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