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TABOO

"There is only one way to destroy a taboo, and that is to break it." -- Hakim Bey.

TACHYON

Sub-atomic FTL particle that moves backward in time. L. Arklinski, author of Tachyon Power!, suggests a formula to indicate its speed and deduces that energy and momentum decrease as its speed increases. At infinite speed, the tachyon's energy reaches zero and its momentum approaches a multiple of the square root of minus one.

T'AI HSÜAN CHING

One of the many Ancient Chinese divinatory systems, of which the I Ching is the only one of its several companions to have survived. It has long been overlooked in the East and only recently introduced into the west. It uses 81 tetragrams instead of the I Ching's 64 and is composed of broken and unbroken lines, plus lines broken in three. One of the I Ching's flaws is that it presents changes as cut-and-dried, invariable positive or negative events. As the I Ching is divided into Yang and Yin, the T'ai Hsüan Ching is divided into Heaven (Yang), Earth (Yin) and Man (Jen). Man is thus introduced into the cosmic scene as an unpredictable variable. The T'ai Hsüan's divinatory messages are also far more succinct and meaningful than those of the I Ching.

TALISMAN

Any object used as a key, as opposed to an amulet, q.v. A talisman's purpose is not just to protect or to bring good fortune, but to achieve a particular end. When unsuccessful in achieving its promised goal, the talisman is simply discarded, since it has thereby proved itself not to have preternatural powers. Talismans owe their power to the subtle vibrations breathed into them by the magician for his own purposes, as an extension of his mind. They can also serve general purposes or be adapted for another person's use, or finally, exist as merely the radiating center of a soul or fetish. telein, "to initiate." When the latter happens, however, they are no longer talismans.

TAMMUZ

Babylonian equivalent of Osiris, God of spring, whose wife, Ishtar, descended into Hades in order to bring him back to life. It was Ishtar who was compelled to remove her garments (i.e., facets of her soul), one by one, in order to enter Hades completely naked. The idea being that we may take none of our soul's crowns or accomplishments with us into death but have to meet it solely with original, untried nature. Also called "Sataran" or "Serpent Goddess," by the Sumerians (according to Riland).

TANHA

The thirst for manifestation and life that is experienced by the unreincarnated soul.

TANTRA

Usually associated with Tibetan sexual tantras, but a tantra is any ritualized or repeated movement, or "mode," designed to invoke a god or deva. Specifically it deals with teaching five important subjects: The Creation and Destruction of the World, the Worship of the Gods, Attainment of the Magical Siddhis and Union with the Supreme Identity.

TARO(T)

(See AZOTH.) The Great Wheel or "Book of Thoth." The letters form a magic square, thus:
O R A T
R O T A
A T O R
T A R O
Which possibly means, "Ator (darkness) speaks through the wheel of Tartarus." (See TARTARY.)

In the psychedelic days of 1970, the more daring experimenters used to remove The Tower, the Nine and Ten of Swords, the Reaper and other disagreeable cards from the deck. Then they would pass out (not necessarily at random) the remainder, one by one, to those whom they met during the course of a few days. Whichever card you received was yours to keep because it was your fortune. Any left-over cards at the end of the "experiment" were the Reader's fortune.

Since we keep forgetting even the very survival lessons and pragmatics we've learned through bitter misfortune and ordeal, once we memorize the arcana, its 22 terse encapsulizations of perennial wisdom will serve as permanent and ready memory-joggers for all occasions thereafter.

Madame Blavatsky points out that anyone can visit the British Museum and read the signs of the tarot easily enough in the ancient Babylonian Cylinders, the Chaldean antediluvian rhombs, referred to by De Mirville as the "rotating globes of Hecate." The cards that fortune-tellers shuffle today are far, far removed from their origins and most of the meanings ascribed to them are but modern fairy tales...

Meanwhile, we are beset by a maze of false trails. According to Idries Shah, the 14th Century Italian word, Tarocchi, derives from Arabic turuq, i.e., the (4) "PATHS" (corresponding to the 4 suits) and the Tarot is therefore of Sufic rather than Judaic origins. The Judaic elements are therefore, according to him, superimposed Since, however, in known history, both the Qabalah and the Tarot arose simultaneously within the Italian-Jewish community in the 13-14th Century, its Jewish significance cannot be discounted. The Hebrew connection is clear from the number of the trumps alone (22), which is the number of letters in the alphabet -- each of which, in Qabalah, is a facet of Briah, or "Creation." Moreover, the most distinguished scholars insist it is far older than two millennia, hence the supposition of its Egyptian origin as The Book of Thoth, which we can also support by various etymological clues.

In any case, although Orthodox Jews tend to downplay any connection, the trumps are now fairly well associated with the 22 pathways between the sephiroth of the Qabalah as the Ze'ir Anpin (lit. "microcosm"), i.e., the letters of the alphabet, with Malkuth, form the "language" of Qabalah. As time has passed, the Tarot has become more and more mystical. In the Middle Ages, the suits merely stood for the Military (Swords), the Clergy (Cups), the Intellectuals (Wands) and the Merchants (Coins).

There are, in all, 32 paths, just as the brain, divided into three parts, spreads through the body in 32 pairs of nerves. The sephiroth themselves comprise the first ten "paths" and the remaining 22 are the links of the Atus (major trumps) themselves, the Fool being pathway 11, the Magician pathway 12, The High Priestess pathway 13, etc. The paths, as we've seen, are the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, which are the building blocks of Creation.

TAROT (CROWLEY'S VERSION)

Crowley's Equinox (Liber ccxxxi) contains the best encapsulization of the Major Arcana that I know. It is based on the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life. He divides them into nine groups, i.e., four groups of three and five groups of two and, if I may take some liberties in their ordinality, will explain them as something like the following:

  1. LIGHT -- in which no evil is possible -- has three forms. They are The Fool, in whom "the Wisdom of God is seen as foolishness amongst men"; The Hermit, who bears his own lantern; and The Moon, which is "Khephra about to rise." (KETHER.)

  2. ACTION -- is the alternation between opposing poles. The Magician juggles the active and the passive forces to achieve balance. Eventually this results in the alchemical embrace of the Twins as seen in The Sun. Linking these is The Wheel of Fortune which contains "the contending forces of earth world." (CHOKMAH.)

  3. THE WAY -- also in which no evil is possible -- has three branches: through Isis or The High Priestess, which is the Higher Self; through Justice, which is hard discipline; and through Judgment and Resurrection. (BINAH.)

  4. LIFE -- is the mother of God (The Empress). Her son is killed (The Hanged Man) in order for her to become the Bride of God (The World). (CHESED.)

  5. PURIFICATION must be completed and equilibrated in The Emperor, who is the "Supernal Sulphur or Purification through Fire" or it is incomplete and unequilibrated in Death, which is "purification through putrefaction in the Infernal Waters of Scorpio." (GEBURAH.)

  6. HARMONY is completed with "reconciliation of the higher (the vav of IHVH)" in The Hierophant and the "lower reconciliation (Leo, Scorpio, etc.)" is begun but not completed with Temperance. (TIPHARETH.)

  7. BIRTH may be accomplished through "spiritual regeneration" with The Lovers (enlightenment, salvation or rebirth) or through "the gross power of generation" with The Devil (ordinary birth). (NETZACH.)

  8. RULE of the "diverse forces" must be accomplished in orderly fashion through TheChariot or the "ruin of unbalanced forces" happens with The Tower. (HOD.)

  9. STABILITY must be maintained by the force (Strength) that represses evil as long as necessary until comes the force (The Star) that will revive the world destroyed by evil. (YESOD.)

  10. This is the material realm of Malkuth which begins the next lowest kingdom, being its Kether, and hence is a less perfect repetition of the above.

In view of the above, it is possible that A.C. switches the places of The Emperor and The Star in order to deliver the world through Purification of Fire. However, to call Temperance "Art" may be useful, but to rename Strength "Lust" seems perverted, unless he means that evil must not be resisted (as Christ commands).

TAROT, IMPLEMENTS OF

The best explanation of the sacred objects on The Magician's table can be found in Paul Christian's Histoire de la Magie (Kirkup and Shaw translation, page 95): "The goblet signifies the mixture of passions contributing to happiness or misfortune, according to whether we are their masters or their slaves. The sword symbolizes labor, the striving that overcomes obstacles and the tests that pain makes us undergo. The shekel is the image of aspirations fulfilled, works accomplished, the apex of power attained by perseverance and will-power."

TARTARY

Along with Tibet, one of the sacred lands. Not to be confused with Tartarus. In Greek mythology Tartarus is the bottomless abyss beneath Hades.

TAT TVAM ASTI

"Thou art that." The Hindu mantra that links the yogin to the object of his concentration (supposedly Brahma, but not necessarily). It is an extremely powerful formula that can be super-dangerous if misused or misunderstood.

TATHATA

"Suchness" or "Thatness" (Sanskrit). It refers to the underlying sameness of all things and to the fact that knowing how, where, when, who or why are all unnecessary questions. The only question that matters is What? and the answer is That.

TATTWA

The four Hindu elements (See AKASHA): earth, Prithivi (yellow square); Water, Apas (silver crescent); Air, Vayu (blue hexagon or circle); Fire, Tejas (red triangle). The colors and geometrics for Apas and Tejas are self evident. Prithivi is yellow to suggest the ochres and greenery of earth, it is a four-sided figure to indicate the fourfold states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasm) and three dimensions of space plus one dimension of time. Vayu is blue to suggest the sky and the color of reason. Since air is dispersive it is characterized by a circle or hexagram -- in order to demonstrate its progress from the center outward in all directions.

TAU

The Greek letter T. A word sacred to the Atlanteans. It was used as a cross in the early days of Xtian persecution to avoid identification. Later adopted, sometimes, by the Franciscans. Since its upper line is amputated, it indicates a true sacrifice on the part of the wearer, who has renounced even his own Salvation in order to devote himself permanently to the transformation of Hell.

TAURUS

(April 21 - May 20). The fixed earth sign of the Zodiac called "the Bull" because the Babylonians who invented the sign associated the bull with the beginning of spring. It is the Venusian Impulse, the Eros as opposed to Thanatos (Scorpio). In Egypt, Apis the Bull was an avatar of Osiris. The chief characteristics of Taurus are stubbornness, love of the arts and hedonism, which last is no doubt the reason that Gautama Buddha chose this as the sign of his birth with its Karma of Buddhistic renunciation and austerity. As one of the tetramorphs Taurus incorporates the lesson of velle, "to will."

Some famous Taureans are: Adolf Hitler, Leonardo da Vinci, Hirohito, Wm. Randolph Hearst, Fred Astaire, Theodore Roszak, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Freud, Orson Welles, Tchaikovsky, Irving Berlin, Gary Cooper, Eva Peron, Harry Truman, Daniel Berrigan, John Wilkes Booth, Socrates, Machiavelli, Florence Nightingale, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, L. Frank Baum, Malcom X.

TAV

The last Hebrew letter. Its numerical value is 400. In the Book of Thoth it is number 21, the Final Enigma: The World or "Kingdom." Its left leg is pulled out a bit as the result of an encounter with the evil Kingdom of Darkness, next to which Tav stands as the last outpost of the magical letters. (See Dr. Berg's The Power of Aleph Beth.)

TECHNIKRYM

One's "operational" name, chosen by inspiration or logic to particularize one's aims. Writers have a pen name, actors have a stage name and so on, because artists recognize the need to set themselves apart. Magicians also choose new names as the first step in the transformation of reality. As the adept rises through the grades of initiation, he frequently takes on a new name to reflect the new direction he has taken. Others refuse to change their birth name at all or they take on frivolous pseudonyms simply to prove that character, not name, is what counts.

TECHNALOPIA

The belief that, somehow, more efficient agricultural methods, more efficient scientific crime prevention, substitutions for fossil fuels, space exploration, etc. will solve the problem of eco-imbalance, population, etc. and prevent the demise of mankind. What this amounts to is a refusal to acknowledge the steady decline of the world's standard of living owing to diminishing room and resources.

TELEOLOGY

A doctrine of the final causes of things. For instance, Fundamentalist Xtians prophesy periods over the next few years of "Tribulation" and "Post-Tribulation" but these catastrophic events are unconnected to any purpose other than the resurrection of the faithful and the destruction of the unbelievers. That is, the very Xtian Apocalypse itself is hardly more than an elaborate "Bridge of San Luis Rey." A truly useful teleology would portray a finale in which important elements of the preceding drama were fully resolved in appropriate, satisfying ways. Thus, it is here that Xtianity reveals its ultimate emptiness.

TELEPHEME

Telepathic message.

TELEPLASTY

The materialization of spiritual phenomena.

TELESPHOROS

Psychic convalescence.

TELESTIC/TELIC

Denoting a final end or purpose. > "Telestic madness" (Platonic term) = mania for mysticism.

TEMPERANCE

Arcanum xiv, "The Lower Self," lettered Samech, ruled by Sagittarius. Ouspensky called this "Time," because of its etymology, no doubt (from temperare, to measure, to order ult. tempus.) Time is entirely a human preoccupation and obsession. Ultimately, it comes down to the attempt to reconcile the two "chariots": evolution (which is the individual) and incarnation (which is the personality).

TEMURAH

Hebrew for "substitution." Another method of gematria. The order of the alphabet is displaced in order to obtain new words: As in other forms of gematria, it works much better in Hebrew than in English.

TENG TAO HSI

(Chinese) "The Lamp of the Western Way" or the system of the Academy of M/magic(k)al Arts.

TEONANACATL

"Flesh of the Gods," A series of sacred Mexican mushrooms (including agarics like psilocybin), giving rise to shamanic visions, less violently upsetting (if objective judgment is possible) than those of peyotl. All psychedelics, in their extremity, succeed in "Osirizing" the participant, who then must "put himself back together again." It is in the restructuring that the shaman encounters his strengths and weaknesses and is able to transform them.

TERAPHIM

Ancient Hebrew idols or Gods. Later corrupted to Seraphim, an order of angels.

TETRAMORPH

Chayoth Ha-Qadesh: "Animals of the Sacred Place." The four-beasted figure surrounding the Wheel of Fortune (Man, Bull, Lion and Eagle), standing for the four Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton (IHVH) and mimicked by Xtianity in its attributions of these animals to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The tetramorph symbolizes the quaternity running through everything in both the manifest and unmanifest worlds.

The four principles of which the world consists are the four elements of alchemy, the four sacred words, the beasts of the Apocalypse and the four animals contained in the sphinx:

1 2 3 4
I H V H
Lion Eagle Man Bull
Fire Water Air Earth
Hot Moist Dry Cold
Red Horse Pale Horse White Horse Black Horse
War Death Pestilence Famine
South West East North
Daniel Isaiah Ezekiel Jeremiah
Mark John Matthew Luke
Ra Set Thoth Osiris
Michael Gabriel Raphael Ariel
(Veteq) (Tziyyur) (Idiah) (Ratzon)
Sulphur Mercury Azoth Salt
Spirit Soul Mind Body
To Dare To Keep Silent To Know To Will
Intuition Feeling Thinking Sensation
Eternity Past Future Present
Sound Taste Sight Touch
Triangle Hexagon Circle Square
Energy Time Space Matter
Plasma Liquid Gas Solid
Strong Electromagnetic Weak Gravity
Point Line Plane Solid
Wands Cups Swords Coins
Gold Thallium Mercury Lead
&c.

Steiner stipulated four "bodies": the physical (earth); Ego or continuity (water); etheric aura (fire) and the astral consciousness (air). Versluis suggest that the world's corruption has reduced the elements to Noise, Smoke, Confusion and Destruction.

In the Opus Magnus -- Earth is the conscious surface of the mind. Air is the outer world. Water is the unconscious mind. And fire is the higher consciousness. Thus, the greatest maxim of all is Quattuor est unus. Il ne faut pas se'pare l'un des autres, car en ce cas le tout ensemble se mourra.

Perhaps, ultimately, the quaternity, which is all things, resolves to man's preoccupation with the four essential aspects of divinity: Omniscience, Omnipotence, Immortality and Nothingness. To utter the word is to create the world, but to experience it backward is to return to God. (See QUATERNITY.)

TEUTATES

A Gaulish god to whom human sacrifices were made.

THANTIFAXATH

The final tunnel symbolizes the connection between the double universes, Universe A and Universe B.

THAUMATURGY

The working of miracles, natural magic, sorcery, etc. for their own sake, as opposed to Theurgy.

THEANTHROPY

The anthropomorphism of the gods or, alternatively, the theification of man.

THEATRE

From Greek: "A place for seeing" thea and thauma/thaomal, "wonder" or "magic," devoted to mysteries and initiations.

THELEMA

This is the Greek word for "will," the major tool of all M/magic(k). Crowley borrowed it from Rabelais' Gargantua et Pantagruel, in which the Abbé de Théléme's motto was "Fay ce que voudras" (Do what thou wilt).

THEMIS

Legendary inventor of the zodiac.

THEO

Greek root meaning "god" combines to generate many creative ideas:

THEOSOPHY

Society founded in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky and Col. H.S. Olcott. Immediate divine illumination. Spiritual insight is superior to empirical knowledge. Specifically, Theosophy is the revelation of HPB that incorporates Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Platonism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Theosophy proposes "four bodies": the physical, the astral, the esthetic and the Self.

THERIODE

An animal template, genetic code or the like for reproducing a living animal. Such records of potential life-forms are more easily stored than actual living creatures taking up zoo-space.

THERIOMORPH

Household icons of animals. Deer antlers store psychic energies and keep out negative spirits. Owl ornaments are supposed to guard against fire. Other taxidermic figures serve a multitude of functions.

THEURGY

Divine magic, as opposed to mere thaumaturgy or sorcery. Its goal is apotheosis or, less ambitiously, the "knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" and the working of sublimation both of self and world.

THIRD EYE

Ocellus frontis. Today, generally regarded as the pineal gland, vestigial organ serving an unknown sense, formerly believed to be the seat of the soul.

THOTH

Tehuti (Djehuti, Theutys), the Egyptian equivalent of Hermes. God of the Age after Aquarius, (Age of Capricorn, 2000 years hence). He is the "Keeper of knowledge," stable sage and arbiter of the gods, their constant advisor, and wizard. It was his magical formulae that the dead need to know in order to pass through the underworld unscathed.

The Book of Thoth (which Crowley calls the Tarot), is supposedly the source of all wisdom. Thoth is far more than the God of language. It is in the invention of language that both the phenomenological and the material worlds are born. But language is the connection we make with the millions of things in the universe and, similarly, Thoth is the connection or Fohat of the Gods to their creative acts. He is the neter of the neteru.

In Egyptian mythology, Thoth is the product of a homosexual union between Seth and Horus.

THOUERIS

Or Taueret, Ta-Urt. The highly decorated and ornate Hippo goddess of fertility who is actually an aspect of Isis. She is not only the goddess of pregnancy, but the magical creative principle in all things. She presides over the difficult births of all kinds of fragile things.

THRONES

In Ptolemaic astrology they are the exaltations of the planets (also called "chariots"). The detriments were called Phylakai or "Prisons" or Idiothronel.

THURIBLE

Three-legged dish for burning ritual frankincense and other sacrifices.

TIME

Adeste, O Tempora Omnia! ("Be now, All Ye Times!") According to Merlin and others, mortals tend to face the opposite direction from that which time actually flows, as when we are seated in a train facing away from the engine. But it is the frozen past that unfolds, not the blazing future. We move away from becoming into the permanence of that which finally is. We alter continuously the shape of our history as we live it backwards. We watch the world recede rapidly as we move into the Nothingness of the Void and are swallowed up by it. However, this old linear view of time is abruptly being replaced by a new understanding of time as an exradiating web with ourselves at the center. The 20th Century has become the most time-obsessed period in history, and thus one of the most confused.

Kenneth Grant defines time as "subjectivity" and space as objectivity," the future as "implicit" and the past as "explicit." Despite the eye-opening insights these definitions provide, they still present time as having concrete existence.

FTL speeds flatten time to zero because light released only as electrons takes quantum leaps in the evolution of matter. In other words, electrons have to be released in order for matter to evolve (i.e., change), in fact, in order for matter to exist, period. Existence is a kind of "fire" or transmutation. And you know (see REALITY), photons appear only when someone actually observes (interacts with) them, because Being and Mind are one. We can't separate the four elements (earth, air, fire, water) -- so if you could succeed in extracting "water" or "fire" you'd wind up with nothing at all. But part of "earth" (the 4th part) is also earth, that is, an infinite replification (hologram) of itself -- boxes inside boxes in infinite regression; and every part is exactly alike, each particle is the entirety.

Inside the holo-mind, the stoppage of time is a play-back of Zeno's Paradox. That is, it decreases by infinite halves, except that one can no longer step out, is locked into halving. This is how annihilation is possible... but we digress.

Time is not some abstract "duration" imposed from outside but is built into the structure of things. There is a secret known to very few initiates, that one of the elements is fictitious, i.e., an abstraction devised merely to connect the others. Our postmodern problem is that we can't decide whether that's Time or Space, because they called it simply "Air." I guess we can work backward -- the nature of air, unlike that of the other elements, is for molecules in its medium to repel other molecules. Earth doesn't repel. It attracts. Water doesn't repel, it allows molecules to pass across one another's paths without obstruction, to flow. Fire doesn't repel, it fuses and spreads. Air alone moves towards separation and disintegration, as the present constantly disengages from past moment to past moment. (Future never does come into existence, does it? Tomorrow literally never comes. It is a physical impossibility).

The "duration" of an ice cube is not really it's "fourth" dimension, but simply a description of water moving from one form (ice) to another (water) and it is at "no time" anything other than H2O. The "duration" of a life is almost meaningless. What has "endured"? The mewling babe or the grizzled old hunchback? What I'm getting at is that duration is such a philosophical term that sub specie aetemitatis it eventually ceases to have any pragmatic importance.

Well, then, if there is no future, how did I get here from the Past? The billions scream for illusions. And through the medium of herbs and drugs, the minds of ages past, present and potential can and do intertwine. It is called the principle of bilocalism, or being in two places at the same "time." As I lie upon my lion rug, dreaming of the 20th Century in my hut with the crossed spears over the doorway, I have entered one of the spirit worlds where time no longer counts. In the same way, I can entrance myself into "the year 1999" or (with a final twist) the year "2013" and this sorcerors have done since any of us can remember. But there is a wall that begins to thicken as we approach the 21st Century. Beyond this it soon becomes impossible to pass (apart from the 2013 "bubble"). That outer wall has been known to exist, since the seers of Egypt and Babylon first perceived it, thousands of years ago. It is the limit of this Aeon -- and it is a ring-pass-not of dense, dark flame.

Of course it's all an illusion. There is no future. What we're looking at is always the present. Infinite knowledge? Well, yes, obviously omniscience has always been there. All you have to do is walk into it. And, yes -- the crossing of infinite parallel lines -- all outcomes equally probable. But, again, it's the "improbable" that always has the edge. The world will actually "end" long before 1999 or 2012 -- the "Implosion" is building up and up. Those are only the uttermost limits. The Three are already at hand.

TIMESCAPE ZERO

Terence McKenna's software plotting the fractals of "novelty" over many thousands of years of earth's history, up to 2012 C.E., at which point novelty will reach the state of infinite fulmination. He defines novelty, of course, as "the density of connectedness" or the "degree of complexity." The I Ching says that Time is a series of identifiable elements in flux. There are 64 of these "elements." He also believes that what we today call the I Ching is but a tiny fragment of a once immense device, now forever lost.

TIPHARETH

The sixth qabalistic power-zone of the Tree of Life, stands for "Beauty" and is the abode of the Sun and the Holy Guardian Angel. It is symbolized by Osiris.

TODAY'S MARTYRS

Victims of plague and persecution in the latterday years of the 20th Century.

TOHU V' BOHU

"Chaos and Confusion," the primordial state before Creation. Tohu can be equated with the evil Babylonian goddess, Tiamat.

TOTEM

Any natural object, plant or animal, not considered as an individual but as a member of a class. A Totem is chosen by a tribal class or its kin. It is then treated as the outward symbol of a secret relation.

TOTOK

A New Ireland medium, shaman or paraclete, who, like Hermes, the Grecian psychopomp, holds a serpent in either hand. His face is painted white, which links him to the gods and his eyes are shut to show that he is in contact with the dead and the past. His face also suggests an inner perichoresis linking him from the 19th to the 20th Century (Time-travel from past to future). His penis is painted red in order to maintain earth and life connection. Its black tip is intended to contrast in balance with the white face.

TOWER, THE

Arcanum xvi, lettered Peh (the mouth, or speech). Apart from the obvious ejaculating phallic representations and the usual description of this card as the wages of pride, its real meaning is the Tower of Babel, whence derives language, which is both our power and our frustration.

TRANSCENDENTALISM

Emerson's and Hawthorne's search for reality through spiritual intuition.

TRANSFORMIST HYPOTHESIS

"Mental dynamics precedes morphogenetic dynamics" -- Rupert Sheldrake.

TRANSPLUTONIAN

  1. Beyond Pluto's orbit there is believed to be a 12th planet (Marduk) that orbits the sun every 3600 years and whose inhabitants landed on earth 250,000 years ago. Alfred Witte speculated a number of transplutonian planets (Cupido, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollo, Admetus, Vulcanus, Poseidon).

  2. Radioactive elements produced by atomic fission, such as Lawrencium, Dysprosium, Californium, Berkelium, Americium, Nobelium, Curium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium...

  3. Realms beyond Hell.

TRANSSATURNIAN

Astrologically "heavy" eras of the world. They can chiefly be attributed to Pluto as the ages of the "four horsemen of the Apocalypse" the tetramorph: 1937-1956 Leo or "Fire"; 1956-1971, Virgo or "Earth"; 1971-1983, Libra or "Air"; 1983-1995, Scorpio or "Water." Pluto's exit from Scorpio in 1995 is the "release of death." As Uranus enters Aquarius in 1996, the Aquarian Age may be said to have functionally begun and when Neptune also enters Aquarius, 1999 recedes into the infinite as the Aeon ends.

TRANS-TEMPORAL CAUSAL CONNECTION

A variation on Rupert Sheldrake's "formative causation" in which A causes C over space-time without the connecting link of B. Every new or unprecedented phenomenon sets up a "morphogenetic pattern" that strongly tends to predetermine or attract the form of similar phenomenon in future.

TRIAX

The proposed "fifth suit" of Tarot used by Drnec and Lanphere in their Viennese Deva deck (there is also a 23rd Trump called "The Separator," thus making 93 cards in all). Triax represents the akashic tattwa, or etheric realm in which spiritual events take place. Triax is an abstract symbol representing a tripartite moebius strip. It represents the link between the lower three (emotional, physical and astral) bodies and the upper three etheric bodies (mental, spiritual and divine).

TRINITY, CHRISTIAN

The Trinity derives from the Neoplatonic, Gnostic understandings of ancient philosophy in which 3 basic facts prevail:


These 3 facts are symbolized in Hinduism by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; in Egypt by the Uas, the Ank and the Djed and in Xtianity by "Father, Son and Holy Ghost." In my own system, I sometimes refer to them symbolically as Abraxas, Khronos and Isis.

Spiritus Sanctus est Spiritus in Materia. Id Est Aqua Hydor Theon Hypostatis Metres. The sanctified spirit is that which has been made into matter, that is put into water. Mary impregnated by the Holy Ghost is just another way of saying that many are conceived naturally. To be baptized is to be born into the body, i.e., to manifest.

Speaking out of the "Holy Ghost," which is apparently what all masses, communions, oblations and sacrifices refer to, any sexual act itself joins or reaffirms the "hologram" to the Unity. In the embrace of another, the Holy Ghost re-connects, in a physical way, its separations. The two, formerly separate and opposed, have created a third thing, which is their union. (What happens on the physical level is simple reproduction and is of no metaphysical concern, except insofar as it paralyzes spiritual "reproduction"). The Xtians prefer to do all this symbolically, what with their "brides of Christ" and all. Moreover, when we speak of Mary as "conceived by the Holy Ghost," we simply mean metaphorically that she has conceived "naturally." The Satanists, therefore, assume (incorrectly) that overt, gross public copulation or multiple orgies constitute a defilement of Christ, when in fact, the Son is hardly involved with sex at any level and the Holy Ghost, actually, is exalted by "publicity." The true "sin against the Holy Ghost" is not blasphemy per se, but commercial advertising (including Church propaganda) or special interest exploitation which seeks to use, abuse, pollute, destroy, subvert or pervert the unity, ecology or collective holo-mind/body/spirit of the world for the sake of personal, private gain.

The "sacrifice of the child" -- that is, not the actual, living child, but merely the protoplasm of conception --which is what takes place in redirected or deferred heterosexual orgasm (can we refer to this as "tantric" sex?) should be especially appealing to us in today's crisis of pathological Mega-Birth. That is, it has much needed Neo-Catharist overtones. But the creation of a Moonchild (described by Crowley, Grant, Parsons, et al.) would apparently be the opposite goal, resulting in the "psychic foetus" of an astral entity.

We mustn't overlook the meaning of homosexuality and masturbation, however, since these lead to culminations without any question of issue from outset, and so, constitute refinements on sex magick. Grant, in his Nightside of Eden says that the "qliphotic" version of Arcanum XIII, "Death," is sodomy. In other words, sex which avoids the production of life is absolutely restricted to physical re-union of Self with Other. And the only other "physical" way we can "reunite" is to pass through the gates of Death. Thus heterosexual "tantric" sex and homosexuality are exactly the same thing so far as the physical plane goes. The union of homosexuality, however, extends beyond Eros into brotherhood and thus is closer to the "spirit" of the "Holy Ghost."

Since the union of self with other is specifically what we're concerned with, masturbation would seem to be pointless until we recall that the purpose of union is not orgasm. Orgasm merely affirms the authenticity of the union. Whether the "other" is another person (or thing!) or one's own body, scarcely matters. Mind and body are reunited in all cases. The physical is simply the mirror of the spiritual. For the solitary union of self with other, the orgasm is not just the ultimate and most subtle link, its the only link between the physical and spiritual planes. As a device for astral impregnation, moonchildren aside, masturbation obviously ought to be considerably more effective than sex with a physical partner (provided it doesn't degenerate into sense-gratification). But as a substitute for "transcendental sodomy" it is much less satisfactory.

Finally, I'm bound to say that those who have closed and forever locked the sexual door may still be able to unite self and other in a number of asexual, exotic and abstract ways, some of which may have a certain limited but unique value.

TSUFLIFU

The 28th kala (perhaps meaning "The Honeycomb") is the Emperor rendered as a penis, as the ultimate power of the world.

TUAT

the Egyptian Otherworld (also, Amenti), a 12-part, rectangular place of darkness, surrounded by water, but without air or water itself, and traversed nightly by Ra in his boat. It is ruled over by Osiris, after Set.

TUISCO

Teutonic hero, father of Mannu ("man"), whence sprang the three Germanic tribes: Ingaevones, Istaevones and Hermiones.

TULKU

Tibetan "living buddha." In Tibetan tradition, the Dalai Lama is always reincarnated as a divine being. But a tulku (Tib. sprulku) is also any earth-body employed by a Buddha who has forsaken Nirvana in order to help bring humanity to enlightenment.

TULPA

A being created in Tibetan magic by hypnotic force.

TUNNELS OF SET

These are the 22 reverse Tarot paths on the Tree of Death, as proposed by Crowley and expanded by Grant, who calls them kalas ("exudations" or "secretions"). Crowley refers to them as "the Prisons of the Qliphoth" as distinguished from "the Houses of Mercury." They are ruled by orders of qliphotic guardians and are not so much opposites of Qabalistic trumps as perversions, blasphemies or distortions of them:

True Path
Tunnel of Set
Inhabitants or Qliphoth
11. The Fool AMPRODIAS Sylphs, Fairies, Vampires
12. The Magician BARATCHIAL
13. The High Priestess GARGOPHIAS Lemurs
14. The Empress DAGDAGIEL The Sow of Venus (Babylon)
15. The Star HEMETHTERITH The Behemiron
16. The Hierophant URIENS The Adimiron
17. The Lovers ZAMRADIEL The Tzalalimiron
18. The Chariot CHARACITH The Shichiririon
19. Strength TEMPHIOTH The Schalcbiron
20. The Hermit YAMATU The Tzaphiriron
21. The Wheel of Fortune KURGASIAX
22. Justice LAFCURSIAX The A'abirion
23. The Hanged Man MALKUNOFAT The Deep Ones
24. Death NIANTIEL Scorpion, wolf, beetle
25. Temperance SAKSAKSALIM The Nechashiron
26. The Devil A'ANO'NIN The Dagdagiron
27. The Tower PARFAXITAS
28. The Emperor TZUFLIFU The Furies (Erinyes)
29. The Moon QULIELFI The Nashimiron
30. The Sun RAFLIFU Will-o'-the-wisps
31. Judgment SHALICU
32. The World THANTIFAXATH Larvae, ghouls

TURIYA

The highest stage of Samadhi.

TWENTY-SEVENTH PARALLEL

The terrestrial "mystery" latitude engirdling the earth and comprising the Egyptian pyramids, the Mexican Zona de Silencio, the Bermuda Triangle and the holy cities of Tibet.

TWILIGHT ICON

Oneirlogical fetish or repetitive dream.

TXURINGA (or CHURINGA)

The equivalent of the bull-roarer of the Australians. However, it is used by shamans everywhere. It is special stick which is spun through the air to produce a unique sound.

TYCHISM

Pure randomness as a factor. All interconnections are fortuitous.

TYPHON

Earth demon destroyed by Zeus. Father of Chimaera. Another name for Set (Slayer of Osiris). In the Wheel of Fortune, he is the destructive force of existence related to Capricorn (the culmination of Pisces' dissolution). God of evil winds. Typhon is the origin of the word, "typhoon."

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