Quite Simple, Actually

The other day I managed to break the script the Fearless Legion followed in welcoming (and ejecting) me from their realm. While their commander brought the encounter to its predictable end (and in a snap, at that), I did not leave empty handed.

If I was going to go through the Warring Fields of Geburah to step foot on the Path of Teth, I would need authorization from the Lord of the Path of Teth, first.

Would have been nice to know several months ago. But now I have a different problem.

I can’t go there without permission. But I can’t get permission unless I go there! Right?

In the lulls at work, I looked up who (or what) the Lord of the Path of Teth would be as far as western esotericism is concerned. Using my previous encounter with Asmodel as a guide, it would stand that the LotPoT would have the same title as Asmodel, right?

~pulls up Liber 777~

Asmodel is listed as the geomantic intelligence of Taurus, and thus of the path of Vau. So I’m looking for the geomantic intelligence of Leo. Okay. Wait. The fuck is a geomantic intelligence? I thought Asmodel was an angel…

You mean all this time, I’ve been running on wrong information?

~SELF DOUBT INTENSIFIES~

A full third of the day was chewed up with reconciling having run my esoteric engine on bad gas, but still not only making progress but improving myself in the process. I’ll admit plainly that my map is made up of stolen scraps of a hundred different sources, most of them irreconcilable, and every thing is held together by duct tape, blood, and sheer obstinance.

In other words, so fucking what if what I thought was Asmodel, wasn’t Asmodel. So fucking what if what I encountered in the Cave and the Cathedral wasn’t the grand high poobah after all. Did I get what I needed to get out of that encounter? Did it help me in the end? Did I learn a thing?

I’m going about things my own way. Of course it is not going to reconcile with other people’s expectations. So, if the geomantic intelligence of Taurus helped me learn a thing about the archetype of the Hierophant, then the geomantic intelligence of Leo is going to help me learn a thing about Strength/Fortitude/Lust, and in the process allow me to retrieve [the dream version of] my wand. I hope. Maybe if I ask nice and offer to do something for him/her/kir/it. (What could possibly go wrong?)

Thus having settled my doubt, I went back to risking perdition by looking up shit on the internet when…

The archangels of the 12 zodiacal constellations are used in geomancy as “intelligences” of the figures corresponding to the signs.

They are simply the archangels of the signs AND are used as ruling powers in geomancy (not to be confused with the Yetziratic beings called Intelligences of the 7 planets).

[Source: http://www.heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=11015#p72240 ]

Well… fuck me.

I’m still not sure how to process being right all along. But moving on…

The geomantic intelligence of Leo is listed as “Verachiel”. I now have a name. And with a name, I have a means of establishing contact. (And by name, I mean a title and a reference. Not all names are Names. They are like phone numbers. I can ring them up but I won’t know if I’ve been given a bad number, a party line, an office number, or a direct line until someone (something) picks up and I vet who I’m talking to.)

Took some putzing around (read: even more Internet searching) to find the root letters. V-R-K. (The full spelling is Vau Resh Kaf Yod Aleph Lamed.) (No, I’m not touching the unfathomable well that is gematria. Go ahead without me. Have fun.) Google Translate tells me those three root letters do actually make a Hebrew word, and that word means “soft” in English.

Okay, I guess.

On to Wiktionary! No, I don’t expect a 1:1 translation. But when the word is not directly referenced, but used in supporting sentences for other words, sussing out the context it is used in goes a long way to understanding the meaning of the word itself.

And in this case, while there was no direct entry for “ורך”, there were several other definitions that used it in a supporting manner giving me two contexts to work with. There is “soft” as in “fluffy”, “cuddly”, and “fleece”. And then there is “soft” as in “mature and soft wisdom” and “a soft and tender [advanced] age”.

Now that I can work with. Putting those meanings in the context of the angel’s name, there’s a double entendre going on here. “[The] Soft [One] of the Lord.” I read the first as a warning. Because, really, the archangel of Leo, the card of Strength, Fortitude, Lust, Determination, Steadfastness, and Fierce Desire is… “Soft”? No, son. That’s a warning. “Speak softly and carry a big stick” kind of warning. “Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee” kind of warning. “A lion’s mane is fluffy and soft, a lion’s mouth is not” kind of warning. Verachiel is soft only to those he(?) wishes to be soft with/to. To everyone else, he is likely the firestorm and the devouring.

The other meaning could testify to why Verachiel is “soft” in appearance. To put it bluntly, the angel has been through some shit and has seen some shit. When you are older than the mountains and watched the first molecules of matter descend from energy, you are not going to react when some impious little shit starts yelling obscenities in your general direction and demanding you do as they say because they know your dad. Verachiel is ancient, and has the wisdom and understanding that comes with watching the ages go by. There is no need to wear spiky spaulders or brightly colored garments as a warning that you are dangerous. Those that make it to him just know. To be in the presence of Verachiel is to be before an intelligence that will dwarf everything thing you thought you knew or held in security.

Well, that’s what I’m taking away from this googlefied as fuck deconstruction. Am I sure I’m right? No. Will someone that knows their shit be able to come along and bury me? Most likely. Do I have the resources to find out for sure? Hell, no. This is the map I have created, and there is only one way to know if it is right or not. Walk it.

Last night, I took my mismatched pieces, and using the Hermetic Rose from my Hermetic Kabbalah Tarot, drew out a sigil of Verachiel’s name using the Hebrew root letters. I drew two versions, one of just the root letters “VRK”, and the other including the honorific “IEL”. (Yod Aleph Lamed.) I practiced drawing them in my mind’s eye until my hand followed in reflex. (Why that rose and not the Golden Dawn? Because I am using the HKT as my master map for the Tree of Life, and the outer ring of the HKT rose is turned half a position counter-clockwise. Not enough to completely disagree with the Golden Dawn rose, but enough to make a distinction should derived sigils get complicated.)

So, now I have a name, and “number” to dial. Now what? I haven’t tried invoking an angel since my ignorant experiments with K, and I’d rather not have that experience again, thank you fucking much. So do I just invite said angel to hang out with me in my astral cottage?

Sure. Why not?

I’ve played host to several other types of entities before… so why not give it a try? What’s the worst that could happen? Don’t answer that.

Before going to bed, I got myself as ritually pure as I can get. (Which… um… just nod and agree I gave it an honest attempt.) Once over yonder, I set my minions to help me get the lair as clean as possible. I even cleaned out debris from the blue lotus bowl. Standing back and looking over the strangely pristine living space, I realized there was no way in hell my lair would ever be properly ritually pure. I have accumulated too many “trophies”, knick knacks, and tools over the years (lifetimes?). I’m sure one particular shelf could count as a graveyard all by itself.

So, hosting an emanation of the angel is not feasible. Well, I could at least just call and try to get the process of gaining authorization going. If I need to make changes, hopefully, I’ll be told.

Right?

I changed my appearance to my formal mode of dress, just in case, and went out to the fire that burns before my lair. I followed my instinct and took the flames in hand to wash over my face before rubbing them out between my palms. I knelt before the fire and traced out both sigils of the angel’s name in flame before me. The sigil with the honorific illumined brighter but the sigil without remained longer. This felt like a test.

Well, I have a reputation of impiety to uphold… Banzai, motherfucker. I dismissed the sigil with the honorific and redrew the three letter sigil over itself. It burned a little brighter in the space between me and the fire. I drew it again over and over while verbally calling on the angel “Verachiel, archangel of Leo, and the geomantic intelligence of Fortuna Major and Fortuna Minor, long of days and soft of wisdom, lord of the Path of Teth.”

Yea, I know, not the most graceful of wordings. That wasn’t the point. By focusing on all that I [think I] know of Verachiel, I focus the call put out by the sigil to just him and not any wandering entity that also fancies that name for itself. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

I had repeated the action and the words for so long, that my voice sounded alien to myself. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see or hear in response. If I had any response at all! This was all a shot in the dark, after all.

Speaking of dark…

A dark mass appeared directly over the fire. An vertically oval shaped shadow, with even darker shadow wisps rising off of it, was descending towards me. The shadow twisted on itself, forcing the smoke of the fire to rise along its surface. The smoke revealed the outline of a humanoid shape wrapped in lengths of undulating cloth.

It continued until its feet were barely touching the flames below it. I had stopped my calling, but noticed the sigil was now burning brighter than the fire behind it.

It extended a smoke defined hand, and the sigil rose at the silent command. It examined the flame-writ mark then placed it on its chest. It extended hidden wings so violently, the action put out the fire before me and popped my ears. The wings burst into bright color and fierce heat as each individual feather inflamed.

The eyes of the figure was closed as it turned its head to face me directly.

“I am Verachiel.”

The eyes opened and a shockwave of light and heat washed over me, knocking me over and searing my skin before the intensity overwhelmed my senses and I blacked out.

I remember only the sensation that a great amount of time had passed. What happened during that time? I do not know.

Shortly before dawn, a new dream started. I was one of thousands that was trying to establish a new town. There were group quests we had to complete if we were going to have the united utopia we all had collectively dreamed of. But when the time came to actually do the work, many of those that were so enthusiastic about the end result decided that the work was too damn much. Why should they have to sacrifice their free time and personal resources for something that other people would enjoy? Why can’t they just have a full grown tree brought in now, instead of planting a sapling that will take thirty years to fully mature? Maybe the old ways wasn’t so bad after all and we can just make the old ways better instead of starting new!

The Powers That Be had given us a list of group quests and personal quests. Some were dependent on each other in a very convoluted and surprising chain. Some were independent of each other. The goal of each individual was to complete as many quests as possible before personal game time ran out.

Some folks had found what they thought was the master list of hints and cheats. They ran off to exploit their find, but did not pay attention to which quests they managed to break in the process. Unfortunately, their actions affected others outside of their group, and made it difficult to complete the master quest chain for the town.

Others complained about having to do any quests at all, and demanded to be given the best possible outcome at once. They saw no use to going through the motions and storylines of the quests if we were all going to be given all the rewards anyway. Others that had completed more quests came back to tell us of what they found. What rewards you gain is dependent on what quests you complete and how well you complete them. If you do nothing, you gain nothing. Still didn’t stop the complainers from complaining.

I had tried to complete the group quests that was assigned to me, but many of those I was supposed to group up with took offense at the skillset I brought with me. They were trying to min/max their outcome, and according to the cheat sheet they were using I brought nothing exploitable to the table. They kicked me from their group, telling me to either follow the same cheat sheet they had or leave the game entirely as I was getting in the way.

But according to my list of personal quests, I was making good advancement. My success was considered a detriment to them because they could not take advantage of it.

A different set of group quests had me plumbing strange and forbidden areas of the town. Though, they weren’t really forbidden to me. Just intimidating. As long as I kept the goal of completing the quest forefront in my mind, I was not afraid of those trying to stop me.

I noted I had fewer and fewer group quests to directly engage in, but that many of my individual quests had outcomes that affected the master quest chain. I took a look at other folks’ quest log and saw the same thing. The ultimate outcome of the town was determined by not only our collective efforts, but our individual efforts as well.

I sat down on a marble slab to ponder what I was looking at. An angel, grand of stature and bright of light, descended from the heavens to address me.

“Do you know what you are seeing?” The angels voice sounded like the roar of a furnace combined with the soft mews of a kitten. It was beautiful to listen to.

“An allegory, angel. The town represents the advancement of humanity as a whole, and we are all the individuals that make it up. The quests are those things we can do for our cultures, our societies, and our personal lives. Not just the grand ideals like arts and sciences, but the dirty everyday things of garbage trucks and keeping the buses running. There is making sure the shelters are stocked with food, and making sure I eat responsibly for myself. Little things affect the whole. Grand things affect the individual. They are all interrelated.”

“And what quest are you on now?”

“Several interlocking ones, angel. I had started the quest chain “Retrieving the Wand” several months ago, but I fear I waited too long to make proper progress and the chain may have expired.”

“It is never too late to improve yourself. The tangible rewards will change over time, but it is never too late to improve yourself. When you finish one quest chain, a new one unlocks. But it is up to you if to accept it.”

“That’s a roundabout way of telling me that I’m a lazy fuck and to not let doubt stop me.”

“If that is how you want to translate it.” The angel’s voice held a hint of mirth.

I openly laughed in actual joy. I know when I’m being sassed, and I held no anger about it. I looked down and realized by the light of the angel, that the marble slab I was sitting on was actually a tombstone. “Ah, fuck. I’m sorry, angel. We’re having this conversation on a grave! I didn’t mean to be unclean before you.”

“[Let me remind you of a thing.] What here is unclean? You do not speak to me with underhanded motives, or to seed discord. You have been open and honest with me as well as yourself. There is a time and a place to be concerned about contamination of the dead, but from my perspective, you are all dead. Only some don’t know it yet. Complete your quests so you may be rewarded with life.”

The angel ascended into the heavens, leaving me to ponder his words while still seated on the marble tombstone. Around me, people continued running back and forth with their own personal list of quests. Each one trying to understanding the riddle of words and insisting that their understanding is the only true one to have.

I looked at my list of quests for the chain “Retrieving the Wand”. The quest “Contact Verachiel” had been marked off as completed. “Gain Authorization” was still pending. I was upset. I had no way of knowing if I really had contacted that angel, or if this was just wishful thinking again. I’ll see when I wake up.

So I woke up.

Decadently lazy about getting out of bed, my body reminded me that I can only ignore fluid dynamics for so long. So after restoring balance, I finally indulged in my narcissist tendencies and opened Tumblr. I looked at the post greeting me, then closed the app and started my morning habit of swearing profusely.

It may be a quote by Lao Tzu, but I’m blaming Chirotus because of his timing.

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong. —Lao Tzu

Tell me again, who is “soft”?

Now to figure out if I have gained authorization already, or if that is an entirely different matter.