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To: personal email and Usenet From: joseph.e.cannon.4@nd.edu (Joe Cannon) Subject: Dwarf (I also posted this..) Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 15:35:21 -0500 In article <3q7h3b$qle@jobe.shell.portal.com>, tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (Hsi Wang Mu) wrote: > 49950527 > > Do as you please, for that is my Law. > > |In magical terms it is possible to identify Lam with the Dwarf Self, > |the Silent Self, Harpocrates, Hadit, and perhaps most significantly, > |the Babe In The Egg. > > From where does this Dwarf Self idea originate? In Egypt? Is the > Babe InThe Egg mentioned above any relation to the Babe of the Abyss? I do not know where the dwarf idea originates, but I remember being surprised and edified in finding reference to it in Crowley's commentary on the Book of the Law. During a course I took on Arthurian Literature, I had the pleasure of reading "Tristan" by Gottfried von Strassburg, wherein a strange character named "Dwarf Tristan" is encountered by Tristan after he has been exiled from King Marks court for his love of Isolde. In the presence of this Dwarf Tristan, Tristan, up to this point the ultimate trikster and much like Ulysses "never at a loss", loses a great portion of his mettle and first balks at an adventure to save Dwarf Tristan's lover, captured by a Giant (Estult l'Orgillus of Castel Fer - I can't find my french dictionary but if I remember correctly this name means Stupid Pride of the Castle of Fire or something along those lines.) Tristan is shamed into attempting this adventure immediately by Dwarf Tristan who invokes Tristan's reputation as 'the Amorous' and courageous and claims he must have the wrong man. Tristan accepts the adventure and fails, recieving a mortal wound from the giant's poisoned spear. It is a wound that only his lover Isolde can heal. All of this takes place in exile, after he has entered into an affair with a woman named Isolde who is not his real lover. In her jealousy she informs him that Isolde is not coming and he dies of despair (Using the Black sails/White sails trope also found in the story of Aegeas in greek mythology.) Isolde arrives soon afterwards and dies of despair herself. This Dwarf was the one character in the book I had no self-satisfying grasp on, no foothold. (I wrote a long Alchemical/Depth Psychological account of the story for my final effort in the class.) After reading it more times and encountering the tradition of this character in Crowley's writing a few footholds seem to have been gained. This all (and I apologize for the long windedness) seems to point to the Dwarf self as possibly an Abyssmal self image or doppleganger whose purpose is to facilitate the destruction of the personality, the ego. Taking us byond the archaic Sun God and into the mystery of despair. The self as the will to death (related to the will to love). The death that is inspired by this character, could be seen as removing the alchemical love to a more rarefied air. The Dwarf uses Tristan's love of his own reputation to drive the hero on to destruction. One could possibly see Tristan as the giant and the false Isolde as Dwarf Tristan's lover. (These falsities being truth.) Various threads of idea stream off of this butI seem unable to follow them as yet... I don't know how much of this will make sense without familiarity with the story. It's a rather amazing and deep tale, well worth anyone's time, however. It is a 13th century retelling of a tale by one named "Thomas" from the late 11th or early 12th century. (As I look again, the section of the story with Dwarf Tristan comes directly from Thomas, Gottfried did not get that far in his reworking. In the Penguin Classics version Thomas' version picks up where Gottfried leaves off.) I hope this is helpful. Joe ----- =================================== Joe Cannon/Rent To Own Records Po Box 1138 Notre Dame, IN 46556 219-232-2263 joseph.e.cannon.4@nd.edu (after my e-mail account closes, you can e-mail Doug for Rent To Own Info. His address is mceachern.1@nd.edu ) ...the set of all sets....
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