12 August (Spirit) Liber LXV, 5:3-4

[Jim Eshelman]

3. Yea, cried the Holy One, and from Thy spark will I the Lord kindle a great light; I will burn through the great city in the old and desolate land; I will cleanse it from its great impurity.
4. And thou, O prophet, shalt see these things, and thou shalt heed them not.

[mojorisin44]

The Angel speaks back and confirms that even the spark that is within the scribe will be strengthened and will be all-consuming. The power of the cleansing light transcends the past. Maybe here this is a reference to the changing Aeons. For myself, I understand the cosmic consciousness as transcending past, present, and future to abide in an ever present Now. I’d imagine this light can have the same effect. As the prophet of the Book of the Law, Crowley did see things and heed them not. This may be a reference here to that.

The Angel in verse one says “Thy spark” with a capital “T” which seems to me like a nod of the cap to the individual’s Divinity. The spark within is a part of the Source and the closer we come to the realization of that Divinity and union with It the more suited we are to have it grow into an all-consuming fire at the behest of our Angel. The prayer/song off the Stele of Revealing comes to mind naturally in the verse “The light is mine, its rays consume me.”

[RobertAllen]

3. Yea, cried the Holy One, and from Thy spark will I the Lord kindle a great light; I will burn through the great city in the old and desolate land; I will cleanse it from its great impurity.
4. And thou, O prophet, shalt see these things, and thou shalt heed them not.

So, here is a difficult thought. It was a bit of a sticking point for me at the end of the last chapter. It's this correspondence between the desolate and the spiritual. It's related to the notion of cleansing fire as a spiritual impulse. I have always thought that Dresden after the allied induced fire storm, or Hiroshima after the use of the A-bomb must have been the most sublime and spiritual places on the planet. I say this for poetic reasons, not as an advocate for laying waste to the world—I'm a big fan of musky smelling, orchid dominated, river valleys in tropical climates.

I think of traditional spiritual landscapes, like deserts, high mountainous places where much of the detail of worldly things, like you might find in a great city, are non-existent.

This line of thought also bring me to a strange place in regard to the last clause: O prophet, shalt see these things, and thou shalt heed them not.

I will dote on the nature of spirit, and be reminded that this is actually about an initiation into Tiphareth. Still, the spirit as an all consuming flame, in all of it's poetic starkness, looms large in my imagination.

Love and Will

[Mike]

93.

I will dote on the nature of spirit, and be reminded that this is actually about an initiation into Tiphareth.

I never realized that the chapters could be assigned to the Sephiroth below and up to Tiphareth - the subject matter of the chapters seems so exalted that I thought the vast majority of the action took place near the lip of the Abyss. Thanks for the idea!

Could the "great city in the old and desolate land" refer to what is left of the structure of the Ruach? Probably not - it doesn't feel right. Regardless, though, the idea is that the Angel is causing things to occur that the man known as Aleister Crowley (or formerly known as) does not understand.

The other obviously possibility is that it refers to the remaining Osirian structures, great metaphorical (perhaps literal) cities founded on these outdated principles. "Behold! the rituals of the old time are black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the good ones be purged by the prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright." The leftover crap from the last Aeon needs to be cleared out of the otherwise-functional (or usable) cities.

And Crowley, even as the Prophet of the New Aeon, will not understand what's going on, though he sees it happening.

93, 93/93.

[Jim Eshelman]

3. Yea, cried the Holy One, and from Thy spark will I the Lord kindle a great light; I will burn through the great city in the old and desolate land; I will cleanse it from its great impurity.

In the prior verse, the Adept identified himself as a spark. In this verse, the Angel says that He will kindle that into a great light.

This is the usual consequence of the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: The contact fills and expands the essence of the Adept. (That essence, or spark, is connected to an infinite source of a like thing.)

This was the focus of my practice yesterday: The resting in the reality of how the touch of the Angel enkindles and infinitely expands what is essentially true of us.

This burns through the old gray city - an image of the old gray form of the psyche, etc.

4. And thou, O prophet, shalt see these things, and thou shalt heed them not.

(Which means: Sometimes, no matter how much I see the hand of the Angel, I won't necessarily be smart enough to pay attention!)