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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.tarot,alt.divination,alt.thelema
From: 333 
Subject: DuQuette Coverage of Tzaddi Problem
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 09:09:10 GMT

Brother Don Milo DuQuette refers to 'The Moebius Ribbon' 
from "The Book of Thoth" in his own book on the Thoth deck. 
this means that he too is comparing it with the GD-SWITCH. 

scanned from a friend, here are quotes from his book: 
[my comments in square brackets.]
 
#$ The Emperor:
#$ 
#$ Sun of the Morning, chief among the Mighty 
#$ Zodiacal Trump of Aries
#$ Mars Rules-Sol Exalted
#$ Original Design: A flame-clad god bearing equivalent symbols. 
#$ 	His attitude suggests the symbol of alchemical sulfur, 
#$	and he is seated upon the cubical stone, whose sides 
#$	show the green lion and whip eagle. 50-

compare the Devil, Baphomet and what Pike makes of it!

#$ Hebrew Letter: Tzaddi (fish hook).
#$ Tree of Life: Path 28, 
#$               joining Netzach-Victory to Yesod-Foundation.

		EMPEROR-ARIES-TZADDI-28
implying        STAR-AQUARIUS-HE-15

#$ Colors: Scarlet; Red; Brilliant Flame; Glowing Red.

conventional for Path 15 GD/777.
 
#$ Use all thine energy to rule thy thought: 
#$	burn up thy thought as the Phoenix.
#$ 
#$ In chapter 13, I mentioned a paragraph in The Book of 
#$ Thoth where Crowley throws us a real curve regarding 
#$ the whole "Tzaddi is not the Star" matter.

the one that follows below, apparently.

#$ It is one of several instances in the book where he 
#$ seems to contradict himself on this subject. 

tentative. cautious. an initial examination.
why doesn't he flat-out state it as such?

#$ Before I go on about the Emperor, I will try to overcome 
#$ my complete exasperation 

why is he exasperated? because Crowley was (again?) 
somehow self-contradictory?

#$ and calmly address this most frustrating issue. The 
#$ trouble, it seems, stems from the direction the light 
#$ comes from in this card. 

in path-descripts. p. 77-78 BoT.

#$ Let's start by reviewing what Crowley tells us in no 
#$ uncertain terms (and in multiple places) is the 
#$ situation: 

why take any one instance of his morass of expressions
as most significant or authoritative, especially when 
they develop over time and are not repaired? 

#$ 1. Atu IV is the Emperor. 

rather unimportant. the Roman Numerals are dispensable.

#$ 2. The zodiac sign assigned to the Emperor is Aries.

Table on page 278 "Tables of Correspondence" contradicts 
this directly, ciphered.

therefore unless he asserts (or others do in his stead)
that that table was constructed by someone *other than
Crowley* (I welcome support for that contention), then
'in no uncertain terms' above is false. further, it 
is pretty obvious that Frater DuQuette knows this. the
terms are in fact uncertain.

#$ 3. The Hebrew letter for the Emperor is Tzaddi (and 
#$ everything Tzaddi represents).

there are also several instances where He is described
as the letter for the Emperor. as above, 'in no uncertain
terms' here is false.

#$ In the Tree of Life, the Emperor is found on path 28, 

what does this mean? is he talking about the charts in
"The Book of Thoth"? if so, he is quite correct. 

#$ which joins the seventh Sephira, Netzach, to the ninth 
#$ sephira, Yesod. Fine! I'm happy with that. It agrees 
#$ with Crowley's detailed explanations for the Tzaddi/He 
#$ switch. It agrees with his charts and diagrams of the 
#$ Tree of Life. 

must be the same.

#$ What it doesn't agree with is the last paragraph of his 
#$ comments on the Emperor on page The Book of Thoth, 
#$ where he tells us:
#$ 
#$@ 	It is finally to be observed that the white 
#$@	light which descends upon him indicates the 
#$@	position of this card in the Tree of Life. 
#$@	His authority is derived from Chokmah, the 
#$@	creative Wisdom, the Word, and is exerted 
#$@	upon Tiphareth, the organized man.
#$@     -------------------------------------------------
#$@      "The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot 
#$@	  of the Egyptians, Being The Equinox Volume III 
#$@	  No. V", by The Master Therion [A. Crowley], 
#$@	  Weiser 1969/1974/1981/+; page 78.
#$@     ================================================== 

		EMPEROR-ARIES-TZADDI-15
implying        STAR-AQUARIUS-HE-28
       
that's 2 sets of the various possibilities Crowley 
supported. a complete examination of the Thothbook
would outline all the various expressions and see
to analysis of their characters. some have contended
that aggregate scoring should facilitate a 'solution'
and yet this is not supported in Crowley's text. in
fact, 'the wise' would probably find some better
means of obtaining a solution than aggregation.

#$ The "white light" in the card issues from the upper 
#$ right corner and shines tonally toward the center 
#$ of the card. In other words, Crowley is talking as
#$ if Emperor is positioned on the Tree of Life on the 
#$ path that runs from the second sephira, Chokmah, 
#$ to the sixth sephira, Tiphareth? the path that he 
#$ tells us in nearly every other reference should be 
#$ occupied by the Star. Arghhhh!

ah 'nearly every other reference'. why is he overlooking
the instances of exception and their character? does the
fact that one occurs in "Tables of Correspondence' matter?

#$ Personally, I think that, in this case, Harris, was 
#$ operating from the traditional understanding of the 
#$ trumps and their placement on the tree, and Crowley's 
#$ words carelessly neglected to make that point. 

apparently he gives no support for this supposition. not
only that, he doesn't explain why this text accords with
the art and is *also* left in the Thothbook. simple 
confusion on Frieda Harris' part doesn't explain why it
might be that Crowley's text also is in error by this
standard, but *conforms with his presentation in 777*. 
does Frater DuQuette know that Harris was given corrupted 
information or very little by Crowley and had to make do 
with it (even that wouldn't contribute to double-attribs
for her exhibit catalogue)? does he know that this had
still *more* corrupted version of the attributions? 

does he think that Crowley failed to provide colour-key 
info *about* these cards, too? is there some standard 
from which Crowley was working that cinches the placement? 
my impression is that GD standards probably do this putting
Emperor at 15 by colouration), and comparing the cards 
with these is rather conclusive in some regards (zodiacal
array in a rainbow spectrum).

#$ Still, I am sure that students of tarot and Crowley 
#$ will debate this subject forever. 

especially if he and Frater Beta go on expounding what
appear to me the corrupted, confused understandings of 
the Thoth Tarot in public (apparently just flawed, not
ciphered). 

#$ As for me, the only thing I know for sure is that 

he isn't certain. he hasn't made up his mind on the
matter. the character of an "examination" remains.
we should not take his expressions as finalized.

#$ the author of The Book of the Law himself tells us,

strangely-worded. if he wanted to say Nuit, Ankh-n-f-
Khonsu, Aiwass, or Crowley, he could have done so.

#$@ 	[I:57]
#$@ 	...
#$@ 	All these old letters of my Book are 
#$@ 	aright but tzaddi is not the Star.
#$@    ------------------------------------------
#$@     "Al (Liber Legis) -- The Book of the Law 
#$@	 Sub Figura XXXI as Delivered by 
#$@	 93--AIWASS--418 Ankh-F-N-Khonsu, 
#$@	 The Priest of the Princes, who is 
#$@	 666", I:57, by Aleister Crowley, written
#$@	 in 1904+, various printings, note look
#$@	 to "Liber CCXX" (the written version) 
#$@	 in reference to the below.
#$@ ==================================================== 

his examination is *extremely* informal. the actual 
text of Crowley's scripture is as follows:

$	...                                      17
$
$      [57]
$	Invoke me under my stars. Love is the
$	law, love under will. Nor let the fools
$	mistake love; for there are love and love.
$	There is the dove and there is the serpent.
$	Choose ye well!  He, my prophet, hath
$	
$                                                18
$	chosen, knowing the law of the fortress
$	and the great mystery of the House of God
$	All these old letters of my Book are
$	aright; but [*] is not the Star. This
$	also is secret: my prophet shall reveal
$	it to the wise.
$
$	...
$	---------------------------------------------------
$	 Ibid., pp. 17-18, Liber 220, facsimile.
$           (*NOTE: 'scribble' is unintelligible.)
$	============================================

and while there are growing factions about what Nuit
expressed through Aiwass, it isn't entirely clear,
though it is clear that Crowley concluded that it 
was the Hebrew letter tzaddi. that Frater DuQuette
doesn't go into this here is also interesting.

note the mention of 'stars' [Star], 'fools' [Fool],
and 'the House of God' [Tower/War] in the preceding 
scriptural material, reflected in tarotic concepts 
and images. note particularly that Nuit is made to
say here that the prophet (Crowley, here in the
guise of 666/Ankh-N-F-Khonsu) would reveal it *to
the wise*, not just to anyone. this is probably why
he left the Thothbook in such a state, as it quite
evidently constitutes a puzzle whose solution may
be worked out by those with insight and logic, 
even initiation. that is, what is "in no uncertain
terms" should be doubted, O My Chosen!

#$ Now, let's move on
#$ Please!

he seems anxious to avoid the problem of the 
discrepancies. perhaps it is so that his oaths
of secrecy give him the creeps in this matter,
as Frater praerogo (Jess Karlin) contends. 

#$ Atu IV, the Emperor, represents the sign of Aries, 

quite without support. in fact, prior to Crowley,
the Emperor (/KING) card has had more than one
attribution, and in the history of Tarot even has
more than one placement if one cares about Roman
Numerals.

#$ where Mars rules and Sol is exalted. 

in Aries, quite so, regardless of what card is here.
Frater DuQuette goes on to review the contents of
the Thothbook on the sign of Aries:

#$@ "The sign," Crowley points out, "is thus a 
#$@ combination of energy in its most material 
#$@ form with the idea of authority.  
#$@ -------------------------------------------
#$@  Ibid., Thothbook, p. 77.
#$@ ===========================================

#$ Referring to this card, Crowley even goes so 
#$ far as to actually give us a somewhat cynical
#$ lesson in civics:
#$@ 	He is seated upon the throne whose 
#$@	capitals are the heads of the Himalayan
#$@	wild ram, since Aries means a Ram. At his 
#$@	feet, couchant, is the Lamb and Flag, to 
#$@	confirm this attribution on the lower 
#$@	plane; for the ram, by nature, is a wild 
#$@	and courageous animal, lonely in lonely 
#$@	places, whereas when tamed and made to 
#$@	lie down in green pastures, nothing is 
#$@	left but the docile, cowardly, gregarious 
#$@	and succulent beast. This is the theory of
#$@	government.
#$@	-------------------------------------------
#$@	 Ibid., p. 77.
#$@	======================

so did Frieda Harris actually put Himalayan wild
rams on this card, or are those actually goats?
perhaps, like the Rocky Mountain types, they are
actually goats but are *called* sheep? :>

#$ The Emperor is the third of the alchemical trumps 
#$ and represents sulfur. His arms form the triangle 
#$ and his legs form the cross of the glyph of sulfur,
#$ which Crowley tells us is "the male fiery energy 
#$ of the Universe, the Rajas of Hindu philosophy. 
#$ This is the swift creative energy, the initiative 
#$ of all Being.
#$ 
#$ Upon his shield is the red eagle that identifies 
#$ him with what the alchemists call the red tincture.  
#$ The red tincture is symbolic of the fiery action 
#$ and nature of the Son and gold, just as the white 
#$ eagle on the Empress's shield identifies her with 
#$ the white tincture, symbolic of the action and 
#$ nauter[nature?] of the moon and silver.  The great 
#$ alchemical recipe dictates that we must first find 
#$ the white tincture, then the red tincture, then 
#$ unite them to accomplish the great work. 

strictly alone, without other cards, why should we
see alchemical combinatory symbols on the Emperor?
the Harris-Crowley Emperor is all red and orange,
fiery, Ariesh, just like the Golden Dawn and 777
colours for the Emperor, on Key Scale 15. this 
colouration, on its own, seem to yield

	 	EMPEROR-ARIES-15 
implying 	STAR-AQUARIUS-28

which may be pre-AC-SWITCH (we don't know his
letter-attributions, though presumably he did
not wish to fuck up the Hebrew sequence :>) and 
probably the way that Crowley described the 
particulars of the cards to Frieda Harris....
 
#$ This, of course, suggests that the Empress 
#$ and the Emperor enjoy a much more intimate 
#$ relationship than what we expect of 
#$ government officials.  

I don't notice that Crowley mentions the
Empress/Emperor pair much in his Thothbook,
though he does speak of the 'King and Queen'
quite a lot, along with their alchemical fusion.

in fact, since he identifies the Juggler with
Mercury, the Empress with Salt, and the
Emperor with Sulphur, wouldn't the implication
be that the three somehow interact/inter-relate
as the alchemical elements?

#$ We will see them get very cozy
#$ in Atu XIV, Art.
 
what happened to VI MARRIAGE/LOVERS/CHOICE?
Crowley seems to indicate that this is where
the two (if = King/Queen) get together.

333