By using the Tarot to represent the Sephiroth we have some pictures of the spheres to compare to the beautiful images of the godesses.

When the Tarot cards are mapped onto the Tree of Life, most often people think of the Major Arcana as corresponding to the twenty-two paths. But there is another way which relates the Atus to the Spheres themselves. By taking the final digit of the number of the Card (I, II, III, IV…) and mapping them onto the tree according to the numbers of the Sephiroth, we end up with two cards per Sephirah.

The Juggler (I) and Strength (XI) share Kether (1), The Popess (II) and the Hanged Man (XII) share Chokmah, and etc. I am doing this with the Jodorowsky Marseille deck, which is the deck I use the most at the time of writing this. The World and The Fool are excluded from this correspondence because the Fool has no number and the World is the culmination of all of the other cards.

I have to admit, some of the comparisons are disappointing, like that of the Kether and Malkuth correspondences, but others are just interesting enough to want to share.

Please enjoy looking back and forth between the cards and the images of the goddesses and note any similarities you see, leave them in the comments if you like!

The Juggler would kill for four arms!

Tree imagery is common in art of Tara. The pole the Man hangs from is supported by trees.

This correspondence acts as an equation “Queen + Death = Kali”.

The severed heads littering the ground.

Bhairavi’s red color agrees with the Emperor.

This image of Bagalamuki is like a visual synthesis of the two Tarot cards.

The crown is knocked off of its high place

Below are lovers.

The pouring vessels

The beasts of burden.

The woman wielding the sword

The disk of light in a dark place.

The aged outcast.

The opposite image of youth.

The Cosmic Trail Markers

Tantra and Kabbalah have very similar doctrines. Each have a theory of a cosmic energy, and that it travels up and down the body along certain paths and centers, that the body is a reflection of the cosmos, and that by proper control and transformation of this cosmic energy one may receive magical powers and liberation. And each has a set of ten divine forces designed to teach the devoted practitioner about the distinct processes of the universe and creation, and they possess an uncanny practical similarity. In fact they are so similar, that it is said by Manly P. Hall among others, that they share a historical origin.

There are many paths that lead up the Holy Mountain, but is it possible that these two paths share trail markers? In this short comparative symbolic study, we will take a leap and BASE jump the Holy Mountain in order to glimpse a blurry glance at these markers.

1. Kether - Tripura Sundari

Traditionally, Tripura Sundari is listed as the third Mahavidya among the ten. This might be for the simple reason that the number three is present in her name. But when the qualities of Tripura Sundari are assessed, they appear as undoubtedly Ketheric, earning her the first place in the process of Creation.

She is identified with Brahman, the transcendant reality behind everything. Her radiance and beauty is a reference to the infinite potential and light that constitute this principle.

Her color is the red of the rising sun, representing the beginning of all things and the source of light. Kether too is seen in the rising sun, one of its names being “The Supernal East”.

In ceremonial magic, the power of the divine light is channeled from the East, and appears as a shining bright point of energy far in the distant horizon.

Sundari is pure desire. Desire is the root of all suffering, and suffering is the nature of existence.

It is in this way that she is equivalent to Kether, the spring from which the unmanifest in the infinitude of clear empty shining nothingness is focused and propelled as a lightning bolt of potential.

Besides all that, like Tripura Sundari, Kether is also connected with the idea of trinity. In Liber 777 Crowley associates Kether with the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Godhead. The word “Tripura”, meaning “three cities” is referring to the trinity of Underworld, Earth, and Heaven as well as “Sat-Chit-Ananda”, a concept in Hindu Philosophy which expresses the three fold nature of Brahman, “existence, consciousness, bliss” personified in Brahma the three headed god of creation. In Liber B, it is written by Crowley that by combining the trinity of Sat-Chit-Ananda into One the initiation into the grade corresponding to Kether, Ipsissimus 10 = 1, is opened. But what this means is beyond current comprehension and most likely beyond written word.

To avoid floating too far above the clouds discussing this sky-high area of the universe, let us continue downward to the second trail marker.

2. Chokmah - Tara

The mantra most closely associated with veneration of the goddess Tara is AUM. AUM is the word of creation, which is analagous to the Word that was with God in the Gospel of John, as well as the word “amen”. In theology thew greek word “Logos” is used to describe this process.

The Logos is the ordering principle of reality. Like Chokmah, it is the first emanation of the Creator, and the blueprint for what will later be matter. When we speak we take what was once only in our minds and give it a reality in the world, not yet a definite form but a vibration that has the potential to bring about an object or inspire an action.

One meaning of “Tara” is “to cross”, meant to be the crossing from the transcendant to the immanent, which is the role of Chokmah which mediates Kether and Binah.

Another meaning of Tara’s name, “star”, suggests a connection to the night sky and the Zodiac, a correspondence shared with Chokmah. The Zodiac is the mandala of the universe, representing its totality and expanse. It is a shadow of the divine.

Tara is benevolent and caring, as Chokmah is as the head of the pillar of Mercy.

3. Binah - Kali

With Binah we finally have a strong astrological correspondence to look at, Saturn. Kali like Saturn is a god of time and death. With this terrifying goddess of death and destruction Binah finds affinity as the head of the Pillar of Severity. Her curved blade also suggests the sickle, one of the images of Binah, and ofcourse the scythe of Kronos and the Grim Reaper.

Kali is heavily associated with Saturn (Shani in Vedic astrology), and her worship can supplement an ill-natured or bad-aspected Saturn within the chart.

The reason she is given the “One” place in the system of the Mahavidyas is because she is the beginning of the created world, and Tantra which seeks to exalt the material has her as its principal goddess. Kether and Chokmah exist before the Big Bang, Binah is its grand detonation. In this way, Kali represents the expanse of all manifestation, or rather the Mother who holds it in her womb and gives it a bloody and violent birth, as well as its desolate end. Like the Demiurge Saturn or Aion, she traps the light of uncreation, or Purusha in vedic philosophy, in the maya or matter of the world.

The other possible reason for her as the One of the Tantric system is that the system as a whole is a veneration of the Feminine and development of the Shakti and so Kali as Binah in the Kabbalah ,as the first differentiated feminine power, becomes the highest and most venerated.

Now we descend beneath the Abyss, beneath the clouds to the world of the mind, and the rocky paths of the sub-alpine world

4. Chesed - Bhairavi

“Chesed” means “love or mercy”, but it has another name “Gedulah”. Using “Gedulah” the names of the sephirah and the mahavidya are almost identical, both meaning “magnificence, awe-inspiring, or majesty”. Coincidentally, Bhairavi also has another name, Shubhankari, meaning “one who does good unto those she loves” which we can justifiably be shortened to “merciful”.

Just as Chesed is a reflection of Kether beneath the Abyss (the first emination below the supernal world), Bhairavi is a reflection of Sundari. As Sundari represents the divine grace at the beginning of creation Bhairavi represents the force that reifies that grace and distributes it in the world of creation, like an angel acting in the name of God.

Chesed is also given the attribution of Jupiter, but as the god of storms instead of his role as King of Heaven more associated with Kether. All the gods that are associated with Chesed are storm gods or fire gods. Bhairavi is heavily associated with lightning and with fire. Their great power is terrifying and beautiful, especially to their enemies. Bhairavi and Chesed are power and authority, they teach that it is only through mercy that rulership can serve creation i.e. “love is the law; love under will".

5. Geburah - Bagalamukhi

The word here is restriction.

In Chesed we saw the image of the sovereign on the throne, which is the expansive and dominating force originating in the center. In Geburah we see the restricting and eliminating force at the circumference represented by the soldier atop the horse. The role of the soldier in this empire is to stamp out revolts, police the borderlands, and maintain law and order.

Geburah can also be thought of as the editor in the process of editing the lightning bolt of creation, removing excess and errors. Geburah is the cosmic “delete button”, and has been invoked often in the writing of this essay. Rising through the tree, Geburah acts as the sword that cuts away illusion and leaves one open to the horror of cosmic truth.

Bagalamuki works in an identical way to Geburah. She is the silencer of speech, the warder of evil intentions, and the destroyer of illusion. She is pictured holding a club and grabbing the tongue of a male assailant. She bestows the power of “stambhana” which allows her devotees to stun enemies into silence by a look, it is said that the Basilisk corresponds to Geburah which also holds this power.

Bagalamuki is regarded as especially powerful and forceful goddess. She is a goddess of reversals, and thus of castrations. She is like a dominatrix who flogs and restrains a man into submission. In tantra she represents the feminine power to eliminate and reject male consorts who lack virility and strength. Geburah stands second in the Pillar of Severity, the feminine side of the tree of life, but bears the sigil of the most masculine of the planets, Mars, evoking again the idea of the dominatrix.

In this whole business of silence and order is a resemblance to the practices within Liber III Vel Jagorum where the magician is instructed to self-inflict wounds in order to dominate the mind through the body, and silence unwilled speech.

6. Tiphareth - Chinnamasta

Both the sphere and the goddess play crucial roles as intermediaries within their respective systems. Tiphareth receives pure light, force, and energy from beyond the Abyss in the Supernal Triad, and transmits it to Yesod, the world of form. Chinnamasta represents the gateway between the Divine world of the Sat-Chit-Ananda, the reality of Brahman behind the dance of the gods, into the world of matter. Her headlessness is a perfect allegory for Tiphareth as the one who lies just below the Abyss, which the void between the mind of god and the mind of man. The decapitation is a reminder of the amnesia of crossing the Abyss, and the mutilation that is incarnation.

It is in Tiphareth and in Chinnamasta that the sacrifice of the ego is made, in order to make space for the influence of the divine.

Decapitation is a symbol that reappears in ceremonial magick in the Bornless Ritual. In this ancient ritual (adapted from ancient Greek goetia), the magician uses increasingly nonsensical poetry in order to turn off the conscious mind and invoke the Akephalos, the headless one. This incantation is designed to raise the mind of the practitioner to the level of Tiphareth, the site of sacrifice. For this reason is its use invaluable in attaining Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

7. Netzach - Kamala

Venus, the planet given to Netzach, is a goddess of beauty as is Kamala. Within the name Kamala, meaning lotus, there is the word kama which in Sanskrit means love, pleasure, sex, enjoyment, all things normally associated with Venus.

Netzach is called “Victory” also “Eternity” and “Endurance” or to sum up, “All Good Things Come To Those Who Wait”. This is symbolized perfectly in the RWS Tarot card the Seven of Pentacles, corresponding to Netzach as a seven.

Worship of Kamala mostly has to do with asking for blessings of material wealth, and veneration through gratitude for these things. Kamala’s opulence and glamour are unmatched in the world of the gods.

Crowley associates Netzach with the Manipura Chakra (solar plexus) in Liber 777. It is said in Tantra that this is the residence of Kamala.

8. Hod - Matangi

By her parrot we see she is a goddess of speech and oration, as is Mercury the planetary correspondent of Hod. The parrot is often associated with Mercury because of speech, but a synonym of “parroting”; “aping” is directly connected to the god Thoth through his ape form. The parrot and ape are apt symbols for this sephirah because it does not represent the divine speech of a God, but the practical and mundane speech of the Ape of God, which is man.

In many ways Hod is a lesser and more local reflection of the process of Chokmah, the divine word. Hod is the organizing force of the intellect and the sphere that has to do with the magic powers of the magician’s spell.

Devotees of Matangi are said to be able to gain magical powers through the Vak Chakra, which produces the faculty of speech.

Her green color is a reference to the planet Budha, Mercury in Vedic astrology.

9. Yesod - Dhumavati

Yesod corresponds to the Moon in astrology.

Dhumavati represents the void, her name means “The Smoky One”, she is '“the valley of the shadow of death”.

Dhumavati is a terrifying goddess. She usually appears as an ugly emaciated old woman with pitch black skin, rotting teeth, and wearing the soiled white clothes of a widow. But to those she loves and blesses she is said to be breathtakingly beautiful. She is like the Moon in this way, sometimes dark and eerie, sometimes radiant.

When occultists consider Yesod, the idea of the astral world is the first to come to mind. To most people the astral world is a place of ghosts, nightmares, and “sleep-paralysis demons”, but to the magician, the astral is the source of their power and a thing of great beauty.

The Moon is the ruler of the night sky. To pass into the world of the heavens (the upper Sephiroth), one must get by the Moon first.

The Lunar world has always been thought of as a world of demons, strange plants and creatures, and aliens. It was thought in the Dark Ages that the Devil himself lived inside of the Moon.

In Dhumavati we see the archetype of the Witch. The Witch is a natural master of the occult. She floats above the earth upon her broom, demonstrating that the night is her domain.

10. Malkuth - Bhuvaneshwari

Bhuvaneshwari’s name means “the ruler of the world”.

Like Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshwari holds a noose and a goad, which are royal symbols of control and discipline, similar to the Egyptian “crook and flail”. So the royal symbolism is found in Kabbalah with Kether being the Crown, and Malkuth being the Kingdom.

The identification of Bhuvaneshwari with Sundari is the principle “Kether is in Malkuth”.

Bhuvaneshwari represents the final process of creation, where the limitless light of Brahman is given form and restriction, but also quality and integrity.

Her presence can be felt in the heart. In the ritual of the Kabbalistic Cross, the magician points to the heart when vibrating the word “Malkuth”.

Worship of the goddess produces a state in which the actions of daily life are performed effortlessly and all mundane things point to the divine. There is a very common theme in Judaism, where the commandments which all dictate daily living are meant to be a constant reminder to the faithful of the presence of G-d within themselves and the world around them.

At the Trailhead

At the bottom of the mountain we look back and see the trail for its natural genius. The contours and topology of the mountain have dictated the existence of the trail — its not random. There is something about the mountain that prefigured each step on the path. Maybe this is the reason why apparently different paths appear so similar.

The Value of Correspondence

I hope that I have demonstrated why correspondence is a worthwhile endeavor with this essay. By our two eyes we see a three-dimensional image — even though in each eye there is an image complete unto itself. By looking at the mountain through different perspectives, the reality of its existence is more clear and more present to the observer. This process also has the further value of reminding us that every system is just an image, created by human beings. The Tree of Life, the Dasa Mahavidyas, the Hermetic Cosmos — they are all just ideas, pictures, words. This does not deny them power, and knowing the secret of Magick will make that obvious.

The word means nothing without the mind. The word is like a mirror and there is no mirror without your eye. But I am saying too much.

Thank you for reading, please let me know any other connections you have thought up in the comments of this article.

Until next time.

When I was beginning to learn about astrology, the image of Aquarius always was hard for me to get meaning out of. “Ok so it’s a guy holding a pot of water — what’s that supposed to mean?” Many of the other signs are more immediately understood by their images: Scorpio is a scorpion, it hides and fights, Leo is a lion, king of the jungle, and Taurus is the bull, stubborn and big. Aquarius seems kind of mundane, even antiquated. Its not really a scene common to modern life, at least at first glance.

I learned to look to esoteric principles and theories to gain an understanding of its nature. “Aquarius is an air sign,” ok then it must have something to do with intelligence and communication. “Its a fixed sign,” so it must be stable or conservative. This still hasn’t told me what a “waterbearer” means.

Aquarius is also given this added layer of utopian grandeur by esoteric and New Age thought. It represents the evolution of humanity, the possibility of world peace, and telepathy. It is technological advancement and space travel. And all of this is involved in a single aspect of the Zodiac?

All of this may mean something about the significance of Aquarius but we have not seen the image in this. Is the water vessel the space ship? Is it the human brain extending its contents into the external world through telepathy? Is the pot technology? All of this seems plausible but somehow secondary. What is the core of it?

The symbol itself can never be totally explained. And any attempt to will only cause more need for explanation. My hope with this letter is to show you Aquarius as it appears in many different contexts. My hope is that without words we can see Aquarius, or what Aquarius is pointing to. Some of these images may not agree on a specific meaning, please allow for the contradiction as this will hopefully show us a more archetypal theme.

In Myth and Religion

In Literature

In Art

In Film

In Life

What do you see? What I see is an act of service by emptying or filling the container. This act transforms, whether by love, magic, madness, desire or duty. But it is an act of diligence and intelligence. To me this is what Aquarius creates a reflection of. Please I would like to know what you see.

Best,

Connor Kroll

I apologize for the gap in our correspondence. I have a longer letter for you today to make up for it. We will be discussing the fifth trump of the American Mythology Tarot, Joseph Smith/The Hierophant. I assume this is a topic not many people know too much about seeing as researching Joseph Smith is a bit of a whirlwind between Mormon and ex-Mormon sources, so I will try to tell you the story as best I can. I will also be delving into the meaning of the Hierophant card itself, and some of my own symbolic observations. Let us begin!

Hierophant is a strange word. You probably have only seen this word in the context of Tarot. The word contains two parts. From Greek, Hiero- is the sacred, the spiritual, or the secret hidden world of the divine. The suffix -phant means to bring forth, or to shine as in “to shine a light on”. The meaning of the word hierophant therefore is “one who shines a light on the sacred”.

Joseph Smith Jr. was the sole founder of Mormonism or the Latter Day Saint Movement, the largest American religion ever. Born to Joseph and Lucy Smith in 1805, Smith Jr. grew up in an eccentric spiritual climate. The Smiths were practitioners of folk magic, they believed in dowsing rods and seeing stones, they practiced frequent dream interpretation, scrying, experienced visions enhanced from the use of entheogenic substances like Amunita Muscaria, and were steeped in the works of magicians like John Dee and Barrett Francis. All of this magical study and practice was used for the family business of treasure hunting. Smith Sr. was well known as a treasure hunter in New England. Senior was a member of the Universalist Church and a life long aspirant in joining the Masonic Order. The history of the family included characters like Samuel Smith, the grandfather of Joseph Smith Sr., who testified against two innocent women in the Salem Witch Trials and condemned them to death. As well as Edward Fuller, a passenger aboard the Mayflower that landed in Plymouth in 1620, dying soon after the landing.

After being stricken with typhoid fever as a child Joseph very nearly died, but was saved by his mother’s healing abilities. Bedridden for much of his childhood he made a habit of reading. Mostly he read the King James Bible, but copies of occult works like Magus by Barrett Francis were owned by the family, as well as a book containing the tropical adventures of privateer Captain Kidd, A History of Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson. This book described the adventures of the pirate burying treasure and a bible on the island of Comoros, between Africa and Madagascar, in the city of Moroni.

Outside the Mormon Church it is generally believed that Joseph Smith was a conman, who used magic and storytelling to amass wealth and have sex with as many young girls as he could (he had dozens of wives many under the age of 18), and this was undoubtedly one of his goals, but it’s impossible to say he didn’t believe in himself as a prophet. We must recognize that Smith, as a practitioner of magic, was able to use his will to enact change in the world, and not an insignificant change. As Aleister Crowley puts it, “success is thy proof”. This is still the main reasoning in the minds of millions of Mormons today as to the authenticity of Smith’s prophethood.

Crowley himself was enamored with the character of Smith, writing about him in his most well known novel, Moonchild.

He writes,

“[F]rom this man’s brain issued phantoms like pigeons. They were neither Red Indians nor Israelites, yet they had something of each in their bearing. And these poured like smoke from the head of this little man. In his hand was a book, and he held it over his head. And the book itself was guarded by an angelic figure whose face was extraordinarily stern and unbeautiful, but who scattered with wide hands the wealth of life, children, and corn, and gold.”

The occult name of the Hierophant is “The Magus of Eternal Gods”. He differs from the Magician as the Magician is power in itself, the god-man, the master of elements, the perfected will. The Hierophant is only the conservator of this power. He is the teacher of secret mysteries not the mystery itself. He is the man who points at the moon.

The secret knowledge Hierophant Joseph Smith is imparting is the secret history of the American Continent. The Book of Mormon, a text that Joseph Smith claimed was given to him by an angel of God, who was a white Native American Israelite named Moroni, is the definitive text of this hidden knowledge. Moroni appeared as an Angel to a teenage Joseph Smith over a thousand years after his death to lead him to the spot where the plates had been buried. This claim was a natural progression of the history of treasure hunting the Smith family was known to engage in, as well as Smith’s fascination with the story of Captain Kidd. Smith reported to find a steel sword along with the records as well as the “Urim and Thumim”, a set of magical artifacts used for divination owned by the Israelite priest-king Melchezidek in the Old Testament. According to Joseph Smith, these artifacts were crucial in deciphering the hieroglyphs upon the Golden Plates. Smith also used a seeing stone and top hat in scrying sessions with his assistant Oliver Cowdry (Dee-Kelley style) to translate the “Reformed Egyptian” hieroglyphics written on the golden plates. The plates begin with the story of a family from Jerusalem around 600 BC. The father of this family, Lehi, was a “visionary man”. He spoke to God, and God told him that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Lehi, assisted by his son Nephi, moved his family from Jerusalem to the Americas, and encountered another civilization, which had been separated from the rest of humanity since the Tower of Babel was destroyed. When the family settles in America, they split into two groups, one headed by the righteous son Nephi, the other by the wicked son Laman. These groups were known as Nephites and Lamanites, they would develop into large scale civilizations that would go on to war for 1000 years. An epic story of heroes, villains, prophecy and intrigue, with a good amount of the book of Isaiah spliced in, ensues. Jesus visits them after his death and establishes a short period of peace. But the warring continues and ends eventually with the dark-skinned Lamanites killing the last of the white Nephites in 400 AD. The very last of the Nephites was Moroni. While still alive, he took it upon himself to complete the editorial work his father Mormon (the namesake of the book) had begun years earlier. His mission was to compile the records of the Nephite civilization into a single book in order to preserve their history, as destruction was immanent.

The Book of Mormon was a sort of prophecy as to the history of the Church that Smith would go on to found. A history laden with persecution, evacuation, secret societies, providence, violence and exile, culminating in the people establishing a remote and insular settlement that would accumulate massive wealth and devoted members.

There are many different accounts of the events that made up Joseph’s period of “revelation” that preceded the church’s organization. But central to this story is what is called by the Mormon Church, the “First Vision”, in which Joseph, followed by a “vision of darkness” and an encounter with Satan, saw Jesus Christ and God himself in a “pillar of light”. They instructed him to reestablish the true church that Heavenly Father intended his children to be a part of, and which held the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This moment was the impetus of Joseph’s mission. Jesus and his disciples would appear again to Joseph in angelic form years later to initiate him into the Priesthood Orders of Aaron (lesser order) and Melchizedek (higher order).

But now back to the card.

The Hierophant wears a three-tiered papal crown upon his head. He does this despite not being a ruler or a king, like the Emperor. Rudolf Steiner explains the ancient significance of the crown in his lectures on the Sephitoth Tree,

“[T]hose people who succeeded in seizing power dragged the symbols of that power and the words for that power down into the outer realm of power. And so certain people who have appropriated the power of the nations and transferred it to their descendants have appropriated what is called a crown. In ancient times, a crown was a word for the highest spiritual gift that could be bestowed on a person. And the crown could only be worn by someone who […] had gone through initiation, that is, someone who had attained the highest wisdom. It was a sign of the highest wisdom.”

This is the crown of the Dalai Lama, the Christ, the Buddha, and Prophet Muhammad with his head engulfed in flame. It is the exaltation of the head, the part of man closest to the heavens. This is the archetype of the Hierophant. He is the founder and conservator of a system who has attained some prophetic knowledge or higher insight. Christ is only slightly excluded from this Archetype because he only preached for three years, in contrast with the Buddha and Muhammad who for decades led their religious orders.

Joseph Smith was described often by his followers for having a glowing halo around his head when he spoke to the congregations of his church.

The parallels between Smith and the prophet Mohammed are glaring and hard to avoid. Both are visited by an Angel of God, both of these angels (Gabriel and Moroni) are depicted in the exact same way in art. Both are blowing the heralding trumpet. Both described a great light above their head at the moment of revelation. Both come into possession of a book that they claim was given to them by God by mystical means. Both use this book to proselytize the religion they become founders for. Both declare a doctrine of polygamy and controversially marry teenage girls. And both are persecuted and hunted for their religion.

The Hierophant is the card of traditional marriage, even more so than the Lovers card, which instead represents the first meeting of the couple, “love at first sight,” and Cupid’s arrow. In the image of the RWS Tarot card we see two monks seated before the Hierophant. These are initiates to whatever religious order the Hierophant is the head honcho of. Here he is the Catholic Pope with the keys of Papacy at his feet. If we look at the clothing of the monks we can see why this card represents marriage. On the left there is the monk with rosy robes and on the right, one with lilies embroidered. This is the alchemical image of the Hieros Gamos, the Sacred Marriage of the opposites. The opposites: Sun and Moon, masculine and feminine, Fire and Water, are alchemically represented by the rose and the lily. The Hierophant is the officiator of this marriage. The result is the hermaphrodite, the form of the Magus, the perfection of the human being.

Psychologically the Magus is a person without an unconscious as we know it. The consciousness has been brought to total union with the unconscious, so nothing is ignored and everything is in motion within the psyche, there are no blocks. To do this one must reconcile the opposites. That is the mystery the Hierophant is here expounding.

Carl Jung comments on the symbol of the sacred marriage thus,

“[The] projection of the hieros gamos signifies the conjunction of conscious and unconscious, the transcendent function characteristic of the individuation process.”

Marriage is very important in the Mormon religion. According to Joseph Smith’s doctrine, it is the highest sacrament of the Church. In fact, before the practice of polygamy was halted in the mainstream Mormon church the more wives a man had, the higher his attainment in the “Celestial Kingdom”, the highest realm of heaven, and he will be able to participate in the cosmic inheritance of godhood.

This is probably the thing that most distinguishes the actual living of the religion from other Christian religious systems. Marriage has distinct metaphysical importance and is the only way one can become a god. The marriage on earth through a temple ritual sealing authorized by the church sets the couple up for eternal dominion of their own earth and possibly an entire universe. The symbol of the hieros gamos exists here, but only in shadow. Instead of being a symbol for the perfection of a human being, it becomes metaphysical and only a belief for an attainment once one has died. The entire temple endowment ritual (which prepares the Mormon for marriage) was adapted from the Freemason rites.

But the Hierophant is first and foremost about tradition. He is representitave of the religious status quo, maintaining belief systems, the structure of organized religion. How can an apparent religious renegade like Joseph Smith be called the Hierophant? From the outside this does appear to be a contradiction. But Smith did not view himself as a revolutionary or even a reformer; to himself and his followers he was the inheritor and restorer of the same true church of Adam, the church of Abraham and Moses, and the church Jesus had re-established in both the Old and New Worlds. Except for maybe Jesus, Joseph Smith is seen as on par with biblical figures such as these. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to its members is the most orthodox church in the world. Obviously this is a very different view of history than most educated people in the world have, but this is the claim.

Lastly I want to turn toward the astrological symbolism of the card. Hierophant is attributed Taurus. Taurus is unmoving and unchanging. An Earth sign, it is solid as a rock! We can see this in the traditionalism of the Hierophant. Taurus is ruled by Venus, goddess of love, which covers the card’s occupation with marriage. Venus is also the light bringer and corresponds with the illumination the Hierophant must experience to expound the holy doctrine. The Buddha is said to have been meditating by watching Venus rise in the sky on the morning of his final attainment. The bull symbolism in the RWS card is nonexistent, but we do find bull symbolism inside the Mormon temple this symbol is covered by the great Symbolic Studies in this video.

Thank you for staying with me on this journey through American history using the vehicle of the Tarot. I appreciate your patience for this new installment. If this is your first exposure to the American Mythology Tarot, please check out my other letters on the first four trumps. I will talk to you next time.

Best,

Connor Kroll

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Dear Reader,

Today we will look at the fourth Tarot Trump, the Emperor, and the correspondence to George Washington in the American Mythology Tarot.

Here we see the Sun exalted in the sign of Aries. This is the victory (♈︎ for Victory!) of the new solar year. The first day where the day is longer than night is the Spring Equinox, when the Sun moves into Aries. Aries rules Firsts. The Emperor is the ordering principle. The Strong Man, the Father, the Ruler. Washington, as a founding father, war hero, and president, perfectly encapsulates this card.

The Emperor refers to government and the principle of the ruling and the ruled, in the Book of Thoth, Crowley writes, “[T]he ram, by nature, is a wild and courageous animal, lonely in lonely places, whereas when tamed and made to lie down in green pastures, nothing is left but the docile, cowardly, gregarious and succulent beast. This is the theory of government.”

In Ancient Rome military campaigns would begin in March, as the Sun passed into the sign of Aries. This was done for practical reasons, because as the weather became warmer and passes cleared of snow it was easier to maneuver and transport soldiers. This is the reason that Aries season is war time. George Washington was a war hero and a brilliant general, who was key in the U.S. victory of the Revolutionary War.

Ra, the Egyptian god of the Sun, became the ram-headed Khnum-Ra in his journey through the Duat, the Egyptian underworld. He would travel in the solar barge aided by other gods and his attendants through the perilous journey. He assumed this form at sundown and shed it in the morning.

In one of the most famous images of George Washington, the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware, we see a repeat of this ancient image. Its not very well depicted in this well known painting of the event, but the crossing actually took place at night on Christmas Day, 1776.

The Apotheosis of Washington

The image I used for the George Washington card is taken from this fresco inside the rotunda in the Capitol Building. It is titled “The Apotheosis of Washington” the central idea being the raising up of George Washington to godhood. In the center we see Washington, and on either side are the goddesses Libertas (Freedom) and Victoria (Victory), two Ariesian principles. There are 13 angelic figures completing the inner circle symbolizing the 13 colonies. The 6 scenes surrounding the inner circle depict different aspects of American life and ideals. We see various gods, Vulcan, Mercury, Neptune, Minerva, Venus, Ceres etc.

The six outer sections are called, War, Commerce, Science, Marine, Mechanics, and Agriculture. It appears on the surface to be planetary, but a little bit difficult to correspond. Obviously Commerce with Mercury as its figurehead is the planet Mercury, War could be Mars, Agriculture could be Saturn. But if we take the planetary ritual hexagram of the Golden Dawn, and line up Mercury with Mercury, the image becomes clear.

The points of the star line up with each central figure in each scene.

Vulcan is given the fiery, industrious Mars, this makes me think of the Three of Disks, Work, Mars in Capricorn, the sign in which he is exalted. Vulcan is constructing a steam engine, and cannons, a weapon of war. Here he is depicted working with big, strong, burly men. A particularly martian scene.

Agriculture is given Saturn. both Ceres and Saturn are both gods of agriculture. Both have glyphs depicting sickles: ⚳ and ♄. She is sitting on a mechanical reaper.

War is given Jupiter which defies expectations, until we consider the Eagle of Jupiter beside Colombia holding arrows and lightning and the eagle on her helmet.

Venus is Science. Really this scene refers to the science of invention. The science that brings desirable things into being. Beside Minerva we see Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph and the code for it), and Robert Fulton the inventor of the Steam Boat. In the word “invention” Venus lays hidden. Invention comes from the Latin “venire” meaning “to come”. Venus comes from the same root as words like: adventure, venue, and convenient. You could also define it as “to find” or “to be attracted to”. Venus is also preserved in the meaning of “coming” as in orgasm. But I am off track. This is an intellectualized Venus. Beauty of intellect. So naturally Minerva is the stand in.

Lastly we see a scene with Neptune driving a horse drawn chariot, with Venus herself at his side. This is the Moon. The connection between the Moon and the sea is obvious. Neptune and the Moon have similar vibes. Both are undoubtedly watery planets, both rule altered states of consciousness; also madness. We also see the image of the Major Arcana card the Chariot, a lunar card.

In the center is Washington himself as the Sun, the center of the solar system.

Thank you for reading.

Best,

Connor Kroll.

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Today we will be looking at two cards. These two represent two facets of the feminine, the Lunar and the Venusian.

The High Priestess - Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman is most well known for her role as a conductor of the Underground Railroad. For this and her time in the Union Army serving as a spy and navigator, she embodied the archetypal guide and psychopomp, seen in the cthonic lunar goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, who would lead souls to the underworld in pagan Greek religion. The enslaved people that Tubman led to the north were effectively dead to their old lives in the South. Tubman promised to shoot and kill them if they tried to back out of the transport, so they couldn’t rat out the operation. Like death, this was a one way trip

The High Priestess represents clear, intuitive revelation. In Jungian psychology she is the Anima as the dreamweaver, the image maker. Through the distillation of the dream image, a brilliance is achieved in the clarity of meaning, like distilling salt from saltwater. The High Priestess is polished silver, or the full moon, but has occasion to tarnish and shadow. She can be a bright light for those who are lost, or can move across the night sky undetected.

Tubman sustained a very traumatic brain injury when she was a child and suffered from seizures and narcolepsy for the rest of her life. She would have visions sent to her from God through her seizures or sudden dream states brought on by narcolepsy. These experiences would help her guide people to freedom. Like the Moon reflecting the light of the Sun, Tubman’s mind was able to reflect God’s wisdom with these visionary experiences.

Additionally the Moon is associated with the subterranean, which suggests the Underground Railroad. The Moon revolves around the earth 13 times in a year and Tubman completed 13 tours on the Underground Railroad.

The Empress - Pocahontas

Here we see the feminine as the bride, the princess crowned queen, the virgin girl transformed by the integration of the masculine. This is the difference between the Lunar and the Venusian woman. The lunar High Priestess represents “pure” femininity. The only interaction with the masculine is through reflection, the rest of the time it remains hidden from solar light.

The Empress doesn’t reflect the solar light, she has accepted it and uses it for growth. On the card we see a mature crop of wheat at her feet, blooming flowers adorn her gown, and in the background there is a woodland scene. Green is the color of Venus, and it is the green of the plant from chlorophyll that makes use of the Sun’s light.

Pocahontas was a Native American princess. She became famous in Europe when John Smith, an early English colonist, wrote about her in his memoirs and official reports. John Smith had been taken prisoner by the Powhatan tribe and at the moment of his execution Pocahontas intervened on his behalf, saving his life.

Here John Smith represents the wayward masculine, an alien in the lunar world of the early American British colonies. At best he could expect to be turned away from the Powhatans, at worst have his light snuffed out. Because of Pocahontas, cultural exchange between the English Settlers and the Native American population became possible, and she was instrumental in the survival of the Virginia Company settlers in Jamestown. Princess Pocahontas would often bring food to the colonists and was described by John Smith as a “pitiful” person (pitiful in the old sense as in full of the pity of others). This is another key element of the Empress. She is the kind and loving mother that nurtures the growth of her children. In the Thoth Tarot a medieval image of a pelican. In medieval Christianity this was a symbol of the Virgin Mary, the mother who sacrifices herself for the good of her children.

Pocahontas sacrificed much for the settlers, her people, her safety (she was kidnapped many times), her culture, her religion, her name (she was renamed Rebecca Rolfe on her baptism), the future of her civilization, even her life as she died a young death in England from disease. We may think of her as the mother of the United States as she cared for it in its infant form. She is also the mother and ancestor of many well-known Americans such as, Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert E Lee, and the actor Edward Norton, star of the award winning crime thriller American History X, and also co-star of Fight Club.

One more word on Pocahontas, or Rebecca Rolfe. Her name sake in the Bible, Rebecca, was chosen to be the wife of Isaac because of the kindness she showed to Abraham’s servant Eliezer and his camels, by providing them water while they were traveling.

The Empress card, and Pocahontas are marked by their ability to show unwavering kindness and concern without thought for themselves, a very noble trait for any person, though most often it is shown best in great women. The United States might not look anything like it does today if the Virginia Company had failed. We should see Pocahontas as a founding mother of the United States, or at least founding grandmother.

Seeing American history through the lens of the Tarot gives us the ability to see the feminine side of history a little more clearly. It is said that the Tarot contains every story, all the knowledge of the universe, the only book you’d ever need to read. This is because it is completely balanced, it includes everything. It should be important to tell the whole story. Not in the sense of all of the information, all of the details, but complete as a rainbow is complete. The rainbow doesn’t contain every tone, shade, hue, and tint that the eye can see, but it conveys a universality and completeness only achieved by archetypal categories, like ROYGBIV, and like the Major Arcana.

Anyways thank you for coming back for another look at the American Mythology Tarot, I will be rolling these out regularly throughout the next few weeks. Please stay tuned.

Best,

Kroll.

I have made some tarot cards for you using real people and events from American history, and based it on the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck. I hope you enjoy this process of correspondence. All of the art works used are existing paintings, photographs, and drawings. I have picked out ones that most closely resemble the art of the RWS deck.

We will begin with Trump I - The Magician.

On the Magician’s table we see the symbols of the four tarot suits representing the elements. The Magician has power over each aspect of the world. Where the Fool is the master of none, the Magician is master of all. Benjamin Franklin was the premier intellectual of his time. As a polymath he had mastery over several disciplines: writing, speaking, science, mathematics, politics, philosophy, logistical planning, invention, and printing.

Ben Franklin the scientist with his key and kite, calling down the lightning from the sky, is the image of the Magician with the magic wand, and Hermes with the cadeuceus. Hermes is often seen as a proxy for Zeus, he conducts the power of the sky god on his behalf, as the herald of the king. But there is a deeper hermetic symbolism within the image. The alchemical principle, “As above; so below,” is manifest in this image of Benjamin Franklin, as it is in the RWS Magician card. He is connecting heaven and earth, through the kite and key.

The Chinese ideogram 王(Radical 96), meaning master or king, demonstrates this formula. It is a combination of 天 (R37) meaning sky, and 土 (R32) meaning earth. The folk etymology, derived from Taoist “I Ching” philosophy, is that the three lines represent, from bottom to top, earth, man, and heaven. The master or king (王) is the man who is able to connect the three, represented by the vertical line.

The Magician card in the Golden Dawn correspondence system is attributed Mercury. The planet Mercury rules the intellect and communication. As the first Postmaster General in American history, Benjamin Franklin, in the pantheon of Founding Fathers, was Mercurius, the messenger of the gods, and so is right for the Magician card in our American Mythology Tarot.

Ben Franklin was also a Meme Magician. He created this well known image in his newspaper the “Pennsylvania Gazette”:

I will be uploading the deck in chunks. I thought I would start with the Magician as there is a little more to write about here. Some of the cards will be more brief and be lumped together in a single post. Please let me know what you think, and if there’s any more correspondence I may have missed.

I chose to do pre-20th century American history because I believe it is a legendary period, where fiction and fact tend to blur, and for this reason the archetypes shine through. I think of it as Hesiod’s Age of Heroes, a somewhat recent past filled with extraordinary people and demigods who perform incredible acts. Through doing this exercise I have learned a lot about both the Tarot and American History. Seeing the archetypes of the Tarot manifest in the world has been revelatory to the true nature of each. It has shown me that these cards are real forces in the world. I’m excited to report what I have learned, and hopefully we can explore more together

Yesterday I was leaving the movie theater in the mall, after seeing a terrible movie, The Ruse, do not see it, it is bad. I saw a marmot inside the parking garage. He was just sitting there on the curb inside the spiral ramp. My girlfriend said that someone should help him. I thought it might as well be me. Although I had no plan, only a vague idea that I could wrap my flannel shirt around him assuming I could grab him, I stopped and reversed to get a better look. I exited the car and walked around to the right side to try and interact with the animal. He was very small. I made some noises at him and he reacted by moving away from me. I inched closer to him. He was obviously scared, and I thought he could be cold. He lept into the wheel of my car, between the spokes. This drew me into a panic. Now I was stuck! If I pulled forward I risked injuring the animal. My thoughts tackled the problem, could I scare him away? Should I attempt to grab him? Did I have any food to coax him out? Right then a car pulled up behind me. Here was another problem, I was holding up traffic. I waved to them and approached. Inside were three girls of different ages, sisters. After explaining the situation to the driver, the oldest, she replied, “Oh well good luck with your marmot.” I felt sarcasm in her reply, did she not believe me? Why would I be lying about a marmot crawling inside my wheel? The middle sister jumped out and came to look at the marmot, and see if she could help. When I showed her the wheel where he was, he had gone away somewhere! Frantically, I began looking all under the car. He had dissapeared. I thought he might have crawled into the engine bay, but didn’t dare look under the hood. If I knew he was under there I may have had to grab him to get him out, which terrified me (I didn’t want to get bit). As a compromise I decided I had to honk the horn: if the marmot was still in the car he would get scared by the horn and skitter away, if no marmot exited the car, than he had already ran away while my back was turned. I told everyone to cover their ears while I honked the horn, and with my conscience now clear, I thanked the girl for her help, and my girlfriend and I drove home.

I went to sleep that night uneasy. Would I find chewed marmot guts in the drive train of my car that morning?

Entering the garage the next day I noticed a rustling in the corner of my eye. He had lived! And even better, I got him out of the parking garage, without even knowing it. He had found a sleeping bag in the corner to snuggle up in, and probably had the best night of his life in there. I shooed him out the garage door to much squeaking, chirping, and skittering.

Having escaped the urban landscape, he entered into suburban paradise. And he lived happily ever after for the rest of his days.

This marmot had done something fantastical. Like Tom Thumb or Pinnochio, he had entered into the belly of the beast and escaped to tell the tale. I was impressed to have witnessed, and even participated in, a real life fairytale as an unwitting antagonist.

This experience contains a very important life lesson. If we are open to life, if we say, “Yes!” to life, then life will happen. True life resembles a fairytale. It is meaningful.

“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven“ -Jesus

But first, we must learn how to begin. We must every moment be beginning. Seeing the world with fresh eyes. Our ideas about ourselves and the world are what stop us from being curious. By being curious and interested in the world, caring for people and animals, we get to participate in more stories than just the one we tell ourselves. We give away the perceived control we think we possess, and enter the world where there is no real security.

In doing this the alchemical equation, “As above, so below” is realized. The psychological and the actual fuse into one. The outward action is the same one that happens inwardly, the same story that was acted out is the moral that blossoms within the soul. Thought, which is the ego, is revealed to be what it actually is: a partial life, a living death. We can’t think life to happen, we can only invite it, and honestly engage with it.

If my words aren’t clear, I wouldn’t worry to try and understand them. If there’s only one thing you take with you from reading this, it should be the phrase, “Say yes to life”, And trust that life will carry you somewhere new.

I went to the movie theater to watch Sinners last week, and thought a lot about vampires during the screening. In the film the vampires are fought using very tropey Hollywood vampire-slaying methods: wooden stakes, garlic, beheading, etc. It was only when the vampires were all killed by the sun rising at the end of the movie that it occurred to me that there was a very obvious astrological correspondence between these methods of harming/slaying vamps and the classical planets.

☉ Sunlight

What started this list and is the most obvious correspondence is the connection between sunlight and the sun. Like shadows, vampires disappear at daybreak.

The Sun is associated with the center, importance, warmth, presence, visibility, royalty, leadership, and life.

☽ Silver (bullets)

Vampires can be killed, or at least weakened with silver bullets. Silver in projectile form is significant in that Diana, a goddess associated with the moon, is also a god of archery.

The moon symbolizes darkness, madness, hysteria, the unconcious, rapid change, night, transformation, it controls the tides, it can be full or new, it changes colors and appears to change size depending on the night, where the sun is stability the moon is flux. The Moon has the most effect on the unconscious and conducts the wild world of the psyche. It also provides a window into the world of chaotic nighttime forms.

☿ Beheading/Invitation

I wanted to mention beheading because of the story of the planet Mercury and its association with the brain and the spinal column, which would obviously be severed in decapitation. There is also the story of Hermes slaying the giant Argus by cutting of his head with a sword. The Tarot symbol of a sword with the air element, which accounts for the nature of Mercury, also appears.

It might not have suited Mercury anyway to be just one thing, so I do have another mercurial vampire myth. Mercury rules travel, and therefore hospitality. Mercury or Hermes is a liminal god, ruling “pass through places”, like thresholds and gates. The fact that a vampire cannot enter a place uninvited shows a weakness to this mercurial principle. Mercury also rules agreements and contracts. Invitation falls under this influence.

♀ Mirrors

A vampire cannot look at itself in a mirror. The mirror is the most prominent symbol of the planet Venus, its glyph depicts a bronze mirror or a handheld mirror. This is obviously a symbol of vanity and beauty, but also suggests requital, the mirror returns light. Unrequited love is an ill-natured Venus. Perhaps the vampire has no light to offer in the first place, no love to give.

♂ Garlic

Garlic is sulfuric. Sulfur is vitality, the life giving principle in alchemy. It is fiery. If you have every eaten a raw clove of garlic, you will have felt this intense energy first hand. Roman soldiers would frequently eat raw garlic before battle, and attributed the stuff to Mars, god of war. Mars the planet rules creative energy and vitality, which vampires being dead, obviously have none of.

♃ Wooden Stakes, Religious Symbols

Jupiter rules religion. Religion in its ceremony and ritual. Religious objects, especially as they are ornate and intricate reflect Jupiter in his pomp and circumstance. Jupiter obviously rules priests for these reasons, the energetic opposite of a vampire being a monk.

Jupiter is also associated with wood, or rather is known by the name Wood (木) in Chinese astrology. Jupiter the god is also associated with Oak, a common wood in ghost stories for fashioning a stake for vampire slaying purposes.

♄ Immortality

This one seems counter intuitive, I know, but immortality is one of the true weaknesses that vampires suffer. Saturn rules death and endings. Saturn’s curse on vampires is by denying this much needed aspect of being: not to be. Vampires experience the “ennui of life”, a kind of longing for death that makes them miserable for eternity if they aren’t killed by humans by one of the methods above.

By looking at vampires through this astrological lense we can see that they represent a kind of antithesis to the human soul, in which the planets dwell and do their part to shape. The vampire is not only soulless but is offended by everything within the soul, an anti-soul. When a person becomes a vampire in a movie their personality immediately changes. They often become nonchalant, deceptive, selfish, and boring. They lure others to them through illusions and tricks and suck on their blood, only a secondhand vitality which can never really replace the real thing. Vampirism can never give the full experience of life.

☉ Sunlight

What started this list and is the most obvious correspondence is the connection between sunlight and the sun. Like shadows, vampires disappear at daybreak.

The Sun is associated with the center, importance, warmth, presence, visibility, royalty, leadership, and life.

☽ Silver (bullets)

Vampires can be killed, or at least weakened with silver bullets. Silver in projectile form is significant in that Diana, a goddess associated with the moon, is also a god of archery.

The moon symbolizes darkness, madness, hysteria, the unconcious, rapid change, night, transformation, it controls the tides, it can be full or new, it changes colors and appears to change size depending on the night, where the sun is stability the moon is flux. The Moon has the most effect on the unconscious and conducts the wild world of the psyche. It also provides a window into the world of chaotic nighttime forms.

☿ Beheading/Invitation

I wanted to mention beheading because of the story of the planet Mercury and its association with the brain and the spinal column, which would obviously be severed in decapitation. There is also the story of Hermes slaying the giant Argus by cutting of his head with a sword. The Tarot symbol of a sword with the air element, which accounts for the nature of Mercury, also appears.

It might not have suited Mercury anyway to be just one thing, so I do have another mercurial vampire myth. Mercury rules travel, and therefore hospitality. Mercury or Hermes is a liminal god, ruling “pass through places”, like thresholds and gates. The fact that a vampire cannot enter a place uninvited shows a weakness to this mercurial principle. Mercury also rules agreements and contracts. Invitation falls under this influence.

♀ Mirrors

A vampire cannot look at itself in a mirror. The mirror is the most prominent symbol of the planet Venus, its glyph depicts a bronze mirror or a handheld mirror. This is obviously a symbol of vanity and beauty, but also suggests requital, the mirror returns light. Unrequited love is an ill-natured Venus. Perhaps the vampire has no light to offer in the first place, no love to give.

♂ Garlic

Garlic is sulfuric. Sulfur is vitality, the life giving principle in alchemy. It is fiery. If you have every eaten a raw clove of garlic, you will have felt this intense energy first hand. Roman soldiers would frequently eat raw garlic before battle, and attributed the stuff to Mars, god of war. Mars the planet rules creative energy and vitality, which vampires being dead, obviously have none of.

♃ Wooden Stakes, Religious Symbols

Jupiter rules religion. Religion in its ceremony and ritual. Religious objects, especially as they are ornate and intricate reflect Jupiter in his pomp and circumstance. Jupiter obviously rules priests for these reasons, the energetic opposite of a vampire being a monk.

Jupiter is also associated with wood, or rather is known by the name Wood (木) in Chinese astrology. Jupiter the god is also associated with Oak, a common wood in ghost stories for fashioning a stake for vampire slaying purposes.

♄ Immortality

This one seems counter intuitive, I know, but immortality is one of the true weaknesses that vampires suffer. Saturn rules death and endings. Saturn’s curse on vampires is by denying this much needed aspect of being: not to be. Vampires experience the “ennui of life”, a kind of longing for death that makes them miserable for eternity if they aren’t killed by humans by one of the methods above.

By looking at vampires through this astrological lense we can see that they represent a kind of antithesis to the human soul, in which the planets dwell and do their part to shape. The vampire is not only soulless but is offended by everything within the soul, an anti-soul. When a person becomes a vampire in a movie their personality immediately changes. They often become nonchalant, deceptive, selfish, and boring. They lure others to them through illusions and tricks and suck on their blood, only a secondhand vitality which can never really replace the real thing. Vampirism can never give the full experience of life.

You make your way to me.

I cannot walk your golden path,

As one has gone before.

-

I look at you spilled out on the sea.

It is enough that your sight line crosses my face.

You will die now old man.

Here in my open temple;

Where I will again turn tables,

To look

And again rebuild

Your yellow brick road.

-

You will be born a burning bush

Upon the mountain top.

I assure you, little pilgrim.

Your beacon will herald me,

And again I will meet you there,

A ministry's mile away

On a bridge built every day.

Stolen and cold.

At past's cellar stow.

Where all known is made of stone.

And old gods rule without hue or tone.

Rotted ill fruit black and moot.

White marble luster of master's hand and sight

Bright eyed and white skinned under dust and soot.

Unadorned and naked, cadence without word.

Form without color and song without bird.

An impression lasts in relief of the past body's cast

Worn with sand and rubbing hands.

Sweat's shine against your twitching skin.

I leave you cleaned by the sea's salt and men.

Tattered flag and ruined land.

Loveless and eroded cut flesh natted with dirt and rash.

Ripped at one end, sleeves hanged by thread.

Pages tattered.

Words left on rags dirtied by use;

Snot and tear stained;

Eyes red and throat strained.

I walk on home, what year is it? What season?

O honeysuckle, my countryman.

Maple tree, my neighbor.

Weeping willow I mourn with you as old gods command.

Old gods, so old now.

I still long for you when I cannot find my way.

I have stolen from you, and you long for me.

God of murderers and rapists.

God of my people, who take land white or red, milk or honey, a promise made.

This is Nazi gold;

Stolen and cold.

Introduction

The English alphabet has symbols so far removed from their semantic origin, that no trace of their original meaning is left. If the sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” was sent by time machine to the distant past, to Rune-writing Hyperboreans, or picture drawing Proto-Semitic speakers, they might have thought it had something to do with cows building a sign outside of the city wall, or something. Mandarin is not this way. Most ancient Chinese texts from thousands of years ago can be read by modern speakers, with a few difficulties, but it is possible. Compared to modern English speakers who are unable to read anything before Shakespeare, not even five hundred years ago. Chinese is a pictographic or ideographic language. It’s writing still resembles the pictures it grew out of and retains most of the meaning of those pictures. It is therefore more similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs than it is English. In the West the only places that the practice of ideograms persisted in language were in the writings of alchemists, astrologers, and practitioners of the occult religion. This study is an attempt to thread strings across the East and West to find similarities in idea, and the expression of idea in glyph form.

Symbols ⨁ and 田 World

田 - Field

We will pick up where Jung left off with the circle-cross. It is hard to give a meaning to this symbol because it is basically an image of totality, as Jung has demonstrated. His mandala was most commonly portraying the World, in the classical sense, although our modern symbol (🌐), meant to portray a globe, does not escape the four corner or cross motif. It is very well documented at this point that virtually every culture that has some form of art has drawn this symbol, and that usually it is a representation of the world or the sun. In the Western esoteric tradition this symbol has come to mean Earth, as in the realm not the element, though overlap is certainly present.

In the hanzi script “田” is a very common element used in the Chinese writing system. It was originally meant to portray a field for farming. It is graphically identical to the western symbol and means essentially the same thing. It is used to mean a location or land in general. It is used in the Mandarin Chinese word “世界” which literally means “everything within the land”, and translated as “world”.

The Elements

Symbols 🜃 and 土 Earth

土 - Dirt

This one is a “gimme” because the concept of basic elements is central to many ancient philosophies and religions. The Chinese version of this differs slightly from the Western version as five basic elements are substituted for four.

This causes a few small issues for us who are trying to build bridges between these concepts, but with some maneuvering we can make it work. Luckily the concept of dirt is so obvious that it warrants little variety in how we draw it. The common asymmetry between the top and bottom of both these symbols, the horizontal line at the base, suffice to communicate “stuff you walk on”. The early bone script was a representation of a blob of clay on a potters wheel which looks a bit more like the Western symbol than its modern counterpart.

Symbols 🜂 and 火 Fire

火 - Fire

Another near perfect match. You would have to be completely blind to not see the similarities between the two. The feeling of “up-ness” in each symbol is so essential to fire’s nature, who fights against gravity. As we will see this directional bias is essential to fire’s natural opposite, water. The original Bone Script glyph has a resemblance to the alchemical symbol “🜲” regulus which represents a refined metal achieved through heat and smelting.

Symbols 🜄 and 水 Water

水 - Water

On the surface these two look nothing alike. If they’re meanings were completely unknown to you, you would not be able to tell that these are trying to convey an identical concept. This is because they both suffer from idiosyncratic construction. The Western symbol of the upside-down triangle is trying to fit within a visual motif and aesthetic and match the other elemental symbols. The hanzi character is doing something similar with its origins in the bagua, a set of binary code symbols from ancient China depicting fundamental cosmic concepts.

The symbol 水 is obviously a reference the bagua trigram ☵ for water. The only difference is the rotation 90 degrees. I think this is significant as it indicates a downward motion of the water as a river, which is present within the 🜄 symbol. This single similarity tells us more about the concept that the symbols are trying to convey. Not just water itself, but an aspect of water that has to do with downward motion.

Symbols 🜁 and 风 Air

风 - Wind

We have a difficulty in this element because, as you may notice, the Chinese classical elements do not include air. So we are going to have to dig a little deeper to find what we want.

The element of air poses a unique problem to the creator of symbols. How do you make a visual representation of something that is for the most part invisible? Most gases are invisible and even things like smoke and clouds are obviously not what we mean when we think “air”. So because air is invisible, it has to be defined by the things that are in it, birds, insects, clouds and so on. Now I thought about using the hanzi character 气 which means air in modern Chinese, but in it’s original conception was meant to depict clouds in the wind, and probably meant wind. Wind isn’t exactly what we’re looking for because wind isn’t air, as rivers aren't water. So ironically I have settled upon 风 which in modern Chinese means wind, but it’s pictographic origins seem to circle the general concept of air. This and the fact that 风 looks a great deal more like 🜁 than 气, with its cross and tent shape, make it a good candidate for a correspondence.

风 is deceptively simple, and this is the natural progression of the hanzi, both intentionally and by necessity. The most recent simplification of the character was during the Cultural Revolution in China which was done by the Chinese Communist Party in the mid twentieth century. Before that the character was 風. And as we see below this is a further simplification of something that looks incredibly complex. It was meant to depict a bird, represented by the character 虫 in the traditional version. 虫 is often translated as “insect” although it was meant to refer to most animals, generally those undomesticated. The character 凡 which 虫 was combined with to create 風 has less of a representational meaning. It was thought to represent a dish or a flat plate of some kind originally, but is now used to mean “in general” or “vaguely” or as the word “where”. We can draw a connection to the English idiomatic phrase “having the air of”.

I also considered the character 空, meaning “air”(in a different sense than 气), for this use. Although it looks quite a lot like 🜁, the origin of the character is in the depiction of a cave entrance, or a doorway, which don’t seem to convey what 🜁 is getting at. A sense of upwardness, and something being carried upward by draft, is the essence of the 🜁 symbol, and 风 connects these ideas well with symbol of a bird and the invisible substance which surrounds it.

The Luminaries

Symbols ☉ and 日 Sun

日 - Day

日 depicts the sun. For some reason many ancient cultures decided, as if by council, to always draw the sun as a dot surrounded by a circle. There are many theories why this happened, and we will not go into those here. We will simply accept this gift graciously.

Symbols ☽ and 月 Moon

月 - Moon

☽ - Moon, Silver

The crescent of the moon is its most striking feature, and all cultures recognized this as the moon’s form.

Symbols ♀ and 金 Venus

金 - Metal

♀ - Venus, Copper

The character 金 is used for the Chinese element metal (as seen above), the planet Venus itself, and anciently the metal copper. In western alchemy Venus is associated with the metal, and the symbol was used to represent copper in alchemy. The meaning of 金 “copper” is very archaic and it began to mean gold and metal in general long ago. The ancient Chinese associated their elements or “phases” with the five visible planets in the sky. Venus was associated with metal, probably for its brightness. The bronze mirrors that were so common in antiquity call the image of vane Venus to mind. Metal swords and axes remind us that Venus’ prototypes were war goddesses, terrible and beautiful. Apart from this multitude of associations we can find within the semantics of the symbols, they also bear a close visual resemblance that is on full display in the Ming Dynasty script.

Symbols ♃,🝏 and 木,乐 Jupiter

木 - Wood

乐 - Joy

🝏 - Scepter of Jove

♃ - Jupiter, Tin

First and foremost the planet Jupiter is given the element of Wood 木 in Chinese astrology and is still called “The Wooden Star” 木星 in modern Chinese astronomy. The association of wood and Jupiter may not be immediately obvious, but as we go into the meaning of 木 and of ♃, we see undeniable similarity. First we have to account for the fact that ♃ and 木 look nothing like each other, vaguely if we are generous. There is a cross and some curly stuff going on, but overall it’s not enough. We run into even more trouble when we look at the evolution of the 木 symbol, as it becomes less and less identical to ♃. To supplement this comparison we can use another symbol of Jupiter, the thunderbolt.

The tree drawings in the prototypes to 木, have a striking resemblance to the way thunderbolts were depicted in the hands of Jupiter, Zeus, and the Babylonian Marduk in the west. The form of a central spike, gap for handle, and two curving spikes flanking them was as common a symbol for lightning in antiquity as our ⚡1. Newton, in his alchemical writings, used the Scepter of Jove "🝏" as an alternative to the traditional Jupiter symbol. This mirrors the use of Hermes' caduceus "☿"as the symbol for the planet and element.

Additionally, in I Ching tradition, the Trigram Chen ☳, meaning Thunder, is given attribution to the phase of Wood 木. ☳ is the Northeast in the classic I Ching mandala. The Chinese word for East is 东 (trad. 東) a combination of 木 and 日. In Vedic astrology all the planets have cardinal directions associated with them. Jupiter rules the Northeast.

The oak tree is a symbol of Jupiter. In Greco-Roman tradition every oak tree was said to be sacred to the god. Oak trees are struck by lightning more than any other tree, a phenomenon observed by the ancient world. The word for oak tree in Chinese is 栎, a combination of 木 and 乐, literally “joyous tree”.

I included 乐 because it more closely resembles the ♃ symbol, and with the meaning “joy” the connection with Jupiter, the jolly god, is complete. 乐 is a combination of 木 and 糸 meaning “string”. The idea for how this word came to mean joy is that it was depicting some stringed instrument. This makes me think of the constellation Lyra and it’s association with Jupiter.

Symbols ☿ and 至 Mercury

至 - To Arrive

☿ - Mercury

至 is originally a depiction of an arrow hitting the ground.

Because the Chinese phases are associated with the planets, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn find conflict with Water, Fire, and Earth. Because these slots are already filled in the astrological language of the West, we look elsewhere. I was made aware of the similarity between these two glyphs by Chris Gabriel in his article2, Our Symbols. It should be recognized how much his work inspired this study. Although I agree that 至 is a good match for ☿, I disagree with Gabriel on why. And for my argument I invoke the authority of occultist Aleister Crowley, who writes, “The Arrow, is in fact, the simplest and purest glyph of Mercury, being the symbol of directed Will."3

The arrow is be-feathered like the god, and flies in his journeying. The meaning of “arrival” that 至 contains, indicates the travel associated with the messenger god.

The Chinese attribute 水 to Mercury, both the planet (水星) and element (汞, 水银). The image of a central staff and curling snakes of the caduceus is graphically mirrored in 水.

Symbols ♄ and 歹 Saturn

歹 - Decay, Evil

♄ - Saturn, Lead

⼣- Evening

歹 is thought to have been a depiction of human remains.

The graphic similarly between the two symbols is very clear.

Saturn is the god of death, disease, old age and decay. Saturn is the antagonist of the Olympian origin story, and usually regarded as the evil god. He is associated with Satan and the Egyptian Set, who go out of their way to defile the plans of the righteous gods. Saturn is always an old, crippled man, and in his form as the Grim Reaper, a corpse.

In ancient China the character ⼣ was used as a modifier for 金 when referring to leaden copper. Thus ⼣ had association with lead, the metal of Saturn. The character ⼣, meaning “dark, dull, evening or night” doesn’t have an original connection with 歹 but have been made to look similar after they were created. The “evening of life” is an important connection with Saturn, god of old age.

Symbols ♂ and 力,男 Mars

力 - Power

男 - Male

♂ - Mars, Iron

力 is symbolizing an arm, or a plough. Both are phallic, male symbols that point to Mars. 力 resembles an arrow.

力 in combination with 田 results in the character 男 meaning “male”. You can imagine the meaning “one who works the fields” to be the origin of this glyph. ♂ is a depiction of a spear or some kind of pole-arm. Most weapons of war in antiquity have their origin as agricultural tools, even the nun-chunks were originally meant for work with rice farming. The difference between a farmer and a warrior is therefore a matter of aggression. We should also acknowledge that the glyph ♂ has come to mean “male” in the West.

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Part II will feature the Zodiac.

2

Effluvia

Our Symbols: Ideograms East and West II

In my researching the Chinese radicals, I have noticed symmetry between Eastern and Western symbols, this is not a translation so much as a study in Synchronicity. In my previous piece I corresponded Zodiacal symbols, here are the Western planets corresponded to Radicals…

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4 years ago · 14 likes · 2 comments · God Disk

Revolutionaries tearing down the wall.

Let's take off our clothes and spit that bitter thing off our tongues.

I think it was knowledge.

Let's give old tree's their fruit and old men back their seed.

Get in my rib baby, you're all I need

I'll take us back five or six days before the plants and animals had land to graise

I'Il take you back before

light and dark

wrong and right

you and I seemed different

and strange.

When the word was still with him, before I was forced to change.

Let's do Genesis in reverse, would that be OK?

Let's do Genesis forwards.

The word is turning meat, I'm forcing a change.

Light and dark are splitting now, I can see it in their face.

I'll take you on, where plants and animals have room enough to spend their days.

A land only five or six days walk away.

Please, leave my side love, you're all I have.

It's time we take the fruit off the trees, and from old men bare new things.

Take the bitter fruit, you know now it's taste.

Get your clothes on.

The tyrant is kicking us out and locking the gate.

Now we fall, and wait.

John Nelson Darby, the formalizer of the idea of Biblical dispensations, was an original member of the Plymouth Brethren, and a lead theologer within the church. The idea became very popular in the United States, far from Dublin, particularly in the Latter Day Saint Movement. The idea of Dispensations according to Darby has obvious similarities, and descriptive overlap with, the Platonic Months or Aeons. Arguably the most famous Plymouth Brother, Aleister Crowley, extends this idea to Egyptian symbolism in The Book of The Law. Carl Jung gives a wonderful psychological interpretation of this phenomenon in his book, Aion. Plato explains that every 36,000 years the sky returns to exactly the same state. The actual number of years isn’t really important, neither is it true. The use of the zodiac as a calendar for this Great Year, and the archetypal alignment with the symbols of the sky is the important thing. Even Crowley’s idea of the Age of Horus, who seems to differ from the classical progression, fits into a picture of the sky. We will visit Crowley at a different time to avoid confusion. This is meant to be a brief demonstration of this correspondence, and depth should not be mistaken as a goal. We will begin with the current age of Aquarius, and work backwards.

The Age of Aquarius: The Dispensation of The Millennial Kingdom

There is an almost unfailing pattern that we see in the beginning of the Aeons. The opposite sign from the one corresponding to the age seems to appear in bringing it about. In the Book of Revelation the Apocalypse is brought about by the appearance of the Beast and the Anti-Christ. Lion will lay down with lamb. Christ appearing as ruling king. All these things are Leonic, the sign of Leo stands opposite to Aquarius. The Kingdom of God will be established on Earth, and we can imagine how angelic that may be, a symbol of Aquarius.

Age of Pisces: Dispensation of Grace

Jung, as previously mentioned, provides a study of fish symbolism in the last age of Pisces in his book Aion. I want to assert again this idea that the opposing sign has a role in the bringing about of the Aion, and adds to its nature. I will credit Galahad Eridanus with this idea, it is where I first heard it. This manifests in Mary, who represents Virgo, bringing about the birth of Jesus, the Fish.

Age of Aries: Dispensation of Law

Moses, the horned prophet, a representative of Aries, establishes the Law (Libra, the scales). He instructs the Judges of Israel to rule over the people. There is some speculation that the name Moses comes from Ramses, literally “Son of Ra”. Freud even postulates that Moses was an Egyptian himself, and that his teachings have an Egyptian origin. Ra is often depicted as a ram, and was definitely the most important god to the Egyptians during this time. The idea of hierarchy is symbolized by the pyramids of this age, and the ram itself is a kingly symbol. The Age of Aries is often called the “Age of Kings”.

Age of Taurus: Dispensation of Sacrifice

This dispensation is described as beginning with the Abrahamic Covenant. Death is a very prominent theme in this dispensation, representative of the opposing Scorpio. Scorpio’s association with animals and birds of prey is seen in Abram’s first sacrifice in Genesis 15: “10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. 11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. 12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;”

This age is often associated with the domestication of animals, and the farm, which you would need if you wanted to make routine animal sacrifices. I think the image of Taurus most obviously on display in this dispensation is the worship of Moloch. And at the very end of it, right before the Ten Commandments are delivered to the Israelites, with the worship of the Golden Calf.

Age of Gemini: Dispensation of Men

Beginning with the end of Noah’s Flood, symbolized by the rainbow representing our opposite Sagittarius, this dispensation is characterized by its focus on the affairs of humans in the Bible as Yahweh takes a place more behind the scenes. Gemini is the most human of the signs of the zodiac. Virgo and Aquarius, despite their anthropomorphism, are more divine than human. This dispensation is said to end with the Tower of Babel, which I find fitting because of Gemini’s elocution.

Age of Cancer: Dispensation of Conscience

The Fall, which marks the beginning of Conscience, was brought about by the Devil, representing the opposing Capricorn. Cancer may be evident in Noah’s Ark, which travels through the unconscious, symbolized by the flood, with a protective barrier. I think the story of Cain hiding from God is also cancerian. He seeks out the darkest place, away from God’s light, an allegory for the pain of conscience, where a protective shell becomes essential. Honestly, this period of time is barely five chapters of the Bible, so there’s not much to go off of in the first place.

Age of Leo: Dispensation of Innocence

Following our correspondence, we find that the beginning of the account of man’s existence in the Bible takes place during the Age of Leo. It’s made clear that this dispensation begins with the Creation of Man, so the first five days are excluded. The Sixth day is where beasts are created, and the king beast, man, is made to rule over them. I think you also find that the first five days seem to correspond with the signs of the zodiac preceding Leo with day one being Capricorn. Aquarius is present in the figure of God himself.

Conclusion

Time seems to be more than just a progression of moments, but possess’s a shape in itself. The fact that we find similarities in the accounts of the Bible and the the Zodiac, should be unsurprising, as there are many myths that follow the same archetypal progression, Herakles, Mithras, and even the life of Jesus himself have been demonstrated in much the same way as the above. If the reader finds more similarities I encourage them to leave their own findings in the comments.

There was a common practice of filling up every inch of a page in medieval illuminated manuscripts to provide visual aids for the writing or just for amusement. This resulted in what we now call “marginalia”. There is a subcategory of marginalia called “drollery”, our focus for this paper. marginalia is considered drollery when the aim of the artist is comedy. They often depict grotesque scenes and creatures, genitalia, and animals doing peculiar things. Their resemblance to modern memes is often cited, but no one seems to have noticed that some of them have direct analogues today.

Why the word “Drollery” is Significant

Drollery is derived from the French word drôle meaning “funny”. This is actually a Germanic word meaning “troll” or sometimes “clown” depending on when it was used historically. Trolling is central to meme culture, and apparently this tradition has a spiritual lineage stretching back to medieval times.

Bugs Bunny and Killer Rabbits

Bugs Bunny is a very common character from the memetic pantheon. He exists in Big Chungus and the common “gangster Bugs” memes. Bugs’ gimmick in the Loony Toons is that he hunts the hunter Elmer Fudd, and much of the humor comes from this ironic inversion. This seems to be exactly what the joke of the famous “medieval killer rabbits” often found in illuminated manuscripts.

The Immortal Snail

This meme has its origin in the Reddit post below. It got very popular on TikTok and lit up the imaginations of users with their own plans of survival.

In medieval manuscripts, the scene of a knight fighting a snail is curiously ubiquitous. There has been a lot of debate about what these scenes meant to the people who drew them. There are ideas that these were political jests, some think that it was a cryptic religious allegory, and it must have meant different things to different people because of its shear popularity. All we can be certain of is that medieval scribes thought these drawings were hilarious, and consequently they mimetically replicated them very often.

Overall the joke seems pretty similar to the killer rabbits, it’s an ironic inversion. We know that this was apparent to some of the marginalia artists as crossovers are existent (below).

It is telling that the modern version of this timeless comic motif gives the snail and knight immortality, almost like its a conscious progression of the joke. The mollusk and man have been fighting a long time, and we expect them to continue.

Among Us

There may be a lot of reasons why we found the Among Us character to be funny, but I think none of them are more important than the shape of an amogus and their recognizability.

This same shape was also well known to the medieval minds of the clergy who wrote and decorated the illuminated manuscripts. The idea of a man with only legs and a head is possibly one of the most hilarious things we can think of. These often dip into the surreal which is a topic we will get to later.

I remember a much older meme that embodied this archetype in the video “Retarded Horse Running. ( HURR-DURR )”

Grumpy Cat/Human Faced Animals

The practice of anthropomorphizing animals for some rhetorical or imagistic effect is innate to humanity. All cultures have stories of animals doing human-like things and the fact that both medieval and modern people do this is unsurprising. But putting human faces on an animal is another thing, and this seems to happen with two animals most popularly, the bird and the cat.

Grumpy Cat is one of the most popular memes in the internet’s history. The motif of the human faced cat is one that comes of the page of illuminated manuscripts and onto the canvases of medieval paintings. Again modern people who find this strange have tried to find explanations to why this was so common. The assumption is that these painters were incapable of painting cats, or maybe cats wouldn’t sit still to be painted. This is ridiculous. Cats were everywhere in medieval times, and even if you cant get them to sit still we would imagine that one barbaric person from the Dark Ages might kill the cat in order to paint it. Obviously this was an artistic choice, and an amusing choice.

Surrealism in Drollery and Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He is best known for his medieval flavor of surrealism that persists in its effect even in modern enjoyers. His most famous work, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” is a large triptych, or three-paneled painting that depicts scenes, very imaginatively, from the Book of Genesis.

The similarity of his work with the medieval marginalia in both style and content has been noted by art historians. It is almost certain that Bosch would have been reading the manuscripts that the clergy produced with the marginalia, as Bosch was a member of the religious order, the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, one of the very few facts of his life that are still persevered. His paintings, through this lens, are a continuation of the medieval drollery tradition, now the main focus instead of mere decoration.

Bosch’s work has inspired a whole subgenre of memes using his paintings as the main element. The memes often use The Garden of Earthly Delights to refer to a dream-like state or a state of hypnogogia.

The medieval clergy who were drawing these strange creatures might’ve thought they were drawing demons, a common subject for surrealist art. I think we see a similarity in the modern and medieval in the archetypes of devouring and eating (including defecation) and antagonism. These are certainly demonic qualities, base functions of aggression and consumption that outline the shadow of civilized man.

The mascot of surreal memes, often called “Meme Man” or “Head Man” or just “The Head”, has some striking similarities with arguably Bosch’s most well known character, the Tree Man. The porcelain body, calm facial expression, and off-white color give the feeling that these characters are vessels, which is why the viewer instantly connects with them. When someone comes across an image, and especially one that is mostly unconscious as is so with surrealism, they are vessels for the images which are very much alive in their imaginations which can’t totally pin them down.

Conclusion

Archaeology has found that humor and jokes have been important to people for a very long time. The earliest joke we have is from a Sumerian text dating to the twentieth century BCE. It goes, "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap," and we can find that amusing in its own way. Even Jesus Christ, before there was any Catholic Church or painters to portray him in his glory, was immortalized in what we may call a meme dating to the year 200 CE, called the Alexamenos graffito by historians and archaeologists. This graffiti was probably meant to be an ancient form of a soyjak meme.

Humor is one of the things that does not change in humanity because its effectiveness is correlative to how it evokes the unconscious. The unconscious changes much much slower than the consciousness of man. For this reason we can still understand great art and comedy from just about any age and any culture, and they even produce specific similarities because of their common origin. Memes give us a very particular look at the unconscious. The advantage that comedy gets when it is “unfiltered” allows things to fall out of the unconscious in ways that do not happen in serious art and literature, which are more taken with allegory and euphemism.

To conclude I want to share a few similarities I found that are more miscellaneous and I feel don’t need writing to be understood. I hope you enjoy!

But it’s the stone that is rejected with which I’ll build my church,

and the the blade that injures that gives me my mirth.

In the separation of your soul the cream rises to the top.

The depths you’ll never know, ‘til you drink the bitter cup.

-

I was in the flesh, she was in my spirit.

The world was calling, but there were none in the world to hear it.

A god was born crippled, but there were none to fear it.

Because you must be in the world to have a god, but in the soul to cure it.

-

I forgive you father you knew not what you had until it was lost.

I had some idea as to what I am, but did not know the cost.

I sat beside your fire, counting every flame.

But I could not know the number, as you do not know the name.

For this I kiss my mother, for this I breathe the smoke.

Because I know what to call her, you know that I'm broke.

So I'm asking for some money, it’s why I came back this way.

Because it’s better to be a beggar than it is to be a slave.

-

It’s a long road back, my father, to where the hounds and children play.

Through rough and white capped water, through guilt and disgrace.

-

So give me a balm to heal my lame and blistered feet.

Your ancient magic working against my modern mind’s defeat.

-

Pick me up O brother, lover of my soul.

Come ye servants of your Lord, accept me in your fold.

I cannot help but longing, when I hear my master’s voice

But I must keep on my wandering under desert’s toil.

The insights I will make in this paper are intended as supplementary to the views of Chris Gabriel in his article, The Car Crash: A Modern Initiation under the alias “God Disk”. I invite the reader to read that article in Gabriel’s publication Effluvia before engaging with this work. However it is not a requirement for understanding.

The Car and the Horse

The car has come to us by a long technological evolution starting with the chariot, to which it owes its etymology. The chariot back then, was only an extension of the horse drawing it. Eventually the chariot lost need of the horse with the advent of the steam engine, and later the combustion engine. We can assume a degree of psychic transference1 between the symbolism of the horse and car. This may for instance be seen in the use of the term "horsepower" which acts as a quantifiable comparison of horse and engine. The use of horse symbolism within the branding of major car manufacturers is also plentiful, e.g. Porsche, Ford, Ferrari. Not to mention the plethora of models named after horses.

The stink of manure characteristic of bustling cities was replaced with the smell of rubber and exhaust. It is also remarkable the degree to which great care is given to the car, a mere machine after all. This elaboration may seem tedious to the reader, because it is so obvious to us that this is the case. I posit that the tediousness is really further proof of the validity of the claim.

The Chariot and the Soul

In Plato’s analogy of the Chariot, there are two horses, one noble the other wild. They represent man’s impulses. The chariot is an image of the soul, the structure in which Being is housed, and the charioteer is the intellect, or the ego.

But what does it mean now that the horse is now one with the chariot in the form of the car, hidden under the hood as the engine? Psychologically this could be an image of repression. The horse, symbolizing the libido (the unconscious animal nature of man) has become shrouded, underneath the hood. The unconscious has the motherly aspect, and the libido is lost to it as a child is lost in her womb. This is the pre-natal state of man, in which he has no separation in identity to the mother. This is an acceptable allegory for the state of modern man. On the other hand, the car could just as easily symbolize an integration of the libido into the psyche, a perfect fusion of the symbols. The distinction matters not, as symbolically the tragic and victorious hero are the same. It is both Oedipus and Osiris who are incestuous. And the hieros gamos of Christ as described by Augustine is also a marriage with the Mother. This is the true meaning of destiny. Ultimately the image of the car becomes the libido in the unconscious state, both mother and child, in animal form.

The Sacrifice, Animal or Otherwise

The sacrifice is a heroic act. Above is a depiction of the Roman hero, Marcus Curtius, falling into a schism threatening to swallow Rome, as an act of sacrifice to appease the gods. His sacrifice was enough for the chasm to close, engulfing him while saving all on the surface. All sacrifices are a diminishing in some way followed by inevitable gain. The sacrifice of Wotan’s sight for the knowledge of the runes, the crucifixion on the cross for the redemption of man, and Attis’ castration for the appeasement of Cybele. The appearance of the tree symbol in these three examples should be noted. Old Norse “drasil”, in addition to meaning “tree”, also means “horse”2 making “Yggdrasil” “Odin’s Horse”.

The horse is also a " tree of death ".

Psychology of the Unconscious C.G. Jung, (p. 312)

The language surrounding roads also indicates an identification with trees and the cross. For instance one goes “up” and “down” the street, and there are of course crossings. Visually, roads branch. The symbolism of the Tree, in confusion with the Horse, shows an association with the image of the parents. To the child, the parents appear as giants, incomprehensibly large.

The road and car also appear as symbols of the uterus, in which the slow hum of the mother is heard, and one is largely unconscious, and the natal tract of the road, where one travels down until emerging born into the world. When the car is crashed there is then simultaneously an image of spontaneous birth, but also of destruction of the parent image. The crash is not only a destruction of the parents, but in cases where the car goes off-road, a division of the union of the ouroboric First Parents3

“Mutilation—a theme which also occurs in alchemy—is the condition of all creation. So here we come upon two archetypal motifs that belong absolutely together and appear in all creation myths. Without the slaying of the old parents, their dismemberment and neutralization, there can be no beginning.”

Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness

The road also snakes, adding yet another symbol of death and birth, the serpent.

Furthermore death by car crash and death by snake are frequently preceded by the sound of a rattle.

One of the symbols of Scorpio, the astrological sign corresponding with the Death card of the Tarot, is the serpent.

The sacrifice is most readily seen in nature with the course of the Sun. As the Sun reaches its highest point it voluntarily falls again into death. Scorpio, being the period of the year directly after the equinox of Libra (the sign in which the Sun is in its Fall) represents the Sun’s most rapid decline, and so its association with death seems to be justified by this. We can see this as the Sun receiving the sting of the scorpion or venomous bite of the snake, sentencing it to death.

After Scorpio is Sagittarius, which relation to the car crash has already been made by Gabriel4. Sagittarius, who’s end marks the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, the time in which the Sun is most dead, also resembles the cross in its sign, and in symbolism of the Hunter, an intentional slaughter of the animal, a sacrifice.

The Miracle

“Yeah man, my car is totaled.”

“Not even a scratch on me.”

These words are familiar. The modern miracle is most evident in those who are able to walk away from a crash.

I would like to focus for a moment on the language of “totaled”. The car is brought into the totality of death. The car, being the animal spirit of man, within the mother soul of the chariot, is brought into union with The Totality. (This may seem superficial, but the sublime nature of the comment must be noted.)

Yet the ego stands intact, the hero charioteer is transformed spiritually. Like Mithras he has sacrificed his animal nature. Let us not forget Bucephalus’ efforts and sacrifice in the Battle of Hydaspes, where a decisive victory for Alexander was had.

The road strikes like a viper. Chi-wan-to-pel’s horse was killed by the serpent. One may likely stand and think of the words of Chi-wan-to-pel as they look upon their broken vehicle.

“Farewell, faithful brother! Enter into your rest! I have loved you and you have served me well. Farewell I shall rejoin you soon!”

And so the Sun sets. Yet what is left? What miracle have we witnessed? What light could be left but fire! The truest miracle. The survivor is a Promethean boon, escaped from the grasp of the gods.

The light of consciousness itself. This is the greatest gift. The flames only grow brighter in the darkness of night.

This is also the miracle of birth. The connection to the First Parents has been severed.

Umbilical cord cut!

“Mutilation—a theme which also occurs in alchemy—is the condition of all creation. So here we come upon two archetypal motifs that belong absolutely together and appear in all creation myths. Without the slaying of the old parents, their dismemberment and neutralization, there can be no beginning.”

Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness

L'appel Du Vide

Up to this point I have ignored the distinguishing feature of sacrifice from mutilation, that is consistent among all the myths which feature it. It must be done willingly. Of course no one wants to crash their car, at least not totally. The feeling of wanting to crash one’s car is so common it has its own name. L'appel du vide, the call of the void, refers to the impulse to self destruct, commonly used in the context of wanting to crash one’s car. This is Freud’s thanatos drive, the death drive. Where self destructive impulses in the unconscious manifest themselves. To recognize this drive consciously and act on it with intelligence is an important part of a healthy relationship with the psyche.

It is important to note the symbolic language the unconscious employs. The car crash is only a symbol of transformation, to understand that and not take it literally is important. That also said, car crashes frequently coincide with psychological transformations for those that have them, for better or for worse. It “gives perspective” as one often is heard saying, recovering from a car crash. This is true for all near death experiences, as long as they are psychologically, and so symbolically, interpreted as a death.

The essence and motive force of the sacrificial drama consist in an unconscious transformation of energy.

CG Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious (p. 429)

“The feminine is conceived mythologically under the aspect of this archetype; uroboros and Great Mother are both feminine dominants, and all the psychic constellations over which they rule are under the dominance of the unconscious. Conversely, its opposite, the system of ego consciousness, is masculine. With it are associated the qualities of volition, decision, and activity as contrasted with the determinism and blind “drives” of the preconscious, egoless state.”

Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness (p. 326)

Closing Thoughts

I apologize to the reader if they were expecting to find a clean cut comparison of symbolism. The topic is much to diverse in its connections to offer a clear comparison to any one thing. The overarching themes are of birth, sacrifice, and the emergence of consciousness and light from darkness. I encourage the reader to think on these concepts and make their own connections.

I hope the reader has found improvement in this article compared to the previous one. I, of course, owe the inspiration for this work to the Chris Gabriel’s pioneering work on the symbolism of the car crash. I would like to thank the reader for revisiting my publication for the third article.

Be well.

C.S. Mitchell

I am admittedly a little late for Pi day, but I had this small observation and wanted to share it.

Pi

Pi is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, the first three digits of this number are famously 3.14. This number was familiar to the ancients who marvelously approximated it, and applied it most notably in architecture to create some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. This number is almost magic in its ability to mediate the radial world of the circumference and square world of the diameter.

Squaring the Circle

The ancient problem of Squaring the Circle is a deceivingly simple one, but one that has attracted the greatest minds in mathematics and philosophy throughout history, including Archimedes and Anaxogras. The problem lies in being able to construct a square that has the same area of a given circle. Although this problem is currently held to be impossible to solve in any rational way, it is used as a proof that requires Pi to be a transcendental irrational number in order to solve. I am not a mathematician, and so I will refrain from elaborating on the details of the problem so as to not cause confusion in the mind of the reader. What is important is the use of Pi in the relationship between the area of a square and circle.

This problem fascinated occultists and alchemists in medieval times. As was the course of alchemy throughout it’s existence, and by the influence of Gnosticism, the problem was taken as an allegory for division of the One into the Four. Or the reconciling of Body and Spirit.

Squaring the circle was a problem that greatly exercised medieval minds. It is a symbol of the opus alchymicum, since it breaks down the original chaotic unity into the four elements and then combines them again in a higher unity. Unity is represented by a circle and the four elements by a square. The production of one from four is the result of a process of distillation and sublimation which takes the so-called “circular” form: the distillate is subjected to sundry distillations so that the “soul” or “spirit” shall be extracted in its purest state. The product is generally called the “quintessence,” though this is by no means the only name for the ever-hoped-for and never-to-be-discovered “One.” It has, as the alchemists say, a “thousand names,” like the prima materia.

-C.G. Jung

I do not believe that Pi is then, metaphorically speaking, the quintessence, but perhaps a vector or path in which the one is led to the quintessence. It is the relationship between spirit and matter, circle and square. Also the relationship between female (square) and male (circle).

Pey, The Tower

The Greek letter Pi (π) is the equivalent of the Hebrew letter Pey (פ). Pey comes from early Hebrew pictographic depiction of a mouth, and its “meaning” is thus. Incidentally the mouth is a good depiction of the relationship Pi represents. A closed mouth resembles the horizontal line of diameter ‘—’ and and open it is the circumference of the circle ‘O’. The mouth is also a relation of matter and spirit, in which it is the matter that the pneuma (breath, spirit) comes out of and returns again into. The mouth is also hermaphroditic, implying the consumation of opposites, through the opening of the mouth and the phallic tongue.

The letter Pey, through kabbalistic tradition, is attributed the sixteenth trump of the Tarot, The Tower. The Tower is first and foremost a scene of destruction. A transformation that in most basic language can be described as the vertical going horizontal. (For further elaboration on this subject I encourage the reader to watch Galahad Eridanus’ video on YouTube, The Shape of Everything). This is the basic construction of the cross, the vertical spiritual masculine line, descending through the horizontal, material, feminine line. In Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot the dove and lion-headed serpent are found on the left and right of this card.

Here there is some nuance in relating the dove to the square, and lion-headed serpent to the circle. The serpent is Abraxas, who is first and foremost a time god, also called Aion, Cronos, Saturn, or colloquially Father Time. The name Abraxas, through Greek gematria, is the number 365, the number of days in the year. This is the wheel of time, the wheel of the year, and the passage of the Sun. This is our paternal pneumatic circle, who is celestial and spiritual.

For the dove we abandon it’s Christian connotation as spirit, and look to its much older roots in the goddess Venus. We find in a passage of Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris, an elaboration on the Pythagorean geometric-divine relations.

The properties of the square [is expressive] of Rhea, Venus, Ceres, Vestia, and Juno.

-Plutarch

In the Hermetic Tarot, a reconstruction of the Tarot of the Golden Dawn, the images of the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth take the place of the dove and serpent. The meaning of this in relation to the circumference and diameter of a circle, can be found in the etymology of the words. Sephiroth comes from the Hebrew word “sephira” meaning to enumerate or to count, most likely because of it’s ten spheres, but we can take this to also indicate the measure of the diameter. This is made more clear by the meaning of Qliphoth, which originally means “the shell of a nut”, a clear association with the circumference.

Through the Tower card we can infer an equivalence of the astrological Mars and Pey, and by proxy Pi. The Mars symbol can be broken up into two elements, the cross and the circle. The cross here is interchangeable with the square, both imply the number four, which is the number of matter. The circle is the spirit, as previously explained. Mars, pictorially, means the material cross weighing down the spiritual circle1. Venus, its opposite is then the spiritual uplifting the material. Mars is then the way in which the spiritual is formulated into the material, just as Pi is the constant that relates the radial circumference to the Cartesian diameter.

Venus is pictorially relevant in its opposition to Mars. The card attributed to Venus, the Empress, is also given the attribution of the alchemical Salt. The symbol for Salt is a circle with a horizontal line cutting it in half, our diameter-circumference relation once again. Salt is the feminine half of the Prima Materia, It’s opposing substance is Niter, which is the masculine. Niter’s symbol is the same only rotated 90 degrees, implying the masculine quality of the vertical.

Pey, on the Sephiroth Tree, is the path that connects the Sephiroth Netzach and Hod. Called “Desire” and “Reason,” we can see a clear correlative to Jung’s erotic Anima, and the logical Animus. Also called the “Father and Mother degraded to an animal state”.2 These two spheres fall on the left and right pillars, and it is the path of Pey, one of three paths that cross the center, that connects them. The other two are Daleth and Tet. Daleth is given the Empress card, which symbolism we have already discussed. Tet is the equivalent of Greek Theta, which is commonly used as the variable for the measure of an angle. The significance of this is found within the formula, l = dθ/2, (length of arc equals diameter times measure of angle divided by two). Length of arc (circumference) represented by the vertical masculine L (also the basic form of the Tower card), equals radius, the half diameter and feminine D (English equivalent of Hebrew Daleth) times Theta, The angle and medial relation of the two. Theta also pictorially represents a circle and its diameter, θ. It may also be interesting to add the Greek Delta’s (Δ) (Greek equivalent of Hebrew Daleth) use in mathematics to indicate change, and chemistry to indicate polarity. These mathematical connections are merely suggestive, as they are definitely not intentional. I won’t pretend to any ultimate meaning within them, but give them a synchronistic value.

Concluding Thoughts

Pi has apparently been aptly given its place in mathematics when we look at its occult and magical significance. Pi is not the bringing together of the opposites, not the Ouroboros, but the transformation of one to the other. The snake is uncoiled! The path of transformation is laid out, the tower falls from heaven, and crashes to earth. I hope this was an enjoyable symbolical study. It provided more than I initially thought was present. I of course encourage the reader to contact me with any questions, comments or further elaborations on the subject. I will be interested to hear from you.

Until then

Be well,

C.S. Mitchell

Instagram: @conrsean

Discord: conrsean#2517

The fact that swearing is a form of language which is forbidden and taboo gives the unconscious dominion over these words. Curses serve as involuntary expressions of pure emotion, when one is surprised, hurt, overjoyed, or disappointed, these words are the natural expression. All of these experiences hold in common the encounter of the unknown, and so are confrontations with the unconscious, since the unconscious must be described as all that is unknown.

A woman is holding her child, standing in line at a coffee shop. Suddenly the child, without warning, spits up all over the mother’s shirt. “Oh my God!” she cries out. When viewed perfectly rationally and understanding language functionally descriptive this comment seems absurd. The woman is not seeing God. Without context we may expect an older gentleman clothed in white to be present in the room with her. A completely rational being would perhaps cry out, “My child has spit up on my shirt!” And so clearly something irrational and unconscious is driving this reaction. What can this exclamation tell us about our irrational nature and about the unconscious?

Cursing as Expletive Onomatopoetic Speech

Taking our example above we can see a clear resemblance of the word God and the expletive “Gah!”. The word God then is not merely a name for a bearded man in the sky, but a word to describe the feeling of awe and encounter with the unknown. I may seem to be making a bold claim in deriving the etymology that the word God from Gah, but it is my view that the practical evidence suffices. This not only is seen with the English “God” but also with the Arabic “Allah” and Hebrew “AL” and “YHWH” which seem to derive from “Ah!” and Hindu Brahma, Egyptian Amun also shares the long A vowel. Although the long A is not the rule. In Navajo the word for god, gods or spirit is Yeii, in Latin Dei, in Greek Theos or Zeus. And Germanic “Woden” resembles the common expletive, “Woah!” My goal is not to present a hard and fast linguistic rule, as exceptions are easily found, but to set up an understanding of language as onomatopoetic, and make the assertion that similar sounds are derived from similar meanings.

Speech is originally a system of emotional and imitative sounds sounds which express terror, fear, anger, love ; and sounds which imitate the noises of the elements, the rushing and gurgling of water, the rolling of thunder, the tumults of the winds, the tones of the animal world, and so on; and, finally, those which represent a combination of the sounds of perception and of affective reaction. Likewise in the more or less modern languages, large quantities of onomatopoetic relics are retained.

Psychology of the Unconscious, C.G. Jung

For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry.

The Poet, R.W. Emerson

Through this lens we see in our example of the woman above not a a descriptor of a situation using a modern understanding of the word “God”, but a poetic revival of its original and unconscious meaning.

Cursing as Insulting Language and Shadow Projection

All those qualities, capacities and tendencies which do not harmonize with the collective values – everything that shuns the light of public opinion, in fact – now come together to form the shadow, that dark region of the personality which is unknown and unrecognized by the ego.

Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, Erich Neumann

The shadow is an unconscious constituent of the psyche. It embodies that which is bad and other to the ego, as defined by Erich Neumann above. When we give an insult, the shadow is projected on the person receiving it. This is well known to children, as in school, in anti-bullying campaigns it is taught that bullies only do so because they are themselves insecure. This is called shadow projection, the shadow is being “thrown on” or projected on the other. Swearing plays a big role in insults. Using Jung’s theory of the shadow and shadow projection we can hope to gain insight into the nature of the shadow and its suppressed and repressed contents.

Fuck, Frick, Fudge, and Faggot.

Fuck of course means to copulate. This gives it a clear association with libido, the basic psychical energy, although not primarily sexual, is often seen in the sexual function. It may be well to note the pervasive use of “Fuck” in common speech. A common symbol of the libido is fire.

The comparison of the libido with sun and fire is in reality analogous. There is also a " causative " element in it, for sun and fire as beneficent powers are objects of human love.

Psychology of the Unconscious, C.G. Jung

Etymology fails to provide a clear connection between the words fuck and fire, but fuck seems to derive from Germanic origin, probably meaning to rub vigorously. Rubbing, creates heat, and enough of it may create a flame. One should also note the onomatopoetic connection between the words. The common innuendo for “fuck”, “frick” should be noted in its resemblance to the word “friction”, which of course has the same meaning. “fudge” another insinuation of “fuck”, has its association with feces. Feces, also has its connection to libido, as a creative function. And so a kind of reproduction.

We do not comprehend this interest until we learn that the child very early connects [defication] with a theory of propagation. The libido afflux probably accounts for the enormous interest in this act. The child sees that this is the way in which something is produced, in which something comes out.

Psychology of the Unconscious, C.G. Jung

Jung also gives the observation of the connection of the word “poop” with the Latin word for child, “pupil”. This shows an unconscious and childlike association of feces with the child, and so a libidinal function.

From feces we find another well known slur, “faggot”. This word possesses a twofold libido association, one is the connection with the “feces” through the parent Latin word “fasces” which means a bundle of sticks or wood. I have already clearly made the connection of feces and libido above, with the help of Dr. Jung, the other libido symbol is the bundle of sticks as a phallus. The phallus is a well known libido symbol and is often seen in dream symbolism and mythology as the stick or wand. Sigmund Freud famously makes the connection of the cigarette as a phallus, the cigarette is also known as a “fag” or “faggot” in Britain. The Phallus is not only a symbol of libido but the child as well, and the hero of legend. Tom Thumb is a notable example. As well as the common usage of children’s names to refer to the penis (Willy, Dick, Peter, Johnny, Johnson).

Oh My ___!

The free substitution of the words God and fuck in this format, outline a clear association within the unconscious of the libido, sexual intercourse, and fire (as shown above), with God. This is unsurprising because what else could God be than the source of all life!

Giving a #&@!

I would quickly like to point out the use of the word shit and crap in the phrase “giving a shit” as an expression of the presence of libido. The phrase is also sometimes used with “fuck” clearly indicating the equivalence of sex and feces as symbols of libido.

Motherfucker

This word is obviously referring to coitus with the mother, and the well-known incest prohibition in psychoanalysis. The ubiquity of this insult across many languages testifies to the prevalence of the incest prohibition as an unconscious force within the psyche. To call someone a motherfucker is to accuse them of the greatest taboo, and perhaps the original taboo. The incest wish is derived from a build up of libido in the mother imago, as a failure to transfer the libido to a novel “love object”. This is the basis for the Oedipus complex, discovered by Sigmund Freud, which is now well known to popular thought. The use of this term is indicative of the place this well known complex still has within the unconscious.

The N Word

The N word has clear associations with symbols of the unconscious and shadow, ignoring its role as a descriptor for the color of skin, as this is not even a rational use of the word since the reality of skin tone of one of African decent is not really black, as is suggested, but brown, by this we may expect unconscious associations and poetic speech to be present. It comes of course from “negro” which is derived from Latin for black “nigreos” and Greek for night, “nyx”. Night is a very obvious symbol for the unconscious. Nyx, in mythology is the mother of Erebos, the god of fear and darkness. The word holds within it the very contents of the shadow, all that is bad and evil, and has been used historically, and is still used, as a means of mass projection of all that is evil onto those it takes aim at.

Ass

The ass, putting aside its meaning as the buttocks (see feces as libido above), is another clear libido symbol.

In addition, there existed in enormous quantities theriomorphic representations of the sexual instinct, in connection with which the bull, the he-goat, the ram, the boar and the ass were frequently used. An undercurrent to this choice of symbol was furnished by the sodomitic inclination of humanity. When in the dream phantasy of modern man, the feared man is replaced by an animal, there is recurring in the ontogenetic re-echo the same thing which was openly represented by the ancients countless times.

Psychology of the Unconscious, C.G. Jung

The “feared man” is the shadow and the repressed libido which it contains shows up as animal and untamed. To call someone an ass is then a clear example of projected shadow symbolism.

Closing Thoughts

This exercise gives us another glimpse of the content of the unconscious. We can see through the expletive use, an undoubtedly primitive concept of God, and in the insulting function of curses, the role of the unconscious in the social realm and interpersonal interaction. We have inevitably associated those we despise with the energy lost within us. The “asses”, “fuckers”, “shits” and well… others, are ourselves in the most literal sense. I hope this essay will provide the reader with the knowledge of how to take an insult, and to recognize God in the spit up of a child. The concepts used here are endlessly deep, and I have not begun to extrapolate its depth. I encourage the reader to participate in their analysis! what are your favorite obscenities? How do you see your Self in them? What symbolic meaning does it possess?

I thank the reader for giving the time to read my first piece in this newsletter. Please share if you find concepts like this interesting. I will be writing more in the coming days, and look forward to hearing the readers’ thoughts on my writing.

Follow me and direct message any thoughts, comments or questions to me on Instagram: @conrsean

Discord: conrsean#2517

Be well,

Connor Sean Mitchell

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