COSMIC SWITCHBOARD — On the assumption that extraterrestrials who desire to contact Earth would probably avoid conventional electromagnetic technology and obviously prefer to communicate directly with human beings of choice, an intake must be devised for those who ordinarily and unconsciously repress all telepathic reception. A series of dice throws, in which several letters of the alphabet are assigned to each side of the die, will result in a choice of letters which are then “translated” into words by the use of intuition alone. This is not a very dependable or pragmatic method, but at least guarantees the reception of something.
COURT CARDS — The royal cards of the Minor Arcana. Pages represent “establishers,” Knights stand for “initiators,” Queens indicate “desires” and Kings are “controls.” Kings are sometimes referred to as Princes — that is son, rather than spouse, of the Queen. In addition, the Pages are earth), the Knights are fire, the Queens are water and the Kings are air.
CROSS — Ancient symbol, far predating Xtianity, and taking many forms, such as the swastika and the Egyptian Ankh. It symbolizes, amongst many things, centrality and the union of male and female in divine conjunction. When circled it symbolizes the earth and serves as an apotropaic. Most of the associations attributed by the Galileans to the cross of their crucified god have been lifted over the centuries from concurrent pagan sources.
CRYSTAL — Crystallized rock, quartz and gemstones are the highest forms of the mineral kingdom. If you accept the fact that earth is alive, as the entire manifest universe is alive, then crystals, although not biodes, are centers of mineral intelligence and order. It is through crystal that messages are broadcast via the air waves and, as earth is the amalgamating force, crystallization immediately precedes formation of the most primitive amino acids of life. Thus, for the adept, crystals are avenues of cosmic information, quantum change and negentropy.
CRYSTAL SKULL — A replica of an ancient human skull hewn out of a single rock crystal and found by Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1927 in the Mayan burial ground, Labaantún, British Honduras. Light refracted from the zygomatic arched and funnelled along the optic bridge causes the eye sockets to shine brightly. The skull also emits concentrated pinpoints of light and serves as a magnifying glass and scrying ball. If suspended properly, the jaw will open and close, the eyes will flash and it will easily nod yes or no. Tests reveal that it was not carved by metal tools.
Small crystal skulls have throughout the past couple of centuries been unearthed in Central America and a large one, similar to the Mitchell-Hedges skull, was already in the British Museum. The M-H skull is of far superior quality, however, and the British version is derived from the former.
CSICOP — “Committee for the Scientific Investigation Of the Paranormal,” founded in 1976 by New York professor of philosophy, Paul Kurz. Its membership includes many rigid authority figures from the scientific establishment, such as B. F. Skinner, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. It is dedicated singlemindedly to the discrediting of any technically unsubstantiated, over-imaginative or simply unscientific point of view.
CTHULHU — H. P. Lovecraft’s cosmology — Great Old Evil One, dead or asleep and dreaming beneath the sea in the sunken city of R’lyeh (Atlantis?), revived by Kenneth Grant. As the powers of evil & darkness threaten to break through into this world, this great “behemoth of the deep” awakens to lead them. His totem is the Egyptian hippo goddess, Ta-Urt. His number is 52, the same as Semitic K-L-V, or “dog,” referring, no doubt, to Anubis. (Ta-urt, however, we should be warned, is a secret aspect of Isis.)
CYBERPUNK — Timothy Leary in an article in Reality Hackers magazine #6 compares the computer to Tarot and the earth pantacle to “stored algorithms.” For him the Baby Boomers are recapitulators of theology, having grown up with Zen, Yoga, Crowley, etc. in minihistory and graduated to the cognitive world of Artificial Intelligence.
CYCLOPS — (PI., Cyclopes.) The monocular giant sons of Gaea and Uranus who forged the thunderbolts of Zeus: Arges the brightness, Brontes the thunder and Steropes the lightning bolt itself. Poseidon also had one-eyed giant sons who were shepherds and cannibals. One of them, Polyphemus, was blinded by Odysseus.
CYNICS — (From Greek kynikos, “canine.”) They were so called by Antisthenes in the 5th Century because they were critical of materialists and “snarled at worldly conceits.” Interestingly enough, today’s cynics tend to snarl not at materialists but at idealists and visionaries. Increasingly, however, in the postmodern world, cynicism directed towards the most firmly established segments of society is coming to be seen as the highest mark of intelligence.
D
DAATH —The Hebrew word for knowledge. It is an existing/non-existing 11th sephirah on the Tree of Life, the “Gateway to the Other World” (and to the shadow-side of the Tree), thence leading to the 22 qliphotic tunnels and their demonic sentinels. By the same token, it is the same doorway through which death, non-existence and Hell come into life. Power brokers who seek knowledge of the left-handed path of darkness must be warned that ego feeds on ignorance.
DAEDALOUS — Intricate. So-called after Daedalus, the artist who built the Labyrinth of Crete.
DAGDAGIEL — The guardian of the 14th Tunnel of Set, the equivalent of the Empress, but here degraded to a prostitute. Her magic is love philtres. Sicknesses are venereal diseases and nymphomania.
DAGDAGIEL
DAGON — National god of the Philistines: half fish/half man. (Sometimes confused with DOGON.)
DAWN IN THE WEST — Translation of Aurora Favonio, part of a qabalistic seal. Prophetic of the dichotomy of the atomic bomb vs. spiritual awakening.
DEATH — “Mental materiality.” Life becomes more and more “mental” until death (even as death becomes more and more physical until birth).
DEATH — We should not dwell on the psychic envelopes that remain behind for those wraiths, ghosts, apparitions and so on who must make their way the best they can from the clues of their predecessors. Nor should we dally with the shells of the qliphoth attending the sephiroth. The normal soul for whom, from below, the gates appear as the gates of extinction and from above as the gates of birth (or vice-versa), has no time for leisurely observation. Nor does the yogin, for whom death is merely a higher stage of meditation, require distraction. But we magicians should stop for a moment at the pylons themselves, at the door of the abyss, the pause before lingam joins yoni, we should linger and observe the transitional threshold.
Death Posture
Death and sex are not merely metaphorically identical, but physically so. Since death (the second, total death, after the yesodic stage) results in instant rebirth, it is obvious that birth and death are the entrance and withdrawal motions of cosmic coitus on a slow-action time scale over successive reincarnations.
DEATH — The 13th Arcanum, lettered Nun. “The World of Truth.” In esoteric philosophy, Death is considered a gateway between modes of being. The Abyss, which all magicians must cross unaided is, part of the path of Death, but not entirely. On the Tree, the gateway to the darkside is the existent/non-existent portal of Daäth, but the pathway of the Death Arcanum lies between Tiphareth (rebirth) and Netzach (the individual). Notice the message, however, which is that the severed heads and limbs are the “fruit” which has ripened and fallen from the Tree of Life.