18 August (Spirit) Liber LXV, 5:14-15

[Jim Eshelman]

14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus.
15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken.

[Al-Shariyf]

This:

14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus.
15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken

Brings to mind this:

Behold! the Kingdom of God is within you, even as the Sun standeth eternal in the heavens, equal at midnight and at noon. He riseth not: he setteth not: it is but the shadow of the earth which concealeth him, or the clouds upon her face.

Let me then declare unto you this Mystery of the Law, as it hath been made known unto me in divers places, upon the mountains and in the deserts, but also in great cities, which thing I speak for your comfort and good courage. And so be it unto all of you.

Know first, that from the Law spring four Rays or Emanations: so that if the Law be the centre of your own being, they must needs fill you with their secret goodness. And these four are Light, Life, Love, and Liberty. - Liber CL De Lege Libellum

Also:

15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken.

By Light shall ye look upon yourselves, and behold All Things that are in Truth One Thing only, whose name hath been called No Thing for a cause which later shall be declared unto you.

And

For this also is the Joy of the Law, that no two stars are alike, and ye must understand also that this Multiplicity is itself Unity, and without it Unity could not be. And this is an hard saying against Reason: ye shall comprehend, when, rising above Reason, which is but a manipulation of the Mind, ye come to pure Knowledge by direct perception of the Truth.

[RobertAllen]

14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus.
15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken.

Puzzle time.

A set of four images that can be arranged in any number of ways, with a bit of creative interpretation.

thunderbolt = Peh/The House of God
Pylon = Samekh/Art
serpent = Nun/Death
Phallus = Ayin/The Devil

The paths below and leading into Tiphareth, the sixfold gold. (I also made a tentative and less satisfying attribution to the paths approaching and immediately below Kether.)

It seems somewhat redundant at this point, but I come back again to the idea that this chapter is about an initiation into Tiphareth, which is the breakthrough moment, the first Samadhi if you will, The K&C of the HGA when all is melted into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken.

The sword of four blades appears to me as four sacraments that bring one to this 'point.' Off the top of my head I would say they amount to something like this:

thunderbolt = exaltation through prayer (submission)
Pylon = exaltation through beauty
serpent = exaltation through pain and loss (formal initiation?)
Phallus = exaltation through pleasure and joy

The word Ararita celebrates the unity of all things and is the key.

Or something like that. I am tending to see a manual of sorts in today's meditation.

Love and Will

[Jim Eshelman]

The gates are intended to spell Adonai. We'll see this again before the chapter is over:

thunderbolt = Aleph
Pylon = Daleth
serpent = Nun
Phallus = Yod

Of course, that's just the structural start. As Tom Hanks famously said in Big, "What does it do?"

[Frater 639]

Of course, that's just the structural start. As Tom Hanks famously said in Big, "What's it do?"

It beams. It burns. It blooms.

EDIT: Jim, I have to mention (from one Tom Hanks "fan" to another) that you certainly know how to pick your references!!! I can't believe that someone actually quoted Big.

Although, I personally think the iconoclastic masterpiece known as Bosom Buddies was Tom's finest work...

[Tinman]

Joe Versus the Volcano... love that movie... and the scene with the moon... breathtaking... a wonderfully mystical moment...

Quick questions: How do the Star and The Fool, differ in their representation of The Thunderbolt? What does the technical term "Thunderbolt" mean?

[Frater 639]

Quick questions: How do the Star and The Fool, differ in their representation of The Thunderbolt? What does the technical term "Thunderbolt" mean?

This may help? (From Liber 418, 6th Aethyr) my bold:

I seem quite helpless. I am trying all sorts of magical methods of piercing the veil: and the more I strive, the farther away I seem to get from success. But a voice comes now: Must not understanding lie open unto wisdom as the pyramids lie open to the stars?

Accordingly, I wait in a certain magical posture which it is not fitting to disclose, and above me appears the starry heaven of night, and one star greater than all the other stars. It is a star of eight rays. I recognize it as the star in the seventeenth key of the Tarot, as the Star of Mercury. And the light of it cometh from the path of Aleph. And the letter Cheth is also involved in the interpretation of this star, and the paths of he' and vau are the separations which this Star unites. And in the heart of the star is an exceeding splendour, --- a god standing upon the moon, brilliant beyond imagining. It is like unto the vision of the Universal Mercury. But this is the Fixed Mercury, and he' and vau are the perfected sulphur and salt. But now I come into the centre of the maze, and whirling dust of stars and great forgotten gods. It is the whirling Svastika which throws off all these things, for the Svastika is in aleph by the shape and number, and in beth by the position of the arms of the Magician, and in gimel because of the sign of the Mourning of Isis, and thus is the Crown defended by these three thunderbolts. Is not thrice seventeen fifty-one, that is, failure and pain?

It brings to mind that XVII relates to Nuit, and Atu 0 to Pan, and that these correspond according to the tables in 777 -- they also are different aspects of Air. They also form a path to Tiphareth from Kether via Chokmah. It seems like a great topic for meditation, in and of itself.

Jim, could you please elaborate on Tinman's question a bit more?

[Jim Eshelman]

Quick questions: How do the Star and The Fool, differ in their representation of The Thunderbolt? What does the technical term "Thunderbolt" mean?

I dunno. I suppose it means something electrical and sizzling that blasts you. The first step of the Lightning Flash. The Scintillating Consciousness (as Aleph is called).

At the moment, I'm missing how The Star refers to it... are you taking the Svastika reference?

[Tinman]

Yes I was referring to the Svastika reference. I've come to associate the Star with a whirling thunderbolt in motion, and the Fool as the inherent thunderbolt itself - but I wanted assistance with this mental construct to refine it. References include (but are not limited to):

Liber Arcanorum

17. Transformed, the holy virgin appeared as a fluidic fire, making her beauty into a thunderbolt.

Liber Samekh - in reference to THIAF

“O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun The Beast that whirlest forth, a thunderbolt, begetter of Life!”

I also note from The Book of Thoth:

The Dorje is the Tibetan symbol of the thunderbolt, the emblem of celestial Power, but more in its destructive than its creative form.

[RobertAllen]

The gates are intended to spell Adonai. We'll see this again before the chapter is over:

thunderbolt = Aleph
Pylon = Daleth
serpent = Nun
Phallus = Yod

Of course, that's just the structural start. As Tom Hanks famously said in Big, "What does it do?"

thunderbolt = Aleph
The violent and sudden onslaught—inspiration
...as it were, on the road to Damascus! The Indian saint who was a highway man until enlightenment waylaid him...

Pylon = Daleth
The tender and endearing act of love—relational and consensual

serpent = Nun
Death, the experience of loss, or dying to the obstacles; performed alone and isolated, but ending in an end to that which is responsible for the isolation; disabusing oneself of that which is unhelpful. Understanding.

Phallus = Yod
Slow maturation—the seed in the earth that comes to term in its proper time... This is a question of culture—yama and niyama...

???

Love and Will

[Jim Eshelman]

(On a "day off" for these, I'm catching up posting diary entries that I didn't get added to these threads over the summer.)

14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus.

Most years I simply take this as a poetic description of the way the Angel penetrates and interpenetrates - the description strikes extremely familiar chords for me, even down to many of the specifics. And, of course, the correspondence of the "blades" to the four letters of the Name ADNI.

This year, because of something else I was working on, I was reminded that a four-bladed sword - a sword that has four blades all set at right angles to each other - must exist in four dimensions. The Angel is piercing us not only in 3D space, but in 4D. (It slices reality into 8 segments.)

15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken.

This was before Liber ARARITA was dictated - but the idea of that book (all 7 chapters of it, climaxing in the dissolution description of the 7th) seems the idea that AC had in mind all those years. Or, putting it more simply, the very meaning of the notariqon A.R.A.R.I.T.A. declares that The ONE is singular in the beginning of His Unity, the beginning of His uniqueness, and in His permutation. This way of viewing reality can lead to the experience described in the verse.