Liber 231

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Feel free to discuss any aspect of the influence of Liber CCXXXI on Grant's work here or just the topic of this liber in general. As we all should know, his Nightside of Eden is an extended commentary on part of this particular "grimoire".

What I'm interested in up front though, and perhaps Mick can chime in on this, is why did KG only concentrate on the Qliphothic Genii (his "Tunnels of Set") and not the entirety of the book? Did he actually treat the whole but decided to only make public what he presented in NOE?

I'm asking this more out of curiosity and comparison because over the years I've come to understand Liber CCXXXI a little bit differently than how Grant seemed to. But I will say that his NOE was the catalyst for my own explorations, like it probably has been for so many others.

[irenicus777]

I think Kenneth Grant stated (in the introduction of NOE's Part II) that the Sephirotic Genii had been already presented through Crowley's Thoth Tarot and the Book of Thoth, and were already known to occultists. Therefore, there was no need for yet another commentary of them. The Qliphotic sentinels, on the other hand, remained mostly obscure (apart from Motta's work in his Equinox), so he selected them.

edit: The sad truth is, however, that because of Grant's omission of the Genii, nowadays most people concentrate on the qliphotic sentinels of Liber 231, ignoring the sephirotic ones almost entirely... some even think that Liber 231 treats only the qliphoth: in fact, I once saw a table (in an otherwise really good book) that presented the sentinels as "names of the tunnels" and the Genii as their "spirits" or "demons".

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Grant actually states what you say in a footnote at the very beginning of Nightside. I guess what I'm more referencing when I'm asking why Grant concentrated so much on the Qliphothic Genii is that, by doing so, it seems he was unaware that both aspects of the Atus are automatically treated in the Thoth deck. There is not much need for a "nightside" analysis of it or to concentrate efforts on the Qliphoth because the Book of Thoth (the deck, not Crowley's book) was designed to evoke both simultaneously. The sigils contained in 231 were said to be "dangerously automatic" and were presented as a mirror in the liber. They are not to be separated but to be compared and mirrored.

[irenicus777]

Well, he probably felt differently. From what I understand, in this matter, everyone has his own opinion.
For example, Krzysztof Azarewicz (see Howlings) also discards Grant's opinion, but also argues that the Mercurial genii are not actually described in the Thoth tarot at all. More specifically, he views the mercurial genii as "yetziratic guardians", whereas the Major Arcana realms are, according to him, located in Briah.

In other words, to each his own, I suppose. My personal experience with 231 is far from complete so, I'm not really comfortable making theories or final statements of my own just yet.

Nonetheless, what I have found, well, "weird" is that, while quite a few people have worked with the paths and the sigils, either mercurial or qliphotic, most neglect the table of comparisons between letters that comes with the two sets of sigils. It's like they completely ignore its existence.

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

"To each his own" is what I'm personally interested in here so your contributions are more than appreciated. I'm also not here to discard Grant's work at all. I find Nightside of Eden an inspiration and still do when I look at it. When I first read it back in the 1990's I didn't realize how groundbreaking it was (nor did I even understand most of it) and to a certain extent I took what he said for granted (no pun intended) out of ignorance of the broader occult/magical context it fits into. I practically started my proper occult explorations with Crowley's and Grant's works.

[Xeph]

I'm currently amassing as much information on this mysterious Liber as I can. Through my readings of the subject I have found that the individual author always has a very idiosyncratic approach to the subject, because of this it has seemed somewhat difficult to have an internally consistent concept of how one works with the Liber. I plan on producing a working methology, more for myself than anything, so I can successfully traverse the paths of the Serpent and of the Qlippoth. It seems most authors almost completely ignore all of the Libers contents, the Mercurial Genii especially as well as the Tarot correspondences and the Hebrew comparisons. I'm also very interested in interpretations of the Libers revealed text 0-21 as well as how the sigils are affected by Crowley's revelation that, 'Tzaddi is not the Star', and if this alters any correspondences in 231.



Has anyone here read Donald Tyson's essay, 'The Gates of Daath' in Howlings, by Scarlet Imprint, and actually applied his modifications to the ToL to their study of Liber 231 and if so, were there any notable differences or results from your practice?



Also, has anyone read Thomas Karlsson's, 'Qabalah, Qliphoth and Goetic Magic'? If so what do you think of his modification of the original sigils from Liber 231? Are the symbols themselves arbitrary, serving as gates for the specific initiate working with them or were Crowley's sigils somehow 'sacred' due to Liber 231 being considered a Class A paper of the A.'.A.'.?



Has anyone here meditated on the correlations of the Hebrew letters? Why are the Hebrew characters Heh and Vau flipped in the second column? Was it a typo or is there some secret knowledge hidden in their positions, e.g, Vuaretza - ?

[Xeph]

My current body of material consists of,



Gems from the Equinox - Liber 231 - ( hermetic.com/...ers/lib231.html )



hermetic.com/...ers/lib231.html



A Personal Research by Marcelo Ramos Motta b-oto.org/content/231.pdf



An Initiatory & Ontological Analysis of Liber 231 Publication in Class C by Frater Apollonius - http://www.astronarg...%20of%20231.pdf



Nightsides of Eden - Grant



Howlings - Scarlet Imprint



Qabalah, Qliphoth and Goetic Magic - Thomas Karlsson



Nightshades - Jan Fries



And, thanks to this conversation http://occultcorpus....dern-grimoires/ (Thank you very much Aonoa) I managed to find a decent priced copy of 'A Gathering of Masks' by Robert Fitzgerald which I'm sure I will devour entirely when it arrives later this week.



I would love to start a conversation about what role this Liber plays in the greater scheme of Thelema. It seems to have been almost entirely ignored in published works up until very recently and even then almost the entire text save the sigils of the Qlippoth are ignored. Even Crowley seems to have remained silent in published materials.

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Thanks for re-igniting this discussion Xeph. It is always of interest to me but I usually fall out of attempting to discuss it because it can get to be such a complicated matter as your questions alone imply. You've also dramatically updated your original reply since I first saw it. I wanted to re-read Tyson's essay in Howlings before I responded because I couldn't quite remember what he was on about. I was also confusing it a little with his other essay in Diabolical about dimensional gateways. I just finished reading it again and first I want to say that, obviously, I've not utilized his model as a basis for any of my own work. However, my thoughts on his essay are the same as when I first read it in that with or without his changes in the order of the paths of the tree and the corresponding tarot atus I found his insights into the nature of personal ascension on the tree very enlightening. I think with some effort his model is perfectly sound. There is a certain intuitive connection I have to his innovations not because I find them to be "correct" but more because of the nature of Tyson's exploration in light of the changes in alignments due to the current shift to the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child. His essay demonstrates his own understanding of where we all are currently. All of us who are aware of or consciously sense this shift will have our own understandings of it and will make adjustments accordingly. 

My own realization of these new alignments came to me in a flash of insight several years ago as a result of some of my own work with, surprise, Liber CCXXXI. There was a period several years ago when I was conducting extensive dream experiments utilizing those 231 sigils. During one of those oneiric pathworkings utilizing both sigils for Atu VIII: Adjustment as well as the card I was shown a visual of four giant trees of life, which I took to represent the four worlds, stretching across the vast emptiness of outer space. It reminded me of the way those planetary alignments looked in Kubrick's 2001 only with sephiroth instead of planets and moons. The trees started off in the usual arrangement we see them in most books on the Qabalah where the Kether of a lower tree is superimposed on the Malkuth of the one above it which gives us that famous oft-repeated line from Mather's Kabbalah Unveiled: "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether but after another manner". However, in my dream these trees began to move into another position where the area of Da'ath in a lower tree was aligned with the Malkuth of the tree above it. At the time of this dream I had no real context for it but kept a record of it for later examination. It was upon looking at my write up of it later that it hit me what it was all about. Over the millennia the four worlds represented (or rather what those worlds represent) in the Qabalah have been expanding away from each other out of their original alignment to the point of being totally separated from each other for a time. This is why some (obsolete) models of these worlds actually have the four trees completely separated. Once they achieved that total separation they began to contract again to where the first alignment was that "Kether in Malkuth" position which is what the previous aeon (in Crowley's terms) represented. Our current aeon has Da'ath of our world in the Malkuth of the one above. One can look at it a couple of different ways: "Da'ath is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Da'ath, but after another manner" or "Kether is in Yesod and Yesod is in Kether, but after another manner". Both of these perspectives, for me, make sense out of the events of the last century. These portals are open now when they weren't previously. This shift is the rationale for Crowley changing the Golden Dawn degrees to reflect the new aeonic A?A? where the supernal degrees above the abyss are now theoretically attainable whereas they weren't in the old GD system. It also makes sense out of Kenneth Grant's seeming preoccupation with all the motifs associated with Da'ath and Yesod and why they are now important in occultism. In the 20th century there was a whole shift in the overall approach to magick and occultism and really to just about everything. We are currently in liminal times.

Nowhere in the writings of Crowley or Grant do they mention anything explicitly regarding what I described but I suspect that both were well aware of it on other levels of understanding. The above was just how it needed to be shown to me and I have Liber CCXXXI to thank for getting me there.

[Xeph]

Thank you for your response, Nalyd.

Tyson's concept in Howlings that Da'ath is now the gateway to universe B, or the reverse side of Malkuth (as illustrated on page 129) is very similar to your concept that Da'ath is in Malkuth / Kether is in Yesod. Do you see a parallel in your theories? You state that, "Our current aeon has Da'ath of our world in the Kether of the one above." So would the reverse side of the tree be as Tyson indicated, that to access the Shells one would have to access Da'ath to reach the Malkuth of the lower/reverse tree? 

Also, in regard to my other question concerning Thomas Karlsson's, 'Qabalah, Qliphoth and Goetic Magic', to what extent do you feel that the actual sigils themselves are 'sacred' and unchangeable? 

www.google.co.jp/imgres?imgurl=http://i39.tinypic.com/14tosv7.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kaskus.co.id/thread/5151243820d719d418000002/hard-copy-buku-1-amp-2-quotthe-greater-key-of-solomonquot---nyesel-kl-ga-punya-aseli?goto%3Dnewpost/&h=481&w=681&tbnid=ogsLrX8m7-o4aM:&zoom=1&docid=hKiJ5-c1VvO9iM&ei=V1weVcakOYSm8AWvvIDgDg&tbm=isch&ved=0CGsQMyhIMEg 

He seems to have kept some similarities to the originals here, but they have been radically changed.

Does each individual magician possess unique psychoactive 'keys' resonant to each of the tunnels, as per their 'Art'? My gut tells me yes, but the level of symbolism in Crowleys sigils is quite dense and the Liber codified as Grade A. I would also shy away from radically altering the sigils of the Goetia for instance due to their 'sacred' design and as you yourself have mentioned, 231 is a modern Grimoire. 

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Apr 3, 2015 9:36:06 GMT Xeph said:

Tyson's concept in Howlings that Da'ath is now the gateway to universe B, or the reverse side of Malkuth (as illustrated on page 129) is very similar to your concept that Da'ath is in Malkuth / Kether is in Yesod. Do you see a parallel in your theories? You state that, "Our current aeon has Da'ath of our world in the Kether of the one above." So would the reverse side of the tree be as Tyson indicated, that to access the Shells one would have to access Da'ath to reach the Malkuth of the lower/reverse tree? 

I remember when I first looked at Howlings, one of the first things I noticed was the diagram in Tyson's essay (page 129) where he shows that Malkuth-Da'ath connection. My first thought at that time was "finally someone else has come to the same connection that I have" but upon first reading I remember kind of being disappointed that he was on about something different albeit a bit similar to my own alignment. I do feel there is a kind of parallel in spirit but using different models.

If you really want my honest opinion of all of this, I feel it's best to throw all of these models to the wind and trust one's own awareness* instead of busying the mind with attempting to make sure it all fits neatly into some Qabalistic scheme or table of correspondences. It's all contextual and relative. Nothing "sacred".

I don't know what Thomas Karlsson had in mind with his own sigils in Qabalah, Qliphoth and Goetic Magic as he doesn't explain anything about them. In fact he only touches very briefly on the tunnels altogether. Those may be the result of his own explorations of the "tunnels of Set" or maybe he felt the need to have a symbol set that is more personally resonant to his own system. He does mention that he had chosen "an older and more traditional placement" that differs from the changes Crowley made and that Grant adhered to in Nightside of Eden.

I basically agree with what you said, one either resonates with certain symbols and follows the muse to work with them or not. And if not, shall conjure their own. I have my own sets of "sacred alignments" and "magical alphabets" for various things that I've either consciously devised or evoked out of the sub-circuitry. Perhaps one day I will also publish them in some grimoire.

* Being that is what those 32 paths of wisdom are an attempt to model anyway.

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

I edited post #8 above because I had used the word "Kether" in a couple of instances where it should have been "Malkuth". The new alignment I was talking about has the Malkuth of a higher world tree in Da'ath of the tree below it. I had it correct with the line "Da'ath is in Malkuth" which contradicted my explanation. I apologize if anyone reading that was confused.

[artilect]

Apr 7, 2015 16:22:36 GMT Nalyd Khezr Bey said:

I edited post #8 above because I had used the word "Kether" in a couple of instances where it should have been "Malkuth". The new alignment I was talking about has the Malkuth of a higher world tree in Da'ath of the tree below it. I had it correct with the line "Da'ath is in Malkuth" which contradicted my explanation. I apologize if anyone reading that was confused.

Excellent!  I was scratching my head about your post the other day when I first read it but the implications really resonate with me now.  One of my primary interests over the last decade or so has been the Yesod/Daath relationship.

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Apr 8, 2015 0:59:49 GMT artilect said:

Excellent!  I was scratching my head about your post the other day when I first read it but the implications really resonate with me now.  One of my primary interests over the last decade or so has been the Yesod/Daath relationship.

You should have said something and I would have fixed it sooner. I just happened to catch my mistake while glancing over "recent posts".

[SonOfTheGods]

I have found that these portals seem to be organic in that they are constantly moving and interchanging with the user/interface as his/her ego moves in and out from reflection to self to shadow

[Mikhale]

This is a fascinating thread. Just wanted to bump this back up. Would love to hear any developments or insight. I will have to get a copy of Howlings. This Universe B concept is entertaining and I really like the "psychoactive key" idea from Xeph.
-Sow

[Xeph]

Hi there, Sow.

I'd like to say that I have read and re-read both Fitzgerald's, 'A Gathering of Masks' and Stein's, 'The Mystery of the Letters'. Both have a lot to say on the subject. Fitzgerald is interesting as he states, "The powers of each sephira manifest at their highest rate of vibration through images, seals and sigils colored and constructed using the Queen Scale." As a result he has generated a new series of seals that open gateways into a different 'octave' of the Mercurial Genii. How these seals were generated isn't discussed. This does, however, answer my earlier question as to the 'Sacredness / Holiness' of Liber 231 and its Grade A status (i.e Class A consists of works that are not to be changed, even to the letter.) What Fitzgerald has done here is negotiate around this issue by creating a different set of seals corresponding to a different Scale. His revelations are quite stunning and represent a great accomplishment in the praxis of Thelema. His methodology and results are precise, scientific and without a doubt a genuine contact with the entities of Liber 231. His notes in the back of the book on his methodology are superb. Interestingly Fitzgerald states that Grant and others have been mistaken in their assumption that the entities of LIBER XXII DOMARVM MERCVRII CVM SVIS GENIIS and LIBER XXII CARCERORVM QLIPHOTH CVM SVIS GENIIS are separate beings and that by evocation of one, its counterpart is also summoned. "As revealed by more than one genii the Shells of the Tree dwell within the shadows of their essence. In other words, if one calls a genius, the qlippoth will, undoubtedly show up." (pg45)

What this tells us is that it isn't necessary to follow the grimoire verbatim, innovation is vital. The Queen Scale seals Fitzgerald created acted perfectly as psychoactive keys 'for him'. My personal understanding and use of such keys depends on first contacting said intelligence / entity and then being taught the key or word that will act as a Gateway into the astral realm desired for the working. If Fitzgerald can create such sigils before his explorations and yet still receive such results then we need to examine the nature of sigils themselves. Is the chance shape of their configuration vital or is it the Will of the operator which creates the Gate? Grade A or not, each Magician must forge his own Art otherwise our systems of Magick will become stagnant and dead.

Steins treatment of Liber 231 in chapter 5 of 'The Mystery of the Letters' is a valuable resource of descriptions of each seal broken down in detail as well as comparisons with it's partner and a comparison to the corresponding Hebrew letter found in the chart between the two tables of sigils, something rarely if ever discussed in any literature on the subject thus far.


Personally, I've been very interested by the layout of the Seals themselves.

Below is an image of the charts taken from the Liber. I've marked out the inconsistencies in the layout. I'm convinced there is some meaning to it all but I'm still very much at a loss.



Red circles indicate that the Hebrew character has been 'reflected' on the wrong side of the sigil. Yellow indicates that the mirroring is consistent and the blue indicates both sigils have had their actual position switched. The sigils of the Qliphoth are almost entirely consistent, yet there are many issues with the sigils of the Domes. The reflection issues with the seals of the Domes looks to me like two interlocking keys.

Anyone else's thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

I've also thought about whether or not to interchange He and Tzaddi due to Crowley's revelation that 'Tzaddi is not the star'. Stein comes up with some good explanations as to why this might be a mistake in his book, yet still, I wonder about the implications.

[Xeph]

An edited version of the charts 

I've mirrored the sigils too. I don't think this is necessary, but I'd just like to draw your attention to the way the charts were formatted and whether or not there is any deeper meaning in the positions of the sigils or the hebrew characters. 

[Xeph]

Here's Karlsson's version of the seals, just for comparison. Note that his symbols bear some similarities but lack both the Spirits of the Domes and the Hebrew correspondences. 




imagur

[Al Khadir.]

The 'comparison', as written in the central column, only appears to relate to the 'houses of Thoth' side in my personal experience. This can be misleading. The 'cells of the Qlipoth' need a different comparison chart altogether.
I have worked with both sides and always end up getting 'interrupted' through life changes.
I view this book as a map of the universe (as did AC and KG) which is SO VERY IMPORTANT but also SO VERY DIFFICULT to transgress. (it is only true up to a certain point of ones innitiation as stated).

[Al Khadir.]

Also the colour scales relating to Grants writing is inconsistant and errornous. The 'Houses' use the Yod and Heh (Alpha and Omega of the tetragrammaton) and the 'Cells' use the inner (incarcerated) Heh and Vau colour scales.

[N0T 2]

Dec 26, 2015 20:53:36 GMT Al Khadir. said:

Also the colour scales relating to Grants writing is inconsistant and errornous. The 'Houses' use the Yod and Heh (Alpha and Omega of the tetragrammaton) and the 'Cells' use the inner (incarcerated) Heh and Vau colour scales.

Says who?

P.S. - "inconsistant", "errornous", "innitiation", are not English words, I presume you meant  "inconsistent", "erroneous" "initiation" -- for some reason this seems like a motto. Maybe if you're going to take the pretentious dogmatist approach, learn to spell first.

[stephen]

Possibly our guest, Al Khadir is not a fluent English speaker and hence his dodgy spellings.

I was under the impression that the colour scale used by Kenneth Grant in 'Nightside of Eden' was the so-called Daughter Scale and therefore the correct choice for such workings.  Also, he is only dealing with the Cells of the Qlippoth.

Al Khadir is correct in noting that Crowley - who after all is the source of this inspired writing - states that the book and its attributions are only valid as far as the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus, i.e. below the Abyss.  Grant, of course, implies differently in his interpretations and explorations of the Tunnels of Set.

[Al Khadir]

Your getting dogmatic over dogmatism there. We all cant be walking dictionaries all of the time.
I am discussing my own experiences with this book. If you find spelling mistakes an issue then you need to get out more.
Being English and having been involved with the occult in general since 1987 I feel I know what I'm discussing here.

I think the major hold up is the statement that this book 'cannot be altered' according to Crowley. He wants you to see the errors, research the language scripts construct your own commentary. Grant's colour scales are all over the place and nothing is even mentioned regarding these in the Liber itself.

I personally use those scales that resonate with me and will continue as it has worked well on a variety of levels.

Magick should evolve and be experimented with (like AOS GRANT and CROWLEY did.

[N0T 2]

Jan 9, 2016 16:14:27 GMT Al Khadir said:

Your getting dogmatic over dogmatism there. We all cant be walking dictionaries all of the time.
I am discussing my own experiences with this book. If you find spelling mistakes an issue then you need to get out more.
Being English and having been involved with the occult in general since 1987 I feel I know what I'm discussing here.

I think the major hold up is the statement that this book 'cannot be altered' according to Crowley. He wants you to see the errors, research the language scripts construct your own commentary. Grant's colour scales are all over the place and nothing is even mentioned regarding these in the Liber itself.

I personally use those scales that resonate with me and will continue as it has worked well on a variety of levels.

Magick should evolve and be experimented with (like AOS GRANT and CROWLEY did.

As I suspected - an English mothertongue speaker, albeit a sloppy one. If you take issue with my pedantry in this regard, which is all it is, then you missed the point of it, which was simply illustrating your dogmatism regarding colour scales, and your criticism of Grant, apart from being totally wrong, could have been presented in a less embarrassing way (INNITiation, lol!) had you consulted the wisdom of The Master Jesus as transmitted in Matthew 7:3-5, Luke 6:41-42, and Romans 2:1, given the ease with which writing (if not " innit -iation") can be fixed today, if the intention was, and it was, to attempt to seriously criticise a writer of Grant's ability (albeit his criticism being on a point of grammar of a non-lingual sort... ). The pretentiousness (criticising Grant's esoteric literacy) doesn't work if you appear basically illiterate in your mother tongue.

The problem is, you're not discussing your experiences with this book. You're trying to "correct" Grant's - which is very different.

The absurd, dogmatic remarks you and Stephen have made regarding the colour scale which Grant applied to his creative use of Liber Carcerorum in his book Nightside of Eden are without any sort of real meaning. There's nothing "correct" or "incorrect" about using any of them. You can do whatever the hell you like.

One minute you're saying Grant's colour scales are wrong, the next you're saying you use what works for you. Huh? What, exactly, is the point of poncing about pretending to criticise Grant when you're seemingly oblivious to the fact you're doing the same thing?

The four colour scales invented by Mathers (Moira, probably, rather than Sam), was simply their subjective, rationalised expression of qabalistic colour values, using the then-fashionable notion of post-Newtonian colour wheels as applied to English Victorian notions of Qabala. Remember: it was the Golden Dawn who invented the colour scales, and who were actually functional as a magical order, unlike Crowley's lot.

Even for mindless sickophantic Crowley-worshippers, bless them, Liber 777 and its contents/schema (the four colour scales of which he stole entirely from Mrs. Mathers), is said by him to be in Class B: the result of ordinary scholarship, not infallible. Of course - he hated Mathers, so it can't be perfect. What if bits are "incorrect", whatever that means? What if other scales as yet uncomposed/undefined might be more correct? How do you measure "correctness" with any seriousness (apart from merely its reference to texts, rather than to reality) in something as flaky and awesome as this?


These colour scales are a product of speculation, artificially contrived and proposed as a convention. It is nonsense to call any of it more or less "correct" for use with these or with any other sigils, the associations of colour and how they work with different people aren't that simple. People can do whatever they like. Colour is a pathway, not an obstacle, to magic. Nor is it absolute in any way at all, not even for one person let alone between individuals.


Perhaps the Mathers' got it wrong? Perhaps it doesn't matter either way? Maybe write your own book instead of pretending to "correct" Grant's?

The Princess Scale of colour (which Grant calls the Daughter scale) obviously pertains to the sphere of Malkuth, the World of Assiah in the model proposed by Mathers' Golden Dawn, as taught to and pirated by Crowley. They reckon the Qliphoth belong in it. Yet the Tunnels of Set explored by Grant he says lie underneath the Paths. The Paths of course lie (figuratively speaking) between the ten Spheres, which in turn are distributed across all four Worlds, and of course the whole thing is fractal. Unless of course you get off the page and realise, as Achad did, and indeed Crowley, that you can take this whole thing wherever seems worthwhile for your purpose - whether to be enlightened, to be the messiah, or to get back at/get over your guru. Or just sincere aspiration and Work. That's where the magic lies - not in the pedantry of getting it "correct", much less of "correcting" others (using texts - mere texts! - by third or fourth parties!!!).

No authority exists for the use of these colour scales beyond the Mathers family's idea that they could be construed as a visual language in this way. It's one way to use/percieve/regard colour with magical intent.
One way, not the only way.

Nightside of Eden is Grant's own, highly subjective, interpretation and exploration of Liber Carcerorum, given that his language for the Cells ( "Tunnels of Set" etc.) is nowhere suggested by Crowley - the word "tunnel" does not appear in the book, and neither does Set, as such. These are Grant's manipulations of the 'first matter' of this Holy Book which Crowley left.


I regard Grant's work as pioneering. How far would we have ever got - figuratively and geographically speaking - if pioneers just kept re-blazing the same trail blazed by the last researcher? Keep re-climbing the nearest hill to re-enact an earlier traveller's journey forever, and ignore Mont Blanc, Everest, the Moon, Stars, outer voids, god knows what else?  Is your hat the "correct" colour? How can we ever grow legs, lungs, tentacles and the rest if we don't leave the ocean, dimensionally/consciousness-ily speaking? (Excuse the neologism, it will do).


It has been suggested (although I can't remember where I read this, perhaps one of Alan Moore's essays, I forget now), that Grant's traumatic experiences in dark underground tunnels during World War II had an effect on the conceptual forms which he eventually settled on, consciously or otherwise, for the 'tunnel' language to describe his explorations of the Qliphoth in Crowley's Liber 231, which does not mention tunnels at all in any description, "cells" in the sense of prison cells is what the title Carcerorum translates as indicating. This co-incidence between Grant's tunnel trauma in the war and his formulation of this grimoire as accessing "tunnels" in itself is (in my view) instructive, and in no way invalidates of any aspect of this work. Quite the contrary, whether he adopted the imagery of "tunnels" unconsciously or consciously (with respect to his wartime experiences), it shows what wonderful and substantial results can ensue by running with your intuition and using what is nearest to hand - The Next Step, pure Thelema! Explanations and notions of "correct" are irrelevant and should never be obstacles to creative work, or magic. Sometimes the blue notes are the best.

The "cells" are for the Qliphoth, not the magician.

In this sense, perhaps Al Khadir's silly suggestion that the Grants were wrong in using the colours they used is balanced out by his exquisite neologism "innit-iation" which he has given us, despite his critical intention being a mistake. That's cabalistic zero for you! Plenum is the void! Innit.


Yours in non-mobile becoming,
N0t 2

[Gregory Peters]

I don't have the reference with me at the moment, but it was in either Outer Gateways or Hecate's Fountain that Grant himself mentions the fact that the colour scales are ultimately derived from the experience of the individual doing the work. There may be a sort of generic baseline given in 777 for example, but this is for training and those with less experience. A map and a book of Everest is very different from actually being on Everest. The unique perception and experience of the Adept actually doing the work and exploring the different realms of the empyream are what truly matter. My Binah in the queen scale may not match yours entirely, and so forth. When push comes to shove, I will choose my experience. 

Of course (and I think this is implied by Grant as well), this type of work is presumed to be done by the Adept; ie, one that has attained the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (in whatever form or terminology pleases one). Under such guidance and direction the real work begins, and one is able to make these judgement calls. If the Angel presents a set of colours that do not match 777, I am not too worried about it and in fact take this as direct instruction for my work.

Before this, it is good to have some guidelines, but Grant's work with 231 (and in fact most of his writings) seem to presume advanced workings by Adepts.