Chapter I
The Great Work has the purpose of transmuting, transforming the Moon into the Sun. The Moon is the Soul. The Sun is the Slain Lamb. When the Lamb enters the Soul, He is transformed into Her. And She is transformed into Him. From this marvelous symbiosis comes that which our most loving Jesus Christ so aptly called The Son of Man.
The “Magnun Opus” has twenty-two fundamental keys.
The sexual force comes from the Third Logos. The Third Logos is the Holy Spirit.
The Animal-Man makes the energy of the Third Logos flow “downwards” and “outwards”. The Angel-Man, through the “Magnum Opus” makes the energy of the Third Logos return “inwards” and “upwards”. This is how the Angel-Man becomes a creator on other higher levels of consciousness. First, he becomes a creator on the Astral Plane; then, on the Mental Plane, and then in the Superior Worlds of the Pure Spirit.
The laboratory of the Third Logos is our very sexual organs. The ascending flow of the Sacred Fire is the result of Sexual transmutation. And this sexual transmutation has twenty-two Fundamental Arcana. Here are the twenty-two Major Arcana of the Tarot:
Arcanum 1 – THE MAGICIAN
This Arcanum represents man. It is the masculine principle.
Arcanum 2 – THE PRIESTESS-WIFE
The Magician’s Wife.
Arcanum 3 – THE CELESTIAL MOTHER
The Empress. The Soul is Christified through the Arcanum A.Z.F.
Arcanum 4 – THE CROSS OF INITIATION
The Cross also reveals the “squaring of the circle.” The key to perpetual movement. This perpetual movement is only possible through the Sexual Force of the Third Logos. If the energy of the Third Logos were to stop flowing in the Universe, perpetual movement would end and cosmic disarray would occur.
The Third Logos organizes the fundamental vortex of the entire nascent Universe, and the infinitesimal vortex of the ultimate atom of any creation.
The insertion of the vertical Phallus within the FORMAL CTEIS forms a cross. The Cross of Initiation, which we must take upon our shoulders.
Arcanum 5 – THE HIEROPHANT, THE RIGOR, THE LAW
This Arcanum represents the “Karma” of the Initiate. We must know that karma, in the final synthesis, serves to live in the flesh the whole Drama of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can pay our debts by working in the Great Work of the Father.
Arcanum 6 – THE LOVER
Man, between vice and virtue.
This Arcanum is expressed by the Seal of Solomon. The six points of the Star of Solomon are masculine; and the six deep entrances that exist between the points are feminine. In total, this Star has twelve rays, six masculine and six feminine. Through the “Magnum Opus”, these twelve rays crystallize in the twelve zodiacal constellations.
The sexual genesis of the Zodiac is hidden in the Seal of Solomon. The intimate relationship between the Zodiac and the invisible Central Sun is found in the Seal of Solomon. The Seal of Solomon is, in fact, the authentic Christmas Star. Its two triangles, which join and separate Love, are the shuttles with which the Loom of God is woven and unwoven. Each time the Initiate is going to receive a new Initiation, or a new Degree of Consciousness, then the brilliant Star shines. In the Seal of Solomon is the Supreme Affirmation and the Supreme Negation.
The terrible struggle between God and the Devil!
Arcanum 7 – THE WAR CHARIOT
You have to work on the Arcanum A.Z.F. to achieve the Sword. The fight is terrible! The warrior can only free himself from the four Bodies of Sin through the Arcanum A.Z.F.!
Arcanum 8 – THE ARCANUM OF JOB
Trials and pain. The Initiation Trials are very terrible! Great patience is needed to avoid falling into the Abyss… We are tested many times!
Arcanum 9 – THE HERMIT
This Arcanum is the Ninth Sphere: Sex. And the descent to the Ninth Sphere was, in the Ancient Temples, the ultimate test for the supreme dignity of the HIEROPHANT. HERMES, BUDDHA, JESUS CHRIST, ZOROASTER, DANTE, etc., many other great Initiates, had to descend to the Ninth Sphere, to work with Fire and Water, the origin of Worlds, Beasts, Men and Gods. Every authentic White Initiation begins there… In the ninth stratum of the Earth, we find the sign of Infinity. This sign has the form of an 8 (eight). In this sign the brain and the sex of the Genius of the Earth are symbolized. The struggle is terrible. Brain against Sex; Sex against Brain; and what is more terrible: Heart against Heart!
Arcanum 10 – THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
This is the Wheel of “SAMSARA”, Reincarnation!
The incessant transmutations of the Sexual force produce the sound Anahata. With this sound we can go out in the astral body. When we want to hear the mystical sound, we will first vocalize the Mantra “LA”, alternating it with the Mantra “RA”, this is done mentally. When the sound is intense, we can calmly go out in our astral body. And with the Arcanum A.Z.F. we free ourselves from Evolution. For the man who has been absolutely Christified, evolution ceases to exist.
Arcanum 11 – THE TAMED LION
In ancient times, the Divine Kings sat on thrones whose arms were made of solid gold. Horus sat on a similar throne. Gold, Horus, Potable Gold, is the Sacred Fire of the Third Logos, symbolized by the Tamed Lion, by the Golden Lions of the Divine Kings. Man is one Unit; woman is another, this is the Number Eleven of the Tarot. Only through Woman, working in the Great Work, can we embody the Golden Child, Horus, the Verb, the Great Word! Thus, the Number Eleven is the most multiplyable number!
Arcanum 12 – THE APOSTOLATE
In this Tarot card we see a man hanging by one foot. His legs are crossed forming a Cross. His hands tied behind his back form a triangle with his head. Here is the link between the Cross-Man and the Triangle-Spirit. Only through Potable Gold can we achieve the connection of the Cross with the Triangle. We must work with Living Sulfur, with the Living and Philosophical Fire. The “Ens Seminis” is the Mercury of Secret Philosophy. Within the Entity of Semen, we find Potable Gold: the Living Fire. We must fertilize the Mercury of Secret Philosophy, so that this Mercury becomes the Master and the Regeneration of Salt.
Living Sulfur, the Fire, fertilizes Mercury; and the fertilized Mercury regenerates Man, the Salt of the Earth.
Arcanum 13 – DEATH
There are several kinds of death: the death of the common, profane man, the death of the Initiates, and the death of all those who have received the “ELIXIR OF LONG LIFE”.
We already know the profane death. Many Rosicrucian authors, theosophists, etc., have already written about this subject. The death of the Initiate is deeper, more profound! We must descend to the BURNING FORGE OF VULCAN (Sex), to cut off the head of the Medusa with the Flaming Sword of Perseus!
The Medusa is the Ego, the Self, the Myself. That Self is triune. That Self is composed of the atoms of the Secret Enemy. That triune malignant entity controls the Astral, Mental and Causal vehicles. These are the three traitors of Hiram Abiff, the latter being the very respectable and venerable Hiram, the Internal God of every man. The three traitors must be decapitated and dissolved! We must live all the legends of Hiram Abiff within the Internal Worlds. The Self being dead, only the Son of Man reigns within us… Mars descends to the Forge of Vulcan to re-temper his weapons and conquer the Heart of Venus. The Venustic Initiation… The Incarnation of the Word… The Incarnation of the Sun King, of the Sun-Man, within ourselves… The crucified star on the Cross represents the incarnated Sun-Man!
Hermes descends to the Forge of Vulcan to clean the AUGEAN STABLES (the stables of the Soul) with the Sacred Fire. Perseus descends to the Forge of Vulcan to cut off the head of MEDUSA (the Self) with the Flaming Sword…
This is INITIATIC DEATH!
There is another death. This third kind of death is for the Nirmanakayas, who have already received the Elixir of Long Life. In this case, the Angels of Death do not break the Silver Cord.
On the third day Jesus came in the Astral Body to the Holy Sepulchre. Then, He invoked His body, which was lying in the tomb. The Holy Women, the Angels of Death, the Lords of Movement, the Lords of Life, etc. accompanied Him. And that Body was treated by the Holy Women with drugs and aromatic essences. They came in the Astral Body. Obeying Supreme orders, the Body submerged itself within the Astral Plane. The tomb was empty!… After all this, the Body penetrated into the Master, through the crown (of his astral brain) or through the pineal gland. And that is how the Master remained within his body! Afterwards, He appeared to the disciples of Emmaus. He proved His Resurrection to them by having dinner with them.
He also appeared to the Eleven, and Thomas the doubter was able to introduce his finger between the wounds of the Lord! Today, the Master lives in the secret country, in Eastern Shambala. This country is in the state of Jinas. The Master lives there with his resurrected Physical Body. All of them, the Nirmanakayas who have already received the Elixir of Long Life, go through this kind of Resurrection. There are many Masters who are Sons of the RESURRECTION! PARACELSUS escaped from his tomb… and lives in Bohemia. ZANONI lived for thousands of years, with his same physical body… he made the mistake of falling in love with a young woman from Naples… and that is why he fell! He lost his physical body in the guillotine, during the French Revolution. A friend of ours, a Tartar Master, whose body dates back a few thousand years, told us the following:
“A true Master is only he who has already swallowed earth!
Before swallowing earth, one believes to know a lot and feels very powerful; but really, one is only a poor fool!”
Arcanum 14 – TEMPERANCE
There we see a woman mixing the two essences with which she makes the Elixir of Long Life. These two essences are: the Red Elixir and the White Elixir. The Sexual Principles of man and woman. Arcanum 14 teaches us how to handle the “states of Jinas”. A body in the state of Jinas can adopt any shape. In this case it acts within the Internal Worlds without losing its physiological characteristics… We must sublimate our Sexual Energy to the heart. The communion of Bread and Wine has the power to sublimate the Sexual Energy to the Heart. We can put a loaf of bread and a glass of wine next to our bed and after working with the Arcanum A.Z.F., pray and bless the bread and wine. Then eat the Bread and drink the Wine. The Arcanum A.Z.F. converts the Bread and Wine into the Blood of Christ, with this Arcanum the Bread and Wine are charged with the Christ atoms that descend from the Central Sun.
Arcanum 15 – TYPHOON BAPHOMET
At the gate of Eden there is a terrible guardian. The Sphinx of Moses! The Assyrian Sphinx, the Sphinx with the head of a bull, who holds in his hand the Flaming Sword, to drive back those who are not prepared. That is the Arcanum 15 of the Tarot! That is the very “I” of each man! That is really the “PSYCHOLOGICAL I” of every man, the internal beast that closes the way to Eden. Eden is Sex itself, and the Beast is at the gate of Sex to invite us to the ejaculation of the seminal liquor, or to divert us from that gate, making us see schools, theories, sects, etc., etc.
Arcanum 16 – THE STRIKED TOWER
When the lightning of Justice falls on the Tower of Babel, the “I” dies. This death of the “I” is terribly painful! The “I” does not want to die! But the lightning of Divine Justice falls on it… and strikes it down!
Arcanum 17 – THE STAR OF HOPE
In this Tarot card, a naked young woman is seen, with two amphorae from which fire and water come out. In the sky shines the eight-pointed Star, the Star of Venus, the Morning Star. One must work with Fire and Water, to receive the Venusian Initiation! The Star crucified on the Cross, is the Christ of the Abraxas, the Son of Man, the Incarnate Word.
Arcanum 18 – TWILIGHT OF THE MOON
Arcanum 9 is the Initiation. Arcanum 18, twice nine, are the dangers of Initiation, the hidden and secret enemies who intend to harm Initiation: the Black Lodge, the Abyss, the Temptations, the Demons… who do not want the Initiate to escape from their clutches. This is the Path of the Razor’s Edge! This is the Path that is full of dangers inside and out, as the Venerable Master Sivananda says!
Arcanum 19 – THE CREATIVE FIRE
This is the “Magnum Opus”, the Great Work. To carry out the work of the Great Work, we have to work with the Philosopher’s Stone. The ancients worshipped the Sun under the symbolic figure of a black stone. That black stone is the Heliogabalus Stone. That is the Stone that we must lay as the foundation of the Temple! That Stone is Sex! Those who build on the Living Stone will embody the Word. Those who build on sand will fail and their buildings will roll into the Abyss. Those sands are theories, dead religions, etc., etc.
Arcanum 20 – THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
In reality, the Resurrection of the soul is only possible through Cosmic Initiation. Human beings are dead and can only be resurrected through Initiation.
Arcanum 21 – THE FOOL, THE INSANITY
Man is a five-pointed Star. If we extend our arms and legs to the right and to the left, we have the Pentagon. The brain must control Sex. When the brain loses control over sex, when Sex comes to dominate the brain, then the five-pointed Star… GOES HEAD INTO THE ABYSS! This is the Inverted Pentagon: the Symbol of Black Magic.
Arcanum 22 – THE CROWN OF LIFE
If we add this Arcanum together, we will have the following result:
2 + 2 = 4
MAN, WOMAN, FIRE AND WATER!… IOD HE VAU HE. MAN, WOMAN, PHALUS, UTERUS.
Here is the Holy and Mysterious TETRAGRAMMATON. In Arcanum 22, a Crown appears held by the four sacred animals. On this crown a naked young woman dances, holding a “magic wand” in each hand. This young woman is the Truth. The two wands correspond to Man and Woman. In the Temple of Solomon, Arcanum 22 was represented by the Ark of the Covenant, held by a crown. In the four corners of the Ark, the four animals of Sexual Alchemy were seen. The sphinxes of Ezekiel also have four faces, like the Egyptian Sphinx. Fire is represented by the Lion. That is the Potable Gold. The Mercury of the Secret Philosophy is represented by the flying eagle. Salt is represented by the legs of the bull of the Sphinx. Water is represented by the human head of the Sphinx.
The fundamental Key is the Arcanum A.Z.F. The important thing is to avoid orgasm and ejaculation of the seminal liquor. That is the fundamental Key of Initiation! This is the Arcanum A.Z.F.!
MAY THE FATHER WHO IS IN SECRET, AND OUR BLESSED AND ADORED MOTHER KUNDALINI, BLESS YOU, DEAR READER.
INVERENTIAL PEACE. (Peace be to you).
Samael Aun Weor
The Magnum Opus
Chapter I
