The Orphic Egg Meditation

Verse 7 of Liber Arcanorum (corresponding to Cheth, Atu VII, the Chariot) reads: "He rideth upon the chariot of eternity; the white and the black are harnessed to his car. Therefore he reflecteth the Fool, and the sevenfold veil is reveiled." What then is the sevenfold veil? In what sense does the Chariot reflect the Fool?

These questions can be answered at least in part by reference to another Holy Book, Liber Tau Vel Kabbalæ Trium Literarum Sub Figurâ CD. Of it, Crowley writes, "Liber CD analyses the Hebrew alphabet unto seven triads, each of which forms a Trinity of sympathetic ideas relating respectively to the Three Orders comprised in the A.'.A.'.. It is really an attempt to find a Periodic Law in the system." This small book fits on one page, half of it an illustration. Under a large Hebrew Tau, the remaining letters of the Hebrew alphabet are written in three rows of seven letters each, implying that the seven resultant triads of letters each have something in common with one another. The first seven letters refer to the inner Order, the middle seven letters to the second Order, and the final seven to the outer Order. The seven triads refer respectively to the initiate, the illusion, the function, the unveiling, the equilibrium, the ritual, and the ordeal of each order. The Chariot reflects the Fool, of course, because the first row of seven letters begins with Aleph, and the second begins with Cheth. Aleph, Cheth, and also Samekh, thus correspond with one another in this system.

In order to further illuminate the sevenfold periodicity of the Hebrew alphabet, and its operation within Liber Arcanorum, I've devised a visualization and concentration exercise called the Orphic Egg Meditation. It is one of many possible ways of conceptualizing all 22 Scales simultaneously. One can, for instance, superimpose the Tree of Life over one's body and sense the paths accordingly: the Fool connects the space above my head to the left side of my brain, the Priestess connects the space above my head to my heart, etc. Or one can imagine all 22 letters in a circle, with the Serpent of Wisdom in the role of Oroboros, swallowing its own tail. This is the form that will be used at the conclusion of the Scales of the Serpent series when we chant all 231 Gates in one sitting. But the Orphic Egg formation provides a good way to integrate the 22 paths while investigating the mystery of sevenfoldedness.

A few preparatory steps might be called for at this point. To begin with, visualize a heptagram around one's head at eye level, with a point at the back of your head as you face one of the seven sides directly in front of you (see Figure 1). Reach out with your mind's eye and feel the side in front of you. Then go around the heptagram in a clockwise motion, feeling each side in turn. It's not necessary to see each side exactly or to be able to divide your field of awareness into seven precisely equal portions. Just get a general idea of where the seven directions are in relation to your central axis: front, front-right, near-rear-right, far-rear-right, far-rear-left, near-rear-left, front-left, and back to front. (It's a lot easier to do than to read about.)

Once you've got a fair feeling for the directions, note that we are going to visualize ourselves sitting within an egg. The egg will have coiled around it a serpent. The serpent's head will be the letter Aleph, and will be directly before your eyes. The serpent will coil in a clockwise fashion going downwards, in such a way that it will begin the second circuit in front of your throat. This will be the location of the letter Cheth. The third coil will begin in front of your solar plexus, being the letter Samekh (see Figure 2). It will complete the third coil before twirling at the base of the egg to form the final letter Tau.

What this implies for practice is that there will be one coil that will be located around the head cavity, one around the chest cavity, and one around the abdominal cavity. Before beginning the mediation, it might be helpful to practice each of these coils separately. This will draw on your earlier heptagram visualization, but the sides of the heptagram no longer meet, but rather descend to just before the start of the following coil.

So, for the first coil, we picture Aleph in front of our eyes, Beth to the front-right, Gimel to the near-rear-right, Daleth to the far-rear-right, He to the far-rear-left, Vau to the near-rear-left, and Zain to the front-left. And each one is a little lower than the one before, so that Zain is only slightly above the throat where the next coil begins with Cheth. Again, this is easier done than said. For practice, I found it easiest to start by just counting as I pictured each place, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7," and then to just say the letter names aloud in place of the numbers. When you can picture each letter name in place around the coil, move on to the next one. The entire sequence is illustrated in Figures 3a and 3b. Note that, as in Liber Arcanorum, we're maintaining the actual order of the Hebrew alphabet. None of that Teth/Lamed or He/Tzaddi flip-flopping for us! Now you're ready for the exercise.

1. As you vibrate "IAO," visualize an egg of light expanding from your heart to just encompassing your body.
2. Feel a part of yourself move from the center of your brain, out through your Ajna (third eye) chakra, to a point on the surface of the egg just in front of your Ajna.
3. Recite verse 0 from Liber Arcanorum while you sense the presence of the head of the Serpent of Wisdom on the surface of the egg.
4. Recite each verse as you slowly and carefully sense each Scale in turn, moving down and clockwise.
5. When you reach verse 21, feel the tail of the Serpent coiled at the base of the egg, with the very tip directly under your Muladhara (perineum) chakra.
6. Inhale, feeling the energy rise from your Muladhara, up through the center of the egg, to the center of your brain. As you hold your breath briefly, return the energy to the head of the Serpent once more.
7. As you exhale very slowly, sense each of the 22 Scales again, as distinctly as you can.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7, eleven times in all.
9. As you vibrate "IAO," visualize the egg contracting to a point within the center of your heart.

Sound simple? It shouldn't. As a concentration exercise, the point is to always make it a stretch. At first, for many of us at least, it should be enough of a challenge to simply remember the name of each letter as we track our exhalations through the 22 Scales of the coiled Serpent. Once that can be done without much difficulty, visualize the form of each letter. Then add the color of the path from the King Scale. Then add the sigil of the corresponding intelligence from Liber Arcanorum. Then add the visualization of the Trump from the Thoth deck. After that? I haven't gotten that far; you might try the name of the Arcanorum intelligence, or any column from 777 that hasn't already been covered. Let me know how it works out.

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