TITLE:
A quote from the Alchemy Electronic Dictionary:
Gold is the most perfect of the metals. For the alchemist, it represented the perfection of all matter on any level, including that of the mind, spirit, and soul. It is associated with the operation of Coagulation.
SYNOPSIS
In Malkuth Promethea (2b) meets up with the mayor and has a vision of Prometheas (5) and (6) trapped in Geburah.
At the moment Promethea's (5) & (6) are actually in Tiphereth a location representing beauty, harmony and the Sun. They meet up with Boo boo who is Barbara's Holy Guardian Angel and also herself at age 15.
Boo boo shows them Apollo and the Risen gods including Christ on the Cross. All three of them move on to Geburah.
QUOTES
“It’s only our worldly minds that order events into sequences. Into past, present and future.” – Promethea (6), pg. 9
“This sphere’s the gold that alchemists sought. Discovering it is what magicians call the Great Work.” – Promethea(6), pg. 9
“Tiphereth’s where we encounter our Holy Guardian Angel, our highest self.” – Promethea(6), pg. 9
“…like the visionary Immanuel Swedenborg said, ‘Angels know nothing of time’. For our highest self, every moment is eternal.” – Promethea(6), pg. 9
“Life’s a dream we wake from.” – Promethea(6), pg. 10
“How come there’s sorrow in heaven?” – Promethea(5)
“Well, if there weren’t it wouldn’t be heaven. It’d be Disneyland.” – Promethea(6), pg 11
“You know me?” – Promethea(5)
“Ha! Well, I know it’s gotta be twenty years since you looked good in a $&in’ ra-ra skirt, that’s for $&in’ sure.” – Boo-boo, pg 13
“I know everything she knows. It’s just she don’t know everything I know” – Boo-boo, pg 15
“Will I meet my holy guardian angel here?” – Promethea(6)
“Maybe not. Maybe you’re already wearin’ your holy Guardian Angel, you ever think of that?” – Boo-boo, pg 15
“Apollo governed things, and he did great…so like, what’s it matter if he was really there or not?” – Boo-boo, pg 17
“Crucifixion, it wasn’t just, like executin’ somebody. It was something you’d do to a dog.” – Boo-boo, pg 21
“Our highest point. The best in us. The gold. And it’s nailed writhing on the cross of the world. That’s us up there, Man.” – Boo-boo, pg 21
“God…you see all the pictures and the icons, but to think he really existed.” – Promethea(5)
“No. That ain’t important. Whether he really existed. What’s important is that he exists. What he means, the symbol. That’s true. That’s real. That’s happening right now.” – Boo-boo, pg 21
NOTES & ANNOTATIONS
Page 1: Note the pattern of the red & green boots and skirt that Promethea is wearing match the pattern seen on the Malkuth sign.
Panel 1: toupee on ground.
Panel 2: Marv on the floor.
Panel 3: Sun image on floor.
Panels 4-5: Security man being tortured by red snake or eel like demons.
Page 2: a few sigils on the wall. Any help in identifying them?
Panel 5: young blonde girl has taken on the form of Vepar.
Claire Jordan corrects me here:
- I don't think the blonde girl has taken on the form of Vepar. Vepar is a mermaid, with a fish tail - the girl's legs have been turned into an octopus tentacle.
Page 3 panel 2: I’d rather not guess why the man on the floor has his trousers down.
Luckily Claire Jordan has guessed for me:
the guy with his pants down may have something to do with the fact that the demon-signatures on the walls are written in shit (as identified in the next issue). That's the mildest interpretation...
Pages 4-5, top panel: Note the Eden and fins signs outside window. “The end of Eden”?
Can anyone name who the 3 demon kings are?
According to Claire Jordan
The demon king who looks like a puma riding a bear is Purson. The spider with the human, cat and frog heads is Bael (see the "jumping Bael" scene where the demons invade the hospital). The one with the human, bull and ram heads is obviously Asmoday - he is so addressed in page 1 of #16, and on page 11 of #18 Sophie says that Asmodeus "had three heads and rode a dragon." However, there's a definite continuity error here (unless the demons shuffle their forms around between them when they feel like a change!). On page 17 of #8, during the invasion of the hospital, the bull, human and ram-headed demon says to a gnu-headed one (who looks like Andras) "What is this lovely thing that burns, Asmoday?" It's not just a matter of the speech-ballons having been swapped over, either, because the gnu-headed one replies "Walk-in, your highness" - i.e. the three-headed being is a king and the other one presumably isn't. Either it's a straight slippage of the brain on Moore's part, or Asmoday is in fact talking to himself, by name, and Andras has joined in the conversation uninvited.
Bottom pages: Half of Asmoday’s sigil seen at each end of pages.
We will meet another form of Asmoday/Asmodeus in the next issue.
Also note the devils underneath the sigils.
Page 5 panel 2: Barbara and Sophie are shown trapped in Geburah but this won’t happen until the next issue.
Tipereth or its variant spelling
Tiphareth.
Reality Creator Workbook Series
Pages 6-7: Coloring matches the title.
I won’t give anything away by revealing what those flying birdlike creatures are but we’ll all find out in Issue #23
The trees, rocks, statue, etc floating just slightly above the ground seem inspired by some of Dali’s paintings.
Pages 8-9: Note that these 2 pages can be read either clockwise or counterclockwise succesfully.
Pages 10-11, middle panel: Various flying bird creatures here. Note the lion in the clouds in the sky.
Page 12 panel 4: Note the sun symbol on Boo-boo’s sneakers.
Page 13 panel 4: Boo-boo starts to take a joint out of her pocket.
Pages 14-15 middle: Nice angels here but who can name them?
Page 15 panel 2:TL has pointed out that this is probably Osiris.
Osiris is a god who is killed and rises again, so belongs to the Sephira of Tiphereth. This must be crook and flail on page 15, his signs. The classical text on Osiris is Plutarch "on Isis and Osiris" (2nd century C.E.).
Osiris
Egyptian Gods Index entry on Osiris
Pages 16-17 top panel: Nice depiction of Apollo with his lyre covering up his naughty bits. Above and below him the Hexagram symbol.
Women sixes strategically have capes covering up their naughty bits.
None of the princes faces are visible.
"Man walks through a forest of symbols" - Plotinus also Baudelaire in Correspondences.
Pages 18-19: wheat? imagery at each end of top panel.
Baldur also spelt Balder
Attis
Dionysus
Egyptian diety can anyone name him?
Nice skulls and snakes.
Boo-boo flicks away her joint just before we get to see….
Pages 20-21: Compare this portrait of Jesus on the Cross with 2 of Dali’s interpretation of the same event.
Titles are
Christ of Saint John of the Cross, 1951
Crucifixion ('Corpus Hypercubus'), 1954
Two thieves visible as are the Kabbalah colored sephiroth behind him. Malkuth is at his feet, Yesod at his waist and Hod and Netzach at either end of the cross. On top of the cross is Tiphereth.
TL noted the parallels between these pages and another Alan Moore work Snakes and Ladders
In "Snakes & Ladders" (with Eddie Campbell, 2001), chapter 5, pages 42-43, Moore makes a meditation on Jesus similar to the words of Boo-boo:
"Oh Christ. The cross rolls by the curb, there in the soot and sweepings, the tobacco-spit. In Syon, every incident is symbol, every symbol is immediate and real. The seal of the most holy trodden in the mortal filth and dirt.
Oh Christ. Yet there is meaning here. The symbol of Divinity within mankind is crucified with thieves, dies in the human gutter with the worlds shit all around and this, then, is the truth:
...that the profane and sacred are both one, and that the salt of the earth and its scum are struck from the same coin, and in our lowest depths, the worst abyss of us, there is a light. Oh Christ.
Oh Christ in all of us.
And Arthur Machen in Amelias death, finds his Golgotha, finds his place of skulls, his Calvary, is taken down into the black earth of his grief. His heart become a vast stone rolled across the door."
The picture shows a photograph of King George Vs funeral cortege in 1936: during the procession, the imperial crown atop the coffin fell down into the gutter, making Edward VIII murmur: "Oh Christ what will happen next?"
Pages 22-23 middle: The lightning bolt sword path is shown dividing the two pages.
This is explained in a manuscript of Crowley's disciple "Frater Achad"
alias
Charles Stansfeld Jones called "The Bride's reception being a short
Qabalistic treatise on the
nature and use of the tree of life with a brief introduction and a
lengthy
appendix" (1922) as follows:
"Now there is another manner in which the fomulation of the Ten
Sephiroth
emanating from the One Light may be expressed, and this, without unduly
confusing the reader, I desire to show, since it illustrates in an able
way
the DUAL NATURE of each Sephira. This is called by the Qabalists "THE
LIGHTNING FLASH" and it connects the Ten Sephiroth as shown in the
following
diagram.
Issue 17
FOLLOWING are just notes to be removed at later date after I've incorporated some of them into the main text
Security
Please help
Hello O hell…3 kings rather a good hand..entire howling
Miss Brannagh, Miss Vanderveer
Asmoday…Asmodeus trapped in Qlippoth of Geburah…but this doesn't happen to Barbara and Promethea until next issue. Right now they're in Tipereth
Gold
Still peaceful just before dawn Beauty Harmony sun…Point of Balance other spheres revolve around
NOTE: pgs. 8-9 can be read either clockwise or counterclockwise succesfully
Immortal part soul
Reincarnate jump back wheel of karma Heaven highest human point in Kabbalah merge into one eternal spirit self Celestial circle cross worldly
Tipereth is Mankind's highest and God's lowest timeless connect
Only our worldly minds order events into sequences but past present future
Gods eternal timeless golden encounter our Holy Guradian Angel Immanuel Sewdenborg
Angels know nothing of time every moment is eternal
6th sphere self soul true will
gold that alchemists sought
great work - magicians
Greek sun God Apollo's oracle Delphi
Know thyself (gnothi seauton)
Seams of pure gold inside us
Beautiful oasis we revisit
Calm point cetnre of things
Burning lions heart will soul self
Been here before Do…places?
Golden circle going on forever
Beauty Einstein said beauty is truth life's a dream we wake from
Joy sorros wlcouds passing across the sun
Lights changing but it's me inside me
Sorrow in heaven Disneyland
Angels
Sense of presence
Strange place sweet familiar mountain top inside yourself wind light scary naked bare soul
Good vulnerable
Note the sun symbol on sneakers
Elephants Barb break me up in that hat 20 years since you looked good in a ra-ra skirt
Brass butt Boo-boo Ramirez
Me when I was 15
All strong you don't take no crap from anyboyd
Skinny ass husband
Wizard cereal box
Satisfied always gotta climb higher macho assholes
I know everything she knows. She don't know everything I know
Homey
Maybe you're already wearing your Holy Guardian Angel
Sophie Ban's highest self is Promethea
She always knew what she was talking about…except with boys
Four sixes Princes Harmony Risen Gods
One philosopher ordinary human life
Apollo Sun Music Harmony Benevolent success, science pleasure victory gorgeous Aegean region running city states Apollo's oracle at Delphi
Priestess Pythia teenage chick stoned pillar fumes hemp out of it garbabe instructions straight from Apollo
Disaster God Apollow was running things progressive enlightened pacifist .Reminds me of Tom Holt's novel Alexander at the World's End
Worked years< br>
Apollo governed great
What's it matter if he was really there or not (eg. Moore and sock puppet god)
Risen gods sun goes away every night reborn in the morning
Mr. Goodbuns Baldur the Beautiful Northlands
Anybody who has already read Alan Moore's Top Ten issue Mythdeamenours will already be familiar with the story of Baldur
Killed by Loki at Ragnarok
My man Attis should be selling sweetcorn. Cute Cybele castrated him so nobody else could have him…dies becomes trees flowers
Phrygia revives him as criop God
Symbol of return
Dionysius Orphic myths Zeus screws Demeter's girl Persephone Hera hires titan tear kid to bits and eat him only heart left. Athena gives heart to Senele eats heart 9 months Dionisius reborn like the vine he symbolizes
Egyptina ???Death decay rot profane kinda sacred too.
Jesus Christ Boo boo throws away joing just before big surprise
Kabbalah
Crucifixion executing do to a dog degradin humiliatin with thieves highest point best in us gold nailed writhing on the Cross of the world. That's us up there man down here Auschwitz ass end our highest self still here with us
Always light at the bottom
Pictures Icons existed ain't important existed. What's important is that he exists
What he means real happenin' now
Some magician wanted to get into your pants
I'm with you for the duration
Lightning bolt route
Sword (22)
Energy descends into being from God Godhead to physical existence zig zag path color Highway 22
Follow downwards lightning bolt but backwards
Lowest 5 spheres
