GPROSPECT S. IChing & the SysteIlls of the West
Chester Anderson
1975
Chester Valentine John Anderson was a friend of mine. He, a far better friend to me than I to him, I am afraid. He and I both left Mendocino around the same time, He for the Russian River area, I for parts much, much farther west. Ironically I found out about his being sick, ultimately leaving California, and then his death in an old Mendocino Beacon laying about my folk's house. Antonia was saying there would be a memorial service for him. This was some time after the date and I was stricken. When it came time to upload items on to SCRIBD I immediately thought of this PROSPECTUS, of Chester's that I had been carrying around, 10 these 35 years, a give back to them and an immortalization of Chester, as it were. Little did I know, Chester was already immortalized on the WEB. Wikipedia says he was born August 11,1932 and left us on April 11, 1991. It lists the books he wrote and the other literary accomplishments of his. Let me tell you, Wikipedia has nothing on me babe. The Diggers web site at www.diggers.org has a connection to the communication company archives that, according to Joan Didion in Slouching towards Bethlehem, was Chester's "peculiar hold on the District derives from his possession of a mimeograph machine, on which he prints communiques signed "the communication company.'" It is ironic that the World Wide Web and Scribd came along to late. CVJ would have loved it. It would have been his perfect media. To nlY Knowledge he never completed the book that this document was a prospectus for. It is not listed among his papers at the Bancroft Library; it may have just been one of those things that feel between the floor boards of life. It should be noted that the address given here doesn't go anywhere now, Chet not being in a place to answer letters. The Church of The One was Chester and the Mendocino Lithographer's was the print shop He worked at to pay the bills. Chester was something of a well versed student of the I Ching. In the time I was in touch with him I collected all manner of charts with Hexagrams on them, very few of which I ever understood. He had this way of having you tell him things that you didn't let a lot of other people know, one of mine was that I "Walked the I Ching"; that is practiced }\.~ (Ba Gua or Pa Kua). I think he felt I should have a better understanding of what I was doing and kept giving me the material so I would go find these things out. As you can see in the lithograph done by Chuck Stevenson, Chester has placed one on it also. The picture belo\v was part of a series a whole bunch of us who did theater, knew Chuck, and weren't part of the main stream society ended up doing. I think Jean
Spetrino was responsible for the whole project, but it has been so long ago I can't remember. We all got naked and Chuck took pictures to use or not use in his art. There was supposed to be some slide show held at the Mendocino Art Center. I don't know if it ever happened, as stated above, I left town.
,.. ~....
ll
In Charles Marchant Stevenson's multiple portrait IIChesterAnderson the artist refers to Renaissance allegorical painting in which the figure of Truth is presented naked, Truth having nothing to hide. Stevenson is the illustrator of Chester Anderson's cinematic novel of Greenwich Village in 1964, IIFoxand Hare: the story of a Friday evening II(Entwhistle Books, 1980). The inscription is in Chester Anderson's hand: IIInall things, great and small, I am the Beauty of the Divine Manifestation. II Pencil signed by Chester Anderson An original Lithograph of this may be had From Zacha's Bay Window Gallery, Mendocino, CA
'PROSPECTUS
I Ching & the System.s of the West
---Chester Anderson
THE
CHURCH
MENDOCINO Fort
OF THE
ONE
LITHOGRAPHERS Bragg, California
1975
In 1966, Antonia Lamb introduced
me to the I Ching.
Long may she live in happiness.
"
PROSPECTUS: I Ching & the Systems of the West by Chester Anderson Published at the Vernal Equinox, 1975
Copyright @ 1975 by Chester Anderson All rights reserved.
Published for The Church of the One by Mendocino Lithographers 100 N. Franklin Street Fort Bragg, California 95437
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Righteousness a function of form discovered not proved. ]. S. Bach March 16, 1968 The flow of energy through a system acts to organize that system. R. Buckminster
Fuller
ONE
The eight trigrams of the I Ching come to us in two traditional Primal Arrangement
(or 'Before-the-World
Inner World Arrangement
Sequence'),
arrangements:
The
much the older of the two; and The
(Bollingen I Ching, 3rd cd., pp. 262-279). Like every other duality
in the Changes, these two arrangements ceptive. In their circular structure and the Powers of Earth.
are, respectively,
Yang and Yin, Creative and Re-
they are the primary mandalas of the Powers of Heaven
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A few years ago, when I was being taught the basic Magic Circle traditionally favored by the members of a certain British Coven:
I realized that the outer and inner rings, representing the Forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness, are exactly equivalent to the Primal and Inner World Arrangements, and that the four Names in each of the two rings can be equated to the four 'polar' (east, south, west and north) trigrams in each of the two Arrangements.
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In theory,
I reasoned, one should be able to construct
the two Arrangements
an effective magic circle from
of the trigrams, placing one inside the other concentrically,
which
would avoid the rather tricky business of invoking Divine and Infernal Names to assist in one's own trivial affairs. This has proven experimentally
to be the case.
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The fact that in the western magic circle the east and west poles of the Inner World Arrangement are transposed suggests that, like everything else in the Changes, the Yang and Yin arrangements
of the trigrams themselves have Yang and Yin forms-the
normal and
transposed versions. (Thus do the Changes express Tetragrammaton.) If the IWA is the Powers of Earth, then going one way-east, Arrangement
is passive, and going the other way-west,
south, west, north-the
south, east, north-it's
active. (Or
vice versa. But I would imagine that in the western circle, both inner and outer rings are active, since one only erects such a thing to act from within it. And I would expect the normal, clockwise sequence of each Arrangement to be the ideal of what that Arrangement is: active for the Primal Arrangement, passive for the Inner World Arrangement. But I could easily be wrong.) This all suggests that trigrammatic magic circles can be constructed and precisely tailored for any imaginable number of specific applications,
and this too has proved our in
practice. I've erected a number of such circles and tested them on friends, with broadly consistent results. The friends (who knew nothing about what I was doing, or even about the Changes) were invited to sit within the circles and meditate, or project, sense vibes, look through the third eye-whatever
they found comfortable-and
which have pretty uniformly been appropriate
describe their experiences,
to the theoretical properties of the circles.
(A residual timidity has so far kept me from using these circles in any more active work than healing &c.) You may experiment with these devices for yourself, if you wish.
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It follows represent
from
forces
of nature-which
vincing
correspondences
course,
it follows
point
for point
all this that
that
the trigrams, is just
what
can be established the trigrams
correlation
between
like all the gods
the Ching itself says they
between
can be neatly the system
gods and trigrams. placed
of western
Changes can therefore be elaborated. Crowley, in 777, The Book of TllOth and elsewhere, understanding
of the Changes
suffered
of the I Ching, and his attributions
from
are often
of all man's do-and And
that
from
con-
this, of
on the Tree of Life, and that a occultism
undertook
being based
pantheons,
and the system
of the
to do just this, but his
solely on the Legge mistranslation
thus erroneous
or gimcrack:
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('lw:••••.•_~
••~
tl..c.T...." •..••.••, ...••"lktT •.."c.
C. F. Russell and most other modern occultists who make reference to the Changes follow Crowley's faulty attributions, attributions
and their work suffers accordingly-be
advised. The correct
are here set forth for the first time.
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These Sephiroth/Trigram
correspondences are exact, in the sense that they satisfy both
the Chinese and the Hebrew requirements.
In the Changes, each trigram is given the same
attributes and properties as the Sephirah related to it. Where there are differences, the two systems complement each other. Furthermore,
the trigrams, as thus laid out upon the Tree, follow the order of the
Primal Arrangement.
Since I discovered this after Ipaking the Sephiroth/Trigram
ments, I consider it to be a highly validating coincidence. Starting &om the top/south of the Primal Arrangement Tiphareth, Geburah, to Chokmah.
assignpole
and moving widdershins, the sequence is Chokmah, Chesed,
Binah -
twist - Netzach, Yesod, Hod, twisting thence back again
This suggests at the very least a moebius twist in the structure of the Tree (a similar twist has long been known to occur in the sequence of the Major Arcana). It also suggests a spheroid structure in three or more dimensions, with Kether at the center (which is everywhere) and Malkuth at the circumference teresting to think about.
(which is nowhere to be found). All this is in-
Since we are considering a Yang and a Yin sequence of trigrams, each with a Yang and a Yin subsequence of its own, it seems likely that there are actually four possible arrangements of the trigrams on the Tree, which would give us one sequence for each of the Four Worlds of the Qabalah. But I haven't had the leisure to go into this yet, and it remains an open hypothesis.
TWO Chapter XI, paragraph 5 of The Great Treatise (I Ching, p. 318) says: Therefore there is in the Changes the Great Primal Beginning. This generates the two primary forces. The two primary forces generate the four images. The four images generate the eight trigrams. This sets forth the basis of a cosmological system identical with that of the Qabalah, the Tetragrammaton.
The same system is set forth in chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching.
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The Great Primal Beginning is the Ain Soph Aur. The two primary forces arc The Creative and The Receptive-Yang
and Yin per se-which
are Kether and Malkuth on the
Tree. The eight trigrams (which are the eight remaining Sephiroth) are the lines of force or attraction or whatever between the two great poles of Yang and Yin. The two primary forces evolve (I prefer this to 'generate') the four two-line images, which correspond
to the four seasons, cardinal directions, and (most significantly) four
clements. Also, of course, the Four Worlds and every other fourness in the universe. The two forces are simple Yang and Yin. Adding to each a Yang and/or a Yin produces four combinations
of Yang and Yin: the four images/elements/&c. To each of these four
adding yet another Yang and/or Yin produces the eight trigrams. All very neat and mathematical: :2 (the forces), 2 squared (the images) and 2 cubed (the trigrams). (It is interesting to note that whereas western occultism/metaphysics of the Changes are firmly tetrapolar, based on five-five
and the system
the system of Chinese metaphysics is just as firmly
directions, elements, tones, colors, virtues &c. This despite the fact that
the tetra polar Changes have for 5,000+ years been the basis of Chinese thought. It is easily seen that the systems of western occultism and the I Ching are in most respects the same, which suggests either that the two systems have a common source [about which it is futile but enlightening to speculate], other is a corruption.
or that one of the two systems is the original of which the
[For aesthetic reasons, I prefer to think the Ching came first, but
t~ere's no telling for sure.] This is also lots of fun to think about.) Anyhow, within the confines of the eight trigrams, the system of the Changes presents a four-dimensional working scale model/outline extraordinarily
sophisticated
of the endless evolution of the cosmos, an
and even scientific construct. This system was already com-
plete and perfect at the time of the earliest recorded reference to the Changes, circa 2305 B.C. (I refer you to Helmut Wilhelm, Change, page 48:
Scholars have in fact extended the mathematical order underlying the individual hexagram and, applying it to the system as a whole, have obtained a perfect numerical representation satisfying to the imagination of a mind trained in mathematics. A graphic representation of this system cannot but be inadequate, because three dimensions do not suffice. That is to say, if a single line is delineable in one dimension, and the double line requires a plane, and for the trigram a solid body is necessary, then naturally when it comes to representing the complex of a hexagram, one cannot do without the help of a fourth dimension, which is indeed imaginable to the mathernatical mind but cannot be represented
concretely.
Which is really pretty clever for 2305 B.C.) (The similarities between the system of the Changes and certain concepts of contemporary physics, chemistry, game and information
theory &c are, in a general sense, fairly
obvious, and should be incorporated herein by reference, but they are too elaborate, and 1 too ill-prepared, to be gone into here in any detail. Write your own science-fiction.)
The prevailing academic theory is that the trigrams evolved in a fairly straightforward way from the old tortoise-shell oracles, beginning from a simple Yang/yes and Yin/no and gradually adding lines for greater specificity. However, I've seen no evidence presented in support
of this idea, and the sophistication
against it. (Another counterargument
of the system so early as 2305 B.C. argues
is that no one before myself seems to have had any
clear idea what the system actually is.) The academic theory is further weakened for me by the fact that already in 2305 B.C. the names of the trigrams (in some unknown and even then forgotten language, not Chinese) had become untranslatable, and the meanings thereof dependent on oral tradition, according to Helmut Wilhelm. This suggests (at least to me) that the trigrams reached China already fully developed from somewhere else, but God knows where. The indications of scientific and technical advancement inherent in the system (I admit 1 may be simply reading these into it from my own bias) lead me into frankly fantasy/science-fictional A.
speculation:
that the system is the sole identifiable surviving artifact of some advanced culture that rose, flourished and fell without any other trace long enough before recorded history to have been utterly forgotten,
lost to human memory, whose fall was
such that it left no other relics for archeology to find-this
is the Atlantean
Hypothesis; B.
or that the system was accidentally or even deliberately left behind, circa 2305 B.C., by representatives
of some non-terrestrial,
space-hopping
culture-the
Galactic Litterbug or Flying Saucer Hypothesis; C.
or that, just as Chinese tradition has it, God (Fu Hsi) came down from His mountain and presented the system, fully formed, to mankind to aid us in our evolution upward toward re-union with Him-the
Divine Intervention Hypothesis.
1 give credence to none of these hypotheses, but take great pleasure in all of them.
THREE In an ancient Chinese calendar system, "The Breaths of the Year," the twelve months are symbolized by twelve hexagrams depicting the ebb and flow of the two primary forces in the course of the year. (This is what Dr. Wilhelm is talking about when he mentions that such and such a hexagram is associated with such and such a month.) Along with these twelve, four hexagrams (which are the polar trigrams of the Inner World Arrangement doubled) are used to symbolize the four seasons.
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These four core hexagrams are of two kinds, naturally. The Creative and the Receptive are closed, in the sense that they evolve no further. Before Completion and After Completion, on the other hand, evolve ceaselessly each into the other, Yang becoming Yin becoming Yang becoming Yin forevermore. The picture this presents is of the Creative and the Receptive as positive and negative poles around which Before and After Completion whirl, somewhat like a dynamo. The possible implications
of all this are delightfully staggering, but it's enough for
here/now to point out that once again we have a structure of four 'seasonal' hexagrams and twelve 'monthly'
hexagrams, and once again therefore the possibility of astrological
correlations. It is noteworthy
that in this system the four central hexagrams perfectly reflect the
four elemental/seasonal
images discussed above, demonstrating
more clearly than is usual
in occult lore the actual workings of the elements. The correlations and correspondences between the twelve 'monthly'
hexagrams of the Nuclear Evolution system and those of
the Breaths of the Year are likewise interesting.
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The other 48 hexagrams are distributed among these twelve and four in a manner we won't go into here, so as to provide a calendar of 360 lines. From the old writings on the subject, it is clear that these 360 lines do not represent 360 days, as some scholars would have it, but the 360 degrees of the sun's apparent passage around the earth in the circle of the year. This is a fairly advanced notion for its time (circa 300 B.C.), especially since the Chinese were otherwise subdividing the circle into something like 365 "degrees," and suggests that the twelve monthly hexagrams can be correlated somehow with the signs of the Zodiac, but so far I've not been able to establish such a correlation
firm and inevitable
enough to satisfy me. This is therefore one of my major projects. (In this connection,
it is worth noting that the system of twelve Houses is a relatively
modern development in astrology, according to Cyril Fagin, and that in the original system there were but eight houses. Correlations between these and the eight trigrams, especially in the Inner World Arrangement, may well be possible.)
FOUR
Each hexagram is actually composed of four trigrams (yay Tetragrammaton!).
Lines
1-2-3 and 4-5-6 are the outer trigrams, and lines 2-3-4 and 3-4-5 are the nuclear trigrams. In the Book of Changes, all four trigrams are involved in determining the meaning not only of each hexagram as a whole, but especially of each line within each hexagram. The internal evidence suggests that this mode of explication is at least as old as the texts (for they are based on it), and is perhaps of a piece with the rest of the system. From each hexagram, then, you can extract the nuclear trigrams and combine them in what I call a nuclear hexagram. (In divination, this nuclear hexagram generally depicts the querent's question or area of concern.) I call this process of extracting nuclear hexagrams Nuclear Evolution,
and when, out of
curiosity, I applied the process systematically to all 64 hexagrams, I discovered that 48 hexagrams all evolve into the same 12 nuclear hexagrams, and that these 12 in turn evolve into four 'core' hexagrams. (Actually, I suppose, the 12 evolve out of the four, and the 48 out of the 12, but I necessarily worked it out the other way around, and that's how I think of it.) 50
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Once again let me emphasize: (a) that the Nuclear Evolution system is wholly organic and integral to the hexagrams themselves, not an arrangement arbitrarily devised and imposed upon them; and (b) that so far as I can tell, despite the 5,000+ years of intensive study the I Ching has enjoyed, this system remained undiscovered until it unexpectedly burst upon me like an Adeptus Minor initiation
in March of 1968. (This, however seren-
dipitous, may well be my sole or major contribution to want to brag a bit, and sign my work.)
to the Art, and I'm proud enough of it
FIVE I have no idea how significant this might be: I Ching =
or:
2 4 8 64
primary forces images trigrams hexagrams
78
=
2 4 8 8
Tarot deck
primary forces images trigrams primary hexagrams*
22 = Tarot Trumps 56 secondary hexagrams
=
Tarot Minor Arcana
78 again It's probably just another goddam intriguing coincidence.
* 'primary doubled.
hexagrams'
(my term) are those eight hexagrams consisting of a single trigram
SIX
After years of comfortable
ex-Irish Catholic atheism, I became, between one instant
and the next, obsessed with the I Ching in July, 1966, and have joyfully pursued this obsession without interruption
since. On 23 June 1969, again between one moment and the next,
I became likewise obsessed with Magick and with western occultism in general, not so much as things or ends in themselves but as expressions of the same lovely system/structure
I had
found to underlie the Changes. In fact, I regard my discovery of the Nuclear Evolution system as the triggering event that left me open to this fascination with Magick. The whole thrust of my overtly magical studies has been to perfect a synthesis of the western and eastern traditions, perception,
and to develop therefrom a practical system of mystical
free of the obscurities and corruptions of the Judeo/Christian
bining the transcendent
tradition, com-
objectivity of the I Ching and the empirical subjectivity of the
Qabalah; a system that would 'work'
pretty
much independently
of the practitioner's
faith/belief, and would appeal, as equally as may be, to both the mystically and the technically inclined-in
short, a post-Einsteinian occultism.
Failing this, I was willing to settle for a workable technique
for thaumaturgical
engineering. L. Ron Hubbard has already done something much like this, but my whole nature recoils from the absolutism of Scientology, as well as from Hubbard's pre-Diane tics career as one of the blacker members of the O.T.O., Magus of the Agape Temple in Pasadena, et cetera. I suspect Scientology of being Black Magick hiding behind a lab smock, and Hubbard's motives of diabolism.
Many Scientologists
have 'buttons'
programmed
into them that,
pushed, produce spectacular results (but don't do it in your own home). As an experiment, next time you encounter a Hubbard robot, look him fixedly in the eye with that well-known Clear stare and say, in a loud, flat, intense monotone:
RON HUBBARD DEAD! and see
what he does. The degree to which I have already succeeded in my Work is partly shewn in this book. Actually, I have developed a fairly extensive technology of meditation, tion and actualization,
symbol manipula-
and ceremony that, so far as it goes, more or less lives up to my
stated intention and in practice generally exceeds my expectations. For example, before an average of twelve witnesses I have conducted fer' (the 'spirit' of the trigram Li
successful conjurations/evocations
=== The Clinging, Fire),
'Ashtoreth'
of 'Luci-
('spirit' of Tui
=-=
The Joyous) and assorted elementals, using only a circle of trigrams, using words of friendly invitation rather than command, and doing without threats, compulsions, Names of Power, defenses-without,
in short,
Renaissance anti-hierarchial
the entire paraphernalia ceremonial
and underlying
attitudes
of early
magic, and in every case without the traditional
undesirable side effects. In the light of what I'm after, that sort of Goetic sideshow is quite trivial, of course, but most encouraging. More to the point, I have taught several young people several ordinary years' worth of basic magic-as-yoga using the system of the Changes as the medium for 'energy transactions' that led in most cases to marked improvements in the students' life styles, personal
integration, happiness/health,
and to improvements in their relationships with the objective
cosmos. One of my students assisted in the burning of the Isla Vista Branch of the Bank of America, who a year before had been too law-struck to piss against a wall. I've successfully used trigram circles (roughly half the time explaining them, and leaving them unexplained unfortunate
prerequisite)
the other times) to train people who really wanted to learn (an to project a lot better, mostly, than I can myself. And I've used
the circles with some success in healing, too, in erecting precisely-tuned spells/charms/amulets, et trivial cetera. All of which (being still essentially an ex-Irish Catholic atheist/sceptic) ing curious. It is obvious to me that one to one correspondences
I find exceed-
can be established among the I
Ching, the Tarot, the Qabalah at large, Astrology, the system of (at least) Kundalini Yoga, and, indeed, any and most forms of occult/mystic art/science characterized by the operation of a system, including those of the Hopi and some other Amerind cultures; and that the benefits
of establishing these correspondences
will be manifold
beyond prevision. The
correspondences themselves, in many instances, are much less obvious to me. My limitations keep identifying themselves. So likewise do my pleasures.
SEVEN The fundamental every thing
that
law of the Changes
is, and of these
likewise
well a Yang and a Yin, endlessly of the
atom
evolved
elaborations
Thus
outward
of that
the eight
this the elemental a Tarot
through
express
duality
is a Yang and a Yin form/aspect
a Yang and a Yin for each, and of those
the infinitely
composition
there
from the simplest
primal
trigrams
is that
positive
ramified whereby
and negative
universe,
of the 64 hexagrams
all things
being
variously
Itself.
of the four
can be established.
forms as
charges at the core
the One appreciates
the Yang and Yin forms
of
Elements.
From
This may facilitate
correspondence.
8
r~
13
37
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-- -- I~
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--
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w
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y &co'"'
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s
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The hard part about trying to march the Ching with anything else is that nothing else has so perfect and integral a system. Astrology is a complex compromise choking on three extra planets and a surfiet of character analysis. Divination by palms, moles, mice, political speeches and headlines, to name but a few of that kind, is rigorously asystematic. The Major Arcana of the Tarot are evidently the relicts of what must have been a very elegant system, but it's been forgotten, and some of the pieces have doubtless been lost. The Minor Arcana, though, are just as neat as they can be. They even, like the Ching, incorporate
two systems, a Yang and a Yin: the Court Cards and the numbered cards. In
The Book of Thoth, dear old Crowley undertakes to mate each court card (and some of the small cards) with a perfectly matching hexagram, and despite being handicapped by James Legge.'s Yi King Karma he comes up with a system that pleases me as well as if 'twere mine. In his stab at fitting trigrams to the Tree (Figure 6), the Beast puts all the polar trigrams of the Primal Arrangement in the Middle Pillar, thus removing them from elemental roles, and assigns the elements to the four in-between trigrams, thus:
~ Kt"" O".~'" V
K"\,,)~"t'
'P...
t
~
..- -.•.. ::::.
-
¥I•.~J~
-.- -•.
C...,S S"" ••..~j
•.-. ~"T.,l,~
~
These trigrams all express the Yin side of the four elements, but otherwise the match is perfect. Next he matches these elemental trigrams to the four Court Cards and to the four Suits and sets them up in a grid:
Wf>-"r:'t,>
K,,,,", Q"ff"\
-
--.
•.•. -..... .~:t ~ .-
-
-hI
~fa~'"
~
2-9
'!J1'
~ H?
;::
!Ii
5"3
5"2-
--- .-- . ..-- ===- . _._.=::.: i.i ~ \7
'-I~
')..1
-- - :c - _. --==- - ....... -.- -.-.- --.-- _.....- -=-.. .-
~~
\<.~~~t'
S~oD.••s\.s P•.••7;~
- ---- .-....-.-
CVfS
w w
.:-&
Sf3
.'
=:
Ww
';'2
-31
::::;
:.:
• w
&1
. ••
It::
-.
~
Iff
w._
.-
..
By this means he generates a hexagram for every intersection of Court Card and Suit, sixteen all told, and all relatively appropriate. mandala:
I
And these fall easily into an admirable
~
_ II,." ~p In,,
II
0
~
et
TI-. e. Cov yor C ,,"If Js
c.,,~n.\ y
c..(,Co.,~i':l 'tb\1'\A
S t j •• ~•..•• ~H <)( /I.""
•.•••••
05 _
M"s"Cu Th ••..,.,""
'66
There are some few weaknesses to the scheme, but it works. Considering Crowley's general luck with the Changes, I'm glad he had the satisfaction of doing at least one trigram thing that worked.
EIGHT
Aleister Crowley's more valuable to me for his errors than his hits. Whenever I discover him in error, I know that I have learned something. His faulty attributions
of the trigrams
to the Tree are an instance of this. He tends to blow it when he strays from the Qabalah of the Golden Dawn. (What hung him up was Da'ath. He knew that it was an imaginary Sephira, but he insisted on attributing stuff to it.) His assignment of the seven Chakras to the Tree is typically wrong. There exist on the Tree seven planes, four single and three double, corresponding to the Chakras thus: 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
Kether - Sahasrara Chokmah/Binah - Ajna Chesed/Geburah - Visuddha Tiphareth - Anahata Netzach/Hod - Manipura Yesod - Svadhisthana Malkuth - Muladhara
This is a pretty rough and ready set of attributions, practical work (western style-for be no attribution
really, but it's proved useful in
a serious student of Kundalini Yoga I suspect this would
set at all), and throws enough new light on the Sephiroth generally to be
worth while. More loosely, one might assign the Nadi to the Paths.
NINE There exists a Magical Alphabet this corresponds
character
McGregor Mathers'
called The Writing of the Malachiim. Like most such,
for character
with the Hebrew
alphabet.
version of The Greater Key and immediately
I found it first in
took it up, for it's both
pretty and simple, and far easier to draw well than the Hebrew, which still gives me fits. In laying out this Alphabet characters
are actually
structural
the case (you are not required the 'secret attributions'
and its symbolic
content,
I realized that the Malachiim
diagrams of the designs of the Major Arcana. This being
to believe it), then the Malachiim characters plainly express
of the Trumps, as discovered
in a suspicious manner by Mathers
and friends and cherished privily by the Golden Dawn (until Crowley blew their whistle).
THE WRITING OF THE MALACHIIM The information presented with each character is arranged as follows: First line: the name of the letter, the meaning of the name, and the numerical value of the letter. Thus: Aleph - Ox - 1 Second line: the Hebrew spelling of the name transliterated, its numerical value, and the cosmic attribute of the letter. Thus: ALP - 111 - Air Third line: the English transliteration of the letter, and the related Tarot trump. Thus: A, E - O. The Fool
*i
Aleph - Ox - 1 0
tLr
y
ALP - 111 - Air A, E - O. The Fool Beth - House - 2 BITh - 412 - Mercury B-1.
The Magician
Gime! - Camel - 3 GML - 73 - The Moon G - II. The High Priestess
rr N
Daleth - Door - 4
DLTh - 434 - Venus
D - III. The Empress
He - Window - 5
HH - 10 - Aires
H - IV. The Emperor
A\ \II []
IX J
Vau - Nail - 6 VIV - 22 - Taurus V, U - V. The Hierophant
~ain - Sword - 7 ZIN - 67 - Gemini Z - VI. The Lovers Cheth - Fence - 8 ChlTh - 418 - Cancer Ch - VII. The Chariot Teth - Serpent - 9 TITh - 419 - Leo T - VIII. Strength
Yod - Hand - 10 YID - 20 - Virgo
J, Y, I - IX. The Hermit
:=>
X
Kaph - Palm of the hand - 20 KP - 100 - jupiter K - X. Wheel of Fortune
0
U
Lamed
LMD - 74 - Libra L - Xl. justice
M - XII. The Hanged
0
Man
Nun - Fish - 50 NVN - 106 - Scorpio N - XIII. Death
~
Samekh
- Prop - 60
SMK - 120 - Sagittarius
~o
S - XIV. Temperance
D
Ayin ~ Eye - 70
The Devil
This did gIve me pause. any
thing
tions
that
is beautiful
had all along
source
for that
openly
alphabet
planted
if Mathers
it ill Solomon's
he had arrived would
not
have been
Dawn
what,
out to be Mathers' in Barrett's script
safely
Mathers' out there
END PROSPECTUS - 5/5/71
Los Angeles
the
intuition,
- 7/7/73
& Met/(Iocillo
- Back of the head - 100
QVP - 186 - Pisces Q - XVIII.
The Moon
Resh - Head - 200 RISh - 510 - The Sun R - XIX. The Sun
Shin - Tooth
- 300
ShIN - 360 - Fire Sh - XX, judgment
Tau - Cross - 400 ThV ~ 406_-
Saturn
Th - XXI. The World
the G.D. attributions, these
as I do most
long lost initiated
Alphabet
disturbed
me. My only
man who once drove Crowley
with
script
legitimacy
logic or some
Tarot
out
attributions
of fairly
occultly
gave me
whole
to a set of lovely Tarot
other
to turn him
significant.
the 'true'
Malachiim
attribu-
cloth
and
attributions
disreputable
means.
It
him. to go on using
of course,
but it would
I was delighted,
'rlie Magus, or Celestial
Does anyone
8/23/70
invented
fabrications.
beyond
Qoph
of fraud was unduly
associations
I intended
attributions,
Tz - XVII. The Star
the fact that
a complex
the element
unlike
accepted
- Fish hook - 90
TzDI - 104 - Aquarius
in the Malachiim
Key to lend spurious
at through
No matter Golden
had
sense,
shewn
Mathers/G.D./Malachiim
to wonder
I gladly
was Mathers,
into a camel, a man in whom The
While
and makes
been
Tzaddi
011+
OIN - 130 - Capricorn
o -.XV.
P - XVI. The Tower
W V t<
MIM - 90 - Water
- 80
PH - 85 - Mars
+
- Ox goad - 30
Mem - Water - 40
tt
Pe - Mouth
the Malachiim
somewhat
therefore,
where
to find the Malachiim
reach. this alphabet
came
Alphabet
and
spoil the fun if both
illtel/(l?,ellcer, This was published
inventive know
both
from?
in 1801
the
turned
Alphabet
and puts the
This has been the Prospectus for a much larger book, THE INFINITE MACHINE, now in the writing. THE INFINITE MACHINE should be finished by midsummer, 1975. Publication date and publisher are in the hands of the Gods. Inquiries, comments and suggestions about, criticisms of, and additions to the material in this Prospectus should be addressed to Chester Anderson, P.O. Box 875, Mendocino, California 95460, and will be gratefully received.
I Ching & the Systems of the West ONE The eight trigrams in their two traditional
arrangements
A British witch's Magick Circle The same expressed in trigrams Five tailored Circles built of trigrams and hexagrams Crowley's erroneous placement of the trigrams on the Tree of Life The correct attributions
set forth for the first time
TWO Tetragrammaton:
the Cosmology of the Changes
I Ching as a 4-space working scale model of the universe Three fanciful hypotheses THREE Two I Ching calendars FOUR Nuclear Evolution: an Adeptus Minor initiation FIVE Two comparisons of the I Ching and the Tarot SIX Toward a rational system of Magick Objections to Scientology Two conjurations Experiences with I Ching/Magick SEVEN I Ching glyphs and the four Elements Crowley's Court Card/Hexagram
correlation
EIGHT The chakras rightly placed on the Tree of Life NINE The Writing of the Malachiim
