Thelemic Holy Season: Day 1 (Evening)
93!
Liber LXV, Ch. 1
I'm not sure why today has two bits to read and the other days don't. I would guess because of path 32-bis, but then tomorrow should have an extra one for 31-bis, and it doesn't. Hmmm.
Anyway, today's assorted associations have given me lots to think about.
Good old Route 32, between Malkuth and Yesod. (It may and or may not be a good thing that Promethea is one of my sources for this. It's so well done, though.) The path between matter and imagination, between tangible "stuff" and the first hint of the intangible. It's appropriate that this is the Universe - all things, seen and unseen. This is where we live. It's the subjunctive mood - the things that could be, that are hoped or feared. Malkuth is attributed to Earth and Yesod to the Moon - this is as far as human beings have gone in space.
The paths go both ways, and are all liminal. This path is manifestation, and the loop of thought that comes from it. It's the foundation of the Middle Pillar - balance is necessary in this art.
It's also the path of astral travel. I found a very interesting quote from Israel Regardie: "Yesod is that subtle basis upon which the physical world is based....It is the Astral Plane, which in one sense being passive and reflecting energies from above is lunar, even as the moon reflects the light of the sun. The Astral Light is an omnipresent and all-permeating fluid or medium of extremely subtle matter; substance in a highly tenuous state, electric and magnetic in constitution, which is the model upon which the physical world is built. It is the endless, changeless, ebb and flow of the world's forces that, in the last resort, guarantee the stability of the world and provides its foundation."
I've also found that the physical world, and especially people's emotions and reactions to it also shape the astral plane. I think it's Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books that provide a good image of this - the landscape of the Overworld has some of the same features (like the Towers) as Darkover itself. Some places here have echoes There, purposefully or otherwise. (Some are coterminous, and they are lovely.)
(Thinking of this makes me realize the importance of holding space here and There, sometimes literally. Heya, my colleague. Heya, all my colleagues who are doing this work, whether they know it or not.)
Astral travel isn't the only way along this path. Anything creative and anything that inspires are found here. It's actually appropriate to refer to fiction in explaining this, because this is the route where we make our imaginary countries real. I've borrowed fictional concepts to explain my path, and some are part of why I'm (back) on this path in the first place. ("Free your mind!")
It's also where magic works. (Although it could be argued it works anywhere on the Tree.) But this is where it tends to live for me, day to day, where the lines of "mundane" (a word I like less and less) and not-so are blurred. And magic is just another form of art.
(Thanks to Joel and Sarah W., discussions with whom inspired parts of this.)
93 93/93
Liber LXV, Ch. 1
I'm not sure why today has two bits to read and the other days don't. I would guess because of path 32-bis, but then tomorrow should have an extra one for 31-bis, and it doesn't. Hmmm.
Anyway, today's assorted associations have given me lots to think about.
Good old Route 32, between Malkuth and Yesod. (It may and or may not be a good thing that Promethea is one of my sources for this. It's so well done, though.) The path between matter and imagination, between tangible "stuff" and the first hint of the intangible. It's appropriate that this is the Universe - all things, seen and unseen. This is where we live. It's the subjunctive mood - the things that could be, that are hoped or feared. Malkuth is attributed to Earth and Yesod to the Moon - this is as far as human beings have gone in space.
The paths go both ways, and are all liminal. This path is manifestation, and the loop of thought that comes from it. It's the foundation of the Middle Pillar - balance is necessary in this art.
It's also the path of astral travel. I found a very interesting quote from Israel Regardie: "Yesod is that subtle basis upon which the physical world is based....It is the Astral Plane, which in one sense being passive and reflecting energies from above is lunar, even as the moon reflects the light of the sun. The Astral Light is an omnipresent and all-permeating fluid or medium of extremely subtle matter; substance in a highly tenuous state, electric and magnetic in constitution, which is the model upon which the physical world is built. It is the endless, changeless, ebb and flow of the world's forces that, in the last resort, guarantee the stability of the world and provides its foundation."
I've also found that the physical world, and especially people's emotions and reactions to it also shape the astral plane. I think it's Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books that provide a good image of this - the landscape of the Overworld has some of the same features (like the Towers) as Darkover itself. Some places here have echoes There, purposefully or otherwise. (Some are coterminous, and they are lovely.)
(Thinking of this makes me realize the importance of holding space here and There, sometimes literally. Heya, my colleague. Heya, all my colleagues who are doing this work, whether they know it or not.)
Astral travel isn't the only way along this path. Anything creative and anything that inspires are found here. It's actually appropriate to refer to fiction in explaining this, because this is the route where we make our imaginary countries real. I've borrowed fictional concepts to explain my path, and some are part of why I'm (back) on this path in the first place. ("Free your mind!")
It's also where magic works. (Although it could be argued it works anywhere on the Tree.) But this is where it tends to live for me, day to day, where the lines of "mundane" (a word I like less and less) and not-so are blurred. And magic is just another form of art.
(Thanks to Joel and Sarah W., discussions with whom inspired parts of this.)
93 93/93