Death and Life:

 

Death and Life:

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

The first two Hymns are dedicated to the Goddesses of Death and Life, these are Hecate and Prothyrlsea, the latter is the Persian Diana and the Great Mother. She is the gate keeper of life, or that part of the creation story that makes us look away. What is interesting is how these two hymns correspond to the 13^th path of the Tree of Life attributed to Gimel and links Kether to Tiphareth , Gimel is also the path of the Moon, thus it is in perfect harmony with these goddesses. Da-ath can then be considered the gate and womb wherein new life gestates and is finally born into the phenomenal world. This is a great way to symbolize the evolution of being and clearly what these hymns were intended to affirm was the divinity of being itself and not some outwardly projected god. But if the ordeal of birth was overcome, life itself was a celebration of the divine. Interesting too, is that these opposites were symbolized in the form of the goddess. These are emanations of The One, which is easily associated with Kether, however we are presented with a problem considering the sequence wherein these goddesses where worshipped, although it makes sense, Chokmah and Binah are not easily attributable to them within the contexts of these hymns. They are better represented as the path of Gimel, as going from above to below the Abyss. Traditionally the paths are representative of the Microcosm and the sephiroth to the Macrocosm and so qabalistically this analogy makes sense. It is also useful to note the correspondence that this theology shares with the path of Samekh. Samekh is a womb and the path that links Tiphareth to Yesod, it is within this path that the Magickal Childe experiences birth and thus congruent with the path of Gimel. Just like with the path of Gimel where it harmonizes the different parts of being. While within Samekh it takes the Universal Solvent to raise the aspirant to adepthood, being the ingredient needed to congeal the Soul and accomplish the Great Work. Tiphareth as per the triad described by Thomas Taylor, which is Being, Life and Intellect is associated with the Intellect and the congruence between the path of Gimel and Samekh clearly illustrates this part of creation as uniting Heaven and Earth, Phanes who is the God of Light's birth creates Heaven and Earth, which accordingly correspond to Briah and Atziluth.

“And to the herdsman with a fav’ring mind draws near.”

Last line of the Hymn to Hecate:

The herdsman is associated with the Cyclops who were said to be the first herdsmen and they are attributed to Heaven as the LVX which permeates creation, this is analogous to life and consciousness and in the above quote, the favour of the herdsman is what may bring the ordeal to pass. The favour of whom would harmonize the different parts of being into a workable whole, as stated in my previous essay about Nox, the Cyclops symbolize the Astral Light. The Astral Light is the Azoth or the Universal Solvent. It seems that these ancient Greeks were mostly concerned with man’s place in the celestial hierarchy and saw being and life as the most venerable. This may explain the nature of their worship, wherein they acknowledged struggle and celebrated life, as divine.

TO THE GODDESS PROTHYRLSEA

Goddess, hear my pray'r,

For labour pains are thy peculiar care.

 In thee, when stretch'd upon the bed of grief, 

 The sex, as in a mirror, view relief.

Guard of the race, endued vith gentle mind, 

 To helpless youth benevolent and kind; 

 Benignant nourisher; great Nature's key Belongs to no divinity but thee. 

 Thou dwell'st with all irnmanifest to sight, 

 And solemn festivals are thy delight. 

 Thine is the task to loose the virgin's zone, 

 And thou in ev'ry work art seen and known. 

 With births you sympathise, tho' pleas'd to see 

 The numerous offspring of fertility. 

 When rack'd with labour pangs, and sore distress'd, 

 The sex invoke thee, as the soul's sure rest; 

 For thou alone canst give relief to pain, 

 Which art attempts to ease, but tries in vain. 

 Assisting Goddess, venerable pow'r, 

 Who bring'st relief in labour's dreadful hour; 

 Hear, blessed Dian, and accept my pray'r, 

 And make the infant race thy constant care.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if mankind could do away with hatred and superstition as the foundation of western religions? Instead giving worship to those things that are truly venerable, such as the miracle of childbirth and life, and the Goddess' undeniable place within this phenomenal miracle.

 TO HECATE. 

 EINODIAN Hecate, Trivia, lovely dame, 

 Of earthly, wat'ry, and celestial frame, 

 Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array'd, 

 Pleas'd with dark ghosts that wander thro' the shade; 

 Perszea, solitary goddess, hail! 

 The world's key-bearer, never doom'd to fail; 

 In stags rejoicing, huntress, nightly seen, 

 And drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen;

It is noteworthy that the Not-I or Naught, Thelemically associated with either Nuit or in her lower form Babalon as attributed to Bihah is associated with death in these hymns, and that all life comes from death. However, the primitive nature of Orphic theology is also very recognizable in the fact that the symbolism and their associations with the Tree of Life are often very confused. As in this hymn to Hecate, wherein death and the unconscious is seen as the same thing. However primitive the symbolism though, the Moon's association with the unconscious has remained, as symbolized by the sphere of Yesod, also known as The Gate and the sphere on the Tree of Life that leads to the path of Samekh, which shares a remarkable correspondence with the theology presented in these two hymns. This becomes a complete rendering of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm, which could be understood as reflecting both the way of evolution of creation and involution of being, as it illustrates the nature of creation, as seen from above and below. So, we could consider these two hymns as an attempt to illustrate this connection between Heaven and Earth, via the seemingly contradicting symbolism, although there may exist no such contradiction, when we view life in terms of these opposites, as already joined within the light of creation.                                                                                                  

“Love is the law, love under will.”