

A five-armed swastika now appears visibly, and the man fades from view. The swastika is whirling rapidly clockwise, throwing off sparks in all directions as it turns. It is like a whirlpool in some way; it sucks in substance from the lower planes at its center, and throws that substance out again in some random direction through its arms. There is a constant recirculation forming an invisible egg-shape with the swastika at its top. (Now it seems to me that this figure is at the location in the Tree called Da'ath, and is rotating in a horizontal plane.)

Within this egg shape, the image of a babe appears; much like the ending of 2001. The babe sucks its thumb. It's legs are drawn up; I cannot determine its sex, if any.

This is very difficult; I have been infected in some way with the whirling of the swastika, and it is twisting my vision. I have the urge to rest for a while in a certain posture.

I did so, and now my whole visual field is composed of tiny dots whirling around.

At this point I became very dizzy and disoriented, and stopped the vision.

Seer's comments:

This Part has been very difficult to work with, and I am still not certain that I have seen it's nature correctly. The last two invocations appear to be internally and mutually self-consistent, at least.

Most of the Parts so far seem to express qualities of change, dynamic activities within the world, rather than of specific qualities, energies, or spheres. The "lunar" series of visions (posted this last summer) might appear an exception but, as explained in the last comment for that series, they express one complete cycle of the changes of the Moon.

The dynamic events expressed in Doanzin seem to be a general expression of the way in which the transcendental spheres produce the finite spheres "below" the "Abyss", and the way in which the lower spheres organize themselves and return to the transcendental state. It is all very abstract.

The vision of August 27 represents the "downward" part of the cycle, with the divine unity dividing itself into male and female aspects, which create the fivefold "child" that is the finite realm. Kamchatka belongs to "Mother Russia" -- a punning affirmation of its "Yin" nature. As well it is a place very little touched by human beings, in which drastic changes of ecology and terrain occur on a regular basis. It contains many unique plant and animal species, thus representing the way in which Binah is unrestrained by the "status quo" of the lower spheres.

Japan has its long military and warrior tradition to make it appropriate as the "male" side of the Tao. It is intensely -- almost repressively -- organized, in contrast to Kamchatka. As I said, neither of these qualities seems appropriate to Chokmah; the explanation given in the vision seems a bit too flip to be correct.

I suppose one might instead think of these two regions in planetary terms, seeing Kamchatka as Uranus and Japan as Saturn.

The portions of the vision concerning the five lower "planes" in the Tree of Life are fairly standard stuff. But note the emphasis that the conscious self is not the controlling aspect of the individual nature. This is worth long consideration.

The September 2 vision seems to briefly outline the "return" portion of the cycle. The lower five become concentrated and unified into a single being (I assume to be the conscious soul in Tiphereth). This consciousness raises itself up to the highest level of its finite nature, absorbing the two spheres of the finite Will into itself in the process (as represented by the lightning bolt and orb in the hands of the figure). The conscious self becomes the focus for all the energetic activity of the being. Finally it produces the "babe of the Abyss" out of itself, and dissolves into random components again.

It was suggested in one of the earlier visions that this Part is an introduction to the next three Parts, all of which have names that come from the Black Cross, a.k.a. the Tablet of Union. In Crowley's model of the Aethyrs, these three parts would be associated with the so-called "Abyss", the region of the Tree bounded by Chesed and Geburah on the lower side, and by Binah and Chokmah on the upper side. If Crowley is correct, the symbolism of the last two visions of Doanzin would seem to be appropriate.

Lexarph, Part 28 of 91, first of ZAX. Zodiacal King: Zinggen Ministers: 8880. Mundane association: Caspis

Monday, October 02, 1995 1:11 p.m.

I am standing at the interface between sea and sky. Small waves chase across the surface of the sea, and its depths have the crystal clarity of Caribbean waters, save that they are tinted purple, not blue. The sky is a brilliant luminous yellow, and the air it encloses has an even greater clarity or transparency than the sea; it actually seems to bring things into a clearer focus than would normally be possible, so that all sorts of fine details would be visible, were there anything to look at here.

Looking into the sea, I see a number of medusae, small mushroom domes with a fringe of small tentacles. Their radial structure is visible through their transparent bodies. They remind me of astrological charts; a small circle in the center, a larger one as a circumference, radial spokes connecting the two beneath the domed surface.

[In passing, I note that deeper in