March 12-14, 2014: XX. The Aeon

[Al-Shariyf]

XX
THE ÆON
(Fire, Spirit)

“Burn me, O flame. Thou art the breath of my Belovéd, the body heat of Her embrace, the passion of His seeding.”

MEDITATION COLOR: Red.

HEBREW LETTER: Shyin, tooth. Something that penetrates, rends, shreds, or breaks down. The sound sh is like a hissing flame or a serpent.

CARD NAME: Æon (or eon) means an age, or an indefinitely long period. The title was consciously selected to refer to one of the Thelemic-recognized “æons,” the current one of which began in 1904; but the word also communicates a sense of eternity (or a seemingly eternal immense period) that is characteristic of the consciousness of this Path. The Greek original stems from the Indo-European root aiw-, which meant the vital force or life force (compare its phonics to the letter Alef), and thus long life, eternity, immortality, duration through time. From this root we get modern English words ever, every, never, aught, both aye and nay, and time-terms such as primeval, coeval, medieval, eternal, and sempiternal. – The older title, “Judgment,” comes from the same roots as justice (see Atu VIII), but carries additionally the meaning of mental capacity to discern and distinguish relationships.

ESOTERIC MEANING: The Perpetual Consciousness. Why is it called this? Because it directs the movements of the Sun and Moon according to their natural order, each in its proper orbit.

TREE of LIFE: Malkuth to Hod. (Links ‘the Kingdom’ and ‘Glory’; or ‘Physical Embodiment’ with ‘Intellect.’ Impermeability overcome, rigid structure dispersed or dissolved. Influx of magick current.)

ESOTERIC TITLE: The Spirit of the Primal Fire

TANTRIC & ALCHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Growth and development of the Magical Child.

DIVINATION: Final decision in respect to the past, and new current in respect to the future; the opening of new doors concurrent with the closing of old ones. Transforming fire, renewal. Always represents the taking of a definite and decisive step.

[Avshalom Binyamin]

I've fallen way behind, but wanted to jump in on this card. My daughter is going to be 1 on Saturday, and has 7 teeth. Each time a new tooth is going to break through, she starts putting her index finger in her mouth, and I can't help but think of little Horus on the Aeon card.

I think of the process of transformation and how there is a point-of-no-return well before the critical moment of upheaval. As we ramp toward that moment, the processes are already in motion, and there is nothing to do but accept it as inevitable. There will be discomfort, and the change marks the end of one era and the beginning of another. All we have afterwards is our willingness to adapt, our openness to experience and play with the new circumstances.

[Gnosomai Emauton]

3.10.14

Eyes first drawn to HPK's face. Why right hand to lips rather than left? I realize I've never really delved into that symbolism before. Eyes are crooked. Notice rest of body is malformed as well. RHK's throne is canted, forced perspective is off... this is all making me very uncomfortable. Nuit's appendages look like flippers, HPK's appendages look like bad latex sfx from the 70s... This card has always frustrated me and close inspection is only making that worse. I want to tear it up and start from scratch. My growing desire to remake this pack is fortified by this card. Nuit's bracelets/anklets each display a different waveform. What is the orange beyond Nuit? It seems to be the same color as the first layer that she encircles: glowing orange scarlet. Limits her. Binds her in. There appears to be a minuscule black point at the heart of Hadit. Hadit and RHK's solar disk match in size and color. RHK's left arm/hand is so misshapen. So much work to be done.

3.11.14

Attempted to look past the wonkiness of the art but it only got worse. Hadit is off center which pulls the entire piece to the left. The design appears to want symmetry and balance but instead it highlights deficiency, unbalance. And, over all of this inner turmoil, HPK continues to demand silence. Do not speak these things. Speech is the enemy of action. Even the Shin is oddly constructed. The Yod on the right should continue into its staff, not sit on top of it. Light that fire. Get to work.

3.12.14

HPK's feet stood out first this time through. Left foot slightly forward as in Sign of the Enterer. Or, standing on the edge of a river and stepping to shore. River of Hades? Serpent tail? Russet quadrant of Malkuth. Head in orange of Hod. The path from 10 to 8 apparently requires a trip through the Stele. In the previous Aeon, it required resurrection (Last Judgment card) but now requires something else. Nuit always makes me think of Josephine Baker. Bracelets and breasts, I suppose. The egg of blue is turquoise and inverted in this card. Also the largest representation of it in the deck. Has RHK been inside of it for the entire descent? Or is he the homunculus that was gestating?
Closed-eye meditation reinforces prior focus on necessity of action. Action is motivated by difficulties. Barriers. Tasks of the Order. Are there specific tasks/ordeals that we all must face or are they individual to each? Are they assigned by the Order or does the Universe throw them at us? Is there a difference?

[Ankh]

There are three fundamental operating principles of the universe called; sattva, rajas, and tamas. These three are associated with creation; Sattva, preservation rajas, destruction/transformation tamas creation. Evolution and growth are carried out by these three major gunas. This card has three figures Nuit, RHK and HPK. The Hebrew letter shin equal three hundred, it also looks like there are three figures in a bark. There is a triangle on the bottom right of the card. An image arises, the Hebrew letter shin is a Crown that I place upon my head and each flame on it is a god in the process of creation. It feels glories!

[danica]

- Color-egg: the red automatically becomes fire, fiery tongues burning, it’s beautiful
- Tooth: the only bone of our body, that can be seen from the outside (all other bones are covered with skin and tissues); what matters most here is that it’s a bone, and also, it’s specific function.
- Hebrew-letter associations: three flames, like three Yods, but connected into One = Supernal Fire that burns all impurities
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- Transcendence penetrates the “usual”/everyday reality; initiation; illumination; the inciting and transforming work of Spirit.
- Aeon: Eternity reveals itself in Time.
- The Holy Fire; Moses’ burning bush! (like an announcement: you will be addressed by God now!)

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- Color: I feel warmth, but no fierceness, there is a strange Peace in this red.
- A Child: it is Love in its motion, Love that has gained form as a particular being (this seems hard to explain, although it feels as simple and natural “thing”).
- The Child of this Aeon – the archetype of the Child - is not the child in its naivete, defined by lack of experience, in the sense of “human not-yet-developed”; it is the Child-Lord, Child-King, who has already been a mature human, paradoxically. Its characteristics are: Play and Lightness, Openness for Experience; it has knowledge, but that does not make it closed, there is no rigidity; it is the Glory of the Sun itself, that which emanates from a star.
- Every, every conjunction of Nuit and Hadit conceives a Child!!!
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- All of this does not mean that growing up, in biological and existential sense, is “deterioration”; but this Child is a Principle that does not cease to be, it does not disappear with “growing up” ( i.e. time and experience) for a particular individual; it just becomes more “refined”, by the refinement of the relationship of the conscious “I” with It.
- A Child is spontaneously a King, center of its Universe, and at the same time, it is completely receptive and open for the Other, for everything “not-I”.
- I feel a continuous Shhhh-sound inside, as if a "force" of a kind rises up my spine; it goes slowly, without stopping, without change of rhythm; as it reaches my head, at the top of this force-line is a Shin, whose three flames/Yods become as the top of Caduceus; the central flame stops in the midst of my skull, taking the form of an eye composed of yellowy-flame, and the two on both sides spiral around, uniting in the central one. The top-flame part of this line-of-force is now bluish (like the blue of the flame), and the rest of it is yellowish-light. I feel harmonious, in-accord.

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- “Shhhh…be silent. In Silence, you shall Know me.”
- I tend to perceive this Tooth today as not just a regular tooth, but the poisonous tooth of a snake.
- Verses from Liber L, Ch.II come, as if they have been spoken from the inside of my heart, physically. I let it feel me. Ecstatic state, like an orgasm. No words, no thought, no images, only color – bright yellowish light. Mentally and emotionally, I’m very peaceful; the body is still, heart-beat normal.

[Al-Shariyf]

Day one:

Tooth - used for breaking up and grinding down food so we can swallow it - breaking something big down into smaller parts to be consumed and assimilated - also when we smile we show our teeth as a sign of happiness.

When I look at the card I am stunned by the presence of all 4 Gods appearing at once - it's like a clear sign of intervention.

Progression & Evolution as indicated by the three figures inside of the shin at the bottom of the card

Day two:
Nuit as tare - the balance - nothing
Hadit as a unit of measure that shifts the balance

Tonight I see Nuit & Hadit reflected into Ra-Hoor-Khuit & Hoor-Par-Kraat, as if the latter are on a lower "octive", a chunked down version of the former

The progression of the colors surrounding RHK's egg golden egg of light suggest a progression of intellectual maturation to emotional maturation to spiritual maturation. Going from the bottom of the left side of the tree to the bottom of the right side of the tree and ending up in the center - almost as if to distinguish between the three.

It appears as if Hadit is tending to something - the Shin is directly underneath him - but so is steam of Green light - Love Under Will?

Day Three
Internal friction ignites a fire, the fire consumes all that is in it's pathway - a personal breaking point is reached where the friction between the inner and outer becomes the catalyst for the Transformation indicated by this card.

Space - Perspective - Inner Witness - Prime Mover

Beauty, Love & Glory sourcing Transformation

Love AND Will AS LIVED

Space, Perspective, Stillness, Stirring is all there is, existing all at once, playing together

Sulphuric Mercury at play

This card seems to suggest a readjustment in order to live and act in conformity with The Law.

[Anael Lucis]

Meditation 1

I get a sense of strength and silent/dormant but intense force
The Shin symbols contains three images – what to me seem like mother with the babe in the first, a very young child in the second, and an adult in the third. They can be interpreted as stages: first image - infancy and dependence or motherhood – the birth of power; second image - youth – the dormant, passive or silent power; and third image – adulthood – ripening of power and its unfolding in its full potential. Or same idea in the following way: 1 - Isis breastfeeding Horus; 2 - Hoor-Paar-Kraat; 3 - Ra Hoor Khuit. This same triple-imagery occurs in the card in a direct manner by displaying portraits of Nuit, Hoor-Paar-Kraat and Ra Hoor Khuit.
Letter Shin – sounds like “Shhhh” – the sound we make when we want to emphasize silence (Hoor-Paar-Kraat)

Meditation 2

The first thing that becomes immediately noticeable is that the shape inside the circumference of Nuit is shaped like a human face. It is entirely yellow/gold in color which makes me think of the “face of god” as solar bright light. Within this facial shape are Ra Hook Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat – the two aspects/expressions of one face of god. The solar disc of Ra Hoor Khuit is about where the third eye would be located on the face.
Hoor-Paar-Kraat wears a Double Crown – a headdress sporting a cobra and 2 vultures - marking him as the Crowned and Conquering Child. In ancient Egypt Horus was sometimes represented as wearing such Double Crown which is also called the Pschent.
Pschent is a combination of Red and White Crowns - of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively. This is open to a number of symbolic representations – red and white being the colors of (menstrual) blood and semen used in sexual alchemy and in Hindu and Buddhist Tantra; also these colors are referred to in alchemy as in Red Lion and White Eagle – and hence bringing reference to Male and Female, as well as subtle channels within the body – Pingala and Ida.
Lower and Upper Egypt may also be symbolic references to the physiology of physical and/or subtle body. In Tibetan Tantra there is a mention of red and white drops (within the subtle body) – white drop is situated in the crown chakra (Upper Egypt corresponding to white crown) and red drop in the navel chakra (Lower Egypt corresponding to red crown). Merging of the white and red drops symbolically represents merging of wisdom and compassion (method) – which brings about the manifestation of the Buddha Vajradhara (the ultimate Tantric Buddha) – who holds Bell (wisdom implement) in his lunar/feminine hand and Vajra (method/compassion implement) in his solar/masculine hand.

With this interpretation the Crowned and Conquering Child gets a whole new level of meaning – Pschent is Red and White Crowns united – hence he wears a crown that is representative of accomplishment of alchemical great work – union of 2 alchemical drops. Hence he further symbolizes transcendence and is sealed with silence – and in every tradition there is a special relationship between the concept of silence and that of transcendence – they always go together. No true Adept, Guru, or Yogi goes around boasting about his or her realizations, for that indicates the presence of Ego, which automatically denies their ultimate realization.
Observing the reference to Ida and Pingala with Lunar and Solar energies being united in his crown makes me think of Pranayama where during alternate nostril breathing one unites Prana and Apana at the base of spine and then applies the 2 locks: mulabandha which is engaged to pull the energy up the spine toward the 3rd eye and jalandhara at throat which is engaged to keep the prana from spilling outside of the body before reaching the third eye. The method by which Lunar and Solar energies are united is Pranayama – which is based in breathing – and his gesture of silence is also a gesture which points to the mouth and toward the nose – which are our main breathing implements.

Meditation 3

The area between arching Nuit and Hadit below her also appears as a womb from whence Heru Ra Ha springs forth in his two aspects: passive (translucent Hoor-Paar-Kraat) and active (bold Ra Hoor Khuit).
Crowned and Conquering Child stands on Shin – tooth – symbolically shredding or breaking through weakness, delusion, false virtues and everything else that keeps us from accomplishing the Great Work.
The shredding process is systematic as portrayed by 3 figures inside the Shin letter which I described in
Meditation 1:
1st step – image of a mother holding a child – relying on self-compassion and other-compassion - a prerequisite to willingly recognizing one’s own weaknesses. Without self-compassionate affect one is prone to defensiveness and denial when it comes to seeing oneself clearly, which leads to projections of one’s own shortcomings on to others, often followed by their criticism and judgment. This first image/step also indicates reliance on a teacher or a Guru.
The second step – portrayed by a child on its own – starting one’s own journey of growing/evolution, learning to start relying on oneself in the spiritual process. In this step there is still some level of dependency on the outside mentorship.
The third step – growing into spiritual adulthood – surviving the infantile tendencies of the psyche to resort to neurosis and projections and overcoming their pitfalls. Dedicating oneself to spiritual discipline in an “adult” way, self-sufficiently, relying on the Guru within.

[HA 86]

Hoor-Paar-Kraat wears a Double Crown – a headdress sporting a cobra and 2 vultures - marking him as the Crowned

It doesn't look like 2 vultures to me; they look like two snakes, and though a cobra and two vultures makes more sense I just don't see it. They even look like they have their little snake tongues sticking out.

If they are actuality two vultures instead, what are those twisty horn looking things? If they are snakes, I can't tell if the horn looking things are their tails crossing over, or if each snake loops back on itself and has its tail pointing forward (which seems to be a really unnatural position for any serpent to be in).