TAARP - The Corridors of Time -
3.1 Analytical Thinking and General Knowledge
The ability to think clearly and rationally about an issue without emotional interference is essential to any scientific endeavor. The severe complexity of the Occult Sciences demands a high capability for analytical thinking. This is not meant to imply that emotional and feeling toned analysis of ideas and symbols is to be avoided. In fact, the artistic and meditative aspects of inquiry, which are discussed in subsequent sections of this proposal, are also very important to Occult investigations. It is necessary, however, to apply the coldblooded, intellectual clarity characteristic of the God Mercury to all symbols and ideas. The interpretation thus generated, when concatenated with artistic and meditative interpretations, provides a thorough and comprehensive measure of the subject being investigated.
One of the very prominent difficulties concerning Occult literature is that by-far most of it is written by individuals who have only applied the analytical, scientific approach to their investigations and have never intered into an in-depth experiential relationship with their subject matter.
One of the critical aspects of the Occult Sciences is to acquire enough knowledge about the general nature of the universe so that the rational mind will be amenable to and prepared for the jungle of complexities that must be confronted when the Occult correspondences of nature are studied. In preparation for beginning a study of the Occult Sciences, therefore, it is necessary to become familiar with many areas of knowledge. Biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, psychology, literature, evolution, history, mythology, philosophy, religion, art, politics, economics, sociology, and numerous other fields must be studied at least to a depth of understanding that permits the student to appreciate the complexities of some of the salient features of each field. The evolution of the various modern alphabets of mankind is a singularly well suited subject to study for aiding in the pursuit of Occult knowledge.
The following works provide an indication of the breadth of knowledge which is required before undertaking a serious course of study of the Occult Sciences:
The primary goal of the Occult Sciences is to teach students to call forth the ancient Gods and Goddess which inhabit the collective unconscious. In order to achieve this goal it is necessary to acquire in-depth knowledge of all of the mythological systems which influenced one's forefathers. Furthermore, it is impossible to establish a comprehensive understanding of the Gods of old without being knowledgeable about the peoples and historical events which were synergistically intertwined with those Gods. To fully appreciate the fact that Christ (as a God form) is a reincarnation of the very ancient Egyptian God Osiris, it is absolutely necessary to understand the historical events which define the evolutions of these two Gods. The Sumerians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Chaldeans, Canaanities, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Philisitnes, Scythians, and many others have had a significant impact on the structure of the collective unconscious mind of the modern peoples of the Western World. In order to safely and successfully bring forth ancient, archetypal forms it is necessary to understand their attributes and relationships with each other. Will Durant has provided a very beautiful account of the ancient Western World in Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of his ten-volume series "The Story of Civilization". E. A. Wallis Budge's many works on Egypt are excellent sources on the ancient Egyptians and their Gods. Familiarity with works of this nature are required for students of the Occult Sciences.
The essence of the subject of astrology and the Tarot cards with respect to this proposal deals with the fact that these systems are the most thorough representation of the archetypal structure of the collective unconscious mind of Western Man that is currently available. In the same sense that the periodic table of the physical elements is used to classify and analyze chemical and physical entities, the Tarot and zodiacal systems are used to classify and analyze the archetypes of the collective unconscious. The utilization of these systems for predicting the future or specifying a persons physical and psychological makeup based on the patterns of the heavens at the moment of birth or inception is not to be addressed by this proposal.
It is also very important to note that the Tarot cards designed by Aleister Crowley and executed into artistic form by Lady Fredia Harris are the only extant set of Tarot cards which address the subject of the collective unconsciousness with the requisite level of complexity. All other sets of Tarot cards are ridiculously simple, and do not even assume a format which is directly involved with history, comparative mythology, and comparative religion. Thoth is the Egyptian God of knowledge, and Crowley's Tarot cards are designated as Thoth Tarot cards. His book discussing the cards is called "The Book of Thoth."
The Tarot cards are a set of 78 pictorial symbols, each with a definite but complex structure. The cards are divided into two groups, the major Arcana (or Trumps or Atus) of 22 cards and the minor Arcana of 56 cards. The modern deck of playing cards which are used for such games as bridge and poker evolved from the 56 minor Arcana. The major Arcana contain the primary symbolism of the mytholoigcal content of the collective unconscious. They are the connecting mechanisms on the Qabalistic Tree of Life (see Figure 1 and Figure 2) which contains ten basic elements or Sephiroth.
The astrological system, except for the three "archetypal" planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, is completely contained within the system of the Tarot. Twelve of the twenty two Trumps correspond to the twelve primary zodiacal forms. Seven of them correspond to the seven personal planets of the zodiac. Three of them correspond to the elements air, fire, and water. Earth and spirit are accounted for by two of the Trumps which have double meanings. The XXth Trump represents fire on the one hand and spirit on the other. The XXIst Trump represents the planet Saturn on the one hand and the element earth on the other.
Each of the 22 Trumps corresponds to one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and one of the 22 letters of the Alphabet of the Magi (see Figures 1 and 2). The primary twelve zodiacal forms expand into a system of 72 elements (6 x 12 = 72). The Qabalistic system of correspondences is based on the Tree of Life and formed the basis from which Crowley developed his book "777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley". This book provides a concise cross-correlation of God forms and elements in nature. It is not necessary for the student of the Occult to subscribe to the tenets of Jewish mysticism or Crowley's development of correspondences as presented in "777" in order to utilize "777" as a reference source for correspondences between and within the physical realm and the mythological realm. If nothing else, Crowley's "777" provides a very good starting point from which the student can begin to develop his own ideas about the correspondences of nature. For example, the following list presents some of the correspondences in "777" for the XXIst Tarot Trump:
If, after dedicated investigation of the XXIst Trump, the student came to the conclusion that the precious stone should be ruby instead of onyx, then by all means he should substitute ruby for onyx. In fact, Crowley constantly reminds his readers that the purpose of "777" is simply to provide an example of a Magickal Alphabet, and that each student must develop his own Magickal Alphabet. Figure 3 presents some musical and poetical correspondences that I established as part of the development of my Magickal Alphabet.
In order to provide another example of the mythological correspondences typical of the information contained in "777", some aspects of the demonic nature of the zodiac in one of its ancient forms are given in Figures 4, 5, and 6. Each of the twelve zodiacal forms in Figure 4 corresponds to one of sun signs of the classical zodiac. For example, the symbol in the first row, first column corresponds to the sign of Sagittarius. Likewise each of the planetary forms in Figure 5 corresponds to one of the planetary forms of the classical zodiac. For example, the last symbol in the first column corresponds to the planet Mercury. Figure 6 presents four of the Goetic demons of the descending hierarchy. For each sign of the zodiac, there are six corresponding Goetic demons. For example, Ashtaroth and five other demons correspond to the sign of Capricorn. Asmodeus and five other demons correspand to the sign of Aquarius.
I now append a few important words concerning Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 referred to above and Figure 72 of my Magickal Record in Appendix E. The following books are germane to the conversation:
These are listed in the order that I discovered them.
The crux of the matter is that the combination of the symbols presented in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 referred to above and Figure 72 of my Magickal Record seem to me to represent a consistent or harmonious symbol set. I never found them all together in one source, and I never saw them all represented as belonging to a single symbol set. Hence, I coined the term "The Babylonian Book of the Dead", after "The Egyptian Book of the Dead", and stipulated that the symbols all derive from "The Babylonian Book of the Dead". "The Mesopotamian Book of the Dead" would have been a more appropriate title. For some intuitive reason, which could be very wrong, I feel like all the symbols comprise a harmonious whole and that they originated in Mesopotamia.
The four symbols in Figure 6 are four of the seventy-two symbols for the Goetic Demons that Waite gives in "The Book of Ceremonial Magic" and "The Book of Black Magic". He got them from "The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton, Book 1 Clavicula Salomonis Regis" which MacGregor Mathers discovered in the British Museum. The seven planetary symbols in Figure 5 should "go with" the 72 Goetic Demons if we are to trust Waite who presents them in "The Book of Ceremonial Magic" and "The Book of Black Magic". The letters of the Alpha Bet of the Magi are given in Figures 1, 2, and 3. Of all the ancient Alpha Bets I have ever seen, they correspond in form more closely with the symbols of the Goetic Demons and the 12 zodiacal symbols in Figure 4 than the letters of the other ancient Alpha Bets do. I first saw the Alpha Bet of the Magi in reference 2.
It was only after my mentor Mr. Cecil Gwinn gave me a copy of Aleister Crowley's "777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley" that I discovered that the 72 Goetic Demons belong to an ancient form of the zodiac. Tables CLV through CLXVI on pages 28 through 33 of the "Tables of Correspondences" section of "777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley" present the Goetic Demons in terms of their correspondences with the twelve zodiacal factors of Aries, Taurus, ..., Pisces. Six Goetic Demons correspond to each zodiacal factor. Three of them are referred to as "By Day" and three of them are referred to as "By Night". With this new found knowledge on my part, I later constructed the zodiacal wheel presented in Figure 72 of my Magickal Record in Appendix E. The "By Day" Goetic Demons are on the outer rim of the wheel and the "By Night" Goetic Demons are on the inner rim of the wheel.
Now we come to what I think is the interesting part of my discovery (for myself) of these ancient symbols. It deals with the 12 Primary Zodiacal Forms in Figure 4. There is absolutely no doubt that they "belong with" the symbols of the Goetic Demons as can be seen by comparing them with the Goetic Demon symbols in Figure 72 of Appendix E. In particular compare the primary zodiacal symbol that corresponds to Taurus to Goetic Demon No. 41, and compare the primary zodiacal symbol that corresponds with Libra to Goetic Demon No. 21. I have seen "the 12 Primary Zodiacal Forms" only one place, and that is on the cover of a cheap paperback book titled "Satanism in America". I forgot who the author is. This is a very key piece, if not the most key piece, of this ancient zodiac, and yet to my knowledge it only exists on this cheap paperback. I am willing to grant the hardcore skeptic, that the person who designed the cover of the paperback may have created the 12 symbols based on a study of the 72 symbols of the Goetic Demons, but I really think this is highly unlikely. What is much more likely is that they exist in some authentic, rare, obscure grimoire and who knows how they came to appear on the cover of the paperback.
How did I come by the paperback? A crazy friend of mine named Big Mary had it. Big Mary lived in a run down apartment in a seedy section of Dayton, Ohio. She has an 8th grade education and reads very poorly, but has a deep affinity for religion. When I introduced her to my library she tore into it with rabid enthusiasm, making many notes and constructing many notebooks of her own. It is fair to say that I introduced her to books when she was about 40. When I first met her she had one book in her possession, "Satanism in America". She had not read it. A stripper from one of the local East Dayton strip clubs had left it at Big Mary's. Most curious!! (As an aside let me say that John M. Allegro's book "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross" is one of the most important books I have ever read. I was introduced to it by a low down, good for nothing, criminal felon heroin addict. Most curious!!)
I claim that my Figure 72 of Appendix E is a very important piece of data for serious students of the Occult and for symbolic archaeologists.
