Tomorrow we will be moving out of our temporary home and relocating across the State to our new one. New posts from me will be scarce for about a week as we get settled in.
The Force
There is a premise in esoteric philosophy that envelopes the entire field of Hermetic theory: the "Descent of Spirit into Matter." This key concept underlies the principle of spiritual "adaptation" (as described in the Emerald Tablet) that links the "above" to the "below," mediating between the most subtle regions (the Divine) and the grossest (the … Continue reading The Force
Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #3
Here is the third installment of my "Rubaiyat as Tarot Cards" visual narrative. I have a hunch this is going to get difficult due to the sheer number of iterations. As expected, I'm finding more situations where the pictorial story-telling vignettes in the RWS minor cards dovetail at least as vividly with the text as … Continue reading Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #3
Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #2
This is the second of my episodic attempts to translate the quatrains of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into the visual language of the tarot cards, approximately one card per quatrain. I'm looking for logical transition points in the flow of the text so I can limit these posts to four or five related paragraphs … Continue reading Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #2
“Better a Live Sparrow”
In my ongoing (and lately intermittent) attempts to transform classic English-language poetry into visual narrative via the tarot cards, one work stands out as the "Holy Grail" of my lofty aspiration: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It is one I have been reluctant to tackle because it is so heavily laden with metaphysical imagery (the … Continue reading “Better a Live Sparrow”
Earth Abides*
(*Thanks to George R. Stewart for the title of his 1949 science-fiction novel and its main character "Ish," the word for "Man" in biblical Hebrew.) For most of us, at any given moment the one thing we can rely on in our experience of objective reality is the ground beneath our feet. The element of … Continue reading Earth Abides*
Air Apparent
I put the Book of Thoth's slant on elemental Air under the microscope next. In his discussion of the Ace of Swords, Crowley called Air "all-embracing, all-wandering, all-penetrating, all-consuming." He also said "In nature, the obvious symbol of Air is the Wind, 'which bloweth whithersoever it listeth.'" Taken together, these observation could be seen as … Continue reading Air Apparent
Water, Water Everywhere
Expanding on my analysis of elemental Fire as described in The Book of Thoth, I examined Crowley's observations regarding the other two "primal" elements ("completely spiritual forms of pure energy"), Water and Air, and the special case of Earth, which represents a "crystallizing out" or coalescing of the other three in order to effectively impinge … Continue reading Water, Water Everywhere
Love at First Insight
A comment I encountered on Facebook recently caused me to revisit and reaffirm my reasons for working with the tarot. The woman was arguing against its use for divination, and said "We all know that the original purpose of the tarot was self-improvement." Well, no, actually we don't. Clearly this person doesn't have a clue … Continue reading Love at First Insight
Not Milk
Milk for Babes and Meat for Strong Men is the (much redacted) title of a religious treatise published posthumously in 1661 on behalf of the early English Quaker leader James Nayler. Later, in The Theosophist, Vol. III, No. 7, Supplement to April, 1882, Helena Blavatsky presented an essay titled "Milk for Babes and Strong Meat … Continue reading Not Milk
