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talonabraxas · 4 months

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Etz Hayim “Tree of Life” Talon Abraxas

Kabbalah: The Mystical Side of Judaism

Archetypal, Intellectual–Creative, Substantial–Formative, and Physical Material, are the names on the “Secret Doctrine” p. 200 diagram for the four lower planes of the cosmos. These names do not originate with HPB or her Adept-Teachers; they are the names used in Kabbalah for the four planes, which are also called Atziloth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiah, respectively.

The Kabbalistic view of the inner constitution of the human being relates to these four “worlds” or planes, showing that “as above, so below.”

Standing transcendent and above the four, however, they place Yechidah. HPB explains that this is equivalent to Atma or Atman in the Theosophical teachings of the seven principles or components of man; pure universal Spirit, the Higher Self. (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 137)

Next in order of descent and on the same level as the Archetypal or Emanation World of Atziloth is Chaya. Despite the apparent similarity, this word is not linked with the term “Chhaya” as used in Theosophy in relation to the First Root Race; they are completely different things. The Kabbalistic Chaya is equivalent to the Theosophical Buddhi, the “Spiritual Soul” which radiates Atmic Light. (“Glossary” p. 137)

Then there is Neshamah on the Intellectual or Creative level of Briah. This equates to Higher Manas, the higher immortal Mind-Entity or Higher Ego, the reincarnating Individuality or “Human Soul” (“Glossary” p. 137) . . . but not always exclusively, for “there are the “upper” and the “lower” Neshamah (the dual Manas),” says HPB. (“Glossary” p. 348-349)

Ruach stands on the Substantial or Formative plane, i.e. Yetzirah. “Ruach” literally means “breath” or “spirit” and HPB says the term belongs properly to Buddhi-Manas. (“Glossary” p. 280) It is not used by Kabbalists in that way, however, but is described by them in a way that matches the Lower Manas, i.e. the lower mind, the personal ego-consciousness, linked with Kama, the “Animal Soul” of desires, passions, emotions.

The lowest level of consciousness is called Nefesh and belongs to Asiah, the physical or material world of action. This is equivalent to Prana, vitality or life-energy, and also Kama (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 243) and by definition relates closely to Sthula Sharira, the physical body.

Mention is also made of Tzelem, sometimes called the Tzelem Elokim. This is the Kabbalistic name for what we call the Linga Sharira, the astral body or astral double. (“Glossary” p. 348)

So there we have all the Seven Principles that Theosophy teaches compose the human being when in physical incarnation: (7) Atma, (6) Buddhi, (5) Manas (which includes the immortal Higher Manas and the mortal Lower Manas), (4) Kama, (3) Prana, (2) Linga Sharira, (1) Sthula Sharira.

According to the Jewish tradition, the 32 Paths of Wisdom concept is derived from the 32 times that the name “Elohim” is mentioned in Genesis, Chapter One.

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Sephiroth: “Elohim said:” *

Kether – “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” 1:1* Chokmah – “Let there be light” 1:3 Binah – “Let there be a firmament . . . let it divide . . .” 1:6 Gedulah – “Let the waters be gathered . . . let dry land appear . . .” 1:9 Geburah – “Let the earth put forth grass . . . etc.” 1:11 Tiphareth – “Let there be lights in the firmament . . .” 1:14 Netzach – “Let the waters swarm . . . let fowl fly . . .” 1:20 Hod – “Let the earth bring forth living creatures . . .” 1:24 Yesod – “Let us make man . . .” 1:26 Malkuth – “Be fruitful and multiply . . .” 1:28 Mothers: “Elohim made:“ Aleph – “the Firmament and divided the waters . . .” 1:7 Mem – “the two great lights . . . and the stars.” 1:16 Shin – “the beast of the earth after its kind . . .” 1:25 Doubles: “Elohim saw:“ Beth – “the light, that it was good.” 1:4 Gimel – “that it was good.” (the separation of dry land and waters) 1:10 Daleth – “that it was good” (the earth bringing forth grass, etc.) 1:12 Kaph – that it was good” (the two lights in the firmament) 1:18 Peh – “that it was good” (swarming of waters with creatures; of air with fowl) 1:21 Resh – “that it was good” (the beasts of the earth) 1:25 Tav – “every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” 1:31

Elementals: “Elohim –“

Heh – “hovered over the face of the waters.” 1:2 Vav – “divided the light from the darkness.” 1:4 Zayin – “called the light Day, and darkness Night.” 1:5 Cheth – “called the firmament Heaven.” 1:8 Teth – “called the dry land, Earth . . . and the waters, Seas.” 1:10 Yod – “set them [the two lights] in the firmament of the heaven” 1:17 Lamed – “created the sea-monsters, creatures that creep, and fowl.” 1:21 Nun – “blessed them [sea-monsters, creepers, and fowl] . . .” 1:22 Samekh – “created man in His own image.” 1:27 Ayin – “created He him; male and female created He them.” 1:27 Tzaddi – “blessed them [male and female].” 1:28 Qooph – “said: I have given you all . . .” 1:29*

*There are two exceptions to this: The first is Gen1:1, and Sephirah 1/Kether, wherein “Elohim said” is assumed. The second is Gen1:29, and Elemental 12/Qooph, wherein the focus is shifted from the “Elohim said”, to the “I have given you all . . .”

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yermes · 8 months

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PAC: 🚬

Achieving my bimbo vampire step mom aesthetic by: sleeping all day, picking up one of my besties even tho i’m so sick the sun hurts my eyes, cannot see, cannot hear so I am just playing all my shows and music on MAX volume as I slowly decay in the background. I GOT SICK AGAIN THIS TIME WITH AN EAR INFECTION 😭 and head cold. But hey theres going to be a super blue moon and a visible Saturn. What a vibe. Ruler of both Cap and Aqu it really depicts the veil which so gently divides the as above so below. It also has a great many other of Correspondences but in MY working on the 30th thats what my focus is on. To me saturn is like the collab between Bauer and Lululemon. Lets see how you as an individual represent duality in your own life.

Pick a meme

The cards

The Hierophant 🪦

Magus of the Eternal Gods, Vau, Nail

Honestly such a great card which represents both physical strength and none physical strength. As well as the macrocosm and microcosm. The microcosm which is reflected in man is just a small ecosystem of the divine which we can pick apart and associate with small aspects of the universe. Aka. Magic kinda. However with the divinity in man comes the primal in man. And while this card celebrates the divinity it reversed also represents the unorthodox vulnerable aspects of the individual. Connect the two. They do not have to be strangers.

Princess of wands 🚰

Venus in fire, firey aspect of earth, earth in the fires of aziluth, malkuth

The line between self love and self destruction is a FINE LINE and your ass is cutting it CLOSEEEEE. If you have to ask yourself: when does passion turn into arrogance. When does your zest for life make you broke asf and lead you to realize your zest may not have been so real at all but a delusion you under took for survival. When does the real and the fake collide and when do you recognize it?

The lovers 🕯️

Children of the Voice Divine, Zain, Sword

This card kinda sends me because it depicts Perseus saving Andromeda which yeah thats a cute love story. But are they in love or is that shit Stockholm syndrome. This card also has a strong connection to its opposite- the temperance. Basically big dawg love can go in any direction. You may be a stockholm syndrome delulu baddie who grows into love or it goes into disunion discord and all that ugly shit. Love can both create and destroy.

Princess of swords 🪜

Venus in air, earth in the air of Yetzirah, malkuth

Well it is human nature isn’t it? You can make and you can break and its all kind of the same when you think about it. When you put to much logic into it you almost lack that moral understanding because feelings almost cannot fit into your logical one track minded world view. While being free and creative you could also be stubborn and harsh which in time will dwindle your creativity. At your best you have many skills, talents, ideas. At your worst you are the conflict between earth and air. Insecure and at times not compatible with yourself. Open yourself up do not keep shutting yourself down.

Extras: I may have posted that extra ass thing abt piercing the veil but that is a lie I’m fr just trying to manifest some dick and get you an extra step daddy be blessed.

Tip Jar

Insta

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starlitsunday · 2 months

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hacking away at a malkuth+roland character/relationship study, designed to give poor malkuth more of a character arc than she got in ruina. you can read it as pre-ship if you wanna, i sure do.

check the tags for trigger warnings, it's a discussion of fairly canon-typical topics such as: "my boss who i had a crush on founded a cult to his dead gf and tried to get us all to drink the kool-aid"

#library of ruina #malkuth #roland lor

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illusionoftheabyss · 2 years

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Friday, 5-27-2022

Greetings. I have been researching the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn’s Ceremonial Magick Rituals lately. I have been doing the Lesser Banishing of the Pentagram Ritual quite frequently and after the Invocation of Thoth [ Mercury ] I figured that I would do some more planetary energy work.

In the LBPR, you call out to 4 Archangels, the Archangels of the Elements. You say “ In Front of me Stands Raphael” and this is the Element of Air. Then you say “Behind me Stands Gabriel”, the Element of Water. Then you say “ On My Right Hand, Michael” the Element of Fire. The “ On My Left Hand, Uriel” the Element of Earth.

I’ve been watching a lot of Damien Echols YouTube videos recently. He is an incredible man and even better magician. I was inclined to read his books, and in his book “ Angels and Archangels,” he explains so much of what is going on when you perform these Ancient Rituals. He likes to also invoke the Archangel of Kether above him, Metatron. And the Archangel of Malkuth below, Sandalphon. This adds a lot of energy to the LBRP and any other Pentagram Ritual. He included in his book, the Sigils for these 6 Archangels that I will include here:

#writers on tumblr #astrology #philosophy #magick #gnosticism #blog post #writing #hermetic philosophy #damien echols #lbrp #ritual #ritual magick #ceremonial magic #hermetic order of the golden dawn #thelema

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vanilla-cigarillos · 1 year

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Rite of the Qabalistic Cross

The Rite of the Qabalistic Cross is meant to ground you, and bring you consciously awake in the present moment. It is an active meditation which will focus and integrate someone’s whole self (mind, body, emotions, etc.) towards the ideal, balanced Higher Self. This is a High Magick Ritual (and should be respected as such) meant to remind you that you are the center of your own universe, and that your perception defines your world.

Stand West of the Altar facing East. Visualize yourself standing with the Earth beneath your feet, the planet as small as a ball between your feet. Imagine yourself continuing to grow and expand, until you are so large that entire galaxies spin around you. Visualize a ball of brilliant white light, burning like a star, directly above your head.

Raise your Athame in your right hand above your head, pointing straight up, and pierce the star with the Athame. Visualize a shaft of white light rising vertically from the star above your head to infinity.

Touch your Athame to your forehead, speaking “ATEH” (thou art - The God/dess comes to you as a point of light that bursts above your head - As Above).

Touch your Athame to your breast (tip still pointing up) and say “MALKUTH” (the Kingdom - the Kingdom is Our Great Mother Earth, Gaia. It is energy, the atom, matter, time and space, the real world where we live and die. It is our inheritance and our sanctuary - So Below).

Touch your right shoulder and say “VE-GEBURAH” (and the Power - This refers to your personal power, your physical, magickal, spiritual strength).

Touch your left shoulder and say “VE-GEDULAH” (and the Glory - This is your authority based on self-knowledge, which governs your use of power and makes it righteous).

Claps your hands before yourself and say “LE-OLAM” (for ever - You accept the karmic consequences of your past and present lives).

With your Athame between your fingers, point upwards and state “Amen” (You have taken your rightful responsibilities into your own hands).

#pagan #wicca #paganism #witch #witchcraft

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bugmeyer · 3 years

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Malkuth, Emanation of The Kingdom

The Earthly, the lowest of all the Sephirot and most grounded in comprehension.

"There is a mighty Tree and at the root of it, there is a Kingdom. So much light emanates from beyond the leaves above it. We live in the shadows of those leaves and that is how we know Malkuth."

- description of Malkuth,

Unknown

The tenth and final Emanation. Malkuth is the physical world in which we live. The domain of mankind. She is an emanation of Emanations, the culmination of the many aspects that form the Tree of Life. Everything from our bodies, to the experiences we have in them, to the world in which we exist is Malkuth. The infinite space that expands across the universe is a manifestation of her.

The boundless prismatic orb which holds all the colors of the universe.

Below the feel of the tree, the ground stretches outwards forming a base. This is the space that Malkuth exists. She is beyond just being the lowest point, she is the foundation itself. Being the thing that we experience every moment in our lives, Malkuth contrasts clearly with Keter, whose existence is marked by its total unknowability. As with all things in the tree, one mirrors the other, forming a complete continuum through which we can understand the boundaries of existence.

Found in: The earth, our bodies, a home

#malkuth #tree of life #angelarium #metatron #peter mohrbacher #angel

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hadit93 · 2 years

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The Holy Guardian Angel: My Current Perspective.

The Holy Guardian Angel is a term often thrown around in Western Mystery Traditions that is often badly defined often bathed in contradictions and misconceptions. The title of this post should be focused upon ‘my current perspective’ as your relationship with the Angel develops and your experiences broaden your perceptions and understanding changes. This is the nature of magick- it may be a science as well as an art, but even scientists have to update their theories when new data comes to light! Everything I say here is most definitely subject to change.

1) The Angel is not ‘an angel’ it is ‘The Angel’.

I used to believe my Holy Guardian Angel was an angel that was already established. For example Raphael or Auriel, I believed the Angel was a being tied to me but also would be found within other belief systems. Ironically it has been my experience that the Angel can appear in this manner. It can use a name and a form which is conducive to our aesthetics when it comes to magick. But this is a mere mask, an image of an image. It is not the true nature of the Angel but a reflection, a refraction of its name and image.

2) The Angel is the Self.......but the Self is complicated.

Aleister Crowley once wrote that the HGA is the higher self and then famously disagreed with himself later in life. I believe the HGA is the higher self in the sense that the Self is in fact a spark of God and that reality is an illusion and a manifestation of Nuit which is the Qabalistic triple veil of negative existence. You, me, Raphael, Hekate and every other being is a part of this Self. The Self is God head in which unity is achieved. The Angel is the Self in this context.

In the Thelemic system the Vision of the HGA is attained at the Neophyte grade assigned to Malkuth. Later on, the Knowledge and Conversation, union, of the HGA is attained in Tiphareth, Later on all is abandoned at the gate of the abyss before another type of union is attained. I won’t pretend to have achieved these later stages. Indeed I have not attained knowledge and conversation. But bear with me as I go through what I believe the Angel is.

I believe the Angel is Nuit, or at least a reflection of Nuit which is the total potentiality of manifestation. It is the entire Tree of Life and is thus a manifestation of the void from which the tree emerged. The ‘Angel’ is an image, an interface, a state of being in which we can connect with the divine. It is where we can interact with God. The Angel takes the form of God, of course God takes the form of Angels for those people who cannot make icons of their God, for a Pagan it could take the form of any God or Goddess. At least at first, later on you will probably find a form and a name more relevant to you. The name and form of the Angel is your personal reception of the Logos- the word of God and the formula of your existence.

So below the abyss the Angel is indeed a separate being, above the abyss and beyond Kether things certainly get more complicated!

3) Knowledge and Conversation is not simple seeing and communicating.

In the Thelemic system knowledge and conversation establishes an adept into the sphere of Tiphareth. The vision of the HGA occurs really early, usually at the beginning of the Neophyte phase. Sometimes as early as probationer. The vision of the HGA is not the same as Knowledge and Conversation. A neophyte can communicate with the Angel. It develops and changes over time. It gets richer, sometimes it fades to the background. But it is always there once established. It is sort of like an underlying current which is often synonymous with my view of True Will- but that is a post for another time!

Knowledge and Conversation refers to biblical knowledge and conversation which implies sexual union. The Adept literally bonds themselves to the Holy Guardian Angel, they are able to access the state of being, the state of union, and the understanding at an Adeptus context at Will. It requires no effort. Once the marriage occurs there can be no mistaking it, there is no doubt left and the state of union, the communication, the current of the Angel can be accessed at will.

4) Life is still hard and you are still human after the Angel.

Many people seem to think life becomes structured and ordered and that challenges will not arise after the Angel. This is not the case. Once you are married to the Angel you will truly be an incarnation of the Angel’s Will which is what the True Will really is. You should be able to follow your Will and avoid many potential conflicts and challenges. But you do not control the Will of other people. Some, if not most, people do not follow their Will, they will conflict with yours still. Challenges will still arise usually due to the influence of other people. You should be in a better position to recognise this and overcome them, but sometimes the best thing is to walk away and become a hermit. Furthermore it is likely people will begin to hate you, detest you, see you as different. Because you are. You are still human but you are a different kind of human, marked with the flame of the divine. Mystics are rarely praised in all corners of the Earth.

5) There is no set method for establishing contact.

Many people perform the Abramelin for 6 or 18 months and believe this is the only method and you should have no contact with the Angel prior to this. I humbly disagree. The Angel is always there, other magical work particularly astral work will highlight the Angels current. Furthermore once you open yourself to the astral your dreams will also be more informed by the Angel’s current. The courtship can start then. In time the Angel will direct you to resources you can use to fashion a personal invocation suitable only for you. Some traditional methods are the Abramelin ritual, Liber 8, Liber Samekh, Stele of Jeu (the original headless rite), and simple prayer.

You can dress it all up however you want, however your personal aesthetics direct you to do so. But Crowley was spot on when he said the key is to “enflame thyself in prayer”. The ritual should inspire such devotion, such fervour, that kundalini rises naturally, that your entire being is inspired to ascend to the height of the Angel. The Angel should be the only thing you are concerned with, your only focus. Your true love. But more than this you also need to be able to yield. To wait, to allow the Angel’s presence to descend. You need to be able to accept the presence. As magician’s we like to take the active role, but this is a mystical experience and I would argue the receptive role is far more important.

I don’t believe this is an operation that should be undertaken over 6 months. I know people have done this, but a lot of them have messed their lives up doing it. I think the operation worked, but the lack of growth already present means that the operation, the Angel, the universe has to cause spiritual maturity in a short period of time. This means it has to fuck you up a little! Whereas if you cultivate the relationship slowly and over the course of years, your life will have already changed. You will have matured, you will have grown and the effects of this growth have been spread out and have been gentle. The marriage is a culmination not a beginning in my view.

These are my thoughts as I currently understand them and they are most definitely subject to change. Years ago I would have disagreed with all of these points, but in time I have come to see the truth you think you know is never THE TRUTH and I believe we all fall into the traps of false dichotomy when in fact the Angel is most definitely more of a holistic experience.

#holy guardian angel #hga #Abramelin #Crowley #Samekh #Magick #Thelema #Occult #Ritual Magick #Western Mystery Tradition.

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togglesbloggle · 3 years

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A Kabbalistic Analysis of Scott's New Blog

As one might expect from a writer of Scott’s caliber, the kabbalistic forms in the new blog begin right with the name, “Astral Codex Ten”. The starting point is so obvious as to be almost textual, perhaps as a pedagogical device aimed at helping jumpstart the efforts of those (like myself) less familiar with the art. We begin with the ten sephirot, of course- surely an ‘astral codex’ if ever there was one. But already we see two possible interpretations, both true: first, that of the tenth sephirot in particular, and second, that of the sephirot *as a whole*, as in ‘the witches three’.

Let us begin with the tenth sephirot, Malkuth. This is considered the lowest of all sephirot, most separated from the divine whole. It is the Earth and the Kingdom, both complementary to and opposite from Keter, the Crown. Unlike all other sephirot, it is not an emanation of God, but rather, of God’s creation- the material world itself. Thus, Astral Codex Ten is a thing *from* the world, complementary and opposite to other ‘astral codexes’, i.e. scripture.

Malkuth is also strongly associated with royalty and law. Just as the Crown is where the law ‘comes from’, the Kingdom is what the law ‘is made of’; Aristotle might call Malkuth the ‘material’ cause of law just as Keter is its agentic’ cause. Compare to Scott’s own description of his writing:

Ṛta is a Sanskrit word, so ancient that it brushes up against the origin of Indo-European languages. It's related to English "rationality" and "arithmetic", but also "art" and "harmony". And "right", both in the senses of "natural rights" and "the right answer". And "order". And "arete" and "aristos" and all those other Greek words about morality. And "artificial", as in eg artificial intelligence. More speculatively "reign" and related words about rulership, and "rich" and related words about money.... The dictionary defines ṛta as "order", "truth", or "rule", but I think of it as the intersection of all these concepts, a sort of hidden node at the center of art and harmony and rationality and the rest. What are the laws of thought? How do they reveal themselves, at every level, from the flow of electricity through the brain to the flow of money through the global economy? How can we cleave to them more closely, for our own good and the good of generations still to come?

(This block of text is, of course, wholly redundant with the blog’s url; I assume that it is placed here again for pedagogical purposes, as an allowance for readers like myself who are less astute.)

But we do find confirmation throughout the blog that the plural reading of ‘astral codex ten’ is equally important, even though the blog is just beginning. The subscription price is ten dollars per month; a yearly subscription is $100, or ten squared up on itself, emphasizing the self-descriptive nature of the universe: “as above, so below”. Just as each individual sephirot contains the whole, so does each payment of ten dollars contain a further ten, and Astral Codex Ten is both ‘the tenth’ and ‘the ten’. Further, the Tree of Life has 22 lines connecting each of its nodes; in a nod to this, Scott opened the new blog on 1/21. (Here he’s separating the single connection between Malkuth and Yesod, from the more densely interconnected sections of the Tree above. An important reminder, and another one of Scott’s nice pedagogical touches.)

Comparisons to the previous blog, “Slate Star Codex”, are of course inevitable and proper. We notice immediately that only one out of three words from the original were preserved, no more, no less. One must immediately recall the rebellion of Lucifer, in which one third of the angelic host was defeated and fell to Earth. Scott contended against the great powers, and was banished. More interestingly, both ‘slate’ and ‘star’ were lost, evoking the earth and the heavens. Astute readers may object to an apparent contradiction between this failure of ‘slate’ with the higher associations of Malkuth with the Earth. However, on closer inspection this may be easily resolved. Just as Satan fell ‘to’ Earth, but was given the domain of Hell ‘under’ the Earth, so did Scott find his own kingdom in the website ‘substack’, the place below. Thus, the new blog is both sovereign and subaltern, passing both through the sky and the ground, until only the codex itself remains. Just as Lucifer Morningstar lost his heavenly status but not his origins, Scott’s kingdom-in-exile is ‘astral’ in nature, but no longer a ‘star’ as such. (Note also the 14 characters in both names, numerologically associated with chaos, freedom, and sensual pleasures, further echoing Luciferian themes.)

Naively, one might abbreviate Astral Codex Ten as “ACT”, a powerful acronym associated with both social reform and intellectual pursuits: ACT UP was a revolutionary anti-AIDS organization famous for effective protests and directing public attention to HIV treatment and research, just as the ACTs are a standardized exam for students in the United States. Accordingly, one might certainly see the blog as germinating a politically and socially consequential movement of public intellectuals, using the subject of ‘Ṛta’ to catalyze potentially wide-ranging cultural change.

However, Scott himself apparently prefers the abbreviation “ACX”. Kabbalistic analysis here is more subtle. The ‘X’ here, remember, is not English, but a Roman numeral inherited from more ancient empires, emphasizing continuity and inheritance just as “ACT” echoes rebellion and intellectualism. And though Rome is also known for its fall, it is also itself a symbol of law and powerful rulership, directing our attention even more to the monarchical associations with the tenth sephiroit. Once again, we see that although Astral Codex Ten may immediately seem to be in active defiance against earthly powers, deeper readings show fidelity to longer histories and higher truths.

Looking deeper still, we notice that the ‘X’ of “ACX” may not be solely an ‘X’ in the roman alphabet; it is the closest available representation of the Hebrew aleph, ℵ. In Hebrew, we read right-to-left; in English, left to right, and so “ACX” begins with the Alpha/Aleph in both modern English and ancient Hebrew readings. ℵ is also a symbol used by mathematicians to denote precisely understood infinities, most notably in the continuum hypothesis. It is a double-beginning, the Codex flanked by eternity on either side, every Omega revealed to be just another Alpha waiting to enter the world.

None of this is a coincidence, because there are no coincidences.

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moontheoretist · 3 years

Link

This video inspired some thoughts and I needed to share them.

So, when Ashikai showed Mora and Paimon next to each other, my brain went in full overdrive and asked a question “Why tricetra on both of them isn't the friggin same?”. And then there was a rabbit hole, because of their other videos.

I watched some of Ashikai’s videos, which inspired this. So let’s go.

Remember that according to Genshin lore, there were civilizations underground? This whole "above and below" made me think about Teyvat being above and Abyss Kingdoms being below and when Ashikai showed Mora it actually made sense, a lot of ruins in Teyvat have that symbol, but I don't remember now if all of them have the version on the Mora, and I am bringing it up only because, Paimon's symbol... is the inverted one. And it made me think that inverted one is representing Abyss, while the one on Mora is representing Teyvat which is above Abyss... apparently. And then another deep dive happened.

I am constantly plagued by the question “WHO THE HECK PAIMON IS?”, because her clothes have the same design as the pillars in the loading screen, and she has A CROWN (irminsul crown maybe? dunno at this point how they even look like, I considered her to be a potential Priest which was sent to the below by people who lived once on Dragonspine) and tricetra on her clothes, and it makes me associate her BOTH with Heavens (loading screen, possibly true Celestia, as the island seems to be called that, but actually isn't where Vanessa goes when she ascends to the Heavens, because she goes to those goddamn huge pillars in loading screen which some of them have DOORS and look like prisons, and tbh it looked as if she was punished, not rewarded, just saying, that looked super friggin sus, and they turned her into a bird) and Abyss.

I theorized that Heavens and leylines are related to each other, that possibly leylines not only revitalize the earth, but also the Heavens, and then Paimon being a being with symbols of BOTH makes more sense. Then those blue lines on the tablet itself can be possibly the leylines itself, connecting everything in Genshin world, the sky, the Heavens, the Teyvat (above) and Abyss (below) in big HUGE circulatory system of energy which sustains Heavens primary and that's why Tsaritsa wants to rebel. Because not only Heavens sank the civilization which learned to use that energy, but also they had an agenda to do it, because it sustains them. It would basically play into the idea that Celestia is evil, because it basically feeds off the world and doesn't want anybody to know how as well. Tsaritsa's faction is usually referred to as information gatherers, so I would not be surprised if they actually discovered something damning about the world just like we do when we read codexes, weapon descriptions and slowly unravel the intrigue inside this world (the frostbearerer tree wants revenge I wonder on whom and why it wants it? *looks at the Heavens*).

And now let's go to the owl.

Why the owl is visible only on below one, while the above one is inverted? Well, I think the below one is supposed to represent the civilizations lost and the above is either representing Heavens itself looking at the world below with the wisdom or the Archons. It would make sense that on the above tablet wisdom doesn't look like wisdom for the people of Teyvat, but it does for Archons and Celestia who are of the Heavens. And then thanks to Ashikai breaking the tree of life into three triads I want to point out that you can also make a triad from Hod, Netzach and Malkuth with Yesod in the center, and it looks STUNNINGLY LIKE THE TRICETRA ON PAIMON'S CLOTHES. And because Ashikai mentioned "child of wisdom" my brain screamed and decided that well, Paimon looks like a baby a lot and Inazuma plot even makes that reach, so... yeah. Paimon is definitely related to the creation of the world, to the pearl and the snake.

#genshin impact #genshin impact game #genshin impact theory #ashikai #ashikai inspired this

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incarnateirony · 4 years

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15.11 and moving forward

Some of you may have seen my Putrefied in Purgatory video surrounding 15.09. Putrefaction is the reduction of a material to its barest state for a new foundation, rotting away to the alchemical Blackened state to rebuild on new stages of whitening (which seemed to crest in 15.10 for Dean), then yellowing and reddening en route, though for completion there's other stages ahead of us (as per what I lended towards in Philosopher's Gold, also 15.09 video.)

But I think what I need to do is discuss the tree.

SO MOVING FORWARD, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN ALCHEMY AND QABBALAH SPN LAND. GLAD YOU ASKED, NOBODY.

I *AM* gonna need you to bear with me right now, because I’m about to data-dump out a bunch of information and then go back over and explain how this is connecting to what Andrew Fucking Dabb and company are doing actively, episode by episode. If you don’t get it on first read, that’s fine, once I start putting it in terms and concepts and show stuff you get, scroll back and re-digest in frame.

Okay so, let’s drop some points. You may have remembered me making early videos of Belphegor as the ruler of Thagirion after 15.01 (x) and later, one called Worthy of Love for Tiphareth (x), but not before he who blocks and hampers the heart guides walked them through flames they were not yet ready to access (x), causing an unlevel involution between the Three Principles with Castiel reaching a reddening while Dean sat in darkness and Sam struggled to maintain his own light.

This is going to become very important to my babbling, but the concept is that there is a nega/void/blockage version of the tree that has “evil” versions of each node. Tiphareth’s shadow is Thagirion. Tiphareth is the essence of love, true and genuine. It dominates the heart chakra, and its disputer, Belphegor, the blocker, is he who does not believe in love and observes marriages for dissent and further aggitates the blockage in the path. Sound familiar?

This Sephira is in some respects the most important of all. It is the centre of the whole system; it is the only Sephira below the Abyss which communicates directly with Kether. (Think crown/godhead/source -- white node #1) It is fed directly from Chokmah and Binah; also from Chesed and Geburah. (I’ll... get into these another time, they’re a higher segment) It is thus admirably fitted to dominate the lower Sephiroth; it is balanced both vertically and horizontally. In the planetary system it represents the Sun; in the system of Tetragrammaton it represents the Son. In other words, the Son is an interpretation of the Father in terms of the Mind. [Tiphareth is] thus representative of [the four] elements at their practical best. (Book of Thoth, p.181)

You don’t say. (vaguely screams into fist about who and what the Mind is and who and what the Father in this Aeon is)

Soft Husband Gaze Dot Gif not found in tumblr search so I’ma nab and tag another by @starsmish

Dean and Cas’ blowout over Jack, “you’re dead to me”, was over Cas knowing something was wrong with Jack, and not telling them, and Dean’s anger leading to distrust.

That was putrefied in purgatory, everything laid bare. And while they haven’t had their heart to heart yet (that big good omens energy shot is probably from 12, a bobocuda episode like The Future was), here–

Cas already had his gasping, shocked, clutched reunion with the son. Sam came home and gave a squeeze too.

But Dean walked up, put a hand behind his son’s neck, stared deeply into his eyes to see if it was him. And, as if doubting himself, looked to his somber husband, who silently communicated and affirmed it, and Dean knew, and trusted, and believed, and their son was home.

Someone launch me to jupiter please

oh wait neverfuckingmind, Dabb and co are working on that shortly.

Tiphareth, the heart, is the central vein, the power between godhood and the terrestrial earth as manifest in Malkuth.

I had pointed out the choice taste in Dean emerging from black in a white suit to look into yellow light and past red drapes in 15.10 and that Dean seemed to be approaching his whitening, but that’s even truer now.

The phases I speak of bear relevance to these.

Just--humor me and see earth as the blackened base from the human perspective, even if the blackened base of the Shadow of Man lies beneath the Ain Soph (which I’ll show some inverted trees for later). I’ve spoken of lunar light in regards to the whitening before, and it even rose in my Reflection video about crucifying the ego before it was too late (x) (please mind the video was made a year ago now based on hermetic pattern spec) “The moon gives me her secret, a confidant; as full and bright as I am, this light is not my own and a million light reflections pass over me.”

(aside re: crucifying the ego, it’s about removing the blackened snake of our unrefined parts of the self, similar to putrefaction, so a step we just crossed)

In alchemy, albedo is one of the four major stages of the magnum opus, along with nigredo, citrinitas/xanthosis and rubedo. It is a Latinicized term meaning "whiteness". Following the chaos or massa confusa of the nigredo stage, the alchemist undertakes a purification or rectification in albedo, which is literally referred to as ablutio or absolution – the washing away of impurities. This phase is concerned with "bringing light and clarity to the prima materia (personal material)". But the transmutational state is ... well.

“The whitening phase is ruled by the moon and as such is reflective, in that it does not have its own light. The maturation of the whitening happens via reflection and is often described as mirroring. The reflective processes, of thinking and feeling, dominate the direct experiences of intuition, sensation and imagination. Knowledge is King, and Mystery is banished by the whitening ego's searchlight. Perfection is idealised, and imperfection seen as weakness. Immediate gratification is expected. Nothing is allowed to mature. Lacking true wisdom, we are children in adult's bodies. Our leaders lack the vision to see the real problems, and the guts to really change things.

“The first main goal of the process... highly prized by many alchemists... is the silver or moon condition, which still has to be raised to the sun condition. The albedo [whitening], is so to speak, the daybreak, but not till the rubedo [reddening] is it sunrise. The transition to the rubedo is formed by the citrinitas [yellowing], though this, as we said, was omitted later.” (x)

Now let’s take a look at how that applies to Yesod in the middle pillar, above Malkuth, both of which gain power from light *elsewhere* -- that is, Tiphareth.

Of Yesod:

“After the double excursion into misfortune, (Hod and Netzach) the current returns to the middle pillar. This Sephira is the seat of the great crystallization of Energy. But it takes place very far down the Tree, at the apex of the third descending triangle, and a flat triangle at that. There is little help from low, unbalanced spheres like Netzach and Hod. What saves Yesod is the direct ray from Tiphareth; this Sephira is in the direct line of succession. (Book of Thoth) “

Yesod is that subtle basis upon which the physical world is based....It is the Astral Plane, which in one sense being passive and reflecting energies from above is lunar, even as the moon reflects the light of the sun. The Astral Light is an omnipresent and all-permeating fluid or medium of extremely subtle matter; substance in a highly tenuous state, electric and magnetic in constitution, which is the model upon which the physical world is built. It is the endless, changeless, ebb and flow of the world's forces that, in the last resort, guarantee the stability of the world and provides its foundation. [...] The general conception of Yesod is of change with stability. (Regardie, 1994)

So let’s take a quick aside on that double journey into instability in Hod and netzach, and I’ll leave everyone to think of how this correlates now.

The position of Netzach is doubly unbalanced; off the middle pillar, and very low down on the Tree. It is taking a very great risk to descend so far into illusion, and, above all, to do it by frantic struggle. Netzach pertains to Venus...and the greatest catastrophe that can befall Venus is to lose her Heavenly origin. (Book of Thoth, p.182)

The sphere of Hod represents on a very much lower plane similar qualities to those obtaining in Chokmah. It is the lower plane, first primitive version of union and sharing between the divine masculine and feminine (SPN video recs [x], [x] ) as mirrored to Netzach’s above details.

So we’ve got... lesser unions *scrolls over 15.9* cast down Mark wedding, check, from a blackened putrified base of Malkuth not yet even fully acquiring its own awareness of reflected light in Yesod or Albedo. 15.10 Dean does seem to start gaining some sense of light and dream, if reflected off of imaginings of others while coming out from behind the curtain *checks* but it’s not fully manifest yet. Now the heroes struggle through descending into illusion and frantic struggle, questioning all they know in existence, or their “luck”. *checks*

Now, Fortuna tells our heroes a good deal of what we knew they needed to hear. In the end it really isn’t about their luck. Heroes aren’t extinct, but it’s not about playing god’s game, it’s about playing their own. The divine feminine told them the secrets of the gods and, in a way, it is the steps towards mastering their human sovereignty.

Notice the lunar card path lending towards the lunar Yesod node, for example, even using arcana -- given this is Grey’s system, there’s a few others.

Uh, ignore the given card/highlighted path for now, that’s there for reasons you may recognize that I’ll bang on about elsewhere.(Aeon, for the record, is basically the same as Judgement and World=Universe, and Lust=Strength different naming system -- you’ll notice the second names on the first chart apply here, though in a matter of descending vs ascending. A few are different; and I’m not gonna pledge up and down which version Dabb is using, so I’m more going to take the raw idea that works across multiple models)

In the interim -- and defaulting back to Tiphareth after following the path of the Sun through Art, towards the philosopher’s stone of unabridged love, marriage, the sun and the son, the moon reflects the light of the sun, the Rising Sun, albeit not yet back to its proper reddening -- the yellow familial light I’ve banged on about in this show, even beyond our romantic pairings. The sun had been lost and the family and the three principles fell into chaos, needing to rebuild. And yet, as Castiel brings home Jack, we see the growth even in these few episodes:

With pain and distrust betrayed in purgatory, over having failed to communicate issues with Jack, once everything was laid bare and rotten to base to rebuild in Purgatory, Dean looked to Castiel after doubting himself staring into Jack’s eyes to know if their son was truly home, and by a look, he knew, and accepted, and as weighty as it was, that family was complete.

Back to Tiphareth as the four elements in harmony, we have our future playing field here.

I will tap back to Hod reflecting Chokmah though, at a lesser value, by citing some points of Chokmah: “male creative energy, wisdom and the expression of a single idea in terms of duality. It transmits the idea of the divine unity to its feminine counterpart, the understanding, somewhat as a man transmits the essence of his character to his wife so that he perceives his inmost nature, itself unintelligible to him directly, by observing the flowering of that essence in his son. “

Cough. blossom.

Anyway,

the yellowing is upon them all now, in actual harmony, with the return of the sun by which to reflect their light in Yesod, but furthermore, to step forward.

Hm. What saves Yesod is the direct ray from Tiphareth.

Their su/on. Is home. And the yellow light, if faint at first, as they come to speak, has returned, lingering between them. The yellowing itself comes from moving into a form of being where one’s own soul is less a reflected light of the grand scheme of things and one’s own personal, generated light, and that is landing upon us shortly.

To like, fully break down this path shit I’d have to go full like alchemical sermon here, but I’m more trying to map out just how artistically rendered this show is using these paths.

So where do we go now? The crown, Kether, is our goal. But we’re not ready to Priestess rocket straight that direction, as much as there’s still a strong overshadow of Kether upon them, even if the Star’s light descending leads towards hope.

But we’ve left the primitive base triangle now. Geburah and Chesed await.

Geburah:

The introduction of the number Five shows the idea of motion coming to the aid of that of matter...The result is a complete upset of the statically stabilized system. Now appear storm and stress. (The Book of Thoth, p.180)

Despite the fact that Geburah is a feminine potency, as are all Sephiros [sic] on the left-hand column of the Tree, practically all its attributions are male and vigorous...This is not confusion of thought, but a recognition of the necessity for equilibrium." (Regardie, 1994)

Geburah represents on a much lower plane the Sakti force-element attributed to Binah. (Regardie, 1994)

The quality of Geburah is summed up in the general idea of strength and power and force. Its card based attributions are strife, disappointment, defeat, and worry. That which the heart must overcome with strength.

Chesed:

Lots of crazy mystic math involved but summarily Righteousness, Mercy, and Love, combining seemingly diverse ideas.

"below the Abyss"; therefore, in practice, it means solidification, materialization. Things have become manifest. The essential point is that it expresses the Rule of Law...The manifestation promised by Binah has now taken place. Chesed...is the highest idea which can be understood in an intellectual way. (The Book of Thoth).

These are given to travel to Chokmah (which I’ve noted already) and Binah “For she is omniform as Love and as Death, the Great Sea whence all Life springs, and whose black womb reabsorbs all. She thus resumes in herself the duplex process of the Formula of Love under Will" (Little Esssays Towards Truth, "Love") - planetary association Saturn, so you may.. *gestures back at other videos* (x)

Like... Rowena’s Reverse Womb Symbolism Dot Jaypeg, “Death is an infinite vessel.” (reminder drop x)

“In short, Binah is the substantive vehicle of every possible phenomenon, physical or mental” (Regardie, 1994)

opposite chokmah, as above mentioned in the masculine presence of the union to meet the godhead.

These lovers must still walk different paths for a time, but will meet across the void of hidden knowledge before standing at the crown, if only after facing their strife and personal strength, taking the understanding of the moon and fortuna, to not play another’s game, to blossom into holding one’s own light along with completion in the family unit, and to find wisdom in the hidden things between them, by which the aged hermit, the hierophant, he who held the unofficiated wedding’s gold, the incomplete, lesser manifestation at Hod, and formerly cast it down -- as his foundation to approach the crown.

At more immediate, Netzach is also led forward by Fortune or Fortuna towards Chesed. The Hermit, a role Sam has heavily embodied on his Hierophant path, crosses from Tiphareth. As the one that impressed Fortuna, Sam is likely the one to hold the torch of her words right now, and figure out how to make Chuck play their game. Whereas Hod travels the road of the Hanged Man, each to find their strength sourced upward from Tiphareth, the heart, the sun, the son, the marriage, the family light, the yellowing, with adjustment through Tiphareth removing some of the pillar of severity and the hanged man road ahead of the struggling, still separated union.

Death descends from Binah to Geburah, enacting her volatile change and meeting the path of the hanged man, empowered by heart and adjustment; the hierophant will meet and become the hermit at Chesed. The path of the united lovers is an inevitability in any system rising from the heart towards the path of the hanged man in affiliation with the divine feminine, death's forces included; and the hierophant enacts the emperor on way to the divine masculine. The Emperor and Empress' marriage will end up being the fundament by which to face that final triangle of upper creation.

For those of you who remember me banging on about Art/Temperance versus Lovers arcana all goddamn hiatus, enjoy seeing them spawn out of Tiphareth there.

Here the red eagle and white lion commune and share in their parts, for the restoration of the golden orphic (x) child and great work under the hands of the Hierophant against the pillars of overseeing divine fem/masc (here represented in Adam and Lilith, other versions Adam and Eve)

Just... honestly just read this (x) if you want to know more about how each of these elementson those cards correspond to the above paths.

So I guess this is a really long magical way of shipper Sam is gonna have to get these two knuckleheads cosmically married and complete before standing as the godman and subverting the allfather with the rebirth of the heart and their su/on. And hopefully not have Eileen recreate the Rowena thing on the way. Or Cas for that matter.

The complete deconstruction of the lovers in purgatory was necessary, having been in the cursed and evil, inverted tree and blocked at Tiphareth. Now we can build forward in light and knowledge and the sovereign journey of man, even if it has its pitfalls and misfortunes. The Empress’ marriage to the Emperor makes foundation for the Fool (which isn’t what it sounds like) and the Magician’s completed work, finalizing the top triangle of unity to complete their magnum opus against god. Man created the gods, and are to soon prove themselves the equal of him.

And that’s my rambling because I suck at teaching this shit.

*nervous chuckling for potential ways for Castiel’s deal to work out right now*

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talonabraxas · 3 months

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The Kabbalistic view of the inner constitution of the human being relates to these four “worlds” or planes, showing that “as above, so below.”

Etz Hayim “Tree of Life” Talon Abraxas

According to the Jewish tradition, the 32 Paths of Wisdom concept is derived from the 32 times that the name “Elohim” is mentioned in Genesis, Chapter One. — Sephiroth: “Elohim said:” *

Kether – “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” 1:1* Chokmah – “Let there be light” 1:3 Binah – “Let there be a firmament … let it divide …” 1:6 Gedulah – “Let the waters be gathered … let dry land appear …” 1:9 Geburah – “Let the earth put forth grass … etc.” 1:11 Tiphareth – “Let there be lights in the firmament …” 1:14 Netzach – “Let the waters swarm … let fowl fly …” 1:20 Hod – “Let the earth bring forth living creatures …” 1:24 Yesod – “Let us make man …” 1:26 Malkuth – “Be fruitful and multiply …” 1:28 Mothers: “Elohim made:“ Aleph – “the Firmament and divided the waters …” 1:7 Mem – “the two great lights … and the stars.” 1:16 Shin – “the beast of the earth after its kind …” 1:25 Doubles: “Elohim saw:“ Beth – “the light, that it was good.” 1:4 Gimel – “that it was good.” (the separation of dry land and waters) 1:10 Daleth – “that it was good” (the earth bringing forth grass, etc.) 1:12 Kaph – that it was good” (the two lights in the firmament) 1:18 Peh – “that it was good” (swarming of waters with creatures; of air with fowl) 1:21 Resh – “that it was good” (the beasts of the earth) 1:25 Tav – “every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” 1:31

Elementals: “Elohim –“

Heh – “hovered over the face of the waters.” 1:2 Vav – “divided the light from the darkness.” 1:4 Zayin – “called the light Day, and darkness Night.” 1:5 Cheth – “called the firmament Heaven.” 1:8 Teth – “called the dry land, Earth … and the waters, Seas.” 1:10 Yod – “set them [the two lights] in the firmament of the heaven” 1:17 Lamed – “created the sea-monsters, creatures that creep, and fowl.” 1:21 Nun – “blessed them [sea-monsters, creepers, and fowl] …” 1:22 Samekh – “created man in His own image.” 1:27 Ayin – “created He him; male and female created He them.” 1:27 Tzaddi – “blessed them [male and female].” 1:28 Qooph – “said: I have given you all …” 1:29*

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yermes · 10 months

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PAC 🍸:

I spent all day looming with 2% brain capacity. Literally just unwell gloomy tired. I was sitting feeling everything spiral away from me as I do my shitty ass chores and contemplating my current predicament. Anyways turns out my mid day spiral was because I was HANGRY. But anyways I have been looking into feminine aspects in relation to shadow work here are some ways divine femininity manifests within us.

Pick a meme

Pick up a card

King of cups (reversed) 🦟

Prince of the Chariot of waters, air aspect of water, 20° Libra to 20° Scorpio, Tiphareth, Vau

Artistically untrustworthy or so one may say. This card brings a type of intensity that the girlies don’t really like. But thats fine. As they baddies say and as one of the only universal laws I resonate with the most: as above so below. While the divine feminine aspect that may pertain to yourself may seem “undesirable” those aspects are just as deserving of love as the undesirable aspects. Just as there is a place for good there is also a place for evil. If you can even call those things that. Do not classify yourself as good or bad just simply be.

Eight of wands (reversed) 🕷️

Lord of Swiftness, Mercury in Sagittarius, 1°–10°. Angels Nithahiah and Haayah, Hod

You are claiming something in a clear yet sly way. The high mercury representation represents the swift cunning acts of the god and his desire to lie cheat and steal to get what he wants. AGAIN while this may seem as if it is manifesting in a “undesirable” way yet it needs to be embraced as much as the desirable ones. These cards are fr just saying is all y’all know is: McDonalds, Charge they phone, twerk, be bisexual, eat hotchip and lie.

Knight of cups 🦂

21° Aquarius 20° Pisces, Fire in the waters of Briah, Chokmah

The contrast in the balance which brings a type of instability to shift from extreme to extreme. While the warm waters may be exciting and inviting. Like a nice warm healing spring. It can also boil. This card represents how it can manifest in both extremes and be a healing agent and also a extreme force of nature.

Ruin 🪰

Sun 3. Gemini, Malkuth through air, ten of swords

I love this card because EVERY BAD BITCH I KNOW HAS READ THE PASSION ACCORDING TO CIXIOUS. Basically I see this card as genesis and how due to divine femininity human beings we’re actually able to gain divine consciousness. Yes I get the argument you need all sides but genesis itself is a representation of how femininity brought divinity and human consciousness. Also note how most deities of magic are usually depicted as women. This card represents when human intellect takes a final step. Bite that apple sezy lady. While with the nine of cups in the back fighting brings destruction. However with the sun above we are able to see that we can reach a beginning yet again and start that cycle yet again. Embrace that divinity queen save some for the rest of us.

#suitlifeofgerm #askgerm #pick a card #daily card #pick a picture #magic #shadow work #pac #tarotoftheday #cartomancy #divination #im so so sleepy #please send thots and prayers i am laying in bed like a sickly victorian child

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alarawriting · 4 years

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Inktober 2020 #2: Wisp

“I don’t know what it is,” the ghost exorcist said, “but it is definitely not a ghost.”

Mark had already sent a couple of his demons to check the entity out. They hadn’t reported back yet, which meant it wasn’t a ghost… ghosts were easy to identify. He knew nothing had happened to the demons; they were just having difficulty figuring out what the thing was, as far as he could tell.

“I feel you,” he said, agreeing. “I’m guessing you ruled out psychokinesis as well?”

Melvin Farber, the best ghost hunter Mark knew, nodded. “Nothing’s being thrown around. Nothing’s breaking mysteriously. The family just sees a wisp, a vaguely human shape in shadows, and then it’s gone. But…” He shook his head. “Normally, if you’ve got a ghost, you can command them with the names of God, and if you’ve got a psychometric projection or a fragment of a ghost, you can tighten up reality to dissolve them. When I tried to tighten reality… nothing happened.” He shoved graying, curly hair back from his forehead, where sweat-soaked curls had fallen forward.”

Kabbalistic magic was not Mark’s strong suit. “What does it mean to ‘tighten’ reality?”

Melvin shoved his hair up again. “Okay, so. Malkuth is the sphere we are in, the sphere of matter on the Tree of Life. The one directly above us is Yesod, which represents communication, contact with the spiritual, connection in general. Yesod allows us to connect with entities outside the Tree – the dark entities on the Tree of Death, the ghosts, the fragments of broken memory imprinted on reality, all that kind of thing. What I did was I – briefly—blocked the connection to Yesod. Without Yesod we cannot perceive spiritual realities. Obviously we can never permanently block Yesod, we’d cease to exist without the emanation of energy that comes from God at the top of the tree. But if you block it for a moment, in your local area… you cut off the spirit world’s ability to communicate with us, and us with them. So ghosts vanish.” He pointed at the small golden demon sitting on Mark’s shoulder. “Your Sharro Varánas, your demange homeland – blocked. Your demons wouldn’t be able to get through.”

“It’s not my homeland,” Mark said. His father might have been a demange, and as such belonged in Sharro Varánas, but Mark was half-human, and couldn’t go there any more than, alive, he could go to Valhalla, or Hell, or any other realm outside the human world.

“Whatever. My point is, the wisp – whatever it is – didn’t go away. So it’s not above us on the tree, or below us. It’s at our level but it’s not actually here. Or, it’s not part of God’s creation, which sounds ridiculous but it could happen. If it doesn’t naturally connect to Yesod then what I did wouldn’t have done bupkiss to it.”

“All right,” Mark said. “That gives me some idea of what we’re dealing with.”

“The family is very stressed out. I called you in because they say you’re good.” The short, middle-aged man looked up at Mark, shaking his head. “But you’re young. What are you, 18? You’re a child. A child.”

“I’m 25,” Mark said, a note of irritation in his voice, “and thanks for reminding me about the babyface right before I have to go in and get some entity to take me seriously. You’re doing wonders for my self esteem.”

Melvin waved his hand. “Oh, you know I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “You must be up to your armpits in girlfriends. Wish I’d looked like you when I was 25. But you see me here? Skinny old guy, glasses, long face, big nose? I looked just the same when I was your age except I was a skinny young guy and my hair was black.”

Mark had no idea what Melvin expected him to do with this information, but he was used to it. When he first met people, either they were uneasy around him and they clammed up or made excuses and disappeared, or they were drawn in, compelled by his preternatural charisma. They overshared, they tried to give him their number if they were attracted to men at all, they hung on his words… and then eventually, the unease got through to them too. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen with Melvin – the man was a professional exorcist, he had to be pretty used to unease, and he knew what a demange was. Also, Mark hoped he wouldn’t be around Melvin long enough to trigger such a reaction.

“Well. Like you said, the family is stressed out, so I’d better go get to work. Does this wisp have a preferred place to appear?”

“Anywhere the family is. It likes to try to be around people.”

That didn’t sound like ghost behavior, no.

“Golden, make yourself scarce,” Mark told his familiar. No point in freaking out the homeowner with the demon on his shoulder.

*will do, boss*

Golden vanished, and Mark headed into the house, Melvin following.

A blonde woman met them at the door. “Mr. Farber? Any luck?”

“This is my colleague, Mark des Demanges,” Melvin said. “He’s an expert in cases like this.”

“He looks so young,” the woman said.

“I get that a lot,” Mark said, offering her his hand to shake. “You’re the homeowner?”

“Well, my husband and me. And we have two children.”

“This is Ms. Mitchell,” Melvin said.

Ms. Mitchell, who had to be 40 if she was a day, was looking at Mark with entirely too much interest, as her hand held his for just a little too long for a simple handshake. “Where was the last time you saw the wisp?” he asked.

“In the living room.”

***

The living room was exactly what he expected from the lawn and the clothes the blond woman was wearing. Lawyer foyer, hardwood curving staircase that looked downright slippery, white shag carpet, white leather couch. Glass coffee tables.

Shadowed shape of a person sitting on the overly wide bottom step.

“You see?” Ms. Mitchell’s voice was shrill with fear. “Right there! You see?”

“I do, actually,” Mark said. He approached the shadowy figure.

There was absolutely no reason for the figure to be in shadow. The living room had monstrously huge windows, and all of the rest of the staircase was brightly lit in the afternoon sunlight.

“You’re stuck, aren’t you,” he murmured. Even without help from his demons, he could tell that much.

The shadowy figure looked up at him. No features were visible, but its slumping shoulders and downward-pointing head went back and up, the figure leaning back slightly and looking up at him. With interest? Hope? Fear? No way to tell through the shadow.

“I’m gonna get some info and I’ll be right back,” he told the shadow. He turned back to the homeowner. “I need to perform a ritual and I’m going to need privacy. Are there any rooms around here with doors that actually shut?”

“There’s the first floor bathroom…”

Mark sighed. “Yeah, okay.” Obviously the hired help wasn’t allowed to go upstairs where there were actual room rooms.

***

In the bathroom, he summoned Golden back. “What have you got for me?”

*we can’t get there, boss*

“Can’t get there how?”

*anyhow*

Mark rolled his eyes. “That is not helpful, Golden. I need to know where, exactly, that entity is. If you can’t get to where it is, tell me where it isn’t.”

*anywhere. it’s not in your world. it’s not in ours. we can get to a lot of places. this one’s not one of them.*

“That gives me a good idea of what I’m working with.”

***

He returned to the being. “Okay. First we need to establish whether you understand me or not. If you understand me, and you want to say ‘yes’, nod your head, like this.” He demonstrated. “If you understand me, and you want to say ‘no’, shake your head.” He did the back and forth motion that generally meant “no”, or sometimes “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around how dumb you are.” “Now I’m going to ask you, Do you understand me? If you do, nod yes.”

The shadowy head nodded. “Great!” Mark said. “We have a basis for communication. I’m going to ask you some questions about where you came from and where you’re trying to get to. First of all, it’s my theory that you’re stuck here, between branes, and you are trying to get to a different brane, which is not where you are now. Is that correct?”

The entity nodded.

“Wait, branes?” Ms. Mitchell asked in a very loud whisper. “Isn’t it ‘planes’?”

“Don’t look at me,” Melvin said. “I just chase out ghosts.”

“Are you attempting to get into this one? Yes or no.”

The answer was “no.” “Are you attempting to get out of this one?” Mark asked, and again got a no. “Ugh. What am I missing, what am I missing… oh! Okay. Are you attempting to get to a completely different brane but you are for some reason stuck on the edge of ours?” That got a yes.

“If I open the door to let you into this one, will that help you?” No. “If I open the door to let you free of this one, will that help you?” Yes.

He turned to Ms. Mitchell. “Do you have any chalk?”

“Chalk?”

“You have kids, right? Chalk. Like the stuff their teachers use, or the stuff they draw on the sidewalk with.”

“At the summer house I think they have some… but we’d never let them draw anything on the driveway, and this area doesn’t have a sidewalk. So I don’t think so.”

“Figures,” Mark muttered. “Oh, well. I’ve got my own, it would just be more powerful if it was strongly associated with this place.” He turned back to the shadowy creature. “I’m going to have to ask you to stand up and walk forward… no, not onto the carpet, stay on the hardwood. Okay. Now, stand there and don’t move.”

Quickly he knelt down and drew a sigil around the shadowy thing. It was a lot like a banishment sigil, but it lacked the modifiers for “force” and “destination”, so instead of banishing someone to somewhere, it would give them a gentle push to get out of the universe and go find their way to something else.

“You’re drawing. On my hardwood floor!”

“It’s chalk, Ms. Mitchell,” Mark said, not entirely able to control his exasperation and keep it out of his voice. “It’ll wash up the moment the floor is mopped.” With his ritual knife, he slit the fingertip of the ring finger of his right hand – he was left handed – and dripped his blood onto his sigil. “As will this.”

Demanges – somewhere between demon and angel, or perhaps both at the same time – had enormous amounts of magical power. Mark was only half demange, child of a demange in male form and a human mother, but that still left him with far more power than most people. Melvin had to call on the names of God to perform any kind of serious working; all Mark needed was his own blood.

The sigil flared to life, glowing with excess magic. “The door is open,” Mark intoned. “Go you now in peace, traveler, whenever it suits you to do so, and good luck to you in finding your way to the destination you chose.”

The shadow bowed its head, once, and began to fade. In a few moments it was gone.

“And it won’t come back?” Ms. Mitchell asked nervously.

“I don’t think so.” Mark pulled the power he had fired the sigil with back into himself, now that the trapped entity was gone. “It never wanted to be here in the first place. Can you grab me a wet sponge? Not dripping wet, just, you know. Wet but wrung out.”

“I… I’ll see if I can find one. My cleaning girl isn’t working today and I’m not sure where she put the sponges.”

As soon as Ms. Mitchell was gone, Mark rolled his eyes. “How do you not know where your own sponges are?” he murmured.

Melvin nodded. “Rich people. Useless, the whole bunch of them.”

“Not all of them,” Mark said, thinking of his mentor. Andre qualified as rich, although rather than buying a tacky McMansion on a postage-stamp sized piece of land, he used the money to have multiple decent homes he could stay in, all over the world, and then he traveled all the time.

Ms. Mitchell returned with the sponge, and Mark knelt down and mopped his sigil up, taking care to get every last bit of chalk, and especially blood. After they’d been charged with so much magic, it was important not to leave any bit of it around. He had Ms. Mitchell show him to the sink, and thoroughly rinsed and wrung the sponge out. It’d be safest to throw it out, but he didn’t know how well supplied Ms. Mitchell kept her cleaning lady.

“All done, Ms. Mitchell. Pleasure meeting you.”

“Yes,” she said, still staring at him almost hungrily. In fact, she hadn’t taken her eyes off him unless she had to, such as when she went to get the sponge, the whole time. “A pleasure. What did you say your name was?”

“I do have to get going. Melvin, call me once you’ve wrapped everything up.” Ms. Mitchell was Melvin’s client; Mark would be getting his pay from Melvin, not Ms. Mitchell. He’d have done the job for free, but when there was a ridiculously wealthy client who obviously didn’t have enough to do with her money, why not take advantage?

Outside, he whistled as he went to his car. This had gone surprisingly smoothly. They didn’t usually go that smoothly.

He looked around himself nervously, as if the universe might have overheard him and decided to do something about it. Nothing seemed wrong, so far.

Mark got in his car and headed out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I am pretty sure that if I turn this into a full story, the universe will have heard him and decided to do something about it.

I’m not Jewish, so the Kaballah stuff with Malkuth and Yesod might not be fully accurate to how Kaballah is actually interpreted, but in this particular series I’ve never paid a lot of attention to real-life magic or spiritualism; this is fiction set in a universe where there are entities between demons and angels, so I make a lot of shit up.

I actually have a published story about Mark’s origins on Amazon.com, under my own name, called “Tainted Blood”, if anyone is interested in the character.

#inktober 2020 #demanges #mark des demanges #fantasy

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