Oh my Nuit how I love thee! bending down thy lambent flame of blue,
Oh my Nuit how I love thee! your secret kisses and bosom thy caress,
Thou art My Lover: I see Thee as a nymph with her white limbs stretched by the spring
She lies upon the moss; there is none other but she
Art Thou not Babalon?
"There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was." - Liber Legis 2:58 "To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of ordeal, which is bliss." - Liber Legis 3:62
Chris, thank you for showing your drawing. It was very androgynous.
Smartly & adroitly done that man - considering that this was (meant to be) a rendition of the star goddess ("the beauteous one"), this can only be taken as a back-handed compliment!
I believe this thread, and this project, is an exercise in the refinement of linear art
Yes partly though any discussion on the Stele is appreciated. If the Stele is so important I want to identify all its elements and bring them here for the attention of anyone who may be interested in this sort of thing. Do "perfume cones" or small leopard heads have any significance to Thelemites or anyone else today or are they just archaic curiosities?
The HGA of a Duck: "Do "perfume cones" or small leopard heads have any significance to Thelemites or anyone else today or are they just archaic curiosities?"
LOL! Perfume is mentioned repeatedly in AC's BOTL, both with respect to Nuit & RHK.
I originally assumed he was just wearing a funny hat but after doing a bit of research it seems likely it is one of these "perfume cones". I'm just trying to understand if any of these quirky details in the Stele of Revealing could have any importance today. How many people have even heard of a "perfume cone" or even care what it is? Should we start making these cones and wearing them on our heads? 😊
I'm just trying to understand if any of these quirky details in the Stele of Revealing could have any importance today. How many people have even heard of a "perfume cone" or even care what it is? Should we start making these cones and wearing them on our heads? 😊
It isn't known for certain that they were all indeed perfume or unguent cones, as some have been discovered made of non-aromatic materials.
But, let us continue with the idea that what Ankhefenkhonsu was wearing on his head was a perfume cone. Do you need to be reminded that tables XLII, CLII, CLIII, and CLIV of Liber 777 all deal with perfumes and their correspondences?
This man was a great magician-priest. He met with divinity wearing this thing on his head. Don't be offhand. It is important.
Good question, I hadn't really thought of that. Looking at it as something off in the distance reminds me of this:
From what I can tell, the Egyptians didn't really use perspective in the way we think of it in their painting so there isn't really a background or foreground as such, rather the figures and objects are all on the same "plane" (at least as far as I can tell, I might be wrong).
I found something quite similar on a more crudely painted stele:
Being able to build structures which still haven't caved in after so many centuries but can't come up with perspective in drawing, that's some disparity.
Perspective in the modern sense is a Renaissance invention, so a lot of buildings that have lasted centuries were built by a lot of people before anyone could depict perspective very well:
Being able to build structures which still haven't caved in after so many centuries but can't come up with perspective in drawing, that's some disparity.
In the true and accepted Legendary History of Khem, we find that the big-blocks were assembled by one set of beings, and the Egyptian Museum (and Necropoli) were crude copies made by the local human inhabitants. Your observation tends to validate this Legend, which some people think is true, while others say it's ridiculous. Most people haven't even heard the Legend.
Perspective in the modern sense is a Renaissance invention, so a lot of buildings that have lasted centuries were built by a lot of people before anyone could depict perspective very well:
Is that a 'hat' or something on the wall in the background?
I have a copy where it's not a dark phallic mound but 2 transparent circles that almost look like an attempt to put two horns or even 'cheetah' ears on top of the head (via ignorance of Renaissance perspective) much like Marvel Comic's The Black Panther. The mound seems additional. That would make sense (maybe) as he is wearing some sort of cheetah or lynx or leopard-skinned garment.
There's a bit of variation in these replicas, some of them seem to be based on photos of the original in the Cairo museum and some on the replica Crowley had made.
From AC's own copy:
The best image quality version of the replica I have found so far:
Here's a photo of the original (?) from the Red Wheel/Weiser 2006 edition of Liber ABA:
Here's a photo of a small replica that I have. It's funny how the copies changed the shape of the head and drew in outlines, etc.
And my main stèle copy -- with some real artistic license, including a change of the shape of Ankh-af-na-Khonsu's head, cap, and, top it off, a pair of glasses!
Another one of these little updates, those with more understanding of Egyptian symbolism may be aware of this already:
I had no idea of the symbolism behind this curved shape over RHK's knees, I just assumed it was some item of clothing. After some researching it seems to be a "Bull's Tail", a symbol of royal power. I found a nice page all about this:
It all started when mommy, or the midwife, or the nurse, or the tribal shaman wrapped your (our) genital area is a diaper. Primitive grown-ups adopted a "loin cloth."
When you/we got more urbanized and started wearing clothes, the loin cloth remained as a doo-dad on the surface.
Today, in the first world empire, we moved the doo-dad up and tied it around our neck.
All of these magical instruments serve either to Tie one's clothing "up," so it doesn't fall down ... or ... they are meant to convey the enormity of your (my, his) reproductive ability.
However, all these pseudo-phallic substitutes and enhancements are dwarfed by the casual simplicity of our rustic brethren ... who are much simpler in their tastes.
"Let the Adept choose a suitable substitute for his ding dong ..." - Unknown and Untraceable Swami-Guru-Shaman rule
I had no idea of the symbolism behind this curved shape over RHK's knees, I just assumed it was some item of clothing. After some researching it seems to be a "Bull's Tail", a symbol of royal power.
In all of your findings from Egyptian representational art, duck, is it your experience that these Bull's Tails as symbols of potency are shown to "dress" to the left, or to the right for any reason ? (So far as I can tell it seems to be mainly to the left, but I wouldn't like to say for sure.)
Why these glyphs together mean "West" is a bit of a mystery to me, if anyone has some info on this I'd like to know. From what I can tell, the "bread-bun" glyph also signifies the sound "t" and is a "feminine determiner".
It seems that some of this symbolism is a mystery to Egyptologists too as an alternative theory for the "bread-bun" glyph is "the primeval mound of earth that rose from the Nun at the Creation".
An informative site on "polychrome" (multicoloured) hieroglyphs:
ideo. for ideogram, as opposed to phonogram, means that it's just a picture that symbolizes the West. None of the glyphs that make up the symbol appear in the "spelled-out" words for Right or West except the T at the end.
The wikipedia article gives you a clue. A major tribe that lived to the West was the Libu or Libyans, and they wore headdresses with feathers sticking out. This feather cap pictorially symbolizes the West in a way that anyone who ever saw a Libyan would have intuited.
If you think to ask, "Why not just draw a feathered cap, then?" Remember that these were scribes who had to be taught in school, not artists, and it was easier to mock up the symbol using glyphs they already knew.
The falcon appears only because Imentet is but a manifestation of Hathor or Isis, I would imagine.
This feather cap pictorially symbolizes the West in a way that anyone who ever saw a Libyan would have intuited.
The feather also pictorially symbolises the ancient Egyptian principle of ma[y]at , or truth/ inner integrity, against which the soul of the departed was weighed in the balance (and if found lacking the necessary lightness to pass On, then thrown to the hippo-croc hybrid for dinner). Therefore a glyph altogether well suited to be in accordance with the observation that
Right. And they needed an "alphabet" that pronounced words or depicted meanings that other people could read or grasp. Everyone subscribed to the QBL of the day.
Thanks, these Steles are quite a fascinating subject and some of them are quite beautiful. One of the more memorable ones from my stele-browsing is this one, the "Stele of Lady Taperet":
It shows Ra-Horakhty radiating his blessings on the Lady in the form of flowers, quite charming.
Egyptian religious art used 6 main colours: white, black, red, green blue and yellow. You can see in the Stele of Revealing that there's not much colour-mixing going on. Each colour had some symbolic meaning associated with it.
This page gives a description of these colour meanings in a not too long-winded form:
Reproducing the colours of the Stele seem as much of an art as a science. The original stele will look different depending on the lighting, some parts have faded, someone will prefer the colours one way and someone else another, etc.
We can read how the "Prophet" describes these colours, from "Equinox of the Gods":
"Horus has a red Disk and green Uraeus. His face is green, his skin indigo. His necklace, anklets, and bracelets are gold. His nemyss nearly black from blue. His tunic is the Leopard’s skin, and his apron green and gold. Green is the wand of double Power; his r.h. is empty. His throne is indigo the gnomon, red the square. The light is gamboge. Above his are the Winged Globe and the bent figure of the heavenly Isis, her hands and feet touching earth."
By "the light is gamboge", I imagine he means the "background" of the scene with the mottled, orange-ish/beige-ish appearence.
I guess this effect was created by a sort of "wash" over a white background with the colour more concentrated in some parts and less so in others.
The multicoloured, rectangular border seen on the stele is a common feature in Egyptian art.
A few examples (fair use! 😛 ):
I haven't found out if this border has any symbolic significance or if its just a decorative motif to break up the scene into sections. However I did find a description of this type of border in this old book from 1920 which is available on archive.org:
This is essentially Indigo again. You could buy a Model T in any color, as long as it was Black (Indigo - Midnight Blue).
The "art" part is selecting a shade. Personally, I would tend to cut through the Shiny-ola and determine that the artists onloy had six (7?) colors because they took their colors from a rainbow which everyone can easily see from time to time.
An 8-bit, 8-color bitmap would get anyone in the door.
The multicoloured, rectangular border seen on the stele is a common feature in Egyptian art.
Yes. And you have pictured one with what appears to be really straight lines ... but running downhill ... maybe the "straight-edge guide-tool (a "ruler" or the "square" of Masonry, which looks like an "L") was tilted due to too much beer or speed (rapid production).
Good research. Before there was any vocational goal registered by voice or school, I wanted to be an Archaeologist, specifically Egyptian. These details you did up (and apply, when needed) fascinate my curiosity, even though I will not "do" much with them. This is probably due to a previous life in Khem ( XVII / XVIII dynasty - the XVIIIth is called ...
"The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egyptis classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power." - Wiki
But it wasn't me, I swear it. It was that thing that moves on from vehicle to vehicle.
All personal diversions set aside, including the short glimpse into how the Egyptian Historians cite and apply Aeons, or eons, or "cycles" based on whether the economy was up-tick or down-tic-frown, I will be applying the 6/7 color, 8-bit bmp to my creation of the Stele of Adjusted Balance, featuring Maat and Hrumachis. I will be the deceased, even though I will still be living ... otherwise how can I get it into print?
Under "Stela of Amenemhat and Hemet (detail)" it describes a similar offering table to the above, with "Ten golden loaves of bread".
Bread as the basic foodstuff that sustains most of humanity has always been seen as sacred, and bread in a religious setting is well known to us from Christianity. As I recall it also features in at least one of the parables by that parable-guy (what was his name again... 🤔 ).
A few examples, the number of loaves/slices varies:
It seems that this offering table motif is itself based on a hieroglyph:
With these posts I hope I have provided some inspiration for someone more academically-minded than me to write a paper on the elements of the Stele should they stumble into this thread in the future. I'm not really "smart" enough to write one though I might make a infographic-style pdf at some point. I may have a couple more updates for this thread later but these were the main ones.
I wonder what kind of art we can find in the Far East venerating and giving that other holy grain, rice, to the Gods?
1. Wheat berry (Triticum aestivum, Poaceae. Xiao mai, 小麥): Sweet and salty wheat berries nourish Heart qi, or the underlying processes that support ChineseMedicine's Heart health. Its slight astringency helps bring dispersed emotions back to center.
2. The wheat of our ancestors is incomparable to the wheat popularly consumed today. Most of the wheat products consumed today are highly refined and possibly rancid. The bread that Jesus broke at the last supper is very different than our modern loaves also due to breeding, scientific manipulations, and farming techniques. Spelt, a relative of wheat, more closely resembles the 'bread of life' that sustained the ancients. It has gained popularity because many of those who cannot tolerate contemporary wheat products can properly digest spelt.
Chinese Medicine recognizes wheat as a potentially medicinal food. Wheat is used to nourish the heart & calm the spirit. Wheat is the comfort food that puts the heart in the heartland of America. Wheat also supports the kidneys, quenches thirst, and stops excessive sweating. It is seen as an excellent food for the promotion of growth in children and weak individuals, thus it should be limited or avoided by those who are obese.
3. www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/wheat-allergy/symptoms-causes/syc-20378897 Wheatallergy is an allergic reaction to foods containingwheat. Allergic reactions can be caused by eatingwheatand also, in some cases, by inhalingwheatflour. Avoidingwheatis the primary treatment forwheatallergy, but that isn't always as easy as it sounds.
4. The way wheat (or actually the gliadin in the wheat) causes leaky gut is by triggering our intestinal cells to produce a protein called Zonulin (also known as Haptoglobin 2 precursor). Zonulin has the ability to 'unzip' the seams that normally join the intestinal cells together.
Oh dear. Yes, modern refined and genetically twisted wheat is, to put it bluntly, a poison. It is recommended by most alternative medical practitioners that most people AVOID wheat, but substitute spelt or some other (more expensive) grain to which most of the populace has not acquired a "food allergy" (this causes internal problems, but should not be confused with an "allergic reaction" that sends one to the Emerging Room).
We have researched this extensively. Quinoa is the safest and it contains huge amounts of proper nutrients. You will pay more. We pay more. Wheat is abrogated here, but it slips in around the edges. No sweat.
Quinoa is tasty.I don't have much bread, but what we do buy is organic and generally not bleached, just rye or wheat. Also generally buy from local bakeries not mass produced.
I looked but could not find similar art venerating rice, not even in Shinto Japanese art, like the Egyptians venerated their bread in artwork.
I may not have been too far off with my silly comment about the artist having possibly left a joke in the Stele.
While tracing the reverse side of the Stele, I noticed this hieroglyph:
This is hieroglyph D53 in the Gardiner list, "Phallus with emission":
Its quite funny that the Egyptians decided to use a willy in their writing, who knows why they decided to use certain pictures of things and not others. There doesn't seem to be a female equivalent in the Gardiner sign list.
On the same theme I also noticed this group of hieroglyphs on the front side of the Stele:
(rock out with yer cock out)
You can find these glyphs in the sign list (e.g. "man with arms raised") though they aren't usually depicted with their "phallus" out, maybe this was some artistic license by whoever painted them.
I think Crowley made a transcription of the Stele himself, so he would have noticed all this and probably approved of it.
Ancient religions considered all this "phallic" stuff rather important (I find it a bit silly myself, but whatever). This theme comes up in the Osiris myth where the willy of the dead Osiris is lost so Isis has to make a fake one to conceive Horus.
I think the idea was that she contained both the male and the female energies required to generate the Universe within herself. This "androgynous" archetype is quite common in the occult such as the Baphomet and others.
Yes, and I have recently stated that the next Aeon's state (Maat)(Hrumachis) will be androgenous. Not necessarily in physique, but at least in the resolution of Horus vs Set, and in the balanced state of people's mentat.
Yes, very good but the androgynous goddess was just a side note, anything to contribute on the main theme of the importance of the "phallus" in Egyptian religion and how it relates to AC? Why did the Egyptians make a penis hieroglyph but not one for the vagina, was it because the scribes were a bunch of nerds who'd never seen one?
I know my post may seem silly but it does have a serious point. At least I bothered to make a post that relates to directly to Crowley, this being the forum of the Aleister Crowley Society, but perhaps people would prefer to talk about crap music by some has-been old farts and argue over politics. 😠 (yes, I'm a bit grumpy today, I'm in withdrawal from antidepressants, which is a mini-ordeal I must endure for my development and health)
Why did the Egyptians make a penis hieroglyph but not one for the vagina [?]
Because they, like AC, thought men squirted tiny baby-seeds out their wee-wees into women's passive, inert, and unimportant baby-holes.
The inane belief that men can then gobble up those baby-seeds, and use their inchoate "life-energy" for "magick" purposes is the central "secret" of the OTO IX.
The ancient Egyptians did not have the benefit of knowing that this was nonsense, but then there were no biology classes at Cambridge back then, and apparently AC died ignorant of the basics of human reproduction.
perhaps people would prefer to talk about crap music
No. I wanna talk about other things. I am specializing in AEgyptian stuff in an Appe right now. Even so, and I weren't I usually enjoy your Khemish research.
Watch it, sonny. Remember Osiris. Your side-show could be pulled off and hidden, while the rest of your many lost parts could be reassembled by the farts.
The inane belief that men can then gobble up those baby-seeds, and use their inchoate "life-energy" for "magick" purposes is the central "secret" of the OTO IX.
The ancient Egyptians did not have the benefit of knowing that this was nonsense, but then there were no biology classes at Cambridge back then, and apparently AC died ignorant of the basics of human reproduction.
I think you have officially earned your Most Holy Title of "Tangin."
He/She is in the center Ring of my 7-Ring Circus. And you relegate him/her to a Sideshow?
Don't take it so personally, I was just saying that it was side note in the post I made and not the main subject of discussion. You've waffled on enough with your "androgynous" theories in some other threads and don't need to bring it up here. Anyway I thought that was about Maat, this androgynous goddess I brought up is "Neith", a creator goddess.
He may have been (but maybe not that much more than the rest of us), though that's not what I was saying. I was mainly getting at the fact that Crowley was in the tradition of "Phallicism" and was probably familiar with works in that genre such as those by the Rosicrucian, Hargrave Jennings, one of his works being "Phallicism, Celestial and Terrestrial, Heathen and Christian (1884)". That there is some Phallic imagery on Crowley's own sacred Stele would have probably pleased him.
Again, don't take it so personally. I was grumpily using "old fart" for emphasis because I was seeing this forum tarnished with politics/music. Nothing wrong with those things but there are countless other places to talk about those things all day if one wishes to.
You maybe old, but you may not be a fart. Anyway, I joined the "warrior lord" club earlier this year as a middle-aged fart myself (yes I may seem childish/childlike and have a low mental age). Also being an "old fart" is more noble than being a middle aged one, at least you would have passed the ordeal of the mid-life crisis if you happened to have one.
The inane belief that men can then gobble up those baby-seeds, and use their inchoate "life-energy" for "magick" purposes is the central "secret" of the OTO IX.
Though we now have a better understanding of biology we still have the "fact" that some of this "baby-seed" related magick seems to work. New theories could be invented to explain how it works. The average "emission" of baby-seeds contains millions of these seeds so millions of points of potential. One crackpot theory of how magick works is by dark matter (one point in space/time is invisibly connected to another by a dark matter "filament"). One could imagine that each seed has a tiny dark-matter filament connecting it to some other point. Focusing the intent in the ritual would focus all these millions of filaments on to some intended purpose. I don't know, this "theory" would need a lot more work but at least its a start. 🤔
See especially in this connection a favorite work of AC's, Two Essays on the Worship Of Priapus by Richard Payne Knight, a fomewhat tediouf read due to the old-fashioned use of "f" for "s".
But this does nothing to detract from the very impressive illustrations:
Thanks for that one. That might have been the one I was thinking of and not the one I mentioned above. I knew there was one some willy-themed book that had an effect on AC. It might be time to move on from this topic, I mainly made that post for the comedy. But no one laughed.
On this theme I just noticed that the logo of the "Aleister Crowley Society" includes a "Vesica Piscis", and Crowley's face is surrounded by one at the top of the page.
See also in this connection (if you haven't gotten to them yet) plates XXIX-XXXIV of Payne Knight, reproduced at pp. 304-9 at the link, and the discussion in text mostly pp. 132-9, reproduced at pp. 152-9 ditto.
