The Star Card & the energy Satan

[horus93]

Hi all,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I'm currently re-reading Grant's "Aleister Crowley and The Hidden God" and whilst not new to Grant I have realised that many of his ideas went over my head the first time. Now the following quote is bothering me:

"The Star (Atu XVII, attributed to [aquarius]) is therefore the key to the present Aeon of Horus, for it represents the energy of Satan that will permeate the earth during the present cycle."

I am familiar with importance of the Star card and recall Gunther's explanation in one of his books about the tzaddi and heh switch etc. What is hurting my brain is where Satan, or his energy, comes into the picture. There is no depiction of Satan in the card and Crowley draws a connection to Nuit and her more concrete form of Babalon in The book of Thoth.

I have no issue with the concept of Satan, and I assume in this sense Grant is using Satan as an archetype pertaining to a 'solar-phallic' energy, but I just can't draw a connection.

Any help, hint, point to the direction would be much appreciated.

Love is the law, love under will.

Mark.

[artilect]

I think this line of inquiry will inevitably lead back to the 'Tzaddi is not the Star' switch and each individual's subjective opinion/interpretation of its validity.

That said, I believe that the connection between the septagram or 7-pointed star (which you can see on The Star card) and Venus may be the source of the Satan association. Lucifer as the morning star, 'light bringer' and all of the Promethean qualities associated with that energy would come into play.

Related themes?:

Regarding the current era, another interesting set of principles attributed to The Star card pertain to the creative impulse, or 'light' side (Truth/Phenomenal world) juxtaposed against the destructive 'shadow' side (Illusion/Noumenal world). Of course we see a conflict here where things may not be what they seem and another switch may be in order: Truth=Noumenal world, Illusion=Phenomenal world?

I often tie all of this to ideas around the creation of internal (right brain: love, emotion; read 'spirituality') versus external (left brain: fear, logic; read 'technology') star tetrahedrons, also known as merkabahs or light vehicles (in Grant, see the 'Shining Ones').

Vis-a-vis the 'present cycle' aka technocratic age:

2 Corinthians 12-15 -

12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Philip K. Dick's excellent essay "Man, Android and Machine" -

My theme for years in my writing has been, "The devil has a metal face." Perhaps this should be amended now. What I glimpsed and then wrote about was in fact not a face; it was a mask over a face. And the true face is the reverse of the mask. Of course it would be. You do not place fierce cold metal over fierce cold metal. You place it over soft flesh, as the harmless moth adorns itself artfully to terrorize others with ocelli. This is a defensive measure, and if it works, the predator returns to his lair grumbling, "I saw the most frightening creature in the sky -- wild grimaces and flappings, stingers and poisons." His kin are impressed. The magic works.

I had supposed that only bad people wore frightening masks, but you can see now that I fell for the magic of the mask, its dreadful frightening magic, its illusion. I brought the deception and fled. I wish now to apologize for preaching that deception to you as something genuine: I've had you all sitting around the campfire with our eyes wide with alarm as I tell tales of the hideous monsters I encountered; my voyage of discovery ended in terrifying visions which I dutifully carried home with me as I fled back to safety. Safety from what? From something which, when the need was gone for concealment, smiled and revealed its harmlessness.

[horus93]

Thank you for your reply.

Interestingly Grant doesn't mention the switch, he merely mentions aquarius which to me signifies that he drew more of a connection to the card being a pictorial representation of aquarius rather than tzaddi.

I like your comparison to brain model, Satan would represent the qualities you listed for the right brain including spirituality which was inhibited by the old aeon mode of thinking expressed by 'God' who could be termed as being a left brain deity. Over-riding old aeon programming and self restriction brings in the creative impulse which perhaps is the unbinding of Prometheus in man. I like this train of thought, even if I have gotten the impression slightly mixed up!

Thank you for your quotes, in particular the first one, that speaks on many levels in terms of this topic and outside of it and has fuelled some more trains of thoughts which I have been going down for a while.

[artilect]

I can't help but read 'technology' whenever Grant, AC, et al talk about a shift to a new cycle, the dawn of a coming or new age, etc.

Whether they knew it or not, all of these intimations concerning the dawn of a new aeon seem to be tied to a subconscious anticipation or an uncanny intuition of humanity's future birthing of a technomagical child.  Basically the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey

What I'm not sure about is if the child should be embraced or floated down the river.

[Vadge Moore]

My own personal opinion is that Satan (the name as a Christian manipulation of a very ancient god energy)is, as Shaitan, Aiwass or Lucifer, the never ending current of energy that has permeated the entire cosmos for as long as there has been manifest Being and Becoming. Crowley says as much in The Book of Thoth, page 79:

"The symbolism of the Wand [in The Hierophant card] is peculiar; the three interlaced rings which crown it may be taken as representative of the three Aeons of Isis, Osiris and Horus with their interlocking magical formula. The upper ring is marked with scarlet for Horus; the two lower rings for Isis, and pale yellow for Osiris, respectively. All these are based upon deep INDIGO, the colour of Saturn, the Lord of Time."

Go to your Qabalistic correspondences and you will find that the color Indigo corresponds to Saturn,Set or "Satan." This expresses the belief that "Satan," Aiwass, Set, Shaitan is the constant current of energy that permeates the universe AND all of the Aeons. The 93 Current.

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Vadge, it's good to see you around again man. It has been a while.

Regarding the topic here... horus93, what Grant may be alluding to with the passage you quoted is an often not talked about or somewhat unknown aspect of the Horus story in that he was actually the son of Set and not Osiris (as the common version of the myth has it) and therefore his energy (which is the energy of our current aeon) is a refinement of and/or extension of the energy of Set-An (or Satan, Sothis, Sirius, the "Sun behind the Sun"). Grant makes this somewhat clear in the full paragraph you are quoting that line from.

[Vadge Moore]

Great to be back, Nalyd. And your analysis is dead on. Well said.

[horus93]

Thank you both for your replies.

I like it and it makes much more sense now, the sun behind the sun reference to sothis and therefore Satan was for some reason just not available in my mind when I asked the question. The sun behind the son perhaps, Horus being an extended expression of his father, perfect!

Also thanks for pointing out the indigo connection, I would have never have come to that on my own, certainly food for thought. Seems I've been given a few trails to follow just from one line of Grant!