From thelema93-l-owner@hollyfeld.org Tue Sep 10 13:10:21 1996 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id NAA26156 for ; Tue, 10 Sep 1996 13:10:21 -0700 Received: from bitsy.hollyfeld.org (bitsy.hollyfeld.org [38.240.235.1]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id NAA05492 for ; Tue, 10 Sep 1996 13:10:11 -0700 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.7.4/8.7.3) id QAA08114 for thelema93-l-outgoing; Tue, 10 Sep 1996 16:15:35 -0400 Received: from deliverator.io.com (deliverator.io.com [199.170.88.17]) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.7.4/8.7.3) with ESMTP id QAA08093 for ; Tue, 10 Sep 1996 16:14:53 -0400 Received: from pentagon.io.com (patrik@pentagon.io.com [199.170.88.5]) by deliverator.io.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA29516 for ; Tue, 10 Sep 1996 14:24:56 -0500 (CDT) Received: from localhost (patrik@localhost) by pentagon.io.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id OAA09600 for ; Tue, 10 Sep 1996 14:24:50 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: pentagon.io.com: patrik owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 14:24:43 -0500 (CDT) From: Patrick Crumhorn To: thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org Subject: Re: Magick & Liber AL In-Reply-To: <01I9BG7VO59U8X87DI@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org Precedence: bulk reply-to: thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org Status: RO 93. On Tue, 10 Sep 1996, MARGARET MARY-THERESA BROWN, SUNY BUFFALO wrote: > ># ...What [the Old Testament, esp kiddie OT books] needs is a Thelemite > ># reinterpretation/edition, with Eve and the Snake being the good-guys. > > I think this would be an even bigger mindtwist. :) Sure to offend > fundamentalists of every stripe. Actually, there are early Gnostic Christian texts in which exactly this interpretation is given. Jehovah (aka Ialdabaoth) is seen as a demented god, and the Serpent represents an intervention by the "true" godhead to strip away the enslavement and occlusion that JHVH was keeping humanity (Adam & Eve) under. And it worked! Their "eyes were opened" and they became as wise as gods. JHVH then intervened to keep humanity from eathing of the "Tree of Life," which would have granted them the final power of the gods, immortality. In fact, one does not need a gnostic text. Read the actual story in a regular ol' bible from this perspective, and it becomes amazingly clear. Try it! The serpent is, pretty obviously, the "good guy" even in the "official" text!!! 93 93/93 nogah Patrick Crumhorn patrik@io.com http://www.io.com/~patrik/ "I must fire you and have you executed." --The Iceman Cometh