Study Reflections: 8/10/2020
| | Stay caught up (if you want!): Introduction to Study - Post One - Post Two - Post Three | |
Agrippa's Occult Philosophy - 4 & 5;1
At a first pass the division of the elements into three orders probably seems incredibly irrelevant to working any type of magic - especially if you're like me and despise thinking in terms of numbers. But a very simple way of putting it is: the purer the element, the closer to the next level in the already-established heirarchy it's going to be. Though, being pure or not is not what really matters. The division into three orders, just as the world is divided into three, serves to divide the whole into categories, but it does not, in itself, rend the whole into pieces. This becomes increasingly apparent when you look at the overlap in the three orders - all are in all things and reducible back and forth, to and from by their connection with the Supreme Unity concept. The pure is in the twice compounded and the pure, when acted upon, can be the twice compounded.
Thus, the fourth chapter reminds me that the "separation" is merely a characterization, a sorting. It is not three horizontal, heirarchical rankings, but a circle upon a circle upon a circle, with interconnected paths not perfectly straight but . . . crooked.
The third chapter was especially interesting to reflect on given my most recent interest in the book Tartaros, and I was quite pleased to return to my note-taking at the point that I did. I left off and returned on a most coincidental point in the chapter.
| | Side Note: I've had this in my drafts for just about two months before I could decide that I'm not going to include my notes on Opuscula Cypriani anymore. From working with St. Cyprian myself now and promising to not discuss certain things publically, I've decided it's best to just leave my reflections on it largely to myself from now on. | |