• No results found

Anderson, Chester --PROSPECTUS I Ching and the Systems of the West

N/A
N/A
Protected

Academic year: 2021

Share "Anderson, Chester --PROSPECTUS I Ching and the Systems of the West"

Copied!
34
0
0

Loading.... (view fulltext now)

Full text

(1)

GPROSPECT S.

IChing & the SysteIlls of the West

Chester Anderson

1975

(2)
(3)

Chester Valentine John Anderson was a friend of mine.

He, a far better

friend to me than I to him, I am afraid.

He and I both left Mendocino

around the same time, He for the Russian River area, I for parts much,

much farther west.

Ironically I found out about his being sick, ultimately leaving

California, and then his death in an old Mendocino Beacon laying about

my folk's house. Antonia was saying there would be a memorial service

for him. This was some time after the date and I was stricken.

When it came time to upload items on to SCRIBD I immediately

thought of this PROSPECTUS, of Chester's that I had been carrying

around,

10

these 35 years, a give back to them and an immortalization

of

Chester, as it were.

Little did I know, Chester was already immortalized

on the WEB. Wikipedia says he was born August

11,1932

and left us on

April

11, 1991.

It lists the books he wrote and the other literary

accomplishments

of his. Let me tell you, Wikipedia has nothing on me

babe.

The Diggers web site at

www.diggers.org

has a connection to the

communication

company archives that, according to Joan Didion in

Slouching towards Bethlehem,

was Chester's "peculiar hold on the

District derives from his possession of a mimeograph machine, on which

he prints communiques signed "the communication

company.'"

It is ironic that the World Wide Web and Scribd came along to late.

CVJ would have loved it. It would have been his perfect media. To nlY

Knowledge he never completed the book that this document was a

prospectus for. It is not listed among his papers at the Bancroft Library;

it may have just been one of those things that feel between the floor

boards of life. It should be noted that the address given here doesn't go

anywhere now, Chet not being in a place to answer letters. The Church

of The One was Chester and the Mendocino Lithographer's

was the print

shop He worked at to pay the bills.

Chester was something of a well versed student of the I Ching. In

the time I was in touch with him I collected all manner of charts with

Hexagrams on them, very few of which I ever understood. He had this

way of having you tell him things that you didn't let a lot of other people

know, one of mine was that I "Walked the I Ching"; that is practiced }\.~

(Ba Gua or Pa Kua). I think he felt I should have a better understanding

of what I was doing and kept giving me the material so I would go find

these things out. As you can see in the lithograph done by Chuck

Stevenson, Chester has placed one on it also. The picture belo\v was

part of a series a whole bunch of us who did theater, knew Chuck, and

(4)

Spetrino was responsible for the whole project, but it has been so long

ago I can't remember.

We all got naked and Chuck took pictures to use

or not use in his art.

There was supposed to be some slide show held at

the Mendocino Art Center. I don't know if it ever happened, as stated

above, I left town.

,..

~..

..

In Charles Marchant Stevenson's multiple portrait IIChesterAnderson

ll

the artist refers to Renaissance allegorical painting in which the figure of

Truth is presented naked, Truth having nothing to hide. Stevenson is the

illustrator of Chester Anderson's cinematic novel of Greenwich Village

in 1964, IIFoxand Hare: the story of a Friday evening II(Entwhistle Books,

1980).

The inscription is in Chester Anderson's hand:

IIInall things, great and small, I am the Beauty of the Divine

Manifestation. II

Pencil signed by Chester Anderson

An original Lithograph of this may be had From Zacha's Bay Window

Gallery, Mendocino, CA

(5)

'PROSPECTUS

I Ching

&

the System.s of the West

-

--

-

-

-Chester Anderson

THE CHURCH OF THE ONE

MENDOCINO LITHOGRAPHERS

Fort Bragg, California

(6)

In 1966, Antonia Lamb introduced me to the I Ching. Long may she live in happiness.

"

PROSPECTUS: I Ching & the Systems of the West by Chester Anderson

Published at the Vernal Equinox, 1975

Copyright @ 1975 by Chester Anderson All rights reserved.

Published for The Church of the One by Mendocino Lithographers

100 N. Franklin Street Fort Bragg, California 95437

~ , ".... 'iI '

. t(la.

~

.

. tv

(7)

Righteousness a function of form discovered not proved.

]. S. Bach March 16, 1968

The flow of energy through a system acts to organize that system.

R. Buckminster Fuller

ONE

The eight trigrams of the I Ching come to us in two traditional arrangements: The Primal Arrangement (or 'Before-the-World Sequence'), much the older of the two; and The Inner World Arrangement (Bollingen I Ching, 3rd cd., pp. 262-279). Like every other duality in the Changes, these two arrangements are, respectively, Yang and Yin, Creative and Re-ceptive. In their circular structure they are the primary mandalas of the Powers of Heaven and the Powers of Earth.

Tht. P..

l-.-l A"~"je.-s_"t"

0,.

"' Be+D •..,

thL WDv)J ~e'l ••.

_e",'"

8olh'":'".•..I Cl\l"'~ ~

s ...~

eJ:t, ••.•• 1'<"54s 2(6 -'Ii7 U:l.-7'J ~"'~ t.~t""l.n-~ to{

'1

J-.3 5

7

go

I

"

C\. .•.S't"4 •.~ ~ s.e<t"" ••.•• C:ol:..l~ II>

i-",u

J•••.u't;.,••s n.,lll""4" 1: Cl.I_" !.•..j

~c:..',,-.

r--~"

~''i-l1,

:Jo~-"~

1{11-7"c U-Hi ./.1s~",k.<I'''

s...;n.,

8

1'1"''''-'''' /'1' -"N.e ~ it••-c •..••l:;".c

(8)

-A few years ago, when I was being taught the basic Magic Circle traditionally favored by the members of a certain British Coven:

I realized that the outer and inner rings, representing the Forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness, are exactly equivalent to the Primal and Inner World Arrangements, and that the four Names in each of the two rings can be equated to the four 'polar' (east, south, west and north) trigrams in each of the two Arrangements.

=

M-..; ~ iI.••••;r.~ :: : L."1 s )J Chi"'ls< TVk-ksl:liu-,f-CI.L W •.i:c~,,'C,.,1 •. ::::: Lv"'" :...= L",;f~, : : 1;,,,;,bob :...:- A\~'t.,,"~

(9)

In theory, Ireasoned, one should be able to construct an effective magic circle from the two Arrangements of the trigrams, placing one inside the other concentrically, which would avoid the rather tricky business of invoking Divine and Infernal Names to assist in one's own trivial affairs. This has proven experimentally to be the case.

.50vr;(,

--

-

T!'--

-..•.

-S"V~ \~ C '" ~

,..

~ ~.1'~

-

--

--

- -

-UO!OjV

"1h~

GV'~

civclL

(10)

The fact that in the western magic circle the east and west poles of the Inner World Arrangement are transposed suggests that, like everything else in the Changes, the Yang and Yin arrangements of the trigrams themselves have Yang and Yin forms-the normal and transposed versions. (Thus do the Changes express Tetragrammaton.)

If the IWA is the Powers of Earth, then going one way-east, south, west, north-the Arrangement is passive, and going the other way-west, south, east, north-it's active. (Or vice versa. But I would imagine that in the western circle, both inner and outer rings are active, since one only erects such a thing to act from within it. And I would expect the normal, clockwise sequence of each Arrangement to be the ideal of what that Arrangement is: active for the Primal Arrangement, passive for the Inner World Arrangement. But I could easily be wrong.)

This all suggests that trigrammatic magic circles can be constructed and precisely tai-lored for any imaginable number of specific applications, and this too has proved our in practice. I've erected a number of such circles and tested them on friends, with broadly consistent results. The friends (who knew nothing about what I was doing, or even about the Changes) were invited to sit within the circles and meditate, or project, sense vibes, look through the third eye-whatever they found comfortable-and describe their experiences, which have pretty uniformly been appropriate to the theoretical properties of the circles. (A residual timidity has so far kept me from using these circles in any more active work than healing &c.) You may experiment with these devices for yourself, if you wish.

(11)

s

-~

--

--

-~)(f'r...".~:!

t:vl'jY""".s-i.e.::::=

+;- ~

;:;-:3

:HUI

--

-N

•. •.

..

•.

.

.

-

..

.

•.

•.

.

:..:

~'

-

-

-..

,

"[I"j r:Ji,)'5 P-C=-""ct .•. of-""-rl.t~\r ,I.-If. H"Z-P"~l,..:vl<~

\

'

"'u

""

n,

(12)

It follows from all this that the trigrams, like all the gods of all man's pantheons, represent forces of nature-which is just what the Ching itself says they do-and that con-vincing correspondences can be established between gods and trigrams. And from this, of course, it follows that the trigrams can be neatly placed on the Tree of Life, and that a point for point correlation between the system of western occultism and the system of the Changes can therefore be elaborated.

Crowley, in 777, The Book of TllOth and elsewhere, undertook to do just this, but his understanding of the Changes suffered from being based solely on the Legge mistranslation of the I Ching, and his attributions are often thus erroneous or gimcrack:

C....,-,lc.ls e,rr/kteiNS

('lw:••••.•_~ ••~

(13)

C. F. Russell and most other modern occultists who make reference to the Changes follow Crowley's faulty attributions, and their work suffers accordingly-be advised. The correct attributions are here set forth for the first time.

/~ ....

/~i-,,"k

k'v"

-

--/---~l

Chv~"""-h

Ch',e"

-

-[,(.(~\~,:)~il\ //

ih.•

cn...•"'t

r

1~'4".,.••.

"t "

tlw.

T",

I , ••, .•••j ""'" "tI\.• ,.

""Co

(14)

These Sephiroth/Trigram correspondences are exact, in the sense that they satisfy both the Chinese and the Hebrew requirements. In the Changes, each trigram is given the same

attributes and properties as the Sephirah related to it. Where there are differences, the two systems complement each other.

Furthermore, the trigrams, as thus laid out upon the Tree, follow the order of the Primal Arrangement. Since I discovered this after Ipaking the Sephiroth/Trigram assign-ments, Iconsider it to be a highly validating coincidence. Starting &om the top/south pole of the Primal Arrangement and moving widdershins, the sequence is Chokmah, Chesed, Tiphareth, Geburah, Binah - twist - Netzach, Yesod, Hod, twisting thence back again to Chokmah.

This suggests at the very least a moebius twist in the structure of the Tree (a similar twist has long been known to occur in the sequence of the Major Arcana). It also suggests a spheroid structure in three or more dimensions, with Kether at the center (which is every-where) and Malkuth at the circumference (which is nowhere to be found). All this is in-teresting to think about.

Since we are considering a Yang and a Yin sequence of trigrams, each with a Yang and a Yin subsequence of its own, it seems likely that there are actually four possible arrange-ments of the trigrams on the Tree, which would give us one sequence for each of the Four Worlds of the Qabalah. But Ihaven't had the leisure to go into this yet, and it remains an open hypothesis.

(15)

TWO

Chapter XI, paragraph 5 of The Great Treatise (I Ching, p. 318) says:

Therefore there is in the Changes the Great Primal Beginning. This generates the two primary forces.

The two primary forces generate the four images. The four images generate the eight trigrams.

This sets forth the basis of a cosmological system identical with that of the Qabalah, the Tetragrammaton. The same system is set forth in chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching.

---

-

-

---

-

-

-

---

--

-

-

-:::-=

---

-

-Tht:.

GY~AZ:

!,ri1114/

'B

fJ"7lnc.'''J

:

tho(.

2.

P•...

~'»4~!Y

PoYUS ~

-0R.-s

TkL Cs~o(Cj1

,,~u,~

CI'\C4"'je5

-

-

--L-l-L ~

=- -

~ b .::: -

-

.

-n;~,.,.,:

+

b'----

--

--,

.

--

-CJ,~1=1J~,...

:r:~.:J-(j'

~

-+

.J;,a.L{,

-+

3

a..b9-

-t-

b

3

==;;

=- ~ ~

== :-

=

1J,~G{j~r:

lv-<Jr-i4~$

-'1:1 V1,rV.(~L:

&.

+- ") :::

(a.

+-

b)

2.

=

(16)

-oR-The Great Primal Beginning is the Ain Soph Aur. -oR-The two primary forces arc -oR-The Creative and The Receptive-Yang and Yin per se-which are Kether and Malkuth on the Tree. The eight trigrams (which are the eight remaining Sephiroth) are the lines of force or attraction or whatever between the two great poles of Yang and Yin.

The two primary forces evolve (I prefer this to 'generate') the four two-line images, which correspond to the four seasons, cardinal directions, and (most significantly) four clements. Also, of course, the Four Worlds and every other fourness in the universe.

The two forces are simple Yang and Yin. Adding to each a Yang and/or a Yin produces four combinations of Yang and Yin: the four images/elements/&c. To each of these four adding yet another Yang and/or Yin produces the eight trigrams. All very neat and mathe-matical:

:2

(the forces), 2 squared (the images) and 2 cubed (the trigrams).

(It is interesting to note that whereas western occultism/metaphysics and the system of the Changes are firmly tetrapolar, the system of Chinese metaphysics is just as firmly based on five-five directions, elements, tones, colors, virtues &c. This despite the fact that the tetra polar Changes have for 5,000+ years been the basis of Chinese thought. It is easily seen that the systems of western occultism and the I Ching are in most respects the same, which suggests either that the two systems have a common source [about which it is futile but enlightening to speculate], or that one of the two systems is the original of which the other is a corruption. [For aesthetic reasons, I prefer to think the Ching came first, but t~ere's no telling for sure.] This is also lots of fun to think about.)

Anyhow, within the confines of the eight trigrams, the system of the Changes presents a four-dimensional working scale model/outline of the endless evolution of the cosmos, an extraordinarily sophisticated and even scientific construct. This system was already com-plete and perfect at the time of the earliest recorded reference to the Changes, circa 2305 B.C. (I refer you to Helmut Wilhelm, Change, page 48:

Scholars have in fact extended the mathematical order underlying the indi-vidual hexagram and, applying it to the system as a whole, have obtained a perfect numerical representation satisfying to the imagination of a mind

trained in mathematics. A graphic representation of this system cannot but be inadequate, because three dimensions do not suffice. That is to say, if a single line is delineable in one dimension, and the double line requires a plane, and for the trigram a solid body is necessary, then naturally when it comes to representing the complex of a hexagram, one cannot do without

the help of a fourth dimension, which is indeed imaginable to the mathe-rnatical mind but cannot be represented concretely.

Which is really pretty clever for 2305 B.C.)

(The similarities between the system of the Changes and certain concepts of contem-porary physics, chemistry, game and information theory &c are, in a general sense, fairly obvious, and should be incorporated herein by reference, but they are too elaborate, and 1

(17)

The prevailing academic theory is that the trigrams evolved in a fairly straightforward way from the old tortoise-shell oracles, beginning from a simple Yang/yes and Yin/no and gradually adding lines for greater specificity. However, I've seen no evidence presented in support of this idea, and the sophistication of the system so early as 2305 B.C. argues against it. (Another counterargument is that no one before myself seems to have had any clear idea what the system actually is.) The academic theory is further weakened for me by the fact that already in 2305 B.C. the names of the trigrams (in some unknown and even then forgotten language, not Chinese) had become untranslatable, and the meanings thereof dependent on oral tradition, according to Helmut Wilhelm.

This suggests (at least to me) that the trigrams reached China already fully developed from somewhere else, but God knows where. The indications of scientific and technical advancement inherent in the system (I admit 1may be simply reading these into it from my own bias) lead me into frankly fantasy/science-fictional speculation:

A. that the system is the sole identifiable surviving artifact of some advanced culture that rose, flourished and fell without any other trace long enough before recorded history to have been utterly forgotten, lost to human memory, whose fall was such that it left no other relics for archeology to find-this is the Atlantean Hypothesis;

B. or that the system was accidentally or even deliberately left behind, circa 2305 B.C., by representatives of some non-terrestrial, space-hopping culture-the Galactic Litterbug or Flying Saucer Hypothesis;

C. or that, just as Chinese tradition has it, God (Fu Hsi) came down from His moun-tain and presented the system, fully formed, to mankind to aid us in our evolu-tion upward toward re-union with Him-the Divine Intervention Hypothesis.

(18)

THREE

In an ancient Chinese calendar system, "The Breaths of the Year," the twelve months are symbolized by twelve hexagrams depicting the ebb and flow of the two primary forces in the course of the year. (This is what Dr. Wilhelm is talking about when he mentions that such and such a hexagram is associated with such and such a month.) Along with these twelve, four hexagrams (which are the polar trigrams of the Inner World Arrangement doubled) are used to symbolize the four seasons.

-

.•

-i"'f'fiqtl

= :

)\jl 'b"'C

_.-.•

..

..•

-

..

--

- -

..•

-

..•

"''''l thna )'j.J.. '1, $I ~ '--;:! ~

f

~

J

,..

"'IU~ ~ ~

..$.

-IU't

'I

:n: ~

~ H::

l

",l

l

\t)" "

~''l'\,

.l

Y

Itt

~~

~

~ ~ ~ ~

F

~.

~ J?2~(1S..A>:2,.lI,

lrJ

-~

(19)

These four core hexagrams are of two kinds, naturally. The Creative and the Receptive are closed, in the sense that they evolve no further. Before Completion and After Comple-tion, on the other hand, evolve ceaselessly each into the other, Yang becoming Yin becom-ing Yang becombecom-ing Yin forevermore. The picture this presents is of the Creative and the Receptive as positive and negative poles around which Before and After Completion whirl, somewhat like a dynamo.

The possible implications of all this are delightfully staggering, but it's enough for here/now to point out that once again we have a structure of four 'seasonal' hexagrams and twelve 'monthly' hexagrams, and once again therefore the possibility of astrological correlations.

It is noteworthy that in this system the four central hexagrams perfectly reflect the four elemental/seasonal images discussed above, demonstrating more clearly than is usual in occult lore the actual workings of the elements. The correlations and correspondences between the twelve 'monthly' hexagrams of the Nuclear Evolution system and those of the Breaths of the Year are likewise interesting.

(20)

il,,,,,

C"s"",lc

T.~r

'rkU4,..""

(\'\i.H"')I

!t

_______ - ;1..i

1

•..

~,.J.,_

:...:,A.

a...

f:•.••

"t

-~ I _ CVI«!f" •.

--

-....•.•

•..

--

•..

.•.

-

-

-7"''2~:: .: "'~J..

z::

-

.•.

-

-

--

.

12"~74{2 ~

t"

~--g) L.or

.~

~~f/''''~.''''1

'Two 1

C"i"'j

Cc..I~.••

Jtc"5 C~('-'tl

(21)

The other 48 hexagrams are distributed among these twelve and four in a manner we won't go into here, so as to provide a calendar of 360 lines. From the old writings on the subject, it is clear that these 360 lines do not represent 360 days, as some scholars would have it, but the 360 degrees of the sun's apparent passage around the earth in the circle of the year. This is a fairly advanced notion for its time (circa 300 B.C.), especially since the Chinese were otherwise subdividing the circle into something like 365 "degrees," and sug-gests that the twelve monthly hexagrams can be correlated somehow with the signs of the Zodiac, but so far I've not been able to establish such a correlation firm and inevitable enough to satisfy me. This is therefore one of my major projects.

(In this connection, it is worth noting that the system of twelve Houses is a relatively modern development in astrology, according to Cyril Fagin, and that in the original system there were but eight houses. Correlations between these and the eight trigrams, especially in the Inner World Arrangement, may well be possible.)

(22)

FOUR

Each hexagram is actually composed of four trigrams (yay Tetragrammaton!). Lines 1-2-3 and 4-5-6 are the outer trigrams, and lines 2-3-4 and 3-4-5 are the nuclear trigrams. In the Book of Changes, all four trigrams are involved in determining the meaning not only of each hexagram as a whole, but especially of each line within each hexagram. The internal evidence suggests that this mode of explication is at least as old as the texts (for they are based on it), and is perhaps of a piece with the rest of the system.

From each hexagram, then, you can extract the nuclear trigrams and combine them in what I call a nuclear hexagram. (In divination, this nuclear hexagram generally depicts the querent's question or area of concern.)

Icall this process of extracting nuclear hexagrams Nuclear Evolution, and when, out of curiosity, I applied the process systematically to all 64 hexagrams, I discovered that 48 hexagrams all evolve into the same 12 nuclear hexagrams, and that these 12 in turn evolve into four 'core' hexagrams. (Actually, Isuppose, the 12 evolve out of the four, and the 48 out of the 12, but Inecessarily worked it out the other way around, and that's how Ithink of it.) 50 14 34 32 56 30 55 62 33 13 49 31 ~ 44

~II:II:~

- - I'IIII~

:I:II:~

I I :

I: II

10\

~II:III~

/'

IIIII~

I' II

11111' .

"1

11'1.» '11110'

II I 1'0 1111'11.»

~

;IIIUl

/~,~~ ~::I:I~

~

43-':':I:II:~

--Lf):I:111 ~IIIIII

-0'

II: II I

I I

:;;11:11:/

Lf)'IIIII~

•.•• 111 II

'0 I11II

I

"'III I 0111111

NIIII'I

"""II , I

NIII/

~I::I::

/_t~~

:;:::II:~

/I::II:~

11111/ ~

11'111.••

:::111

J;IIIIII-~IIIIII-~III'II

<--/

"'~

111'110'

'1'1

110' 1IIIIIUl 1'1 IUl

~I::III

II I

I I ,

1'1 ~

7 1'11.»-1 I 1"'-11'

I.»

:::111;::;

~I::II:/

~1::IIIt:

(23)

Once again let me emphasize: (a) that the Nuclear Evolution system is wholly organic and integral to the hexagrams themselves, not an arrangement arbitrarily devised and im-posed upon them; and (b) that so far as Ican tell, despite the 5,000+ years of intensive study the IChing has enjoyed, this system remained undiscovered until it unexpectedly burst upon me like an Adeptus Minor initiation in March of 1968. (This, however seren-dipitous, may well be my sole or major contribution to the Art, and I'm proud enough of it to want to brag a bit, and sign my work.)

(24)

FIVE

I have no idea how significant this might be:

I Ching = or: 2 primary forces 4 images 8 trigrams 64 hexagrams 78

=

Tarot deck 2 primary forces 4 images 8 trigrams 8 primary hexagrams* 22 =Tarot Trumps

56 secondary hexagrams

=

Tarot Minor Arcana 78 again

It's probably just another goddam intriguing coincidence.

* 'primary hexagrams' (my term) are those eight hexagrams consisting of a single trigram doubled.

(25)

SIX

After years of comfortable ex-Irish Catholic atheism, I became, between one instant and the next, obsessed with the I Ching in July, 1966, and have joyfully pursued this obses-sion without interruption since. On 23 June 1969, again between one moment and the next, I became likewise obsessed with Magick and with western occultism in general, not so much as things or ends in themselves but as expressions of the same lovely system/structure I had found to underlie the Changes. In fact, I regard my discovery of the Nuclear Evolution system as the triggering event that left me open to this fascination with Magick.

The whole thrust of my overtly magical studies has been to perfect a synthesis of the western and eastern traditions, and to develop therefrom a practical system of mystical perception, free of the obscurities and corruptions of the Judeo/Christian tradition, com-bining the transcendent objectivity of the I Ching and the empirical subjectivity of the Qabalah; a system that would 'work' pretty much independently of the practitioner's faith/belief, and would appeal, as equally as may be, to both the mystically and the techni-cally inclined-in short, a post-Einsteinian occultism.

Failing this, I was willing to settle for a workable technique for thaumaturgical engineering.

L. Ron Hubbard has already done something much like this, but my whole nature recoils from the absolutism of Scientology, as well as from Hubbard's pre-Diane tics career as one of the blacker members of the O.T.O., Magus of the Agape Temple in Pasadena, et cetera.

I suspect Scientology of being Black Magick hiding behind a lab smock, and Hubbard's motives of diabolism. Many Scientologists have 'buttons' programmed into them that, pushed, produce spectacular results (but don't do it in your own home). As an experiment, next time you encounter a Hubbard robot, look him fixedly in the eye with that well-known Clear stare and say, in a loud, flat, intense monotone: RON HUBBARD DEAD! and see what he does.

The degree to which I have already succeeded in my Work is partly shewn in this book. Actually, I have developed a fairly extensive technology of meditation, symbol manipula-tion and actualizamanipula-tion, and ceremony that, so far as it goes, more or less lives up to my stated intention and in practice generally exceeds my expectations. For example, before an average of twelve witnesses I have conducted successful conjurations/evocations of 'Luci-fer' (the 'spirit' of the trigram Li

===

The Clinging, Fire), 'Ashtoreth' ('spirit' of Tui

=-=

The Joyous) and assorted elementals, using only a circle of trigrams, using words of friendly invitation rather than command, and doing without threats, compulsions, Names of Power, defenses-without, in short, the entire paraphernalia and underlying attitudes of early Renaissance anti-hierarchial ceremonial magic, and in every case without the traditional undesirable side effects.

In the light of what I'm after, that sort of Goetic sideshow is quite trivial, of course, but most encouraging.

More to the point, I have taught several young people several ordinary years' worth of basic magic-as-yoga using the system of the Changes as the medium for 'energy trans-actions' that led in most cases to marked improvements in the students' life styles, personal

(26)

integration, happiness/health, and to improvements in their relationships with the objective cosmos. One of my students assisted in the burning of the Isla Vista Branch of the Bank of America, who a year before had been too law-struck to piss against a wall.

I've successfully used trigram circles (roughly half the time explaining them, and leaving them unexplained the other times) to train people who really wanted to learn (an unfortunate prerequisite) to project a lot better, mostly, than I can myself. And I've used the circles with some success in healing, too, in erecting precisely-tuned spells/charms/amu-lets, et trivial cetera.

All of which (being still essentially an ex-Irish Catholic atheist/sceptic) I find exceed-ing curious.

It is obvious to me that one to one correspondences can be established among the I Ching, the Tarot, the Qabalah at large, Astrology, the system of (at least) Kundalini Yoga, and, indeed, any and most forms of occult/mystic art/science characterized by the operation of a system, including those of the Hopi and some other Amerind cultures; and that the benefits of establishing these correspondences will be manifold beyond prevision. The correspondences themselves, in many instances, are much less obvious to me. My limitations keep identifying themselves.

(27)

SEVEN

The fundamental law of the Changes is that there is a Yang and a Yin form/aspect of every thing that is, and of these likewise a Yang and a Yin for each, and of those forms as well a Yang and a Yin, endlessly from the simplest positive and negative charges at the core of the atom outward through the infinitely ramified universe, all things being variously evolved elaborations of that primal duality whereby the One appreciates Itself.

Thus the eight trigrams express the Yang and Yin forms of the four Elements. From this the elemental composition of the 64 hexagrams can be established. This may facilitate a Tarot correspondence. JI/ ::-:

-.•.

•.

-

.•.

.•.

-

..

-

.•.

:..:

-

.•.

-...

-

-

.•...

-

..

•..•.

-.•.

-

---

5"1..

-

.• -

-•.

..

.•.

•• •• I

-.•.

.•.

-

--

-:..:

17

sa

-

--=

-

- -

-

.•.

..

-•....•

....

==

-==

.II

....

--

-

.•..•.

--

-

.•.

.•.

.•.

..

-

-

=--

-

-

-.•.

--

=

..

--

-5'1

.

.

.

--

#

.•

12.

-

-....

--

--

-

--

-.

•.

-

-

--

-::,...::.

-

-- --

--

-

•.

--

-.•..•.

-

-.•.

-

.•

-

.•.

.•.

-

-

--

-

-

5'")

--

..

-

--

-

--...-.

-

,.

•..

-

-_...

-~

.•.

--~=-- - ~--

-~--!()_

~1

li

-."

---

~-

-

=:

-

-

..-

-

_..

-

.•

.•.

---

--

-,.

1\2-c=:

•.

.•...

-..

-37

--

..

-

=

-, I

-

-

.•.

-

--

--

-

-

-•.

.•.

~_._._.

s-q

-

-

.•.

--

--

.•.

-}...?

--

-

-•.

--

-

.•.

•.

-

.•.

•.

..

-....•

-.•.

....•

-r~

-

..

-

-...•.

-

.•.

:

-I , w _

.•...

..

--

-

..

-

•.

•.

=-=

-.•.

-•.

-

-15" ••..

--

••..

==

-

-.•.

.•.

-

--

-

-- --I

::-'::

-

.•..

.•.

-

-

..

-

-=

=

\ I

-

-..

-.•...

=

-.•..•.

-

-.•..•.

~ I---'" --7

- -

.•..•.

.•..•.

-

.•.

--

60

,.,~

=-:.

.•..•.

-.•...

•.

--

-

.•.

-

-.•.

-

.•.

...

-

-.•.

-

-.•.

•.

-

.•.

-

-~

C

;Z.C(

-

.•.

-.•.

--

-

--

--

.•.

--

-

-

--

-

-

-

-:...::.

-

-

--

.•..

-.•..

-21

,

.,

,.

-=-=

-

--

-

.•.

-

~

.•. .•.

-

--

•.

-..

:;. ••..

-

-

.•.

--

-

--

-

-

--

-

-$'"0

-

.•

-

--

••.. 10

8

-.2...3 I~

--

--

-_ w

-

.•.

--

••..

--

.-e--

.•

-

--

--

-

.

.

-

.•.

<?

-- --

--

-=

-

-

-~

..

--

-

-

--

--

0:.-13

-~l

e ''\''''c_ "C

s

y

&co'"'

-

D--...

-

~--

B=

-.•.

-::..:;,

~

..-- •• V

-

-:.= ~

-

-

---

-..

(28)

-The hard part about trying to march the Ching with anything else is that nothing else has so perfect and integral a system. Astrology is a complex compromise choking on three extra planets and a surfiet of character analysis. Divination by palms, moles, mice, political speeches and headlines, to name but a few of that kind, is rigorously asystematic. The Major Arcana of the Tarot are evidently the relicts of what must have been a very elegant system, but it's been forgotten, and some of the pieces have doubtless been lost.

The Minor Arcana, though, are just as neat as they can be. They even, like the Ching, incorporate two systems, a Yang and a Yin: the Court Cards and the numbered cards. In The Book of Thoth, dear old Crowley undertakes to mate each court card (and some of the small cards) with a perfectly matching hexagram, and despite being handicapped by James Legge.'s Yi King Karma he comes up with a system that pleases me as well as if 'twere mine. In his stab at fitting trigrams to the Tree (Figure 6), the Beast puts all the polar tri-grams of the Primal Arrangement in the Middle Pillar, thus removing them from elemental roles, and assigns the elements to the four in-between trigrams, thus:

Kt""

~

..

-

- -

-

¥I•.

~J~

O".~'"

V

.•..

::::.

-

C...,S

K"\,,)~"t'

~

-

-

S"" ••..

~j

-

-'P...

t ~

-

.

•.

•.

.

~"T.,l,~

These trigrams all express the Yin side of the four elements, but otherwise the match is perfect.

Next he matches these elemental trigrams to the four Court Cards and to the four Suits and sets them up in a grid:

Wf>-"r:'t,> CVfS S~oD.••s\.s

P•.••

7;~

--

--

-

-•.•.

-

-

-

-

.-

-

-

-

-hI \7 '-I~ ')..1

K,,,,",

.

-

--

-

...

-

.-

.-

=

.

.-

-

===

-

.

_ .

.-

-i.i

_.

.-

-

::.: ~

.-

~:t

Sf3 &1 Iff Q"ff"\

-

-

.-

~

:c

.'

-

.

-

-

.-

-

....

••

.--

~

It::

~

-~~ 2-9 '!J1' H?

\<.~~~t'

w w

-

-

=:

.-

:-&

--

==

-

-

-.

-

-

...

w._

;::

!Ii

-_.

Ww ';'2 -31 5"3 5"2-~fa~'"

-

....

.- .-

-

-

.-

::::;

-

.-

..

~

-

-

.-

=-:.:

• w

..

..

-

-

_.

..

(29)

By this means he generates a hexagram for every intersection of Court Card and Suit, sixteen all told, and all relatively appropriate. And these fall easily into an admirable mandala:

I

p

~_

II,." ~

In,, II 0 ~ et

TI-.

e.

Cov

yo

r

C

,,"If

Js c.,,~

n.\

y

S

t

j ••

~•..••

~

H

<)(

/I."" •.•••••

05 _

c..(,Co.,~i':l

'tb\1'\A

M"s"Cu

Th ••..,.,""

'66

There are some few weaknesses to the scheme, but it works. Considering Crowley's general luck with the Changes, I'm glad he had the satisfaction of doing at least one trigram thing that worked.

(30)

EIGHT

Aleister Crowley's more valuable to me for his errors than his hits. Whenever I discover him in error, I know that I have learned something. His faulty attributions of the trigrams to the Tree are an instance of this. He tends to blow it when he strays from the Qabalah of the Golden Dawn. (What hung him up was Da'ath. He knew that it was an imaginary Sephira, but he insisted on attributing stuff to it.)

His assignment of the seven Chakras to the Tree is typically wrong. There exist on the Tree seven planes, four single and three double, corresponding to the Chakras thus:

7. Kether - Sahasrara 6. Chokmah/Binah - Ajna 5. Chesed/Geburah - Visuddha 4. Tiphareth - Anahata 3. Netzach/Hod - Manipura 2. Yesod - Svadhisthana 1. Malkuth - Muladhara

This is a pretty rough and ready set of attributions, really, but it's proved useful in practical work (western style-for a serious student of Kundalini Yoga I suspect this would be no attribution set at all), and throws enough new light on the Sephiroth generally to be worth while. More loosely, one might assign the Nadi to the Paths.

(31)

NINE

There exists a Magical Alphabet called The Writing of the Malachiim. Like most such, this corresponds character for character with the Hebrew alphabet. I found it first in McGregor Mathers' version of The Greater Key and immediately took it up, for it's both pretty and simple, and far easier to draw well than the Hebrew, which still gives me fits.

In laying out this Alphabet and its symbolic content, I realized that the Malachiim characters are actually structural diagrams of the designs of the Major Arcana. This being the case (you are not required to believe it), then the Malachiim characters plainly express the 'secret attributions' of the Trumps, as discovered in a suspicious manner by Mathers and friends and cherished privily by the Golden Dawn (until Crowley blew their whistle).

THE WRITING OF THE MALACHIIM

The information presented with each character is arranged as follows:

First line: the name of the letter, the meaning of the name, and the numerical value of the letter. Thus: Aleph - Ox - 1

Second line: the Hebrew spelling of the name transliterated, its numerical value, and the cosmic attribute of the letter.

Thus: ALP - 111 - Air

Third line: the English transliteration of the letter, and the related Tarot trump. Thus: A, E - O.The Fool

*i

0

Aleph - Ox - 1

A\

Vau - Nail - 6

ALP - 111 - Air VIV - 22 - Taurus

A, E - O. The Fool V, U - V. The Hierophant

tLr

Beth - House - 2

\II

~ain - Sword - 7

BITh - 412 - Mercury

ZIN - 67 - Gemini B-1. The Magician

Z - VI. The Lovers

y

Gime! - Camel - 3

[]

Cheth - Fence - 8

GML - 73 - The Moon ChlTh - 418 - Cancer

G - II. The High Priestess Ch - VII. The Chariot

rr

Daleth - Door - 4

IX

Teth - Serpent - 9

DLTh - 434 - Venus TITh - 419 - Leo

D - III. The Empress T - VIII. Strength

N

He - Window - 5

J

Yod - Hand - 10

HH - 10 - Aires YID - 20 - Virgo

(32)

:=>

Kaph - Palm of the hand - 20

X

Pe - Mouth - 80

KP - 100 - jupiter PH - 85 - Mars

K - X. Wheel of Fortune P - XVI. The Tower

0 Lamed - Ox goad - 30

+

Tzaddi - Fish hook - 90

U

LMD - 74 - Libra TzDI - 104 - Aquarius

L - Xl. justice Tz - XVII. The Star

tt

Mem - WaterMIM - 90 - Water- 40

W

QophQVP -- 186 -Back of the head -Pisces 100

M - XII. The Hanged Man Q - XVIII. The Moon

0

Nun - Fish - 50

V

Resh - Head - 200

~

NVN - 106 - Scorpio RISh - 510 - The Sun

N - XIII. Death R - XIX. The Sun

~o

Samekh - Prop - 60

t<

Shin - Tooth - 300

SMK - 120 - Sagittarius ShIN - 360 - Fire

S - XIV. Temperance Sh - XX, judgment

D

Ayin ~ Eye - 70

011+

Tau - Cross - 400

OIN - 130 - Capricorn ThV ~ 406_- Saturn

o

-.XV. The Devil Th - XXI. The World

This did gIve me pause. While I gladly accepted the G.D. attributions, as I do most any thing that is beautiful and makes sense, the fact that these long lost initiated attribu-tions had all along been openly shewn in the Malachiim Alphabet disturbed me. My only source for that alphabet was Mathers, a complex man who once drove Crowley to turn him into a camel, a man in whom the element of fraud was unduly significant.

The Mathers/G.D./Malachiim associations with the 'true' Tarot attributions gave me to wonder if Mathers had invented the Malachiim script out of fairly whole cloth and planted it ill Solomon's Key to lend spurious legitimacy to a set of lovely Tarot attributions he had arrived at through intuition, logic or some other occultly disreputable means. It

would not have been unlike him.

No matter what, I intended to go on using both the Malachiim Alphabet and the

Golden Dawn attributions, of course, but it would somewhat spoil the fun if both turned out to be Mathers' fabrications. I was delighted, therefore, to find the Malachiim Alphabet in Barrett's 'rlie Magus, or Celestial illtel/(l?,ellcer, This was published in 1801 and puts the script safely beyond Mathers' inventive reach.

Does anyone out there know where this alphabet came from?

END PROSPECTUS

8/23/70 - 5/5/71 - 7/7/73

(33)

This has been the Prospectus for a much larger book, THE INFINITE MACHINE, now in the writing. THE INFINITE MACHINE should be finished by midsummer, 1975.

Publication date and publisher are in the hands of the Gods.

Inquiries, comments and suggestions about, criticisms of, and additions to the material in this Prospectus should be addressed to Chester Anderson, P.O. Box 875, Mendocino, California 95460, and will be gratefully received.

(34)

I Ching

&

the Systems of the West

ONE

The eight trigrams in their two traditional arrangements A British witch's Magick Circle

The same expressed in trigrams

Five tailored Circles built of trigrams and hexagrams

Crowley's erroneous placement of the trigrams on the Tree of Life The correct attributions set forth for the first time

TWO

Tetragrammaton: the Cosmology of the Changes I Ching as a 4-space working scale model of the universe Three fanciful hypotheses

THREE

Two I Ching calendars

FOUR

Nuclear Evolution: an Adeptus Minor initiation

FIVE

Two comparisons of the I Ching and the Tarot

SIX

Toward a rational system of Magick Objections to Scientology

Two conjurations

Experiences with I Ching/Magick

SEVEN

I Ching glyphs and the four Elements Crowley's Court Card/Hexagram correlation

EIGHT

The chakras rightly placed on the Tree of Life

NINE

References

Related documents

The corona radiata consists of one or more layers of follicular cells that surround the zona pellucida, the polar body, and the secondary oocyte.. The corona radiata is dispersed

innovation in payment systems, in particular the infrastructure used to operate payment systems, in the interests of service-users 3.. to ensure that payment systems

National Conference on Technical Vocational Education, Training and Skills Development: A Roadmap for Empowerment (Dec. 2008): Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department

Such a collegiate cul- ture, like honors cultures everywhere, is best achieved by open and trusting relationships of the students with each other and the instructor, discussions

• Follow up with your employer each reporting period to ensure your hours are reported on a regular basis?. • Discuss your progress with

The NTSB report stated that the high velocity of the diesel in the tank fill piping and the turbulence created in the sump area resulted in the generation of increase static charge

Results suggest that the probability of under-educated employment is higher among low skilled recent migrants and that the over-education risk is higher among high skilled

(a) Candidates should have passed 10+2 classes or its equivalent examination from Chandigarh (for UT pool) and its equivalent with aggregate marks at least 40% for General