Tarot and Kabbalah: Arcanum 18

Arcanum 18

When we Kabbalistically add the Eighteenth Arcanum, we have 1 + 8 = 9, the Ninth Sphere, sex. Esoteric traditions affirm that the Earth has nine strata or subterranean regions. It is clear that what is called the planetary nucleus is found in the ninth stratum. This nucleus is of an extraordinary density. The Kabbalists state that in the center of the Earth, the sign of the infinite is found. It is obvious that within the heart of the Earth its vital energies circulate.

This is the reason why Kabbalists affirm that in the center of the Earth the brain, heart, and sex of the genie of the Earth, or planetary genie, is found. Upon this model all of the organizations of creatures are built, in other words, built within ourselves. The struggle is terrible: brain against sex, sex against brain, and the worst is heart against heart.

The Pentagram with the vertex aiming upwards represents the human being. If sex wins the battle, then the Pentagram is inverted with the vertex aiming downwards and thus originates the downfall of the Fulminated Tower of the Sixteenth Arcanum.

The major force that can liberate or enslave the human being is in sex. In ancient times, the descent into the Ninth Sphere was the maximum ordeal for the supreme dignity of the hierophant. All of the treatises refer to the descent of Aeneas into the Ninth Sphere, the Greek Tartarus (The Aeneid, part VI). The Sibyl of Cumae warned him what the descent into the Avernus signifies:

Offspring of gods by blood, Trojan Anchises’ son, the way downward is easy from Avernus. Black Dis’s door stands open night and day. But to retrace your steps to heaven’s air, there is the trouble, there is the toil. A few whom benign Jupiter has loved or whom fiery heroism has borne to heaven, sons of gods, could do it.

Kabbalists speak about the Adam Protoplastos, who converts himself into something distinct, different, by means of the transmutation of the creative energies. Kabbalistic traditions tell us that Adam had two wives: Lilith and Nahemah. It is stated that Lilith is the mother of abortion, homosexuality, mother of sexual degeneration, and Nahemah is the mother of adultery, fornication, etc.

Lilith and Nahemah are the two aspects of infrasexuality. These two women correspond to two submerged spheres within the very interior of the Earth, the infradimensional and the mineral. However, the Greek Tartarus and the Avernus are symbols of the submerged mineral kingdom. There is life everywhere; we live in the element air, and such an element is invisible to us. Thus, likewise, the fish cannot see the water. Similarly, I can assure you that there is life in stone. There are living beings in the stone and such an element is invisible for them. They are not beings of flesh and bones, of course; they are subtle. They are lost and degenerated germs, which are in a devolving process.

Aeneas found his father and the beautiful Helen in the Tartarus, and likewise Dante found multitudes of beings there, as The Divine Comedy tells us. The nine circles of Dante’s Divine Comedy are related with the nine spheres in the submerged mineral element.

It is necessary to descend into our own atomic infernos in order to work with the fire and water that originated the worlds, beasts, and human beings. In all of the pseudo-occult schools, the ascension, the rising up towards the superior worlds, is spoken of. But the descent is not spoken of, and the serious aspect of this matter is that a humiliation preceeds any exaltation.

In the submerged sphere of Lilith, we find the women who choose to have abortions and likewise people who like to use contraceptive pills in order not to have children; thus, the consequences are obvious. In the sphere of Nahemah we find those who fascinate themselves with sex. Terribly fornicating men and women who deliver themselves to adultery, pride, vanity, women who like divorce in order to get married again. Kabbalistic traditions say that when a man abandons his spouse in order to marry another woman, he remains with the mark of Luciferic fire on his forehead. The Kabbalists affirm that when a woman marries a man who does not correspond to her, then the day of the wedding she appears “bald.” She unconsciously covers too much of her head.

No one can realize the Self without transmutation.

The Ninth Sphere is repeated twice in the Eighteenth Arcanum. This leaves much material for reflection: the first nine is positive and the second nine is negative. Then, the Eighteenth Arcanum manifests the fatal or negative aspect of the Ninth Sphere. Such a negative aspect is found in the two spheres of Lilith and Nahemah.

It is obvious that the infernal worlds are infrasexual. It is evident that infrasexuality reigns with sovereignty within humanity. Humanity is divided; some are in the sphere of Lilith and others in the sphere of Nahemah.

When one intends to work in the Ninth Sphere, immediately one is attacked by the red demons. These demons fight in order to swerve us from the main path of the razor’s edge. It is clear that many dangers from within and without exist in the magisterium of fire.

When the igneous serpent or Kundalini ascends through the dorsal spine, it advances slowly. This is performed slowly from vertebra to vertebra. Each vertebra represents the determined virtues which correspond to an esoteric degree. The ascension to a certain vertebra can never be attained without previously having acquired the conditions of sanctity which are required for the vertebra to which we are aspiring. The 33 vertebrae correspond to the 33 degrees of occult magic, the 33 degrees of the Masonic master, and the 33 years of the life of Jesus. Many ordeals correspond to each vertebra, and the ascension is performed in accordance to the merits of the heart. Those that believe that the Kundalini, once awakened, instantaneously rises towards the head leaving us in complete illumination, are really ignorant people.

The sacred fire has seven degrees of power. These seven degrees of power must be developed in order for us to realize the Self.

In this present reincarnation, when I was struggling with the fourth degree of the power of the fire and still had not dissolved the ego, I saw on the movie screen of a theater a couple performing an erotic scene. Then at night, in the world of the mind, I was submitted to an ordeal in which the same couple from the screen were performing the same scene. Such a scene was reproduced by my mind. It appeared in movement and was alive. I passed the ordeal. When I left the world of the mind and entered into the astral world, I was strongly reprimanded and was warned that if I should return to those places (the movie theaters) I would lose the sword. They told me that it would be better to study my past lives in the Akashic records.

The atmosphere of movie theaters is tenebrous. There are millions of larvae created by the minds of the spectators. For this reason, these people have nocturnal pollutions in the night. This is the Eighteenth Arcanum. It is the darkness.

In The Divine Comedy, the dog Cerberus (sex), which we must take out of the Tartarus and into the sunlight, is spoken of. This refers to the ascension of the sexual forces in us, sexual forces that must be raised; we must also eliminate the “I.” This is the basis for the intimate realization of the Being. This is the struggle between light and darkness in the Eighteenth Arcanum.

This terrible struggle is affirmed in the three tantric schools that are dedicated to sex.

1. White Tantra: Connection of the lingam-yoni without the ejaculation of the Ens Seminis (without reaching orgasm). This Tantra takes us to the ascension of the Kundalini and to realization of the Self.

2. Black Tantra: Ejaculation of the Ens Seminis during the Maithuna exists in order to develop the Kundabuffer organ.

3. Grey Tantra: They sometimes work with ejaculation and sometimes without ejaculation. They work solely for the enjoyment of sexual pleasure but with the immanent danger of falling into Black Tantra.

Indeed, when reaching the Eighteenth Arcanum, we find ourselves before the dilemma of To be or not to be.

No one can attain realization of the Self without the practice of Maithuna. One has to awaken consciousness. Without the consciousness awake, the path is abandoned, because there is no seriousness.

In ancient times, the secret of the Arcanum A.Z.F. was not granted unto anyone that did not previously have the consciousness awakened. This was in order for individuals not to abandon the path.

Synthesis

- Whosoever defeats Satan in sex defeats Satan in all of his aspects.

- To extract the dog Cerberus signifies the liberation of the sexual energy, the utilization of it in a transcendental form.

- The eyes are the windows of the Soul. The man that allows himself to be driven by the eyes of all women and vice versa must resign to live in the abyss.

- There are women who practice sorcery against men and vice versa. These victims must incessantly defend themselves with the Conjuration of the Four and Seven.

- We can defend ourselves against witchcraft by invoking our own Elemental Advocate. This Elemental must be invoked with all of our heart while we go to bed.