11 Strength/ Lust
| 11 Strength /Lust
(9th letter teth: snake/serpent in womb shaped circle) Path 22 Venus in Leo, ruled by the
Sun, element fire. The card shows a woman with white robe,
holding the mouth of a lion, showing courage and power (balance
between mercy and judgement), discipline and control. Older tarots
showed a woman holding or breaking a stone pillar (in some decks
the Justice card is 11). She represents the influence of Chesed upon Geburah, controlling the fiery solar force of the lion (shin), the dualistic, sexual energy of 11th sepirah Da'ath (Lilith, sometimes dark horse instead of lion, yin). |
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11= two 1's: Amun Ra solar god emanates twin lion gods Shu (similar to Apollo) and Tefnut (moon, moisture) through masturbation and spitting. Isis and Nephthys.
The hero Orion with lion skin, Horus defeating Set (the destructive aspect of the sun), Hercules defeating the Nemean lion.
Going into the cave, the inner depth, 2nd decade of arcana, to confront the lion's gaze, enter the lionsgate at august 8 (88 portal). The power of persuasion to control animal nature, closing the mouth of the lion, using the solar force right, through patience, persistence and mental equilibrium. Kindness, love is a stronger, more crushing force than anger. Authority and love of a parent. True will in contrast with temporal will of a restless child with no willpower. Chastity of Cybele or Artemis. Like Justice and Temperance, Strength is a cardinal virtue. Fighting the Babylonian lion (empire of Nebuchadnezzar, Roman Empire), Daniel in lions den.
When this is accomplished, one receives the golden crown, Kether (k=11).
When not used right (too much anger or cowardness), the power and might
of the lion becomes a fierce, destructive lion goddess like Sekhmet that
corrects the person as maintainer of order (Ma'at). She wears a red
dress, the color of blood (the Lady in Red, Femme Fatale in movies).
She was celebrated in beginning of the year, through festivals of
intoxication to soothe her wildness (like excessive flooding of the
Nile).
| In Satanism excessive decadence is seen as the key to opening the portal of Da'ath, the virtue turned into sin. In Crowley's Thelema that force is inverted as deadly sin Lust, symbolized by Babalon, the whore of Babylon from the Book of Revelation, riding Therion, the beast, holding the reins, the passion that unites them (he saw himself as the beast 666). The seven headed beast is the Roman empire, Rome was built on seven hills, seven chakra's out of balance. Its tail is the lion-serpent Abraxas the demiurge. |  |
In her right hand she holds the Holy grail cup, inverted as the cup of Babalon, filled with fornication and abominations, 10 horns of the beast.
Ego death is necessary to become one with the All, pictured as pouring all
lifeblood in her cup, that she uses to 'flood the world with beauty'
(Tiferet, story of American Beauty). 11 is the nr of magic itself. Beauty and
the Beast, Venus and Saturn. According to Wilhelm Reich, the orgasm is
the force that binds the universe together. In Jungian
psychology, the beauty and the beast, conscious and unconscious.
Babalon has 3 aspects: the Great Mother (Binah), the Gateway to the City
of pyramids (Da'ath) and the Scarlet Woman. In sex magic, the mixture of
female sexual fluids and semen produced in the sexual act with the
Scarlet Woman or Babalon is called the Elixir of Life (the mixture of
menstrual blood and semen is called the Elixir Rubeus). Cat imagery is
used in beta kitten programming to create sex slaves as embodiments of
their goddess Babalon. Teth: spindle, wheel, basket, urban town, twist,
snake, surround, contain, mud, an inclination, staff, below, bed,..