Hermetics / 4 — 11th Mansion
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The eleventh mansion is numinous charisma, awe, wonder, and prestige. It signifies power, gain, and respect. It indicates success when making a petition to a person in authors, whether a boss or a client, we must emulate the strength of the lion, yes, but also its noble qualities. Shrink not from confrontation, nor hide, for boldness will win the day.
I’m not happy with my “lion”. It’s rather too foxlike, even while trying to emulate the work of Nigel Jackson. I like the ribbons and banners, but I wish I’d painted the sky before doing erasures to create the banners, the lion and the rider. It COULD be so much better. But Ira Glass is right — you have to make a lot of crap before your abilities match your own taste for what is quality work. Stay dissatisfied in your own work — it’s what makes you better.
Mike,
I’m not sure to say it’s fair that the outer work doesn’t count. I mean, your art and mine are outer work, but they’re driven in part by inner work. By their fruits shall you know them, and all that. Or, as another master would have it, as within, so without; as above, so below. 🙂
I like it. 🙂 In many ways there’s no less secret to art than just getting out and doing it. And you can always do it again.
As you say. In fact, I think the mansions of the moon were a kind of drawing course before art schools. If you had a kid who was an artist but he was supposed to be a scribe – you’d sit him down and check his skills: “ok, kid, draw this.” and you could keep doing that for twenty-eight days, churning out ideas or checking skill development as she went.
I think that’s a pretty interesting facet of the western esoteric tradition, that so many exercises are designed to make you interpret or redraw diagrams and ideas. I’ve been doing a series of Hebrew letters recently and in just the act of doing them I’ve learned a great deal.
I love that the WMT so multifaceted: that as you work through the layers, one unifies one’s understanding f music, mathematics, language, astronomy, art, color theory, narrative, imagery and divinity. Even memory comes into play as the palace of memory is activated to help you remember what you need to know.
Have you ever checked out Frances Yates’ books Giordano Bruno & The Hermetic Tradition and The Art of Memory? They’re not so much WMT books so much as how they’re about as you say the palace of memory and how important the technique was historically.
I’ve read The Art of Memory but not yet Giordano Bruno & The Hermetic Tradition. I found TAoM to be quite helpful in developing my own memory palace, but pseudo-Cicero’s Ad Herennium is even more helpful. There’s a Roman Catholic book called Memorize the Faith! which is even more useful in that it gives pictures and places to follow, although it may not be in anyone’s best interest for me to memorize the finer points of the Catholic faith.
That said, I meet a LOT of Pagan/Wicca and even WMT folks who have no idea of what a wealth of spiritual heritage we have in this stuff. They seem to think it’s all LBRP and initiation ceremonies and making a Fire Wand… sigh.
I’ll definitely have to check out the pseudo-Cicero book, thanks. The Bruno book is something of a set up for the Art of Memory.
And it’s definitely the inner work that counts, otherwise it would be like putting on a play or reenactment.