The original covers of Book Four (both parts) have in the top right-hand corner the Greek letters Tau, Delta and My. Does anybody know the significance of these letters?
As they are next to (or above) to the numeration 444, could it be a (deliberate) mistake?
Tav, Daleth and Mem add up to 444 in Hebrew gematria.
In Greek isopsephy these in turn add up to 344 (which also shares the value with Magical (μαγικός)). Because Tau has a value of 300 in isosephy instead of the Hebrew Taw having the value of 400.
Thank you, Behemoth - my thinking exactly. 444 would, of course have been Ypsilon, My, Delta. I find it difficult to believe that Crowley would make such an error, but won't dismiss the possibility off hand. It is, after all, an easy mistake to make.
Really, this shifting between QBLS that have different values is rather distressing. It is, of course, a reflection (or perhaps the cause) of The Great Tower of Balylon, which became babbled. This is why one star cannot know another well.
For numerologists, being able to shift the goalposts is very useful. It's like if something adds up to 13, which is unlucky, but the numerologist doesn't want a bad answer, so he carries on: "and 3+1=4, which is perfection."
Add words, change from American to English spelling, use old or new alphabets - there are scores of ways to make sure you get the result you were aiming for.
For numerologists, being able to shift the goalposts is very useful. It's like if something adds up to 13
Oh, yes, I understand. I started in QBL in 1965. I know knew all the tricks. I could even demonstrate the Crowley method of fiddling (but never to the point of committing a Bafometr).
Of course it's unlucky. They say it became unlucky ...
"On Friday, October 13, 1307, all the Templars in France, including deMolay, were arrested and interrogated by command of Philip IV, who was intent on crushing the order and seizing its wealth."
This, supposedly, was the origin of the dreaded "Friday the 13th" (not the movie, although that follows the curse). We could even drag in Judas as the 13th.
- there are scores of ways to make sure you get the result you were aiming for.
Plus reinforcing the concept, and neural pathway leading to and from Hod, that one has "prooved" ("proven") to be that perfect 4
QBL is a tool (there are others) to Order The Mind. It is not a tool for creating. Creating comes from higher, and the creating magician uses the QBL tool, usually as an afterthought. That's an "ideal" picture. Hod sometimes gets itself confused with being the boss.
Thank you, Behemoth - my thinking exactly. 444 would, of course have been Ypsilon, My, Delta. I find it difficult to believe that Crowley would make such an error, but won't dismiss the possibility off hand. It is, after all, an easy mistake to make.
Markus
It is either that, or as I said, a deliberate mistake.
The title "Book 4" in Hebrew would be סֵפֶר4 as in (Sefer/Sepher = SPR + 4), again sharing the same value as 344 and the isopsephy value of the characters/word ΤΔΜ.
Here is the original cover Markus is talking about:
Anyone else has something to add to this topic (apart from scornful diary entries against numerologists) and perhaps help Markus uncover what the letters ΤΔΜ are supposed to represent?
Another troll from the master-troll then? Or just a mistake by the designer which AC could then retroactively say was deliberate?
Could be something like that, I still don't think it might be an error considering "LIBER ABA" in Hebrew as "ספר אבא" also shares the value 344, so perhaps ΤΔΜ = 344 is not some sort of isosephy-gematria-value mixup, but some sort of entry that Crowley found signifcant perhaps in Greek.
Then again, I have no idea what the ΤΔΜ even means in this context, but considering it is on the cover it might be somehow related to the Book's name and theme.
I thought a bibliographer might have more to say, but Timothy d'Arch Smith's The Books of the Beast is just as scant as chapter 70 of Confessions, so I'm not sure how to proceed.
I even searched through some papyri looking for any 'magic words' that could be acronymized into TDM.
Posted by: @behemoth
"LIBER ABA" in Hebrew as "ספר אבא" also shares the value 344, so perhaps ΤΔΜ = 344 is not some sort of isosephy-gematria-value mixup, but some sort of entry that Crowley found signifcant perhaps in Greek.
I was wondering about something like this earlier. I find it distasteful to call anything a coincidence in this context, but I will say this might be a thread so bare we may do better not to follow it.
I thought a bibliographer might have more to say, but Timothy d'Arch Smith's The Books of the Beast is just as scant as chapter 70 of Confessions, so I'm not sure how to proceed.
I even searched through some papyri looking for any 'magic words' that could be acronymized into TDM.
Likewise, I am baffled.
Liber 231/Arcanorum's entry for Daleth (letter 4) at least shows ΤΔ part similar/identical to the letters in the Book 4 cover, but I do not know is this related.
You (or rather your cybernetic persona) are very kind, Duck, to give such constructive thought to my reply which was itself a touch - now what would be the best word? - whimsiecal! I don't really have the time to spare at the moment either, and must admit it doesn't figure highly on my "must-{to}-do" list. Maybe someone else will be able to take things further; we will have to see in due course.
Regarding the TD[elta]M, I don't know what it represents either, but now it's been brought to attention would be interesting to find out, if anyone can supply.
Wishing you [all] a very pleasant Sunday teatime, [at time of writing]
Wishing you [all] a very pleasant Sunday teatime, [at time of writing]
You posted at 4:59 PM (British Tea Time). But here (NM-USA), it was only 9:59 (at your B.T.T.). We don't drink tea at ten in the morning. I don't drink tea at all. Alas!
? No spare tyre time here. Not a bit. From early morning to setting sun, a householder's work is never done. I don't even remember what I/we/he needed time for. Stop.
Shiva: "I don't even remember what I/we/he needed time for. Stop."
JJB: "Growing old? It doesn't matter much as it's all relative. "Start"?"
By AC's logic time is not a thing in itself, merely a convenient category (one of many such) by reference to which we can distinguish objects from each other. And with respect to AC's book The Vision and the Voice, that book ends with hinting at a state man can reach up to, transcending all dualism, like for example the dualism of stop and start:
"I realized that space was not a thing in itself, merely a convenient category (one of many such) by reference to which we can distinguish objects from each other. When I say I was in any Aethyr, I simply mean in the state characteristic of, and peculiar to, its nature."
(Source: Chapter 66 - The Confessions of Aleister Crowley)
I even searched through some papyri looking for any 'magic words' that could be acronymized into TDM.
Posted by: @behemoth
One (last?) tea time thoughts since Djedi speculated ΤΔΜ might stand for some Magic words (or a formula?)
In Liber ABA/Book Four Crowley describes the Hanged Man and the Symbolism of the Cup: The water in this Cup (the latter is also a heart, as shown by the transition from the ancient to the modern Tarot; the suit "Hearts" in old packs of cards, and even in modern Spanish and Italian cards, is called "Cups") is the letter "Mem" (the Hebrew word for water), which has for its Tarot trump the Hanged Man. This Hanged Man represents the Adept hanging by one heel from a gallows, which is in the shape of the letter Daleth -- the letter of the Empress, the heavenly Venus in the Tarot. His legs form a cross, his arms a triangle, as if by his equilibrium and self-sacrifice he were bringing the light down and establishing it even in the abyss. Elementary as this is, it is a very satisfactory hieroglyph of the Great Work, though the student is warned that the obvious sentimental interpretation will have to be discarded as soon as it has been understood. It is a very noble illusion, and therefore a very dangerous one, to figure one's self as the Redeemer. For, of all the illusions in this Cup -- the subtler and purer they are, the more difficult they are to detect
Usually the card is also described as: The card shows a man hanging by one foot from a Tau cross – sometimes from a bar or tree. His legs are bent to form a cross, while his arms form an triangle. (Perhaps being similar to the ΤΔ part) and also according to Crowley: the arms are stretched out at an angle of 60° so as to form an equilateral triangle; this gives the symbol of the Triangle surmounted by the Cross, which represents the descent of the light into the darkness in order to redeem it
In terms of Book Four/Liber ABA's cover art, ΤΔΜ might symbolize multiplication. Crowley writing in Liber Aba:
Therefore the Cup is placed upon the Altar, which is foursquare, will multiplied by will, the confirmation of the will in the Magical Oath, its fixation in Law.
Meaning the multiplication, in this case, being that of 4,44,444 or 11x44. And/or also considering the fact that ABA = Father and according to Crowley the Hanged Man formula symbolizing an invention of the Adepts of the I.N.R.I.-I.A.O. formula and was proper In the former Aeon, that of Osiris the Father
Liber 231/Arcanorum's entry for Daleth (letter 4) at least shows ΤΔ part similar/identical to the letters in the Book 4 cover, but I do not know is this related.
For the four or fours are expressed interestingly enough by various triplicities of form, number and letter.... A delta as a triangle...or how the fours are so drawn...
Spin things around and we get DMT which ultimately seems to be part of the point of where the tech is pointing but is not the point and not part of the pharmacological lexicon at that point...though at this point there might be some elves high fiving....
Didn't the Book have to do with a vision of a house with a palm tree....and that had something to do with the title that came with the visions induced by various so called workings...time to pull out the Hagiography...
His legs are bent to form a cross, while his arms form an triangle.
Just as the glyph of the closed four has 'legs' which form a cross, and an 'arm' that forms a triangle.
The modern glyph, 4, evolved from a simple cross, so these mysteries were always incipient in the formula of Book Four.
Yes, the Dying God/Sleep of Siloam pose/attitude is also perhaps, intentionally or unintentionally, echoed in the number '444' that might have served some significance during Crowley's Magus initiation(s) related to the The Cross of a Frog/STAUROS BATRACHOU ceremony.
Crowley writing his Diary of a Magus (The Urn, Liber 73) describing the ritual/ceremony: "The theory of the Operation was to identify the toad with the 'Dying God' and slay it. At the same time I caused the elemental spirit of the slain reptile to serve me."
The intentional or unintentional sense being that the biblical Hebrew word for toad/frog/frogs is צפרדע and this word also adds up to the number 444 in Hebrew gematria. Then again, Crowley describes the significance of the toad/frog symbolism by following logick: in this Ritual the Chief Officer representeth a Snake, because of Mercury. (The proper food of snakes is frogs.)
When it comes to legs and arms of '4', Crowley instructs: Presently thou shalt take down the frog from the cross and divide it into two parts; the legs shalt thou cook and eat as a sacrament to confirm thy compact with the frog; and the rest shalt thou burn utterly with fire, to consume finally the aeon of the accursed one. So mote it be!
Of course, there isn't much on a frog that you can eat but the legs, as Frenchmen and rednecks know.
I utterly doubt that AC ever actually did this ritual. I don't think it is physically possible.
Anyone with any experience handling frogs who thinks different is invited to explain how one could crucify a frog in the first place. Their front arms face down, not sideways.They aren't very cross-shaped, unlike humans.
Also, if you somehow get around that one, how its poor little front paws could provide a place to get any "nail" much larger than a sewing pin through- not much flesh there, or how those "nails" could support its weight for even a second.
Remember, we are talking plain ol' New England bullfrogs, so no explanations involving any kind of fancy foreign frogs need apply.
If you bend a frog's front arms back, they will barely stick out past his body. There is no flesh in the "hands" that is going to let you pierce it with anything, and if you do, the weight will instantly rip through that tiny amount of flesh, and your frog will be hanging by his feet (if you've gotten a nail through them, no mean, um, feat, in itself).
Show me. Google reveals much art of crucified anthropomorphized frogs, and zero real photos of real frogs crucified.
or how those "nails" could support its weight for even a second.
This is also a trouble when crucifying humans. Those fancy depictions of the LORD hung up on the crucifix are rarely accurate to the methods used by the Romans. You have to drive the nails through high on the arms, or tie the damned up to the cross.
Not really, no, though it clearly is more viable than nailing it up.
Those pics are just what i meant when i said "no explanations involving any kind of fancy foreign frogs need apply". Both frogs appear to be the same kind of frog, with a tiny body, and much longer front legs, as compared to a bullfrog. Also nothing much to its back legs = nothing to eat.
They turn out to be, after a quick google, to be an Amazonian tree-frog, Phyllomedusa bicolor, that is used in a Brazilian Indian practice i'd never heard of, kambo/vacina do sapo.
But any frogs AC was crucifying in New Hampshire would have been of a totally different species and indeed genus, the much much larger, and very differently shaped, American bullfrog (or Lithobates catesbeianus to his friends). A bullfrog has, as you can see, tiny, stubby, little front legs, and an enormous fat body, and long, meaty, yummy, legs. About 4-6 inches snout to tail, around a half pound to a pound in weight. Not so crucifiable.
Note that tricky ol' AC tells us to "release the frog from the chest with many acts of homage and place it in apparent liberty" [emphasis added], but cannily advises us that ol' froggy should be "covered with a net". They can jump around 4-8 feet (1.3-2.5 meters), so this was good advice. And they are quick bastards; i spent my youth catching and eating them, and it ain't easy.
AC advises that the net-covered frog should "be placed on a quilt of many colours" during the "many acts of homage" phase of the ritual.
One imagines Miss Adams must have been thrilled at the condition of her quilt, all covered with frog slime, frog excreta, and frog blood, when she reclaimed her cottage. Probably she deducted the dry-cleaning costs from his royalties for the astrology work.
But any frogs AC was crucifying in New Hampshire would have been of a totally different species and indeed genus, the much much larger, and very differently shaped, American bullfrog (or Lithobates catesbeianus to his friends).
Is this the thelemic version of triclavianism?
It ain't exactly a mythbusters episode, but if anyone should ever wish to test the crucifiability of certain amphibians, here's a list of the frogs of New Hampshire, courtesy of the state: https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/nongame/frogs.html
Speaking as to the ritual, according to the G.'.D.'. apprehension of the magical significance of the actual crucifixion, the important thing would be to append the frog to the crucifix and kill it. Modeling exactly a miniature Golgotha isn't necessary. It could very well have been that AC fixed the frog to the cross belly down, or in any other configuration which would have allowed for the operation. Maybe he stuck it through holes in the net.
Your range of reference never ceases to impress. Few indeed can make both this joke, and your "Flying Rolls" joke- it's one or the other with the few that can come up with either. I don't think i have ever heard of Jesus getting nailed with four nails before.
"Appending" any kind of frog by any means to a cross, without killing it first would be a very challenging business.
Offered without comment- the section on the voice of the bullfrog, verbatim, from the NH state conservation site @djedi links to:
Voice: A series of deep base notes resembling the phrase “jug-o-rum.” Males begin calling in May and June.
Here is audio of our pal Lithobates catesbeianus saying "Jug-o-rum!", in a short film about their ways.
This does not really capture the audio impact of a few hundred horny male frogs calling in the summer. I grew up in a valley with two small ponds, and a good bit of swampland; there were many. They are very loud, and would inspire many to think about crucifying them, and also about eating them.
Does the title of Liber jugorum have some more likely source than a typical AC "perversion cloaked in holy language" joke on the Victorian phrase "jugum penis" for the genital manacle now generally called a "cock ring" (albeit with teeth)?
It's a bit over a century now. With the old-aeoners still hanging on pretty well, even if they're a bit concerned, it seems frog magic works somewhat slowly.
Posted by: @djedi
It ain't exactly a mythbusters episode
No, it isn't. It (all of the scriptures and forum posts) is a description of sympathetic magic. You know, you do something in miniature and then certain changes (in one's self or in external reality, or in the Aeonic mindset of a civilization) take place ... and nobody can tell the reason why the change occurred, except for magicians who read the Frog Writual and the Commentary.
The Crucifixion scene was chosen because Crowley had a beef with Christianity. Too bad the Romans didn't use Christian [+] Crosses. They used either Tau [T] perpendicular "crosses," or they used a single [I] pole. (djedi, please fact check). So the Christians were confused, thus adopting false symbols for true, thus the present-day mess in the world. But Crowley was against the Christian symbol, so that works out okay.
From the Magickal viewpoint, the "result" of the rite would depend on the accuracy of the selection of the correspondences (cross, frog, mercury, snake) as well as the level of consciousness of the operator (was he operating out of Chokmah at the critical point?).
Anyway, we need not dissect the matter (as I had to do in those disgusting physiology and zoology courses), For crowley himself announces success by way of a secretary showing up who looked exactly like the frog. What else do you want?
Posted by: @djedi
the magical significance of the actual crucifixion, the important thing would be to append the frog to the crucifix and kill it.
And in the Entrance Rite of the Knight Templar (VI*), reflecting Geburah, the candidate gets to undergo the fixing and killing of J. deMolay. In that case, a pole is used and the heretic is burned. He is not eaten. He is somehow resurrected as a Knight by swearing vengeance..
"On the 14th day of March 1314, he was bound to a stake surrounded by combustible materials, and the torch of the executioner applied.
(Done.)"
".C.: What is your name?
K.S.: (For Knight.) I have no name.
G.C.: By what right do you demand admission?
K.S.: (For Knight.) I have no right.
G.C.: Who has the right?
K.S.: No one has the right.
(All drop swords. Kt. enters as all retain station."
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Michael/...0Secret%20Rituals%20of%20the%20O.T.O/p2c8.html (6 of 13) [12/28/2001 2:05:02 PM] The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.
I see certain parallels here, but then the Grade of Magus is reflected onto Geburah, so it's all the same, and it is all based on anti-Christianity.
Send me one and I will try? Just don't tell the missus.
I think the picture was in a book/on a site about toad magick from those Cultus Sabbati types. I don't really feel like searching 'toad/frog crucifixion' in my work computer .
Thus "jugum penis" for a cock-ring with sharp teeth inside- a penis-yoke. Not at all uncommon as a training aid for young men in AC's younger days.
Which is why i wonder if the liber title might be not a reference to that particular kind of yoke, which discourages erections by pain, rather similarly to how Jugorum purports to offer control over the mind via pain.
Liber jugorum would be "The book of one's yokes"- as you say, it's plural, and "genitive" indicates possession, i think, though i am far from a Latin scholar.
In any case, it's also what bullfrogs say when they are anxious to mate.
These 'yokes' (or "unions" = yogas), specifically are the Indriyas. They are especially difficult when they are subconscious, repressed, or hypno-programmed. The Indriyas are psychic/etheric lines of force that "attach" us to any given thing (person, book, job, prophet, car, etc). They must be severed ("cutting the ties that bind") or the aspirant will dwell forever at The Netzach Lobby and Retirement Home.
Pratyahara, a subject never properly explained by AC to give me any understanding and I had to go to the Hindu source, is "withdrawal from the senses," also called "sublimation," is the practice of identifying and dissolving the Indriyas, which are most difficult There is also a magical method (not in the Liberi) for cutting these attachments.
-----------
Lest I keep anyone hanging, I have returned with an extract from the sixth degree that gives a nice, clean list of iconography and Who's Who? in the Thelemic Knighthood. You will note that AC revised the ordeal to conform to The Aeonic Upgrade.
G.C.: Unveil the Graal!
(All sheathe swords. C.B. takes cup, drinks and offers to G.C. Each, as he drinks says:
1. To the Glory of Nuit who is Babalon who is Isis.
2. To the Glory of Hadit who is Chaos who is Apophis.
3. To the Glory of Hoor Khuit who is The Beast who is On.
4. To the Glory of our first master three in One — Sol-Om-On!
5. To the Glory of our Master Jacobus Burgundus Molensis.
6. To the Glory of the O.H.O.
7. To the Glory of the Grand Master Baphomet.
The 7 libations being accomplished.)
G.C.: Sir Knight, you will lead the procession. Let us travel in the path of the Sun!
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Michael/...0Secret%20Rituals%20of%20the%20O.T.O/p2c8.html (9 of 13) [12/28/2001 2:05:02 PM] The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.
I recommend the armchair study of the VI* as a Geburian point-of-view of religious politics.
These 'yokes' (or "unions" = yogas), specifically are the Indriyas...
They must be severed...
I think I know what you're saying but mixing these analogies gets a bit "messy" for me. In the method you describe, these "yokes" are something negative that must be severed but in Jugorum the "yokes" are something positive that allow you to tame word, thought and action so you are fully in control of them.
"Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free"
I guess the method you describe and Jugorum's method lead to the same result in the end. If one wanted to mix these analogies, you could say that instead of severing these "psychic/etheric lines of force" one becomes "yoked" to them and so is fully in control of them and so is free of them.
I think I know what you're saying but mixing these analogies gets a bit "messy" for me. In the method you describe, these "yokes" are something negative that must be severed but in Jugorum the "yokes" are something positive that allow you to tame word, thought and action so you are fully in control of them.
Jugoru m is one practice that Kenneth grant and I both do not recommend. I see why you might confuse the two different applications.
Jugorum does not work. The path associated with it, the Tower, represents "control of thought," but that lightning flash tells us it's a dhyana flash-bang that STOPS the mind ... temporarily. Jugorum does not do this. It merely imitates it by imposing "controls." There's nothing wrong with controls, it's just that something is displaced right here on this path ... and on this forum.
The Crucifixion scene was chosen because Crowley had a beef with Christianity. Too bad the Romans didn't use Christian [+] Crosses. They used either Tau [T] perpendicular "crosses," or they used a single [I] pole. (djedi, please fact check). So the Christians were confused, thus adopting false symbols for true, thus the present-day mess in the world. But Crowley was against the Christian symbol, so that works out okay.
For crowley himself announces success by way of a secretary showing up who looked exactly like the frog. What else do you want?
Apart from acquiring froggy resembling secretary it was also described by Crowley as And this ceremony shalt serve also as a ceremonial assumption of the Curse of the Grade of a Magus 9°=2□ A∴A∴.
The title Σταυρος Βατραχου (Cross of a Frog) most likely selected in Greek so as to serve as a reference to the following KJV passage:
Revelation 16:13
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Meaning this, because in the Greek original text both the words θηριον (Therion, Crowley's motto/role as a Magus) and the word Βατραχου/βατραχοι appear.
It's a bit over a century now. With the old-aeoners still hanging on pretty well, even if they're a bit concerned, it seems frog magic works somewhat slowly.
In the context of unclean spirits/pneuma akatharton, that are also associated with the false prophets in Old Testament, the efficacy of getting rid of the "old aeon" would probably not be judged by the total erasement of X-tianity, Christian churches, Christian monuments and X-tians themselves, but rather, the aim of false prophets and their pneuma akatharton (unclean spirit) being meant as a corrupting influence and becoming a synonymous as a symptom of a fallen, apostate Christianity which leads people "of true faith" astray as did the false prophets of the Old Testament where pseudoprophetai ("false prophets") speak in the name of Yahweh but are possessed by an "unclean spirit".
