Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine, Book I - Part I)

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
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Smaragd
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Silvaeon wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 8:49 pm Blavatsky goes on to describe Fohat in the unmanifested universe as "potential creative power" whereas in the manifested universe "he is that Occult, electric, vital power, which, under the Will of the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving them the first impulse which becomes in time law."

This obviously works on many different scales; the atomic scale sor Cerastes pointed to being one example. Looking from the point of view of a humanbeing seeking ascensions in the manifested world through occult powers, we can see ourselves seeking the hidden and in time perceive parts of it and line ourselves in our calling, to act according to the ideas and thus following the revealed laws of (hidden) nature.
Silvaeon wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 8:49 pm Fohat in the unmanifested universe brings to mind the Ray. "When the “ Divine Son ” breaks forth, then Fohat becomes the propelling force, the active Power which causes the One to become Two and Three — on the Cosmic plane of manifestation. The triple One differentiates into the many, and then Fohat is transformed into that force which brings together the elemental atoms and makes them aggregate and combine." This is dense and fascinating stuff.
Indeed. It seem that while in the upper triad of the Hieroglyphic Key Fohat works in the separation of the three points from the singular monad, correspondingly in the lower triad the same force combines and aggregates, bringing elemental atoms together, which I think means kama manas, kama, linga sharira and their smaller parts is starting to work with each other. I think this correspondence of opposing directions is again seen in the circular nature of the whirlwind where the Fohatic lightning strikes all the way from the Heavenly Septenary to the lowest separated particles and back again in the ascending arch. It is indeed coming together in the central fire prana as sor Polyhymnia pointed.
Polyhymnia wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:16 pm
Silvaeon wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:41 pm Stanza V.III
He is their guiding spirit and leader. When he commences work, he separates the sparks of the lower kingdom (mineral atoms) that float and thrill with joy in their radiant dwellings (gaseous clouds), and forms therewith the germs of wheels. He places them in the six directions of space and one in the middle — the central wheel.

Fohat is the guiding spirit and leader of the innumerable sparks, or atoms. Blavatsky starts by reminding us that ""Wheels," as already explained, are the centres of force, around which primordial Cosmic matter expands, and, passing through all the six stages of consolidation, becomes spheroidal and ends by being transformed into globes or spheres." So, here we have Fohat gathering together the sparks and assembling them into germs that will expand circularly into denser matter. During the rest of the commentary Blavatsky discusses this circular movement, and how it has "existed from eternity." "The six directions of space and one in the middle" brings to mind very vividly the hieroglyphic key.
If I may, one more time here, with Ezekiel again.

"And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went." Ezekiel 1:12

The wheels move according the the movement of the spirit, so Fohatic movement from the unmanifested universe to the phenomenal and cosmic world.

The six directions of space can also be visualized in the form of a hexagram. One triangle representing the arupa and the other the rupa to come together and form the combination of spirit and matter. I do think the hieroglyphic key is the perfect symbol with the prana being fohat.
I read those parts of the Book of Ezekiel also and interpreted it this way.

I came to very similar conclusion also on the hexagram in the end of my comments of the third sloka of this stanza, which I've been sitting on for some time now. As the six directions of space are spoken of, the hexagram may be seen as a cube of which fra Nefastos has written more of in the 'Demons Cube'. Anyway here's the comments:

Stanza V.3.

"He is their guiding spirit and leader. When he commences work, he separates the sparks of the lower kingdom (mineral atoms) that float and thrill with joy in their radiant dwellings (gaseous clouds), and forms therewith the germs of wheels. He places them in the six directions of space and one in the middle—the central wheel."


In the last liner notes of the sloka Blavatsky quotes Swedenborg on the Vortical Theory and points how the doctrine she is in touch with sees it. To me this comparison touched a very familiar way to see the world and what’s behind the facets:
The first Cause is the Infinite or Unlimited. This gives existence to the First Finite or Limited.” (The Logos in His manifestation and the Universe.) “ That which produces a limit is analogous to motion. (See first Stanza, supra.) The limit produced is a point, the Essence of which is Motion ; but being without parts, this Essence is not actual Motion, but only a connatus to it.” (In our Doctrine it is not a “ connatus,” but a change from eternal vibration in the unmanifested, to Vortical Motion in the phenomenal or manifested World). . . “ From this first proceed Extension, Space, Figure, and Succession, or Time.
Recently I have though alot about time, death and the continuation of our principles in the world. I believe this focus has been the guidance of the master, who has me circling around the topic of the Circular whirlwind. Perceiving it from different perspectives or through different principles goes on the meta levels at least when written about. I’m being lead through moments where I’ve perceived a small headland rich in trees and thought about that specific area and how the trees and everything is regenerating and when perceived behind the snapshots in time the roughness and hardness of the trees becomes ethereal. Because of the regeneration we could touch the tree and our hand would go through their bodies, and our own hand would also be a hand from beyond time, or rather our being wouldn’t be exclusively understood as this crude matter. It becomes crude matter when our perspective slows down to the now of the linear time, instead of the now including all that were, if not what will be. But I believe this slowing down is purposeful and necessary relating to the tool (kama manas) we must become masters of in the third initiation. If we think about our feelings and the higher principles, they are connected to a larger span of time, although in the case of the latter group their time dependency can be argued altogether, thus they are more fine of nature and in that sense their wheels are faster and everpresent. (Feelings are so vast an area that it’s a problematic term. For example the submaterial area of the spirits of goetia influencing some feelings of regressive nature might be thought as more crude than the material world we perceive with our five senses.) Kama manas is the rupa correspondent of the arupa principle manas. While the former is in the slow paced now, the latter wheel relates the ability of the seer to fly through time and space. I’m guessing the six wheels around their germs, in the six directions of space are pictured as circles around the six (+ the 7th) points of the Cube of Metatron. How does the spreading of the 6 point relate to the space, or the spatial world? It seems like its an important part of the metaphor.

Again, maybe some info from the 'Demons Cube' could be applied here. I should come back to this when time allows.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:37 am Again, maybe some info from the 'Demons Cube' could be applied here. I should come back to this when time allows.

Please do! I love reading your comments - they always add so much more to the discussion, instead of mine which are just fumbling around trying to make sense of things. And The Demons Cube is one of those texts I've been dying to have translated/read for years now - one day!

Stanza V.V5.
Fohat takes five strides (having already taken the first three), and builds a winged wheel at each corner of the square for the four holy ones . . . . . and their armies (hosts).

I did a little bit of re-reading section V.II and what Smaragd had already pointed out regarding the original three strides taken by fohat. I found this quote on page 113 in the footnote which helped clear it up nicely for me. "The three strides relate metaphysically to the descent of Spirit into matter, of the Logos falling as a ray into the Spirit, then into the Soul, and finally into the human physical form of man, in which it becomes Life." Blavatsky mentions these three in the beginning of the commentary for this stanza as well. Onto the five strides we're dealing with here: "From a Cosmic point of view, Fohat taking “ five strides ” refers here to the five upper planes of Consciousness and Being, the sixth and the seventh (counting downwards) being the astral and the terrestrial, or the two lower planes"

So Fohat has descended down to the 5th plane now, and here builds a winged wheel, or "centre of force, around which primordial Cosmic matter expands" for the four holy ones, who are the "kings" of the Dhyan-Chohans. They each rule over one of the cardinal directions, North, South, East and West. Blavatsky talks about how the North and the West are generally seen as "evil" directions, whereas God comes from the East. There is a lot of reference to Ezekial in this commentary, so you were definitely onto something Polyhymnia and Smaragd, but I will leave it up to you to expand on that should you wish.

The commentary ends with some further clarification between the Builders, Planetary Spirits and Lipika. Combining a couple different quotes throughout the last page and a half for ease of comprehension, at least in my mind: "The Lipika are the Spirits of the Universe, whereas the Builders are only our own planetary deities." "The “ Builders” are the representatives of the first “Mind-Born” Entities." "They build or rather rebuild every “System” after the “Night” The Second group of the Builders is the Architect of our planetary chain exclusively ; and the third, the progenitor of our Humanity — the Macrocosmic prototype of the microcosm." "The Planetary Spirits are the informing spirits of the Stars in general, and of the Planets especially. They rule the destinies of men who are all born under one or other of their constellations " So hierarchically, the Lipika are the highest, followed by the Planetary Spirits, followed by the Builders, I think.
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Stanza V.VI
The Lipika circumscribe the triangle, the first one (the vertical line or the figure I.), the cube, the second one, and the pentacle within the egg (circle). It is the ring called “ Pass not,” for those who descend and ascend (as also for those) who, during the Kalpa, are progressing toward the great day “ Be with us ” . . . . Thus were formed the Arupa and the Rupa (the Formless World and the World of Forms) ; from one light seven lights ; from each of the seven seven times seven lights. The “ Wheels ” watch the Ring.

In this stanza we are dealing with Lipika who create a "barrier" of sorts between the world of pure spirit and the worlds of denser matter. "They circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the Ring “ Pass-Not.” This world is the symbol (objective) of the One divided into the many, on the planes of Illusion, of Adi (the “ First ” ) or of Eka (the “ One ”) ; and this One is the collective aggregate, or totality, of the principal Creators or Architects of this visible universe." She goes on to talk about how there are really two "One"s - The Absolute being the first, and the Logos, the reflection of the first being the 2nd, which works on the plane of emanations.

This quote states quite clearly much of the meaning of this stanza: "The Lipika separate the world (or plane) of pure spirit from that of Matter. Those who “ descend and ascend ” —the incarnating Monads, and men striving towards purification and “ ascending,” but still not having quite reached the goal — may cross the “ circle of the Pass-Not,” only on the day “ Be-With-Us ” ; that day when man, freeing himself from the trammels of ignorance, and recognizing fully the non-separateness of the Ego within his personality — erroneously regarded as his own — from the Universal Ego (Anima Supra-Mundi), merges thereby into the One Essence to become not only one “ with us ” (the manifested universal lives which are “ one ” life), but that very life itself."

I also found this footnote regarding the Pistis Sophia interesting, on pg. 132: "Sophia Achamoth is shown lost in the waters of Chaos (matter), on her way to Supreme Light, and Christos delivering and helping her on the right Path. Note well, “ Christos ” with the Gnostics meant the impersonal principal, the Atman of the Universe, and the Atma within every man’s soul — not Jesus ; though in the old Coptic MSS. in the British Museum “ Christos ” is almost constantly replaced by “ Jesus.”

Lastly, the beginning of the Stanza's commentary reflects pretty much where I'm still at regarding the different hierarchies and the 3145 and such. lol: "The Stanza proceeds with a minute classification of the Orders of Angelic Hierarchy. From the group of Four and Seven emanates the “ mind-born ” group of Ten, of Twelve, of Twenty-one, etc., all these divided again into sub-groups of septenaries, novems, duodecimals, and so on, until the mind is lost in this endless enumeration of celestial hosts and Beings, each having its distinct task in the ruling of the visible Kosmos during its existence" Unfortunately my mind is all over the place today and I have little to offer besides pulling these quotes. But, onwards!
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Silvaeon wrote: Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:31 pmI also found this footnote regarding the Pistis Sophia interesting

I warmly recommend Blavatsky's commentary to Pistis Sophia, for it is as much a wide independent treatise on geometric cosmogenesis. This aspect of Gnosticisim is also rarely seen nowadays, even though Gnostisicism per se is much more widely known & studied than in Blavatsky's lifetime. It can be found from her Collected Writings part XIII (in Finnish also in Pistis Sofia translation published by Aatma 2013).
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Nefastos wrote: Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:50 pm
Silvaeon wrote: Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:31 pmI also found this footnote regarding the Pistis Sophia interesting

I warmly recommend Blavatsky's commentary to Pistis Sophia, for it is as much a wide independent treatise on geometric cosmogenesis. This aspect of Gnosticisim is also rarely seen nowadays, even though Gnostisicism per se is much more widely known & studied than in Blavatsky's lifetime. It can be found from her Collected Writings part XIII (in Finnish also in Pistis Sofia translation published by Aatma 2013).
Thank you, brother! This is something I'm very interested in, so I'll definitely track one down - these Collected Writings seems like quite the collection indeed!
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Silvaeon wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:46 pm
Smaragd wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:37 am Again, maybe some info from the 'Demons Cube' could be applied here. I should come back to this when time allows.

Please do! I love reading your comments - they always add so much more to the discussion, instead of mine which are just fumbling around trying to make sense of things. And The Demons Cube is one of those texts I've been dying to have translated/read for years now - one day!
I usually feel very much the same towards my own writing - fumbling around. Sometimes there’s some swift airy thoughts that might be good but it’s all shadowed by the fear of being too high above the ground and making no sense to others.

Stanza V.4.
Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the six to the seventh—the Crown (a); an Army of the Sons of Light stands at each angle (and) the Lipika—in the middle wheel. They (the Lipika) say, “ This is good ” (b). The first Divine World is ready, the first (is now), the second (world), then the “ Divine Arupa ” (the formless Universe of Thought) reflects itself in Chhayaloka (the shadowy world ofprimal form, or the intellectual) the first garment of (the) Anupadaka (c).
Do you think the Divine Arupa to be corresponding to Manas? I find the idea of Lucifer-Venus from the Divine Arupa, while reflected to the shadowy world of primal form it would be Lucifer after or ”inside” the fall which I believe are the Saturnian spheres.

This sloka makes much more sense to me as a whole when I remember the Army of the Sons of Light to be the Dhyan Chohans at the angles (again the image of the Metatrons Cube with the circles of wheels around each angle is drawn in my mind) as pointed by Blavatsky in the (b) section of the commentary.


Thoughts on the (a) section of the commentary to the Book of Dzyan
As "one becomes two" - the absolute has manifested itself - the principles becoming separated and as their own spheres are gathered to work with each other. Atma as the principle of pure spirit seems to include in its Will the idea of oneness that is transmitted by Fohat (in its capacity for Divine Love) to the Soul, which, I guess, may then work as the uniting principle in the world where the lower principles exist. All this sounded to me like Fohat being the uniting "principle", but I guess the cosmic evolution sort of shifts these roles as it proceeds to the next steps and initiations, or a another answer might be that principle is not the best word for the nature of Fohat eventhough it is a capable carrier of the impulses of the uniting principle. Go figure.

Actually this weird logic here is quite clear in the basic magical sense when I distance myself from the cold analytical mind and try to see this thing in the living world where the high and the low make peculiar intersections. Take the idea of karmayoga, where one goes to the low points of the world (can be really basic day-to-day things or for example a reading circle that may have connected to this sort of approach, ha!) and may find ones soul sort of empty there, but nevertheless one has brought the soul - the uniting principle - there, and if after a while the struggle is managed to be filled with living meaning, the spiral movement of the Fohat is in working. It is between the satanic drab and the satanic seeking of pleasure (or joy), between which the greatest lifting is balanced upon, I think. Or maybe balance is rather generic and unfitting word applied here, for it is a process of oozing out the honey to the place of the forsaken stone (to add another layer of meaning to this expression, SoA had a Finnish series of publications before The Unseen Fire, that could be roughly translated to ’The Forsaken Stone’). The process itself asks for balance for sure. Something along these line is how I see the metaphysical outlines discussed in this sloka working in practice.

The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature—from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds—this is the one fundamental law in Occult Science. “ The Deity is boundless and infinite expansion,” says an Occult axiom ; and hence, as remarked, the name of Brahmâ.* There is a deep philosophy underlying the earliest worship in the world, that of the Sun and of Fire.
Wrapping our heads around this ultimate essence of ”infinite expansions”, from which everything gains its powers from, we arrive to the term aether. In the Celestial Hymn of today (it’s Thursday here when I write this) the resitation reads: ”Abba, Baal, pater omnipotens aither; the Stormbringer, holy and virginal, ancient and eternally living force.” This same idea seems to be behind Brahma or more accurately Brahmanaspati (sphati translates to growth, increase, prosperity if my use of translatioin software can be trusted), and the paternal nature of this aether is underlined in the footnote on p. 120 states: ” In the Rig Veda we find the names Brahmanaspati and Brihaspati alternating and equivalent to each other. Also see “ Brihad Upanishad ” ; Brihaspati is a deity called “ the Father of the gods.””
This is interesting because I’ve been quite keen of the idea of power as feminine shakti, but then ofcourse it must have its masculine polarity somewhere. Trying to understand this in a cautious way, it seems to me the masculine side of it – the aetheric is the seed essence, potential from which the further material manifestation build in to power in forms.

Taking a step back, it might be good the take another perspective to aether. If my memory serves me right, Pekka Ervast presented aether to be finer existence of materia and being a sort of double of the grude material elements. The finer material existence, I would take to also mean that the finer we go, the finer our capability for Monadic conduct goes, as the other (the aetheric) side more clearly represents the mental or spiritual(?) idea of, for example, Water. Fire is sort of the line between and is already clearly aetheric and thus easier to found a correspondence in the inside the human constitution, to which I think Blavatsky points towards writing of the natural impulses towards the worship of fire.

I’ll come back to your comments soon(ish).
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:06 am Stanza V.4.
Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the six to the seventh—the Crown (a); an Army of the Sons of Light stands at each angle (and) the Lipika—in the middle wheel. They (the Lipika) say, “ This is good ” (b). The first Divine World is ready, the first (is now), the second (world), then the “ Divine Arupa ” (the formless Universe of Thought) reflects itself in Chhayaloka (the shadowy world ofprimal form, or the intellectual) the first garment of (the) Anupadaka (c).
Actually this weird logic here is quite clear in the basic magical sense when I distance myself from the cold analytical mind and try to see this thing in the living world where the high and the low make peculiar intersections. Take the idea of karmayoga, where one goes to the low points of the world (can be really basic day-to-day things or for example a reading circle that may have connected to this sort of approach, ha!) and may find ones soul sort of empty there, but nevertheless one has brought the soul - the uniting principle - there, and if after a while the struggle is managed to be filled with living meaning, the spiral movement of the Fohat is in working. It is between the satanic drab and the satanic seeking of pleasure (or joy), between which the greatest lifting is balanced upon, I think. Or maybe balance is rather generic and unfitting word applied here, for it is a process of oozing out the honey to the place of the forsaken stone (to add another layer of meaning to this expression, SoA had a Finnish series of publications before The Unseen Fire, that could be roughly translated to ’The Forsaken Stone’). The process itself asks for balance for sure. Something along these line is how I see the metaphysical outlines discussed in this sloka working in practice.
This has seriously helped me somewhat wrap my head around this stanza. Since I am a visual learner, it helped me to visualize the hexagram and the places where the spirit and matter intersected as the places where the spiral movement of Fohat are taking place (the blending of the arupa and the rupa). Thank you!! I was stuck on this for weeks, and it's pretty much what I drew out for the third stanza, just with some modifications like the divine seven sons at each angle. And then the rest of the stanza is the cosmic evolution following the fohatic transformation of the first world into the second, etc. Sorry to have to get super basic with it, but I wasn't able to absorb any of the other concepts without first capturing and (somewhat) understanding that thought.
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:06 am
The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature—from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds—this is the one fundamental law in Occult Science. “ The Deity is boundless and infinite expansion,” says an Occult axiom ; and hence, as remarked, the name of Brahmâ.* There is a deep philosophy underlying the earliest worship in the world, that of the Sun and of Fire.

Taking a step back, it might be good the take another perspective to aether. If my memory serves me right, Pekka Ervast presented aether to be finer existence of materia and being a sort of double of the grude material elements. The finer material existence, I would take to also mean that the finer we go, the finer our capability for Monadic conduct goes, as the other (the aetheric) side more clearly represents the mental or spiritual(?) idea of, for example, Water. Fire is sort of the line between and is already clearly aetheric and thus easier to found a correspondence in the inside the human constitution, to which I think Blavatsky points towards writing of the natural impulses towards the worship of fire.
"What says the esoteric teaching with regard to fire? “Fire,” it says, “is the most perfect and unadulterated reflection, in Heaven as on Earth, of the One Flame. It is Life and Death, the origin and the end of every material thing. It is divine ‘Substance.’ ” Thus, not only the Fire-Worshipper, the Parsee, but even the wandering savage tribes of America, which proclaim themselves “born of fire,” show more science in their creeds and truth in their superstitions, than all the speculations of modern physics and learning. "

"If the Deity, the radical One, is eternal and an infinite substance (“the Lord thy God is a consuming fire”) and never consumed, then it does not seem reasonable that the Occult teaching should be held as unphilosophical when it says: “Thus were the Arupa and Rupa worlds formed: from One light seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven,” etc., etc."

I found these quotes on theosociety.org while trying to find tools to help me absorb the information. I'm just putting it here so I can come back to it in my attempt to piece all of this together in my own brain. And it just dawned on me that those quotes may very well be in your guys' complete versions, and I just don't have them in mine. I tried using the full version Cerastes linked me to online, but it hurts my eyes to much to search through in depth.
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Silvaeon wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:46 pm So Fohat has descended down to the 5th plane now, and here builds a winged wheel, or "centre of force, around which primordial Cosmic matter expands" for the four holy ones, who are the "kings" of the Dhyan-Chohans. They each rule over one of the cardinal directions, North, South, East and West. Blavatsky talks about how the North and the West are generally seen as "evil" directions, whereas God comes from the East. There is a lot of reference to Ezekial in this commentary, so you were definitely onto something Polyhymnia and Smaragd, but I will leave it up to you to expand on that should you wish.
The GD rituals I have been able to do have been East facing. Just a little side note that I found interesting

Taking it in the Qabalistic direction for a moment, I wonder if YHVH can also be a representation of these four holy beings as well.

Anyhow, I see this winged wheel (chariot, if you will) being filled with all the fohatic power which then expands into the Holy Four which then takes its forms in there astral/terrestrial planes as the armies that guide our spiritual systems.

I made some notes back in stanza IV on the Arba-Il, and wrote the various correspondences I could find. Father, son, holy spirit, Mary (Christian). Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Nari (Indian). Anu, Bel, Hoa, Mylitta (Babylonian). Sige, Ennoia, Bythos, Sophia (Ophite). Just as a few examples.
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Polyhymnia wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:19 pm
Smaragd wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:06 am
The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature—from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds—this is the one fundamental law in Occult Science. “ The Deity is boundless and infinite expansion,” says an Occult axiom ; and hence, as remarked, the name of Brahmâ.* There is a deep philosophy underlying the earliest worship in the world, that of the Sun and of Fire.

Taking a step back, it might be good the take another perspective to aether. If my memory serves me right, Pekka Ervast presented aether to be finer existence of materia and being a sort of double of the grude material elements. The finer material existence, I would take to also mean that the finer we go, the finer our capability for Monadic conduct goes, as the other (the aetheric) side more clearly represents the mental or spiritual(?) idea of, for example, Water. Fire is sort of the line between and is already clearly aetheric and thus easier to found a correspondence in the inside the human constitution, to which I think Blavatsky points towards writing of the natural impulses towards the worship of fire.
"What says the esoteric teaching with regard to fire? “Fire,” it says, “is the most perfect and unadulterated reflection, in Heaven as on Earth, of the One Flame. It is Life and Death, the origin and the end of every material thing. It is divine ‘Substance.’ ” Thus, not only the Fire-Worshipper, the Parsee, but even the wandering savage tribes of America, which proclaim themselves “born of fire,” show more science in their creeds and truth in their superstitions, than all the speculations of modern physics and learning. "

"If the Deity, the radical One, is eternal and an infinite substance (“the Lord thy God is a consuming fire”) and never consumed, then it does not seem reasonable that the Occult teaching should be held as unphilosophical when it says: “Thus were the Arupa and Rupa worlds formed: from One light seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven,” etc., etc."

I found these quotes on theosociety.org while trying to find tools to help me absorb the information. I'm just putting it here so I can come back to it in my attempt to piece all of this together in my own brain. And it just dawned on me that those quotes may very well be in your guys' complete versions, and I just don't have them in mine. I tried using the full version Cerastes linked me to online, but it hurts my eyes to much to search through in depth.
It is very fascinating thing how Fohat works in the fiery whirlwind. First of all, the circular or spiral movements in the breath of the dragon must be literally the breathing of the world. I think this can be observed in the unforced way of approaching magic, where you got to have to let things breathe and and work with the world. In such work one may sense the intensity cumulating in the background. This circular movement is also, I think, a vehicle of the Master in the sense that the Higher Self is the one able to move things, for it is behind the Will and the Will itself. Secondly, intervowen to the previous thought, the cumulating movement seems to forward questions if things have been done the right way, and should something be adjusted. If not answered correctly the cumulating winds scatters I think, influencing ones own psychic structure (and possibly the surrounding world) with the consequences of the failure. This is also the repercussion that allows us to do better next time – the Wrath of God, a primal form of the lightning bolt of Zeus (again the present in the Thursdays hymn), and I guess Fohat also in it's "electrifying" nature".

As the breath is fiery, we may again see it through these quotes Polyhymnia placed here, to be pointing towards aether, revealing something of the nature of this ”divine substance”. A subject which interests me greatly at the moment. This all relates to the metaphor of honey and the thundering above, I think.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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