Anibis
01-24-2008, 11:38 AM
I posted this as part of a thread on OF, but wanted to leave a copy here too, since it was a pretty intensive peice of writing, and is essentially the reason for why I number the Trumps of the tarot as I do. The warning applies to the OF crowd more than here.
WARNING: people might not agree with this, that's cool. I am not trying convert anyone. This is an argument that I accept, and out of a desire to contribute to this thread I will present it here. It was a lot of work to write and is alot of work to read. Also, it took a lot of work to research and formulate it.
Okay... I assign Tzaddi to Atu XVII as Aquarius in the 28th path, and Heh to ATU IV as Aries in the 15th path, although I consider Atu IV to be 'the star', and XVII to be 'the man'.
Lets look at the letters:
Tzaddi (Fish-hook)= 90 or 900. Spelled in full it is Tzaddi-Daleth-Yod (104)
Mem (water) =40 or 600. Spelled in full it is Mem-Yod-Mem (90). The fish hook is matched to the waters.
Nun (fish)= 50 or 700. Spelled in full it is Nun-Vav-Nun (106).
We can do a few things here. Obviously Nun + Mem = Tzaddi (50+40=90). Fish in the water is caught by the fish hook. Perhaps Change (Nun= Atu XIII, Death), in ballance with necessity or fix-edness (Mem= Atu XII) is mediated through invention (Tzaddi=Atu XVII; the inventive man, the philosopher, scientist, or Tzaddik).
If we take Tzaddi in full (104) and compare it to Nun in full (106), it is easy to add the prefix 'Ba' (2) to Tzaddi to get the following formula. Ba-Tzaddi = Nun, or By Fish-hook=Fish
Let's back track and look at how the letters are assigned to the trumps. First of all, the letters follow the standard order of Aleph-Tau. Secondly, we divide them into three mother letters (the 'pure' elements), 7 double letters (the planets), and 12 single letters (the zodiac). The Tarot trumps which appear to have an independent origin, are then overlayed onto the alphabet. 0 is paired with Aleph, 1 with Beth, 2 with Gimel, and so on. As has been noticed, this procedes uneventfully up till number '8', which in some older decks (the Marseilles deck) is skipped, not to the next logical path in the sequence (which would be Teth on the 19th path), but rather to Lamed on on the 22nd path. This is established in the Marsellies deck, and is the form accepted by Crowley, but undone by Waite in the Rider-Waite Tarot, and also by Mathers, if the Wang tarot is accurate. Okay, following me?
Crowley takes the 'Tzaddi is not the star' thingy and uses it to create a counterballancing 'loop in the zodiac' in order to make it symmetrical with the switch between 8 and 11. The way he does this is by taking the Emperor (which sat in the 15th path, was numbered IV and assigned to Heh) and the Star (which sat on the 28th path, was numbered XVII and assigned to Tzaddi) and just exchanging their letters. Heh is now the Star, and Tzaddi is now the Emperor.
Philosophically this changes things considerably, since it 'demotes' the demiurgic potency of the Emperor (representing masculine political power: the Temple) and grants it to 'the star', representing the reaches of infinite space.
Okay, but the problem is is that the whole operation is screwy and bungles up some very key structures in the tarot...
Firstly, the first loop was made by the 8/11 switch, which was a numerical switch, while Crowley's second switch was of letters, and NOT numbers. Crowley's switch is not an adequate counter-balance of the 8/11 situation. Secondly, it creates a sort of in-elegant system when you wish to do a pathworking from 0-XXI or XXI-0, because at a certain point the sequence of the numbers, which should run parallel to the sequence of letters, breaks. It's just not straightforward. That's not a terribly big deal, though.
Prepare for relevant aside:
Some of you know that 'Frater Achad' (Charles Stanfield Jones) is infamous for 'turning the serpent of knowledge on its head'. Which means that he took the tree of life's paths, and reversed the order of the alphabet on them. So instead of Aleph on Path 11, he placed Tau, instead of Beth on Path 12, he placed Shin, and so on...
Okay, well when we look deeper at this, we will learn something. There is a qabalistic practice called 'Athbash' which derives it's name from folding the alphabet over onto itself. Aleph + Tau (Ath), Beth + Shin (Bash). Essentially, when we look at the 22 paths of the tree of life, and assume that there are two 'currents' or sequences running through it: one goes from Aleph to Tau and the other goes from Tau to Aleph. Each letter is paired with its opposite.
As an aside, some very interesting things can be discovered this way, by taking a word, and transposing all it's letters. 'Sophia' can be changed into 'Baphomet' this way, try it out!
So we have this set up (Note that I am only using the first letter so my table lines up... if you have followed the discussion this far, and you know your Hermetic Qabalah, you shouldn't have a problem with this):
A B G D H V Z C T Y K L M N S O P T Q R S T
T S R Q T P O S N M L K Y T C Z V H D G B A
Okay. Simple. Now that every letter is paired with its opposite, we can try out a simple diagnostic method with the Tarot trump numbers. Take any two letters which are lined up vertically in the above array of letters. Determine their Trump Numbers (so Aleph and Tau are the Fool and the Universe, and the trump Numbers 0 and XXI), and add them together. Do this with all of them. Notice a pattern? In every case except one, the pairs of trumps (11 in total) will add up to 21. As it is said in 777 'the universe is the hexagram'. Well 21 is of course 7+7+7, but it is also 1+2+3+4+5+6, or the mystic sum of tipareth, and correspondingly a Magen (MGN=93) Star, or Hexagram. The result of this operation is to reduce all the paths to 11 pairs, and link each of them, as a Hexagram to Tipareth itself. For those who have the eyes to see, this formula has some power. We all know an 11 lettered word that would come in VERY handy here.
So what's the snag? It's the 8/11 switch. If you assume that Teth is 11 and Lamed is 8, then the total of the alphabetical pairs will misfire and give us 18 for the yod-lamed pair and 23 for the Teth-Nun pair. Maybe someone can spin a story around that, but it is much less elegant in general than having all the pairs total 21 (also Ehieh).
But what about the Crowley switch? Switching Heh and Tzaddi actually does NOT upset this pattern since, the two letters are paired ANYWAY.... Crowleys move was in fact, quite elegant, only done to seemingly compensate for a *blind* that shouldn't have been there in the first place. (I won't go into all the stuff that happens when justice is accorded 'II', except to say that it fulfils a Graphic link between Justice and Maat, the 'Double-wanded One': ELEVEN itself is a double wanded ONE)
So what does the Crowley switch look like if you remove the 8/11 blind?
Well, it still creates a dissymetry, but of a different sort. Because Crowley only switched the letter, rather than the numbers or zodiacal signs, if you were running the tarot sequence 0-XXI, now the signs of the zodiac would appear, in sequence, and all in order, except that Aries and Aquarius would be exchanged. For example just listing out the associations to the paths would go like this:
Air
Mercury
Moon
Venus
Aquarius**
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Jupiter
Libra
Water
Scorpio
Sagitarius
Capricorn
Aries**
Pisces
Sun
Fire/Spirit
Saturn/Earth
I have Bolded the 'single letters', so you can see how the sequence is broken by Crowley's move.
Okay, so the question then is: IS IT POSSIBLE to find a solution to 'Tzaddi is not the Star' that follows from where Crowley was going with it, but which retains the natural sequence of the zodiac and preserves the mystic pairs of 21 (Which, as I eluded to could be easily represented as Hexagrams)?
This is the way that it can be done: I realized this and then shortly after discoverd a deck that actually used this sequence. I build my own shortly after. The solution is to retain Aries in the 15th path, along with Heh, just like it is in the rider-waite deck, and also retain Tzaddi in the 28th path assigned to Aquarius. The ONLY difference is that we change the tarot glyphs themselves. Atu IV, aries is now 'The Start, and Atu XVII, Aquarius is now 'the Emperor', or more accurately, the Tzaddik. Just trade the 'pictures and titles, and then re-concieve them in their new positions. Much is learned.
Okay, I know this is a huge and detailed argument, and if I failed to express parts of it properly, Iwould be happy to try and re- articulate them for anyone who is interested. I recognize that there are some VERY few people with the necessary knowledge to follow this and see what I am trying to say, whether you agree or not, so cheers to you. It is merely the tip of the iceberg, since it is just a technical argument that actually has a lot of philosophical ramifications that I don't have time to riff off at the moment, and which in fact, I am still exploring. Suffice to say that as a Thelemite, I fall into a decidedly 'Maatian' approach to it, and this is reflected in how I compose my Qabalah. I hope this qualifies as at least 'Food for thought'. Cheers! Here is the Axil-Aion Tarot (http://www.psychicsophia.com/aion/aatarot.html), which follows the sequence I described (It was channeled quite independent from back in the early 80s (I was around 6), and which I was unaware of when I worked this thing out (in 2003)). Enjoy.
-Anibis
-Anibis
WARNING: people might not agree with this, that's cool. I am not trying convert anyone. This is an argument that I accept, and out of a desire to contribute to this thread I will present it here. It was a lot of work to write and is alot of work to read. Also, it took a lot of work to research and formulate it.
Okay... I assign Tzaddi to Atu XVII as Aquarius in the 28th path, and Heh to ATU IV as Aries in the 15th path, although I consider Atu IV to be 'the star', and XVII to be 'the man'.
Lets look at the letters:
Tzaddi (Fish-hook)= 90 or 900. Spelled in full it is Tzaddi-Daleth-Yod (104)
Mem (water) =40 or 600. Spelled in full it is Mem-Yod-Mem (90). The fish hook is matched to the waters.
Nun (fish)= 50 or 700. Spelled in full it is Nun-Vav-Nun (106).
We can do a few things here. Obviously Nun + Mem = Tzaddi (50+40=90). Fish in the water is caught by the fish hook. Perhaps Change (Nun= Atu XIII, Death), in ballance with necessity or fix-edness (Mem= Atu XII) is mediated through invention (Tzaddi=Atu XVII; the inventive man, the philosopher, scientist, or Tzaddik).
If we take Tzaddi in full (104) and compare it to Nun in full (106), it is easy to add the prefix 'Ba' (2) to Tzaddi to get the following formula. Ba-Tzaddi = Nun, or By Fish-hook=Fish
Let's back track and look at how the letters are assigned to the trumps. First of all, the letters follow the standard order of Aleph-Tau. Secondly, we divide them into three mother letters (the 'pure' elements), 7 double letters (the planets), and 12 single letters (the zodiac). The Tarot trumps which appear to have an independent origin, are then overlayed onto the alphabet. 0 is paired with Aleph, 1 with Beth, 2 with Gimel, and so on. As has been noticed, this procedes uneventfully up till number '8', which in some older decks (the Marseilles deck) is skipped, not to the next logical path in the sequence (which would be Teth on the 19th path), but rather to Lamed on on the 22nd path. This is established in the Marsellies deck, and is the form accepted by Crowley, but undone by Waite in the Rider-Waite Tarot, and also by Mathers, if the Wang tarot is accurate. Okay, following me?
Crowley takes the 'Tzaddi is not the star' thingy and uses it to create a counterballancing 'loop in the zodiac' in order to make it symmetrical with the switch between 8 and 11. The way he does this is by taking the Emperor (which sat in the 15th path, was numbered IV and assigned to Heh) and the Star (which sat on the 28th path, was numbered XVII and assigned to Tzaddi) and just exchanging their letters. Heh is now the Star, and Tzaddi is now the Emperor.
Philosophically this changes things considerably, since it 'demotes' the demiurgic potency of the Emperor (representing masculine political power: the Temple) and grants it to 'the star', representing the reaches of infinite space.
Okay, but the problem is is that the whole operation is screwy and bungles up some very key structures in the tarot...
Firstly, the first loop was made by the 8/11 switch, which was a numerical switch, while Crowley's second switch was of letters, and NOT numbers. Crowley's switch is not an adequate counter-balance of the 8/11 situation. Secondly, it creates a sort of in-elegant system when you wish to do a pathworking from 0-XXI or XXI-0, because at a certain point the sequence of the numbers, which should run parallel to the sequence of letters, breaks. It's just not straightforward. That's not a terribly big deal, though.
Prepare for relevant aside:
Some of you know that 'Frater Achad' (Charles Stanfield Jones) is infamous for 'turning the serpent of knowledge on its head'. Which means that he took the tree of life's paths, and reversed the order of the alphabet on them. So instead of Aleph on Path 11, he placed Tau, instead of Beth on Path 12, he placed Shin, and so on...
Okay, well when we look deeper at this, we will learn something. There is a qabalistic practice called 'Athbash' which derives it's name from folding the alphabet over onto itself. Aleph + Tau (Ath), Beth + Shin (Bash). Essentially, when we look at the 22 paths of the tree of life, and assume that there are two 'currents' or sequences running through it: one goes from Aleph to Tau and the other goes from Tau to Aleph. Each letter is paired with its opposite.
As an aside, some very interesting things can be discovered this way, by taking a word, and transposing all it's letters. 'Sophia' can be changed into 'Baphomet' this way, try it out!
So we have this set up (Note that I am only using the first letter so my table lines up... if you have followed the discussion this far, and you know your Hermetic Qabalah, you shouldn't have a problem with this):
A B G D H V Z C T Y K L M N S O P T Q R S T
T S R Q T P O S N M L K Y T C Z V H D G B A
Okay. Simple. Now that every letter is paired with its opposite, we can try out a simple diagnostic method with the Tarot trump numbers. Take any two letters which are lined up vertically in the above array of letters. Determine their Trump Numbers (so Aleph and Tau are the Fool and the Universe, and the trump Numbers 0 and XXI), and add them together. Do this with all of them. Notice a pattern? In every case except one, the pairs of trumps (11 in total) will add up to 21. As it is said in 777 'the universe is the hexagram'. Well 21 is of course 7+7+7, but it is also 1+2+3+4+5+6, or the mystic sum of tipareth, and correspondingly a Magen (MGN=93) Star, or Hexagram. The result of this operation is to reduce all the paths to 11 pairs, and link each of them, as a Hexagram to Tipareth itself. For those who have the eyes to see, this formula has some power. We all know an 11 lettered word that would come in VERY handy here.
So what's the snag? It's the 8/11 switch. If you assume that Teth is 11 and Lamed is 8, then the total of the alphabetical pairs will misfire and give us 18 for the yod-lamed pair and 23 for the Teth-Nun pair. Maybe someone can spin a story around that, but it is much less elegant in general than having all the pairs total 21 (also Ehieh).
But what about the Crowley switch? Switching Heh and Tzaddi actually does NOT upset this pattern since, the two letters are paired ANYWAY.... Crowleys move was in fact, quite elegant, only done to seemingly compensate for a *blind* that shouldn't have been there in the first place. (I won't go into all the stuff that happens when justice is accorded 'II', except to say that it fulfils a Graphic link between Justice and Maat, the 'Double-wanded One': ELEVEN itself is a double wanded ONE)
So what does the Crowley switch look like if you remove the 8/11 blind?
Well, it still creates a dissymetry, but of a different sort. Because Crowley only switched the letter, rather than the numbers or zodiacal signs, if you were running the tarot sequence 0-XXI, now the signs of the zodiac would appear, in sequence, and all in order, except that Aries and Aquarius would be exchanged. For example just listing out the associations to the paths would go like this:
Air
Mercury
Moon
Venus
Aquarius**
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Jupiter
Libra
Water
Scorpio
Sagitarius
Capricorn
Aries**
Pisces
Sun
Fire/Spirit
Saturn/Earth
I have Bolded the 'single letters', so you can see how the sequence is broken by Crowley's move.
Okay, so the question then is: IS IT POSSIBLE to find a solution to 'Tzaddi is not the Star' that follows from where Crowley was going with it, but which retains the natural sequence of the zodiac and preserves the mystic pairs of 21 (Which, as I eluded to could be easily represented as Hexagrams)?
This is the way that it can be done: I realized this and then shortly after discoverd a deck that actually used this sequence. I build my own shortly after. The solution is to retain Aries in the 15th path, along with Heh, just like it is in the rider-waite deck, and also retain Tzaddi in the 28th path assigned to Aquarius. The ONLY difference is that we change the tarot glyphs themselves. Atu IV, aries is now 'The Start, and Atu XVII, Aquarius is now 'the Emperor', or more accurately, the Tzaddik. Just trade the 'pictures and titles, and then re-concieve them in their new positions. Much is learned.
Okay, I know this is a huge and detailed argument, and if I failed to express parts of it properly, Iwould be happy to try and re- articulate them for anyone who is interested. I recognize that there are some VERY few people with the necessary knowledge to follow this and see what I am trying to say, whether you agree or not, so cheers to you. It is merely the tip of the iceberg, since it is just a technical argument that actually has a lot of philosophical ramifications that I don't have time to riff off at the moment, and which in fact, I am still exploring. Suffice to say that as a Thelemite, I fall into a decidedly 'Maatian' approach to it, and this is reflected in how I compose my Qabalah. I hope this qualifies as at least 'Food for thought'. Cheers! Here is the Axil-Aion Tarot (http://www.psychicsophia.com/aion/aatarot.html), which follows the sequence I described (It was channeled quite independent from back in the early 80s (I was around 6), and which I was unaware of when I worked this thing out (in 2003)). Enjoy.
-Anibis
-Anibis