Liber 777 (revised) (pdf) - Holy Order of the Golden Dawn Canada

100
777 REVISED
not belong here so much as to Mercury. The Dolphin pertains to Pisces,
principally because Venus is exalted in the sign, while its ruler, Jupiter,
is also implied in that attribution of which we see the outcome in the
title of the Heir-apparent to the Crown of France. The Beetle is Kephra,
the Sun at mightnight, who is shown travelling through the Pool of
Night in ATU XVIII. Pisces, moreover, is that greatest darkness before
the dawn of the year in the parallel symbolism. There is also a mystery
in the fact that the Beetle rolls up of ball of dung, thus constructing the
Sun from the excrement of putrefaction. As it is written, “It is from the
excrement of Choronzon that one takes the material for the creation of a
God.”* The Jackal is shown in ATU XVIII. He also feeds on
excrement. The sign Pisces represents the apparent stagnation of the
Work, its final decomposition. And it is at this moment that it is
brought by the Redeemer—who has descended into the lowest hell for
the purpose—across the threshold into the higher sphere. Note that it is
because of the condition of the experiment that the Work necessarily
lends itself to every form of glamour and illusion. Its nature is certain
to be misinterpreted even by the Redeemer himself, insofar as he is
compelled to fix his attention upon the Matter of the Work and so to
lose sight for the moment of the essential Truth which underlies its
appearances. The Dog is attributed to Pisces on account of his being
sacred to the Moon, the title of ATU XVIII. The Dogs baying at the
Moon, with the accompanying assumption of witchcraft and all that
type of phenomena which we associate with the treacherous semidarkness
of the waning moon, are shown in some versions of the
Trumps by artists who did not understand the deeper symbolism of
Kephra and Anubis. That false representation is exactly characteristic
of the sort of thing that always is to be expected to occur in connection
with the work of the Magician in this sign.
* [Misquoted from Book 4 Part II, cap. 6 (p. 62 in first edition), which had “It is from
the rubbish-heap of Choronzon that one selects the material for a god!”