Tunnels of Set of the Qlippothic Tree of Death -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- TUNNELS OF SET These are the 22 reverse Tarot paths on the Tree of Death, as proposed by Crowley and expanded by Grant, who calls them kalas ("exudations" or "secretions"). Crowley refers to them as "the Prisons of the Qliphoth" as distinguished from "the Houses of Mercury." They are ruled by orders of qliphotic guardians and are not so much opposites of Qabalistic trumps as perversions, blasphemies or distortions of them: True Path Tunnel of Set Inhabitants or Qliphoth 11. The Fool AMPRODIAS Sylphs, Fairies, Vampires 12. The Magician BARATCHIAL 13. The High Priestess GARGOPHIAS Lemurs 14. The Empress DAGDAGIEL The Sow of Venus (Babylon) 15. The Star HEMETHTERITH The Behemiron 16. The Hierophant URIENS The Adimiron 17. The Lovers ZAMRADIEL The Tzalalimiron 18. The Chariot CHARACITH The Shichiririon 19. Strength TEMPHIOTH The Schalcbiron 20. The Hermit YAMATU The Tzaphiriron 21. The Wheel of Fortune KURGASIAX 22. Justice LAFCURSIAX The A'abirion 23. The Hanged Man MALKUNOFAT The Deep Ones 24. Death NIANTIEL Scorpion, wolf, beetle 25. Temperance SAKSAKSALIM The Nechashiron 26. The Devil A'ANO'NIN The Dagdagiron 27. The Tower PARFAXITAS 28. The Emperor TZUFLIFU The Furies (Erinyes) 29. The Moon QULIELFI The Nashimiron 30. The Sun RAFLIFU Will-o'-the-wisps 31. Judgment SHALICU 32. The World THANTIFAXATH Larvae, ghouls -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- A'ANO'NIN Guardian of the 26th tunnel of the Tree of Death, in Grant's teaching. "The Lord of the Gates of Matter". Corresponds, in the Tarot, to The Devil's atu. Its magic, indicated by the letter Ayin, is the "evil eye" or Eye of Set ("The Diamond in the Night"). Its disease is priapism. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- AMPRODIAS The qliphotic guardian of the 11th Tunnel, sometimes connected to Nyarlathotep. He's not the "opposite", but a distortion of The Fool. Instead of being about to walk off the edge of a cliff, here he's seated at the bottom of a crater, at the edge of a pit, whence issue inane bubbles of nothingness. Instead of his warning dog, here we see the idiot flute-playing demons seeking not to advise, but to distract and confuse. Worst of all, the Fool is beyond mere "Folly", because as anyone can plainly see, he has no head at all. His disease is diarrhea. His path is that of reversal. Since 11 is the general number for magic and since 11 is also the number of Daath on the Tree of Life, i.e. the "non-existent" sephirah and the gateway to the "other side", Amprodias also has The Fool's number. Zero (the Void) is the number that precedes One (Manifestation). The Zeroeth Level is also the level that precedes even the must elementary level of consensual reality. That is it even precedes solipsism and madness. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- BARATCHIAL The guardian of the 12th tunnel. The ape-headed or cynocephalous distortion of The Magician. Baratchial does not carry a caduceus, but instead struggles, with great difficulty, to control the writhing serpents. Since he is fork-tongued, Baratchial's affliction is impediments of speech and his magic is the Gift of Tongues. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- DAGDAGIEL The guardian of the 14th tunnel of Set, the equivalent of the Empress, but here degraded to a prostitute. Her magic is love philtres. Sicknesses are venereal diseases and nymphomania. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- GARGOPHIAS The 13th guardian of the dark Tarot. A parallel of the High Priestess. Grant calls it batrachian witchcraft, Hecate's, the goddess Frog-Head. As the High Priestess watches implacably at the cliff edge of the Abyss for the magician to make his solitary leap, Gargophias waits for him to leap into the depths of sexual union (the mating of Chaos and Time). Her magic is dream interpretation and clairvoyance. The disease of Gargophias is menstrual malfunction. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- HEMETHTERITH The 15th sentinel of the Qliphotic Tree. She is the mother or wet-nurse. Her magickal gift is astrology. Grant says she was raped by a variant of the Holy Ghost and, whilst fleeing from him, fell over backwards, whereupon her breasts became the two streams of Aquarius. Corresponds to the Star. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- KURGASIAX The 21st kala is the dark equivalent of the Wheel of Fortune, based not on Fate or Chance, but upon curse and malevolence. The accompanying depiction of the card isn't quite perfect. Anubis should be more gleeful and the woman more obviously a corpse. The wheel itself should be slightly smaller, so that the wicked witch can hold it in her hand, since she is a guise of Heimarmene and in charege of it. Her crown should more obscurely resemble the crown of Maat. Nightmares (she is the deliverer thereof) ought to be visible in the smoke shapes rising up out of the flames of burning civilization. The wheel is the mark of the beast or Set, which, in turning, activates the powers of the sphinx. The cross is the place of crossing over (Daath), gateway to the Abyss. The tails are the three backward entries connecting to Daath in the sephiroth of Pluto, Jupiter and Venus (Kether, Chesed and Netzach). Kurgasiax, more than any other of the dungeons, illlustrates how the dark and light sides are inextricably linked. This is the same wheel as the Wheel of Fortune, except that it is viewed here as descending. The Wheel of Kurgasiax moves from high to low, day to night, life to death, whereas the the Wheel of Fortune is rising out ot the negative into the positive. It's called "The Roasting Spit" because it turns to face the the flames of hell after every revolution. (See WHEEL.) Nevertheless, the magical siddha is "ascendancy", since what sinks most deeply is a reflection of the highest. So the Ray of the Scepter is the weapon of choice in the magickal working. Grant says Crowley regarded this as the formula of Gomorrah (number 315). In esoteric tradition Sodom is the masculine mode and Gomorrah the feminine. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- LAFCURSIAX The 22nd kala is the scales of justice tossed aside and mis-weighted. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- NIANTIEL The watcher of the 24th Tunnel. This figure from The Nightside of Eden corresponds to death in the conventional Tarot In Kenneth Grant's distortion, however, this is the path of sodomy, the reverse of Tiphareth, the "infernal sun in Amenta, the phallus in anus as distinct from the supernal sun." He also includes the scorpion and beetle as symbols of the "Dark Sun." The mysteries here evoked are sex magic and death magic, naturally, as well as "black magic" and Voodoo generally. The sickness attributed to Niantiel was cancer, even before the advent of AIDS. The engineers of this disease, however, have sealed themselves off from all possibility of Salvation. The evil that Kenneth Grant saw -- to turn the Qliphah of Death into sodomy -- has at last been realized and the Kingdom of Hell is complete. The path between Tiphareth and Netzach is now the paved highroad between Belphagor and Baal. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- PARFAXITAS Grant's sentinel of the 27th tunnel. The "Red Temple." Its sickness is the festering arising from wounds. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- QULIELFI The guardian of the 29th path of the reverse Tree, corresponding to The Moon. It is called the path of the leapers (hence the connection to Universe B). The magic, says Grant, is "casting illusions and bewitchments generally." -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- RAFLIFU The guardian of the 30th dark tunnel, corresponding to The Sun. Its magic is the power to acquire gold and wealth. The disease is wasting sickness. RABU INA ILI AHURA MAZDA Babylonian phrase meaning "Ormuzd is the greatest of Gods." -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- SAKSAKSALIM The 25th Tunnel (also called The Zigzagging) is the distorted alchemy in which two great beasts are engaged in battle, the opposite or perversion of the goal of Alchemy, the marriage of opposites. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- SHALICU The 31st Tunnel of the Qliphotic Tarot, perhaps meaning, "The Drawing Out of the Water." Shin, the Judgement or Resurrection, is here rendered as NON PATEBO, that is, "I shall not open!" That is, the Archon is not passed. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- THANTIFAXATH The final tunnel symbolizes the connection between the double universes, Universe A and Universe B. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- TSUFLIFU The 28th kala (perhaps meaning "The Honeycomb") is the Emperor rendered as a penis, as the ultimate power of the world. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- URIENS The 16th kala of the dark tarot. Its meaning is unclear. Perhaps the undermining of the feminine correspondence to the Pope. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- YAMATU The meaning of this, the 26th kala, is abstract and unclear. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- ZAMRADIEL The 17th kala of the dark tarot does not indicate choice, but rather the total abandonment and capitulation into coitus, the sword of zayin penetrating the yoni of Qulielfi. It is the triumph of the libido over wisdom. -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- KALA In Hinduism, this is the word for Time as the source of all things. In Tantric philosophy, kalas are outflowings from time (scents, flowers, exudations, emanations, phenomena), particularly referring to the human "kalas" or numerous body fluids and products: blood, semen, milk, sweat, earwax, etc. of which the Tantrists number over thirty (occidental medicine acknowledges no more than 23-24). Apparently, many extra Tantric kalas are produced by prolonged and obscure sexual rituals. One of these is called the sadhakya kala and is the most secret of all -- "the essence where time stands still; where time is not," says Grant. There is also bindhu, a fluid that bisexualizes men and women, obtainable only through Tantric practice; and there is melatonin produced by the pineal gland from serotonin found in the hypothalamus, the blood, dates, bananas, plums and ficus religiosus, or the fig of the Bo-tree of Buddha. Grant used the word in the same sense as above, but also in his own special sense as a synonym for the Tunnels of Set, which he sees as types of "secretions". (See TUNNELS OF SET.) -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================== --------------------------------------------------------