The Church Ov Nothing

The star of desire represents transcendence through desire. It is a commitment to be present in our feelings, thoughts, body, and mind. Our inner subtle self is opened by these attachments and our will to be moved by them. Desire is the will to exist.

The design of this piece is the spheres and paths of the twelfth tree of emanation. The central stone represents the sphere of Desire and the five points of the star are the surrounding spheres and their paths.

The planetary correspondences seem to map best onto the ninth tree of emanation. This tree includes desire and all the various aspects of will and intent above grounding in actual manifest existence.

In the correspondences of the planets to the zodiac it is mainly a direct mapping from the planets that move the slowest across the sky to those that move the fastest with the slowest planets associated with winter signs and fastest planets associated with summer. I would flip these associations in the southern hemisphere and adapt them to dry/rainy season etc in equatorial regions depending on weather patterns.

This mapping based on apparent speed of each planet maps most in sequential order on the tree. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are associated conceptually and by elemental correspondences, Uranus being Air and Neptune being Water. Saturn would fit well as a mapping for the entire upper triad, and if mapping to traditional systems before Uranus and Neptune were discovered this would be appropriate.

The sphere of Agent could be either Sun or Earth. Using the classical planets I would use Sun, but Earth is appropriate astronomically as it is between Venus and Mars and conceptually it is quite simply where we as conscious agents find ourselves.

Diagram showing the elemental associations of the twelve spheres of void emanation.

The first four spheres manifest the four elements. The spark of Chaos which is being itself is Fire (🜂). The flow of Process which follows is Water (🜄). The result of this flow forms a new union in Pattern, which is Air (🜁) and within this pattern are fixed Forms, which is Earth (🜃).

The fifth emanation returns us to Fire (🜂), which echos the myths of the descent of fire from divine spark to potentially destructive force of change. The second through fifth spheres now also form a set of elements with the divine fire of Chaos above, perhaps included as the element of Spirit.

The sequence of prime numbers assigned to the spheres also have a special relation in the fourth and fifth spheres, being five and seven, the first twin prime pair divisible by twelve, as all twin prime pairs greater than three and five share. The sixth and seventh emanations, Agent and Sense, are the second twin prime pair, being eleven and thirteen. These two pairs give us the next elemental set, and multiplied by the triad above give us the zodiac.

The following five spheres echo the preceding and yielding another elemental set on the left and right side of the tree as well as a final set down the middle.

Prototype jewelry pieces arrived! Really happy with both.

PDF for presentation given at CarniVal of Khaos festival.

Flower of Desire.

The path of transcendence is through desire. We pour ourselves into attraction and aversion, fears and dreams, and so attach ourselves to that outside of ourselves. It is through desire that we connect with the world and those we find within it.

Cube/Octahedron temple form of Tree of Void Emanation.

This temple is formed by folding of the Tree of Void Emanation. The paths of Fortune and Temperance dissolve to give rise to the hybrid paths. This form of the tree is a practical form for casting in space, with the central energetic channel of the self in Agent and Desire.

The cube can be also used as a transitional form folding the tree into the form of the icosahedron.

The form of this temple is identical to the pentagrams described in this previous post.

Working and meditating on the tree of emanation presented as a pair of pentagrams.

The principle of "as above, so below" implies an energetically stable form where the spheres at the top of the tree reflect the paths of the bottom. This implies the formation of two new paths at the top of the tree connecting Chaos with Form and Change. After much thought, the names selected come from "Solve et Coagula", the principles of breaking down and reforming.

The paths of Fortune and Temperance are themselves dissolved in this form of the tree. The paths of Life and Labyrinth are also shown as this formation is an intermediate transitional state in folding the tree to the dodecahedron.

Another view of the tree of emanation folded into an icosahedron. From above and front with Queen of Disks centered and then looking down and back with the Princess of Disks centered. As normally cast the path of Empress is directly overhead and Lust is directly below, but these two views make it easier to see patterns of path oppositions.

List of path oppositions. The "-" indicates that path directionality is reverse while "+" indicates that it is complementary if the direction of the paths were extended in circular movement around the icosahedron. As a few hybrid paths have no clear directionality, an "=" sign is used to indicate these.

- Fool / Moon + Juggler / Alchemist - Priestess / Tower - Empress / Lust - Emperor / Angel + Hierophant / Art + Lovers / Aeon + Chariot / Shadow + Justice / Judgement + Hermit / World = Strength / Daimon - Hanged One / Headless One - Death / Life = Baphomet / Darkness = Prometheus / Light

The meanings of these pairs is a matter of continued research. Some seem obvious, such as Judgement complimentary to Justice and Death being the reverse of Life. Others elucidate meanings of new paths such as Emperor reverse of Angel indicating that the Emperor's control is found reversed in the Angel's releasing, it being a sort of a psychopomp, echoing the Angel that appeared in traditional versions of Judgement.

The meanings of these pairs can be applied directly to the tarot or indirectly in the case of hybrid paths. For example, Death is reverse from Life. The path of Life is hybrid from Magus and Sun, telling us to look for these cards in the spread to help further explain the meaning of Death. Magus may imply ending as opening up new possibilities while Sun may indicate a more material change.

This is, of course, within the system of Emanant Void Magick. Apply this interpretation to traditional tarot at your own discretion.

Some background on path hybridization in the folding of the tree of emanation can be found in this previous post.

The tree of emanation folds upon itself to form an icosahedron. Its twelve corners are the spheres. Its thirty edges are the paths. Its twenty sides are the court cards.

The geometry of the icosahedron is shown here flattened. As this form is normally cast, the spheres of Chaos & Agent are above the magician with Chaos behind and Agent before. In front of the magician is Form & Change to the left and right respectively. Behind are Matter & Soul. To the Right is Pattern & Thought with Pattern above Thought. To the Left Process & Sense in the same way. Below is Kia & Desire, behind and front. The path of Lust connects below Kia and Desire below as the path of the Empress connects Chaos and Agent above.

The paths are affected by the folding of the tree in their connections and meaning. The entire meaning of the tree is also changed, no longer representing the process of formation but instead symbolizing formed reality.

In the tree of emanation there are twenty-nine paths. In the icosahedron there are thirty. The path of the Devil hybridizes with Sun and Rebel to split to paths. This division is echoed in imagery of the Devil as Pan/Baphomet vs Prometheus/Lucifer.

The spaces between the spheres and paths are areas of influence which define the court cards. The pattern of Queen & King above is echoed by Princess and Prince below. The Knights are a special case as these most directly represent the magician as oneself in the act of working. In a tarot spread they are represented in the layout of the spread itself rather than by cards in the deck.

The suits are assigned with Wands circling Change and Disks circling Matter. Swords reaches above to bellow following Pattern and Thought. Cups mirrors Swords following Process and Sense.

Interpretation of the court cards is derived from their influences. For example, the Queen of Swords is bounded by Empress, Priestess, and Hermit. From this we understand her as an architect. A person who designs experiences from others but remains distanced. She works in big ideas and abstractions perhaps even preferring the ideas retain purity by being unexpressed.

Diagram showing how the twelve spheres of the tree of emanation form the icosahedron. In this representation the spheres are corners, the paths are edges, and the court cards are faces. The geometry is represented flat with two faces on the outside of the figure, divided by the path of Lust which wraps bottom to top.

The linkage of some paths shift, which somewhat changes the interpretation of the paths. The Devil fully splits into two paths, one generative and the other destructive. Shadows are shown where paths connect in the tree form.