Though I used the word “Daäth”, I wasn’t so much thinking of the Qabalistic “Tree of Life” in my OP.
I don’t necessarily accept all those correspondences. I’ve arrived at the two-in-one from a quite different angle, and I’m not even sure that corresponds to Qabalah’s Triangles. I mean, for me the Pillar of Equilibrium would really be the equilibrium of the two opposed Pillars–no more, no less (I was going to say), unless it be the “more than the sum of its parts”.
When I read Crowley’s Little Essay on Truth, after copying those Vision and the Voice quotes from there, what really struck me was this passage:
"Truth is our Path, and Truth is our Goal; ay! there shall came to all a moment of great Light when the Path is seen to be itself the Goal; and in that hour every one of us shall exclaim:
‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!’ "
I now see the Path as the Goal in the sense that the two-in-oneness of the Path, the Tao, is what I aim to see again and again, to keep seeing.
“To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the emancipation from thought by putting each idea against its opposite, and refusing to prefer either; and the consecration of himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires.”
These two tasks are really two sides of the same coin. The Order to which I aspire is the Kosmos, the (W)Hole.
I was already reminded of the following:
“Adeptus (Exemptus). —Completes in perfection all these matters. He then either (a) becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or, (b) is stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a babe of the Abyss, who, having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the womb of its mother. It then finds itself a
Magister Templi.—(Master of the Temple)[.]” (“One Star in Sight”.)
I’m wary of this “ego-loss” thing, though. To be sure, Crowley also writes:
“The essential Attainment [of the Grade of Master of the Temple] is the perfect annihilation of that personality which limits and oppresses his true self.” (ibid.)
I take this, however, to refer to the (Jungian) Persona, not the Ego. The mask must be transcended by uniting it with its suppressed counterpart, the Shadow; but the Ego must be united with the Anima (or Animus, if you’re a woman). The latter however is not the same as the symbols of the Self (e.g., the Child archetype), which I’ve identified with my Holy Guardian Angel, my conception of Krishna. Though that conception was divided between Tiphareth and Netzach…
Reflections like this pull me back into that whole muddle, which I’ve associated with the lower half of the Tree. And now I’ve forgotten something I thought of while writing the previous paragraph. It was the spark of a thought, and maybe that seed would have grown into this: as long as the HGA is experienced as an Other, it will be rather feminine for a man and rather masculine for a woman, like Anima and Animus. It must be internalized. Likewise, I yesterday told a contact of mine:
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Look: the “metaphysical” consolation of BT ASC 7–as opposed to the diesseitige consolation (“this side”, the opposite of jenseits, “that side, yon side, beyond”) is the idea that there is a chorus of satyrs behind/beyond the phenomenal world. The diesseitige consolation is the experience that there is a chorus of satyrs, or at least a single satyr, on this side, in this world, within the phenomenal world: namely, oneself (and one’s peers).
And one may even be a satyr-god, a Dionysus (Nietzsche says he ranks people and peoples by how little they can distinguish the god from the satyr). For example, “that Dionysian Unhold called Zarathustra”.
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The Abyss, or its surface, is really a mirror. By the way, the left brain corresponds to the right side of the body and vice versa. I think Chokmah rather corresponds to the right brain than to the left, whereas Geburah, for example, corresponds to the right hand. Yet Jung quotes:
“God’s left hand dashes to pieces; his right hand is glorious to save.” (Quoted in Aion, “Christ, A Symbol of the Self”.)
These are surely Geburah and Gedulah respectively. Though it may be of some significance that Hebrew is written from left to right. Also, the right brain also corresponds to the left eye and vice versa.
I’ve associated Dionysus with Tiphareth and Venus with Netzach. My Netzach-conception of Krishna was indeed rather Venereal¹ , and my Tiphareth-conception rather Dionysian. And the boy Dionysus gave himself away when he was hidden among a group of girls by the interest he showed in a veritable arsenal of weapons that was laid out before them. For me, Tiphareth has always been very close to Geburah. War and Love, not Peace and Love! Dionysus’ throng is, among other things, an army.
¹ Also Artemis-like, found in sacred groves and all. A wood-sprite.
“The satyr and the idyllic shepherd of later times have both been products of a desire for naturalness and simplicity. But how firmly the Greek shaped his wood sprite, and how self-consciously and mawkishly the modern dallies with his tender, fluting shepherd!” (BT 8, dunno whose translation.)
Of course, I saw myself “metamorphosed into a satyr” (ib.) long before Satyr adopted that name. Still, he may have been right in that I dallied too much with the tender, fluting shepherd Krishna–my Venereal Krishna. Interestingly, by the way, Nietzsche immediately continues:
“For the Greek the satyr expressed nature in a rude, uncultivated state: he did not, for that reason, confound him with the monkey [Affe].”
And, earlier on:
“[…] in the place of the Babylonian Sacaea, with their throwback of men to the condition of apes [Affen] and tigers, we now see entirely new rites celebrated[.]” (BT 2.)
There is a strong connection between the symbols of the tiger and lion in Nietzsche. And as I told you on Facebook recently:
"The Monkey is of course the Eastern or lunar counterpart to the sign of Leo. I’ve always seen Krishna as such a lion-monkey. "
My Tiphareth-conception, at least. My Netzach-conception, I associate too much with pining (away). The worst depiction I’ve ever seen of the latter is this:
“Shepherd-god Krishna being intimate with his Rhada”
Ah, equilibrium, equilibrium!
Krishna killing Kamsa
Not to post any sexually explicit pictures of Rhada and Krishna…