(Mara's Game)

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For me a few are enough, one is enough, none is enough. This is not for the many but for you; we are a sufficient audience for each other

This is a clearing house for pictorial findings, musical rambling, and (very) occasional original content (e.g. mysterious sonnets)

For all inquiries, ask here or at alexander.raban at gmail

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11/15/2010 18:56:00

The problem with following all of these hermetic and/or masonic symbols too attentively is that many of the founders/framers of these orders were themselves pretty poor scholars of Hebrew (and of other things). Crowley was very fond of pointing out Mathers’ many errors in transliteration and/or attribution, and the errors perpetrated by A.E. Waite could fill volumes. Daysrunaway’s initial post had this tagged as Martinist, but that tag seems to have been removed since. Regardless, I don’t know Martin very well, but even the best of the turn of the century occultists misattributed occasionally.

Add to this that much of their source material was adapted from 17th and 18th century sources who themselves were no great shakes at Hebrew (see the many medieval grimoires and the variations in nomenclature and orthography in them). So there’s alot of potential for “drift” especially when dealing with an author with unknown sources.

I knew of no angel named Tzoghiel (and neither did the internet), so I was just assuming a mistranslation (or mistranscription). But since you took the time to reply, I did a little additional research on a hunch and I managed to find our Tzoghiel (and the other names on the diagram as well). Liber 777 gives Tzoghiel as the name of the order of Qlipoth corresponding to Chokmah on the Qlipphotic tree of life. The other two names in the triangle (Thaumiel and Satariel) are the orders of Qlippoth corresponding to reverse Kether and reverse Binah respectively. The names accompanying the heads are the other orders of Qlippoth corresponding to the reverses of the remaining 7 sephirah.

The interesting thing (that relates to my earlier point) is that the Golden Dawn instructional paperwork (as published by Regardie) identifies the Chokmah Qlippothic order as the Ghogiel, while Crowley (in 777) and this diagram clearly spell out “Tzoghiel.” In Crowley’s notes to the table in 777, he notes that there is a somewhat different list of Qlippoth circulating, which was probably his sly way of suggesting that the H.O.G.D. list was faulty. So I’ve managed to bring the thing full circle (so to speak) :-)

Sorry about my intiial mis-identification. Just goes to show that the internet can’t always replace actual book research. Always glad to see people really prying into the oocult instead of just skimming on the surface. There are virtually bottomless depths for those interested in plumbing them :)

scarletmorgana:

I chose to take it pseudo-Thelemic, lol.

When I put my glasses on a day later I saw there were snakes’ faces on the squid spiral, and then remembered to count them. The internet says it may be a snakey variation on an alchemical symbol for Gold. Makes sense. :c) Seven heads makes it all make sense twice over (He’s a seven-headed, ten-horned, slithering, scarlet, Snake Beast!) I took the inverted triangle for water and Binah and so forth, and I really did almost forget myself and ask about the cross —for, like, half a second. *cough*

-You- are an angel for pointing out the Angels. I’m frustrated at the whole concept of “‘Tzoghiel’ who may or may not be the same entity as ‘Tzaphkiel’.” Is that just how it goes? So and so is the same as (yet slightly dissimilar to) such and who?

You’re actually quite a lot of help. Thank you. :c)

alexanderraban:

I believe that it’s a Martinist symbol, although based on the iconography it could just as easily be pseudo-Thelemic (although I’ve never seen it in any of Crowley’s works). I’m not an authority on the subject, but the seven headed serpent is almost certainly the seven headed beast of the apocalypse, and this is reinforced by the way in which it’s circumscribed in a seven-pointed “star of Babalon.” As for the Hebrew words, most of them (after transliteration) are not familiar to me, but most of them end in Yod-Aleph-Lamed (-iel, or ial) which is the standard termination for the name of an angel in the Bible and Christian mysticism, so I’d infer that they’re angels unfamiliar to me. For example the text around the cross appears to contain the name of one “Tzoghiel” who may or may not be the same entity as “Tzaphkiel” the angel of the Sephirah Binah.

Sorry I’m not more help…

scarletmorgana:

Okay, so what’s the swirly squid-thing, and the Hebraic verbiage?