Questions and Answers

[Anibis]

If you have any questions about the workings or about the calendars, post them here.
-Anibis

[Anibis]

Let's start with a basic question. What is Calendrics, and why does it matter?

Calendrics is the practice of designing, and tracking calendars, which are sometimes called synchronometers. It is not insignificant that the Book of Changes states that magicians are calendar makers. The calendar in many respects is our first great symbolic 'enclosure'. Building from natural cycles, calendars become an internal symbolic 'house', whose rythms distribute the productive energy of human life along certain symbolic lines and patterns. The 'shape' of a calendar is in many ways like a sigil, which is charged through the tracking of the calendar. Examining the dominant worldviews extant today you will find one particular fact to be outstanding: each 'independent' way has it's own calendar, its own narrative. One can operate in many calendars at once, too. There is a 'timeless' space, which is outside of our calendrical enclosures, but it is almost impossible to percieve it if we are conditioned by the rythms of only one calendar which we take for granted, and which has effects on our vision that we are unaware of. It is ironic to me that we live in an age of deep investigative questions into the assumptions that drive our perspectives unconsciously, and yet calendrics remains a very obscure topic. To percieve unconditioned time, we first have to gain perspective on conditioned/calendrical time. The best way to do this is through investigation of the perceptual effects, over time of more than one calendar. I have worked to design several calendars whose purpose is to deliver very clean, yet sophisticated rythms that will function at a higher level of efficiency than the traditional calendars which are taken for granted. Nothing needs to be jettisoned or replaced, but the notion that an elegant pattern or symbol can be woven into the fabric of our time is what is at the heart of this project. Calendars also have the strong feature of drawing many people into the production of a single pattern: a calendar such as the thoth count, which traces sacred geometries onto time, will grow increasingly potent as more people track it. I make no claims to 'recieved knowledge' or anything beyond what is actually presented: a symbol system with it's own logic and aesthetic that is charged calendrically (as if the solar system was a great 'prayer wheel'), and which is intimately linked to the formula of Abrahadabra.
-Anibis

[Anibis]

We know how the trumps fit into this, but how do we manage the minor arcana?


Or at least I hope you know how the trumps fit in. If you don't, go read the background threads, and the thread on the Tarot. When you know what we are doing with the Trumps, then read the rest of this post...

Traditionally the minor Arcana are divided into two groups: the 4 Aces, and the 36 other minors 2-10 in each suit. These are then applied to the Zodiac. Since there are four Quadrants in the Zodiac corresponding to Fire, Water, Air and Earth, respectively, it makes sense that the four aces, which stand in for YHVH, Tetragrammaton, should represent the distilled and focused power of those quadrants. The rest of the minor arcana are layed out on the decanates of the zodiac; the 10 degree segments of which there are 3 for each sign. If you are familiar with the divisions of the zodiacal signs into 4 elements and 3 'modes' for each element (Cardinal, Fixed and mutable), then you will notice that each quadrant begins with a Cardinal sign that has the same element as that quadrant (ie Aries for the first, Cancer for the second, Libra for the third, and Capricorn for the fourth quadrants). The next sign will be a fixed sign corresponding to the element which precedes the first in tetragrammaton order. SO the fixed sign of the first quadrant will be Taurus, since going backwards from fire (or 'Y') we find ourselves looping back to Earth (or 'H' final). The third will be of course, the mutable sign following the same pattern, in this case 'Air'. This proces through the whole Zodiac, giving us:

Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Saggitarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces

The Minors 2-4 are the Cardinal signs, 5-7 are the Fixed, and 8-10 are the Mutables. SO we start with Aries and since it is Fire, we assign 2-4 of wands to it's three decans in that order. Then in Taurus we assign 5-7 of Disks, then 8-10 of Swords for Gemini. Moving back to the cardinals we assign 2-4 of Cups to Cancer, 5-7 of wands to Leo and 8-10 of disks to Virgo... follow this pattern to lay out the rest.

So far so good: a simple algorithm distributes the elements evenly and exactly across the zodiac..

The problem occurs at the level of the 'meaning' of the minors. Most of them have Golden Dawn assigned 'titles' like the Lord of Success for the 6 of disks, or the 'Lord of Ruin' for the 10 of swords. These meanings, however, are derived from an operation which is rather mathematically dubious. My suggestion will be to scrap what we think we know of the meaning of the minors, accrued through listening to what 'traditional sources' have said, and instead apply the inherent logic of combining Sephiroth with Element with zodiacal sign and decan. For example, if the 7 of cups is considered to be 'the lord of debauchery', it is because of the aformentioned 'dubious operation' which I will get to in a minute. Why not just think okay 7 of cups: Venus, for Netzach, plus Water, plus Scorpio: Love, Emotions, and sex: Erotic arts... simple as that. 'debauchery, and the various moral associations which you see do not enter into it at all. The effort here is to compose your interpretations of the meanings from the actual elemental combinations themselves rather than from emotional associations to the titles.

The dubious operation was simply to start with the first decan of aries and run the platonic sequence of 7 planets through the whole Zodiac: so since Mars rules Aries, then it goes: Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, sun... etc... thus the first decan of Aries is Mars in Aries, the second is Sun in Aries the third is Venus in Aries, and so on through all the signs. Why is this dubious? Well, simply put 7 does not divide evenly into 36. As a consequence the first decan of Aries and the last decan of Pisces are both ruled by Mars. Two Mars' in a row? Not the sweetest fit! That the sequence is imballances towards Mars I find very inelegant. In an effort to find a more intelligent way of assigning energies to the decans, I look for numbers that will divide evenly into 36, leaving no remainder. 9, is of course the shoe-in. So, without complicating this any further, I'll say that if you really wish to explore the minors at a greater level of depth than the above suggestion of looking at sphere+element+sign, then try this: for each quadrant, run the Lo-Shu through the decans. Thus each decan will have one of the lo shu, and each of the Lo shu numbers will appear four times, under four elements. This is VERY much what happens in the larger cycles of the Thoth count too, with the 9 'sets' of four years, each elementally assigned. It will serve you much better, i will wager, than the 'GD' assignments and 'Lords'.

So. There's your primer on how to use the 36(+4) traditional minor arcana in interpretation. The Thoth count application is simple, and I will spell it out: Since the TC starts with Mercury in the 18th degree of Taurus (6 of Disks), and over all 88 days, cycles completely through the Zodiac, it means that for each of the 88 days of the zodiac mercury will be in either one, or two signs, depending if it is transitioning that day. This is going to be the same for every year: eg: on day 37 of year 5, Mercury will be in the same place it was on day 37 of year 36. Stable. We can therefor isolate a 'power' for each point in the year, which is associated to the Sephiroth rather than just the paths furthermore, then all astrological magick associated with the Shem-Ha-Mephorasch is applicable. I will keep an effort up to track this as we go along, since I have a text for it, but I urge you, if you are interested in this significant feature of the TC, and plan to study these calendrics seriously, to invest in a Heliocentric Ephemeris that gives you the nodes and periods of the planets.

Thus endeth (and beginneth) the question...

-Anibis

[Anibis]

What about other magickal calendars?

I've started a whole other post on the subject: here (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showthread.php?t=1546).
-Anibis

[Anibis]

How should we 'work' the TC, and what should we expect?

I have suggested elswhere that the standard way to 'work' the calendar is just to keep track of it. For the purpose of actually engaging with it energetically, however, I recommend an active scrying method. First, use whatever methods you normally do to cast a circle. Make sure you are centred and grounded. Then do the following actions in whatever order you feel makes the most sense:

If you are working with the Abrahadabra GRid and the twinstar, then *vibrate* the formula in its appropriate phase. So if you are on the third day of a TC run, and you were 'emenating Abrahadabra', you would vibrate 'ABR', and picture:

A
AB
ABR

Similarly, if you are working the Twinstar, which takes two 11-day mirror opposite 'circuits' to complete, you would envision the letters 'ABR' in positions 1, 2, and 3 on the twinstar, adding one extra number and letter each day. This practice in fact has revealed a bit of a paradox. If we emanate abrahadabra all the way to 10, via the twinstar, what is the appropriate way to 'retract the formula' in the second set of 11 days (as you do the grid)? This is more complex an issue and involves an advanced use of the TS (namely being able to do it in two directions at once, or with a partner, so that a whole twinstar is produced in only 11 days). I will post it later, if that is of interest. For now it seems that the best way would be to simply, make the 'leap' back from 10 to 1, after the first Abrahadabra, and then do the formula again in it's mirrored form to complete a single twinstar triad in 22 days.

It sounds complicated, but it is not, really. If you find it difficult just stick with the classic 11 day Emanation, 11 day Retraction practice with the Abrahadabra grid.

Next, you will wish to scry the path. Use the sigil from the Tarot thread appropriate to the path we are working, and try to draw impressions off of it. I use it as a door and enter in my imagination, to see whats inside. Usually if you have a developed sense of visuals, you will have a sort of dream-like adventure, which you can interpret later. There are other ways to feel these paths too. Some people have reported NO visuals at all, but still a sense of rythm and synchronicity. Take the model of the 4 worlds: Atziluth (emanations/spiritual/fire), Beriah (creation/imagination/water), Yetzirah (Formation/Intellect/Air), and Assiah (Action/Physical/Earth) and ask yourself which level you are working on primarily. Try and discern where the majority of your impressions of the TC are coming from.. are they synchronicities that happen in the world? Are they dream images? Are they intellectual realizations, or are they energies you are manifesting/willing... Keep in mind these are the four magickal tools: the Wand the Cup, the Sword and the Pentacle.

Once you have scryed the path, visited appropriate spheres, and done whatever you felt was right, ground the energies and close the circle as you are used to doing in whatever method you feel most comfortable with.

If you like, you can add in an additional trump card: The Juggler, and scry/vibe with it before and after every path. He is a bit of a ubiquitous creature in this working, and acts as a meta-sigil, charged with the power of all 22 others...

So basically do what is comfortable for you, but follow the count through a whole 22 day cycle, reflecting on what it means... And that's essentially it!
-Anibis

[Anibis]

What about the Labyrinth?

The Labyrinth Guards the Thoth count... It is a buffer system that allows energies to get in, but requires certain adaptations on their part in order to pass through.Hostile energies get trapped in it like flies on a spiders web. The secret of the labyrinth is to geep moving. You only get lost if you give up. The first eleven days will take you IN the next eleven days will take you out. I will discuss it in more detail, but I recommend that you peruse the April 12th working, since a full discussion of the labyrinth and the buffer system of shielding is detailed there.

-Anibis

There is truth to m1thr0s reaction when he first saw the diagram I provided of the labyrinth: it reminded him of a still. Quite true. This is a form of shielding that does not so much put up barrier but rather absorbs and transmutes the energies it encounters, tranforming them into useful magicks... in a way a very soft, yin style of protection...
-Anibis

[Anibis]

This subject has been updated see above.
-Anibis

[Naomi]

Anibis is it possible the forum calendar could be updated with the daily TC info so I don't have to wait to see what Ricci posts? (oho ricci, you have a stalker) I mean...there's nothing really on the calendar anyways, and I can't find your tarot image again.

[Anibis]

That's a good Idea. I will do it as soon as I have a spare moment. In a sense this whole 'Run' things are under constructions in here, but yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks for the suggestion.
-P-

[Anibis]

For now the easy way to know is take the ATU we are on: 16, (XVI), and know that tommorow we will be doing 15(XV) since the numbers are going in descending order, so go to the Tarot thread and find Atu XV. Cross reference that with MM's diagram of the tree and you will know EXACTLY where we are at.
-Anibis

[Naomi]

Thanks Anibis you rule.

[Anibis]

I have marked the TC months for the 15th year on the calendar. Actually quite laborious, and I don't have an 'all day' option, so it is skewing my posts depending on the timezone. I set all the times to GMT, but now it is pushing some of the dates back, because, I for example am in GMT-3:30. Kindof a drag... I wish there was a better way to do this....
-Anibis

[MythMath]

Thanks...

[Naomi]

Thanks Ibisis....

[Naomi]

Hey Ibisis I'm quitting the Thoth count, it wasn't really my idea to join in the first place - at least not on the level I need to be at. I have to take control of this shit and I'm going to do things my way so just letting everyone know why I won't be updating.

Thanks for the interesting class.

Naomi

[Radiant Star]

Anibis, I am not quite clear about the cycles, I think we are doing the four worlds though, so the last one was Briah? which was the very first one, the second and which one are we on now?

Are they the same as everyone elses four worlds or have you swapped them around?

Where is a good site for me to learn more about the worlds?

[Naomi]

Ok well I want to rejoin now after intense self reflection and the rearrangement of my universe.

I've also discovered I like Anibis on his own merits and not just because of what other people say to me.

I know. I confuse myself most of all.

[Anibis]

Why thank you NC... It usually does take people a while. Not sure why... I can see things have given you a run for your money... It works that way. My suspicion is that in the next 33 days (an in PARTICULAR in the last 22 days of the year) things will come together like crazy... lets see if I'm right. I'm glad you are back... This game very much gives you an initiation evoked from your own being... All visions are to be read as symbols from yourself to yourself....

In answer to Ricci. The four Qabalistic worlds are Atziluth, Beriah (Briah), Yetzirah, and Assiah. They translate as the world of Emanation (fire/wands/will), the world of Creation (water/cups/emotion), the world of Formation (Air/swords/intellect), and the world of Assiah (Earth/Pentacles/the body). In a single Thoth Year there are four 'runs' of 22 days, which is to say 4 pathworkings. As we are doing it, the first goes up the tree, the second down, the third up, and the fourth down. Notice that the 'masculine elements' or fire and air, correspond to upwards pathworkings (rising) and the feminine elements correspond to downwards workings (sinking). This is in line with the conventional notion that Yang rises and Yin sinks.... Right now we are halfway through the third run, so, in YETZIRAH, or swords... think of this as the plane of intellect. This period is about assembling, mapping, and concieving plans as informed by our imagination (last working/briah) as directed by our will (the first working/atziluth).

The relationship of the first three worlds/elements to the fourth is a peculiar one, and will help you understand what is about to occur. Fire and Water (emanation and creation, or Will and Imagination), are PURE elements... they exist outside the Abyss... They represent the consciousness/being of pure force, and pure form respectively. They are the Y and V of tetragrammation, and are grounded in Chockmah, and Binah (again, respectively. Yetzirah is a hybrid world. It is grounded in Tipareth, and works with intellect. Intelect is partly froce, partly form... it acts, yet its force of action is structural/analytical... it is not creative, per sey, but defensive, and administrative... it is the first Child, or synthesis of Fire and Water (Think STEAM). This triad then is Positive (Fire) Negative (water) and Neutral (air), or (+,-,=).

But, Assiah is ALSO a synthesis... it is grounded in Malkuth, and represents the combined synthesis of Fire, Water and Air. In other words it is 'the pentacle of the whole', or the dynamic GROUNDING of all three energies. it is fertile and productive, since it is constantly boiling with the creative pressure of the three primary elements. ALL elements are contained in Earth, just as all Spheres are contained in Malkuth, and Malkuth is the expression, and prescence of Kether...

This means that once we work Assiah, the magick of this operation will take a tangible, grounded form. This might mean a change of living environment, job, or whatnot. Whatever you need/have been working towards through this thoth year will manifest in the Assiatic working, and it will have the magickal momentum of the planet Mercury.

Is this clear/make sense... if you need to know more about the four worlds, google them, or something, but I find/have always found that the symbols will teach you directly if you listen to them. I applaud and respect the courage and discipline that it takes to do something like this... Ten minutes a day seems like a little, but in reality, this kind of continuity is quite hard to achieve (it's taken me years to get to this point, and I have miles to go...) Peace!

-Anibis

http://Ibisis.zoints.com/image/64357-tetragrammaton

P.S. This image shows YHVH, the tetragrammaton in the shape of a person. The top letter 'Yod', forming the head is Atziluth, the arms and shoulders made by the 'Heh' is Beriah, the torso formed by the 'Vav' is Yetzirah, and the hips and legs formed by the final 'Heh' is Assiah. If you vibrate or conjoin the experiences you have had in each of the four worlds each into the parts of the body that are assigned to those letters, then the entire experience will be physicalized into a 'body of light' based on the tetragrammaton. 'Abrahadabra' will do a fine job of 'charging' each letter with a matrix of energies informed by your practice/experience over the time of the working in general...

[Naomi]

Why thank you NC... It usually does take people a while. Not sure why... I can see things have given you a run for your money... It works that way. My suspicion is that in the next 33 days (an in PARTICULAR in the last 22 days of the year) things will come together like crazy... lets see if I'm right. I'm glad you are back... This game very much gives you an initiation evoked from your own being... All visions are to be read as symbols from yourself to yourself....

Ok now you're scaring me - the next 33 days are going to be crazy??! Seriously though, I'm really concerned that I'm going insane. And none of that shit like "If you think you are going crazy you arn't", I don't believe in that.

All visions are symbols from myself to myself?

...

So I'm a pervert and a crazy weirdo?

[Anibis]

:D
-A-

[Radiant Star]

Thank you very much Anibis.

There is a lot more to this pathworking than I thought and it is becoming of great interest to me.; especially the way the feel of it all changes when you change worlds.

[Naomi]

:D
-A-

rofl

[Naomi]

We are still on the 15th year, correct? Today would be 15:10 yes?

I'm creating a folder for my magickal journal with a subsection for my TC images...

Just checking...

[Radiant Star]

I'm creating a folder for my magickal journal with a subsection for my TC images...

I have created a folder too, its already filled with notes and images from the previous cycles with header pages, m1thr0s' Twin Star diagrams with the numbers on them and MythMath's tarot tree, oh and Anibis' sigils at the beginning of each cycle, so its pretty full already. I have an A4 sheet for each day and its looking good :D

[Naomi]

I have created a folder too, its already filled with notes and images from the previous cycles with header pages, m1thr0s' Twin Star diagrams with the numbers on them and MythMath's tarot tree, oh and Anibis' sigils at the beginning of each cycle, so its pretty full already. I have an A4 sheet for each day and its looking good :D

Nice, I can definately see your organizational skills come in handy, I'm always looking over your shoulder to make sure I'm doing it right. lol

[Anibis]

It's 15:56.
-Anibis

[Naomi]

:dunno:

Many thanks Anibis...don't worry...I'm possibly the worst student you'll ever get. lol ^_^

[Anibis]

I think you'll be fine... I must say, incarnation #2 in the TC bodes better than the first... It's good that you actually like me this time around, LOL...
-Anibis

[Radiant Star]

Ten minutes a day seems like a little...

Well, it might be ten mins for some but for me its longer; I have the working, the writing it up, the word processing my almost illegible notes and adding the picture, then finally posting it on here. If I could get that all down into ten minutes a day, that would be just over an hour a week - that would be great! :laugh:

[MythMath]

He didn't specify what planet those ten minutes are on... :laugh:

[Anibis]

I try to cover them all in a short, potent session...
At least all the ones that have calenders...
-A-

[Radiant Star]

He didn't specify what planet those ten minutes are on... :laugh:
Yeah, well I have always been on the wrong planet, the days are too short on this one lol

[Radiant Star]

Today, we have finished the Mercury Cycle.

Which cycle comes next?

Does it run over four worlds in the same way as the Mercury Cycle?

[Anibis]

The next Mercurial Year starts tommorow. It is the last of four years so the whole 88 days are sacred to Earth, just as the year we just did was sacred to Air. The comming 88 days will have four complete pathworkings (runs of the 'path of the serpent') just like we just did, with the first one going up the tree, the second one going down the tree, the third up, and the fourth down. The first run will be fire of Earth, then the next will be water of earth, then air of earth, then earth of earth. So it is the four world as contemplated from the point of view of assiah, Earth. Make sense?

it looks like this:

Year 13=fire
year 14=water
year 15=air (which we just did)
year 16=earth

year 16 days 1-22=fire of earth
year 16 days 23-44=water of earth
year 16 days 43-66=air of earth
year 16 days 67-88=earth of earth

So far, since there have been 15 years which are clustered into groups of 4 (as seen above) we have completed 3 clusters and are three quarter of the way through a 4th. Once year 16 is complete, we will have 4 full clusters of 4 years each. This will then cause us to begin work on cluster 5.

294
753
618

Since the clusters of the TC are assigned to the Lo Shu, at the end of the next 88 days, we will have progressed this far into the Lo Shu:


294
753
618

There is of course more that can be done with these, structures, but that's the basic architecture of the Thoth Count. There are at least 2 different 'meta-cycle' variants possible with how to handle numbers of years past 9. One structure arises from considering the 9-cluster Lo-Shu to then repeat four times for a grand total of 36 clusters (called a set, arranged as follows:

clusters 1-9= fire
clusters 10-18= water
clusters 19-27= air
clusters 28-36= earth

There are 144 Thoth years in this span of time all totaled. This is about 37 or 38 earth years, I estimate, since each cluster is one earth year less 13 days.

An additional handling is to count each cluster as one of the 729 seperate elements of the THC. This means we are currently on the 4th ternary hexagram. This total span of time is rather large, comprising a good part of a millenia to fully express.

So NOW, we enter year 16 of the Thoth count: The 'earth year' of the 4th cluster of the count.

During the coming year, I plan to take it a bit easier, and once I've posted the rest of my journals for the last year, I will get around to talking about the two other operating calendars, which are structured quite differently, but are used in tandem with the Thoth Count, to explore the tree and the hexagrams from several different angles. Mars strengthens the Sephiroth themselves, and Venus articulates the binary hexagrams of the I Ching pretty much in the same way that the Tree-fields (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showthread.php?t=1276) are build on the tree.

-Anibis

[Anibis]

http://Ibisis.zoints.com/image/50552-AMap
This is a map of the Thoth Count. It can be used as a 'counting board'.
-Anibis

[Anibis]

8 'Abrahadabras'=88 days=1 Thoth year. These 88 days are the orange 'spikes'. The 8 Abrahdabras are the 8 grey circles.
four bands of color to represent where in a cluster a given year is situated ( Fire, water, air, or earth), and of course 9 'houses' in purple in the centre.

-A-

[MythMath]

Great stuff...

btw, which orange spike do you count as '1'...?

[Radiant Star]

Thanks Anibis.

It will take me a while to get to grips with this, so no further questions right now lol