VEHK'S City of Light, a Thelemic Interpretation tying Sermon 25 to Sermon 37
Whilst pondering on the 37th Sermon of the 36 and 1, something caught my eye lately and when combined with some of my revisiting of a few of my research sources on Thelemic thought and practices… I think I may have pieced together something that may shed some insight into Vivec, Vehk, hir City of Sermon Twenty-Five, the Provisional House, and of Light and of its bending in Sermon 37
Firstly I’d like to give a short lesson on some Thelemic principles I’ve stumbled across (hypocritical as it might be as an under informed non-practitioner). If it stretches on too long, feel free to skip ahead along the bold points to the last section.
I Inner Star
Most who poke around the Lore community will become exposed to the Nature of Vivec and hir Love under Will has been influenced by Ailester Crowley and Thelema. “Every man and woman is a Star” is another often come across phrase.
In Thelemic practice, communion with one’s own inner Holy Guardian Angel (your own internal eternal god-self), the path of initiation, is the first ultimate goal. The HGA is the Star mentioned in the phrase above, it is contained within the Incarnation, but persists past the incarnation’s lifetimes.
>“The stars are thine angels” -Aiwass ,The Book of Codes
>Know also that the Kings rise and set within their bodies as do the stars.” – 718,1:17, Book of Codes
The second goal is attuning one's self and actions to their “True Will”. But how does one achieve “True Will?” Well the process is achieved by achieving “active Oneness” with one's own Star/Angel. Now with the goal described as “Love Under Will” one would expect this to be Egocentic, but the Ego is apart of the Incarnation, and must be overcome in the process of initiation.
As I mentioned here, Crowley's HGA/Star is known as Aiwass, and Vivec's is named VEHK, as described in Sermon 25
This is Important Since a person's inner Star, is well… inside… it cannot be observed directly, but rather communicates by the shining of its light outward where it can be perceived.
II A Nesting of Houses
Ailester Crowley first got his revelation while spending time in Egypt. Aiwass proclaimed itself as “the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat" in the Book of the Law's first chapter, Hoor-Paar-Kraat meaning “Horus the Child”. The nesting of Houses is a theme which seems to have been pulled from elements of the classic Egyptian religion. The goddess Hathor’s name translates as “Mansion/Palace of Horus”and is represented by a hieroglyph that is literally a Falcon within a box. Also Pharaohs were thought to be the living embodiment of Horus, and the word “Pharaoh” actually means “Great House”.
In Thelema, the Star is housed within the Incarnation, but there are 4 levels of Houses that makes up the person. Yes, just like ogres.. people are like onions, and by spiritual awareness one might be able to peer inside its layers.
Ha is the lowest and outermost house, the physical manifestation of the body. Within the Ha resides the Ka, the Ego/identity of the Incarnation, or the ghost/astral-self. Within the Ka is the Khu, or solar-self, the highest part of the Incarnation, an inner beacon of light that is obscured by the Ka. And finally, within the Khu is the Khabs (meaning “Star”), the HGA/Godself.
>“The Khabs is in the Khu.” -Nuit, Libre Al
Each aspect of self is nestled within each other. The incarnation is made of the Ha, Ka, and Khu, and the Khabs resides within, and can only be reincarnated once all three parts of the Incarnation ceases to exist. The Khabs is also a figurative house for the Hadit, the unknowable origin.
>“…Khabs is the name of my House.” -Hadit, Book of the Law
The nesting of Houses can even extend outward toward Nuit (The totalitarian infinite) in the following example
We can apply this to Vivec in this way, starting with hir Khabs of VEHK
VEHK→Provisional House→Vivec's astral form (Now seen in Eso’s Morrowind questline)→Vivec's physical body→Palace of Vivec→Vivec City→Vvardenfell (emphasis V-V) →ALMSIVI
III City of Light
I propose that the City from Sermon 25 is not the physical City we visited on Nirn, but an internal city, a collection of all of “angel” VEHK's incarnations (as we know that multiple worldskins and parallel timelines exist). From the Scripture of the City, and remember the point made above about the inner star only being perceivable by its outward light…
>All cities are born of solid light. Such is my city, his city. >'But then the light subsides, revealing the bright and terrible angel of Veloth. He is in his pre-chimerical form, demonic VEHK
Combine this with these excerpts from Sermon 37
>You have discovered the thirty-seventh Sermon of Vivec, which is a bending of the light
>And the red moment became a great howling unchecked, for the Provisional House was in ruin
>The light bent, and Vivec donned a cuirass made of red plates of jewel, and a mask that marked him born in the lands of Man
>The light bent, and somewhere a history was finally undone.
>The light bent, and Vivec awoke and grew fangs, unwilling to make of herself a folding thing.
The Provisional House fell, and the Light was either free to incarnate once again, or revealed the many houses which were obscured by it. These many incarnations of Vivec would still be the extension of Vivec's Star, VEHK, but each with their own Ha, Ka, and Khu. The Khabs, and it’s inner light would persist across all hir manifestations.
VEHK, in many houses, a City unto Hirself, shining with the angelic/daemonic light from within.