ADVORPT -- 90th region in the progression of the Aethyrs.

I invoked ADVORPT using only the call of the thirty aethyrs,
without the call of the element or of the spirit. No
preliminary invocations to the ruling planet and sign were
done.

The scene opened upon an air which seemed to be filled with
birds, flying frantically in every direction. The birds were
primarily of a red-gold color, and had faces that were human
except for noses in imitation of beaks. Their actual mouths
were separate from the beaks. The heads of the birds were
crested like cardinals. There was a singing in the air,
apparently cause by the birds.

An angel appeared as a human surrounded by a halo of yellow
rays. The hem of his garment and the neck were embroided
with lion's heads interspersed with eagle's heads. The tops
of his feet and the backs of his hands were covered with
fine hairs, also of a golden color. His skin was a deep
purple, almost black.

I greeted him with the signs of the Veil, and LVX, to both
of which he responded in kind. Then he turned to his left,
and gestured with his right hand as if throwing something
underhanded.

I looked where he was pointing and saw something like an
electrical corona discharge or ball lightning. In the center
of the ball there appeared a hollow, which seemed to pass
off into some other space. He indicated that I should enter
this space and see what was to be seen.

I performed the sign of the Enterer, and went forward. As I
entered the hollow, it transformed into a tunnel with
metallic blue walls which sped by me at great speed. As we
moved along we passed an occasional ring of black breaking
the tunnel into sections.

We continued to gather speed, and suddenly the walls around
us shattered into a myriad of tiny pieces, all dispersing to
the six directions. I saw that we were now in an air of a
highly charged nature. There was a sense that it was
uniformly filled with energy just waiting to discharge into
any grounded object. It hovered about us with an almost
oppressive intensity. There was also a sense that each
particle of energy was constantly changing state in discrete
jumps taking essentially no time at all.

Now the angel said: "This is the energy underlying the
appearance of matter on which the sensible world is based.
There is nothing on this level which is solid or formed in
the sense that matter is, and therefore all that we can have
here are impressions, not images.

"Each of the Angels of the Aethyr TEX have in some way to do
with bindings, holding things together. They surround and
interpenetrate the earth, providing it with its form and
content.

"The birds you saw at the beginning of this vision are my
7632 servitors, who also represent these energies. Their red
color indicates the power they contain. Their constant
movement in all directions indicates that on the lowest
levels of existence, where fire is supreme, the appearance
of all activity is apparent chaos. Nothing stays in one form
or place, and nothing behaves in an ordered manner. Yet when
one steps back and observes the energies in larger groups
then form appears, and sensible order. Let us go back and
look at them again."

We did so, returning instantly to the opening scene, and
again the birds surrounded us as before. We rose upwards
until we were outside of their area of flight, and I looked
down upon them. From this angle, their flights seemed to be
limited in space, and cumulatively their movements spelled
the words AM HARTz, that is, in crude Hebrew, "Mother
Earth". Yet when I looked closely again, they still seemed
to be chaotic in their individual movements.

"So you see," said the angel, "that the fundamental quality
of existence is not matter, not Earth, but Fire, energy.
Nothing of matter exists except as pattern imposed on chaos.
We here in this part of the Aethyr TEX are responsible for
this binding of form, this laying on of sensible pattern, on
top of the essential chaos. This is also why, in the Tablet
of Union, the lowest of the four divine names is that
related to fire, BITOM, with Earth directly above it. The
divine name for water, HCOMA, is above that of Earth, NANTA,
showing in that in turn our sensation of that matter, and
the feelings that sensation engenders in us, is yet another
level of fluidity imposed on the apparent order of the
matter. And the highest of the four Names, EXARP, Air, is
order imposed once more upon the fluidity of the sensations
and feelings. Thus is the Tablet of Union divided into
objective and subjective, and into chaos and order,
constantly interchanging with each other in the shifting of
IHVH. Tabulate how the Names relate to these concepts, if
you please, and consider them for a moment."

Here is the tabulation:

               Order         Chaos
              -!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-
Subjective |    Air          Water
Objective  |   Earth         Fire

"Note that this arrangment essentially duplicates the
ordering of the Great Table itself, as far as the
distribution of the four elements to the quarters. And each
arm of the Black Cross contains one chaotic element and one
ordered element, in perfect balance. The vertical arms of
the Black Cross balance the subjective aspect against the
objective aspect contained in the horizontal arms. Thus are
the elemental tablets united in the Great Table."

"Now, to go on, consider that the changing of the sub-
elements into one another in each tablet also reflects this
double division. And when one calls upon them by the power
of the gods of the Lesser Angles, one is also invoking these
aspects of existence along with the actual elemental power.

"And yet, the binding cross of each of the elemental tablets
is otherwise than this ordering. For are not those crosses
composed of the Seniors and the King, who are the powers of
the planets? Their power is greater than mine, and greater
than the fourfold opening of the elements, yet here they
are, subject to that same fourfold binding in the Black
Cross. This is because the seniors are a reflection, an
echoing, of that which is greater into that which is lesser,
just as the Six who are Seven in the Tree of Life inject
themselves into the Four through the power of Tiphereth,
Sol. So the King of each element, who is the center of the
great cross of each element, takes the forces of the planets
(in themselves entirely outside this scheme) and re-
distributes them on a lower level through the power of their
servitors, the Seniors.

"Just as Tiphereth is in one sense planetary, and at the
same time is elemental, so also with these sun-kings of the
elementals tablets. They are solar with respect to their
particular tablets, yet they are elemental when considered
from the standpoint of the First, who is above all of the
tablets, and is also above the Tablet of Union, which he
created as the lamen of this system of magick.

___-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-
A note added 5/9/93:

In the Tablet of Union and the Black Cross:

[Highest, most abstract]
        
Subjective Order       Air         (vertical arm of Black Cross)
Subjective Chaos       Water       (vertical arm)
Objective Order        Earth       (horizontal arm of Black Cross)
Objective Chaos        Fire        (horizontal arm)

[Lowest, most fundamental]


         - Ben Rowe