Naomi
03-15-2008, 09:31 PM
I was aware of the tension in this book at certain points - there's a lot of back and forth going on like in a gunfight, ok I know, I like guns, but that's besides the point.
As I write this there are two raccoons fighting next to me on the porch. :rolleyes:
Ok ninja fight....it's like a ninja fight. Except there's a girl - Nuit, and Crowley himself, who strikes me as sort of a victimized henchman all things considered. I'm not sure what his role is in things but I have almost always considered Crowley to be a tragic figure, overwhelmed by dominating forces beyond his ability to handle. His grasp on things became more deficient as time went on, encouraged by drug abuse (use is fine, absolutely) and his spoiled brat attitude. Despite this I feel he came to really love the Book of the Law and eventually was actually attacked for writing it from various space aliens (not Nuit however spacy and alien she is, but yeah space aliens, I like that phrase) :D
I took a few minutes to skim the pages of the Hadith, the recordings of Mohammed's speech, which apparently he forbade anyone to write down - he only wanted the Quran written. If there's one thing that gets my hackles up it's the abuse of women - here's a great line from the collection:
1879. Ibn `Umar (May Allah be pleased with them) said: The Prophet (PBUH) said, "O women folk! You should give charity and be diligent in seeking Allah's forgiveness because I have seen (i.e., on the Night of the Ascension to the highest heavens) that dwellers of the Hell are women.'' A woman amongst them said: "Why is it that the majority of the dwellers of Hell are women?'' The Prophet (PBUH) replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. In spite of your lacking in wisdom and failing in religion, you are depriving the wisest of men of their intelligence.'' Upon this the woman asked: "What is the deficiency in our wisdom and in our religion?'' He (PBUH) replied, "Your lack of wisdom can be well judged from the fact that the evidence of two women is equal to that one man. You do not offer Salat (prayer) for some days and you do not fast (the whole of) Ramadan sometimes, it is a deficiency in religion.''
http://www.i-keighley.com/hadith/19/chap371.htm
(read the commentary by the modern writer in that chapter, it's pricelessly idiotic)
Whether this has anything to do with the book itself, there is an overwhelming sense of Arabic allusions in some of the lines, for example:
52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me. Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are my service; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.
Ok so I did the visualization with the book being more confrontational, and what I picked up on was something else, very powerful, everything kind of made more sense...
Here, look at this:
79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!
Now, if you think of Hadit as some kind of cockroach and Ningishzidda as a newspaper weilding patriot of freedom, you get the impression that something isn't right and alot of what has been going on with Thelema is quite possibly a bunch of creepy bullshit.
ergo, we've been going around in circles for the past five miles...
and whatever *it* is succeeded in confusing people enough that they don't even recognize the bright shining star itself....
I think line three of the book is the most important, as any witch will tell you, three is the magic number.
;)
Ok this line I don't get at all, I thought it might be Harpocrates but I'm not sure:
49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg. )
What does everyone think of the Herakles/Gilgamesh and Thebes? Herakles was said to have been born in Thebes...
p.s. I don't expect everyone to go along with my idea that the guy behind the book of the law is Ningishzidda, it's just that this really weird guy in my head calling himself Ningishzidda drug me downstairs one morning after fucking my brains out and made me read the book of the law and showed me how to open the gates to hell and heaven and a bunch of other stuff I'm really not going to get into now...
but I would encourage that viewpoint strongly
As I write this there are two raccoons fighting next to me on the porch. :rolleyes:
Ok ninja fight....it's like a ninja fight. Except there's a girl - Nuit, and Crowley himself, who strikes me as sort of a victimized henchman all things considered. I'm not sure what his role is in things but I have almost always considered Crowley to be a tragic figure, overwhelmed by dominating forces beyond his ability to handle. His grasp on things became more deficient as time went on, encouraged by drug abuse (use is fine, absolutely) and his spoiled brat attitude. Despite this I feel he came to really love the Book of the Law and eventually was actually attacked for writing it from various space aliens (not Nuit however spacy and alien she is, but yeah space aliens, I like that phrase) :D
I took a few minutes to skim the pages of the Hadith, the recordings of Mohammed's speech, which apparently he forbade anyone to write down - he only wanted the Quran written. If there's one thing that gets my hackles up it's the abuse of women - here's a great line from the collection:
1879. Ibn `Umar (May Allah be pleased with them) said: The Prophet (PBUH) said, "O women folk! You should give charity and be diligent in seeking Allah's forgiveness because I have seen (i.e., on the Night of the Ascension to the highest heavens) that dwellers of the Hell are women.'' A woman amongst them said: "Why is it that the majority of the dwellers of Hell are women?'' The Prophet (PBUH) replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. In spite of your lacking in wisdom and failing in religion, you are depriving the wisest of men of their intelligence.'' Upon this the woman asked: "What is the deficiency in our wisdom and in our religion?'' He (PBUH) replied, "Your lack of wisdom can be well judged from the fact that the evidence of two women is equal to that one man. You do not offer Salat (prayer) for some days and you do not fast (the whole of) Ramadan sometimes, it is a deficiency in religion.''
http://www.i-keighley.com/hadith/19/chap371.htm
(read the commentary by the modern writer in that chapter, it's pricelessly idiotic)
Whether this has anything to do with the book itself, there is an overwhelming sense of Arabic allusions in some of the lines, for example:
52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me. Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are my service; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.
Ok so I did the visualization with the book being more confrontational, and what I picked up on was something else, very powerful, everything kind of made more sense...
Here, look at this:
79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!
Now, if you think of Hadit as some kind of cockroach and Ningishzidda as a newspaper weilding patriot of freedom, you get the impression that something isn't right and alot of what has been going on with Thelema is quite possibly a bunch of creepy bullshit.
ergo, we've been going around in circles for the past five miles...
and whatever *it* is succeeded in confusing people enough that they don't even recognize the bright shining star itself....
I think line three of the book is the most important, as any witch will tell you, three is the magic number.
;)
Ok this line I don't get at all, I thought it might be Harpocrates but I'm not sure:
49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg. )
What does everyone think of the Herakles/Gilgamesh and Thebes? Herakles was said to have been born in Thebes...
p.s. I don't expect everyone to go along with my idea that the guy behind the book of the law is Ningishzidda, it's just that this really weird guy in my head calling himself Ningishzidda drug me downstairs one morning after fucking my brains out and made me read the book of the law and showed me how to open the gates to hell and heaven and a bunch of other stuff I'm really not going to get into now...
but I would encourage that viewpoint strongly