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What, if anything is the meaning of unicorns in thelema, and/or to AC and his mindset?
I only ask this because I am memorising a chapter of LXV and he came upon 'a unicorn with a silver collar whereon was engraven' an aphorism, and then again in the Hymn to Pan he talks about being 'borne to death on the horn of the unicorn'...
What does this all mean and what if anything does it have to do with Thelema? I was reading these books for a few years but this is the first time i noticed unicorns.
I liked the film, 'the last unicorn' :O)
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christoff von stir brainy
"1. Verily and Amen[-Ra :)]! I passed through the deep sea, and by the rivers of running water that abound therein, and I came unto the Land of No Desire. [Cool 8)]
2. Wherein was a white unicorn with a silver collar, whereon was graven the aphorism Linea viridis gyrat universa."
And it was mentioned in Achad's exam to pass to Zelator:
"(b) Invoke Mercury and Hod, and travel till you meet the Unicorn mentioned in Liber LXV, Cap. III, verse 2. Report its conversation fully."
... being 'borne to death on the horn of the unicorn'... What does this all mean and what if anything does it have to do with Thelema?
Well, you know how AC was rather involved with his member and/or The Phallus in general terms. So I'd suggest you look at phallic symbolism - it's on about every other page of every Thelemic text 😉
Ride Me!
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lol thank you shiva.
but i am wondering about like...practise for everyone.
doest that meanest that mine self hast to be obsessed with phalli?
Irony of course but i still dont see his meaning.
Huh?
doest that meanest that mine self hast to be obsessed with phalli?
Speak English.
Well, in this case (in the land of No Desire), he is apparently describing a vision. You know, the kind of thing one sees in astral journeys. So it need not have a meaning, except (as the psychologist says) for what it means to the viewer (him) or the reader (you) or me (the psycholgist)(who says. "Why, it's a dick! :o).
777 tells us:
XXXVIII
Animals, Real and Imaginary
0 Dragon
1 Swan, Hawk
2 Man
3 Woman
4 Unicorn
and 777 bears this note:
Col. XXXVIII
Line 8: Monoceros de Astris means “Unicorn from the Stars” and is a title of the grade of 3°=8[sup:2gqnpt2o]▫[/sup:2gqnpt2o] Practicus (referred to Hod) in the Golden Dawn.
Huh?
He means mandatory, universal (for everyone) disciplines based on the unicorn. Probably a form of one-pointed dharana.
doest that meanest that mine self hast to be obsessed with phalli?
Speak English.
It's Olde English, or some form of bible-lingo.
There are no mandatory, universal disciplines.
doest that meanest that mine self hast to be obsessed with phalli?
Speak English.
It's Olde English, or some form of bible-lingo.
It's some form of "kid reads a little bit of Crowley and thinks it'd be funny to try to talk like that and it is but not for the reasons he thinks."
And no, you don't have to be "obsessed with the phallus" just because some writer was. That much should be obvious. If admiring a writer means doing everything the writer did, then...yikes, I just realized what my admiration for James Joyce would entail....
... yet. We're working on one here in this thread. Maybe it'll be Liber Yeti ::)
The unicorn in LXV is a symbol from qabalah/alchemy.
For another use, see Liber Jugorum, section 1.
My guess is that Crowley picked up the specific symbolism from his Golden Dawn days, or from his more general knowledge of occult history via Levi, and used it basically in line with the established alchemical tradition.
Thank you Tao, that is exactly what I needed 🙂
Also Shiva your post re 777 very helpful , thanks!
It may be worth noting that the Unicorn is not a valid mythological creature, rather a case of mistaken identity on the part of ancient Greek and Roman geographers of alleged oriental creatures. The wikipedia entry on the topic is actually quite informative.
Phallic, maybe, but the creature became associated with virgins and purity in medieval lore.
None of which need prevent you from having a conversation with one should you encounter it on the astral plane, of course.
as long as she's hot anyway.
Crowley dealt with this on Moonchild.
"Last of this company -- only a few of the visions are recorded here -- came the greatest of them all[13]. His face was abrupt and vehement; but a veil was woven over it, because of the glory of his eyes, and a thick scarf, like a cloud, held over his mouth, lest the thunder of it destroy men's hearing. This man was so enormous that his stature spanned all heaven; and his creatures, that moved about him, were all godlike -- immensely greater than the human. Yet were they human; but so patriarchal, so intense, that they almost overwhelmed Iliel. On him she dared not look. He had the gift of making every thing a thousand times larger than its natural size. She heard one word of his, a mere call to a pet: "Tiger, tiger!" But the beast that broke through the mazes of heaven was so vast that its claws spanned star and star. And with all that he smiled, and a million babe-children blossomed before him like new-budded flowers. And this man quickened as he came nigh to Iliel; he seemed to understand wholly the nature of the Great Experiment.
But every soul in all that glorious cohort of immortals, as it touched the cone, was whirled away like a pellet thrown upon a swiftly moving fly-wheel. And presently she perceived the cause of this.
The tip of the cone was sheathed in silver. So white and glittering with fierce heat was that corselot, and so mighty its pulse of vibration that she had [229] thought it part of the cone. She understood this to be the formula of the circle, and realized with a great ache, and then a sudden anger, that it was by this that she was to be prevented from what might have been her fortune, the gaining of the wardenship of a Chopin or of a Paul Verlaine.
But upon the face of Artemis was gaiety of triumph. The last of the souls whirled away into the darkness. Humanity had tried and failed; it was its right to try; it was its fate to fail; now came the turn of the chosen spirits, proved worthy of the fitted fastness.
They came upon the Terrace in their legions, Valkyrie-brave in silver arms, or like priestesses in white vestments, their hair close bound upon their brows, or like queens of the woodland, swift for the chase, with loose locks and bright eyes, or like little children, timid and gracious.
But amid their ranks were the black hideous forms of hags, bent and wrinkled; and these fled instantly in fear at the vision of the blazing cone. There were many other animal shapes; but these, seeing the cone, turned away indifferent, as not understanding. Only the highest human-seeming forms remained; and these appeared as if in some perplexity. Constantly they looked from Artemis to the cone, and back again to Artemis. Iliel could feel their thought; it was a child-like bewilderment, "But don't you understand? This is a most dangerous place. Why did you bring us here? Surely you know that to touch the cone is certain death to us?"
Iliel understood. The human souls had long since made themselves perfect, true images of the cosmos, by accepting the formula of Love and Death; they had made the great sacrifice again and again; they were veterans of the spiritual world-war, and asked nothing better than to go back to the trenches. But these others were partial souls; they had not yet [230] attained humanity; they had not understood that in order to grow one must assimilate oneself with another being, the death of two to create the life of one, in whom the two live once more, transmuted and glorified, the corruptible having put on incorruption. To them incarnation was death; and they did not know that death was life. They were not ready for the Great Adventure.
So they stood like tall lilies about the coruscating cone of Light, wondering, doubting, drooping. But at the last came one taller than all the rest, sadder of mien, and lovelier of features; her robes were stained and soiled, as if by contact with other colours. Artemis drew back with quick repulsion.
For the first time the maiden goddess spoke.
"What is thy name?" she cried.
"I am Malkah of the tribe of the Sickles."
"And thy crime?"
"I love a mortal."
Artemis drew back once more.
"Thou, too, hast loved," said Malkah.
"I drew my mortal lovers unto me; I did not sully my life with theirs; I am virgin unto Pan!"
"I also am virgin; for whom I loved is dead. He[14] was a poet, and he loved thee above women, "And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne clustered around by all her starry fays" whereof I being one, loved him that he loved Thee! But he died in the city of Mars and the Wolf, before I could make him even aware of me. I am come hither to seek immolation; I am weary of the pale beauty of Levanah; I will seek him, at the price of death. I deny our life; I crucify myself unto the God we dare not name. I go. Hail and farewell!"
She flung up her arm in a wild gesture of renunciation, and came closer to the Cone. She would not [231] haste, lest her will prove but impulse; she poised her breast deliberately over the Cone. Then, with fierce zest, so that the one blow might end all, she thrust herself vehemently down upon the blazing spike.
At that moment Iliel swooned. She felt that something had happened to her, something tremendous; and her brain turned crazily in her. But as she lost consciousness she was still aware of the last phase of the vision: that the sacrifice of Malkah had created a void in the ranks of the Amazon armies of the Moon; and she saw them and their mist of blue, licked up in the swirl of the vortex. The whole of the invoked forces were sucked up into her as Malkah in her death-agony took possession of that basis of materialization. Heroic -- and presumptuous; for of all the qualities that go to make humanity she had but one, and she would have to shift, for the rest, with orts of inheritance. Among mankind she would be a stranger, a being without conscious race-experience, liable to every error that a partial view of life can make. Ill indeed for such a one who is without the wardenship of high initiates! It was for Cyril Grey to keep her unspotted from the world, to utilize those powers which she wielded in pre-eminence from her inheritance in the white sphere of Levanah!
When Sister Clara came to summon Iliel, she found her still in swoon. They carried her to her room. At noon she recovered consciousness.
Cyril Grey was seated by her bed. To her surprise, he was dressed in mundane attire, an elegant lounge suit of lavender.
"Have you seen the papers?" he cried gaily. "Neapolitan Entomologists capture rare butterfly, genus Schedbarshamoth Scharthathan, species Malkah be-Tharshishim ve-Ruachoth ha-Sche-halim!" [232]"
The Unicorn represents Chesed, but in this case on LXV it represents the PLAN/INTENT to the manifestation of the infernals, being Chesed the following one.
It's not by accident a falic, white and wild symbol with a silver collar. It falls head first opening the ways.