Predicting The Present
Page 8
But what about The Emperor’s association with the god of war, Aries?
Not much good has been said about this fearsome god of war and passion. In ancient Babylon his name was Nergal, and he was known as the god of war and bloodshed. When this archetype traveled to Rome, he became associated with the god Mars. In Greece, he became equated with the god Aries. In many ways, the god of war has much in common with the Sun. In the book, Mythic Astrology Applied: Personal Healing Through The Planets, Kenneth Johnson and Ariel Guttman write:
"Symbolically, the fiery red planet Mars has much in common with that bright and occasionally reddish ball of fire we call the Sun. But if the Sun brings life and growth to the world in some respects, it may also bring suffering through too much heat. It may blight the crops, scorch the earth, and cause us thirst. If we think of Nergal as that aspect of the Sun that scorches and blights, we shall not be far wrong."
You'll also recall what we said about The Emperor being associated in some decks with the Lord of the Underworld, Pluto. The authors of the aforementioned book conclude:
"It is said that Nergal, as a god of war, conquered everything on earth that there was to conquer. So, he stormed the underworld and tried to conquer the goddess who ruled there, dark Ereshkigal. He was partly successful. The two of them hammered out a compromise, dividing the Land of the Dead between them. So if Mars has affinities with the Sun, he also has affinities with Hades or Pluto. Perhaps we should think of him as the dark Sun in the underworld."
These light and shadow aspects of The Emperor must be kept in mind when meditating upon this card. Speaking of integrating light and shadow, let’s meet the first figure in our Tarot deck who’s authentically done just that.
The Hierophant:
The Magus of the Eternal
Trump #5
Zodiacal Trump of Taurus
Venus Rules—Luna Exalted
Letter: Vau (nail) (numerical value: 6)
Path: #16 (from Chokmah to Chesed)
Helpful Quotes
"Offer thyself Virgin to the Knowledge and Conversation of thine Holy Guardian Angel! All else is a snare.
Be thou athlete with the eight limbs of Yoga; for without these thou are not disciplined for any fight."
-Aleister Crowley
"So when we ask what is the meaning of life, we are faced with the fact that our brain is caught in a groove, caught in habit, in tradition, in the conditioning of our education, cultivating only knowledge, information, and so making it more and more mechanical."
-J. Krishnamurti
"When a disciple with total trust bows down at the feet of his master, something is happening there which is not visible to the eyes. An energy is falling from the master, entering the disciple. Something invisible to the eyes is happening there. If you become aware you can see it also—the aura of the master, his rainbow, pouring himself down into the disciple. You will see it in fact happening."
-Osho
Contemplation
"Offer thyself Virgin to the Knowledge and Conversation of thine Holy Guardian Angel! All else is a snare.
Be thou athlete with the eight limbs of Yoga; for without these thou are not disciplined for any fight."
-Aleister Crowley
This quote admonishes us to offer ourselves "Virgin" to the "Knowledge and conversation of our “Holy Guardian Angel." The Holy Guardian Angel is known by many names:
•Reflex Man
•Genius
•Daemon
•Psychoid
•Saguna Brahman
•Augoeides
And many more...
It's hard to give a definite description of the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA). The latter may be regarded as the hidden key, power, or intelligence, capable of affecting the explosive release of one's dormant potential. The HGA can manifest as a spiritual being, force, voice, dream, epiphany, and so on, that exists or seems to exist entirely separate from egoistic consciousness. This manifestation as divine Other is important, as the HGA is there to lead you out of the self-contraction by temporarily suspending egoic consciousness so that a higher truth can flow through you. That is to say, the HGA assists you in the creating of new values by which to govern yourself according to your True Will. The HGA may be seen, heard, felt, or all the above, but it's herald is always the same:
When the HGA appears, all fear is suspended.
One could fill volumes trying to explain this experience. This isn’t meant to be an account of one man's dissolution into the blissful death of the Mystic Marriage, but I’ll do my best, as one who’s encountered his Holy Guardian Angel, to explain what I believe are some of the universal aspects of this life changing experience.
In Aleister Crowley's opus, "Magick In Theory and Practice", he says this about the Holy Guardian Angel:
"But the phenomena of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel are a side issue; the essence of the Union is the intimacy. This intimacy (or rather, identity) is independent of all partial forms of expression; at its best it is therefore as inarticulate as Love is."
It's precisely due to this difficulty of articulation that the attainment is, in occult circles, commonly reduced to a simple formula. For example, mine is a mystery of Apollo (myself/Self) and Aphrodite (HGA) in both their loathsome and beatific manifestations, toward which the guiding light has been the principles of Eros and Agape. Aphrodite has emerged in my self-process as Paphia ("sexual love"), Androphonos ("man-eater"), Pelagia [unconscious Anima], and ultimately, as Urania ("higher Love").
This translation of Will into mythological expression enables one to use myth as a template for communication and articulation, which is the true purpose of Tarot.
You’ll recall that The Priestess represents the quality of being "Virgin" in that she, as the ultimate Witness, can't be seen. I'd like to redirect your attention to the objects on her lap which, as you'll recall, are really three objects in one:
•Bow and arrow
•A book
•A harp.
One of the most esoteric features of The Priestess is that she represents a stream of information that flows beneath or above the small corner of everyday awareness which, Kabbalistically speaking, is the World of Briah (The false Sephira, Daath, as the transpersonal bridge from the psychic to super-psychic realms). This information can be anything from self-knowledge, information on global and political concerns, and so forth, all accessed by visions, hunches, lucid dreaming, Tarot, and synchronicities.
We can say that the Knowledge equals The Book; the Conversation equals The Harp; and The Holy Guardian Angel Himself (The Hierophant) finds His origin in The Priestess. The Hierophant is the expression of The Priestess in the world of thought---specifically the World of Briah (upper limits of Tiphareth) ---as the image of the source of that information. This is also graphically accurate, for Tiphareth--the Sephira in which the Holy Guardian Angel appears--is a direct reflection of Kether (Causal realm).
So, we can see that the "knowledge" of the Holy Guardian Angel is a knowledge of the Self, whose "conversation" is the cyclic manifestation of the archetypes. They're translated into terms of the informal Archetype that represents one's Self at its highest level of fusion.
It seems that Crowley had something similar in mind when he said:
"Also the Angel appeareth in Tiphareth, which is the heart of the Ruach, and thus the Centre of Gravity of the Mind. It is also directly inspired from Kether, the Ultimate Self, through the path of 'The High Priestess,' or initiated intuition. Hence the Angel is in truth the logos or articulate expression of the whole being of the Adept, so that as he increases in the perfect understanding of His Name, he approaches the solution of the ultimate problem: Who he himself truly is.
The HGA reveals itself when the aspirant, after having aspired fully, intuits the futility of aspiration and allows the gravity of True Will to pull him onward. In this sense, The Hierophant is the Conscious Suffering of The Hanged Man come to fruition. He is
“Osiris glorified through trial and perfected by suffering” (Israel Regardie: The Eye in the Triangle). Seeing that he quite simply can't take one step without acting fragmentarily the aspirant surrenders egoistic volition, thereby becoming open and womb-like:
This creates the milieu in which the HGA reveals itself.
The process of psychospiritual reintegration is represented in The Hierophant by the interlocked figures of the Pentagram (five-pointed star) and Hexagram (six-pointed star). When they're combined, these two symbols represent what's been called the Mystic Marriage. It should be noted that this experience is not a coming together of opposing principles, but rather, the shocking realization that the two were never separate to begin with. The Hierophant is the expression of the inscrutable Truth concealed by The Priestess.
Says Crowley:
"The card is referred to Taurus; therefore the Throne of the Hierophant is surrounded by elephants, which are of the nature of Taurus; and he is actually seated upon a bull. Around him are the four beasts or Kerubs, one in each corner of the card; for these are the guardians of every shrine. But the main reference is to the particular Arcanum which is the principal business, the essential, of all magical work; the uniting of the microcosm with the macrocosm."
A related subject is what the alchemists referred to as Chymical Nuptials. A popular symbol for this Alchemical Marriage can be seen on the back of many traditional decks in the image of the Rose and Cross. Each of the colored petals is associated with a Hebrew letter, astrological Planet, zodiacal Sign, Element, and trump. The Rosicrucian symbol of the Rose and Cross is one that recalls the union of subject and object.
In the channeled document called, "The Book of the Law", the Egyptian god of war, Ra Hoor Khuith, says:
"Let the woman be girt with a sword before me."
Crowley informs us that,
"This refers to the arming of vedana with sanna, the overcoming of emotion by clarity of perception."
This "clarity of perception" is not of the intellect. Rather, it's the sword of intelligence; the tyranny of intellect usurped by direct perception. The ninth Sephira, Yesod, is the sphere of the moon on the Tree of Life. The moon symbolizes change and fluctuation. If you apply this to The Hierophant, who's but the symbolic representation of whatever Aeon prevails at the time of his painting (ours is supposedly the Aeon of Horus), you'll see that his post is not a permanent one.
Crowley comments on how confusing this can be:
"It is impossible at the present time to explain this card thoroughly, for only the course of events can show how the new current of initiation will work out."
Horus is a dual-natured Egyptian solar deity called Heru Ra Ha. His introverted form is called Hoor Pa Kraat, and his extroverted form is called Ra Hoor Khuith. The Hierophant alludes to this double-form by giving us the two-fingered gesture, a symbol foreshadowing what's to come in the next card in sequence, The Lovers.
In the book, "Pictures from the Heart", Sandra A. Thomson writes (parentheses mine):
"With their right hands (left hand of the Thoth Hierophant), the RWS (Rider-Waite-Smith Deck) and Spiral Hierophants give the esoteric ecclesiastical sign that distinguishes 'between the manifest and concealed part of the doctrine,' the known and the unknown."
This gesture, commonly known as the "peace-sign," also forms the letter V for victory. This V also conveys in Roman Numerals that this is the fifth trump. More importantly, this is a two-fingered gesture, showing him to be a representative of The Priestess. Indeed, the Aeon of Horus may have as one of its primary objectives the reinstatement of Deity as the Divine Androgyne, such as Shiva Ardharnari. This notion is further supported by the fact that the headdress of The Hierophant is shaped like a woman's uterus, "suggesting that The Hierophant protects the 'feminine' secrets of The High Priestess."—Sandra A. Thomson
In the "Book of the Law", the god Ra Hoor Khuith says: (Ch.2, V, 72)
"I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the Force of Coph Nia—but my left hand is empty, for I have crushed an Universe; and naught remains."
This refers to the "destruction of the world by fire" said to have taken place in 1904, at the Great Equinox of the gods. This crushed Universe of which naught remains is in the present deck represented by The Tower. The "destruction of the world by fire" can, in the latter card, be seen in the image of Dis Pater or Hell Mouth—commonly known as Pluto or Hades—belching flame at the structure from below. The Dove in the upper left corner of The Tower is a manifestation of the Gnostic Sophia, Mother of all Life. The Twig in the Dove's mouth is a symbol of Sophia's promised son who would "free humanity from guilt."
Says Hippolytus:
"The Hierophant himself, when he performs the great, unspeakable mysteries at night in Eleusis under an enormous fire, calls out and lets echo: 'the ruler has given birth to a holy son…Brimo the Brimos ("strongest of the strong").
This "promised son" is none other than Horus, the child of Isis and Osiris. Turning for a moment to the "Book of the Law", the sky goddess, Nuith, tells us:
"There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task."
The Hierophantic task deals with the issue of method and the tendency to cling to method. To better understand what this means we must turn to the Kabbalistic path which runs parallel to that of The Hierophant. The path is called Cheth and is attributed to The Chariot. The Hierophant dwells on the Pillar of Mercy opposite The Chariot on the Pillar of Severity. The Hierophant, as a card that dwells on the Pillar of Mercy, needs to draw on some of the qualities of the Pillar of Severity to maintain balance. So if The Hierophant represents the method by which we tap into the Universal Pulse of the Tao---be it through meditation, prayer, dervish, or whatever---then The Chariot represents our ability to try new methods when the time comes to shed our skin (the method).
This "shedding of the skin" is further accented by the symbol of the Snake entwining the Halo of The Hierophant. This Halo and Snake—symbol of the superlative absorption called Bodhimandala—is that which The Priestess guards, for it's a symbol of the Goddess and Snake seen dancing together in The Universe card. Taken together, we see reiterated the double deity, Heru Ra Ha, the becoming of whom leads to nondual awareness or Christ consciousness; for the dual deity is, in this case, an amalgam of the Holy Spirit and its embodiment in human form. The Hierophantic task is to acquire the ability to reconcile experience with childlike curiosity. If The Hierophant adopts a certain philosophy, world-view, or spiritual practice, he must learn to be involved in it so totally that eventually he comes out wearing the method, as it were:
Once upon a time a large crowd had gathered outside the hut of an enlightened master. Three of them began talking and inquiring as to why the others were there. One of them said that she was there to learn the secrets of Magick. The second said that he was there to study hidden documents. The third, when asked why she had gone to see the enlightened one, said that she had come to watch the master tie his shoes.
The master of an art reveals it in his every action. Problems arise when The Hierophant becomes too attached to a method, turning it into a dogma. The Hierophant's mask-like facial features symbolize this danger.
The Hierophant, as the fifth trump, is associated with the Fives of the Minor Arcana. These cards, when paired together, represent the life-crises that cause us to search for meaning. All the Fives contain the image of an inverted pentagram. This symbol represents the loss of a sense of self, security, stability, and the conquest of the lower drives over higher aspirations.
The Hierophant/Five of Wands: Here we have the intense struggle to burn away the darkness of ignorance, the ascetic form of which is aimed at the attainment of moral purity. The astrological situation of the Five of Wands is Saturn in Leo, which suggests passionate dedication to the conquering of obstacles. When we apply this to The Hierophant, it isn't very hard to imagine this struggle being one of a spiritual nature. If this card connection implies an attempt to understand and transform one
self through the intensity of self-observation then there's no problem. It's only when we consider this card connection from the ascetic point of view that problems start. This doesn't mean that one should not work on oneself, only that we shouldn't become obsessive, fanatical, and self-destructive in our spiritual practice. Buddha once said, "The boat is only needed to cross the stream. One should not go on carrying it after one has crossed." This is precisely the message of The Hierophant when paired with the 5 of Wands.
The Hierophant/Five of Cups: Here we have the great insight into the nature of desire and the realization that all forms of addictive pleasure lead to disappointment. Not that pleasure is in any way evil. In fact, The Hierophant, especially the one from this deck, is in complete favor of all forms of pleasure! Rather, the problem is in the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. What generally happens is we experience something that gives us a great deal of pleasure. Then the mind, wanting that feeling to be eternal, tries to repeat it again and again. Eventually the experience becomes dull due to this constant repetition and the mind begins to seek something else with which to replace it. This cycle—the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain---goes on ad infinitum until the mind or the body, having grown insensitive, begins to feel an agonizing sense of dryness or meaninglessness in life. This dryness is represented in the Five of Cups by the planet Mars. *(Scorpio is Mars' nocturnal Sign. Five of Cups=Mars in Scorpio)