by Michael Staley
from
OrdoTempliOrientisPhenomenon
Website
Lam!
Thou Voice of the Silence,
Glyph of Hoor-paar-kraat:
The Dwarf-Self, the Hidden God.
Gateway to the Aeon of Maat!
I evoke Thee! I evoke Thee!
With the mantra Talam-Malat,
Talam-Malat,
Talam-Malat ... |
|
Crowley’s portrait of
Lam, entitled ’The
Way’, was first published in 1919 as a frontispiece to his
Commentary on Blavatsky’s The Voice of the Silence. However, nowhere
else in Crowley’s work is there a mention of it until 1945, when a
diary entry records
Kenneth Grant’s interest. It is clear, however,
that the portrait arose in connection with
the Amalantrah Working of
1918-19, when Crowley lived in New York. Unfortunately, the Record
of that Working which survives consists of the first six months
only. Nevertheless, it is clear from a study of this surviving
material that the portrait of Lam embodies the quintessence of the
Working.
The absence of Crowley’s exegesis on Lam gives us a great deal of
freedom and creativity to discover the implications for ourselves,
and to use them as magical and mystical tools in our initiation. The
portrait was republished in Grant’s book The Magical Revival in
1972, and several times since - see, for instance,
the Statement on
Lam by the O.T.O. published in Starfire Volume I number 3 (London,
1989).
There is much material on Lam in the more recent books by Grant;
however, a definitive interpretation has yet to emerge. This is
because we are dealing with something that is living and growing,
rather than a matter simply of academic study.
Nevertheless, a broad outline is emerging, enough to make clear the
primary function of Lam as the Gateway to wider and deeper ranges of
consciousness - our extra-terrestrial, pan-dimensional Reality. In
fact, anything whatsoever can function as the Gateway to those
dimensions. The supreme glyph of Enlightenment is the
lightning-flash, the swift awakening to Reality, which illuminates
the landscape previously shrouded in darkness. The lightning flash
can be triggered at any time, and by anything, when the conditions
are propitious. The accumulation of glamour around the Cult of Lam
makes it a Gateway which is pre-eminently accessible, however. The
association with
The Voice of the Silence makes it clear that
Lam is
a glyph of that Voice - the Babe in the Egg, Harpocrates, the
God of
Silence.
This is Hoor-paar-kraat, the dwarf-self
or Hidden God which is the Holy Guardian Angel. Here is a deep and
powerful link; Hoor-paar-kraat is the copula with the unbroken,
ever-coming substratum of consciousness which is Maat or the Tao,
and of which we are terrestrial refractions. It is because of the
intimate, intrinsic nature of this connection that every Initiate
needs to forge his or her own link with Lam, and thus to develop an
idiosyncratic Cult of Lam. The evocation reproduced at the outset of
this essay is an example, being part of the present author’s Lam sadhana, encapsulating the awareness of Lam outlined above.
Crowley gave the portrait to Kenneth Grant in 1945. Since then the
significance of Lam has become more apparent. This significance can
be glimpsed in the Amalantrah Working, but its applications reach
well beyond; were this not the case, then Lam would be nothing more
than an exotic curio in the museum of Crowleyanity. The emerging
Cult of Lam is of central importance to Starfire; for now, though,
this article looks at some of the seeds in the Amalantrah Working
and related areas. Appended are two accounts of contemporary Lam
Workings which have been submitted to us [on-line is only ONE
appendix]. The first of these draws on Enochian approaches; the
second makes use of the magical technique outlined in the Statement
on Lam published in the third issue of Starfire.
Crowley went to the United States in 1914, at the outbreak of the
First World War, and stayed there until 1919. This period covers the
core of his initiation into the A.’. A.’. grade of Magus. These
years were marked by an ever-deepening insight into and affinity
with Taoism, as is made plain in the course of the Preface to his
Tao Teh Ching - actually a revision of James Legge’s earlier
translation. This insight saturates
Liber Aleph, The Book of Wisdom
or Folly, the manuscript of which was almost complete by the opening
of the Amalantrah Working. Liber Aleph is a central work of
Crowley’s, where he makes clear the deep affinity between Taoism and
Thelema; without an appreciation of this affinity, Liber Aleph
appears as little more than a scattering of aphorisms. The Amalantrah Working needs to be seen in the context of this
initiation.
According to Crowley’s account, the Working arose spontaneously. He
was living with a mistress at the time, Roddie Minor. One of her
indulgences was opium, the opulent visions of which she related
aloud. On one particular occasion, her apparent ramblings struck
Crowley as bearing on the Abuldiz Working of some years previously,
and after some astral investigation he decided that there were
indeed threads of the earlier Working which were being picked up;
thus opened
the Amalantrah Working.
Crowley inaugurated regular
sessions, which usually took place at the weekends. He seemed
interested primarily in its use as an oracle for his affairs over
the forthcoming week. Although there were many such short-term
oracular pronouncements, there was also a wealth of more substantial
material.
Amalantrah is the name of the entity with whom Crowley trafficked
over the course of the Working. Communication was never direct, but
via a medium or Seer who was sensitized by sex, drugs and alcohol in
various combinations. Because of the effects of these preliminaries,
the earthing of the communications was sometimes poor, their
expression rambling and diffuse; the wheat needs to be separated
from the chaff, therefore, when considering the Record. The Seer was
usually Roddie Minor, although on a few occasions other women did
assume the Office. The visions often opened in a woodland Temple
which was perceived astrally by the Seer; this Temple was sometimes
peopled by apparent doubles of those participating, and included on
occasions absent colleagues.
Several of the early visions are very suggestive of the portrait of
Lam. Consider, for example, the following:
I began by asking for a vision
containing a message. I first heard gurgling water and saw a
dark farmhouse in among trees and green fields. The house and
other things disappeared and a dark yoni appeared just where the
house had stood. I then asked where will a message come from?
Immediately soldiers with guns appeared lounging about the
place, and a king on a throne where the house had stood. I then
asked again for a message and saw an egg in which were many tiny
convolutions of some flesh-like substance which would form
something. The egg was placed in an oblong as in a picture.
Around it were clouds, trees, mountains and water, called the ’four elements’. A camel appeared in front of the whole picture.
I next tried to find out who the king was. He looked more like
Prof. Shotwell than any one else. That is, he was ’simple,
democratic’ and very learned and fine. He was certainly not a
king belonging to any kingdom limited by a country’s borders,
but he was a king of men, or a king of the world. I asked his
name and the word ’Ham’ appeared between the egg in the oblong
and the soldiers around the king.
The Egg is a commonly-occurring glyph
throughout the visions of the Amalantrah Working. It is of course a
glyph of birth - the egg which contains the potential of all that is
to come. There is a reference in one of the visions to Geburah ’applied to’ the egg.
Geburah is in this context the sword which
cleaves the egg, or the lightning flash which sunders it, giving
birth to the potential secreted within. Since elements of this
particular vision are the foundation for much of the subsequent
analysis, an extract from the Record follows. In this extract, ’T’
is Therion, and ’A’ is Achitha, the motto of the Seer,
Roddie Minor. ’The Wizard’ is Amalantrah. ’Arcteon’ is the motto which was given
to Charles Stansfeld Jones by Amalantrah. The bracketed material in
the Record indicates both lacunae and asides by Crowley or others.
[Saturday] 27th April 1918 10.08 p.m. Wizard very serious and looks
at Achitha in a very contemplative mood. Seems to approve. Turtle is
most prominent thing in Temple. Child is there, lion and Barzedon.
Arcteon has a very prominent place; he is a tall man that always
appears in the Temple.
T: ’What
is the work of this weekend?’
A: ’Geburah.’
T: ’Geburah applied to what?’
A: ’The egg. The egg is resting on the point of
mountain tops, very sharp. Water around, lotus flowers on
it.’
T: ’Egg is symbol of some new knowledge, isn’t it?’
A: ’Gimel. Lamed.’ (= spring, fountain.)
T: ’What does that mean?’
A: ’I don’ t know; followed symbol of mountain and
lotus flower.’
T: ’How are we to break open the egg?’
A: ’In plain language it means Thou art to go this
Way.’
T: ’That isn’t plain language. How are we to get this
new knowledge?’
A: ’Don’t ask questions too fast. Sow the wild oats;
go into the (...) into the Mother ... (T[herion]: You bet,
you bet.) (A[rcteon]: I think you’re both getting off the
trolly.) ... to be born again.’
T: ’What about the Mass of the Holy Ghost?’
A: ’That hasn’t anything to do with it. You’ve
shattered everything. I’ll have to establish connection all
over again. Going into the Mother to be born again, you get
a New Life and then the Earth is covered with wonderful
flowers, and bees come to the flowers to get honey to store,
and the honey is stored elixir. I see a hill very steep. (I
think (...) is played out.) Mother standing (...) down
watching child. I don’t know if she’s going to save it or go
after it or what. Lotus flower on water again.’
The references to the lotus flower in
association with the egg, and later the child, are significant. They
suggest the Babe in the Egg, Harpocrates, often depicted as seated
upon a lotus flower. The mountain is a symbol of initiation, of
communing with the gods; examples are Mount Arunachala and Mount Kailas, and the story of Moses ascending the mountain to receive the
Word of God. The Hebrew letters Gimel and Lamed give
GL, which means ’spring, fountain’.
The portrait of Lam shows clearly a
mottled emanation or umbra from the top of the egg, like the dappled
effect of a fountain in sunlight, or the ’fountain of dew’ which
showers from the Sahasrara chakra when the Fire Snake streaks up the
Sushumna. The original publication of the portrait in 1919 did not
show this, presumably because it was too subtle for the reproduction
techniques then prevalent; subsequent publications in The Magical
Revival (1972), Outside the Circles of Time (1980), and
Starfire
Volume I number 3 (1989) show it clearly, however. The Record of the
last surviving session of the Working makes further reference to Gimel and
Lamed, as the following extract shows:
[Sunday] 16th June 1918 9.00
P.M. Wizard very natural - usual folk there.
T: ’Symbol for next week?’
A: ’245.’ (perfect man; gall; RVCH AL (Spirit of
God).)
T: ’Explain, please.’
A: ’83 explains one side of it.’ (83 = dew, wave
etc.) ’74 explains rest.’ (74 = ??? etc.)
83 = Gimel 74 = Lamed
33. Spring, fountain. Perhaps all means the way is clear.
Here Gimel and Lamed are again
mentioned, this time as the two sides of Perfection which are
integrated in Adam Qadmon, the Perfect Man. This reference to
Perfection suggests the Tao; it also suggests Maat as the Perfect
Aeon. Gimel and Lamed when enumerated in full are 83 and 74
respectively, and combine as 157, the number which Crowley assigned
to his reworking of Legge’s Tao Teh Ching translation. He completed
the reworking during his Magical Retirement at Oesipus Island in the
summer of 1918; and he relates in the published Preface how he
evoked Amalantrah to elucidate certain obscure passages. The
attribution of 157 to his Tao Teh Ching, then, gives us further
confirmation of the Taoist substratum of the Amalantrah Working, and
reinforces the identification of Perfection with the Tao.
The portrait of Lam shows a well-developed Ajna chakra, which can
also be seen as a stylised ankh. Together with the pattern of the
umbra mentioned earlier, the shape of a cup or chalice is clearly
delineated. GL also means a ’bowl’ or ’chalice’. This suggests that
if Gimel and Lamed are the two sides of Perfection, then Perfection
is the Supreme Chalice or Graal, the Cup of Babalon, the Womb of the
Mother. This interpretation is underlined by a passage in Crowley’s
Commentary to Liber LXV (The Book of the Heart Girt with the
Serpent):
Pe is the letter of Atu XVI the
’House of God’ or ’Blasted Tower’. The hieroglyph represents a
Tower - symbolic of the ego in its phallic aspect, yet shut up,
i.e. separate. This Tower is smitten by the Lightning Flash of
illumination, the impact of the H.G.A. and the Flaming Sword of
the Energy that proceeds from Kether to Malkuth. Thence are cast
forth two figures representing by their attitude the letter Ayin:
these are the twins (Horus and Harpocrates) born at the breaking
open of the Womb of the m other (the second aspect of The Tower
as ’a spring shut up, a fountain sealed’).
This passage underlines the mention
earlier of Geburah ’applied to’ the egg, the lightning flash being
in this context a type of Geburah. We have, then, an identity
between the Tao and the Cup of Babalon, both being Perfection; and,
of course, ’The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two;
nay, are none!" (AL I.45). The reference to ’a spring shut up, a
fountain sealed’ is from the Song of Solomon:
A garden barred is my sister, my
bride, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
This indicates a pregnant womb, rather
than a celebration of virginity: to shut up or seal is to obstruct
something which has formerly flowed. It is, then, an apt phrase to
be used by Crowley in the context of the quote above from his
Commentary to Liber LXV. Moreover, it recalls a passage from
Kenneth
Grant’s The Magical Revival:
Crowley used the
sevenfold star as a
basis for the Seal which he designed for the Great White
Brotherhood. The major emblem of the Silver Star is thus the
sevenfold seal upon the Yoni of the Star Goddess. In the yonis
or triangles appear the seven letters of the name B.A.B.A.L.O.N.
Centrally, a vesica is shown, blocked or barred, indicating the
presence of the secret seed; the point has become the line, the
diameter has become the circumference. This seed is the ’hermit’, the hidden, masked, anonymous male essence in the
process of begetting its image as the Sun-son upon the mother
goddess. This is therefore the Seal of Set who opens his
mother’s womb, as Sothis the Star opens the Circle of the Year.
(Grant, The Magical Revival, p.48)
Set is Hoor-paar-kraat, the
’secret
seed’, the Hidden God, released from the egg by the shattering force
of the lightning flash of illumination. In Olla, Crowley defines
Silence as the Path of the Lightning Flash. Silence in this context
is not simply the absence of noise or movement: it is the ’still,
small voice’ from which manifestation unfolds, the potential which
gives rise to the actual, the noumena which underlies phenomenon.
The Egg of Silence is typified by Lam; to embark on the
Cult of Lam
is therefore to evoke the Hidden God, the Holy Guardian Angel. This
is Initiation, the journey inwards which is simultaneously the
journey outwards, for the microcosm and the macrocosm are not two
but one. Lam is the Gateway to Outside - those tranches of
consciousness which lie beyond the bounds of what we consider to be
ourselves.
This Gateway, and these tranches, are nothing new. The goal of all
magical and mystical traditions is Gnosis - the awakening to
Reality. The nominalizations of this goal are legion, but all paths
lead to Rome. Similarly, each Initiate will have his or her own
Gateway, but each Gateway will open out onto the same Reality.
Let us now analyze briefly the evocation which was reproduced at the
outset of this essay.
Lam!
Thou Voice of the Silence ...
Crowley’s association of the portrait of
Lam with
The Voice of the Silence identifies it as a glyph of that
Voice. The association is underlined by the
assignation of 71 to
both the portrait and the Commentary, as is made clear by the
inscription which accompanied the portrait as originally published:
LAM is the Tibetan word for
Way or
Path, and LAMA is He who Goeth, the specific title of the Gods
of Egypt, the Treader of the Path, in Buddhistic phraseology.
Its numerical value is 71, the number of this book.
A metathesis of LAM is
ALM, also 71, a
Hebrew word meaning silence, silent’. The Silence is the noumenon
which underlies and infuses phenomena, the continuum of which all
things soever are simultaneously facets and the whole. The Silence
is the quietness at the heart of noise, the stillness at the heart
of activity, the being at the heart of going, and the emptiness at
the heart of matter. These juxtapositions may seem merely revelling
in paradox; the fact is, though, that reason is a tool of limited
application, and paradox is a means of pointing beyond apparent
contraries. The ’Way’ or ’Path’ is a reference to the Tao. The ’Treader
of the Path’ is the Initiate, treading the path of initiation. This
brings to mind the concluding lines from "Pilgrim-Talk", in
Crowley’s
The Book of Lies:
O thou that drawest toward the End
of The Path, effort is no more. Faster and faster dost thou
fall; thy weariness is changed into Ineffable Rest.
For there is no Thou upon That Path: thou hast become The Way.
Initiation is the realization that we are all jivanmukta,
liberated whilst yet living; further - that the only thing to be
liberated from is the idea that we are not already liberated.
Glyph of Hoor-paar-kraat:
The Dwarf-SeIf, the Hidden God.
Hoor-paar-kraat is the
unmanifest twin
of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, manifestation. The distinction between these twins
is figurative only; they are aspects of each other, neither separate
from the other. The term ’Dwarf’ Self’ is often used: ’dwarf’ in the
sense of yet to manifest, adolescent, prepubescent, yet to flower.
This is the Hidden God, a term used throughout the
Egyptian Book of
the Dead to glyph the sun in the Underworld or Amenta, the potential
which is at the heart of florescence. Yoga is Union; not the union
of opposites, but the unveiling of the union which has always
existed, veiled by the illusion of limitation. Hoor-paar-kraat is a
term often used synonymously with the Holy Guardian Angel.
Hoor-paar-kraat may be seen in terms of the Tetragrammaton, the Hé
final, Horus or Ra-Hoor-Khuit being the Vau. This identifies
Hoor-paar-kraat with the Aeon of Maat, the continuum or
extra-terrestrial reality, a Communion in which we are at once
Celebrants and that which is celebrated. As Traders of the Way, we
are not something separate which merely traverses from one point to
another: we are the Way.
Gatesway to the Aeon of Maat!
I evoke Thee! I evoke Thee!
With the mantra Talam-Malat ...
Taking the above ideas together, we can
see, therefore, in what sense Lam is the Gateway. The
portrait of
Lam arose from the Amalantrah Working, and is a glyph of that
Working.
Lam is the Voice of the Silence, the
Silence which is the
extra-terrestrial continuum of consciousness of which manifestation
is a facet. The Aeon of Maat is not a span of time, nor an
initiation to which we might attain by virtue of intense and
protracted contortions of the mind and body, but is here and now -
the Ever-Coming One.
The mantra ’Talam-Malat’ celebrates the Gateway, and is uttered
several times before it lapses into silent vibration. ’Talam’ is the
semen-honey offered in the Mass of Maat; the word is a fusion of
Lam
and Maat. Its number is 81, KSA, the full moon which is both the
flowering of the lunar cycle and the point of return to the New
Moon; similarly, Maat is both the flowering of the Aeonic cycle and
the point of return to the Pralaya or dissolution. The second half
of the mantra, ’Malat’, a mirror image of the first half,
emphasizes
this sense of backward-turning.
The use of this mantra stems from the culminating moon of a Working,
based on Crowley’s
Liber Samekh, which I undertook several years ago
after sensing a summons to the Knowledge and Conversation of the
Holy Guardian Angel. The number 81 emerged into awareness, and it
seemed to be a perichoresis of several elements - my growing
interest in Lam, the mysteries of Maat into which I was then gaining
an insight, and my Angel. The mantra ’Talam-Malat’, then,
concentrates and celebrates the common nature and indeed identity of
the Angel, the Aeon of Maat, the Tao, and extra-terrestrialism. This
insight was, and is, a matter of experience; once tasted, the nectar
is not only never forgotten, but is ever-present.
This brings us to the prime consideration of the Cult of Lam, which
is that though Lam is the Gateway to our extra-terrestrial reality,
that Gateway is intrinsic to the individual Initiate. Similarly, the
key that unlocks the Gateway is necessarily of a unique pattern, and
must be discovered by the Initiate in the course of direct magical
and mystical experience, The Cult of Lam focuses upon the techniques
for discovering the pattern. However, these techniques can never be
a universal template; rather, they are but a basis upon which the
Initiate rears his or her own Temple of Illumination, the inner
shrine of which is Silence.
The Cult of Lam, then, is a quintessence of the Typhonian tradition,
which is concerned with trafficking with that which lies Outside of
the terrestrial vehicle, and hence uniting the terrestrial and the
extra-terrestrial. The practical Keys which facilitate this alchemy
will be explored in future articles.
Appendix
Lam and the Art of Archery
’Is a God to live in a dog? No! but
the highest are of us’.
’The Tao of Heaven is like an arrow, yet it woundeth not’.
’Happy are they that have known me for who I am. And glory unto
him that bath made a gallery of my throat for the arrow of his
truth, and the moon for his purity’.
The following material has been drawn
from explorations of the Enochian System, and can be of use in
contacting Lam. There seem to be several Aethyrs particularly
appropriate to the contact with LAM and the energies of the Aeons of
Horus and Maat. There are also some elemental spheres within the
watchtowers themselves which seem appropriate to contact with LAM.
The first account is of a journey to the Aethyr VTI, the Aethyr of
Change. Its numeration in terms of the Enochian letters is either
133 or 139, the former reducing as 7 x 19. This is the Aethyr where
the Initiate discovers the nature of his or her ’Covenant with God’.
The Covenant is LAM; it reflects the particular direction of the
Initiate’s arrow of Will within the continuum of Maat. Before moving
to the vision of this Aethyr, a few signposts are appropriate.
-
BAG, the Aethyr of Doubt =
19
-
BABALON (Babelon) = 114 = 6
x 19
-
VTI = 133/139 = 7 x 1
-
SHAITAN = 133/139
-
OVOF, Magnify = 133
-
ABRAHADABRA = 418 = 22 x 19
Journey to VTI:
The Aethyr of Change
After repeating the appropriate
calls, I began to stare into the large calcite crystal upon the
table which served as an altar. I could see stars in space, and
after repeating the word OVOF [Magnify] several times I felt
myself to be floating in space. There was a large star towards
which I was being drawn. I passed through the coronasphere of
the sun, but felt no discomfort. I found myself in a bright but
misty void within the star. A beach appeared in the mists and I
walked up onto its sands.
At the edge of the beach was a wood
of large oak trees which I quickly entered. I moved deeper and
deeper into the woods, and the light from the star cast strange
long shadows which seemed to point the way into the heart of the
wood. A grove appeared; and within that clearing was a beautiful
waterfall, which bubbled into a stream and then wove its way
towards the beach, disappearing out of sight. I bathed in the
waterfall.
I realized suddenly that I was being
watched, and noticed that there was a cave behind the waterfall.
In the twilight I could see the radiant image of a woman; she
stood in profile, half-clothed in the shadows, beckoning me to
enter within. I penetrated the veil of the waterfall and took
her hand. She led me down a long tunnel that seemed to go far
underground. Finally we came to two large doors with an
elaborate seal upon them.
My guide vanished into the shadows,
and an impressive warrior-like angel clothed in samurai-like
clothes appeared before the door, blocking my way. He had
fiercesome flashing eyes, and 106 arrows pierced his chest like
a pin cushion. The Barbs protruded from his back, and his chest
was a mass of feathers, the feathers of MAAT.
In one exotic flashing, flowing
movement without any break, he fixed his eyes unflinching like a
cat, whilst his hand selected the arrow for me and placed it
upon his bow, and he drew and fired at my heart. As the arrow
entered my heart I was shaken with pain and pleasure; I realized
in a blinding gnosis that these arrows had been dipped in the
Holy Graal of the Scarlet Woman, and this was the poison of
Babalon which would lead me to the GRAAL and to the Abyss in
search of the Philosophers Stone (the antidote, if you like).
The poison would eventually bring
about the death of my personality in the Abyss, but it also
connected me to the bloodline of those who seek the path which
leads to LIT: and beyond to LIL - LIL-LIT (H). I saw then that
the Elixir of the Poison of the Arrow (MAL is ’an arrow’ in
Enochian) is LAM.
I realized later that this occult attack had come from the
Governor called Ranglam. But I had forgotten about the arrow by
now, as the seal had been broken and the doors to the
underground chamber opened. I entered within; the atmosphere was
very dark and deathly quiet. At the end of the room stood a
Stone throne, and a presence sat upon it. I stared to perceive
who it was, but as I tried to focus on the face it started to
distort. I could see two red eyes staring back at me, and felt
intensely that this was myself in the future as yet not formed,
as yet unborn, unseen and unheard; but I had been marked and I
would return.
At this point I withdrew from the
vision, realizing that I could go no further at that time. I
believe that the presence here encountered was the LAM, the face
of the Monad that only becomes really apparent in this Aethyr of
LIT.
What follows is information which has
been received as a result of expeditions to Aethyrs, both alone and
in groups, over the past few months. The Aim was to achieve deeper
knowledge of the function and operation of LAM with regards to the
Great Work and our respective true selves. These are the results.
Egregore Chain No. 1: LAM (104) +
AIWASS (156) + OLUN (158) = 418
LAM is the duality of creation, QAA (52), the arrow and the
target. Aiwass on this basis is the threefold aspect of
creation, the fulfilment and the synthesis of the aspiration of
the arrow towards heaven. AIWASS + OLUN = 314 = KAL (to
manifest, or precipitate). KAL is derived from KALZ which means
’the Firmament’ and is itself a factor of doubt. KALZ = 323 = 17
x 19. Hence we can derive from this the formula:
KAL LAM = 418 = KAL MAL
(Sigil Earth of Water, Water Tablet)
Manifest LAM = 418: Manifest the Arrow.
OLUN: OL (to make = 2 x 19) + UN
(title of the first enochian letter) = 120 = OM, Understanding,
and GRAA the Moon. Hence OLUN can he defined as to make the
understanding of the Moon, or to make a hole which is receptive
to understanding. OLUN seems to be very like TIAMAT or LILITH.
KAL = 314 = BUTMONI (Their
mounts) 2 x 157. ZORGE (Love) = 151/157.
Hence we can see that the marriage
of AIWASS and OLUN creates manifestation and expresses the
duality of Love and its division. Out of their mouths spill the
duality of the word which is divided, but which becomes
reconciled through the Love of LAM: the arrow joins them. The
arrow of truth is the arrow of Eros, the arrow of LIT - the
Aethyr without a supreme Being. OLUN is the act of drawing the
Bow, LAM is the face behind the Arrow, and AIWASS is the act of
aiming and fixing the target which depends upon light.
Egregore Chain No. 2: MAAT (111) + AIWASS (156) + BEAST (37)
+ BABALON (114) = 418
MAAT (111) + AIWASS (156) = 267,
YRPOIL, ’division’; BEAST (37) + BABELON (114) = 151, ZORGE/SALOME,
’love’; YRPOIL (Division) + ZORGE (Love) = 418.
Hence ’I am divided for love’s sake,
for the chance of union’. But how can this union be
accomplished? How can the duality be reconciled? The answer is
through the introduction of a third variable, which is Love: the
Love of the Beast for Babalon, and of Maat for Aiwass. It is
interesting to see how Aiwass appears on both these maps. He
seems to represent on the one hand in the first map the Magus,
and Logos of the Aeon; whilst in the second one he is the
Demiurge, with the path of the Hierophant (Man of Earth)
connecting these two maps together.
But what exactly is an egregore chain,
and how does it work? It can be defined as the group spirit
(super-consciousness) of all the members of a particular Order. The F.S. (Fraternitas Saturni) use this notion very effectively; members
need not be present in the workings or rituals of other Order
members in order to gain access to the egregore. It is analogous to
the running of magical computer programs across a network of adepts
or members, in order to access necessary gnosis and guidance from
the Secret Chiefs.
This can be done using these
egregore
maps because they express the laws of Creation and the Fall through
their symbolism. They allow people to free themselves from the lust
of result by the externalization of the Holy Guardian Angel into
the egregore; thus, in the process of trying to communicate with the
Secret Chiefs, the nature of the Angel is encountered in the
process. It also helps to align groups to the Great Work more
effectively, diminishing group Babel that hinders us from uniting
with Babelon. Babel is a negative build up of Shaitan energy that
restricts the flow of Will. This is the division that must be
overcome with Love.
When working alone, the triad seems to
be the most natural pattern to assume. For example, I take the form
of Aiwass through atavistic assumption, and through OLUN my anima
manifests the Child that is Lam, the fruit of my will, the Hidden
God. In pairs, OLUN + AIWASS relationships form, with Lam being the
invisible unifier or copula between them.
The Bow is formed of a branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil. The String is the golden thread, the Sutrat-man that connects
us from incarnation to incarnation, from past to future; it is the
knowledge which we retrieve from
Choronzon through the ABRAHADABRA
process. The String is the Serpent of Time, Apep, that must be
overcome. The frequency of the string as it resonates is the song of
the true self, and is but part of the music of the spheres.
The tension of the Bow is
the force of Shaitan that tries to resist the Initiate drawing it back and seeing
his or her origin. Shaitan does this by creating a sevenfold veil of
doubt which must be transcended. The Bow may now be opened which
itself creates a division, a window to the void through which we can
find the path. This takes the strength of a Lion or a Dragon (OLUN).
To open the bow is to weave a vortex, a voracious devouring of chaos
and cosmos.
The Daughter of the Flaming Sword is
often depicted holding the mouth of a lion, as if to control it, to
stop her being consumed. But the opening of the bow is the opening
of the mouth of the Dragon, whereby one is consumed with fire
(spirit). The Bow is now fully extended and becomes a Circle, with
the heart of the Initiate at the centre: Hadit joins with Nuit. (Nuit
is often depicted holding two arrows in early Egyptian icons, one of
which points upward, the other downward). Now we aim without aiming;
to forget the arrow (MAL) is to remember LAM: the Target is our
intention.
We lilace the arrow, symbol of our
will
(AIWASS) and its ultimate fulfillment, upon the string; and,
dissolving ourselves in samadhi upon a sevenfold doubt, we loose the
arrow in a moment of pure folly. The feathers of the arrow are
plucked from the headdress of MAAT; these feathers form a cross
pattern as they resolve themselves in a circle which becomes the
Mark of the Beast. One of these feathers of MAAT is used to weigh
the heart of the Initiate in the 17th Aethyr TAN, the Aethyr of the
Balance.
A
suggested LAM Visualisation
Imagine you could remember all your past incarnations in full,
through different races, sexes, cultures, planets and even solar
systems. Imagine yourself turning around to look behind in a moment
of paranoia-critical, and seeing all those incarnations. The fear
and disgust of past acts, pain and death must be transcended in
doubt and magnified, so that the covenant becomes manifest. Try to
synthesize all these shades; though they be divided, this is the
mystery of Babalon that you must overcome with Love.
Then, through a process of Magical
forgetfulness, forget the arrow and give birth to LAM: a bi-sexual
humanoid entity which glows with
orgone light energy and is the sum
of your past and the root of your future. This image is nameless,
the Bornless One; hence it is attributed to the Fifth Aethyr, the Aethyr which is without a supreme Being; but it is also a servant of
the Arrow, Truth.
Jonathon Blakeley.
with permission:
STARFIRE I;5, 1994
BCM Starfire
London WC1N 3XX
England
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