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Set/Horus
Set / Horus
by Benjamin Rowe
Copyright year, 1992 by Benjamin Rowe
Permission is granted to distribute this work in electronic form, with
the these conditions:
1) No fees may be charged for the distribution or transmission of this
document, other than standard charges for use of transmission lines or
electronic media. Distribution for commercial purposes or by commercial
entities is specifically prohibited.
2) All copies distributed must contain the complete, unedited text of
the original document and this copyright notice.
3) Persons acquiring the electronic version of this document may make
one printed copy for their personal use.
All other rights are retained by the author.
My article titled Enochian Temples contains several "channelings" that
reveal the fundamental relationships existing between the Enochian
Tablets, the path of initiation, and Frater Achad's version of the Tree
of Life. My own comments elsewhere in that work show in considerable
detail that the lives of Crowley and Achad and the relations between
them are in fact an enactment of the mythos of Horus and Set. My purpose
in this current paper is to briefly look at manifestations of these same
factors in other parts of the Earth Tablet working, the magickal work of
which Enochian Temples is a part, and in some other mythological
systems, notably that of Arthurian Romance.
The Terrible Twins
Horus and Set were originally expressions of the primal duality, the two
aspects of Heaven, the day-sky and night-sky. As the Egyptian mythology
was elaborated towards its final chaotic state, their symbolism drifted
away from these absolute poles into the middle ground, first becoming
solar, and finally taking on a variety of solar/martial and zodiacal
characteristics. Yet their final form can still be expressed in a
concise symbology, that of the astrological signs of Aries and Scorpio.
Taken whole, their symbolism is that of the primal duality manifesting
in its male aspects.
A brief list of some of the characteristics associated with the gods
shows their positions as opposite poles of a duality. These
characteristics are extracted from myths quoted in Budge's Gods of the
Egyptians.
Horus Set
Day Night
Life Death
Fire Water
Slayer Slain
Bursting-forth of life Withdrawal of life and its
reappearance later.
Openly active Secretive
Conqueror & King Victim & Rebel
Hawk, Lion, & Ram Serpent, Antelope, Hippo
Rises into the sky Descends into the Earth
Steals Set's virility Throws filth in face of Horus
Aries is a fire sign, representing fresh, outrushing energy and the
first explosion of life in the spring. Mars rules the sign and the Sun
is exalted therein. Venus is in its detriment here, and Saturn falls.
The planets detail the sign's character: Mars makes Aries energetic,
impulsive, and combative. Sol provides the sign with leadership ability
and a strong tendency to dominate others, to exalt the self. The
detrimental relationship of Venus indicates that it lacks in compassion,
and Saturn's fall provides a definite lack of restraint. One need only
compare these characteristics with those of Horus listed above, and
those listed in Liber AL to confirm the identity of the god and the
sign.
In its most general form, Aries is represented by the myth-pattern I
call the Man- Who-Lives, which appears in many different myth-systems
essentially unchanged. He is the warrior who by right of conquest
becomes the King, and rules until he is overcome by Death.
Cabalistically speaking, he represents the transformation of the martial
sexual power into a solar child, or the transformation of
fire-by-friction into solar fire.
Scorpio is a watery sign, representing the withdrawal of life from the
plant kingdom at the end of the growing season, and its concentration
into the seed, which is buried in the Earth to await a new life.
Extension of this principle into the animal kingdom accounts for its
connection with the sex act. Mars also rules this sign, demonstrating
its basic connection with Aries. But in place of Sol we have Uranus
exalted. Venus remains in its detriment here, but Luna falls instead of
Saturn. Scorpio shares the energy and combativeness of Aries, and the
lack of lovingness, but the watery nature of the sign makes those
characteristics reflect back on itself. Where the goal of Aries is
exaltation of the self, Scorpio's Uranian influence directs it towards
the disassembly and destruction of the self, particularly its Tiphereth
aspect.
Horus can not maintain a state of ascendancy without a self-interested
and emotionally passive populace to rule. He requires the peasant
mentality of Taurus (Venus ruling and Luna exalted), which is content to
be ruled so long as it is comfortable and undisturbed in its own
pursuits. His opponent Set/Scorpio seeks to break out of the emotional
passivity, creating disturbances and breaking the patterns of normal
life so that new conditions might be created.
The myth-pattern of Set is that of the Man-Who-Dies. In one aspect, he
is the victim of Horus, the one who is slain so that Horus's reputation
can be enhanced. Except for his slaying of Osiris, there are very few
instances in Egyptian mythology where Set engages in active violence. In
contrast, the myths of Horus are filled with detailed accounts of
slaughter. Set traditionally acts the part of the perpetual victim.
Horus slays him over and over, and always he reappears in another form
to be slain again.1
In another aspect he is the rebel, the man who does not submit to
conquest and goes "underground", opposing the conqueror secretly because
he lacks the power to oppose him openly. His is also the pattern of the
martyr, who submits to death rather than abandon his principles. Or
speaking more generally, the Eagle aspect of Scorpio represents
adherence to the ideal at the expense of the mundane. This becomes
important in considering the Grail myths, as we will later.2
There is also at least a partial correspondence between Scorpio and the
self- immolating Phoenix, which destroys itself in order to reproduce.
Cabalistically speaking Set represents the transmutation of
fire-by-friction (Mars ruling Scorpio) through a dark solar stage into
electric fire, the fire of the divine will (Uranus, exalted in Scorpio).
He is the Wandering Son, the Everyman who breaks away from his home life
and community, passes through strange ordeals and trials, and returns
home a demi-god to save the community from destruction and oppression by
the conqueror.
Both are heroes; both necessary to the accomplishment of the hero's
task. Their fundamental natures embody the same energies but with
dissimilar emphasis. While related to Aries and Scorpio in their
individual manifestations, together they are the twins of Gemini. Thus
they at times appear to be in conflict, as in the Horus/Set, Cain/Abel,
and Romulus/Remus myths, and at other times they cooperate, as in the
Arthurian Romances and the myth of Castor and Pollux.3
This mythology of the two heroes has appeared in nearly every human
culture. The myth is so pervasive that it would be impossible to examine
a significant portion of its manifestations in this brief study. The
examples above are merely a few of the more familiar past expressions.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest human works recorded,
contains the all the essential aspects of the mythos. Gilgamesh himself
is the Arian man-who- lives, growing to manhood in a foreign court,
returning as a hero to take the place of his father as king, dying only
after a long life of rulership. His friend Enkidu is his Scorpian
counterpart, born and raised in the wastelands, tempted into human
society by the pleasure of sex, dying after attempting to visit the
underworld while in the flesh.
In each astrological age these two reverse their roles. In the age of
Gemini, Arian Gilgamesh survives and Scorpian Enkidu dies. In Taurus the
earliest cults of Set appear in Egypt, and the Cancerian/Taurean goddess
and Capricornian/Scorpian Horned God of the Old Religion experience a
resurgence in Europe. Places reverse again in the next age, with Arian
gods such as Perseus, Theseus, and Mithras slaying various Taurean bulls
and Scorpian monsters. In Pisces, the Arian Jesus dies in the scapegoat
ritual, betrayed by Scorpian Judas.4 Later Paul of Tarsus performs a
similar betrayal of the teachings themselves, distorting them by
emphasis of the death and repression- oriented aspects at the expense of
the triumphal aspect.
All these reversals would tend to indicate that in the current Aquarian
astrological period Horus or some other Arian god would again become
dominant. But the planet Uranus rules Aquarius, and Uranus is exalted in
Set's sign. Mercury, Thoth, is exalted in Aquarius, and one of Thoth's
roles in Egyptian mythology was to ensure that neither Horus or Set ever
came to complete victory over the other. So this may be a time in which
both gods manifest in a more-or-less equal fashion, uniting them in
friendship as they were in the previous Airy sign.
Shortly after the first inflows of Aquarian energy, an example of such
mythological cooperation appeared in the form of two historical figures,
John Dee and Edward Kelly, earlier incarnations of Jones and Crowley.
The name of Dee's birthplace and home, Morlake, suggests the
death-waters of Scorpio, as does his obsessive concern with magick
(governed by Mars in Scorpio) and astrology and "radical truths"
(governed by Uranus and Pluto). Kelly's knighthood makes him, nominally
at least, an Arian warrior. His death in a fall from a tower clearly
relates to the Tarot card for Mars, and his own lifelong obsession with
the Philosopher's Stone is Solar, thus confirming his place as the Arian
member of the pair. The cooperation between these two brought about the
first purely magickal manifestation of the Aquarian energies, the
Enochian magickal system.
The evidence seems to indicate that a similar cooperation was intended
for the incarnations of these two as Jones and Crowley. Astrological
considerations confirm the cooperative-antagonistic nature of their
interaction: Their suns, indicating their individual characters, are in
opposition. Their moons are conjunct, indicating similar pasts. Their
ascendants and midheavens, indicating current environment and goals,
have both beneficent and antagonistic aspects. Liber AL prophesies such
a condition. But the partnership was sundered before it could become
productive, and their interaction went into its competitive mode.
Romantic myths and the two Trees
The first inflow of Aquarian energy occurred in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, sparking the Renaissance. Thus it should not be
surprising that the mythological systems that reached their perfection
at that time contain elements of both the Arian and Scorpian modes of
initiation. Examining those myths, we find that some have a near-perfect
correlation with the traditional version of the Tree of Life, while
others correspond closely to the paths of Jones' version of the Tree,
which embodies the Scorpian mode.
In the traditional Tree (hereafter called the "Old Tree") the formula of
Horus has the warrior (Mars, lowest horizontal path) producing a solar
child (Leo, middle path) through divine Love (Venus, highest path).
Going up the middle pillar of the Tree, he passes through the stages of
cloistered training (Saturn), travel and broadening of experience
(Sagittarius) under the instruction of older warriors (path of Mars
crossing Sagittarius), presentation to the King (Tiphereth),
confirmation of his Lordship (Leo), and dedication to the service of his
Lady (Luna) as the embodiment of Love (Venus).
This is typical of the view of Knighthood in the romantic myths of the
times. Tristam, Lancelot, and Arthur are all exemplars of this formula.5
Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur distills all these myths and combines them in
his tales of the Knights of the Round Table. It is easy for anyone to
determine the correspondences between those sections of the book and the
paths of the Old Tree. But Malory's tales of the Knights of the Grail
have an even more detailed correspondence with Jones' version of the
Tree (hereafter called Achad's Tree), as do other Parsifal-like legends.
In Achad's Tree, we have the man of the Earth, the Everyman (Taurus,
lowest horizontal path) who goes through trials and ordeals (Scorpio,
middle path) to emerge as a man-god (Aquarius, highest path). His path
up the Tree begins with aimless wandering (Air), during which he is
tempted by two qliphotic females, the Woman-who-gives-Pleasure and the
Woman-who-gives-Death (Yesod-Luna).6 He succumbs and is damaged thereby,
or narrowly escapes. He encounters a priest (Taurus, The Hierophant) who
enjoins him to sacrifice the normal use of that part of himself that
caused him to be tempted, and to voluntarily re-dedicate it to the True
Grail of which the temptresses were pale reflections (Water, The Hanged
Man). He does so, and the gods reward him with full union with his soul
(Tiphereth). He then goes through further ordeals and trials (Scorpio)
in which he overcomes by his will-to-good (Shin, Fire). After passing
through all the ordeals, he enters into the company of the stars
(Aquarius) where he attains to both the Grail (Binah) and the Spear
(Chokmah) which glow with the light of God (Kether).
Achad's path is also the path of Spartacus, the slave-laborer (Taurus)
who killed his master and rebelled (Scorpio) to bring an end to bondage
(Saturn, old ruler of Aquarius) and make the slaves into free men
(Uranus, new ruler of Aquarius). The story of Moses and the Hebrew
Captivity possibly has a similar intent.
The story of the Knights of the Grail begins in Tiphereth, as did the
channeling in Enochian Temples mentioned above. That channeling
presented the path as it is experienced through the use of a special
technique, which links the microcosm and macrocosm by direct experience
of the energies of the planets. The Grail stories give a more general
view of the process. The footnotes will show the correspondences with
the paths of Achad's Tree.
The knight has been granted union with his soul, and the Angel of God
has spoken to him through the path of Shin, the pillar of light in the
center of the Temple. He has cast aside his lesser elemental weapons,
his sword and shield, in dedicating himself to the search for the Grail.
In his eagerness he ventures forth without arms or armor, and is
captured by another knight.7 He is brought to a castle,8 where he
explains his search for the Grail and begs to be supplied with weapons.
Signs and wonders reveal that he is the rightful bearer of a magickal
sword being kept at the castle. A magickal shield is also present, and
he is told he may keep it if he will slay a monster (or an evil knight)
that is troubling the locals.9
He destroys the monster, and wanders out into a wasteland10, empty of
human life, where he is then confronted by other monsters, sometimes
masking as persons and circumstances out of his past. The consequences
of actions taken before the quest began are not nullified by his
dedication to the Grail, and he must deal with them justly, paying any
penalties due from him, and reaping rewards of right action. But all in
a way that will not hinder the quest.11
These adventures and ordeals bring him to full proficiency with his
weapons. He comes to a chapel or church,12 where he tells his adventures
to the priest. The priest explains the meaning of his experience in
relation to the cosmos13 and gives him the consecrated host, confirming
his right to the shield. He is told of a black rock castle wherein the
Grail is kept.14
He travels to that castle, joining up with two of his fellow Knights of
the Grail. They enter, and are asked to attempt the restoration of a
magickal sword that had wounded the King of the castle. The best of the
three Knights succeeds, signaling the fulfillment of the quest.15
The Grail is brought out.16 The three knights are introduced to three
other groups of three knights who came from the south (Gaul), east
(Denmark), and west (Ireland). Together they complete the circle of the
zodiac, forming the Company of the Stars.17 The knights feast on the
fruits of the Earth and drink from the Grail. The Holy Spear is brought
forth, and the best of the knights uses it to heal the wounds of the old
king.18
The knights venture out after the feast and are captured and
imprisoned.19 The Grail comes to their cell and they are sustained by
it. The king of the castle dies, and the people free the knights. The
people declare the best of the knights to be their new King.20 The
knights create a chest of gold and jewels for the Grail, declare the
chest's holiness, and pray before it daily.21
The Angel of the Presence appears to them in the form of a holy
hermit.22 The Angel blesses them and judges the course of their quest.
The best of the three knights is taken up into heaven immediately,
taking the Grail and the Spear with him.23 The second-best becomes a
priest, and retires from the world.24 The last of the three returns to
the world.25 The story ends.
The paragraphs above are a summary of the adventures of the three
Scorpian Knights of the Grail, Galahad, Percivale, and Bors, as they are
portrayed in Malory's work. The events are listed in the order they
occurred in the story. Only a few points were borrowed from other
versions of the Grail legends. Malory wrote over four hundred years
before Jones manifested Achad's Tree, yet the symbolism of the story
matches that Tree exactly. The Spartacus legend is older than
Christianity, but the details of its symbolism can be connected to
Achad's Tree just as directly.
The Abyss and the two systems.
The Wasteland of the Grail stories corresponds to the area of the Tree
bounded by Geburah, Chesed, Binah, and Chokmah. This is the area of the
false sephira Da'ath, and of the so-called Abyss, both much talked about
among magicians in recent years. In the initiatory systems based on the
Old Tree, it is perceived as a realm of horrors and of a rending of the
self.
Yet the formulations of the Grail stories and of the channelings in
Enochian Temples reduce the Abyss almost to a trifle, and deny the
existence of anything resembling Da'ath. Instead, we are shown dryness
and lack of nourishment, lack of meaning, illusion and deception as the
primary experiences in that area of the Tree. The reason for this major
difference between the two formulations of the path lies in the manner
in which mind is perceived and dealt with.
The Solar-Arian systems of the Old Tree perceive mind as an aspect of
God. Indeed, the god-name for Tiphereth is just that: IHVH ALVH VDOTH,
"God made manifest in the Sphere of Mind". All the magickal techniques
of these systems are designed to make the mind (that is, the Ruach)
formulate itself in such a manner that it is the closest possible
approximation of that which is being invoked. When enough of the
mind-stuff is drawn into the formulation, there is an automatic flow of
force from higher levels following the Law of Similarity or Congruence.
It is exaltation through the force of union.
The Uranian-Scorpian systems, on the other hand, perceive mind as an
aspect of matter. Their techniques are all designed under the assumption
that the spirit that the Solar types invoke is something which is
already in the individual in full measure. From their perspective, the
problem is not one of uniting the separated, but of discovering the
spirit by understanding and elimination of that which conceals it.
Knowing that the undying spiritual will is already part of themselves,
they are willing to test every aspect of their own being to the point of
destruction, under the assumption that that part which they are not able
to destroy must be a manifestation of God. Theirs is the path of
exaltation through the force of separation.
In the Scorpian systems, Da'ath is reminiscent of a familiar optical
illusion in which black squares are closely arranged in rows and columns
on a white background. The eye manufactures black spots where four
squares meet, even though there is nothing there but white paper. It
takes a conscious act of will to not see the black spots. Da'ath is a
similar illusion with the force of the whole Ruach behind it. The Ruach
sees this empty space in the middle of the upper Tree, and its natural
tendency causes it to manufacture the illusion of a sephira. What is
actually happening is that the six sephiroth surrounding this empty
space exert a uniform outward pull. The mind, with its solar habit of
creating centralized entities, misinterprets the pull outwards as a push
outwards coming from the middle of the void. It invents an entity to do
the pushing, the Dweller on the Threshold, and a place for that entity
to reside, Da'ath. The positive characteristics of Da'ath described by
some magicians are on close examination seen to be a forced, unstable
mixture of the characteristics of Chesed and Binah, or of the paths of
Scorpio and Aquarius that border the wasteland on the lower and upper
sides.
The practices of the Solar-Arian initiatory systems tend to encourage
the manufacture of this false perception. Their entire practice is based
on taking the natural tendencies of the Ruach, the Solar being, and
expanding them to the utmost. Thus when they reach a point where the
Solar mode is no longer valid, their habitual use of that mode turns the
transition into the next mode into an ultimate disaster for the personal
identity.
The Scorpian initiatory systems avoid this particular pitfall. Since
they are oriented from the beginning to the willful disassembly of the
personal self, the inertia of their work blends smoothly into the
ultimate disassembly that precedes entry into the supernals. The actual
crossing of the "Abyss" simply becomes, for them, the cessation of the
need to engage in the disassembly of the individual self.
But this smooth transition is achieved only at a cost: the Scorpian
initiate trades one great death for a nearly continuous series of lesser
deaths, willfully undertaken over the course of incarnate life.26 As a
consequence, his experience of the whole path has more distributed,
low-key spiritual pain and discomfort than that of the Arian initiate.
But his habituation to the experience of pain causes his transition into
the supernals to become an experience of tremendous relief, rather than
one of terror. Accustomed to friction with his environment, he suddenly
becomes frictionless and free-flowing. The experience can also be quite
accurately equated to that of a drowning man who finally manages to
break through the surface to the clear air.
But even for the Arian adept, conscious conditioning of the mind to the
correct perspective on the Abyss eliminates many of the horrors formerly
connected with the passage to the supernals. One can train the Ruach to
not see illusory Da'ath without changing its essential nature. The
attempt also gives the magician a lesson in the incredible persistence
with which the Ruach makes projections of itself.
If one evaluates the two systems in terms of the overall intensity of
the difficulties experienced, it appears that in the end they are about
equal. There is no particular reason to chose one over the other, except
personal preference and tendency. They are actually one system, since
the same stages (sephiroth) are to be seen in both cases. Only the
degree of emphasis changes from one to the other. In the
multi-incarnational process of evolution, it is likely that the
individual will work with both approaches many times.
The reader might perceive a connection between the Scorpian perspective
as described here, and the principles developed by the Buddha. This is
no accident: Buddha was the expression of the Scorpian perspective
within his own time and culture. His birth, enlightenment, and death all
took place when the Sun was in Taurus, and the Moon was full in the sign
of Scorpio, signifying him as an exemplar of that axis of the zodiac.
But cultural perspective produces differences between Buddhism and the
Western, magickal expression of the Scorpio-Taurus axis. Buddha
recognized sorrow as the inevitable result of the interaction of spirit
and matter, but his only goal was to eliminate the possibility of sorrow
by eliminating his connection with matter. The Scorpian adept perceives
sorrow as an intermediate stage in his effort to bring about a free flow
between matter and the divine, creative will. On all planes, the nature
of matter is inertia. It tends to maintain its set course until the will
is strong enough to change that course. Until that strength is achieved,
friction results: pain is the result of friction. When the will
overcomes the inertia of matter, causing it to fully conform to the
will's impulse, then from the standpoint of the will the friction
ceases, and pain ceases.
Buddha claimed that the perceptible universe is Maya, illusion. The
Scorpian adept restates this idea in slightly different terms, saying
that all perceptions are limited or partial by the very nature of the
mechanism of perception. But he further recognizes that the illusions
themselves have a kind of order, and that this order is determined in
all aspects by the interaction of will and matter. Will and matter are
both entirely mysterious in themselves. It is only by understanding the
patterns taken on by the illusions their interaction generates, which we
call by such names as Mind, Ruach, Soul, and consciousness, that we can
come to some awareness of their intrinsic nature.
The expanded formula -- INRI/IRNI
The myth of the two heroes, or the two gods, forms the core of the INRI
formula, one of the most subtle and mysterious of all magickal formulas.
In the Golden Dawn system, this formula is equated to and interpreted in
terms of the formula of IAO. But there is only a partial correspondence
between these two formulas; IAO is a specifically solar formula, a
single expression in time and space of the more general conception of
INRI.
In one interpretation, INRI exactly reflects the astrological foundation
of the Set/Horus mythos. That is, a Gemini mythos, twin forces
represented by the two I's or pillars, whose interaction is defined by
the modes of Scorpio and of Sol in his exaltation. What has been said so
far in this paper is in fact an examination of this interpretation of
INRI.
In the most inclusive interpretation, the last I of INRI is not
redundant, but rather expresses a perfection of what is only latent in
the first I. The symbolism of alchemy shows this best. The following
table shows the basic correspondences.
Letter Elemental Planetary Zodiacal Alchemical
I Earth Earth/Luna Virgo Materia Prima
N Water Mars/Uranus Scorpio Solve
R Fire Mars/Sun Aries Coagula
I Air Mercury Virgo Essence or
Elixer
All alchemical processes involve changing the materia into the essence
or elixer by various sequences of Solve and Coagula, of dissolution and
concentration. In one description of the work, heat (Mars) is applied to
the materia prima, resulting in a separation of its components (Uranus),
and the reduction of the "dead head" (Scorpio) to an ash, alchemical
salt. More heat being applied to the separated components causes first a
coagulation (Sol) then a separation of the active sulphur (Aries) from
the Mercury.
(Basil Valentine notes that these processes rarely occur without the
concurrent appearance of the Taurean and Libran complements. His
descriptions are too prolix to quote, but careful reading indicates that
these complements operate under the formula AGLA, which can be
considered the complement of INRI. The Aleph of Air or spirit replaces
the Earthy Yods, the Gimel of Luna replaces the Resh of Sol, and
Lamed/Libra replaces Nun/Scorpio.)
We have seen previously that the two heroes are to a certain extent
interchangeable. Depending on circumstance, one or the other dominates
the relationship. A similar principle holds for INRI. The two central
letters can be interchanged without destroying the validity of the
formula. IRNI works as well as INRI. With respect to the Enochian
Temples and Achad's system, INRI represents the formula of initiation as
it applies to humanity as a whole, while IRNI applies to the initiatory
path of individuals.
IRNI - the individual formula
The IRNI formula divides the path of initiation into four stages:
Earthy/Lunar: encompassing all aspects of the personality, represented
in the Tree of Life by the triangle formed by Netzach, Hod, and Malkuth,
with Yesod as the stage's primary point of focus. Element of Earth.
Solar: concerned with the powers of the awakened soul. This stage is
shown in the Tree by the golden rectangle surrounding and focused in
Tiphereth. Element of Fire.
Transitional: concerned with the passage from soul consciousness to
divine consciousness. Represented in the Tree by the centerless golden
rectangle formed by Chokmah, Binah, Chesed and Geburah. Element of
water.
Divine: concerned with the activities of the transcendental or divine
consciousness, and represented in the Tree by the triangle of Kether,
Chokmah, and Binah. Element of Air.
These four stages have been examined in Enochian Temples and the two
papers so far released in the Achad's Cabala series. My intent here is
to outline the expression of these four stages in Le Morte D'Arthur.
Malory's work falls into two clearly defined sections, those concerned
with Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and those concerned with
the Knights of the Grail. The Round Table stories relate primarily to
the first two stages, showing the transition from normal human awareness
to solar awareness, ending with the start of the third stage.
The symbolism of the Blasted Tower pervades the sections of the book
concerned with Arthur and the Round Table Knights. The title itself
shows this as a central theme. All the heroism, triumph, and glory
portrayed is negated by the "Morte Saunz Guerdon", the unmitigated
disaster with which it ends. The glorious rise followed by disaster is
characteristic of Martial energies, and of the sign of Aries.
The Tower itself is never mentioned explicitly in the book, but it is
the central theme of the events preceding the book's opening. Prior to
the beginning of the book, Britain is composed of innumerable small
kingdoms, constantly at war with one another, and only loosely reigned
over by a false king, the usurper Vortigern. This state corresponds to
the lunar stage, and Vortigern to the unintegrated personality and the
lower type of Aries, who is capable of war and slaying, but lacks the
unifying ability provided by the influence of Sol. Vortigern, out of
fear27 of the true princes Pendragon and Uther, attempted to build a
mighty tower as a place of defense against them. But each time he built,
the tower fell for no reason.
Consulting his astrologers, he was told that for the tower to stand, the
cornerstone must be bathed in the blood of a child with no mortal
father.28 This turned out to be the child Merlin. But Merlin confronted
him with the true reason for the fall of the tower: the tower was built
over the den of two dragons, whose conflict shook it down. Digging
beneath the tower, Vortigern discovered the two dragons, one red and one
white. The dragons fought, and the white dragon slayed the red.
The red dragon was naturally symbolic of Vortigern, being of the red of
Mars. The white dragon represented the true princes, its color
representing the brilliance of the sun. Shortly after this incident,
Pendragon and Uther invaded Britain, Vortigern was slain, and Pendragon
assumed the throne as rightful king. But Pendragon and Uther are
themselves still primarily of the martial type, rather than the solar.
The name Pendragon actually means "warlord" or "war-leader". Uther's
sexual obsession with Igraine is obviously martial. The true Arian type,
martial and solar, does not appear until Arthur. But, being the true and
victorious rulers, they represent the integrated personality, which is
the precursor to fusion with the soul.
Nearly all the Knights of the Round Table follow this same pattern of
triumph followed by disaster. None of them could handle the darker
Scorpian side of the martial force, and suffered as a result. Those
whose personal success was not marred by disaster were caught up in the
general disaster of Arthur's death.
As I mentioned earlier, both the Arian and Scorpian paths differ mainly
in emphasis. Each contains the other to a certain extent. Within the
Arian symbolism of Arthur and the Round Table, Merlin represents the
shadowy presence of the Scorpio side. He is the child of a maiden and an
incubus, representing the Taurus/Scorpio axis (and possibly the Old
Religion, still influential in Britain at that time). He is a master of
magicks. Depending on the version, he ends his life either hidden in a
thorn bush (attributed to Scorpio) or buried in a cave (again Scorpio,
the underworld).
His death or disappearance occurs just as the Quest for the Grail
begins, as if his presence is no longer needed with the Scorpian Grail
Knights coming into the foreground. His place is taken by Lancelot, who
represents the solar presence within the predominantly Scorpian
symbolism of the Grail Knights.
Merlin being a Scorpian archetype, the end of Arthur in a death without
recompense is inherent in the events by which he was brought to be born.
For it was Merlin who arranged for Uther to be spirited into Tintagel,
and to lie with Igraine in the semblance of her husband so that Arthur
would be conceived. And it was he into whose hands the newborn child was
given.
The means of Arthur's ascent to the throne establishes that he embodied
the lesser mysteries of the knife and pantacle, of Tiphereth and
Malkuth/Yesod. The sword in the stone is a direct correspondence to
these magickal implements, and the fact that they are stuck together
indicates the fusion of the earthly being with the soul. The sword in
addition confirms the martial/solar character of his expression, for it
is the implement of Mars as well as the knife of Air, and letters are
written upon it in gold, the metal of the Sun.
So, where Uther and Pendragon are the integrated personality, the
Netzach aspect, Arthur is the soul itself come to full consciousness. He
not only unites the diverse kingdoms of Britain under one banner, but
serves as well as the ideal to which all the lesser kings and knights,
and the people themselves, aspire. His presence causes the alignment of
all the castes of British society to a single purpose, as the soul
brings the lower vehicles into alignment with its own purposes. His
conquest over the invading Saxons can then be equated to the elimination
by the soul of all in the personality that is unfit.
In the channelings of Enochian Temples, the conquest of the personality
by the soul is followed by a period of peace and pleasure. In the
Arthurian myths, this is the period following the conquest of the
invaders, and before the beginning of the Grail quest. But this period
comes to an end when disturbances of another kind arise. These new
problems do not stem from material causes. Instead, they come from the
spirit. The easing of the challenges of incarnate existence brings a
relaxation to the soul that allows previously unnoticed influences to
affect events. The channelings indicate that the influences come mainly
from the planets, representing the macrocosm.
This stage is represented in Arthurian myth by an increasing
restlessness in the knights. The unity gained in battle begins to
dissolve, and they fight among themselves and with other British
knights. Some distraction is needed if the kingdom is not to fall into
its previous disarray.
By this time Merlin had been overcome by his Taurean opposite, Viviane,
and had withdrawn into the secrecy of his own sign of Scorpio. But he
briefly reappears at this time to announce the Quest for the Grail, and
to prophecy concerning those who will succeed in the quest, primarily
about Galahad.
Galahad, the perfect knight of the Grail, is the child of Launcelot, the
most perfect worldly knight after Arthur. The name Galahad is also
Launcelot's baptismal name, indicating that his son represents an
extension of his worldly being into a spiritual context. There is an
echo of this in modern times in the way that Crowley as Horus fathered
the "magickal child", Jones/Set.
Galahad is the next step beyond the pure solar consciousness, in which
the soul begins to perceive itself not as the Lord of Creation, the
positive pole of the Malkuth-Tiphereth polarity, but as a middle aspect
between the spirit and matter. As the middle aspect, its characteristics
and very existence are determined by the interaction of those two
greater poles. In order to unite itself with the divine, it must go
through the process of destroying or shedding those aspects of itself
that are caused by the material pole.
This destructive process is interpreted as purification in the Grail
stories, and sexual purity or abstinence is deemed to be a basic
necessity. Normal sexual activity tends to tie the consciousness to the
body, and therefore to the Tiphereth-Malkuth polarity. Practitioners of
tantric systems are able to overcome this tendency, but tantric magick
is related to the path of Horus, the path of exaltation through union.
The Grail stories as Malory tells them are concerned with the path of
Set, of exaltation through separation.
Nevertheless, the Grail stories show clearly that overcoming of the
normal sexual urges is intended to be a part of the path they express.
There is the Siege Perilous, which kills any worldly knight that sits in
it. There is the "Sword which was broken", and the king who was wounded
in the thigh by the Holy Spear for thinking lustful thoughts about a
female servant of the Grail. These symbols are all correspondences to
the Blasted Tower, which figures so strongly in the tales of the Round
Table. Only Galahad, the virgin knight, can sit in the Siege, and only
he can mend the sword which was broken, and wield the Spear to heal the
king.
There are also a number of episodes in the stories that deal explicitly
with tests of the Grail Knights' sexual purity, and the three knights
who achieve the Grail are ranked according to the manner in which they
pass these tests. Galahad, who never responded to the temptation, was
ranked first. Percivale, who responded but overcame temptation is ranked
second. Bors, the last ranked, is apparently more an Arian type than a
Scorpian type. His temptation was not overtly sexual. Instead, it enacts
the typical ritual of the two heroes, wherein the Arian hero-who-lives
must slay the hero-who-dies. The test is to see whether he can break out
of the Arian role by refusing to slay. (Note that it is not repression
of the martial force that is shown in these stories, but always
conscious redirection of the force to a spiritual object.)
After passing the tests, the three knights are ready to achieve the
Grail. Their achievement is easy compared to the experience of the Abyss
common to the path of Horus. Horrors were all part of their testing and
need not be experienced again. Two different versions of this
achievement both express the same essence in different symbols.
In the first version, the three knights simply come to the edge of the
sea, and discover a richly decorated boat. Within the boat they discover
the Grail. The sea in this case is the watery aspect of the "N" of IRNI.
The boat rides above the sea as the initiate who achieves Binah floats
free above the transitional area of the upper Tree. The Grail itself is
naturally Binah, the Greater Mother.
The second version is the one used by Malory, and was described in the
earlier section of this paper dealing with the story's relation to
Achad's Tree. Carbonek, the castle transformed to coal, is clearly
Binah. The three knights simply arrive at the castle and are greeted by
those who tend the Grail. After a demonstration by one of the Knights of
their fitness (by mending the sword which was broken) they are feted and
fed from the Grail.
Both stories demonstrate that the passage into the supernals is not a
trial in the Scorpian path, but a relief from trial. Everything of trial
has been done over the whole course of the path, and the final passage
is simple and free from pain or terror.
INRI - the group or communal formula
The application of INRI to humanity is shown in The Book of the Seniors,
another part of the Earth Tablet working. Here we see the basic
Set/Horus formula modified by the addition of Isis (Earth/Luna, first I)
and Thoth (Mercury, last I). Osiris, humanity, is not shown in the
formula because he is the subject on whom the other gods are acting.
The story of Seniors follows one of the several versions of the Osiris
myth. In this particular version, Isis betrays Osiris into the hands of
Set, who rends him to pieces and buries those pieces about the Earth.
Horus overcomes Set and recovers the pieces, which are then re-united
and re-animated by Thoth.
In the Isis stage, humanity is shown in a state of innocence, living on
the astral plane of the planet Earth but not yet incarnated. At this
point humanity has not developed the sense of individuality or the
consciousness of mortality, and is no more than a type of deva or nature
spirit specialized for a particular function. Isis/Earth decides that
humanity can be used as the tool by which she can rid herself of
involutionary forces, which she had absorbed into herself in order that
they not manifest elsewhere in the solar system.
To accomplish this task, she requires that humanity be brought out of
its stage of innocence by the introduction of individuality and
mortality. She calls upon Set, the serpent, who governs the action of
the next stage, with Horus taking a lesser role.
Set first creates bodies in which the human race-soul can incarnate,
through a process of forced evolution working on the material of the
Earth. He and Horus both attempt to create different types of bodies
through different methods of evolution. Horus's types are judged to be
inadequate to the task, and Set's types are allowed to flourish and
develop. (In the distorted Christian version of the tale, the Serpent
subverts Eve to his own purposes, rather than the other way around.)
Once the bodies have been developed, Set creates an opening in the
barrier between the astral and physical realms. He then tempts
susceptible aspects of the race-soul into incarnation. The qualities and
perceptions they pick up through incarnation infect the race-soul,
causing a disruption of its natural unity, and its shattering into
individual souls of the type currently possessed by the race. Thus he
"tears Osiris to pieces".
Set uses the involutionary forces to sweep all of these souls into the
cycles of incarnation. Having focused their awareness on the physical
plane, he closes the passage between the planes, locking them in. He has
scattered the pieces of Osiris and buried them in the Earth. (In the
Christian version, Eve tempts Adam to eat the apple, the fruit of
incarnate experience, causing them to be ejected from the garden of Eden
and cast into the desert of Earthly existence.)
Having closed the passage, Set distributes the involutionary force into
the auras of the human beings, each to his capacity, and releases the
remainder back into the environment. (Thereby creating "original sin",
not mentioned in the Egyptian version.)
The intention of Isis was that she would rid herself of the
involutionary forces through humanity's struggles to survive and to
improve their condition on Earth. Having unconscious memories of their
previous existence on a higher plane, the human souls would be
perpetually creating thought-forms of desire to return to that plane.
These thought-forms directly counteract the matter-oriented tendencies
of the involutionary force. Their attempts to gain control over their
physical environment would also generate counteractive thoughts, since
control implies imposed order, and the involutionary aspect relates
strongly to randomness.
As the story is told in The Book of the Seniors, this elimination of the
involutionary forces was fully accomplished prior to the beginnings of
recorded history. All that has passed since then has been aimed towards
the re- unification of the race-soul. Thus the era of Set ended, and the
era of Horus, representing the solar or coagulating aspect, began. Horus
collected the scattered pieces of Osiris and assembled them into their
prior shape, but still lacking their original livingness.
Horus is a god of conquest, and conquest has been the primary means by
which humanity has been gathered together. From scattered groups living
in near- isolation, the trend since the last ice age has been constantly
towards bringing larger and larger groups of people into coordinated
activity. The martial/solar figure, the warlord or king, has been
dominant throughout most of this period both as the leader and war-chief
and as a point of focus for the consciousness of the individuals making
up the society. In this latter role he acts as the ego, the motivating
self-interest that determines the actions of the community. He is the
social equivalent of the individual's ideals and goals.
After the group reaches a certain size, the importance of the individual
ruler lessens and power begins to be distributed within a larger group.
Other individuals appear who express the purposes of special groups
within the social structure. Eventually a point is reached where the
solar king acts as only one among many more or less equal centers of
power in the society. This is the social correspondence of the stage in
individual evolution where the power of the sun-sign in his astrological
pattern lessens and the other planets in the pattern each become a focus
for part of the individual's attention, interacting with each other and
with the sun-sign in a constantly changing dance of activity.
But unlike the original, naturally unified humanity, this new
organization is being built up on the material side of existence rather
than strictly on the spiritual side. It is an attempt to re-create that
original unity in matter. While the attempt has had its cyclic advances
and fall-backs, each cycle has created larger groups in each succeeding
civilization.
Today a point has been reached where all of humanity is effectively one
economic organism, each part dependent on and affected by every other
part. No country or culture is independent of the others. Despite this
de facto unity, the mental perceptions of the race have not yet
adjusted, so that there is still a sense of nationalism or cultural
chauvinism, of "us against them", in a large portion of the population.
Circumstance will gradually eliminate this perception as various
economic and political disasters resulting from nationalistic viewpoints
force people to recognize the interdependence as a fact. The necessity
for preventing the recurrence of such disasters will force an adaptation
to that fact based on practical considerations, rather than on any
particular idealistic or political basis. Adjustments that grow up from
the needs of living, as these will, tend to be absorbed and retained in
a culture where those adopted on principle (or forcefully imposed by a
ruling class) eventually die out.
Thoth governs this final stage, for it is communication that is creating
the circumstances where these adjustments can take place. The speed of
communication and transportation has always been the prime determinant
of the level of interdependence. Where communications are slow, changes
spread slowly, and people in one part of the world are able to think of
themselves as separate from the rest. Where communications accelerate,
the spread of change also accelerates, and events occurring at a
distance take on more importance.
Today we have a situation in which events in any part of the world can
be known in any other part almost instantly. Our consciousness of
distance has been overwhelmed and negated. A rebellion occurs in Tibet,
and we see it here as it happens, where as little as fifty years ago the
event would have been long resolved before we could know of it. Parallel
to this, we can now exert an influence on events anywhere in the world
as they happen, almost as easily as we can influence events in our own
neighborhoods. McCluhan's "global village" has become a fact of life.
It is this instant communication that will break down the barriers of
nationalism and cultural chauvinism, creating a global perception of
humanity as one interdependent civilization. This is not to say that
cultural differences will cease to exist. In fact, friction between
cultures is likely to increase before adaptation takes place. Friction
between cultural perspectives will force the adaptation as much as will
economic considerations. But the final result will be a great weakening
of the sense of "otherness" that peoples have towards different
cultures.
When the cultural perception of interdependency catches up with the
factual economic interdependence, the human race as a whole will be in a
state that corresponds to that of the integrated individual personality
when it is ready for fusion with its soul. Gradually the veil between
the race's personality aspect and the race-soul will fall away, and the
power and increased awareness that has been gathered through the eons of
struggle in the cycle of incarnation will be added back into the
race-soul, making it conscious of itself for the first time as an entity
with an existence apart from the individuals whose awareness contributes
to it.
Osiris, betrayed by Isis, sundered by Set, and gathered again by Horus,
awakens again to life by the power of the words of Thoth. With the
awakening of this great consciousness, individuals who are ready for
fusion with their own soul will discover that that fusion also brings
them into the sphere of activity of the race-soul. They will be able to
consciously participate in the deliberations and actions of that being
as it seeks to express itself in matter through humanity, while still
maintaining their distinction as individual beings with the ability to
evolve further, beyond the levels where the race-soul lives.
Footnotes
1 The most common human manifestation of Set's slaying-and-
reappearance pattern is in cases of sexual repression, where the
life-force, deprived of its normal expression by the conscious self
(=Sol), finds outlet in bizarre, compulsive, or neurotic behaviors.
2 The last line in the list of characteristics describes the way
in which each of the gods fights the other, in the earliest myths of
their battles. It shows the primal roots of the symbolism of these two
gods, since these two actions are methods of expressing dominance and
denying dominance that humans share with most of the higher primates. In
our western culture these behaviors have been sublimated but still
appear with full force. In other cultures they frequently appear in
their original form.
Horus stealing the virility of Set means that as conqueror he
forces his victim to assume the female role in a homosexual act, either
oral or anal. Most of the legends of their battles contain references to
Horus running his spear (a traditional symbol for the penis) through
Set's body from bottom to top, or alternatively running his spear
through Set's head, and displaying the body to his followers. Forced
public submission to a homosexual act is a common expression of
dominance among primates. A similar pattern is shown in Hispanic
cultures, where only the man assuming the female role is considered
homosexual. For the man taking the male role, the act is considered
evidence of exceptional virility. American culture generally substitutes
a symbolic act of submission for the sexual act, but follows the same
pattern.
Set throwing filth in the face of Horus shows the classical
method of humiliating a dominant male and lowering his status. In many
human cultures actual fecal matter is used. Americans generally
substitute rotten vegetables or cream pies. It can be said with more
than a little truth that all the other symbolism of these two gods is
elaboration and enhancement of these basic acts.
3 In practice, these two heroes never manifest without their
Venusian counterparts, the Woman-Who-Holds-Life (Isis, Taurus, with
Venus ruling and Luna exalted.) and the Woman-Who-Judges (Maat or
Nepthys, Libra, Venus ruling and Saturn exalted. ). Thus the
manifestation of the Horus current in 1904 produced the manifestation of
the balancing Maat current. The current of Isis, balancing that of Set,
has never left manifestation. It is an expression of the fundamental
energies of the planet Earth.
4 Transliterating from Greek to Hebrew, Judas is spelled iod, vav,
daleth, aleph, samek, summing to 81, the mystic number of Luna,
confirming his connection with the Taurus-Scorpio axis of the zodiac, as
does the lunar silver he took from the Romans.
5 The Scorpian counterpart to Arthur is, of course, Merlin. He is
the child of an incubus, and a master of enchantments and sorcery. In
different versions of the story he ends his days imprisoned in a
thorn-bush (attributed to Scorpio) or, paralleling Enkidu, hidden in the
depths of the Earth. Guinevere and Viviane are their female complements,
related to Libra and Taurus respectively.
6 These are the qliphotic counterparts of the Taurean and Libran
female archetypes.
7 He is the Lamb, a Ram without weapons, or the Child Horus, as
yet unable to revenge his father Osiris.
8 The Tower of Mars, Geburah.
9 The discarded elemental weapons are replaced with the
consecrated counterparts, the Sword of Mars and the Shield of Jupiter,
Chesed. The monster and evil knight are, of course, the remnants of the
knight's pre-dedication behavior patterns, which he has to consciously
destroy and replace with their spiritual counterparts from Chesed before
he earns the right to carry the shield.
10 Scorpio.
11 Pisces, sign of Karma, the consequences of past actions.
12 Chesed, Jupiter
13 Sagittarius, connecting the priest of Chesed with Chokmah,
sphere of the fixed stars or cosmos.
14 The name of the Castle of the Grail, originally Caer Benoic, was
transformed by the mythologizers of the Romantic era into "Carbonek"
meaning "coal". Coal, while black and hard, is a product of the living
Earth. The implied doctrine is that the planet Earth, not Saturn, is the
true ruler of Binah.
15 The broken sword and wounded king are variations of the Blasted
Tower of Mars, with the "break" of the Abyss crossing the path. The fact
that the Knight of the Grail was able to mend the sword implies that the
Abyss as such no longer exists. This idea is emphasized at the end of
the channeling in Enochian Temples.
16 The Earth reveals her true nature as the Great Mother, Binah.
17 Tzaddi, connecting Binah with Chesed.
18 Chokmah. The implied doctrine is that Christ (the old king)
succeeded in manifesting the formula of Horus in the body, by taking on
the character of the Son, but failed to fully manifest the higher
initiations of Binah and Chokmah, since his body died in the course of
the Scorpian ordeals. The Scorpian Knights of the Grail succeed where
the Hawk or Lamb of Aries, Horus or Christ, fails. They join the Stars,
the gods, while still in the body, and heal the wounds left by the
previous aeon.
19 Paths of Capricorn and Saturn. The achievement of the Grail at
first only serves to make the spirit perceive its imprisonment in matter
more acutely. (Capricorn) But when the Grail continues to sustain the
knight despite his imprisonment he becomes able to see that matter is as
holy in essence as is the spirit.
20 Path of Sol, connecting Tiphereth with Chesed.
21 Chokmah, and the Path of Jupiter. The Word of the Magus and the
inflow of Chokmah's power overcomes the inertia and despair of
imprisonment in matter.
22 The Angel at the top of the path of Shin heralds the True God in
Kether.
23 Kether, and the paths of Shin and Tzaddi. The Grail and Spear
are raised up to become the objects of a new quest in a realm beyond
Kether.
24 Path of Jupiter, withdrawing the wheel into the central point.
25 Path of Saturn.
26 These lesser deaths should not be confused with the "little
death" of sex- magick. The latter are a form of the Solar
exaltation-through-union. Nor should the deaths and pains of this path
be confused with any sort of physical mortification. Such practices are
a perversion of the correct acts, which are entirely spiritual in
character.
27 Another typically martial characteristic.
28 That is, the Arian energies (the tower) had to be balanced by
the energies of Scorpio (Merlin).
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