Goetic Cosmology and the Tarot

The second vision clarified a number of points about the Tarot and cosmology. Clearly, the Goetia wanted me to continue this essay even though I had already submitted it to the Publisher.

Fool and Universe

While was writing The Tarot and the Magus, all the Spirits of Liber 231 appeared in the circle around me. I felt protected. Their appearance coincided with an insight into the function of the Fool as the locus of ingress and egress by the entire manifested universe.

On the Thoth Universe we have the Shemhamforash of 72 quinances around the dancing figure. The Golden Dawn associated the Goetia with the 36 Minor Arcana (Aces excluded), so that each card has two Goetia. Starting with the 2 Wands representing the first ten degrees of Aries, we have the first Spirit Bael who runs by Day. The thirty-seventh Spirit is Phenex, who also rules the 2 Wands, this time by night. As a convention, this seems perfectly acceptable to the Goetia – we do not need to change things. However, we also need to understand that the proper astrological attribution is to have the spirits in sequence each ruling five degrees, so that Phenex is connected to the first five degrees of Libra. My own experience is that all the Goetia are available all the time, and that it is advisable to invite all 72 Spirits to convocation, and then see which spirit or area is brought into focus.

In either case, Andromalius is the last Spirit. As far as I know, I have not had contact with Andromalius before. After some thought, I realised that Andromalius was preparing the ground for a new cycle. It is possible that he is associated with the Nagas. His function as a Liberator (my view is that the Fall is about man, not the angels or spirits, and it refers to the loss of ability to commune with other Beings), and as Initiator of a New Cycle. In both visions I saw all 72 spirits in a circle around me moving anticlockwise. There is a dualistic aspect in that they were also within me. They were also in a circle that was oblique to the horizon, which I understood to show the Zodiacal circle. There is enough evidence to show that the divinatory meanings of the Minor cards are from the decanates, and not from the sephiroth of the Tree. As I looked beyond this circle, I could perceive the Heavens, and I understood that the Goetia were the Keys or the Link to the Heavens beyond (I have not explored thus far). My mind turned to the Magus , where the Magus is depicted with one arm raised, as if connecting heaven with Earth. The Magus is paired with the fiery Judgment or Aeon , and we should note that the Jinn are considered to originate from ‘smokeless fire’. Crowley related Aeon to events in 1904, and he wrote that it should depict the Stele of Revealing. Magus is a Persian word that is the origin of magic, and of course there are three Magi who visited Jesus.

Increasingly there is an understanding that the origins of Tarot lie in the Middle East, wherein Islam and Sufism lie. Crowley states that the Angel of the Tarot is HRU or Heru (Horus), but I think greater significance is given to HVA, ‘He’, which when pronounced is Hoo, the most powerful chant in Sufism. ‘Hoo’ means ‘is’ or being, essence, as in Allah Hoo, God IS. ATh means essence, while the Magus and Aeon, BSh can mean ‘in fire’, the Hebrew and Sufi associations are congruent. However, while Kabbalism and tarot is explored ad nauseam, the Sufi currents may well be more productive.