by Marcus Katz
IAO is a formula created from the first letters of three ancient Egyptian deities; Isis, Apophis and Osiris. It can be summarised as the formula describing three phases in all systems, be they events, acts or psychological occurrences. The formula describes the three phases as Growth (Isis), Death (Apophis) and Rebirth (Osiris). As an example, the dynamics of a Facebook group goes through these phases, as do ones personal resolutions, or even a day at work. When we are aware of these phases, we can recognise and welcome the Apophis phase as a necessary evil, and work better to time the Osiris phase as appropriate to a situation.
In further playing with correspondence, Crowley connects the IAO formula by the Gematria of 17 (the letters add as 10 + 1 + 6) to the numbers of squares of the Flyflot Cross and from that to the Aleph which shares the same shape as that cross, and from the Aleph to the concept of unity, as Aleph = 1. This suggests that the IAO formula signifies the unity of all activity broken into three stages of motion, although we take several steps of correspondence to get that conclusion.
We can also look at the corresponding tarot cards for illustration of this formula, and for use in ritual or meditation. In this case we have the Hermit, Fool and Sun. We do not have a direct correspondence for the letter “O” as Hebrew has no vowels, but we can use the direct correspondence of Osiris to the daily death and rebirth of the Sun.
If we were to imagine a reading where we received those three cards, it would possibly suggest to us that all growth and success (Sun) comes from letting go and being free (Fool) so that our true path (Hermit) may have space to be discovered through all its trials. We can also contemplate the symbolism of the Fool and the Hermit being atop the mountain, with the Sun above. These contemplations activate the formula in our awareness, and lead to new ways of experiencing the world, and more importantly, new behaviours and decisions; it is magic to engage life, not escape it.
INRI is taken as a shorthand version of various phrases, but the most usual is the Latin for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". In the version of Kabbalah developed by the Golden Dawn this phrase embodies the mystery of Tiphareth in its analysis as the Hebrew letters of Yod, Nun, Resh and Yod. We take the letters as the first letters of ancient Egyptian deities as before, and make a further correspondence to their zodiacal, elemental or planetary symbol.
I/Virgo = ISIS
N/Scorpio = APOPHIS
R/Sun = OSIRIS
I/Virgo = ISIS
A few Golden Dawn rituals have the practitioner actually create various letters from the position of their arms to fully embody the formula being utilised. If we take another formula such as the letters LVX, meaning ‘light’, we create those letters as an “L” representing the ‘mourning of Isis’ (we lean our head upon the outstretched arm, with our other arm slightly bent but upright, like a dancer signifying mourning), a “V” for Apophis (making a ‘Victory’ type ‘V’ with our arms) and an “X” on our breast with our arms crossed (for the rising of Osiris, and of course, the cross of Christ).
In fact, in an unpublished Golden Dawn manuscript (see the MAGISTER Vol. 0) these positions of the body were even further mapped out in a form of cosmic-correspondence-yoga to a seasonal clock-face and the transitions of the equinox and solstices as the light and darkness changes through the year. As we make a “V” sign with our arms, we only encompass a small bit of light, as the rest of our clock-face is full of the darkness, so Apophis is briefly triumphant, for example. It may be a case of a correspondence too far, and perhaps why it was never included in the “Complete” Golden Dawn materials – which are far from complete – but for some, it might open their mind to vast cosmological cycles even in the most simple of physical actions; a thoroughly western Yoga.
As with the Tetragrammaton of YHVH, this INRI formula repeats a key letter at the start and end of the formula to indicate that events have a natural cycle. In this case, we are going through growth, death, rebirth and growth again. When we consider the four worlds model, and Tiphareth as the heart from which each higher Tree emerges, we might be reminded of this spiral and dynamic model which speaks of a never-ending evolution through increasingly rarefied planes.
EXERCISES
1. Attempt to translate a phrase or sentence from another language such as Hebrew or Latin, word by word using an appropriate dictionary; note the difficulties in arriving at a singular meaning for the message by taking this approach. In a similar fashion, this demonstrates how Tiphareth is the overall comprehension that follows from the piece by piece process of Geburah.
2. Observe a group of people or other social system, and discover who or what is functioning as the Tiphareth centre of the group. Note how much the social order and the actions of the group revolve from the Tiphareth location. Where does the Tiphareth individual get his inspiration from in order to influence the group?
3. Collect images of the Heart from any sources you have available to you. The religious systems of Ancient Egypt and Medieval Christianity provide useful sources, as do the Ancient Mexican religions of the Toltecs and Mayans. What does the heart symbolise?
Netzach: The Rose in the Lamplight
The Sepher Yetzirah deems Netzach, "the Hidden Intelligence, for it pours forth a brilliant splendour onto all intellectual virtues which are looked upon with the eyes of the spirit and the ecstasy of faith." In most readings of the Tree as a model of the human being, Netzach is described as the seat of the emotions, partnering Hod, the seat of the Intellect.
As the base of the positive pillar, and as the first of the Sephiroth in the creative process below the veil of Paroketh, Netzach functions as nature's dynamo, storing and transmitting the explosion of Chockmah sent to it from Chesed, the Sephirah of expansion. As Chesed is the Chockmah below the Abyss, so Netzach is the Chockmah below the Veil. We may see this as a constant stepping down of the original essence of creation through a transformer system.
On a psychological level, the Tree indicates that Netzach is active in respect of Hod, and Hod passive to the influence of Netzach. This symbolises that our inner state should be one where our emotions are allowed creative expression, through our thoughts (Hod), imagination (Yesod) and actions (Malkuth). A startling scientific experiment has shown that such is the case, whether we choose to believe it or not. Our conscious registration of an inner decision occurs after the brain has already set that action in process, demonstrating that conscious free will is but a convenient fiction. We are all living milliseconds in the past, removed by our own neurology from the events taking place in the environment and the acts performed by ourselves.[75]
The work of Netzach undertaken by the Initiate serves to continue these themes. As the central core of selfhood is approached in Tiphareth, it is increasingly obvious that a grand synthesis needs to take place. Thus, the work of Netzach involves both the practice of Dharana, which seeks to unite the awareness with the object of which it is aware, by concentration, contemplation, or meditation, and the practice of Bhakti Yoga, which is the union with deity through the practice of devotion.
As Seven, the number of Netzach, is often taken to be the number of completion, we can see that as the Initiate rises to this Sephirah, he completes equally at one level the work of the Lower Sephiroth. Indeed, the Golden Dawn stated that the advancement through the Elemental Initiations of the Lower Sephiroth "in a sense, quitteth not Malkuth".
That is to say, partly, that the work of those Grades is aligned to ones outside observations, even when directed at the Psyche, whereas the Work beyond that point has undergone the Holy Inversion and is involved with the Upper Sephiroth and the experiences and states that transcend the personality construct.
Further, the Rose (taken as a symbol of Tiphareth) and the Lamp (a symbol of Kether and the Ain Soph Aur) are both attributed to Netzach, which may reflect its sevenfold nature of completion. The seven-petalled rose alludes to the sevenfold pattern, and was used by Bosch as emblem DCCXXIII of the Ars Symbolica, and by Fludd in the Summum Bonum. It is to this Ro
se of Completion that the Golden Dawn aim in their elemental initiations, as a pre-shadowing of the Rose-Cross of Tiphareth and the Rose of Light in Kether.
Charles Harness uses this symbolism in his magnificent short story, The Rose, where the next stage of human progression is embedded in the ballet of the "Nightingale and the Rose". In the original story of Oscar Wilde's from which this fictional ballet is based, the nightingale sacrifices itself on a white rose in order to make it red. This could be read as the sacrifice of Netzach, where sensual passion is transfused into mystical passion through the path of Death, the tarot Atu placed on the path uniting Netzach and Tiphareth.
One other aspect of Netzach expressed in the psyche is that of the instinctual construct. This construct can be broken into a number of circuits; Bio-Survival, Emotional-Territorial, Semantic and Socio-Sexual. These function largely unconsciously in the undeveloped, Yesod-dominated, persona, and are usually examined in the early stages of the Initiate's development. Obviously, many of the functions of these mechanisms are not designed to be consciously controlled, for example, the beating of the heart or the reflexive action of the muscles. The fight, freeze or flee instinct also takes place in Netzach. Thus, one can be running away from danger before one has time to think about it, which is when the impulse reaches Hod a moment later.
These instincts run straight into the World of Action simultaneously with their transmission to the process of thought, and this is modelled by Kabbalah on the path leading from Netzach to Hod. The tarot Atu symbolising this path is that of the Moon, Mistress of Mystery and the emotional, shadowy side of the psyche. The Moon also governs the cyclic aspects of nature, as well as the tides and feminine menstrual energies. It is therefore appropriate that the letter attributed to this path is that of Qoph, meaning ‘back of the head’, where the more primitive parts of the brain reside, regulating these energies.
Netzach is spelt in Hebrew, NTzCh, Nun-Tzaddi-Cheth. The tarot attributions of these cards are Death, the Star, and the Chariot. The corresponding ancient Egyptian deities of this sequence are revealing of Netzach, being Typhon, Nuit and Hormakhu:
Typhon (or Seth) is the serpent deity connected with storms, natural phenomena appropriate to Netzach, and was the pilot of the solar boat (Tiphareth) who speared Apophis, symbolic of the Death Atu connecting Netzach to Tiphareth.
Nuit resided in the "lower mansion of Heliopolis", which is the house of the sun, and again refers to Netzach's relationship to Tiphareth, to which the Sun is ascribed. She also was responsible for keeping the forces of Chaos breaking through into the world, which denotes Netzach function in maintaining regularity to the expansions of Chesed.
Harmachis is Horus of the Horizon, and is connected with the Sphinx, which in turn is symbolic of the four elemental Sephiroth. The horizon is that of the Veil of Paroketh.
The Sephirah embodies the energies of transmutation through Sacrifice, Hope and Rebirth.
EXERCISES
1. Make a study of the relationship between Religion and Love. The raptures of Christian mystics, the experiences and stories told by the Sufi schools, and the devotional work of Magicians such as Aleister Crowley will provide numerous examples of how love can be seen as both a result and a method of mystical experience.
2. Take a number of actions and observe which emotion, or complex of emotions, is driving the action. What is the relationship between emotion, thought and deed, and how does Kabbalah model this?
3. Observe your own devotional activities and bring them into your whole work; moments when you lose yourself, such as in dance, drinking, watching a sunset, or making love. What do these experiences tell us about the relationship between self-awareness and activity?
4. Wherever you find yourself alone or with a group and with twenty minutes or so to spare, collect together ten small objects you can find in your vicinity and lay them out in a Tree of Life pattern. The ten objects must correspond to the ten Sephiroth.
So for example, you might find a white circle of paper that has been punched out of a piece of paper for a ring-binder. This would make an ideal Kether, even more so that it was punched out of something that is no longer apparent. A lost pencil on the floor could make a Chockmah, showing how the point of Kether extends into a line. It would also have a clever reference to the drawing of the sacred letters when they are described as “black fire on white”. A paperback book with a Sun on the cover would make a Tiphareth, and so forth. This is how the exercise would work in a library on a rainy day.
The first time we played this exercise we were on a picnic in a group by the riverside and had a group of children go looking for objects. They were told what sort of objects we were looking for and received a semi-Kabbalistic education that day out as well as being kept out of our way for an hour.
We eventually ended up with nine objects other than our Netzach. The group leader called everyone back and we were wondering what we could go look for that would be special and other than “something natural” which was everywhere. Suddenly we all looked up across from us and there was a deer standing looking at us, stood underneath a tree, pawing its hoof at the ground. A shaft of sunlight broke through the cloud and illuminated it, just so we were sure this was something divine.
As we looked, it appeared to nod, then turned and ran off. We all went to the base of the Tree and the hoof had upturned the most perfect circular green mossy-covered stone – our Netzach.
Hod: The Crystal Watercourse
In the psyche, Hod is the intellect as balanced against the Sephirah of the emotions, Netzach. The Alchemical Hermaphrodite is composed of these two Sephiroth, as Hermes represents the Mind, and Aphrodite the Emotions. Thus Hod is specifically the power of the mind, the thoughts and the mental will. It acts as a lower arc of Chockmah, the Divine Will, and a lower level of Geburah, discrimination, and Binah, understanding. All these are reflected in the process of thought, as we structuralise our perceptions of the environment and our intuitive processes.
In a way, what we term thoughts are more appropriately the Yesod of Hod, in that they are often internally sensed in terms of a representational system, such as sight or sound. One person may think in terms of pictures, another in terms of sound. For one, they may say that they "hear you loud and clear", to indicate their thought process, whilst another may "see what you mean". Thoughts, in terms of the Hod of Hod, occur even before they are clothed in such form. Meditative practices will often access a state where the mind seems to process without evidence, yet leaving one aware that issues are being dealt with, often more efficiently than the garbled, over-layered, process we usually call thinking.
Kabbalah teaches us to respect both reason and emotion, being aware of the nature of both in equal measure. In fact, given that many perceive Kabbalah as a very mental or intellectual pursuit, it may be surprising to read that Kabbalah does not give primacy to reason, but as Rabbi Zevi Elimelech of Dynow wrote in the 19th, understand that “reason itself shows us its limits”.[76]
In terms of the creative process of the Tree of Life, Hod represents the first formations of the influx of energies from Netzach. Utilising the matrix of Binah, and the discriminatory processes of Geburah, the Sephirah of Hod crystallises these energies into definitions and shapes. The internal model of Yesod then recognises these definitions and presents them to the perceptions, as best it can to its own limits. It is thus important that the Initiate refines both his definitions and his internal model, to reflect the higher Sephiroth more accordingly, and become a lightning rod or watercourse for the divine energies to run through without obstruction.
In terms of the Golden Dawn system of Initiation, much of the work done at the Practicus level of Hod is Hermetic experimentation in order to define the limits of one’s own nature, the possibilities of the environment, and the ranges of actions potential between the two, but the work of the Philosophus in Netzach is then to examine this work and remove contradictions thus discovered in the model of Yesod.
When
Yesod is thus refined, the strait and narrow way to Tiphareth is accessed, and the whole Work is then returned to again, but now in order to allow the upper Sephiroth their full expression.
Hod is spelt in Hebrew HVD, Heh-Vau-Daleth, and totals to 15 by Gematria. This is also the Mystic Number of Geburah, being the summation of 1+2+3+4+5, and points to a close relationship between the two. The letters of Hod are symbolised by the tarot cards of the Emperor, the Hierophant, and the Empress. One could see in this the marriage of the Emperor and Empress by the Hierophant, symbolising the experience of Hod on a mystical level.
The cards of the paths connecting Hod to its companion Sephiroth of the Tree are as follows in the Golden Dawn system:
Hanged Man (Geburah)
The Hanged Man represents consciousness drowned in matter as one meaning of the image of the Sacrificed God, and as the Initiate progresses up the Tree, Hod is where he first accesses any of the Sephiroth above Tiphareth, self-awareness.
Devil (Tiphareth)
In order to rescue that consciousness, the Adept must come to terms with the primal forces represented by the Devil, but also unchain his model from his prior perceptions, which is also indicated by this card. The Devil is beaten by looking him straight in the eye (Ayin, the letter attributed to the Devil card).
Tower (Netzach)
The Tower connecting Hod to Netzach shows the dramatic tension that resides between these two Sephiroth. The relationship of one’s thoughts to ones feelings is often a disharmonious one, thus causing the destruction of the Tower. However, this friction can be utilised by the Initiate in order to work on his psyche and perceptions and to build a Tower of Singular Language, not merely another Tower of Babel.