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Chapter:

Arcanum 15 Passion

Tarot 15

Description of the Plate

In the waters of life (the lower third) is found the representation of Geburah (the law).

In the middle of the plate appears Typhon Baphomet, holding in his left hand the staff of command and in his right hand an ascending serpent. His right hand is masculine and his left is feminine. His breasts indicate that he is androgynous. He covers wisdom with his apron and from the same apron a tail results.

His face is deformed due to errors and sins. The Baphomet represents the brass that humanity has actually blackened due to degeneration. We should whiten the brass. We should whiten the devil, who is the psychological trainer and guardian of the doors of the sanctuary, so that only the chosen, those that have passed all the tests imposed by the devil, can enter.

Esoteric Significance of the Arcanum

The Fifteenth Arcanum of the Tarot represents the male goat of Mendes, Lucifer, Typhon Baphomet, the devil.

The alchemist must steal the fire from the devil. When we work with the Arcanum A.Z.F. we steal fire from the devil and we convert ourselves into gods. Thus, the five pointed star shines.

The horns end in six points. The Sixth Arcanum is sex, indicating that in sex is either liberation through chastity, or slavery of man through passion.

There is a difference with the First Arcanum. The right hand is above, and the left is towards the earth. The mystery of Baphomet is Sexual Alchemy, a mystery based on the comprehension of the transmutation of the creative energies. The Baphomet of the Templars must be read backwards, “Tem-o-h-p-ab,” which is the symbol of the Latin words, “Templi ommun hominun pacis abbas.” The meaning of this is, “The Father of the temple of universal peace for men.”

The Fifteenth Arcanum appears after the Thirteenth, which is the death of the ego, the “I,” the “myself,” and after the Fourteenth, which is the card of temperance or chastity that occurs after the death of the ego. The Fifteenth Arcanum is then the divine androgyny that once again shines. It is the whitewashed brass.

We know that the interior Divine Logoi is beyond the body, the feelings, and the mind. Unquestionably, that which is the ineffable, that which is the Reality, projects its own reflection, its particular shadow within each one of us, here and now. Obviously, that shadow, that Logoic reflection, is the psychological trainer, Lucifer the tempter. Each one of us has our own particular Lucifer.

In the time of the Pharaohs, in Egypt, the Sun of the middle day, the sacred Absolute Sun, was always symbolised by Osiris, while its shadow, its reflection, its Lucifer, was symbolised by Typhon.

When the neophyte was ready to suffer the ordeals of initiation in the sacred temples of the ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs, the master approached the novice and murmured this mysterious phrase, “Remember that Osiris is a black God.”

Evidently, this is the specific color of darkness, of shadows, and of the devil to whom black roses were always offered. Also, it is the color of the primitive Chaos where all the elements and germs of life are totally mixed and confounded. It is the symbol of the element earth, of the night and of the radical death of all of those psychological aggregates, that in their conjunction constitute the “myself.”

We need to whitewash the devil with maximum expedited urgency. This is only possible through fighting against our own selves, by dissolving all those conjunctions of psychological aggregates that constitute the “I,” the “myself,” the “itself.” Only by dying in ourselves can we whitewash the brass and contemplate the Sun of Midnight (the Father). This signifies that we must defeat all temptations and eliminate all of the inhuman elements that we carry within (anger, greed, lust, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony, etc.). A trainer in the psychological gymnasium of human existence is always required. The divine Daimon, quoted many times by Socrates, is the very shadow of our own individual Spirit. He is the most extraordinary psychological trainer that each one of us carries within. He delivers us into temptation with the purpose of training us, teaching us. Only in this way is it possible for the precious gems of virtue to sprout from our psyche.

Now I ask myself and I ask you. Where is the evil of Lucifer? The results speak for themselves. If there are no temptations, there are no virtues. Virtues are more grandiose when temptations are stronger. What is important is not to fall into temptation. That is why we have to pray to our Father, saying, “Lead us not into temptation.”

Only through the struggle, the contrast, the temptation, and rigorous esoteric discipline, can the flowers of virtue sprout from us.

Lucifer as Ayo, teacher, mentor, certainly is exceptional, unusual, and extraordinary. In the Luciferic temptation there is an unparalleled didactic, a portentous pedagogy, an astonished attraction, an unmistakable incentive, an occult instigation with secret divine propositions, seduction, fascination... Lucifer-Prometheus is one with the Platonic Logos. He is the minister of the creative Demiurge and the resplendent lord of Sabbath, the seven mansions of Hades (infernos), and of the manifested world. Lucifer is he who bears the sword and the scale of cosmic justice, because to him is undoubtedly committed the norm of the weight and measure and number. He is Horus, Brahma, Ahura-Mazda, etc., always ineffable.

Lucifer (luci = light, fer = fire) is the Guardian of the Door, who alone is entrusted with the keys of the lumisial that no one enter therein, save the anointed ones having the secret of Hermes...

Those that dare to curse Lucifer pronounce themselves against the cosmic reflection of the Logos. They anathematize the living manifested God in matter and abhor the ever-incomprehensible wisdom when rebelling against the contraries of light and darkness, against countenance, resemblance, similitude, sun and shadow, day and night, the law of the contraries...

The devil, the reflection of our interior Logoi, was the most sublime creature before we fell into animal generation. All of the masters of the Hermetic art repeat unto us, “Whitewash the brass and burn your books.”

One who whitewashes the devil, turning it into its resplendent and primogenitary state, one who dies in oneself, here and now, liberates the chained Prometheus. Thus, Prometheus pays the individual with abundance because he is a colossus with power over the heavens, the Earth, and the infernos.

Lucifer-Prometheus, radically integrated with all of the parts of our Being, makes of us something distinct, a different and exotic creature, an archangel, a terrific and divine power.