最近短消息向小生要这个文的很多,干脆直接贴到这里吧~
实在太忙没时间翻译了,主要是讲克劳利的透特体系,一篇是Pasiphae的传说,一篇是关于命运那张牌。小生对透特体系研究不多,就妄不做评论了。欢迎研究透特的同志们来讨论一下~
Aleister Crowley and the Legend of Pasiphae By MichaelOsiris Snuffin (2001) In his commentary on The Hierophant in The Book of Thoth,Crowley states: “There is adistinctly sadistic aspect to this card; not unnaturally, since it derives fromthe Legend of Pasiphae, the prototype of all the legends of Bull-Gods. Thesepersist in such religions as Shaivism, and (after multiple degradations) inChristianity itself.”1 As per his usualstyle, Crowley mentions nothing more on this subject, leaving the investigationof this almost casual remark to the curious reader. So what is the significanceof the Legend of Pasiphae, and what is its relevance to the Hierophant and theNew Aeon? The answer lies scattered among Crowley’s writings; but first let usrecount the Legend of Pasiphae itself. The Legend isset in ancient Crete, where Poseidon sends King Minos a beautiful white bull upfrom the sea to offer as a sacrifice to the god. King Minos is so struck withthe beauty of this bull that he keeps it, sacrificing one of his own herd inits place. His actions anger and offend Poseidon, who punishes Minos by causinghis wife Pasiphae to fall madly in love with the white bull. With the help ofDaedalus, who constructs for her a wooden cow covered with real hide, shecopulates with the bull and conceives the monstrous Minotaur. There is littlemention of Pasiphae in Crowley’s works, but what commentary and analysis we canfind is very enlightening. In The Paris Working, Crowleyestablishes the general concept behind the Legend as he interprets it: “This is thegreat idea of magicians in all times:-- To obtain aMessiah by some adaptation of the sexual process. In Assyria theytried incest; also in Egypt; the Egyptians tried brothers and sisters, theAssyrians mothers and sons. Phoenicians tried fathers and daughters; Greeks andSyrians mostly bestiality. This idea came from India. The Jews sought to dothis by invocation methods. The Mohammedans tried homosexuality; mediaevalphilosophers tried to produce homunculi by making chemical experiments withsemen. But the rootidea is that any form of procreation other than normal is likely to produceresults of a magical character. Either thefather of the child should be a symbol of the sun, or the mother a symbol ofthe moon.”2 Crowley goes onto link this concept with the Legend of Pasiphae: “SPRINGCEREMONIES IN CRETE There was alabyrinth there; they had the worship of Apis from Egypt. There was asacred bull in this labyrinth, quite white. At the spring festival theysacrificed twelve virgins to him. ‘Here thebrutish act appeared: Pasiphae being covered bythe bull in the cow’s place’ Aeneid VI They wanted toget a Minotaur, an incarnation of the sun, a Messiah. They said they had one,but they hadn’t.”3 Here the Legendof Pasiphae is given by Crowley as a historical example of “procreation otherthan normal.” There is reference to the sacred white bull, as well as the Apisbull that was worshipped in Egypt, another “legend of the Bull gods.” Thevirginity of twelve women was sacrificed each Spring in hope that one wouldbear a Minotaur, an offspring of “magical character.” The idea that“either the father of the child should be a symbol of the sun, or the mother asymbol of the moon” is also supported by the Legend of Pasiphae. The Minotaur’sactual Greek name was Asterius, meaning “of the Sun,” and Pasiphae, “she whoshines for all,” was originally a Cretan Moon goddess.4 Thevirgins are twelve in number to represent the twelve signs of the zodiacthrough which the Sun travels on his yearly journey, suggested here as startingin the spring with Taurus. This symbolismof the Legend of Pasiphae is also found in the Hierophant trump. The Hierophantis Osiris, or, taken in context with the bull that supports him, Serapis. Thebull is focused on the loins of the Woman, who is Isis, holding the lunarcrescent that identifies her with the Moon. It is this relationship between thebull and the Woman that constitutes the “distinctly sadistic aspect to thiscard.” The Legend ofPasiphae is also interpreted at the beginning of the 16th Aethyr of TheVision and the Voice, where we begin to understand its relevance: “There are faintand flickering images in a misty landscape, all very transient. But the generalimpression is of a moonrise at midnight, and a crowned virgin riding upon abull. And they come upinto the surface of the stone. And she is singing a chant of praise: Glory untohim that hath taken upon himself the image of toil. For by his labour is mylabour accomplished. For I, being a woman, lust ever to mate myself with somebeast. And this is the salvation of the world, that always I am deceived bysome god, and that my child is the guardian of the labyrinth that hathtwo-and-seventy paths.”5 The womanspeaking is Pasiphae, who wears a crown as the Queen of Crete. The symbol of theBull itself was originally identified with the Sun and was sacred to Apollo.Her child is the Minotaur Asterius, who is “of the sun.” The labyrinth shespeaks of is the sky, which is divided into the 72 quinances of the zodiacthrough which the Sun passes in a year. The commentaryon this passage of the 16th Aethyr points to a modern representation of theLegend of Pasiphae, to be found in Crowley’s tarot: “This referenceis to Pasiphae and the Minotaur. All mythologies contain this Mystery of theWoman and Beast as the Heart of the Cult. Notably certain tribes in the Terai,at this day, send their women annually into the jungle; and any half-monkeysthat result are worshipped in their temples. Atu XI exhibits this mystery; andit is the subject of constant reference in the higher Aires.”6 Atu XI shows awoman riding on a lion-beast, an image almost identical to that in the 16thAethyr. The elucidation of this card in The Book of Thoth explainsthe Legend of Pasiphae in terms of the new Aeon: “The central mysteryin that past Aeon was that of Incarnation; all the legends of god-men werefounded upon some symbolic story of that kind. The essential of all suchstories was to deny human fatherhood to the hero or god-man. In most cases, thefather is stated to be a god in some animal form, the animal being chosen inaccordance with the qualities that the authors of the cult wished to seereproduced in the child. “Thus, Romulusand Remus were twins begotten upon a virgin by the god Mars, and they weresuckled by a wolf. On this the whole magical formula of the city Rome wasfounded. “Reference hasalready been made in this essay to the legends of Hermes and Dionysus. “The father ofGautama Buddha was said to be an elephant with six tusks, appearing to hismother in a dream. “There is alsothe legend of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove, impregnating the VirginMary. There is here a reference to the dove of Noah’s Ark, bringing gladtidings of the salvation of the world from the waters. (The dwellers in the Arkare the foetus, the waters the amniotic fluid.) “Similar fablesare to be found in every religion of the Aeon of Osiris: it is the typicalformula of the Dying God. “In this card,therefore, appears the legend of the woman and the lion, or rather lion-serpent.(This card is attributed to the letter Teth, which means a serpent.) “The seers inthe early days of the Aeon of Osiris foresaw the Manifestation of this comingAeon in which we now live, and they regarded it with intense horror and fear,not understanding the procession of the Aeons, and regarding every change ascatastrophe. This is the real interpretation of, and the reason for, thediatribes against the Beast and the Scarlet Woman in the XIII, XVII andXVIII-th chapters of the Apocalypse; but on the Tree of Life, that path ofGimel, the Moon, descending from the highest, cuts the path of Teth, Leo, thehouse of the Sun, so that the Woman in the card may be regarded as a form ofthe Moon, very fully illuminated by the Sun, and intimately united with him insuch wise as to produce, incarnate in human form, the representative orrepresentatives of the Lord of the Aeon.”7 Here the Beastand the Scarlet Woman are given as modern manifestations of the elements of theLegend of Pasiphae. They are identified with the Sun and the Moon in TheBook of the Law: “Now ye shallknow that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is theprince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman all power isgiven. They shall gather my children into their fold; they shall bring theglory of the stars into the hearts of men. “For he is evera sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her thestooping starlight.”8 The last versealso identifies the Beast with Hadit (the winged secret flame) and the ScarletWoman with Nuit (the stooping starlight.) They are likewise described in LiberReguli as “the earthly emissaries of those Gods.”9 Such is alsothe role of the Priest and Priestess of the Gnostic Mass. It is noteworthythat all of the masculine entities of Thelema are given animal forms, eachsolar in character: Hadit as the “winged snake of light”10, Horus asthe “Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength”11, and the Beastas the Lion-Serpent. Each is a symbol of the Sun, the essential father in eachof Crowley’s interpretations of the Legend of Pasiphae. Thus does theLegend of Pasiphae manifest in our New Aeon of Horus as expressed through thewritings of Aleister Crowley. Blessing & worship to the prophet of thelovely Star!
Footnotes: 1 The Book of Thoth, page 79.
2 The Equinox,Vol, 4, No. 2, pages 386-387.
3 Ibid. Note thatthe quote from the Aeneid originally appeared in Greek in Crowley's text; forconvenience I have given the Robert Fitzgerald translation included in thenotes of the Equinox 4:2 version.
4 See RobertGraves The Greek Myths for more on the historial basis for the Legends of Pasiphae and theMinotaur.
5 Equinox Vol. 4,No. 2, page 125.
6 Ibid, footnote3.
7 The Book ofThoth, pages 93-94.
8 AL 1L15-16.
9 Liber ABA, page566.
10 AL 3:38.
11 AL 3:70. Copyright (c)2010 Michael Osiris Snuffin
|