The Hidden Diamond Sutra History
Jan 17, 2016 1:38:49 GMT
Post by Abrahadabra Admin on Jan 17, 2016 1:38:49 GMT
This is the thread for discussing general information on the Hidden Diamond Sutra history, aka the Hidden Paths on the Tree of Life history.
Barleywine over at Aeclectic Tarot dug up some new and interesting data on the pedigree of the Hidden Diamond. As you all know we have been trying to trace its ancestry and its creator for almost ten years. MythMath of MythMath Studios came up with the page of James Hurtak from his work, which has gone offline (from what I remember he found it in a digital archive of some kind), so we went ahead and attributed it to him but that would date it to 1980 and the name of the book was The Holy Sephiroth and the Keys of Enoch (Teachings on the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, Fifth Study)
Barleywine's source dates it about three years later:
"Interestingly, while poking around in Robert Wang's 1983 book, The Qabalistic Tarot, for another purpose, I came across the attached diagram and accompanying discussion about the "secret paths," complete with the "diamond" arrangement. Looks like it's not such a new idea after all."
Robert Wang's Hidden Diamond chart: imgur.com/7mTU3AG
Now note that this image which is a complete Hidden Diamond published in 1983 includes a smaller inset image purportedly from an extended 777 not easily available outside of the UK. I managed to get a copy of the first edition and it should arrive here in the next month and I will post an update then.
This inset image appears to be a *prototype* of the Hidden Paths but the bottom part of the unicursal hex is extended incorrectly. This is typical of Crowley's work, he takes what HE wants out of something and then just leaves the rest of the parts dangling. "Hee hee hee, here's a unicursal hexagram" "Well that's nice asshole but could you please explain the rest of it or give us a reference?" I am coated with the feeling of chasing a small impetuous boy around in Crowley's writings. That IS the nature of Jen and the original child of mystery, so I suppose Crowley is my Krsna and m1thr0s is my Balarama.
So Barleywine goes on and reports Robert Wang DOES give us his source:
I'm currently following this "rabbithole" into the Builders of the Adytum material mentioned and will update again here shortly. Finally we can bury the rather nebulous sounding argument that we just "sort of found this on an internet forum during a talk" and give it some really concrete background.
Barleywine over at Aeclectic Tarot dug up some new and interesting data on the pedigree of the Hidden Diamond. As you all know we have been trying to trace its ancestry and its creator for almost ten years. MythMath of MythMath Studios came up with the page of James Hurtak from his work, which has gone offline (from what I remember he found it in a digital archive of some kind), so we went ahead and attributed it to him but that would date it to 1980 and the name of the book was The Holy Sephiroth and the Keys of Enoch (Teachings on the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, Fifth Study)
Barleywine's source dates it about three years later:
"Interestingly, while poking around in Robert Wang's 1983 book, The Qabalistic Tarot, for another purpose, I came across the attached diagram and accompanying discussion about the "secret paths," complete with the "diamond" arrangement. Looks like it's not such a new idea after all."
Robert Wang's Hidden Diamond chart: imgur.com/7mTU3AG
Now note that this image which is a complete Hidden Diamond published in 1983 includes a smaller inset image purportedly from an extended 777 not easily available outside of the UK. I managed to get a copy of the first edition and it should arrive here in the next month and I will post an update then.
This inset image appears to be a *prototype* of the Hidden Paths but the bottom part of the unicursal hex is extended incorrectly. This is typical of Crowley's work, he takes what HE wants out of something and then just leaves the rest of the parts dangling. "Hee hee hee, here's a unicursal hexagram" "Well that's nice asshole but could you please explain the rest of it or give us a reference?" I am coated with the feeling of chasing a small impetuous boy around in Crowley's writings. That IS the nature of Jen and the original child of mystery, so I suppose Crowley is my Krsna and m1thr0s is my Balarama.
So Barleywine goes on and reports Robert Wang DOES give us his source:
"On the page before the one I posted, Wang states:
"The idea of paths which are "secret," or "hidden" seems to have been introduced by Paul Case."
In the end-note to this statement, he references:
"Paul Case, The Tree of Life, Lesson 4, Figure 4 (no page no.). Page references to Cases's study course are generally to the original versions, printed 5-1/2 X 8-1/2. Today the BOTA distributes the courses in 8-1/2 X 11, and has added copyright notices."
I have binders full of BOTA course material, including The Tree of Life, Lesson 4, but there are no figures of any kind in that lesson. It is the larger-format material, so it's possible the figures didn't make the transition.
ETA: I DID find it after all. It's in Tree of Life, Lesson 7, including Figure 4. Case says "Now look at Fig. 4 and note that 16 other connections are shown. These are called the Invisible or Hidden Paths and are likewise listed in the Table headed INVISIBLE PATHS under the column headed "Between." Fig. 3 on the diagram sheet shows both the Visible and Invisible paths." Case also makes some interesting observations about the gematric numeration of the total combined lengths of the visible and hidden paths and how that relates to Hiram Abiff, the traditional founder of Freemasonry.
Since Case died in 1954, this material must have been from the 1940s."
"The idea of paths which are "secret," or "hidden" seems to have been introduced by Paul Case."
In the end-note to this statement, he references:
"Paul Case, The Tree of Life, Lesson 4, Figure 4 (no page no.). Page references to Cases's study course are generally to the original versions, printed 5-1/2 X 8-1/2. Today the BOTA distributes the courses in 8-1/2 X 11, and has added copyright notices."
I have binders full of BOTA course material, including The Tree of Life, Lesson 4, but there are no figures of any kind in that lesson. It is the larger-format material, so it's possible the figures didn't make the transition.
ETA: I DID find it after all. It's in Tree of Life, Lesson 7, including Figure 4. Case says "Now look at Fig. 4 and note that 16 other connections are shown. These are called the Invisible or Hidden Paths and are likewise listed in the Table headed INVISIBLE PATHS under the column headed "Between." Fig. 3 on the diagram sheet shows both the Visible and Invisible paths." Case also makes some interesting observations about the gematric numeration of the total combined lengths of the visible and hidden paths and how that relates to Hiram Abiff, the traditional founder of Freemasonry.
Since Case died in 1954, this material must have been from the 1940s."
I'm currently following this "rabbithole" into the Builders of the Adytum material mentioned and will update again here shortly. Finally we can bury the rather nebulous sounding argument that we just "sort of found this on an internet forum during a talk" and give it some really concrete background.